Theses and Dissertations - Department of Educational Leadership, Policy & Technology Studies

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Browsing Theses and Dissertations - Department of Educational Leadership, Policy & Technology Studies by Subject "Art education"

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    Black Belt 100 Lenses: exploring a participatory photography project conducted with high school students in Alabama's Black Belt region
    (University of Alabama Libraries, 2012) Knight, Elliot; Hall, James C.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
    This study examines the experiences of high school students who participated in the 2011 Black Belt 100 Lenses Summer Camp, a participatory media program implemented in Alabama's rural Black Belt region. A multimethod bricolage approach was employed in order to gain diverse perspectives through interviews, focus groups, surveys, and analysis of participant photographs and writings. Diverse theoretical perspectives--constructivism, critical pedagogy, Paulo Freire's Education for Critical Consciousness, poststructuralism, and feminist theory--informed my analysis and findings. Analysis of participant interviews led to the emergence of the overarching concepts seeing differently and getting out there as metaphors of experience. These concepts frame a discussion of the interactions students had with one another to form meaning during and after the camp. Connections are drawn between the structured and unstructured points of interaction during the camp and the following learning and innovation skills and processes: creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and confidence. Students reported the development of all of these skills and the processes and environments leading to their development are discussed. This study also examines relevant literature on participatory photography projects, including photovoice and Literacy Through Photography, and the commonalities and distinctions between Black Belt 100 Lenses and other projects around the world. Following a critical pedagogic commitment to place and local knowledge, a discussion of the Black Belt region and students' relationships to their communities is included. Ultimately, this study makes an argument for the importance of diverse interaction in a creative learning environment and the conditions and impacts of the development of learning and innovation skills and confidence. Although the study is not intended to provide a road map for the development of similar participatory projects, there is a great deal of information included on the development, theoretical influences, and practical considerations that have formed Black Belt 100 Lenses. This study is valuable for a range of people from community-based arts practitioners, educators, methodologists, photographers, community developers, and people with an interest in the Black Belt region.
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    Straddling the borderlands of art education discourse: professional teacher identity development of preservice and novice art education teachers
    (University of Alabama Libraries, 2013) Berwager, Kelly Campbell; Kuntz, Aaron M.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
    There has been a plethora of research done on all kinds of beginning teachers, but little has focused on art education teachers, and even less has focused on how beginning art education teachers make sense of their early teaching experiences. It is, however, known that teachers of art come to the profession with multiple skills that can be beneficial in developing a successful pedagogy and a sense of professional identity once they learn to put all of those skills together into a cohesive teacher-self. It is important to recognize the development of their teacher identities as a way of understanding their future effectiveness and dedication to the field of art education. This understanding could also help to develop better teacher preparation programs and in-service experiences for beginning teachers. Therefore, this study sought to understand art education teacher training and the possible problem of isolation, and how these impact art education teachers' abilities to develop professional identities. The study used emerging research study methods that involved 7 preservice and novice art education teachers from a university in Alabama. The teachers participated in questionnaires, one-on-one interviews, classroom observations, identity bricolage-making workshops and the writing of reflective artist statements. The findings suggest that past school biographies, parental and teacher influences, isolation, and artistic lived experiences contribute to teachers' development of their professional identities.