Future Developments for ITE in Art and Design

In Ireland, the current movement o f change in initial teacher education is being driven by the TC’s reforming agenda. In its guidelines for providers o f ITE, it states that ‘the time is right now for a thorough and fresh look at teacher education to ensure that tomorrow’s teachers are competent to meet the challenges they face’ (Teaching Council, 2011, p. 6). The influence of countries such as Finland on models o f teacher education is evident in recent Teacher Education reviews in Ireland (Sahlberg, 2012a). The Finnish teacher education programmes are research-based and culminate in a Master’s thesis, which is the minimum requirement for permanent employment as a teacher in Finland. The Sahlberg report’s (2012b) recommendation for the establishment o f a new collaborative Institute o f Education across four higher education institutions (HEIs) will result in the staff collaborating on the PME, working collaboratively with larger teacher education providers across both primary and second-level sectors. In the past, UK models o f art and design education were the biggest influence on art and design in Ireland. Now it seems to be the case that in England in particular, government policies at school and university level are seen to be undermining 150 years of steady development o f art and design education (Steers, 2013, p. 21). England is now following a very different trajectory with a range o f routes on offer to those intending to teach. Its policy is for a market-driven path, side­ stepping the traditional requirements of a pre-service course and opening up providing agencies to a wider entrepreneurial market where direct on-the-job training is available alongside the more traditional routes (MacBeath, 2012).

In Ireland, however, the subject focus o f art and design will now be accompanied by an increasing demand within ITE programmes to equip newly

3.7.1 Policy-Changing Agendas

qualifed teachers with a set of competencies to facilitate quality learning and cater for the multiple needs of inclusivity and diversity in Irish schools. As initial teacher education programmes in Ireland move into the new model o f a PME, there is an even greater need to recognise the flaws of an inadequate LC Art syllabus as one which is totally unfit for purpose for the 21st century. It is ironic, that the Irish LC Art curriculum is now possibly to be mirrored in England. As White (2011) comments in his searing critique of UK Education Secretary, Michael Gove’s new English Baccalaureate, which he states is a carbon copy o f the 1868 Taunton Report’s curriculum;

How is it that a curriculum designed for clerks and shopkeepers in Dickens’ England is at the cutting edge in 2010? (White, 2011, p. 27, cited in Addison & Burgess, 2013, p. 200).

This outmoded LC Art syllabus must be viewed against the background of a significantly changing teaching profession. Schools as sites o f culture and practice must respond to the increasing rates o f social change. Steers and Swift (1999), on the eve o f the 21st century, proposed a manifesto for art in schools which was based on three fundamental principles: difference, plurality and independence. Again, we will see these pressures emerge in the art teachers’ testimonies. These are still solid concepts on which to build a relevant art curriculum for the future.

3.8

Conclusion

Chapter 3 explored the different identity perspectives o f art teachers and music teachers and discussed how their particular role identities formed in college can influence their career paths and life choices. It identified the Signature Pedagogy o f the art teacher as one which involves ‘studio thinking’ (Hetland et al. 2013) and

‘critical thinking’ (Eisner, 1997) and argues that these qualities are relatively rare and are distinctive in terms o f their intrinsic and extrinsic benefits. The evolution o f the three paradigms of initial art teacher education in Ireland was described and the key art education theorists underpinning the paradigms were set within their historical and cultural context. In particular, the influence o f Social Constructivists, Vygotsky, Bruner and (pragmatist) Dewey were highlighted as central to art educational thinking o f problem solving and critical thinking. The LC Art curriculum was identified as one o f the core challenges and concerns for art teachers within the current paradigm. It was suggested that the disjunction between the second-level art curriculum and third- level contemporary art college is mirrored in the tension between the dual identity o f the artist-teacher. It argued that new models o f professional development, curriculum and assessment are needed, which will offer benefits to art teachers in renewing their own practice and to their students in helping to bridge the gap between second- and third-level art education. It proffers that engagement with contemporary art practice in the classroom can help alleviate the tension and conflict o f the dual identity of the artist-teacher. The particular qualities of commitment to subject and commitment to their students, which art teachers demonstrate, were seen as particularly meaningful and ones which could be harnessed for the benefit o f the overall needs o f education.

Chapter 4 will now describe the conceptual framework for the research design, and the methodology, informed by Life History theory, which was used to gather the data from the participant interviews. The thematic analysis process, which was used to analyse the data is explained and justified, and the emerging themes are identified under the two distinct headings o f personal and professional identity formation.