Thinking Through Art

Exploring pedagogy through images and image making

By Sarah Probine
Manukau Institute of Technology
Sarah.Probine@manukau.ac.nz

Introduction

Modernist and postmodernist artists

and their deliberate and considered
intent to break the rules have led to a
misreading of art as un-teachable. The
idea that children progress naturally
through developmental stages means
that teaching is not necessary. At the
same time, teachers look for one
hundred and one variations on the
bunny tasks. Teachers live, work and
negotiate within contradictory spaces
every day
(McArdle, 2008, p.368).

Re-conceptualising
practice
Perhaps a person who has
had occasion to paint has a
greater practical sense, a
sensibility for what it means,
what a difficult, seductive
thing, even for a child, it is to
deal with being confronted
with a large, white sheet of
paper, making the first
brushstroke, the first sign,
entering relationship with this
empty, unknown space of the
white paper
(Vecchi, 2010, p.110).

Why a self-study?
Why arts-based research?

The complexity and diversity of

influences that have shaped views on
the teaching of art can be understood
as a palimpsest, a term that describes
the way in which the ancient
parchments used for writing were
written over, but new messages only
partially obliterated the original
message beneath. Both the new and
the original messages still stand, albeit
partially erased and interrupted
(Davies, 1993)
McArdle, 2003, p.153

Art goes back to my beginning

Sally Morgan
1977 My drawing table

A modernist beginning
Mission bay kindergarten
1978-9

The influence of family

perspectives on child art
Crafting at home
For years, the teachers and myself
learned to undo learning. We learned
to modify a part of the mental
framework we had learned previously
in our respective cultural and
educational backgrounds and listen to
reflections and experience different
from our own ways of thinking.
However, the largest changes in
mental framework and point of view
were caused by observing and
documenting childrens strategies
Vecchi, 2010, p.108

The influence of family

perspectives on child art
The work of my Grandfather

when we pass on these artistries to our children, they are imbued with not
only the meaning of what we say, but also with a sense of personal
significance that these experiences have as part of the process. In these
subtle, yet powerful ways, artistic messages are transmitted from older
generations to younger ones
Veale, 2000, p.28

High school and the

dominance of a Westernised
perspective

AUT Design degree

Diversity and subjectivity

Opium, 1999

Arts-based methodologies
Using the visual as a tool for research

The body as portrait, 2000

Reggio Emilia
A catalyst for a shift in thinking about the
role of the arts in childrens learning

What did I discover about my

own pedagogy in the arts?

In much of the literature generated as a

result of various peoples interactions with
Reggio though, there appears to be little
recognition of the factors that make quality
arts pedagogies. These include many
social and cultural contextualising factors:
a society with a long tradition and history
of valuing the arts and aesthetic
experiences; a community with a strong
socialist politics that values public
investment in education; the presence of a
resident artist with a dedicated space; the
collaboration and shared conversations
between teachers and artist; the teaching
of skills and artistry; the understanding of
art as a language for communication and
meaning making
(McArdle, 2008, p.371).

That the process of creating art can generate new

perceptions, knowledge, and understandings is a
particular way of thinking about visual art (McNiff,
1998; Sullivan, 2005) so that art, in its processes
and productions, is not just a representation of an
already formed idea, but an act of inquiry and
investigation: a provocation and a question
(Kind, 2010, p.122)

What was the role of art

making in my inquiry?

Implications

Embracing of overlap in these

identitiescan result in synergy in
which new identities, thinking and
practices can emerge further
interrelating or integrating important
aspects of the culture of visual art"
(Thornton, 2013, p.3).

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