Disciplined Inquiry

This post is a reflection of Disciplines of Inquiry in Education: A New Overview - by Lee Shulman

I found this article useful on two levels. First, Shulman provides a clear, concise description of the five dimensions of disciplined inquiry that are present in any research undertaking. They are as follows: research purpose, research problem, research setting, research investigator and research methods. Second, Shulman provides examples of several research questions in the field of education that illuminate how the choice of research question impacts the other dimensions. I intend to reflect on my own research interest by framing my work through the dimensions and questions that Shulman has raised in this piece.

Shulman indicates some research is undertaken, “to improve particular forms of practice.” I am interested in the volunteerism practiced by art-makers because I think something may be learned by understanding their practice which sometimes results in extensive volunteerism. Another general research purpose identified by Shulman is “one may wish to acquire a more complete description or accounting of the conditions associated with particular schools, students or content areas.” I am interested in the conditions that exist within schools and artistic training programs that contributed to the development of art-makers and may have led to their inclination to practice volunteerism. Shulman notes that, “…often, the research is undertaken in the interest of a particular ideology or value system to which the investigators are committed.” My ideology is centered on the role of the arts in empowering individuals, engaging communities and generating constructs such as social and cultural capital.

According to Shulman, the subject matter of research is made up of either problems, topics or issues. He indicates that research problems or topics historically addressed very general areas however in recent years they have extended into areas of practice and policy. My interest can be framed in the context of a specific research topic or research question associated with the practice of volunteerism. For example, one could ask what is the nature and extent of the volunteerism practiced by art-makers. This question focuses on the act of or experience of volunteering and not specifically on the person. However, one could also ask what does it mean to be an art-maker who practices volunteerism. This question focuses more on the art-maker and less on act of or process of volunteering. This section of the text has helped me see how the phrasing of the question directly impacts the methodology as well as the other dimensions of the research.

The research setting that most interests me is the organization where the art-maker practices his or her volunteerism. I am interested in this setting because I believe the organization plays an important role in the volunteering experience, including the processes of recruitment and retention of volunteers. Of greatest interest are those organizations, which are not performing arts organizations. Shulman discusses the pros and cons of conducting research within a working classroom vs. a laboratory setting. For obvious reasons, I think my research would benefit from observing the real-time experiences of volunteers.

The research investigator, in my case the author of this reflection, is both an art-maker, a volunteer and a scholar with admittedly limited research experience gained through two self-directed pilot survey research projects. I would therefore characterize myself as a practitioner which is consistent with Dewey’s view that, “the practitioner as investigator has become more commonplace in our day.”

The research method that appears to be the most appropriate to me is a mixed method involving both quantitative and qualitative research. The quantitative research could be employed to obtain data concerning the nature and extent of the volunteerism practiced by art-makers. This data could be compared and correlated with existing research to inform the study. The qualitative research could be used to obtain deep insight into the lived experience of the art-makers who volunteer. This research could involve a phenomenological study to fully explore the meaning of the volunteerism as seen through the eyes of an art-maker who practices volunteerism. Interviews, observations and case studies are all techniques that could be used to inquire within this phenomenological study.
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References
Schulman, E. (1997). Disciplines of inquiry in education: A new overview. In R. M. Jaeger (Ed.), Methods for research in education (pp.3-69) Washington: American Educational Research Association

Artists For Human Rights

On December 10, 1988, International Human Rights Day, a national art exhibition was held in South Africa, “to shine a light on the government’s human rights abuses and remind the country, that in 1948, National Party-led South Africa was one of only six countries that refused to sign the accord,” (Cleveland, 2008). A group of courageous arts practitioners, operating under the auspices of the Black Sash organization, came together on this, the 40^th anniversary of that UN Human Rights declaration, to use art to call attention to the continued abuses in South Africa. The exhibition involved more than 400 children and was prominently covered by the national press. The Black Shash organization was made up of mostly white South African woman, who by virtue of their race and therefore their standing gave them greater access to promote and conduct their art-making. The organizers recruited local visual artists to work with the children to make paintings that reflected their view of human rights.

This article focusing on South Africa, was one of a collection of examples of in Art and Upheaval, a book by William Cleveland, provides inspiring insights into how arts practitioners have been effective in challenging oppressive regimes or engaging divided communities in five different countries.

Another example of activist art-making in South Africa involved a portfolio exhibition of 29 prints, each depicting one of the bill of rights. These portraits reflected historical events that were a part of South Africa’s history. The artists were chosen through a national competition designed to represent the nine provinces of South Africa. The exhibition of these works at the Durban Art Gallery on December 10, 1996 was opened by Justice Albie Sachs of the Constitutional Court, a highly symbolic gesture representing the interest of the courts in this effort especially considering the injustices portrayed by the artists.

This article not only offer a compelling narrative of the organizers and artists who participated, it provides insight into the complex process of community art-making by describing in detail, the struggles involved in organizing, negotiating and implementing art-making on such a large scale. These examples of art-making left me for a reverence for the artists and the work itself, because of the seriousness of the subject matter involved and the utter evilness of the regimes responsible for past injustices.

The Rubber Meets the Road: Community Arts Activism and Cultural Hegemony

I found Carol Marie Webster’s article entitled, The Rubber Meets the Road: Community Arts Activism and Cultural Hegemony quite provocative. I characterize it in this way because she believes that “more frequently than is admitted, practitioners in the field spend far too much time engaged in the perpetuation and recapitulation of the dominant cultural hegemony,” a loaded statement aimed at the field of community arts activism. Why does she say this?

I believe she is trying to get arts practitioners to direct the critical lens at themselves but she is doing so in a condescending, pessimistic way. She paints an accurate portrait of the underpaid, underfunded community arts activist in the current economy which places nonprofits in direct competition with one another for sustainability. However her pessimism is biting and directed at those artists whose efforts continue to privilege the privileged while ‘pathologizing’ the others.

I think I can take something positive from her negative writing though. She relates a story about Bill T. Jones and how he personalized his art-making which had a great, positive impact on her. At a dance seminar, he noted that he would honestly have preferred to be with his partner who was dying at that moment, but instead he found meaning in his art and in the expression of the tensions that were raging inside of him. Webster explained the impact of being a witness to Jones’s eloquent description, “Jone’s summons was an invitation to unpack and momentarily dismantle the hegemony that saturated our lives, an invitation to unmask our personal and professional complicity, and an invitation to engage the tensions and contradictions that informed our understanding of ourselves as artists, as community members and as human beings.”

Webster’s and Jones’ words caused me to pause and ask myself, have I, however unwittingly, through my zeal in bringing acoustic guitar training to at-risk youth, continued to privilege the privileged? Have I excluded particular instruments or types of music that would have more effectively appealed to the cultural background of the young adults that were participating? Have I then failed to seize the opportunity that presented itself to me by failing to recognize the unique cultural and personal tastes of the young adults in my program? I think perhaps I have since the vast majority of the participants were in fact, Latino.

Webster is therefore effective in shaking up the thinking of community artists in this piece. She challenges arts practitioners to be ever mindful of the alternate perspectives that exist and to guard against the convenient tendency to serve the interests of the dominant culture.

Reflective Thought

This is a reflection of John Dewey's How We Think and the concept of reflective thought. This piece helped me to understand what constitutes reflective thought and I have attempted to apply Dewey's criteria for reflective thought to my own work and in particular, one belief I hold.

I believe that some performing artists are inclined to volunteer significant amounts of their time and energy to support causes that are important to them.

According to Dewey, a reflective operation is, “act of search or investigation directed toward bringing to light further facts which serve to corroborate or to nullify the suggested belief," (Dewey, 1910). So, what is the evidence, facts or truths that support this belief?

First, I have personally witnessed this volunteering behavior by at least 6 performing artists during the past 3 years. The art forms engaged in by these artists include theatre, dance, music and film. The constituencies that have for the most part been the focus of their volunteerism are marginalized individuals including emotionally challenged teens, people living below the poverty level, community members suffering financial setbacks due to job loss and groups of people who have been disenfranchised due to discrimination based on their race, gender, age or socio-economic status. The extent of this volunteerism for these six individuals ranges from 4 hours per week to 50 hours per week.

Second, although there is a paucity of research of concerning the volunteerism of performing artists there is a significant amount of research related to volunteerism. A literature review of volunteerism has identified numerous studies, many of which suggest that the motivation behind volunteerism satisfies the need to help others, also referred to as ‘other-oriented’ behavior. Studies have also reported on a strong association between volunteerism and the organizations involved in other-oriented missions. In other words, people who volunteer frequently and over long periods of time, tend to be actively engaged with organizations that share their viewpoints and passion. While these studies do not specifically reference performing artists or visual artists as a group, and therefore do not support my belief, they have established important links between volunteerism and the characteristics of other-oriented behavior as well as an association with organizations. I find it interesting to note that these characteristics (other-oriented behavior and association with organizations) appear to be characteristics of the performing artists I have witnessed.

Third, a pilot survey study of 240 New England performing artists recently conducted by the author, has identified higher levels of volunteerism with this group than exist with the general public (Cormier, 2010). The average volunteer rate for residents of Massachusetts and the United States, reported by the US Dept of Labor (Corporation for National and Community Service, 2009) ranges from 25% to 27% over the last five years. The volunteer rate of the performing artists who participated in my pilot survey study was 72%, more than two times of that reported in the national study.

In summary, I think the first and third facts referenced above (first hand witnessing and pilot study) support my belief, however the second fact referenced above (existing research) does not support by belief.

References:
Cormier, P. (2010). The volunteerism of performing artists. Unpublished pilot survey study.

Corporation for National and Community Service (2009). Volunteering in America Research Highlights. Retrieved November 3, 2009, from www.nationalservice.gov/about/role_impact/performance_research.asp.

Dewey, J. (1910). How we think. Boston: D.C. Health & Co.