Art Teacher Formation: Concurrent versus Consecutive models

Initial art teacher education in Ireland is provided by two types of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes, and all are housed in art colleges which are attached to universities. The four-year Bachelor o f Arts (BA) in Art and Design Education (concurrent model) and a one-year Professional Diploma in Education (PDE) (consecutive model) were available to students who wanted to become art teachers up until 2013. The latter has been replaced, in 2014, with the two-year Professional Masters in Education (PME). The BA students are a younger cohort and they tend to come to the course directly from second-level school. Their primary commitment in entering the BA in Art and Design Education is to become art teachers, with a strong love o f their subject, and a commitment to teaching. The consecutive model, the PDE, is the postgraduate course, which was the preferred model for art

teacher education since 1965 (Jordan, 2001). The consecutive model sees the artist or designer coming to the course with a high level o f specialist skill, and a well- developed understanding of his/her artistic practice. There can be a perception that a hierarchy exists between models o f art teacher education. The consecutive model can prioritise the artist identity and can hold a higher status within the art college environment, whilst the concurrent model can prioritise the teacher identity, as they have a longer period o f immersion in second-level schools. When asked his opinion on a preferred model of art teacher education, Professor Ciarán Benson, author o f The

Place o f the Arts in Irish Education (1979) says:

The student taking a specialist degree followed by a Higher Diploma has the experience o f delving into themselves and struggling with themselves trying to produce something, the concurrent model may not be long enough or rigorous enough to allow that personal change to become part o f somebody’s judgement or memory, (cited in Jordan, 2001).

Many o f these postgraduate students have had varied careers as artists or designers before deciding to teach art. Jordan (2001), in her study o f initial teacher education at the National College of Art and Design (NCAD), found that there is a distinction between the two types of art teachers educated within the art college. The BA undergraduate group tend to have a stronger teacher identity on entering the teaching profession, having had teaching as their primary focus for the four years in college. Although their understanding of the visual arts is less specialised, they have a dedicated professional foundation to teaching, which is grounded in the notion of teaching as a life-long profession. Students from the concurrent model of teacher education over the four years tend to develop a deeper understanding o f the school as a community and are more likely to involve themselves in the whole school experience (Jordan, 2001, p. 203). Conversely, the PDE group tend to have a deeper knowledge and understanding of their art practice, having trained in fine art or design and worked

in the field before entering the teaching profession. Although they have a stronger artist- or designer-identity, they can bring to the classroom their maturity, a deeper knowledge o f their subject and a breadth o f experience from the world of art and design. Nevertheless, both cohorts of students are recognised by the Teaching Council (TC)2 as qualified to teach art in a second-level school. The TC considers that both models have their own individual strengths,

The Teaching Council endorses the particular strengths of both the concurrent and the consecutive models for the primary and post-primary sectors and is o f the view that a balance should be maintained by the State in the provision o f both. (Teaching Council, 2011, p. 18).

It is universally recognised that the benefits o f maturity and experience combined with specialist knowledge, such as one finds in students from the PDE class, can foster qualities such as innovation, talent and diversity in their approach to teaching. Andrew Burke (1992) concludes in his analysis o f concurrent and consecutive models o f teacher education in Oideas that:

The real issue is not whether the consecutive or concurrent model of teacher education is the best way to prepare teachers. In truth, both have their m erits.. .it does not matter greatly when or where teacher education takes place provided it is reasoned and pursued in a manner that does justice to the notion of teaching as a profession. (Burke, 1992, p. 157).

By choosing to interview a sample of postgraduate students who are following the consecutive model of teacher education, rather than the undergraduate group (BA in Art and Design Education) the focus was deliberately placed on the tension between the artist and the teacher. The PDE student is typically an artist or designer who has chosen to teach art after his/her artist formation. He/she may have become increasingly interested in the field of education and want to pursue further study in this

2 The Teaching Council is the professional standards body for teaching that promotes and regulates the profession.

area or they may need to supplement their income with teaching work. Fine art, traditionally, has always been well represented on the PDE, and Jordan (2001), in her survey o f intial teacher education at NCAD, found that there was a greater cohort of painters and sculptors availing of the PDE (now PME) than any other discipline (p. 99). The employment prospects for fine artists are considered less reliable than other disciplines, and many artists would seek to supplement their incomes with teaching (Jordan, 2001, p. 99). In this study of the dual identity o f the artist-teacher, the central concern is to examine how the developing identities and attitudes o f the art teachers trained within the specialist model of the PDE are negotiated and reconciled.

1.4

Conclusion

In conclusion, Chapter 1 sets out the rationale for the study o f the artist-teacher and identifies the struggle in role identity which exists in the double helix o f artist- teacher formation, between their personal and their professional identity. The research questions are detailed as they are explored within the Life History study. The three overlapping strands o f inquiry in the review o f literature: Life History, Constructivism and Art Education theory, are described as fitting within a Social Constructivist Framework. The narrative traditions of Life History (Goodson & Sikes, 2001; Tierney & Clemens, 2012) are placed within the wider canvas o f narrative research. Identity perspectives, identity theory and social identity theory (Gee, 2000; Stets & Burke, 2000) are presented as key elements of subjective experience which will be used to discuss the identity formation of art teachers. The insider perspective o f the researcher is clarified as a ‘connoisseur and instrument’ (Eisner, 1991) within the research. Finally, the negotiation from personal identity (artist-in-formation) to professional identity (art teacher-in-formation) is briefly discussed in terms of the transition from

third level to second level. The rationale for choosing the sample o f art teachers from the consecutive model of art teacher education is explained, and both models o f art teacher education (concurrent and consecutive) are justified in terms o f the levels of artist-teacher identity conflict and the differing emphasis in both programmes.

In searching for a form o f enquiry that might capture the complexity and nuance o f the six art teachers’ experiences o f their identity formation, this Life History study o f the artist-teacher seeks to uncover through careful systematic observation, record and analysis, a true reflection of the art teachers’ journey from artist to teacher. Sara Laurence-Lightfoot and Jessica Hoffmann Davis (1994, 2005) use the analogy o f the experience o f being an artist’s subject for portraiture in trying to find a suitable metaphor:

[ wanted to develop a document, a text that came as close as possible to painting with words. I wanted to create a narrative that bridged the realms o f science and art, merging the systematic and careful description of good ethnography with the evocative resonance o f good literature. I wanted them to feel, as I had felt, that the portrait did not look like them but somehow had managed to reveal their essence.... I wanted the subjects to feel seen as I had felt seen, fully attended to, recognised, appreciated, respected, scrutinized, (p.