How teachers understand their experiences with holistic, arts-infused education: An interpretation of metaphors

Abstract

Scope and Method of Study: The purpose of the study was to interpret how teachers understood and assigned meaning to their experiences and those of their students when they enthusiastically participated in a holistic, arts-infused program. Data for the study consisted of archived interviews with thirteen elementary school teacher who voluntarily participated in a five-year, grant-funded study of Project CREATES. The program encouraged co-creating and co-teaching holistic, arts-infused curriculum with arts specialists and provided professional development opportunities for the teachers and talent development for students. The researcher studied the interviews with a critical hermeneutical framework to interpret metaphors and phrases the teachers used to make meaning and construct professional knowledge from their experiences, including experiences when the school district implemented an externally-mandated curriculum.

Findings and Conclusions: The study concluded that the teachers who fully implemented Project CREATES assigned high value to their experiences with holistic arts infused curriculum. They also valued the degree of agency the program provided in the co-creation of their own curriculum. The metaphors they used expressed the meanings assigned to their experiences as well as the professional knowledge constructed from the experiences. The implementation of externally-mandated curriculum that required extra time every day for drilling tested subjects and a two to three week schedule of testing severely limited their sense of agency and they saw themselves less as professionals and more like clerical help. The result was low teacher and student morale, less enthusiasm for teaching and learning, and the feeling that the classroom was becoming "roboticized." These outcomes reflect an ongoing societal shift toward an audit society where market forces shape the nature and purpose of education by changing the relationship between teachers and parents/students, and diminish teachers' sense of professionalism, agency, and responsibility.