Critical Inquiry in Art Education Critical Inquiry in Art Education | Page 4

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CRITICAL INQUIRY
IN ART EDUCATION
Introduction
by Seow Ai Wee, Deputy Director (Art)
and Victoria Loy, Master Teacher (Art), STAR
Critical Inquiry in Art Education is a culmination
of an eight-month long critical inquiry (CI) journey
embarked on by eleven art teachers, from inspiration
and ideas, to data collection and analysis, to
presentation and publication of findings. The CI
journey was no easy feat as the art teachers had
to juggle their multi-faceted professional roles as
educators, artists, collaborators as well as researchers.
The CI journey comprised two part. The first part was
designed to inspire learning through a week-long
study trip to New York City in March 2017 led by
STAR. The eleven art teacher-delegation attended
a three-day art education conference hosted by the
National Arts Education Association, which offered
over 1,000 participatory workshops, presentations,
panel discussions, and keynote addresses. The
teacher-delegation also visited public and private
schools, and went on learning journeys to art
museums. The learning from fellow art teachers,
researchers in the field of art and museum education,
and museum educators fueled their imagination
and broadened their pedagogical repertoire. Every
day, they reflected on their teaching practice and
engaged in generative discourse, exploring ideas
and possibilities for application of learning in the art
classroom and at the art museum back in Singapore.
Part two of the CI journey actively engaged the
art teachers to apply their learning by conducting
independent CI projects focused on a scope of
interest or an area of curiosity in their teaching
practice. Three of the art teachers were interested
in finding out what choice-based education and
self-directed learning looked like in a class size of
forty. In that process, they became more thoughtful
in offering students choices in terms of materials,
processes, and outcomes. They were also more
deliberate in structuring time and designing
classroom spaces that empowered students to learn
independently and collaboratively. Another group
of three art teachers zoomed in on ways to heighten
students’ awareness of the creative process through
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reflective process. They designed and facilitated
reflection-in-action activities such as writing artist’s
statements, guided reflective journaling and visual
journaling. Two primary school art teachers chose
to investigate how interaction with artworks in the
school setting might impact students’ ability to talk
about art and make art while another two secondary
school art teachers focused on the impact of
museum-based learning on their students’ creativity,
confidence, and overall interest in art. With the
recent launch of the Singapore Teaching Practice
(STP), it was timely for one of the art teachers to
conduct an ethnographic inquiry into how STP might
foster a reflective culture among the team of 4 art
teachers at his school by mapping their teaching
actions in the art classroom.
This CI journey played a critical role in weaving the
threads of practice and research, and strengthening
the theory-practice nexus. In that process, the
group of eleven art teachers not only built their
professional capacity as researchers reflective of their
own practice, they also enhanced their professional
capability as they addressed authentic teaching
problems through thoughtful analysis of evidence-
based data collected. The continual refinement of
instructional practice enhanced the educational
experiences and learning outcomes of students,
impacting the art learning environment in schools
and communities in the long run.
By embracing the new paradigm of teacher as
researcher and developing the capacities for
self-reflexivity and agency, art teachers who
immerse themselves in tinkering, creating, learning
and growing will have the potential for future
pedagogical innovations. We encourage you to start
small, to begin with an area you are interested in or a
wonderment you are curious to find out in your own
art classroom. We look forward to sharing future CI
journeys with you.