Are Primary Years educators connected to their own creative practices?

Uversity | CIT Crawford College of Art & Design Are Primary Years educators connected to their own creative practices?: Research from an artist-scholar’s perspective

By Hallie Morrison Submitted for the assessment requirements for the module MA Research Dissertation in Education EDUC9010 for the Master of Arts in Creative Process August 2015 8,604 words

I declare that this research project is entirely my own work, that any passages cited from other works have been duly acknowledged, and that no part of the project has been submitted in fulfillment of any assessment requirement other than that described above.

Signed: Hallie Morrison

Date: August, 2015

Acknowledgements This dissertation would not exist the way it does at this creative juncture in my process without the mentorship from all of my tutors, mentors, and supervisors at Uversity and partner institution, the Crawford College of Art and Design (CCAD). Moreover, this dissertation would not be actualized without the Uversity Master of Arts in Creative Process program, which has afforded me the opportunity to design my own Masters program and pursue my own ideas for one year.

I acknowledge the Curator of Education at the Lewis Glucksman Gallery, University College Cork, and the participating educators of the Sparks of Creativity workshop series for allowing me to observe, issue surveys, and conduct interviews regarding educator creativity.

I am grateful for the studio assistantship of Nik, Brian, the Master of Arts and Process students at the CCAD, and more. I would not maintain my ambitious, creative outlook today without the ever-giving support of mother, my family and friends—some of who transcribed my qualitative data—and whom I thank heartily.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ……………………………………………………………………..…...2 Table of Contents………………………………………………………………………….....3 List of Illustrations…………………………………………………………………………...4 Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………5 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………..6 Literature Review…………………………………………………………………………….9 Educators…………………………………..………………………………………..12 Creative and Critical Thinking………..…………………………………………….15 Connecting to greater creative contexts…………………………………………..…17 Methodology…………………………………………………………………………………23 Aims…..…………………………..…………………………..………………………..…….23 Planning a workshop, and its results…………………………………………………………24 Observing a workshop…………………………..……………………………………………27 Participants…………………………..…………………………..…………………..27 Materials and Procedures……………………………………………………………29 Data Results……………………………..……………………………………………………30 Discussions and recommendations…………………………………………………………...33 Future works………………………………………………………………………………….36 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………37 Reference List.………………………………………………………………………………..38 List of Appendices……………………………………………………………………………41 Appendices…………………………..…………………………..…………………….42

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Fig. 1. Graphic harvesting in Sir Ken Robinson’s talk “Changing Paradigms”….......................7 Fig. 2. “Controller of the Universe,” by Damian Ortega………………………………………..7 Fig. 3. “Chalk (Lima)” by Allora & Calzadilla………………………………………………….8 Fig. 4. 2D piece from Banksy’s “Dismaland”...............................................................................8 Fig. 5. Still from Making Two Pieces Simultaneously at the Spill Station Demonstration…….21 Fig. 6. Still from Infinite Routes………………………………………………………………...21 Fig. 7. Today’s Subject, The Teacher……………………………………………………………21 Fig. 8. “How We Learn to Read”………………………………………………………………..22 Fig. 9. Detail from “How We Learn to Read” series……………………………………………22 Fig. 10. Detail from “Making drawings from rubbings”………………………………………..25 Fig. 11. An individual starting their mandala in the middle, as traditional……………………..26 Fig. 12. The group’s mandalas presented together……………………………………………...26 Fig. 13. Piirto’s Pyramid of Talent Development………………………………………………33

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Abstract This essay aims to unveil an artist-scholar’s praxis that researches how Primary Years educators are connected to their individual creative practices, through Arts-Based Education Research (ABER) and methodologies of a/r/tography (artist/ researcher/ teacher study). This essay serves as the author’s arena for articulating the ethical and contemporary concerns around the creative practices of educators in Primary Years in Cork, Ireland, as seen as the key for sustaining moral education and creativity in the community. In reporting the progress of this personally designed program, made possible by the Uversity Master of Arts in Creative Process, shares the results of qualitative research on the creativity of Primary educators collected at the Sparks of Creativity workshop series at the Lewis Glucksman Gallery, University College Cork.

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Introduction It is not easy to write autobiographically, especially in the academy, especially with honesty about many issues, including experience of failure, fear, and frustration. We need a different culture, a culture that supports autobiographical writing that is marked by an understanding that writing about personal experience is not merely egoism, solipsism, unseemly confession, boring prattle, and salacious revelation. We need to write personally because we live personally, and our personal living is always braided with our other ways of living— professional, academic, administrative, social, and political (Leggo, 2008).

In this academic dissertation for the satisfaction of the requirements of my personally designed programmed through the Uversity Master of Arts in Creative Process, I intend to share the conceptual progression that occurred in researching my research question: Are Primary Years educators connected to their own creative practices? I will speak in the first person to illuminate this progression as aligning with a/r/tography (the practice of an artist/ researcher/teacher), a methodology I participate in through this kind of research. I will draw connections between my experience and the research around my explored topics as elucidating the creative practices of Primary educators.

I came into the Uversity Master of Arts in Creative Process program wanting to create a body of artworks, literature, and social media-appropriate information to express my artistic interests in aspects of art therapy and art and design education as society’s greatest tools for social justice. Quite ambitious, this drive came from my experience at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), where my concepts and work revolved around these areas through an arts education of critical, creative, and socially active thinking. Intuitively, I came to the areas of art therapy, art education, and social justice art/artivism from the pressure to openly explore a critically conceptual painting practice from my many influences at RISD. There, I

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was forced to consider what kind of art I wanted to make, and its purpose in society. I realized early on that I was not satisfied with “art for art’s sake” (Guerard, 1936) and that I disliked the art world/business today, because contemporary media and technology has made art making more competitive and business-oriented. Upon further reflection, I disagreed with many definitions of art and art’s purpose, and felt deeply that art was best used in society to serve therapeutic, didactic, ethical, and/or anthropological means; thus, disagreeing with the historical ideal of art for art’s sake. Today, much of contemporary art and design can be said to be more and more socially aware and proactive with the likes of street art, graphic harvesting (a way of turning verbally presented information into visuals through animation to help audiences better retain information), protest art, politically motivated artists/duos like Damian Ortega, Allora & Calzadilla, Banksy and his most recent project, “Dismaland,” and more. But, coming from a time saturated with impulsive art-school-art, I was desperate for art with mature purposes.

Fig. 1. Sir Ken Robinson’s talk “Changing Paradigms” is an example of verbally presented information that has been interpreted through graphic harvesting, so that through visualization larger audiences can better comprehend the information (YouTube, 2010). Fig. 2. “Controller of the Universe,” by Damian Ortega uses tools and weapons with the clue of the title to suggest a serious, political situation (Ortega, 2007).

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Fig. 3. “Chalk (Lima)” by Allora & Calzadilla played on chance, when giant pieces of chalk were left in the Pasaje Santa Rosa, Bienal de Peru, which the locals used to express their community concerns (PBS.org, 2015). Fig. 4. A work from the many of the multi-media installation at Banksy’s “Dismaland,” (Cope, 2015).

I have always had an activist bone in me, and at RISD I realized the best role for me to assume in society would have to be a moral and creative one—one where I could not be adding damage and debris to the state of things, locally and globally. Reasoning with myself, I thought, and still do today…

To have a business-oriented role in society fuels the aspects of society I do not agree with: working solely for profit, and consuming and reproducing rather than creating and sustaining. In this life, everyone must be responsible for themselves—their thoughts, and their actions—so I must be fully responsible of my role and its affect in society. How does my moving to a new country and living there for a year to do a Masters affect the balance of that community? The local affect? The global? ‘Am I hurting anyone?’

While at RISD, I decided the only way I wanted to provide for myself in this contemporary, capitalist society was through the least offensive means, possible—in work that is helpful to society and based on responsibility for my thoughts and actions, which create and regenerate rather than consume and expend.

This personal code began affecting my work. I began making “teacher art,” as my peers would have said, because I started working in a way concerned with moral lessons and accessible materials. I began investigating highly ethical and moral questions through arts-

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based practice. My biggest question to date is: what must an individual abstract, nonfigurative artwork include so that upon interpretation by various viewers a moralistic message comes across — like at the end of a fable or legend? Today, I claim the only reaction I wish from viewers is “Those blobs of paint look like… Those contour lines make me think of… The layers of color washes make me think of…” because, the main result I want from people interacting with my work is to witness their learning, and critical and creative thinking. I think this is why I relate to educators.

Literature Review In understanding the specificity of my program and research this year, perhaps it is helpful to explain the academic train of thought I made by outlining my program design. I studied across the Art Therapy, Art and Design Education, and Arts and Process Masters Departments at the Crawford College of Art and Design (CCAD). I simultaneously fulfilled an additional degree-granting program from the Art Therapy Department at CCAD, called Creativity and Change. I studied across these areas whilst studying my creative process at the University of Limerick through my Uversity core module, Creative Process I and II. The development of the year began with the modules “Art and Design Education for Primary Years,” “Historical and Contemporary Art Practices in Education,” Creativity and Change, and Creative Process I; meaning, I began with focuses on artivism and education in the analysis of my creative process and research. In my second semester, I continued the Creativity and Change course, and engaged in the modules, “Art Therapy in Education,” “Research Practices of Arts and Process,” “Situations of Arts and Process,” “Individuality in Art Education” and Creative Process II; meaning, my work and research progressed

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through more professional understandings of Art Therapy and its use in the classroom, explorations of my research practices and situation-based artworks, and expanded my ideas around learners’ needs in fostering individuality.

As John Baldacchino discussed in the “Art as Unlearning” talk at the Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow (2013), moralists are the people who say art has to be good for you, and typically artists are the ones who challenge that—by making works that scandalize morals and values.

In this regard, my art is moralistic, and I recognize that my opposition in the matter would be those artists—who internalize that art is good for them but choose to create works that scandalize various subjects and people for art’s sake. As an artist engaging in Arts-Based Education Research (ABER), I integrally know the positive sides of art’s didactic and moral qualities. It is still the case that art and art making is good for the scandalizing artists, as above all the inquiry and personal expression those artists inherently do in their making, are crucial for humans. Those artists inquire and express by their reacting and responding to the cultural cues they work against, which many politically oriented artists do, like Ortega, Banksy, and others. Paolo Freire said without inquiry “men cannot be truly human” (Freire, 2009). Additionally, Freire stated knowledge comes through invention and re-invention, through the inquiry “men pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other,” with which any scandalizing artist would relate to in their contradiction of another person’s ideas.

From both sides of the opposition, moral vs. scandal, knowledge can come from a method of comparison—only expanding the knowledge of all those that witness the cultural products of the controversy.

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I studied further aspects of cultural moralism throughout my year on an additional university level degree-granting program, Creativity and Change, at the Crawford College of Art and Design (CCAD). The course focused on how to design creative endeavors to affect various levels of local and global change in line with global development and popular education. I read much of Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed, and studied artivist projects that challenged viewers on local and global scales to think critically and creatively about their situations. We reviewed Augosto Boal’s “Theatre of the Oppressed,” a renowned form of theatre that challenges viewers’ critical and creative thinking for social change by designing the plot of the play to relate to the audience’s common issue/oppression (Boal, 2008). Studying in areas of critical reflection on one’s community and living situation, I gained a new knowledge for the significance awareness of ethics had on my learning situation, and that of my peers on the course.

From the issues that were impacting me in my life (lack of public schooling resources, the economy, class inequality, climate issues, global warfare issues, etc.) I started focusing on the roots of cultural problems I saw. I saw violence and miscommunication at the base of many issues. Looking for a core or root of these issues, I felt people’s inabilities to solve their own problems was distressing their abilities to have greater empathy towards others. From my leadership experiences as a mediator throughout public school and RISD, and as I would have learned through discussion on the Creativity and Change course, I felt those involved in violence needed support in accepting themselves as individuals with unique capacities and responsibilities to consider themselves as agents of positivity, negativity, and change. As Elliot Eisner would list in his What the Arts Teach and How it Shows, “2. The arts teach that problems have more than one solution and that questions can have more than

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one answer” (p.70-92, 2000). Perhaps, quite typically, I thought of those that could prevent self-violent thoughts and actions from growing into more monstrous issues. I thought of children, and I thought of the educator, as the key for change in society.

Educators I commenced a study of educators by interviewing my mother, who has been an educator for many years, to understand her experience by asking questions inspired by my research for Creative Process II (Appendix 1). I asked her about rituals, routines, or creative rites she might practice, as during that time I was researching how rituals affect my wellbeing and my sustained sense of creativity. I gathered from our interview that educators do not consider themselves creatively in the philosophical or deeper ways that artists generally do—my mom did not seem to have any creative practice outside of her teaching. I postulated educators’ sense of individuality, and if when teaching the teacher feels allowed to think intuitively, individualistically, or creatively. I reasoned in looking to the educator as key to society’s need for creative and alternative change, I would certainly have to study further the creativity of the educators themselves.

Educators, in all of their specialties, are faced with the challenge of molding the citizens of a community into well-minded individuals for the betterment of society. This is something I knew before my experience as an assistant educator in Montessori (2013-2015), from witnessing in my previous years of public schooling the stress my own teachers bore from working with all ranges of learners; working against school standardization; teaching with inadequate resources; dealing with unsympathetic or uneducated parents, etc. The educator’s task is demanding in assuming the multi-faceted duty of enlightening the members

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of a community, one of those facets being “citizenship.” As Richard Hickman explains “citizenship education” in his chapter of Issues in Art and Design Teaching—“The role of art and design in citizenship education”— citizenship is a core concept only more recently incorporated into UK school curricula, happening officially in the late 1990’s (p.84, 2003). In the curriculum, it means students are introduced to “values which underpin democracy” and are taught to be able to “understand, and make judgments about, social and moral issues [Pollard and Trigg 1997: 127]”. One of the educator’s many hats is that of the moralist, in that educators are obligated to instill good values and sense of judgment into their students.

“Social and moral responsibility is concerned with building self-confidence and with developing responsible behavior in students at school,” which Hickman claims art and design educators would immediately recognize ways in which art and design could positively affect these subjects (ibid). Here, citizenship education directly ties to the importance of creativity, for the educators to be able to adequately serve their students in moral education.

Likewise, the social educator is defined as an “agent of social change who coordinates social groups through educational strategies that help citizens to understand and participate in their social, political, economic and cultural surroundings, and to fully integrate in society” (Universitat de Lleida, 2015). Whilst every educator may not be a specialized social educator, it is an innate aspect of being an educator and component of society and culture. Hickman adds that culture in art and design education may be taken to mean traditional art and design, “such as drawing from observation and making pots” (p.85, 2003).

He asserts that while traditional art activities are useful, educators need to locate activities “within in the broader context of education and educating young people as citizens who can make a meaningful contribution to society” (ibid). Moreover, Hickman advises educators to

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recognize the difference of teaching students in art and teaching through art: “the focus being learning about and making art and design as a way of becoming an educated citizen rather than becoming an art or designer,” which may be a typical misconception of educators when teaching with art and design (ibid). In researching the ways the general educator is a force of societal control, I sharpened my focus on the intuition of educators, as another reflective factor of the creativity of an educator.

As John Furlong would discuss in his essay “Intuition and the crisis in teacher professionalism,” (Atkinson & Claxton, 2000), knowledge, responsibility, and autonomy are three aspects necessary in the maintenance of intuition in the professional practice of an educator. Intuition is critical in the professional practice of an educator, as the educator must function from a place of practicality as well as sensitivity. Including knowledge and autonomy to the emphasis of responsibility in the educator’s duty, Furlong asks of professionalism in education: Is the lack of current confidence in professionalism a problem for anyone else but the professionals themselves? I would suggest that it is and that given the central role that professionals continue to hold in our society, constructing an effective response is vital to the strength of our democracy…Professional practice does involve the utilization of highly complex forms of knowledge; it also constantly involves teachers in the execution of moral judgments demanding an explicit recognition of the centrality of values in professional life. These complexities cannot simply be swept under the carpet… To ignore them is to devalue the professionalism of teachers and in turn devalue education itself (p. 21).

Furlong recommends that educators analyze their intuitive senses regarding the three aspects as a response to the crisis (ibid). Intuition impacts the educator’s sense of reflexivity between the three aspects and their teaching practice. The reflective sense in the practice makes the educator better in their ability to serve under all hats, including the moralistic and the socially engaged.

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Creative and Critical Thinking In the intuition of teaching, critical and creative thinking is necessary for educators. To think critically, and creatively, is necessary to sustain a creative practice. The importance of critical thinking, in terms of the success of an educator’s creative practice, is paramount in the maintenance of a practice that aspires for professionalism. Professionalism, as Furlong says in The Intuitive Practitioner, True professionalism depends on a continued commitment to hold up knowledge, from wherever it comes, to public, collaborative scrutiny. It also depends on the commitment to create and maintain those spaces within professional life (and perhaps most especially professional education) where critical discourse can flourish (p.20).

Professionalism, in ways of striving to uphold knowledge and commit to the realms of discourse, serves an educator’s creative practice as separate and joined from the task of educating. For example, critical thinking is a skill necessary to the highest level of Bloom’s Taxonomy, evaluation. In order to evaluate and form a judgment on a particular issue, creative or not, requires the ability to objectively analyze the situation at hand. This ability, in the classroom or in one’s personal practice, allows for momentum.

In the creative process, decision-making is essential, and every artistic move made is a decision. As mentioned in Art & Fear, and expressed similarly by many fine artists, from a blank canvas only comes an infinite number of decisions; and with each decision, the path of options become narrower and narrower (Bayles & Orland, 2001). Following only a nature of probabilities, a creative process only respects cause and effect. Critical thinking, in regards to engaging contemplatively with the nature of a creation or classroom, practically drives the event. As Eisner listed in What the Arts Teach and How it Shows, his first point is “1. The arts teach us to make good judgments about qualitative relationships. Unlike much of the curriculum in which correct answers and the rules prevail, in the arts, it is a judgment rather

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than rules that prevail” (p.70-92, 2002). The decision-making that occurs in art making is analogous to making qualitative judgments in life, relating to the moralistic lessons that grow from engaging in art making.

Thinking creatively comes “from the other side of the brain,” as one might compare in an analysis of creative and critical thinking. In the classroom, an educator might recognize that there are two types of thinkers: the convergent and divergent. For the learners comfortable with convergent thinking, logicality and practicality seem to be their forte, as they are often quick to solve math, business, organizational, or problems based on facts. For those more comfortable with divergent thinking, tasks of comparison, open-ended questions, and big picture thinking come easily. It is important to note that an educator cannot assume or prescribe a learner to a “type” because a student may seem quicker in one situation over another. Learners’ responses are constantly subjective to the parameters and dynamics of each learning situation, formally including the learners’ personal situations.

Generally, creative thinking involves the creation of new ideas—making connections across domains of knowledge, and occasionally breaking from typical rules and guidelines, as Harris would define creativity (Harris, 2012). This mode of thinking heavily involves one’s own intuition—more importantly, one’s individuality. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi writes on creativity, positing individuality a key component of one’s creativity; simply, individual ingenuity is what keeps us separate from apes by our genetic abilities (p.2) Like creativity, Csikszentmihalyi says, “What makes us different [from apes]—our language, values, artistic, expression, scientific understanding, and technology—is the result of individual ingenuity that was recognized, rewarded, and transmitted through learning” (Csikszentmihalyi, 2013).

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Csikszentmihalyi would discuss the misconception of perceiving creativity as an intellectual phenomenon that happens inside a person’s head rather as an interaction between “a person’s thoughts and a sociocultural context” (ibid). Favoring the sociocultural situation, educators could boost students’ awareness for all social, political, economical, environmental, local, and global issues by considering firstly for themselves that creativity is a phenomenon that spurs from these contexts. As learned through interviewing the educators on the Sparks of Creativity program, misconceptions of art and its purpose often get in the way of educators’ understandings of art or what it means to be creative.

Connecting to greater creative contexts In my creative process, I recognize that I am my own teacher. I gain knowledge through my drive to know and to bring original works to fruition. This would agree with the Montessori model, which believes in fostering children’s individual inner motivation to inquire into the world, and to power their own learning. Maria Montessori believed that each child has the psychic capacity to form new understanding on their own, given adequate resources and opportunities (Montessori, 2012). As French philosopher Jacques Ranciere would put it, “One could learn by oneself and without a master explicator when one wanted to, propelled by one’s own desire or by the constraint of the situation” (The Ignorant Schoolmaster, 1999).

This is what I feel is at the root of my ability to be my own teacher. In my case, I believe that the “constraint of the situation” is my artistic situation, the studio situation, in which my will to inquire meets the tools and materials I face in studio.

Inherently in dialogue with the theories of making through visual arts praxis, I found myself increasingly interested in how the process of making a painting, per se, is

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philosophically similar to that of learning. What my practice shows me these days is that process is more important than product, and the cyclical nature of exploring problems and answering them independently vitalizes this inquisitive life. Through this, I came to identify with two latest contexts. The first being living inquiry, which is an important constituent of the second: “a/r/tography.” Living inquiry is the holistic study of life, art, research and teaching. The authors of a/r/tography include Stephanie Springgay, Rita Irwin, Carl Leggo, and Peter Gouzouasis. Irwin and Springgay explain living inquiry as ‘an embodied encounter constituted through visual and textual understandings and experiences rather than mere visual and textual representations.’ They mention “its rigor comes from its continuous reflective and reflexive stance to engagement, analysis and learning” (Springgay, xxix). Consistently through my practice, I have engaged in this sort of living inquiry and learned from the understandings of embodied encounters, expressed through visual and textual works that pose more than representation. A lot of my practice honors the sublime, and that what we cannot re-present is worth studying. The fascination with the sublime is a worthy pursuit, according to essays in the Whitechapel Documents on Contemporary Art series, because what can be re-presented is commodifiable and can be captured. It is what cannot be captured that resonates with philosophy and life and is more meaningful (Sublime, 2010). Delightedly, I have found many ways in which my practice has been destined to align with a/r/tography and living inquiry ideals.

As Graeme Sullivan discusses in Art Practice as Research: Inquiry in Visual Arts, “…adopting a critical perspective results in the construction of a set of meanings about a topic. The topic is usually a combination of concepts and issues assembled from an analysis of ideas and information drawn from various sources.

What makes this process of meaning making a critical exercise is that there are gaps and ruptures revealed in frameworks of knowledge and these gaps can become the focus for follow-up research (p.211)

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As Rachel Jones would say in ON NOT KNOWING: HOW ARTISTS THINK, it’s important that these so-called ruptures emerge from a practice to allow for invention, more so, invention that leads to meaning (p.16, 2013). These notions on inquiry, analysis, meaningmaking, intuition, and the combination of critical and creative thinking can be useful for educators to embody intuitively, as to expand their intuitive and creative conceptions in teaching.

Conceptualizing my interdisciplinary methods—the various mediums I work with and the various arenas I inquire within (a/r/tography), my means of making are similar in my ways of thinking. Like one knows many things without having been shown explicatively— “universal teaching” as Ranciere calls it—it is incredible how the relay of nuanced ideas happens between a learner and an object in a situation necessary to innovative thinking. Like an infinity mirror in which the learner is the two-way mirror and the subject of learning is the one-way mirror, Jacques Ranciere explained the phenomenon in which teacher/character Jacotot handed his class of students a book in another language (Flemish) that he admittedly did not know, and asked his students to make a report on the book (The Ignorant Schoolmaster, 1999). The students took to learning the book and the new language entirely on their own, as Jacotot stepped back fully from explicative instruction with the students, because his lack of knowledge on Flemish language. On their own, the students were able to learn the language and story through the will to learn the book—the object—and the lack of a teacher in the equation. “Universal teaching,” where one is able to teach oneself, Ranciere wonders, has been a reality for men forever; yet, it has “never occurred to someone to say to someone else: I’ve learned many things without explanations, I think that you can too. . .” (p.16). This is where reflecting on one’s ability to intuit and form knowledge individually can

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benefit educators in their relation to their students, and their ability to celebrate student individuality more. The Ignorant Schoolmaster serves as an analogy for the experience I believe happens when teaching oneself, and working creatively.

The creative process is a cycle of inquiring to realize a concept or hunch and testing multiple methods for reaching a solution; which, usually only fuels more questioning in the creative inquiry process. At RISD, my professors enlightened me by explaining that in the process of making the artist is simultaneously the student and the teacher. With this concept, I began to look at my creative process by cross-examining my concepts and techniques to gain a new understanding of my own process. As one needs another object to create knowledge, in that learning cannot happen with only one side of influence, I discovered a figurative tool in my process that also requires a binary of influence: analogy. As explained in my artist statement for my final program exhibition with Uversity, September 2015, I explained that analogy serves a significant, figurative role in my work: that abstract painting looks like (insert interpretation here); my artistic process is like my learning process, etc. Personally, I best make new cognitive connections through analogy. I use analogy as an artistic technique when working with layers and juxtaposition, pushing abstraction as figuration, or when I cross-reference my works for the educational motifs that often arise. In alliance with art practice as research, I appreciate that “analogies are a basic form of abstract representation that help viewers translate meaning by being shown an idea that is recognizable‌ which is used to come to understand something that may be obscureâ€? [Graeme Sullivan, Art Practice as Research, 2010]. (Appendix 18).

I realized analogy related to the binary I began to look for in my arts-based research: educational themes amongst themes of my creativity. In making a body of artworks alongside this dissertation, I studied my art making process to inform my ideating and writing process.

Focusing on moral and educational questions, I considered my work to align with arts-based education research, and started seeking educational themes coming up naturally in my creative process.

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Fig. 5. (top left) Still from Making Two Pieces Simultaneously at the Spill Station Demonstration.

Fig. 6. (top right) Still from Infinite Routes. Fig. 7. Today’s Subject, The Teacher (Morrison, 2015).

Initially, as a situation of aesthetics, the module Situations, at CCAD enlightened the approach to studying one theme that arose: the classroom. “Situational aesthetics,” a popular topic in modern art since the late 1960s, by authors like Roland Barthes (“Death of the Author”) or Victor Burgin (2009) are the aesthetics of a situation. Yet, as a topic, situational aesthetics is profusely complicated by philosophy and theory, as tends to happen in modern

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art. Regarding my artistic interests, situational aesthetics serve as a descriptor for the qualities of a setting that captivate me.

Fig. 8. “How We Learn to Read,” and Fig. 9. detail from series (Morrison, 2015).

As Graeme Sullivan explains in Arts Practice as Research, the term “aesthetic education” is occasionally used to “emphasize the importance of visual education,” which I consider in the way that the visuals of the classroom environment are incredibly important to creating a stimulating learning space (p.140, 2010). Perhaps having spent many fond memories in my mother’s various classroom settings as an elementary school teacher in the United States, everything about the smells, sights, sounds, and senses of the typical “classroom” fill me with an intense combination of comfort and discomfort. This classroom setting is perplexing for me, as the stage of most of my mainstream education learning experiences, a lovely space where my mother works, a setting where I see many flaws, as well as opportunities. I realized how crucial the situation of the classroom is for society’s creative development. As any safe learning environment is critical, Eisner expands on the situational criteria: The situations in and through which children learn can be crafted by the teacher.

When the situation as a whole is conducive to learning in the arts, positive outcomes are strengthened. This view of learning gives learning a social character; it departs from the more individual and often atomized conceptions of learning that have dominated much of educational psychology (p.93, 2002).

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Situations in which the whole of the setting is conducive to learning is ideal, and could be made ideal with the appreciation for the setting being the utmost fertile learning ground.

Csikszentmihalyi considers three types of creative people, one referring to “people who experience the world in novel and original ways… I refer to such people as personally creative, and try to deal with them as much as possible…” (p. 25, 2013). Ideally, classrooms and educators can help to foster this sort of creative person, including the educators themselves.

Methodology Using the qualitative methodology of arts-based education research (ABER), I drew data from my creative practice that evidenced connections of education research. Also, subscribing to the methodology of an a/r/tographer (artist/ researcher/ teacher) I employed methods of living inquiry, auto-ethnography, and ethnography as means of collecting anthropological data from my experience and that of the participants studied in the Sparks of Creativity workshop at the L. Glucksman Gallery, University College Cork. Lastly, I utilized semi-qualitative methods such as interviews and surveys in my participant-observation period in the Sparks of Creativity workshop.

Aims From my creative practice, my goal was to train myself to better see the fluency of education concepts between my creative works and my academic writing. By working in quite different realms and media, I aimed to become better at drawing the connections between the artworks

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and the research to improve my role as an a/r/tographer. Additionally, I meant to become more articulate in my ethical concerns behind the ABER. Using a/r/tography methods of living inquiry, auto-ethnography, and ethnography, my aim was to analyze the lived experiences of myself and the observed participants to better understand the anthropological differences between an a/r/tographer from an arts background and a Primary educator. Initially projecting onto Primary educators, I sought to gain qualitative data that specified the experience of Primary educators, from the research group, and gauge how educators view themselves as creative practitioners, or relating to contemporary, creative practice. Lastly, I even aimed to deliver a workshop opportunity for Primary educators myself.

Planning a workshop, and its results Visible in Appendix 2, I took to planning a workshop as a way to understand my belief in the educator as a creative tool in society and gauge whether or not educators considered themselves similarly. I initially designed the workshop according to themes of a creative process, as researched through Creative Process I and II through Uversity. This included themes like individuality, auto-ethnographic practices, rituals, and contemporary art practices. I considered these to be essential platforms one would need to be somewhat involved with in order to justify any sustained creative practice.

Planning the lesson structure behind the workshop through themes of creative practice, I designed original activities to be used in each portion of the workshop (Appendix 3). Some activities derived from my own tactics in my creative practice, like making imagery from rubbings of textures and exploring the boundaries between abstraction and figuration, to

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exemplify to a group that everyone sees differently (akin to how a Rorschach test exemplifies individual psychic interpretations).

Fig. 10. A detail from my series, “Making drawings from rubbings� (Morrison, 2015).

Other activities included painting mandalas with an added element of chance and acceptance, by making mandalas on paper and folding the paper with every new ring on the mandala to encourage random happenings in the paint and new directions for the mandala. I have used this particular activity before in my facilitation period on the Creativity and Change course.

The activity was used to emphasize that the individual mandalas are individual journeys, and when viewed together as a group, the individual participants can see their journey in relation to that of others to foster understanding between individuals.

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Fig. 11. An individual starting their mandala in the middle, as traditional. Fig. 12. The group’s mandalas presented together.

The workshop was to incorporate contemporary methods like these into a workshop opportunity where educators could learn from and work alongside an artist-scholar: “for educators to freely explore reflective and individualized methods of expanding one’s creative practice alongside the facilitation of a contemporary artist…” (Appendix 5, workshop invitation to primary and early year educators). The opportunity for educators to learn alongside an artist could have served as its own methodology for bringing reflexivity between educators’ creativity and that of the artist/facilitator, as much of the artist-teacher debate or artists-in-schools could speak to.

As appropriate, I took the necessary steps to arranging this professional workshop.

With supportive correspondence from the Head of the Art and Design Education Department, I connected with an appropriate audience of Primary educators—the past and current students

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of the Master of Art and Design for Primary Years Education program (Appendix 4). With backing by the Masters of Art and Design Education Department, I was granted access to studio space and materials for the workshop (ibid). In preparation for the workshop many outreach attempts were made and promoted by other heads of departments and faculty members in support of my workshop plans for research (Appendices 6-10).

The workshop never took place due to lack of available educator participants in July, when the workshop was meant to take place. But when one door closes another door opens, as on the proposed day of my workshop news of a similar workshop at the L. Glucksman Gallery, UCC was advertised. This came as a positive alternative to pursuing the same aims for collecting qualitative data, as a similar workshop idea arranged through the institutionalized gallery shone validation and justification of my ideas. I made contact inperson with the Curator of Education at the L. Glucksman Gallery and requested permissions to observe the upcoming workshop for educators, entitled Sparks of Creativity. Upon sharing my previously planned workshop ideas, the Curator granted me permission to issue surveys and conduct interviews in addition to observing the workshop to support my attempts at collecting qualitative data on educators’ creativity. Grateful for the opportunity, I prepared drafts of the survey to be issued and the interviews questions to be asked at the workshop (Appendices 12-14).

Observing a workshop Participants At the weeklong Sparks of Creativity workshop, I engaged with all of the participants on a semi-participant observation level. Not fully participating, as I could not be classified

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ethnographically as a part of the small group/community of Irish Primary educators, I participated only in the afternoon art making sessions of the workshops, whilst simultaneously observing. From participating, I gained an experiential sense of how the educators felt each newly introduced technique from the guest facilitating artists. Each day of the workshop featured a core school subject and a relevant artistic medium. On Monday, the educators underwent activities that bridged the subject of Language with the medium of Collage; on Tuesday, it was Maths and Printmaking; on Wednesday, it was History and Drawing; on Thursday, it was Science and Painting; and on Friday, it was SPHE (Social and Personal Health Education) and Sculpture.

Since I knew most of the techniques from my education in art and design, I had the freedom of mind to observe the educators learning new processes, objectively. I saw how similar educators are, when being taught, to their own students, per se, in their attitudes.

There was much bemoaning of their abilities in drawing, for example. As one facilitator cleverly pointed out, ‘educators are the hardest to teach.’ Over the course of the week, what I inferred to be the mission of the workshop was affirmed, and seemed to click in the minds of the educators: to offer educators an opportunity to engage directly in arts based methods for teaching the core subjects, so as to take away the learned, invaluable experiential knowledge of the methods and bring them into their respective teaching practices.

The participant educators ranged from temporary teachers to special needs woodworking teachers, and varied in age and gender. On the course, there were two male participants out of twelve participants. All of the participants were Irish, and all of the participants were compensated six days of holidays for taking the five-day course, the cost of which was subsidized by their respective schools. This made the experience manageable for

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the educators. As for the parameters of the workshop, the location, group, schedule, observer, and lead facilitator remained the same for the whole of the week. The changing variables, between each day, were the subject, the art medium, and the guest artist facilitators.

Materials and Procedures The materials used in this qualitative data research were the participants, the art materials for each theme, the academic materials for each core subject as presented by the Curator of Education for an arts-based focus, the variable artist facilitators, my surveys, and my interview questions.

The procedure methods chosen were observing, interviewing, and surveying to collect the empirical research. The logistics of the experience included gaining and maintaining throughout the week the appropriate permissions to issue surveys and interviews, granted by the Curator of Education. Also, maintaining objective distance from the participants whilst participating in their activities. Additionally, certain obligatory procedures, like documenting and photographing the workshop for the Curator of Education, and checking in with prospective interviewees, occurred daily. I maintained a checklist throughout the week to ensure I gathered enough survey responses and interview sessions to satisfy my research. I aimed for four interviews, and ten out of twelve surveys, of which all were attained. The survey results are listed in Appendix 18. The interviews can be read in the Appendices 15-17.

The fourth interview was not transcribed in time, as the workshop ended only a week before this dissertation was completed.

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Data results Throughout the week, much qualitative data resulted from the observation periods, surveys, and interviews. From my main analysis of these methods, I learned about those educators’ senses of creativity, like how they view their main sense of creativity to be different from the publicized, mainstream understanding of creativity (artistic).

Especially from the interviews, I learned that the interviewed educators think creatively and critically non-stop in their practice of teaching, which carries over into all areas of their lives (see the transcribed interviews in Appendices 15-17). Also, the interviewed educators consciously and unconsciously allow inspiring material from their life to inform and better prepare their creativity in their teaching practice; by bringing newly discovered materials and techniques into the classroom, and using inspiring literature or imagery from their life experiences to make their teaching more varied and accessible for their various types of learners (i.e. travel, professional development courses, social life, creative life, etc.). Meaning that, for some, those educators actually maintain creative practices and are generally creative in their lifestyle, as confirmed when asked if they maintain creative practices. These points satisfied my desire to know if Primary educators maintained creative practices or not, and whether or not they put any small effort into their lifestyle to look creatively at the world in a sense of living inquiry. From the interviews, it became apparent that those educators engaged in living inquiry, but not consciously; those educators engaged in a creative practice, but not necessarily consciously.

The way it seems this group of educators viewed creativity was through the publicized examples of creativity. This may come from a culturally misconceived perception

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of art and what it means to be creative, by the art and creativity that has become overly mainstreamed. Like Csikszentmihalyi stated, …individuals who, like Leonardo, Edison, Picasso, or Einstein, have changed our culture in significant important respect. They are the creative ones without qualifications. Because their achievements are by definition public, it is easier to write about them (p.25-26, 2013).

To Csikszentmihalyi’s point, creativity is not measured by significance or fame, and the creative practices educators maintain are just as significant. The educators affirmed they were creative through the surveys and interviews via their senses of problem solving in their teaching practices. Most of the educators shared that their creative practices include photography, interior design, literature, or similar avenues that coincidentally suited the management of a classroom. Some of the educators considered these mediums to be part of their creative processes, and some did not. All surveys returned reported involvement in some practice but some educators might not have considered them to be creative. Likewise, one interviewed educator offered that she now considers more existing contemporary art to be art (Appendix 17). She explained that from seeing the contemporary examples shown throughout the week in the institutional setting of the gallery, she now takes more seriously art that she might encounter and regularly disregard as art. This educator was enlightened throughout the week of the workshop and said that now she would be able to better see how to incorporate contemporary art technique and material examples into the classroom. As mentioned in On Not Knowing, the famous German philosopher Heidegger discussed how the artist and the viewer occupy very different positions, “in relation to the artwork (from within and without respectively), both are drawn into a provisional and perpetual process of enquiry by art” (p.8-9, 2013). With this philosophical idea, art can engage artists and “nonartists” in inquiry practices—learning practices—regardless.

From the surveys, I gathered a broader response to my various survey questions,

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which were arranged by themes similar to my original workshop (Appendix 3 and 13).

To offer a sample from each section of the thematized questions I asked: Part 1: Creative Practice As a primary year educator, do you engage in a creative practice? If so, why? If not, why not?

Part 2: Rituals/Routines In your opinion, what aspects of an educator’s life need to be modified to accommodate a sustained creative practice?

Part 3: Auto-ethnography: The study of self-narrative that engages in cultural analysis and interpretation In what aspects of your teaching are you able to relate to the local and global cultures of education (i.e. online forums, conferences, this or other workshops, education journals, etc.)?

Part 4: Living inquiry: The inquiry practice of holistically studying life, art, research, and teaching In your words, what is your experience with living inquiry?

Part 5: Your Individuality How does engaging in a creative practice affect your teaching experience?

(Appendix 13).

Almost all of the surveys resulted with educators relating to creative practice in some one way or another. Additionally, most surveys agreed with ideas of individuality being significant to express in the teaching experience. Also, most educators responded with lists of rituals and routines they perform regularly to keep up their creative practice or wellbeing. While most mentioned they maintained hobbies and ritualistic practices, most did not agree with sustaining any auto-ethnographic or living inquiry practice, in any serious way. Most educators also agreed that intuition is important in teaching, but possibly were not certain of how it is used in teaching (for more Survey Results see Appendix 18).

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Discussion and recommendations I would deduce from the observation, interview and survey results that the educators who consider their interests and hobbies to be their creative practice express more confident inclusion of creativity in the classroom, as mentioned in the surveys results. Therefore, I would like to address through Piirto’s Pyramid of Talent Development that occasionally creativity is mistaken for talent.

Fig. 13. Piirto’s Pyramid of Talent Development, (Pirto, 2011).

From my own experiences as an artist, from the way the participant educators

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occasionally put themselves down for not being “good” at drawing or at a particular technique, and from some of the results that were not confident in their commitment to a creative practice, it seems there is a general misconception of talent being creativity, and creativity being talent. I would like to point out that creativity is one of the many factors under Personality on the second level of the pyramid, only above Genes. Being only above Genes, creativity is seemingly close and accessible enough to any person. And as Csikszentmihalyi would say, every human is creative due to our genetic makeup, which keeps us capable of individual ingenuity and away from the genetics of apes (p.2, 2013).

Piirto’s Pyramid of Talent Development shows us there are many external and internal factors to one’s perceived talent, and that creativity is not even one of the major “suns,” or factors of the talent pyramid. What play greater roles in one’s talent are the suns of “Chance,” “Home,” “Gender,” “School,” and “Community and Culture” (Piirto, 2011).

Therefore, I would recommend educators be able to play their best role in the “Sun of School” by looking to their own “suns” and the other factors of the pyramid to understand their sense of creativity is different from their general talents.

Like the design of the Sparks of Creativity workshop, Piirto also offers recommendations for including creativity into the curriculum with a sort of outline to follow at the end of each of her five core attitudes and Seven I’s of 21st century skills (2011). Much of my research was initially inspired by this format of recommendations, which includes ways to think about the five core attitudes (naiveté, risk-taking, selfdiscipline, tolerance for ambiguity, and group trust) and the Seven I’s (Inspiration, Intuition, Improvisation, Imagination, Imagery, Incubation, and Insight [ibid]) in comprehensibly applicable means. Piirto includes space in her book Creativity for 21st

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Century Skills at the end of each “I” and core attitude as to suggest open space for thinking, and writing, on the various reflective sectors to consider. Gratuitous to say, I would recommend educators, in general, experience a workshop like the Sparks of Creativity or follow literature like Piirto’s that helps educators along the way of comprehending contemporary creativity and art practice in its application in across the core curriculum.

Recommending Primary educators embrace the basic elements of art and design, or Piirto’s elements of 21st century creativity skills, basic skills and an appreciation for creativity in all aspects of the core subjects can result in much deeper learning for students. In Arts Practice as Research, Sullivan elaborates on Lucio Pozzi, an artist and distinguished artist-teacher, who uses a series of diagrams to foster discussion with his students. He is known for exercising “sketchy, structural signatures” which he uses to reference “historical issues, use metaphor to tease out possibilities, demolish preconceptions, disrupt complacencies, challenge decision making, and find creative comfort among incongruities” (p.209, 2010). Sullivan references Lori Kent’s study of Pozzi, finishing with, “The pedagogical purpose of Lucio Pozzi’s diagrams is to help students think more clearly and to trust their intuitions and ideas as a sustainable source for their own creative pursuits” (ibid) The inclusion of a diagram/drawing method in the classroom, no matter the subject, could have meaningful and sophisticated effects, like Pozzi generates with his students. Basically elemental tools of art could be utilized to involve deeper learning for students to satisfy more of their preparation in becoming well-minded individuals. Furthermore, another point from Eisner’s What the Arts Teach and How it Shows tells us that every commitment to creativity counts: “6. The arts teach

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that small differences have large effects. The arts traffic in subtleties” (p.70-92, 2000).

From the educators I observed, their beliefs seemed to align with the social opinion of creativity, that it must contribute something new and interesting to society. I encourage all persons to abandon this idea that creativity implies a level of skill over another’s sense of creativity, and consider creativity as an ability inherent to all human beings that needs to be flexed and strengthened like a muscle. Like Csikszentmihalyi says, if one chooses to believe they are creative, then that should be that (p.25). Primary educators could better serve the moral education of society’s young ones with a commitment to their own creativity and respective practices, speaking to Eisner’s last point, “10. The arts’ position in the school curriculum symbolizes to the young what adults believe is important” (p. 70-92, 2000).

Future work As made possible by the research and education gained this year, my future holds plans for a second attempt at my proposed workshop. To continue this arts-based research, I will be volunteering at a therapeutic facility opening soon in the Cork City Centre. There, I plan to design my own workshops that incorporate themes of individuality and individual creativity for the clients of the space who would have suffered from various emotional crises and come to the space for reflection and recovery. Additionally, I will serve a volunteer term in Chiang Mai, Thailand, as an art therapist in a community arts center, where I hope to feature my interests in citizenship education through creative exercises. Always wanting to incorporate ideals of art education and art therapy into my work, I wish to do so in these upcoming opportunities with my newfound knowledge and experience from my uniquely designed

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Uversity program. Ideally, my passions have fueled my program and I will be able to continue pursuing them academically, practically, and artistically.

Conclusion Considering the research group of educators on the Sparks of Creativity workshop, Primary educators do engage in individual creative practices. The educators’ senses of creativity and its definition may be affected by society and lack of exploration in the area, but their involvement in creative practices, rituals, living inquiry and intuitive studies is undeniably individualistic. I have gathered this and more through the qualitative data harvested over the course of a summer on the Uversity Master of Arts in Creative Process program. I plan to continue performing ABER and a/r/tographical research in the creativity of educators.

Planning future workshops, I will maintain the empirical knowledge from this research period and strive to open educators to their creativity from my experience as an artist-scholar.

Always striving to express my social and moral concerns, I can conclude that working with these non-art and design educators has been key in the enlightenment of the educators for their improved creative and critical teaching. As originally postulated, my view of the educator as a conduit for constructive, societal impact is stronger than ever.

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Reference List Addison, N., & Burgess, L., (Eds.) (2003). Issues in Art and Design Teaching. Routledge Farmer: London.

Atkinson, T., & Claxton, G (Eds.) (2003). The Intuitive Practitioner: on the value of not always knowing what one is doing. Berkshire: Open University Press.

Baltodano, M.P., Darder, A., & Torres, R.D. (Eds.) (2009). The Critical Pedagogy Reader (2nd ed.) New York: Routledge.

Bayles, D., & Orland, T. (2001). Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Art making. Santa Cruz: Image Continuum Press.

Boal, A. (2008). Theatre of the Oppressed (3rd ed.). London: Pluto Press. Retrieved from http://ir.nmu.org.ua/bitstream/handle/123456789/130353/3d8e668e84e2a3da05e231b ba0cbc07f.pdf?sequence=1 Cope, A. (2015). Never Before Seen Pictures and Video Of Banksy's New Theme Park: Dismaland | We Are Change. We Are Change. Retrieved August 2015, from http://wearechange.org/cant-make-it-to-banksys-dismaland-its-ok-just-watch-thisvideo/ Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2013). Creativity: The psychology of discovery and invention (pp. 1-2, 23, 25-26). New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics.

Daichendt, G. J. (2010). Artist Teacher: A Philosophy for Creating and Teaching. Chicago: Intellect.

Dewey, John (2005). Art as Experience (2nd ed.). New York: Penguin Group.

Educacionsocial.udl.cat,. (2015). DES | Home. Retrieved August 2015, from http://www.educacionsocial.udl.cat/en

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Eisner, Elliot W. (2002). The Arts and the Creation of Mind. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Eisner, E. (1998). The Enlightened Eye: Qualitative Inquiry and the Enhancement of Educational Practice. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, Inc. Freire, P. (2009). From Pedagogy of the Oppressed. In A. Darder, M. Baltodano & R. Torres (Eds.), The Critical Pedagogy Reader (2nd ed., p. 52). New York: Routledge.

Gaudelius, Y., & Speirs, P. (Eds.) (2002). Contemporary Issues in Art Education. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education.

Guerard, A. (2015). Art for Art's Sake on JSTOR. Jstor.org. Retrieved August 2015, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/40075400?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents Harris, R. (2012). Introduction to Creative Thinking. Virtualsalt.com. Retrieved August 2015, from http://www.virtualsalt.com/crebook1.htm Hickman, R. (Ed.) (2008). Research in Art & Design Education. Chicago: Intellect Hickman, R. (2003). The role of art and design in citizenship education. In N. Addison & L. Burgess, Issues in Art and Design Teaching (1st ed., p. 84-). New York: RoutledgeFalmer.

Holdridge, L., & MacLeod, K., (Eds.) (2006). Thinking Through Art: reflections on art as research. New York: Routledge.

Montessori, M. (2012). The Absorbent Mind (1st ed.). USA: Start Publishing. Retrieved from https://books.google.ie/books?id=4OrsAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT21&dq=the+absorbent+ mind&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAGoVChMIuOb9cHQxwIV5K7bCh1pwwmp#v=snippet&q=psychic&f=false Morley, S. (2010). The sublime. London: Whitechapel Gallery.

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Ortega, D. (2007). Controller of the Universe. New York: Gladstone Gallery. Gouzouasis, Peter, Carl Leggo, Rita L. Irwin,, and Stephanie Springgay (Eds). Being with A/r/tography. Rotterdam: Sense, 2008. Print.

Pbs.org,. (2015). "Chalk (Lima)" (1998-2002) | Art21 | PBS. Retrieved August 2015, from http://www.pbs.org/art21/images/allora-calzadilla/chalk-lima-1998-2002 Piirto, Jane (2011). Appendix A of Creativity for 21st Century Skills. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.

Piirto, J. (2011). Creativity for 21st century skills. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.

Ranciere, J. (1999). The Ignorant Schoolmaster (1st ed., p. 12-16). Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Springgay, S. (2008). Being with a/r/tography. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.

Sullivan, G. (2010). Arts Practice as Research: Inquiry in Visual Arts (2nd ed., p. 140-).

Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications.

Vimeo,. (2013). Art as Unlearning | Thinking & Making | MEd Artist Teacher CRITICAL PEDAGOGY Seminar. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/channels/469814 YouTube,. (2010). RSA Animate-Changing Education Paradigms. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U.

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List of Appendices 1. Interview with my mom on 10 May, 2015……………................…………………….....42 2. Workshop notes and ideas before seeking permissions for workshop…………………...48 3. Development of workshop outline……………………………………..………………...51 4. Email correspondence with CCAD Head of Art and Design Education......................…..52 5. Digital invitation for distribution to prospective participants……………………….…. .54 6. Screenshot of outreach attempts…………………………..………………………….…. 55 7. Screenshots of outreach attempts…………………………..…………………………….55 8. Email outreach attempts to the coordinators …………………………………………….56 9. The promotion post by the coordinators of the Creativity & Change………………..… .58 10. Email outreach attempts to Head of CIT Art Therapy Department…………………….59 11. Information and Consent sheets to be distributed at workshop…………………………60 12. Draft for survey questions…………………………………..………………………… 62 13. Prepared survey to distribute…………………………..………………………………..63 14. Outline of interview questions…………………………..………………………………65 15. Interview1. Transcription.…………………………..…………………………………..66 16. Interview 2. Transcription,…………………………..………………………………….67 17. Interview 3. Transcription…………………………..…………………………………..70 18. Survey results…………………………..…………………………..…………………...73 19. Artist Statement…………………………..…………………………………………….79

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Appendices 1. Interview with my mom, Nohra, on 10 May, 2015, via Skype phone call Edited and concentrated by Hallie Morrison for ethnographic material on the Creative Process II course, Uversity, University of Limerick Hallie: I just have some general questions. Some of my work before was about how we learn to read visually, and then I thought, “oh, my mom’s a reading specialist…” So, I wanted to ask some things about how you teach reading. So what is your position technically called?

Nohra: I’m the Read 180 teacher but I don’t belong to the reading specialist category and I don’t belong to the special education category, so I’m my own category. I’m part of the general teacher population. But my programmed is a replacement reading programmed, so I’m replacing what the students do in the classroom. So I’m my own separate section.

Did you come up with that on your own?

No it’s a district programmed for the students that are 2 or more years below the standard.

So it’s for students that are behind?

Yes. Do you think it’s more effective then, because it’s designed for those students?

It’s designed where they have guided, directive, and small group instruction. So everything is very structured and deliberate and an intentional method of teaching what’s important for reading comprehension.

Is the point to catch them up to speed or get them to at their own sustaining level?

The purpose is to get them to feel successful at their level so that they can challenge themselves to a higher level.

Does it ever feel like it’s a different methodology to the rest of the school? To me, it seems like Montessori with working at each students level and motivating within.

That point of motivation from within in is not the programmer’s motivation, the programmed is based on doing reading at each students level to close the gap of being behind, to reach a higher level.

Internally they’re supposed to be motivating themselves, which does not work because they don’t have motivation unless the instructor is motivating them. As a program itself it does not create a feeling of doing it.

That’s the goal of the programmed then, but it doesn’t work?

The goal is to make them progress, but its very sterile. For a student that’s not motivated that programmed structure itself doesn’t create a love of learning or reading. So you need the human part of it to make it meaningful and relatable to why it’s important to be able to read at a higher level.

Is that part of your challenge to help them with, their love of learning?

Yes. Is that where the methodology is different too? I’d think that you’d have to make the programmed more creative to trick kids into liking reading?

Yes, so that’s where I have to change the programmed—not to change the fidelity of the programmed—but to compliment the programmed so that’s its more meaningful. So that I can help the students realize, yes they can read the same books as their class, but maybe we’re going to do that

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through audio books, or a break down of what they’re reading in small group. So that’s where I put in different things.

Would you think those things are more creative and would you do more things with pictures or audio or videos or different ways of comprehension?

Yes we do a lot of visuals, which helps second language learners to relate. Because whether it’s in English or in Spanish the visual helps you have a feeling of being able to understand. And that’s helpful when you’re translating into English, as instruction is given in English. So the visual is the main the thing, but then audio helps with pronunciation. Then there’s independent work where students apply their learning independently. Then there’s the small group, where you work on how to break down a word and the technical phonics, the application the meaning, the function of the word. I guide the small group with a lesson to go off of. Then we break it down to the comprehensive areas of reading; so, inferencing, summarizing, vocabulary, all that.

With the stuff you have for them on the computer, is their experience learning to read different on the computer? And, is it different for you to try to teach them to learn from the computer?

The computer work is supposed to be very interactive and interesting. So they’ll show a video first, then vocab, for content, then explanation and how vocab is incorporated into the video. Then they read the passage for reading comprehension, for inferencing, for main idea and detail. The whole computer part is very instructional, but with these kids it’s also pretending they’re working…

Because they’re still not buying in to the motivation?

Right.

You speak with them only in English?

Sometimes we speak in Spanish but not because it’s part of the programmed, because certain words like cognates are easier for them in Spanish. And sometimes they still like to speak Spanish. So we use that to create an environment of using whatever language you like as long as you’re understanding and communicating your ideas. But that’s not part of the actual programmed. It’s incorporated because it creates a little family setting.

So maybe they’re not always pushing themselves, but is there a general positive experience for them?

It’s not because of the programmed, but what else comes into play: developing relationships with the students, creating a community, a sense of risk taking that’s acceptable, and creating challenges for them. So they feel they can do these things but would they automatically on their own following the programmed? No. So, it has to be artificially created so that it transfers into motivation.

Do you end up having a good relationship with them?

Yes. Oh yea.

These types of additional classrooms for students who need I it, I think that is a really nice thing.

Only from my art experience, those additional classrooms are always the things that are considered extra or aren’t deemed important enough. Your programmed rose from a need so it is successful for students as a resource? And will the schools keep it?

A lot of the schools in the district have gotten rid of it because they don’t feel it’s successful. But in our building if the teachers had a choice to keep it or leave it they’d all choose to keep it. Because they feel it’s successful. And I think it’s successful. So I think that the amount that’s being put into it so that the kids want to be there is what the teachers are happy with the success, the kids see they’re being successful, that whole sense of ‘yea we’re working here’ that makes it so it stays. There are changes for next year and they’re changing the programmed but nobody knows what the changes are.

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But everybody I have for 5 and 6th grade, their teachers say they don’t want to get rid of the programmed because they see the kids buying into it and getting into it.

Maybe it wasn’t as successful at the other schools because the teachers weren’t motivated themselves to help motivate young people.

I think that’s the main factor. It’s the delivery of the programmed. If it’s not interesting to the teacher no student is going to want to participate I was wondering about your creative practice or process. What creative aspects are a part of your job?

I’d at least say there’s more room for creativity in your position that in the regular, standardized setting. How do you think about creativity in your job?

That’s an interesting question because at an open house not long ago, one of the parents asked, “oh, so she comes to you for coloring?” because the parent saw the work we had from 7 different projects, which I had designed for the students and tied into the curriculum and involved visuals. So I said no, but I could see where the creative part of it has come out, because we had 7 projects and they all involved visuals and of course the academic part, which we wrote about. So like with 6th grade we were doing ancient Egypt, and I found coloring book that look like stained glass. But instead of coloring it, I said we’re going to do a study the colors in ancient Egypt. So they were coloring, but they were giving me information of why red was used at that time, why yellow was used at that time, how did that tie into what they had at the time? So that was a huge unit that I created, just because I wanted d them to be able to color these stained glass pictures. And they came out beautiful. They bought it, they tied in their knowledge, they did their research, they wrote for me, they explained it, and so we used speaking and listening, which is part of the core. We used language. We used everything, but for me it was more interesting to use color. Then we did another unit where they had to draw their partner at the beginning the school year when they were getting to know each other.

They had to write the interesting things about each other and why they liked them. So its interesting but I’m getting them to write and talk to each other and to not be shy, and getting them to ask questions—while I’m using art, because they wanted to draw their partners. And it was funny and we gave each other ideas on how to fix the eyeballs. So it was fun because they’re drawing but they’re really writing for me. And we do novels so we did a report on silverback gorillas. And they had fun trying to see who could draw the silverback. And it came out hilarious, but it was good. Then there were two pages of writing they had to do. Then we did the “Watsons go to Birmingham.” It takes place in 1963 and deals with important issues of racism. We watched the movie and we read the audio book. We listened. We discussed. We wrote. We created images from the Internet for the project. So that’s why the lady thought her daughter only came to me to color, because we had so many pieces of art. But to me it shows how we tie the writing and reading and the interests of students.

And doing it so it’s fun and takes the mental pain associated with writing away…

Yes. So she can think that, but I know that I’m teaching her daughter something. I didn’t feel offended, because I know for her what is being is shown is what she understands, and its so surface level what she’s seeing, because she has never experienced it or gone through this herself.

It seems very creative then. I feel like my life motto is if you’re creative you’re smarter than others because you can arrive at the same things in your own meaningful, experienced way, rather than just going through the steps: Finding it on your own.

That’s where themes are good. So my theme for the Watsons was social injustice. I incorporated the visual language, auditory and kinesthetic activities and put it all to use with that theme. I like themes.

I think that’s helpful and important to have. I think incorporating themes into the classroom is really important. Most of the time I think of teachers as not being good teachers or being concerned in social

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issues and helping their students to see that, if they don’t incorporate popular education themes in the classroom.

Right so that’s the part where you have to be interested in the material, and if you’re not then no student is going to enjoy it.

What are some things you do as daily rituals or routines? What are things that you tell yourself so that you can always be positive and creative with your students? What are things for your own sanity to ensure that you’re doing a good job?

They’re probably all subconscious but I think it’s reading the group. So if there’s an issue amongst the group, I address it so that it’s out and dealt with and the kids can focus again. Overall, making the environment where they can take risks and feel safe and no one will laugh is the most important thing. I think of the whole child and what helps them because I consider all of the subconscious issues. So setting a positive place is the thing I know I focus on the most, everything else is underlying.

What are the things you feel you actively do to make it a nice space?

Having an open relationship. Making the classroom like real life. It’s not just instruction and working. They come in, they socialize, they follow common respect for everyone, and they follow rules, no criticizing. So general life skills like tolerance and listening.

Maybe because you’ve been a teacher for while so you have these automatic things you do, but are there things that make you or them feel good? How do you set the space or are they’re thing that are characteristic to you that the students would like about you?

I think they would say I share stories so there’s connection; she cares about our lives so I tell her things; she makes us feel safe and I won’t be criticized. They know I’m not going to laugh at them.

I feel like I’m pretty real or realistic, I feel I’m sincere. Would they say that you teach them to be themselves and to be real?

Oh yea. I have my fan club. It’s 10 boys they come every single morning at 7:30, and they wait by the door just so we can talk.

I didn’t know that!

Yea, they’re 5th graders.

Yea, so clearly they like you.

Why it’s just boys I don’t know! But I think it’s important that they have female they can talk to because they don’t talk their moms. And I always ask did you talk to your mom today and they say no I don’t talk to my mom. It’s very strict.

Immediately, I think its how you act with them that is real and makes them feel comfortable. You probably don’t baby them, and you probably treat them as equals. I guess you have to work so early and time is strict, but what are certain things you do to get ready that make you feel ready—and if you didn’t do those things, you’d be stressed out for the day?

I just have routine. So my routine makes me feel at ease because I know I’m doing what I need to do and it leaves opportunity for whatever else to come up. The minute I step into school I’m on guard. If I was a scatterbrain I don’t think anything open or spontaneous would happen, like being able to sit an talk. I think that they would feel it too if I was all over the place. They would not feel secure.

Can you name some of the small things that you have to do in the morning? Do you have to eat a certain food or say a certain prayer?

I eat coffee and bread and nothing else. Getting up showering first thing, then eating, then dressing, then having comfortable shoes and socks—because that makes a big deal if I can’t feel comfortable in

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my clothes. Then getting ready to go. And I always give myself the sign of the cross in the car and then I’m all set. Then I listen to NPR (National Public Radio).

So you think a lot in the car.

I like quiet so if NPR is getting ridiculous then I like quiet. Then I’m thinking how beautiful the day is and how things look on the way, and I’m not worrying about how much traffic there is, even though there is a lot of traffic. When there’s traffic I don’t focus on the traffic I focus on the nearby nature because I’m not going to get worked up about the traffic.

Probably because you know that you need your energy for the job Right.

Maybe because you do that commute so many times you’re able to look around and notice more.

Right, at the beginning I was only able to think about how long the ride was. But now I know what it is.

I’m asking these things because I’m trying to relate to what helps my creative process. I think there are the connections to doing certain things to secure your happiness and levels of comfortability to have the mental and emotional energy to pursue other things, like being creative and being able to motivate others to learn—about their identity and themselves, as well.

Right. The important things are the focus, not the limiting things that have happened. So even if it was a stressful drive the minute I get there it’s about school, so I cant worry about how long the ride was.

Everything has to be put into what I need to do.

I think there are good parameters and transitional barriers that happen in the day that help you cope and help you focus and give you purpose.

You have to be able to separate it. The boundaries have to help you in the present while you’re there, to make it a productive time.

It’s probably nice because you’re working with the students. It’s not like where you’re going into an office job where you’re performing individually. It’s a productive thing both ways in the relationship, for you because you know you’re productive when they’re productive, and they’re motivated by your motivation. Maybe it’s a nicer job situation to have where these things can happen and have a balance.

Right, their motivation increases my motivation, and vice versa. And I learn form their interests. And my interests make them think of things, and vice versa. If it was just one-sided, going to face a computer all day that would not be good. Anything is possible if you’re environment makes you feel like you can do it. It’s everything around you that makes it. If it was a nice place but it was technically a prison, then maybe you wouldn’t feel like you were in prison.

So I have a more spiritual question: how did you start to believe that ‘everything happens for a reason’?

I don’t know how it started, but I think it came from thinking about why things happen. From reflecting on things that have made impressions or changes in me, and asking why? Thinking how of it was, and what I need to do to make a connection? I think it’s a learned thing from your experiences of what you see happening. Then predicting end results, then seeing what happens. And connecting what was realized. How it impacted me and what was the result, and how does it connect to me? I think self-reflection is the main thing.

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I think it’s a wise thing to say. And wisdom has to come to you from experience. And if you’re engaging and reflecting with your own life then, you’re able to come up with aligns like that. That’s even a motto, maybe because you can believe it. And it offers explanation to a lot of things.

Right, it helps you realize the world functions in a way. It’s not always clear, but because of it makes sense that things happen for a reason, whether they are to learn about yourself or somebody else.

That’s how things naturally work to understand life.

I think there’s the idea in art and philosophy of opposing forces, order and chaos. So when we say everything happens for a reason that would belong to order and that’s our way of organizing chaos, to understand things emotionally, even.

Right the saying doesn’t make you feel like something is wrong with someone, it explains why something happens with a person. It’s not always worrying. It helps someone think about the person’s actions and everything that affects it. Takes pressure off people.

End.

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2. Workshop notes and ideas before seeking permissions for workshop.

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3. Development of workshop outline, to present in meeting with L. Glucksman Gallery Curator of Education

Hallie&Morrison& Uversity&MA&Creative&Process& & General'Workshop'Points' Individuality+ •

Personal&journey:&Mandalas&

•

Infinite&interpretation:&Montessori&drawing&exercise&

•

Infinite&interpretation:&connecting&abstract&textures&in&rubbings&

•

Infinite&interpretation:&creating&imagery&from&rubbings&

•

Testing&Chance:&Monoprinting&

•

Releasing&control:&Drip&painting& &

Auto.ethnography+ •

Discussion&and&introduction&to&autoDethnography&

•

Mediums&of&autoDethnography&

•

Personal&presentations&on&creative&practices&

•

Activity&and&discussion&of&varying&creative&practices&

& Contemporary+Practice+//+Ritual+and+Routine+ •

Discussion&around&personal&routine&and&ritual&&

•

Personal&mottos:&Mantras&and&sankalpas&introduction&and&creation&

•

Body&knowledge:&Breathing&and&grounding&exercises&

•

Body&knowledge:&Yogic&exercises&

•

Play:&workshop&using&found&floor&textures&

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Intuition:&exercises&in&making,&writing,&and&listening&

•

Color&meanings:&exploration&of&daily&color&uses&

& Discussion'of'creative'incorporation'into'core'subjects'

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4. Email correspondence with the Head of the CIT CCAD MA Art and Design Education Department, seeking permissions and assistance in the arrangements for delivering the original workshop under the supervision of the Department.

RISD Google Apps for Education Mail - workshop proposal and discussion

7/8/15, 1:14 PM

Hallie Morrison <hmorriso@alumni.risd.edu>

workshop proposal and discussion 1 message Hallie Morrison <hmorriso@alumni.risd.edu> To: Albert Walsh <albert.walsh@cit.ie>

Wed, Jul 8, 2015 at 12:49 PM

Dear Albert, I hope all is well with you. I am currently undertaking research into exploring creative rituals of early year and primary educators as part of a Masters of Arts in Creative Process (Uversity). My research focuses on early and primary year educators who teach multiple school subjects and are interested in the inclusion of art and design in education. My interest lies in creating a workshop experience as a time and space for educators to reflect on creativity relating to their lives—to emphasize an importance in the educator’s creative experience, in ultimately better serving all types of learners.

I would appreciate it if I could discuss with you via email, the possibility of working with some educators from the MA Teaching Visual Arts for Primary and Early Years Education in a workshop that I wish to deliver in the end of July or early August. I would appreciate communicating with you about the particular arrangements to make contact with those students. Also, I would be grateful if we could discuss permission to use facilities in the department of Art and Design Education for the purpose of a workshop.

I wish to run the workshop for two days, if possible. I understand that attendance may be hard to confirm during the summer months, but I hope for at least 5 individuals to partake in the workshop.

Designed from my qualitative research interests in areas of a/r/tography and living inquiry, the workshop aims to offer early year and primary educators an opportunity to engage in contemporary, creative actions planned from my experience as a contemporary artist, exploring issues of creativity in education. The workshop will cover themes of Individuality, Rituals, and the importance of Auto-ethnographic Practices and Reflection in the educator’s life. I invite educators to this workshop as a chance for open explorations into topics that I believe are critical in helping specialize and expand educators’ views on their personal creativity. I do not propose the workshop to feel like a professional development course.

The types of activities participants might experience include individualized art and craft activities; like, exploring mandala making, exercising hand-mind relationship through automatic contour drawing, journaling, representing one’s creative process through visual and audio works, and more.

The types of materials that might be used could include general art and craft supplies, like acrylic paints, colored and white large sheets of paper, and essentials like glue, scissors, and tape. Additional materials include participants’ cameras or smartphones, the computer lab for making presentations or online references, clay, and recycled materials.

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=a0b5b6331a&view=pt&search=sent&th=14e6d7f84730bdc9&siml=14e6d7f84730bdc9

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RISD Google Apps for Education Mail - workshop proposal and discussion

7/8/15, 1:21 PM

Depending on the participants available, I may wish to use journals, cameras, and art making materials to document the participantsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; experience and draw my empirical data. Participants will also record their experiences and keep a journal throughout the workshop. The research I gather can be shared with the participants and the department afterwards, and I would ensure that appropriate permission to reference evidence from the experience was secured from participants and the department, beforehand.

Running this workshop will enrich my research for my creative dissertation, as it will support my writing with relevant, empirical data. It is important for me to have the experience of facilitating this original workshop so that I can gain experience in facilitation and the implementation of my ideas through group-based qualitative research. I am focusing my research on primary and early years, so I believe this workshop will be most relevant and enjoyable for those Masters students.

Thanking you in advance.

Kind regards,

Hallie Uversity MA Creative Process Student

hmorriso@alumni.risd.edu 085 152 4199

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=a0b5b6331a&view=pt&search=sent&th=14e6d7f84730bdc9&siml=14e6d7f84730bdc9

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5. Digital invitation for distribution to prospective participants—current and past students of the MA Teaching Visual Arts for Primary and Early Years Education.

!

Creative Process Workshop Dear Primary School Teachers and Early Year Educators, My name is Hallie Morrison, and I am a student of the MA in Creative Process at the Uversity College in Ireland. I am conducting research for a dissertation in Creative Process, with the focus of how autoethnographic practices and rituals for primary and early year educators ultimately benefit learners. I am pleased to invite you to partake in this research at a creative process workshop exploring autoethnographic reflection and ritual in the primary and early year educator’s practice, under the supervision of the MA Education Department at CIT CCAD. As primary and early year educators, you are critical to a conversation about how educators can see themselves as creative practitioners, and leaders of creativity across all subjects in the curriculum. Along with other educators who work to include Art and Design Education into their curriculum, I respectfully request your participation in shaping this qualitative research around this contemporary issue in creative education.

The rituals and auto-ethnographic practices I am considering are those I have learned while at Uversity, like the role of self-reflection and ritual in one’s creative practice. With auto-ethnography, the ultimate note of self-narrating one’s experience is to engage in cultural interpretation. These efforts are based on research around the value of the artist-teacher in formal education, as well as practice-based inquiries such as a/r/tography (the study of an artist-researcher-teacher), and living inquiry practice (the holistic inquiry of how we live, create, teach, and research).

The purpose of this gathering is for educators to freely explore reflective and individualized methods of expanding one’s creative practice alongside the facilitation of a contemporary artist currently researching creative process for students and educators of primary and early years education. It is my idea that primary and early year educators will find relevance in this workshop for the opportunity to explore constructive, contemporary themes of creativity. I expect a lively interchange of ideas, from individuals of various opinions on creativity, in this group setting.

The workshop will be held on the 27-28th of July (Monday-Tuesday), from 11am-3pm each day, in the Education Department art studios of the CCAD Sullivan’s Quay building. The CIT Crawford Masters Department of Education has kindly volunteered to host the event, and we invite you to participate.

Upon completion of the study, I undertake to provide the Department of Education with a full research report. If you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact me.

To RSVP, please e-mail hmorriso@alumni.risd.edu or call 085-152-4199.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely, Hallie Morrison Uversity MA Creative Process CIT Crawford College of Art and Design

!

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6. Screenshot of outreach attempts to CIT Creativity & Change alumni to recruit appropriate workshop participants

7. Screenshots of outreach attempts to current CIT CCAD Masters of Arts and Process students to recruit appropriate workshop participants

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8. Email outreach attempts to the coordinators of the CIT Creativity & Change program to recruit appropriate workshop participants

RISD Google Apps for Education Mail - help recruiting participants for workshop

7/20/15, 3:00 PM

Hallie Morrison <hmorriso@alumni.risd.edu>

help recruiting participants for workshop 5 messages Hallie Morrison <hmorriso@alumni.risd.edu> Mon, Jul 20, 2015 at 2:41 PM To: Nora Furlong <noranorafurlong@gmail.com>, Jessica Carson <Jessica.Carson@cit.ie> Dear Nora and Jess, I hope you're both well! Jess, I hope you and your belly are doing especially well! <3 I'm emailing you both in hopes of getting in touch with any Early Year and Primary Educators you may know around Cork. I need help recruiting participants for my upcoming workshop. It's the first workshop I will run by myself! Would either of you know of any Early Year and Primary Educators that would be interested in attending a workshop that focuses on creative rituals and creative practice encouragement for educators?

As I included on our 14/15 C&C group page in hopes our group will be able to recommend participants, I'm aiming my workshop as an opportunity for educators to reflect on and engage with contemporary creative practice to better establish them comfortably with their own sense of creativity. I'm delivering the group workshop in the Fas building to create an explorative space for educators and to fulfill research for my dissertation. The workshop will be on the Mon-Tues 27-28th of July, next week. It's short notice, which is why I'm having a hard time recruiting participants, but I'm hopeful that you two might know some educators in Cork that would be interested in this type of workshop. I've attached the workshop invitation so that you have it in case anyone is interested.

I'd appreciate if you could recommend anyone that I might contact directly, or any Early Year and Primary centers in Cork that would help me connect with prospective participants.

The workshop will include exercises in self-reflection, exploring individuality, creative rituals for educators, and more.

We will work with various art and craft materials, and engage in a bit of the creative research work I would be doing with Uversity.

Kind regards, Hallie workshop invitation.pdf 332K Nora Furlong <noranorafurlong@gmail.com> To: Hallie Morrison <hmorriso@alumni.risd.edu> Cc: Jessica Carson <Jessica.Carson@cit.ie>

Mon, Jul 20, 2015 at 2:46 PM

Hi Hallie, Will post this to our facebook page, I can't think of anyone to suggest off the top of my head, Is it primary school teachers you are looking for or preschool?

Nora

educate the mind, educate the heart - Aristotle

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=a0b5b6331a&view=pt&seaâ&#x20AC;Śiml=14eabbcfc41dfbb9&siml=14eabc0244df9ada&siml=14eabc269facb425

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RISD Google Apps for Education Mail - help recruiting participants for workshop

7/20/15, 3:04 PM

[Quoted text hidden]

Hallie Morrison <hmorriso@alumni.risd.edu> Mon, Jul 20, 2015 at 2:52 PM To: Nora Furlong <noranorafurlong@gmail.com>, Jessica Carson <Jessica.Carson@cit.ie> HI Nora, Thank you for helping spread the invite! I'm looking for both--anyone working with the very young ones to about age 11.

I know you work more with the older ones, but would you know of any centers I could appropriately approach? I'm really only looking for 5 participants for this workshop, so hopefully I won't have to approach the centers, as I haven't already been introduced to many of them.

Thanks for your help!

Hallie [Quoted text hidden]

Nora Furlong <noranorafurlong@gmail.com> To: Hallie Morrison <hmorriso@alumni.risd.edu>

Mon, Jul 20, 2015 at 2:56 PM

Can't think of any centre, al the schools are closed and the child care people are all working. Maybe if you got in touch with the Project School in town they could circulate the info on to their teachers. http://corkeducatetogether.ie/ I think maybe they dont want to get in touch with staff while they are on holidays but you could try. There's a million creches, nurserys, child care centres around the city but as I said the staff would all be working.

Maybe word of mouth is the best option, I'm just about to post it on the page there now Good Luck with it, it sounds very interesting, Nora Nora

educate the mind, educate the heart - Aristotle

[Quoted text hidden]

Hallie Morrison <hmorriso@alumni.risd.edu> To: Nora Furlong <noranorafurlong@gmail.com>

Mon, Jul 20, 2015 at 2:58 PM

Thank you, Nora!

I had the feeling word of mouth would be best. I'm looking for anyone not too busy this summer, who would be interested in coming in for a creative workshop.

Thank for your realistic advice! It's a shame the timing isn't the best, on my part. Thank you for posting the invite on the page!

Hope you and Nina Rose are enjoying the summer!

Hallie [Quoted text hidden]

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=a0b5b6331a&view=pt&seaâ&#x20AC;Śiml=14eabbcfc41dfbb9&siml=14eabc0244df9ada&siml=14eabc269facb425

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9. The promotion post by the coordinators of the CIT Creativity & Change program to assist in recruiting participants for the workshop

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10. Email outreach attempts to Head of CIT Art Therapy Department, lecturer of my module â&#x20AC;&#x153;Art Therapy in Educationâ&#x20AC;? to recruit appropriate workshop participants

RISD Google Apps for Education Mail - help recruiting workshop participants

7/20/15, 3:00 PM

Hallie Morrison <hmorriso@alumni.risd.edu>

help recruiting workshop participants 1 message Hallie Morrison <hmorriso@alumni.risd.edu> To: Ed Kuczaj <ed.kuczaj@cit.ie>

Mon, Jul 20, 2015 at 2:48 PM

Hi Ed, I hope this message finds you well.

I need help recruiting participants for my upcoming workshop. So, I'm wondering if you or anyone in the Art Therapy Department would you know of any Early Year and Primary Educators that would be interested in attending a workshop that focuses on creative rituals and creative practice encouragement for educators?I'm emailing you with hopes of getting in touch with any Cork Early Year and Primary Educators, with whom you might be able to help me liaison.

I'm aiming my workshop as an opportunity for these educators to reflect on and engage with contemporary creative practice to better establish them comfortably with their own senses of creativity. I'm delivering the group workshop in the Fas building to create an explorative space for educators, and to fulfill research for my dissertation. The workshop will be on the Mon-Tues 27-28th of July, next week. It's short notice, which is why I'm having a hard time recruiting participants, but I'm hopeful that you or your department might know of some educators in Cork that would be interested in this type of workshop. I've attached the workshop invitation so that you have it in case anyone is interested.

I'd appreciate if you could recommend anyone that I might contact directly, or any Early Year and Primary centers in Cork that would help me connect with prospective participants.

The workshop will include exercises in self-reflection, exploring individuality, considering creative rituals for educators, and more. We will work with various art and craft materials, and engage in a bit of the creative research work that I would be doing with Uversity.

I hope to be in touch.

Kind regards, Hallie workshop invitation.pdf 332K

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=a0b5b6331a&view=pt&search=sent&th=14eabb8f555b91ca&siml=14eabb8f555b91ca

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11. Information and Consent sheets to be distributed at workshop Information sheet Creative Process Workshop for Early Year and Primary Educators led by an artist-scholar The workshop will be held on Monday the 27th July, 2015 from 11am-3pm, and continue on Tuesday the 28th July, 2015 from 11am-3pm.

The aims of the project The workshop aims to provide an opportunity for educators to work alongside an artist-scholar in the reflection of their individual creative practices and engage with contemporary art practice—and its many aspects. The workshop serves to better establish educators comfortably in their own senses of creativity, and provide a space to engage in discourse on the matters of creative practice, creative process, artsbased practice, living inquiry (the holistic inquiry of how we live, create, teach, and research), and more.

• Participants will be required to consent or refuse consent to participate in the collected qualitative data research of the workshop as material for the research thesis of the facilitator/artist-scholar, Hallie Morrison, Uversity Masters of Creative Process.

• Participants will also be required to respect the time and experience of the group and all of its members, with sensitivity to all shared personal information, by participating in the creation of a respect treaty at the beginning of the workshop, and maintain that treaty throughout both days of the workshop.

Personal materials produced in the workshop may be used by the facilitator in the academic defense of the facilitator’s qualitative research thesis. Materials such as written, audio, visual, and video information may be used as qualitative arts-based evidence, with permission from the respective participants. All material created in the workshop will be secured by the facilitator and only reported to the CIT CCAD Department of Art and Design Education in the processed format of the facilitator’s final written thesis. All gathered informational material produced in the workshop will remain confidential, otherwise.

Participation is completely voluntary; participants are at liberty to withdraw at any time without prejudice or negative consequences. Alternately, non-participation may affect an individuals rights/access to the final research outcomes.

Please contact the Facilitator or Supervisor, should the participant require further information Facilitator: E: hallie.morrison@mycit.ie, T: 085-152-4199 (Supervisor: Susanna Broderick, CIT, E:susanna.broderick@cit.ie) This workshop has been approved by the CIT CCAD Department of Art & Design Education. Contact Albert Walsh, Head of Art & Design Education, should participants wish to make additional comment: T: 021-4335247 E: albert.walsh@cit.ie

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Consent form Creative Process Workshop for Early Year and Primary Educators led by an artist-scholar Statements of confirmation _____ 'I have been informed of and understand the purposes of the study.' _____ 'I have been given an opportunity to ask question.' _____ 'I understand I can withdraw at any time without prejudice.' _____ 'Any information which might potentially identify me will not be used in published material unless I agree.’ _____ ‘Any visual, written, audio, or video information of mine may be used if anonymised.’ _____ ‘I agree to the use of anonymised quotes in publication.’ _____ 'I agree to participate in the study as outline to me.' _____ ‘I agree to the interview/ focus group/ consultation of being audio and video recorded

Name________________________________________________ Date:_____________ Upon completion of the study, I undertake to provide the CIT CCAD Department of Art and Design Education with a bound copy of the full research project. If you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact me at hallie.morrison@mycit.ie or 085-152-4199. Thank you for your time and consideration in this matter.

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12. Draft for survey questions, to be used in survey or interview format, online or at Sparks of Creativity workshop series Hallie&Morrison& Uversity&MA&Creative&Process& & Do#Early#Year#and#Primary#Educators#Engage#in#Their#Own#Creative#Processes?# General'survey/interview'questions:' • Do&primary&and&early&year&art&educators&engage&in&their&own&creative&practice?&If&so,&why?&If&not,&why?&& • What&do&primary&and&early&year&educators&consider&to&be&a&creative&practice?&& • Do&primary&and&early&year&educators&know&the'feeling&of&engaging&with&creative&practice?&& • What&rituals&do&primary&and&early&year&educators&practice&to&maintain&their&creative&practice?&Their&wellD being?& • Do&primary&and&early&year&educators&know&the&feeling'of&being'an&artist?& • Do&primary&and&early&year&educators&know&the&feeling&of&a&reflexive'practice?& • Do&primary&and&early&year&educators'reflect&on&their&practice?& • Do&primary&and&early&year&educators&document&their&creative&practices?& • Do&primary&and&early&year&educators&know&the&experience&of&working&and&thinking&auto;ethnographically?& Or,&working&with&others&who&do?&& • How&do&primary&and&early&year&educators&consider&creative&experience?&Personal&experience?&Personal' interpretation?& • How&do&primary&and&early&year&educators&view&intuition&in&teaching?&& • How&do&primary&and&early&year&educators&view&intuition&in'life?& • How&do&primary&and&early&year&educators&consider'living'inquiry—the&inquiry&practice&of&holistically& studying&life,&art,&research,&and&teaching?& • How&do&primary&and&early&year&educators&consider&knowledge'from'lived'experiences?&& • How&do&primary&and&early&year&educators&consider&qualities'of&experience,&in&the&idea&of&Eisner?&& • What&aspects&of&a&primary/early&year&educator’s&life&need&to&be&supplemented&to/modified&to& accommodate&a&sustained&creative&practice?& • Do&primary&and&early&year&educators&play'more&than&other&educators?& • Do&primary&and&early&year&educators&consciously/reflectively&process'life'events'through'play'and'creative' activities'they&way&they&encourage&their&students&to?& • Do&primary&and&early&year&educators&think&of&themselves&first&in&the&school&setting?&Outside&of&the&school& setting?&& • How&do&primary&and&early&year&educators&see&themselves?& • How&do&primary&and&early&year&educators&incorporate&“creativity”&into&each&core&subject?&

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13. Prepared survey to distribute at the Sparks of Creativity workshop at the L. Glucksman Gallery during allotted observation periods Survey: Primary Year Educators and Creative Practice Survey issued by Hallie Morrison on research for the Uversity MA in Creative Process with participants of the Sparks of Creativity workshop series for Primary 5 & 6th educators at the L. Glucksman Gallery, Cork

Part 1: Creative Practice • As a primary year educator, do you engage in a creative practice? If so, why? If not, why not?

• If so, which mediums do you use in your creative practice (i.e. writing, videography, painting, drawing, singing, etc.)

Part 2: Rituals/Routines • What daily/weekly rituals and routines do you do to maintain a creative practice (i.e. journaling, yoga, physical activities, going for a walk, nature activities, etc.)? And, why?

• What rituals and routines do you practice to maintain your well-being?

• In your opinion, what aspects of an educator’s life need to be modified to accommodate a sustained creative practice?

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Part 3: Auto-ethnography: The study of self-narrative that engages in cultural analysis and interpretation • Do you ever consider documenting your practice through means of journaling, picture/ video taking, voice recordings, etc.? If so, what media do you use, and why?

• In what aspects of your teaching are you able to relate to the local and global cultures of education (i.e. online forums, conferences, this or other workshops, education journals, etc.)?

Part 4: Living inquiry: The inquiry practice of holistically studying life, art, research, and teaching • In your words, what is your experience with living inquiry?

• In your opinion, do primary and early year educators play more than other educators? If so, how and why?

Part 5: Your Individuality • Do you think of yourself first in the school setting, or their students? Why?

• How are you intuitive in your teaching? How are you intuitive in life?

• How does engaging in a creative practice affect your teaching experience?

!

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14. Outline of interview questions for participants of the Sparks of Creativity workshop series at the L. Glucksman Gallery, 17-21st August 2015 Interview: Primary Year Educators and Creative Practice Interview performed by Hallie Morrison on research for the Uversity MA in Creative Process with participants of the Sparks of Creativity workshop series for Primary 5 & 6th educators at the L. Glucksman Gallery, Cork

General Outline of Questions • As a primary year educator, do you engage in a creative practice? If so, why? If not, why not?

• If so, which mediums do you use in your creative practice (writing, videography, painting, drawing, singing, etc.)

• What time and energy does it take for you to maintain a creative practice in your life?

• What do you get out of working creatively/your creative practice?

• What rituals/routines do you practice to maintain your well-being? (i.e. journaling, yoga, physical activities, going for a walk, nature activities, etc.)? Your creative practice?

• Do you have any time or space for a reflective/creative practice in your teaching practice at your institution?

• Do you document your creativity or individuality in any way (i.e. portfolio, journal, song-writing, video-making, scrapbooking, etc.)?

• Would you generally see or believe how your lived experience affects your teaching (and creative practice)?

• What significance do you see in individuality and personal experiences for your students?

• How do you view intuition in your teaching? In life?

• What do you know/think about living inquiry—the inquiry practice of holistically studying life, art, research, and teaching? How does it affect you?

• Do primary and early year educators play more than other educators?

• Do you consciously/reflectively process life events through play and creative activities they way they encourage the way you might encourage your students to do?

• Do primary and early year educators think of themselves first in the school setting? Outside of the school setting?

Why? • How do you currently incorporate “creativity” into each core subject? How might you after the workshop, so far?

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15. Interview1. Transcription of audio-recorded interviews with the participants of the Sparks of Creativity workshop series for educators at the L. Glucksman Gallery, Cork. 18th August 2015: Transcribed by Eryn Sanclemente-Morrison

What years are you teaching?

I’m a woodworking teacher and I teach special needs children ages 14-18. The students range from autistic to downs syndrome, to troubled background needs to high-functioning autistic, etc. I usually have 8-10 kids in each practical.

Do they come to you as a class?

There’s usually 12-14 in a class and they come out of their main class to see me.

Woodworking is an elective and now they’re incorporating music into the program so the kids have a choice between the two.

Do you have mixed groups of special needs and non-special needs?

No, the whole school is special needs they’re just different parts of the spectrums.

How does it feel incorporating your passion for woodturning into your teaching?

It’s amazing because I get to share my love with the kids and they really seem to appreciate the passion I have for it. They respond really well to my enthusiasm.

Is it more about the final product or is it about the process in your class?

The kids really like having a final product and since the kids are all at different levels some of them enjoy different parts of it. I’ve noticed that mainly the kids all like having something actualized and I try to get them to slow down and enjoy the process and really take their time. It’s a little hard getting them to be patient about it.

Do you think there’s a therapeutic aspect of woodworking?

Yes, I do think it’s very therapeutic. The kids have a little trouble with it though since most of them are just beginning to learn the process. The majority of the time there are a lot of raised hands and questions and it’s hard for them to enjoy it fully.

Do you have time to do any woodworking outside of school?

No, not really. I’d love to have more time to do some work but most of the time it takes a while to prepare the lessons for the kids so that’s what I spend the bulk of my time doing.

When you have an idea for a project how do you record it?

I’m a writer so I like to jot down my ideas or sometimes sketch them out. If I’m watching a film and I see a project I’d like to do for myself then I’ll take a photo of it. If I see something out of a magazine I’ll cut it out and save it.

What are things you do on a regular basis to gain inspiration for projects for yourself and the students?

If we do a craft fair and I see something I’d like to do for myself then usually I’ll have the kids do a simplified version of it.

Are there things you wish for your own practice?

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I have a few goals. I need to start taking out a chunk of time each day to one day have my own exhibition or sell a few pieces.

How do your lived experiences affect your teaching and your students?

I think having a positive and healthy outlook on life helps you have an open mind about the children’s different situations. Being happy in your own skin helps you to be mindful and relaxed with the kids. I keep up with my mental a physical health because I see the benefits or being healthy overall in my teaching and in my students.

16. Interview 2. Transcription of audio-recorded interviews with a participant of the Sparks of Creativity workshop series for educators at the L. Glucksman Gallery, Cork. 19th August 2015: Transcribed by Eryn Sanclemente-Morrison

So I’m asking questions about the creative process and creative practice They are kind of similar to the questions to what are on the survey but I’ll ask them anyway.

So as a primary educator, do you engage in a creative practice and if so, why?

To be honest in my teaching in the last few years I haven’t been engaging as frequently as I should. I find it hard sometimes to come up with ideas for different lesson plans, being creative with lesson plans but I’m getting better. But I feel I can be very creative with ideas and I’m very good at encouraging children but sometimes I have a habit of doing the same simple formula as always.

So was there anything you did before, you said not creative practice but maybe would there be anything that you’d consider one of the four?

Outside the classroom I write. I’ve recently wrote a children’s book. I actually had it critiqued by somebody, I did it myself. I came up with some fantasy characters with their own special powers and they travel to different lands and they were on a mission. That was really good for me, it really pushed me, it was good for me cause it showed me how creative I can be. So I really enjoyed it.

What mediums did you use?

Writing.

Did you illustrate it?

I didn’t.

Is that an aspect that you’d like to include with it?

Oh absolutely!

What time and energy does it take for you to maintain writing in your life?

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I do tend to keep a journal, I do a lot of journaling and writing for my own process, I do a lot of writing Is the writing you do in your life and professional work, are there types of writing you enjoy more?

In school I would do stories, grammar, reading. The passion and love for reading and the joy of going to the libraries and enjoying books so much, and I think it comes across to the children. I think I can get that across. I think it does, I think from writing my own book, definitely I feel I am going to be faster at teaching writing stories.

Did you do that recently?

Yes, from February to July What do you get out of working creatively?

I get a huge motivation and it requires a lot of discipline since you have to do it every day.

You almost have to force yourself to do it sometimes. I get a great sense of “I can’t even believe that I thought of that character!” I’m shocked at the fact that I’ve come up with that.

I’ve had to push myself to do it but I really enjoy it.

What are some of the routines you do to get up and write every day?

I went from February to July and I sat myself down and I would write 193 words every day.

It’s 28,000 words total, which is the length of a children’s book for 7-8 year olds. I would put it in an excel file and write in each cell every day. Sometimes I’d write more than 193 but I’d keep a calculator of every time I write and I’d cross it off when I finished for the day. It’s a great incentive to get you to write. Since I’m a teacher it’s a way of motivating myself, writing is hard work.

What do you do to maintain your wellbeing?

I do a lot of affirmations and meditative practices. Visualizations, vision boards, daydreams, and prayer help me to get myself into a meditative state and to start the creative process.

How often do you do those rituals and routines?

Every day.

Do you do them at a specific time of day?

I try to do them in the morning and the evening.

Are there things you try to do when you’re out and about as an affirmation?

A cup of tea or coffee usually help me get into a meditative state. Things like going to the sea and stepping into the water or people watching in the city center usually put me in that state as well.

Do you document these personal things in any way? (I.e. photographs) I don’t take pictures but when I’m going through something personal I would go to the beach and sit in the sand and put my hands in the sand and let them go in circles over and over

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again. This allows me to see that there’s a cyclical nature and that all will end well. I like using natural ways to ground myself and help me focus.

Do you believe your lived experiences affect your teaching?

Oh absolutely! I was raised in a safe and reliable environment where my parents and I were able to have good conversation about books, and arts, etc. we didn’t necessarily have a lot of money but there was a sense of appreciation. And with that, I bring reliability and sensibility into my teaching by taking care of the children, listening to them, having good conversation.

My parents had a great sense of duty and I believe I possess that sense of duty as well.

What significance do you see in those individual and personal experiences?

I think my students know that they can trust me. They feel an openness to speak and feel listened to. They are free to be themselves.

How do you view intuition in your teaching?

I’m hugely interested in intuition and I’m still trying to develop my intuition in the classroom.

I’m still learning to trust my feelings.

Do you consciously or reflectively process life events through creative activities the way you might encourage your student to do so?

I bought a notebook and in it I created things I really liked such as foods, restaurants, clothing, and books. It was essentially a journal that was helping me to understand myself more. I don’t do this for the children but a colleague and I have had the lovely idea of creating an inspiration book in which we would write down their favorite things. This would help us develop their self-esteem and self-purpose.

How do you currently incorporate creativity into each core subject?

I incorporate a lot of creativity into maths since it is very difficult. For example if the children are faced with a word problem, we would break it down and draw out pictures that describe the problem. I try to get them to be confident and comfortable with breaking down the problem, discussing it, and tackling it head on.

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17. Interview 3. Transcription of audio-recorded interviews with the participants of the Sparks of Creativity workshop series for educators at the L. Glucksman Gallery, Cork. 20th August 2015: Transcribed by Eryn Sanclemente-Morrison

So, what years do you have then?

I teach in a special school, from age four to eighteen. There are children with severe, and multiple disabilities, and children with moderate—low moderate—disabilities. So, a good variety there.

My mom has always taught special education, so I really have respect for that kind of work.

But, so as a primary educator do you engage in a creative practice? Anything you can share from your experience?

Uh, yes. For myself, I do dancing. And I would also probably every year do a night class on some sort of craft. Because I enjoy crafting, I’m not a great drawer or anything like this, but if I can do collage or something like that I’ll do that, so that I can bring that back into the classroom and make it easier for the kids. So, they like to see success and they like to compare their work with things they would see out in the public. And they want theirs to be similar, I mean if you can make something that’s—um—you know that they can see that they can achieve the same as everybody else.

Definitely, so there’s a lot of comparing— Yes, they do it themselves. So, you have to enable them to get success—find out what they’re good at, but then the only way you can do that is by practicing these things all yourself and picking up tips from other people, and not just teachers, but other people would help you.

Artists are actually very good to help you, that way you can see success.

Yeah, so like yesterday you said that they really like sports, so you use the sports game when you’re dealing with maths and trying to recognize the numbers.

Yes, so then it’s not always bookwork. You don’t have to be sitting down at the desk. So, then in that case we were all just standing up around the screen, and stopping and starting it, and using their favorite teams, and you know just different places to make the numbers or letters in the environment.

And would you have all the years, all the different ages at once?

No, it would be divided up into different class groups. Which you might have, let’s say in my group last year I had 15-18 year olds, but there were seven children in the classroom, three of them were age 18. But then there was another year that could vary, where the majority of the group could be younger, which I do usually try to keep them a similar age group. And within that then you work with the abilities that are within that, that could be very diverse within those abilities. But you use small numbers, so sometimes you’ve such a diverse range of abilities it takes a lot of time even though people would say you have very small classes.

There are—you know, you might have somebody who’s the level in one subject, who’s well able to read and write, and another person who doesn’t recognize numbers, or letters.

So there’s a lot, maybe, in the beginning of the year that you have to do to personalize it for the upcoming class that you have, and their age.

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Each child will have a photo that will go with them like a passport, show their abilities, so that the next teacher who’ll have them they can see exactly where they are: what they can and can’t do, what has been tried, you know what things that have worked well, didn’t work well, what the kids enjoyed, didn’t enjoy. So it varies. There’s a lot of research that the children can’t tell you, it’s only by observation that you can get that.

Because you mentioned some of those classes that you take, the different craft classes throughout the year, does that become relevant then in what you’re doing with them, sometimes? You take those techniques?

You take them, and you adapt them to suit the kids and you get ideas from it. So we’ll say for example, in the upcoming class I’m going to have children with different disabilities, so the artist we saw yesterday with the dots? That’s kind of like something that we can do, kind of hand on hand, that they can place a dash on a picture, you know from a local newspaper or whatever, and that’s their art, then, that’s their work. It’s not my work, it’s theirs. So that would be—and I can justify it now, as being artwork, while before you’d have been kind of going—people would’ve just said “Oh that’s somebody else doing that there,” but it’s not, it’s their work. Or you can use BINGO dabbers, to put dots on different things as well. But you have to use everything specifically made for our students, because there are so few of the students, so it’s not something that’s viable financially. So everything that you see, you’re always constantly wondering how can I adapt that, and use that.

Alright, so I was just wondering what time and energy it takes for you to maintain a creative practice? So, if you’re going to a craft class, or you’re also keeping up your dance life, how much time does that take up?

Well dancing would be at least an hour, maybe two hours a week. The swing dancing would be an hour less, then I’d have my Zumba, then you’d have a social activity, but that wouldn’t be every week. It would just vary, and it just depends if it’s, again, certain times of the year, you’ve got planning and stuff to do. So you kind of start the academic year, and at the end of the academic year those things kind of go by the wayside.

I think even in the life of a student, those are the busy times, too. But so some of the things you’re talking about, like having to be creative and use different techniques in the classroom and personalizing the experience for your students… Is there a time outside of your time with them that you have time to do a lot of that? Obviously you have to do a lot planning, but even sourcing materials, or researching different things…

Oh that could be—oh all time—and sometimes it’s very hard to switch off, because you’re constantly looking at things, and you absorb some things, saying, “Oh, I could use that in such-and-such.” So, even when you’re on holidays unfortunately, you see things and it’s very hard to shut out. And I think that’s part of it. But it makes it then exciting, the more times that you’re kind of bringing new things back into the classroom.

So it’s like inspiration—it’s something that’s always there out in the world, or on holidays or anything, and it’s always affecting what you do.

It’s always there, sometimes you’d love to be able to just shut down or just—but it doesn’t always happen that way. But I enjoy it. It’s not like it’s a burden, I enjoy finding new things, and learning new things, so…

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Definitely, and then sharing it with your class. I’m interested in is, do you have any time or space for a reflective or creative practice in your teaching practice? And maybe it sounds like, they’re one and the same? Do you have any practice with more of a divide from your teaching? Maybe the dance more for yourself, that’s your thing.

Well, the dancing is myself, but you can bring it in. And if the kids want to know you, or you want to tell the kids something about you, but you don’t want to be too personal, it’s very much there that you can tell them that about yourself, and about your dancing.

Would you ever use dance with them?

I would. But the dancing is mine, my bit of energy. But I would use it, but I don’t teach dancing. There is a strand in the curriculum where you can use it, but there are specific things within that that you would use. Or when we’re putting on shows and stuff like that, it’s good. Because you can organize things and you know how dance works, and practice.

That’s interesting. Is there any space at your school or at your institution, where you can talk about your practice? Maybe with the other educators, or maybe you go to the same dance class with other educators? What time and space is there where your creative practice is recognized at your institution? Most times you don’t have that, and you have to keep it to yourself.

No there’s no official time, but you can talk to people, kind of in the staff room, casually, about your dancing, especially if you’re coming up with a Christmas show and stuff like that, and everybody kind of gets to have an input in the show, and can give their recommendations, and can help that way. Which, yes, everybody’s open to everything, but there’s not a specific time. Which is kind of good then, in a way, in that you’re not being forced to promote something, where if it’s creative it may not promote if it’s being forced.

And do you document your creativity, or your individuality? Do you keep a journal?

Yeah, we do monthly reports, and reports of the kids and how they actually found each activity. That’s the “worst” part. Sometimes you can do so much time reporting on it, rather than the creating of activities. So there’s a balance to be made.

Do you keep a journal, or a diary at all?

Oh yeah, you have to plan everything in advance, then you have your lesson plans, then you’re reporting back on all that. Then how each of the kids found it.

That’s nice. Would you generally see or believe that your learned experiences affect your teaching? So maybe kind of like you were saying, you’re on holidays and get a bit of inspiration…

Definitely, definitely, you have to be open to your teaching, and bring it in, and just adapting what’s there. And sometimes you just do it for yourself.

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18. Survey results from the Sparks of Creativity workshop: Results of Survey: Primary Year Educators and Creative Practice Survey issued by Hallie Morrison on research for the Uversity MA in Creative Process with participants of the Sparks of Creativity workshop series for Primary 5 & 6th educators at the L. Glucksman Gallery, Cork

10/12 SURVEY RESULTS—goal reached Educator 1: P1: Creative Process • Yes I do, in class. Not really the moment. 4 kids—facilitating all of their creative practices!

• n/a P2: Rituals/Routines • Jogging and cycling. Attend weekly mass in local church, pray daily, personally and with family. Attend the kids’ matches, etc.

• Reading exercise prayer. Try to stay caffeine free (helps to have better quality sleep) as much as possible. Try to heat healthily. Drink only small quantities of alcohol.

• Less paperwork, more hands-on prep time, more observance of best practice teaching methods for all teachers and collaboration of new techniques.

P3: Auto-ethnography • No prefer to do rather than talk • All really through staff meetings, cases, web, etc.

P4: Living inquiry • It’s an unconscious practice that as an educator you do.

• I think so because these are the formative years.

P5: Your Individuality • I think of the students first normally. I see myself as a facilitator of their education and therefore they are central. My job is to create the happy, safe, interesting place for their learning.

• Sometimes you are led in an unexpected direction during class and you have to be ready to go with it if it looks to be a valuable exercise. I try to be intuitive in life but it can be difficult with family timetables to react intuitively!

• It can help to re-invigorate your teaching and give fresh approaches to old topics.

Educator 2: P1: Creative Process • Yes designing project in wood. Part of junior cert. examination • Wood P2: Rituals/Routines • Pilates, walk, sketching and woodturning • Pilates, play GAA, mindfulness, breathing/walking body scan • Travel more out of comfort zone go to art/wood expo. Talk to be around creative people. Time to prepare. Try things.

P3: Auto-ethnography • Pictures camera, slide show/video

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• Go to local craft fairs, woodwork teacher conferences P4: Living inquiry • Nature walks and furniture exhibitions • Its encouraged more in the curriculum P5: Your Individuality • Would like to work more on my own creativity but always seems to lean towards students • Keep our students who are struggling. Picking out projects students will like to make • Looking after my mental and physical health • Inspires me. help me create and design new projects for students Educator 3: P1: Creative Process • Yes, I have a grad. Dip in creative dance. In school I like to use creativity to teach in different ways.

• Dance P2: Rituals/Routines • Yoga—I practice yoga in a class, once a week • I exercise daily. I am joined a leisure center and I go for a sauna/steam room Jacuzzi regularly. Listening to music. I like getting my hair/nails done, etc.!

• Having a life outside of school; socializing with people outside of the profession engaging in activities very different to what you do at school.

P3: Auto-ethnography • Photographs, journals • Pinterest, workshops P4: Living inquiry • I am self-reflective. I also believe in self evaluating my work in school • Perhaps they use make believe more often but I think older years educators get to play too.

P5: Your Individuality • I think of both—I do think that how you feel about yourself and what you are teaching is important to the quality of you’re teaching • I am intuitive to my students’ learning needs.

• It keeps me creative myself, and keeps my ideas fresh. It prevents me from burning out and helps me to enjoy what I am doing.

Educator 4: P1: Creative Process P2: Rituals/Routines • Continued professional development in contemporary art. Technology, but curriculum must adapt to meet these ever changing needs. Equipment should be provided for teachers schools to develop their skills—learning curve P3: Auto-ethnography P4: Living inquiry P5: Your Individuality

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Educator 5: P1: Creative Process • Not regularly—I can be creative with ideas • Writing—I engage in creative writing P2: Rituals/Routines • Journaling, nature activities, meditation, affirmations, dance • Affirmations, prayer, writing • Administration and planning P3: Auto-ethnography • Journaling • Workshops, education journals P4: Living inquiry • I am hugely interested in inquiry practice • Yes—we use a play based approach P5: Your Individuality • No • I wish to develop it more • It improves it Educator 6: P1: Creative Process • Yes—choir, interior decoration, writing (to achieve a purpose), and photography.

Hobbies—outlet for relaxation.

• Writing, singing (choir), guitar, design, photography P2: Rituals/Routines • Choir practice. Writing—not as often. Walking, taking picture son holidays—framing and arranging pictures.

• Regular walks, practice choir—individually alone and choir practice. Baking. Taking more than one picture of same subject • You need to modify your own life. Make time for your health and the things that matter to you. Every individual is different.

P3: Auto-ethnography • No. Considered blogging—too time consuming, am a perfectionist in writing.

Arranging my own photos (not using Photoshop). Uploading pictures to web for friends.

• Online—e.g. Facebook pages/pinterest P4: Living inquiry • Not sure. I tend to go with the flow, rather than think too hard about it.

• Yes—socially and emotionally. Also if kids have a negative experience at their age, is harder to overcome. Emotional needs of kids tends to be ignored as they grow up.

P5: Your Individuality • No. I think first of myself as individual. Second as a teacher.

• Speaking to kids about issues. Being “fair”

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•

Positively. More open to kids/creative expression than over leaders. Creative in practical issues—when organizing school events/initiatives—I tend to be the one who can think of way to overcome the problems.

Educator 7: P1: Creative Process • Probably not enough creative practice. I love interior design, architecture. Teaching itself can be a very creative process.

• I do some photography/ and write a little… (in my head!!)

P2: Rituals/Routines • I love to go for a walk in woodland… I also like to read, go to plays or movies • Eating out with family, friends, reading poetry. I also love experimenting with interior design • Teachers can be prone to “burn out” so it’s important to recognize and honor one’s own creativity.

P3: Auto-ethnography • I take photos of pupils art work • Generally by reading online, talking to friends, etc.

P4: Living inquiry • Self reflection, mindfulness, touching base with one’s own creativity contribute to “living inquiry” • Yes, as children learn through play P5: Your Individuality • No, teaching is only one part of “me” I love it but I engage with the world or a broader level • Feeling, intuition always comes first. Children are extremely intuitive • Communing with children on a daily basis can be and mostly is an ongoing creative process/dialogue Educator 8: P1: Creative Process • Yes, I engage in a creative practice in my classroom and in my personal life. I bring my love of performing arts (drama, dance, music, singing) into my classroom life. I take part in both amateur and professional musical productions. I also take part in Bikram yoga classes • Singing, drama/acting, dancing, yoga, music (piano) P2: Rituals/Routines • Bikram yoga, singing, walks at the beach/woods a the weekend • Mindfulness, yoga, singing around the house, socializing • Continued professional development opportunities in creative arts—hands on opportunities for teachers to learn (workshops) P3: Auto-ethnography • iMovie to record special family/momentous occasions • online forums, sharing of knowledge and skills with other staff members P4: Living inquiry

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•

it’s important to connect spiritually with your physical body and to find an emotional balance in life • yes. Children learn through play and it’s important that a teacher demonstrates how to play and have fun P5: Your Individuality • I think there is a lovely relaxed and friendly relationship between the staff and children in the school. I guess I think about what interests the children and what I know I can teach well.

• Teaching: if a topic is of no interest to the children I will change my plans rather than fighting a losing battle. Life: I try to avoid situations that will cause me needless stress and anxiety.

• As a teacher I love seeing the children express themselves creatively and show their individuality in their creations. I find the experience very rewarding.

Educator 9: P1: Creative Process • ALL THE TIME, ENCOURAGES INDIVIDUAL THINKING, INCREASES SENSE OF SELF… THEREFORE CONFIDENCE • PAINT, PRINT, 3D, CLAY—LOTS OF CLAY. USUALLY THEMED ON ARTISTS OR ANY CURRENT AFFAIRS OR FEELINGS OR COLOR P2: Rituals/Routines • READING, MUSIC, MEDITATION • ABOVE^ AND SOCIAL INTERACTION • n/a P3: Auto-ethnography • I RETAIN PHOTOS OF KIDS WORK FOR REFERENCE • n/a P4: Living inquiry P5: Your Individuality • n/a • n/a • n/a Educator 10: P1: Creative Process • Music. Yes—singing as a means of relaxation, social scene and a strong passion for it. As an educator, I use it as a means of relaxation for the children.

• Singing!

P2: Rituals/Routines • Going for a walk—to get some fresh air and relax. Yoga—for flexibility. Going to walk by the sea—for the positive ions from the sea • Walking, yoga • Spiritual and emotional aspects need to modified P3: Auto-ethnography

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• No • Online forums, workshops P4: Living inquiry • In teaching, I like to include meditation as a means of connecting emotionally.

• Yes—in early years, play is a daily activity.

P5: Your Individuality • n/a • n/a • It enhances it hugely in giving me the knowledge and experience that I can pass on.

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19. Artist Statement presented at the final Uversity exhibition at the National Gallery of Ireland on the 2nd of September, 2015

Hallie&Morrison’s&Artist&Statement&for&the&final&Uversity&Master&of&Arts&in&Creative& Process&exhibition&at&the&National&Gallery&of&Ireland,&2nd&September&2015& & My&biggest&question&to&date&is:&what&must&an&individual&abstract,&nonJfigurative&artwork& include&so&that&upon&interpretation&by&various&viewers&a&moralistic&message&comes& across&—&like&at&the&end&of&a&fable?& !

I&work&with&paint&in&an&abstract,&nonJfigurative&method&that&agrees&with&a&structuralist& theme:&the&phenomena&of&a&painting&are&not&comprehensible&without&attention&to&their& interrelations&&—&“these&relations&constitute&a&structure,&and&behind&local!variations!in& the&surface!phenomena&there&are&constant!laws&of&abstract&culture”&(Simon&Blackburn,& The&Oxford&Dictionary&of&Philosophy,&1994).&& & Exploring&structuralism&intuitively&through&meticulous&studies&of&surface!phenomena,&i.e.! texture&and&existing&abstractions,!my&work&displays&process&over&product&as&an&analogy& for&my&learning&evolution.&I&concentrate&in&areas&of&art,&education,&and&research,& (“a/r/tography,”&the&study&of&an&artist/research/teacher)&and&focus&on&themes&of& learning&whilst&exploring&various&mimetic&and&abstract&processes&of&paint&to&express&an& analogy.& & I&have&found&that&analogy&serves&a&significant,&figurative&role&in&my&work:&that&abstract& painting&looks&like&(insert&interpretation&here);&my&artistic&process&is&like&my&learning& process,&etc.&Personally,&I&best&make&new&cognitive&connections&through&analogy.&I&use& analogy&as&an&artistic&technique&when&working&with&layers&and&juxtaposition,&pushing& abstraction&as&figuration,&or&when&I&crossJreference&my&works&for&the&educational&motifs& that&often&arise.&In&alliance&with&art&practice&as&research,&I&appreciate&that&“analogies&are& a&basic&form&of&abstract&representation&that&help&viewers&translate&meaning&by&being& shown&an&idea&that&is&recognizable…&which&is&used&to&come&to&understand&something& that&may&be&obscure”&(Graeme&Sullivan,&Art!Practice!as!Research,&2010).&& & Inquiring&into&the&complex&interrelations&between&constituent&factors&of&what&I&make& and&believe&as&someone&engaged&in&a/r/tography,&I&recognize&in&presenting&my&works&to& viewers&I&mainly&want&to&offer&a&chance&at&learning&and&new&understanding,&via&an& opportunity&for&critical&and&creative&thinking.&My&biggest&question&and&other&ethical& concerns&fuel&my&inquiry,&and&bring&me&to&this&creative&point,&today.&&&&

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