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SECTION 7

The Position of Art Education
during a Pandemic

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Lucie Štůlová Vobořilová,
Hana Dočkalová
& Matěj Smetana

 

National Gallery Prague, Czech Republic

Katedra výtvarné výchovy Pedagogické fakulty Masarykova univerzita v Brně
a FaVU VUT, Czech Republic

 

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Národní galerie Praha / National Gallery Prague

Autorka příspěvku / Author:  Lucie Štůlová Vobořilová, edukátorka NGP / Educator at NGP

Spolupráce / Collaboration: Hana Dočkalová, edukátorka NGP / Educator at NGP

Animace a zvuk / Animation and sound: Matěj Smetana

Hudba / Music: Budoár staré dámyPoděkování / Acknowledgements: Marina Hořínková, Anna Chmelová, Jana Klímová, Ida Muráňová, Hana Rosenkrancová, Eva Sochorová, Barbora Škaloudová

Překlad / Translation: Hana Logan

A Buried Spring or Why Do Students Need Art Education During the Crisis? How Was Art Taught during the School Closures?

Does it make sense to teach art remotely? Or should instruction focus on math and languages? The contribution presents the results of a survey among art and art history teachers, conducted by the Programming Department of the National Gallery Prague, and reveals what the emphasis on the "main" subjects during the lockdown distance learning meant for art education. Why is art education important? What can it offer students in the time of crisis? Conference contribution: Lucie Štůlová Vobořilová in collaboration with Hana Dočkalová, both educators at NGP. The animation was created by the artist Matěj Smetana. Because the contribution also discusses the results of a survey concerning the situation in Czech schools during the period of remote learning, it will be presented in Czech with English subtitles.

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Magda Strouhalová

Katedra výtvarné výchovy, Faculty of Education, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

Art Education in Distance Education of Kindergartens in the Czech Republic

The paper deals with teaching of art education of children in Czech kindergartens using distance education. It reflects the current situation of full-time teaching of art education, and ascertains what the possibilities and forms of teaching in distance mode are, how to share teaching material, what inspirational sources for material creation can be including demonstrations and possibilities of mediating art in order to maintain aesthetic and creative art activity. It is based on the Framework Educational Programme for Preschool Education, and it considers aspects of incorporation of distance education. It also introduces the issue from the parents‘ point of view as parents are indispensable partners in distance education, for both the teacher and the child, and it describes what the associated risks are.

"It should be stressed that the benefit of art-making of pre-school age children has changed in the context of educational priorities. However, we can say that drawing and other art activities in pre-primary education were not included as isolated, focused solely on the mastering of art techniques or as the tool strengthening fine motor skills of children, etc. There has always been space for the spontaneous artistic creative activity of children." (Stadlerová et al., 2011). Now, the context of educational priorities is dramatically changing considering the global pandemic situation. The reflection of the existing anchorage of art education in pre-primary education is coming up. How is the art education in kindergartens ongoing? Is the staff adequately qualified to deliver arts? Can we find some support in the Framework Education Program which is binding for schools? Art education should newly be implemented into the distance learning and a platform for this type of education should be available – to define possibilities and forms of education, methods of sharing, search for inspiration sources, etc.  

Read more in the attached paper...

Paper in English version

Paper in the Czech version

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Martha Christopoulou

1st Regional Center of Educational Planning (RCEP) of Attica, Greece; National and Capodistrian University of Athens, Department of Early Childhood Education & AKTO Art & Design College

Teaching Art Education in Time of Covid-19: Reflections on an Art Educator’s Journey

This paper presents a reflective case study of an attempt to teach a studio-based art course for preservice early childhood teachers during the Covid-19 lockdown, between March and June 2020, in Athens, Greece. It presents my efforts to redesign the course syllabus and artmaking activities and create an interactive and supportive distance learning class environment to enable students to keep a creative mindset through this challenging time. Reflections on choices regarding synchronous and asynchronous instruction, lesson objectives and content, art making assignments and assessment illustrate the observations, feelings and lessons learned in regards to how teaching and learning has been kept up during lockdown and how it worked (or not) for students and me as an art teacher. This paper concludes with highlighting the strengths and challenges of the pedagogical and instructional responses used during this crisis and proposes changes in the curriculum instruction in order to facilitate transformative learning experience for diverse student needs, preferences and aspirations.
It, also, suggests ways to incorporate the transformations made into my future teaching.

Studio art practice for preservice early childhood teachers who attend the Department of Early Childhood Education at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens is provided in spring semester between February and May each year. This practical experience aims to help future early childhood teachers develop an understanding of art making and acquire art skills and knowledge about art forms, media and techniques, in order to transfer and apply them to real kindergarten classrooms. Working as an adjunct lecturer in this faculty, I had originally designed my syllabus so that preservice early childhood teachers conceptualised the role of meaning making in the artistic process by providing them opportunities of artistic thinking and creative response to certain themes and issues (Franco, Ward and Unrath, 2015). Specifically, the syllabus aimed at enhancing students’ creativity and understanding of self and ideas of art making. Art lessons were developed around big ideas including identity, relationships and personal or community stories, along with exploration of elements and principles of art and design, art forms, techniques and media. Lessons included introduction about artists and their exemplary work or art forms, instruction on and demonstration of techniques and use of media, exploration of themes/big ideas through art making, reflections on artmaking and learning and peer critique on art works.

Read more in the attached paper...

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Paulo Nogueira

University of Porto, Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, Portugal

University of Porto, Faculty of Fine Arts, Portugal

This text articulates different concerns about the meaning that school life acquired as a result of the social confinement caused by the covid-19 pandemic. I am referring to the educational television, a technological medium whose reality, bringing to light the memory and the experience of a past time, has now resurfaced in the context of the different measures imposed by the Portuguese Government, in order to ensure that the lives of thousands of students, parents and teachers were not interrupted by the pandemic. However, a major question arises: how can we keep on talking about school – or a "school life" – on the sidelines of the suspension of everyday life? Will we truly be able to reflect upon “school", and an idea of "learning", without interrupting the logic behind this new beginning?

Read more in the attached paper...

How Can We Keep on Talking About Learning? Pandemic Time and the Threat of an Art Education Watched on Screen          

Around the word, pandemic crises is changing how we perceive the meaning of social, cultural, professional and educational aspects of our lives. In Portugal, as a result of the lockdown measures, the government relaunched the educational television through the program #estudoemcasa (#studyathome). A partnership was formed between the education ministry and the public television station to carry out #estudoemcasa from mid-April till the end of June. This program was presented as “the new classroom” aiming to support student’s learning from different schooling levels. Art education emerged as a subject in which different contents were mixed and broadcasted weekly in the same schedule (visual arts, music and performing arts). Although describing a real situation that could be understood as a case study, I don´t intend to follow this approach, to call on a good practice example, but rather to reflect on the hegemony of models and discourses that, in a naturalized way, still prevail in art education learning.

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