new perspectives for art education: teaching the disadvantaged

National Art Education Association

New Perspectives for Art Education: Teaching the DisadvantagedAuthor(s): Dorothy Westby-GibsonSource: Art Education, Vol. 21, No. 8 (Nov., 1968), pp. 21-24Published by: National Art Education AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3191229 .

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We want to educate students so that they become larger, more open, more independent human beings, able to function in a world of

rapid social and moral change. We believe that a person struggles toward these goals

through a process of integrating his thoughts, his concerns, and his actions. Our teaching will be directed toward the development of this perspective, this sense of integrating self.

(Borton, 1967, p. 72.)

BY DOROTHY WESTBY-GIBSON. Art educators concerned with helping socially and culturally disadvantaged children "become larger, more open, more independent human beings" face a special challenge. On the one hand, evidence is now clear that social disadvantage results for many children in critical gaps of preparation the schools require. On the other hand, mounting evidence points to the significance of affective learning and the interrelationships among cognitive, affective, and skill learnings.

NEW PERSPECTIVES ESSENTIAL

To help disadvantaged students develop new perspectives demands in turn new perspectives for art educators and, in- deed, all educators. All too often, even with new levels of support available, programs for the disadvantaged have simply projected more of the same, that is, more of what has already proved ineffective.

We explore briefly here some areas of new socio-cultural understanding, sensitivity and respect, and teaching behaviors appropriate for art educators working with the disadvantaged. We then turn to some ways teachers can develop these new perspectives through continuing education.

NEW SOCIO-CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING

Disadvantaged students, of course, come from widely vary- ing socio-cultural backgrounds. Some are urban; some sub- urban; some rural. Some are permanent residents; some have moved frequently; some are migrants. Many suffer socio- economic deprivation; many are rejected for racial, ethnic, or religious reasons. For many, whether because they speak another language or a different dialect, Standard English is a second language.

If teachers are to evaluate the full potential of their disadvantaged students, they must develop understanding of their particular cultural patterns. Many resources now available can help teachers understand the diversity of motivational problems, language patterns, behavior patterns, and value orientations of the disadvantaged. We can only comment here on two approaches: awareness of strengths and weaknesses of various sociocultural backgrounds and familiarity with our cultural heritage.

All too often only the weaknesses and not the strengths of the disadvantaged have been stressed. Riessman (1964) and others have tried to compensate by emphasizing the strengths of the poor. Families in urban slums, for example, are often extended families who may be sources of services even if not

of money. Negro urban children from low-income families may have aunts or grandmothers in the home or nearby who can help with child care. Families may be large, thus having many brothers and sisters who need attention but also who can accept responsibility for younger children. Children early develop strong ties with siblings and peer groups. Discipline in lower as contrasted to middleclass families may be more phys- ical, but it is less likely to be based on withholding love. Children, although they may be more rejecting of demands related to future goals, may be more accepting of present responsibilities such as feeding and dressing themselves.

For most socioeconomically disadvantaged children, however, strengths do not outweigh weaknesses. By the time these children reach school, poverty has taken its toll. Their social learnings are limited and inappropriate to the expectations of the school. Their perceptual, reasoning, and communication skills are frequently very limited. They are likely to perform at levels below the national average on verbal and nonverbal tests. As they proceed through school, the difference between their performance and the national average increases in what has been termed a "cumulative deficit."

Especially significant is the emotional deprivation of disadvantaged children. They may come from a generation of parents who, themselves deprived of the emotional resources they needed, do not have these resources to give to their children. They may feel alienated in a world that has no place for them. President Lyndon B. Johnson has spoken of millions of poverty-islands which the world passes by. Children in such circumstances are likely to have impoverished self- concepts and to believe they are inadequate. Lacking opportunities to be dependent at home, they may have special dependency needs at school. Lacking fathers in the home, as is frequently the case for Negro urban boys, for example, they may have special needs for masculine success models. Wein- stein (1967) concluded that disadvantaged learners and particularly Negro urban students have as their major concerns their feelings of lack of personal worth, alienation, and power- lessness.

For teachers, then, the question must be: what can they do to help students see themselves as worthwhile, as connected with each other and with society at large, and as possessing power to cope with their problems? Inasmuch as this question primarily relates to the affective domain, many responses teachers can make are also affective. Before turning to a discussion of these approaches, however, let us examine briefly one other facet of sociocultural understanding that has special 'significance for art educators.

Teachers of the disadvantaged are increasingly trying to become familiar with the role of the various racial, ethnic, and religious groups in developing the cultural heritage of our nation so that they can help students find new meaning irn their past and new identity in their present. The implications for art education are many and challenging, and as yet art educators appear to have reached no consensus. Some stress that art education should be the same for children from disadvantaged minorities as for all children. Some emphasize that all children should learn of the contributions made by different groups to the mainstream of art in the United States. Others, however, indicate that they believe children may gain a sense of worth through studying in depth their own art heritage. Art educators trying to assess the implications of these varied viewpoints will need understanding of what their cultural heritage may mean to individual students. Some students seeking to move away from their ethnic backgrounds may resent being asked to make special use of their art forms. Other students may welcome the opportunity to explore their

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involvement in their art heritage. In reviewing the implications for art education of different

ethnic backgrounds, McFee (1965, p. 1964) suggested that some Spanish-speaking and American Indian children may find special meaning in art symbols that help to tell them "who they are and what is important". Similarly, for some Negro children, studying African art may have special meaning.

Important as it may be for teachers to develop new awareness of the strengths and weaknesses of various sociocultural backgrounds and familiarity with our cultural heritage, increased cultural understanding does not necessarily develop increased sensitivity to and respect for disadvantaged students.

NEW SENSITIVITY AND RESPECT

Teachers must develop sensitivity to the individual student who is disadvantaged and respect for his need to cope with his life situation. They must see students not only as members of disadvantaged groups but as individuals.

For teachers, of course, the fundamental question is: How can instruction be adapted to the individual student's particular strengths and weaknesses? Coleman (1966, p. 72) in his massive study, Equality of Educational Opportunity, argued that the role of the school is to "make achievement independent of background." Stodolsky and Lesser (1967) proposed that what is needed is equal opportunity not for equal development but for maximum development. From this perspective the question for the teacher becomes: How can maximum educational use be made of the distinctive patterns of ability the student possesses?

For art educators, this emphasis on individuality is of para- mount importance. As Beittel (1964, p. 300) has reiterated: ". . . the individual himself is the summum bonum for creativity in the arts, regardless of his stereotypes, lack of training, etc. His life history, perceptions, and goals transcend the en- vironment, classifications, and treatments we thrust upon him. And while we cannot be sufficiently sensitive to him, we can entertain his products and action, whatever their nature, as attempts at self-direction and self-actualization."

Beittel was not speaking particularly of the disadvantaged, but his point might well be made with them in mind. Art educators can entertain all products and help students develop self-discovered criteria for evaluation. Beittel's research suggested that the teacher had the greatest impact on changing student self-concepts when he interacted with students as an "accepting moderator" who showed interest, accepted, and clarified relative to their creative productions. Thus what Beittel terms an interactive as opposed to an independent setting for art production may well have special meaning for disadvantaged students.

NEW 'TEACHING BEHAVIORS

But new sociocultural understanding and new sensitivity and respect on the part of educators working with the disadvantaged are still not enough. If teachers are to be effective, they must translate these cognitive and affective dimensions into teaching behaviors. Each teacher, of course, must develop his own teaching style. Moreover, many recommended prac- tices have little or no research evidence to support them. Nevertheless, some skills in teaching the disadvantaged appear to hold promise for the art educator.

1. In diagnosing the needs of individual students and stating specific performance objectives. Art teachers need to add to their repertoire of diagnostic skills. They may need first to gather data about the class as a whole, then about its various subgroups, and finally about individual students. They will

want to use census information, school records, questionnaires about interests and values, journals, sociometric data, role- playing, tests of perception (visual and kinesthetic), product and performance samples, and other devices to gather diagnostic material. Based on these data, teachers can work with students in stating objectives in behavioral terms that are clearly understood by both.

2. In initiating learning situations. Many educators concerned with working with the disadvantaged have commented on their need for quick structuring of the learning situation that enables them to have a sense of direction in the learning experience and a structure that builds order. McFee (1965) suggested that disadvantaged children working in art may need to start by learning in familiar ways and may feel threatened by too much emphasis too soon on self-direction and self-expression.

3. In using process-oriented techniques. "The quality of process depends on the quality of behavior: its affective and attitudinal loading." (Thelen, 1967, p. 327.) The process- oriented approach emphasizes the interaction between teachers and students and the relationships which develop within the classroom group so that affect becomes a primary avenue for learning. Art teachers, whose learning situation permits much individual attention and who may be viewed as less threaten- ing than more formal teachers, can be of special help to disadvantaged students in developing new sensitivity to the feelings and perceptions of others.

4. In using a variety of appropriate media and materials. Many new multi-media approaches are available which may have special significance for disadvantaged students who have difficulty with traditional print forms. The visual arts present exciting possibilities such as the use of stimulus films, motion picture-like projection of still life, and kaleidoscopic images. Such devices have been shown to improve perceptual skills. What is needed, however, is much more controlled experimen- tation with disadvantaged students. The danger may be, as Beittel (1964) has suggested, that such approaches may be more spectacular than basic. He recommended, for example, much greater use of the simple still camera to aid in perception.

5. In using a variety of feedback as means for evaluation. To provide guidance for learning and teaching, evaluation must be broadly based. In evaluating learning in art production, for example, art teachers have long been concerned with giving students feedback about both process and product. For disadvantaged students objective feedback through such means as photographic processes may be more meaningful than some forms of subjective teacher evaluation. Such processes encourage students to develop their own criteria of evaluation and make it possible for them to review their progress over a period of time (Beittel, 1964). In evaluating teaching both in production and in aesthetics and criticism, art teachers of the disadvantaged may find some of the new methods, which we discuss in the next section, of feedback from pupils, from interaction analysis, and from videotaping of special help.

6. In working with parents. Parents of disadvantaged students need special help in understanding the role of the school in the lives of their children and the part that they can play in helping children succeed. They may, for example, have little understanding of the value of having their children study art. Teachers in schools which serve the disadvantaged need special resources such as community teachers whose job it is to relate school to home and home to school.

All these skills, then, can make it possible for art teachers

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to create more meaningful learning situations for disadvantaged students. In many instances, however, they also make new demands on teachers.

CONTINUING EDUCATION ESSENTIAL

If the professional opportunities of art teachers who work with the disadvantaged are to be realized, continuing education becomes essential. Effective programs of inservice education require effective interpretation to school districts and communities. Furthermore, teachers in local schools need consider- able autonomy in working with administrators and supervisors to diagnose their needs for inservice help and to develop programs meaningful to them. All too often centralized programs have resulted in little or no change in teacher behavior. Individual involvement in planning as well as participation is one key to effecting change.

For many teachers of the disadvantaged, carefully planned field work in disadvantaged communities can provide new dimensions of understanding and sensitivity. Increasing ex- posure, however, does not necessarily mean increasing in- sight. Specific objectives should be designed to expand the teacher's understanding of the perceptual base disadvantaged children bring to the classroom, their motivational problems, language patterns, behavior patterns, and value orientations.

Many new inservice programs are planned to foster what Rogers (1967) has called "self-directed change." Their prin- cipal emphasis is on process rather than content. They seek to help teachers be more open and flexible, more able to cope with change. Increasingly some form of intensive group experience, variously called sensitivity training, T (Training)-group, laboratory group, or encounter group, is used. The group of ten to fifteen members meets with a group leader in an in- formal, unstructured situation, frequently in residence for a weekend, week, or longer. "Individuals come to know themselves and others more fully than is possible in the usual social or working relationships; the climate of openness, risk-taking, and honesty generates trust, which enables the person to recognize and change self-defeat- ing attitudes, test out and adopt more innovative and con- structive behaviors, and subsequently to relate more adequately and effectively to others in his everyday life situations. (Ibid. p. 718.)"

For many teachers new means of feedback from their teaching behaviors can enrich their perceptions. Such feedback can come from others such as supervisors, administrators, other teachers, or the pupils themselves, or from self-evaluation. Other feedback can be provided by interaction analysis and by videotaping.

Interaction analysis affords teachers opportunities to assess their verbal behaviors in the classroom as reflected by trained observers or the teachers themselves using tape recorders. Of the several methods recently developed for such analysis, the most well-known is probably that of Flanders (Amidon and Flanders, 1967) who makes it possible to categorize teacher talk, student talk, and silence or confusion. Similarly some in- vestigators (Jones, 1964; Clements, 1964) have studied student- teacher interaction in art classes. They found, for example, that art teachers were most helpful when they raised new or entry questions, paused for adequate student responses, and strove for long student responses.

Videotape provides another significant means of feedback to teachers. Teaching behaviors can be recorded and played back at a convenient time. Teachers can be encouraged to evaluate their teaching skills either individually or with other teachers or supervisors through use of microteaching tapes

which give them a chance to compare their performance with that of model teachers. Various groups including Stanford University, San Jose State College, and the Far West Labora- tory for Educational Research and Development have been developing videotapes for microteaching and so-called mini- courses for inservice education (Kallenbach, 1967).

New teachers especially need undergirding with inservice help. The "reality shock" of moving from the role of student to that of teacher may be especially severe for teachers of the disadvantaged. Many teacher education programs are now planned to link pre-service with inservice experiences. Typically a student may have available both school and college resources to aid him during his first year's experience.

New patterns of relating school and college are also emerg- ing. The so-called clinical professor teaches some public shool classes and participates in the school as a curriculum con- sultant and resource person. He thus brings the resources of the college and university to the school and, in turn, takes back to the college insights gained from direct school experiences.

All these continuing education programs demand school district support if they are to succeed. Teachers want prime time and support money for such programs. They have re- peatedly pointed out that inservice education should not take place at the end of a school day when they are exhausted. Many districts are now experimenting with new ways of pro- viding prime time.

If art teachers can demonstrate effective programs in working with the disadvantaged, they are likely to service not only the disadvantaged but all students. Public schools which have been downgrading the value of the arts in the curriculum may come to see new value in art education. Fostering art programs for the disadvantaged may thus make possible more meaningful and extensive art education for all.

Dorothy Westby-Gibson is professor of education at San Fran- cisco State College. Portions of this article are based on a report entitled "Inservice Education: Perspectives for Educa- tors" which she wrote in 1967 as a member of a Project Team on Inservice Education at the Far West Laboratory for Educa- tional Research and Development.

REFERENCES

1. Edmund Amidon and Ned Flanders (1967), "Interaction Analysis as a Feedback System." In Edmund Amidon and John B. Hough (eds.), Interaction Analysis: Theory, Research, and Application. Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley Publishing Co.

2. Kenneth R. Beittel (1964), "Instructional Media for Creativity in the Arts." In Calvin W. Taylor and Frank E. Williams (eds.), Instructional Media and Crea- tivity. New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.

3. Terry Borton (1967), "What Turns Kids On?" Saturday Review 80:72-74, April 15.

4. R. D. Clements (1964), "Question Types, Patterns, and Sequences used by Art Teachers in the Classroom." Coop. Res. Project No. S-161. The Pennsylvania State University.

5. James S. Coleman (1966), Equality of Educational Opportunity. Washington, D. C.: U. S. Govt. Printing Office.

6. L. H. Jones, Jr. (1964), "Student and Teacher Interaction during Evaluative Dialogues in Art." Coop. Res. Project No. S-050. The Pennsylvania State Uni- versity.

7. Warren Kallenbach (1966), "Microteaching as a Teaching Methodology." Pro- ceedings: Conference on Instructional Methods and Teacher Behavior. Berkeley, California: Far West Laboratory for Educational Research and Development.

8. June King McFee (1965), "Art for the Economically and Socially Deprived." In W. Reid Hastie (ed.), Art Education. The Sixty-fourth Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education. Chicago: The Society.

9. Frank Riessman (1964), "Teachers of the Poor: Five Point Plan." Paper pre- sented to the Conference on Urban Education and Cultural Deprivation. Syra- cuse University.

10. Carl R. Rogers (1967), "A Plan for Self-Directed Change in an Educational Sys- tem." Ed Leadership 24:717-731, May.

11. Susan Stodolsky and Gerald Lesser, "Learning Patterns in the Disadvantaged." Harvard Ed R 37:546-593, Fall.

12. Herbert A. Thelen (1967), "Urban School Systems." Phi Delta KaFPPan 48:327- 328, March.

13. Gerald Weinstein (1967), "The Disadvantaged Learner: A Model for Examining Content and Effective Teaching." Unpublished manuscript. New York: Fund for the Advancement of Education.

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new perspectives for art education: teaching the disadvantaged

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