Karen Fitzgerald
New York State has emerged as a leader in the field of arts-in-education, but how is it helping to prepare artists who wish to teach? Integrating the arts into pedagogy and curriculum is becoming an essential ingredient in new educational practice. NYFA’s Teaching Artist Initiative, which has received support from the New York State Council on the Arts’ (NYSCA) Arts-in-Education program, has been a key aspect of leadership in the growth of the field statewide. Signs of the growing importance of arts-in-education include: the defining of best practices; increased use of the arts as an integral part of school reform initiatives; the creation of relationships within the larger educational community; and an ongoing assessment of the impact of arts-in-education on students, faculty, administrators, and parents.
Many artists of all disciplines have become teaching artists (TAs) in this new climate of teaching and learning. As arts-in-education matures, the path that artists access to become professional TAs is a key concern. What does the field of teaching artists look like today?
During the spring of 2004, in collaboration with the Association of Teaching Artists and with support and leadership from NYSCA, NYFA launched the Teaching Artist Initiative, spearheaded by NYFA Director of Programs, Penny Dannenberg; President of the Association of Teaching Artists, Dale Davis; with myself and Anne Rhodes as consultants. The survey was disseminated to TAs and arts organizations in an attempt to identify gaps in the available professional development and training opportunities (PDTOs) for TAs.
The survey collected information from organizations providing PDTOs and from TAs accessing these opportunities. Approximately 600 were mailed, and the survey process was advertised online and circulated at the annual Common Ground conference. Of the 127 responses, 57% were from organizations, 42% from TAs. The survey collected information around two aspects of PDTOs: access and pedagogy. While the survey process is not comprehensive, it provides important information from a self-selected group about how capacity is built in TAs, and the data will be used to help improve New York State’s arts-in-education programs for teaching artists.
Access
Access to PDTOs emerges as a key issue, not only as a means of building capacity, but also to support high-quality programming. Almost half (46%) of all responding organizations offer in-house, mandatory PDTOs. Nearly half (42%) of TAs receive PDTOs annually. 23% receive it more frequently. That reflects a surprisingly strong commitment to PDTOs among TAs. The depth of commitment to providing PDTOs is evident from the following figures: over 60% of organizations have been offering PDTOs for more than four years, 31% for over 10 years. 42% of TAs have been accessing PDTOs for more than 4 years, 16% for over 10 years. Surprisingly, 11% of organizations offer no PDTOs at all. Where do TAs working for such organizations access PDTOs? 48% of TAs access it from sources other than the organizations that hired them, and 29% of organizations offer PDTOs to TAs at large. Just over half of surveyed organizations utilize on-staff TAs to design and present PDTOs, and only 37% collaborate with other cultural organizations to present PDTOs. Important questions emerge from the data, such as what kinds of collaborations might make statewide PDTOs more accessible and efficient, and how TAs could better access this PDTOs.
Pedagogy
The arts-in-education field has a broad constituency and a wide variety of services. At one end of the continuum, artist-in-residency programs bring artists into the educational arena without necessarily integrating them into academic curricula. These services have the potential to augment educational arts programming, to offer enrichment to a school’s general programming, and to engage participants in after-school settings or off-site programming. At the other end, arts-in-education services are integrated into the curriculum, deepening academic learning and expanding the capacity of the general classroom teacher. Because each type of service utilizes the capacities of the TAs in different ways and has different goals, outcomes, and participants, respondents were asked what kinds of pedagogy met their specific programming goals.
Survey results indicate that PDTOs is becoming more focused on the arts-in-education end of the continuum. Given recent emphasis on new standards, accountability, and higher-quality programming, it is not surprising that 71% of organizations address the State Arts Standards in the PDTOs they offer, and that 46% of TAs have learned about these standards, while 26% have not. 74% of organizations address academic standards, and 52% of TAs have learned about these standards. 18% have not.
There is a wide range on content areas for PDTOs beyond learning standards, and this reflects an organization’s understanding of what makes a quality arts experience for students. One interesting finding: figures for what organizations claim to offer and what TAs say they learned are not always congruent. For example, 81% of organizations address lesson planning in their PDTOs, and 65% address classroom management. However, just over 50% of TAs report training in each area. Over 50% of organizations have included inquiry skills (teaching/learning through asking questions), facilitating strategies, and time management skills in their PDTOs. But just 31% of TAs reported learning about time management, 23% about inquiry skills. 63% of organizations address inclusion, learning styles, and differentiated instruction in their PDTOs, and yet only 39% of TAs have learned about these issues. Unit or residency planning is one area where they agree: 47% of organizations address, and 50% of TAs report, learning in this area.
The arts-in-education field has taken assessment and evaluation very seriously. 63% of organizations support TAs in creating their own assessment/evaluation tools, and 72% of TAs have learned how to create these tools. 45% of TAs have learned about a wider range of assessment strategies, and 52% of organizations have provided them with opportunities to learn these.
The survey data is not comprehensive, but it reveals some of the realities of the arts-in-education field. PDTOs for TAs in New York State are essential to their working at a high level in the educational arena, and an open dialogue between TAs and organizations providing PDTOs is crucial. As that conversation continues, we will report back, following up with a profile of capacities TAs need in order to succeed. The second phase (beginning this fall) will consist of town hall-style gatherings around the state where stakeholders in the field will create a profile of capacities all TAs should possess. The first of these will be held at the Face to Face Conference in New York City on October 29, and there will be four subsequent meetings in the Capitol Region, Central New York, the Southern Tier, and Western New York. The final phase of the Teaching Artist Initiative will present ideas on what PDTOs is needed to support TAs, and how best to provide it. A commitment to the primary role of teaching artists is an area of focus for the arts-in-education field as it works toward implementing the changes in educational practice that 21st-century learners require.
Karen Fitzgerald is a master teaching artist. From 2001-2004 she served as project director for ArtistCares, a 9/11 initiative. She continues to provide consultations for a wide range of institutions, including Bank Street College and the Galef Institute, on a variety of educational issues. Her work is widely exhibited in the US, most recently at Omega Institute and Stefan Stux Gallery.
To view survey tools, complete data, and notes from conversations at Common Ground ’04 and Empire State Partnerships’ Summer Seminar, please visit www.teachingartists.com.
NYFA would like to thank NYSCA, Rob Southworth, and Greg McCaslin for their help with this article.
