Captured voices in primary school art education.

Eisner (1972) articulated a long-standing orientation in art education as he described the triadic relationship between socio-centric, child-centred and discipline-centred approaches in art education praxis. Hickman (2005) observed that teachers and students are now positioned to embrace a wider range of discourses as to what art might be. This impacts on why students make art and how it is taught. Wider arts discourse has resulted in influential paradigms and historically preferred arts pedagogies (Efland, 2002, 2004; Eisner, 1972; Kerlavage, 1992; Price, 2005). These discourses influence policy, curriculum, teacher beliefs about art and ultimately the ways in which these influences are played out in classrooms. Eisner (2002) argued the need for "empirically grounded examples of artistic thinking related to the nature of the tasks students engage in, the materials they work with, the context's norms and the cues the teacher provides to advance their students thinking" (p. 217). This paper draws on such theory and a two year action-research project, The Art of the Matter (Fraser et al., 2006) involving case studies and analysis. This paper focuses on a Year 4 to Year 6 'drawing into painting' context taught by experienced generalist teachers in New Zealand primary schools. The influence of school culture and programme structures is explored. I raise questions as to which socio-cultural and discipline-centred voices generalist teachers have been captured by, and consider to what extent it possible to still discern a student whisper under the clamour and control of adult proscribed activity

Negotiating the Spaces: Relational Pedagogy and Power in Drama Teaching

While there is a growing body of literature on relational pedagogy as a concept, less attention is given to the details of just how relational pedagogy manifests in classroom practice. Similarly, while issues of power, democracy and co-constructed learning feature in contemporary research, the details of how power relationships can be effectively altered between teachers and children warrants closer scrutiny. This paper explores how pedagogy is enhanced when spaces are negotiated between teachers and children in the real and fictional worlds of drama. The findings emerge from a two year collaborative research project between generalist elementary teachers and university researchers. Salient issues of trust, power sharing, and metaxis, which are part of relational pedagogy in the drama classroom, are explored. In particular, the paper discusses how traditional power and knowledge positions are 'disrupted' through the drama strategy of 'teacher-in-role' - a strategy with both political significance and pedagogical force

Paradox and promise in joint school/university arts research

Collaborative university and school research projects are inevitably labour intensive endeavours that require the careful negotiation of trust and the joint development of critique of current practice. While this raises tension it also builds generative communities of inquiry that can enhance both theory and practice. This paper reports on an Arts project undertaken in primary classrooms between university staff and generalist teacher co-researchers focusing on children’s idea development in dance, drama, music and art. This two year project is briefly outlined and some issues that arise in school research are explored. Project collaborators need to exercise caution in their examination of practice and strive to resist premature closure. All parties need to hold the tension of apparent contradictions, being both interested (in effective Arts pedagogy) and disinterested (in order to heighten perception) so that they might ‘surprise themselves in a landscape of practice with which many are very familiar indeed’ (McWilliam 2004:14). These issues and paradoxes in collaborative research are considered alongside some particular processes that build school and university partnerships

Exploring children's development of ideas in music and dance

Eisner maintains that the Arts education community needs ‘empirically grounded examples of artistic thinking related to the nature of the tasks students engage in, the material with which they work, the context’s norms and the cues the teacher provides to advance their students’ thinking’ (2000:217). This paper reflects on preliminary results of a collaborative research project between teachers and university researchers that is investigating how children develop and refine arts-making ideas and related skills in Dance and Music in a small sample of schools in New Zealand. Factors such as the place of repetition in the development of ideas, the relevance of offers, the place of verbal and non-verbal communication in arts idea generation, and group work as an accepted ritual of practice, are explored and discussed

An interview: Making art as a dialogue with materials, moments and motivations

Graham Price has worked extensively in primary, secondary and tertiary art education in Otago (1976–1997) and since 2000 in pre-service secondary and primary art education within the University of Waikato arts education team. He has experience in developing art education resources, Waikato professional development programmes, and the development of visual art assessment in primary schools through the National Education Monitoring Project 1995–2008. His research interests include arts integration, the history of art education in New Zealand and how students talk about art. His own artwork spans painting, jewellery and sculptural responses to calligraphy. He actively participates in a cappella choral performance. In this piece Graham shares his views and his approach to art making

Word Length Perturbations in Certain Symmetric Presentations of Dihedral Groups

Given a finite group with a generating subset there is a well-established notion of length for a group element given in terms of its minimal length expression as a product of elements from the generating set. Recently, certain quantities called $\lambda_{1}$ and $\lambda_{2}$ have been defined that allow for a precise measure of how stable a group is under certain types of small perturbations in the generating expressions for the elements of the group. These quantities provide a means to measure differences among all possible paths in a Cayley graph for a group, establish a group theoretic analog for the notion of stability in nonlinear dynamical systems, and play an important role in the application of groups to computational genomics. In this paper, we further expose the fundamental properties of $\lambda_{1}$ and $\lambda_{2}$ by establishing their bounds when the underlying group is a dihedral group. An essential step in our approach is to completely characterize so-called symmetric presentations of the dihedral groups, providing insight into the manner in which $\lambda_{1}$ and $\lambda_{2}$ interact with finite group presentations. This is of interest independent of the study of the quantities $\lambda_{1},\; \lambda_{2}$. Finally, we discuss several conjectures and open questions for future consideration

Coverage Options for a Low cost, High Resolution Optical Constellation

This paper presents the range of coverage options available to TopSat like small satellites, both singly and in a small constellation. TopSat is a low-cost, high resolution and image quality, optical small satellite, due for launch in October 2004. In particular, the paper considers the use of tuned, repeat ground track orbits to improve coverage for selected ground targets, at the expense of global coverage. TopSat is designed to demonstrate the capabilities of small satellites for high value remote sensing missions. It is a 108kg, sun-synchronous satellite, designed to provide 2.5m resolution imagery direct to users in the vicinity of the imaged area. Its objectives are to demonstrate the capability to cost performance available from small satellites, the utility of direct reception of remotely sensed imagery, and the affordability of constellations and individually owned assets. A description of the satellite, and update on the development and flight build of the satellite is given, as of June 2003. Two coverage improving augmentations to the TopSat satellite are discussed, namely the addition of a propulsion system and more capable attitude actuators. With limited orbit control, achievement and maintenance of tuned orbits, and phasing of a constellation within orbits, become practicable. TopSat is an agile small satellite, allowing boresight reorientation required for slews during imaging. The capability for performing multiple images in a single target pass is considered, with the existing and improved torque actuator implementations. Similar options for performing stereo imaging with 2 formation flying TopSats are outlined. Reconfiguration of repeat ground track orbits for a single satellite is analysed in terms of fuel cost and drift orbit options. A one day repeat orbit case is presented which would allow daily coverage of a fixed target, with orbit reconfiguration required to allow global access. A typical mission for such a satellite is summarised, along with practical requirements for the propulsion system. Coverage options for constellations of between 2 and 4 satellites are then also scrutinised, with fuel estimates for the most promising options explored. Again, the benefits that could be achieved by using repeat ground track orbits are weighed against the fuel requirements, to maintain and reconfigure such a constellation. The TopSat mission is a collaboration between four UK partners. QinetiQ are leading the mission and providing data handling and ground segment elements. Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) are developing the camera, Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) are providing the bus, and InfoTerra are responsible for developing potential data markets. The programme is jointly funded by the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) and by the British National Space Centre (BNSC)

The Role of Conflict in Farmers’ Crop Choices in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Cropping choices under uncertainty caused by weather, input prices, and ecological conditions have been addressed in contemporary literature. However, uncertainty arising from violent conflict on farming choices lacks substantial academic attention. In this research we address the ramifications of conflict on household cropping choices, building on the notion of “conflict resistant” cropping systems introduced in Kibriya et al. 2014 and King et al. 2013. We argue that farming households’ preferences change under conflict as they revert to a cropping system that minimizes losses. This novel concept is solidified by formulating a definition through rational choice theory. The theoretical expectations are verified through data obtained from 2300 smallholder farming households in North Kivu, DRC. A case study and propensity score matching methods are employed to demonstrate that conflict-affected households focus more on low-value crops that are less frequently stolen in order to maximize the probability of survival