critique art through discussion and games Students will explain their interpretation s to others Students will guide their families through the galleries and their exhibition
Role of
visitor
Students will choose what is studied through the museum Students will take part in the museum culture Students will explore artwork at the museum as part of a social groupDuring the eight weeks students also met once a week at their school to take part in studio sessions which involved the students creating artwork using materials and subject matter they selected. Although the museum had studio space it was designated for classes they offer to the public on Saturdays. Additionally, I did not want to contradict the idea that artists create in their studios and exhibit in museums, very rarely do artists create within the museum setting. The case is more concerned with the exhibition process in relation to art production. The planning of an art collection was done independently by the students.
The students were also asked to keep a journal of their experiences as well as a sketchbook. At the end of the eight weeks students designed and implemented an exhibit at MCMA and invited others to view their selected collection of artwork. The case study design incorporated ethnographic methods of data collection including: interviews, participant observations, visual data (artwork, photographs, and sketch journals) and documents (journals and other written materials). This data was analyzed to determine patterns in the participant’s perceptions of their artistic roles.
Research Design
This case study design studied a group of students involved in museum learning within the galleries of MCMA, studio time at school for art creation, and a student directed exhibition at the MCMA which featured work created by the participants. Students involved in the case were also asked to keep a written journal as well as a sketchbook throughout the study.
Context of the MCMA
Figure 2. Exterior of MCMA
MCMA is located in an historic suburb of Atlanta. The museum itself, as seen in Figure 2, is housed in a 1910 classic revival building which was originally built as a post office. The building has two gallery floors which now consist of two large galleries, conference room, lobby, offices and an additional level housing two large studio spaces in the basement. The museum has a small permanent collection and hosts many traveling exhibitions throughout the year.
Logistics
The students were asked to meet at the museum after school each week and parents were responsible for transporting the students. All of the students involved in the study live within five or six miles of the historic town square where the museum is located. We met as a group for
a period of eight weeks. During each week we met two times, one afternoon each week was spent at the museum and on Saturday mornings we met at school for extended studio time, interviews and to discuss the week’s events. The final week of the museum experience students spent time preparing an exhibition of their work.
Role of the Researcher
I approach this research as an art educator who has a great deal of experience with children in the museum setting. Throughout my career have taken many students to art museums and have designed and implemented related activities both in and out of the museum context. I have organized exhibits for my students at many out of school contexts including the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. For my Master’s degree I examined the typical museum experience of elementary students and explored ways to enhance their learning opportunities to make each visit more meaningful. For this study I acted as a partial participant observer. I guided the students in their museum experiences and participated in some of their group
discussions. I also allowed the students to work independently at times during which I served as only an observer. I worked closely with the Education Department of the MCMA in order better understand their collection, to meet the learning needs of the participants and to establish
Research Approval
In order to conduct this case study using human subjects I gained approval from the Georgia State University Institutional Review Board (IRB) in September 2014. Additionally because I was conducting research using students from the school system where I teach, I obtained approval from the Cobb County School District Department of Curriculum and Instruction. Finally I received approval from the Board of Directors of MCMA to conduct research within their museum and to access the museum free of charge.
Parents signed a consent form, agreeing to allow their children to participate in the study and to provide transportation to and from the museum. Students signed an assent form
explaining that they had a choice to participate or not participate in the study. The assent form stated and it was verbally explained to the participants that they had the option to withdraw from the study at any point if they so desired. In order to protect participants, I have primary access to the locked filing cabinet in which research materials with participant information are stored. Participant’s identities are confidential and names have been changed for this dissertation.
Participant Selection
I selected students for this study from the school in which I teach. I teach at a public Title I elementary school in Cobb County Georgia. Students at my school represent populations from thirty different countries and a wide range of socioeconomic levels. As the only art teacher in the school I teach eight hundred and sixty students.
Selection Process
All students from my school in grades three through five were initially approached for this case study. I wanted to open the study to any student regardless of their artistic interests or abilities. I sent a letter home explaining that I would be conducting a research project at a local art museum for a period of eight weeks. The letter asked parents who were interested in having their child participate to please return the signed form. It also informed them that students would be selected randomly from the pool of interested participants. I received forty-three forms back from parents stating that their child would be allowed to participate if chosen. From the forty- three students, I sorted the students into groups of boys and girls and selected five from each gender grouping. I contacted each parent with a letter of consent and an additional letter that outlined the specific dates, times and location of the study to make sure they were able to make a commitment. All ten of the selected students returned the form stating that they were allowed to participate and were able to meet the time requirements of the study. However, the day the study was to begin four of the parents informed me that their child could not participate. Two of the students had been selected for afterschool tutoring because they were behind academically and the school had informed them that the tutoring sessions took precedence over the museum study. The other two had simply failed to realize some scheduling conflicts and could not transport their students to the museum. I attempted to fill the four vacant spots but was only able to fill two of them from the remaining pool of candidates. I chose not to add students after the study had begun so I kept the number to seven. The group consisted of three boys and four girls. Two of the students were in third grade, two in fourth grade and three in fifth grade. They represented a wide range of ethnicities, socioeconomic levels and artistic experience.
Participant Profiles
Although I teach each of the students involved in this study, my understanding of their personalities and skills outside of the art classroom were limited at the beginning of my research. Through the course of the study, I came to understand a great deal more about this group of students. The participant profiles provide a brief explanation of how I perceived each student. The profiles combine my knowledge of the students from our classroom and school interactions as well as observations I made of the students during the research study.
Sean
Sean is a fifth grade Caucasian male. He is in the gifted and talented program at school. He comes from a family that considers themselves very involved in the arts. His two parents have shown a great interest in his artistic development. He has a somewhat quirky, fun loving personality. He takes pride in being different in his thought processes and tends to think outside the box. He enjoys school but is not highly motivated unless the learning topic is of personal interest. Sean has a lot of ideas and is excited to share them. He is passionate about his opinions and is very confident in his abilities as an artist.
Eli
Eli is a fifth grade multi-race male. He is very shy at times and withdraws from interaction unless he feels comfortable. He struggles with socially and has a hard time
communicating his thoughts with other students. Casual conversation is not casual for Eli. He can, however, talk at length about a subject or object that is of interest to him personally. He is an excellent writer and his thoughts are best communicated through written communication. His mom supports all of his social efforts to fit in and is clearly his biggest advocate. She
encourages him to try new things but is still cautious of him being in situations that are extremely unfamiliar or beyond his scope of adaptation. He enjoys drawing very much and is fixated on popular culture subjects and characters such as Pokémon and Minecraft. Eli is confident in his abilities and does not seem overly concerned with outside critique of his work.
Aria
Aria is a fifth grade African-American girl. She is quiet and reserved. She enjoys learning, is academically average and is very much a people pleaser. She is never in trouble at school and always does what is expected of her. She loves to draw and enjoys creating. She gets along with everyone and other students respect her. She has good ideas and easily communicates those ideas to others with an average amount of confidence. Her family is not overly involved at school in terms of volunteering or event attendance but they are extremely supportive of Aria and encourage anything she is interested in pursuing. She has a large extended family that she spends a great deal of time with and she very much respects her family’s values and opinions. She considers herself good at creating art but would not identify herself as an artist.
Ava
Ava is a fourth grade Hispanic girl. Her parents are immigrants. Ava is a United States citizen. Ava is proud of her heritage and often brings candy and treats that her family has purchased at the Mexican grocery to share. Her mom and siblings speak English but her father and most of her other relatives speak only Spanish and she is eager to translate for them. She is always smiling. Ava likes the social aspects of school and enjoys making things, the more glittery the better. She is passionate about clothing and shopping and is quick to point out a new outfit or accessory. She is the type of little girl who would wear sandals in January if she felt
like they improved her outfit. Ava is quick to offer hugs and loves to giggle. She is confident in her appearance but doubts her artistic and academic strengths at times.
Eric
Eric is a fourth grade African American male. He and his parents just moved to Georgia at the beginning of the school year. They are still in the process of getting settled and beginning new jobs. They struggle with Eric as he is in trouble at school more often than not, including several days of suspension. His parents clearly want him to achieve and do well. They encourage him to try and to excel. Eric makes that process as difficult as possible, almost by design. The school setting does not fit him. He loves to talk and seek attention in silly and disruptive ways that do not coincide with the school culture. He is very intelligent and is strong academically. Eric is an excellent writer and a polished orator. He enjoys art and is very confident about his art. Eric is sweet and fun to be around in settings that relax the rules and do not demand conformity. He is filled with interesting stories and is thoughtful. Eric simply prefers to show his silly side at school rather than reveal his intellectual insights.
Emma
Emma is a third grade Caucasian female. She is quiet at school. She struggles
academically. According to her mom she is head strong and difficult to motivate but she would never reveal those qualities to anyone outside of her family. She seems to enjoy art. Her mom would like for her to enjoy art more passionately. Emma is difficult to know. She is the type of student who may not have a clue of what is happening around her, but will stay quiet so that perhaps no one will realize she is struggling to understand. She often ignores a direction and will do the opposite of what is being asked of her but does it so quietly and with an innocent smile
that it is unclear if she is trying to be difficult or simply does not know any better. Emma has good ideas that she is slow to share. She exhibits more confidence one on one and takes time to orient herself to new situations. She considers herself an artist because she makes a high
quantity of artwork.
Colleen
Colleen is also a third grade Caucasian female. She is giggly, bubbly and full of life. She is well liked by others. She is well behaved at school and fits nicely into school norms. Outside of school, however, in a small group setting she can quickly get out of control. She loves to talk and ask questions. She also likes to instigate ways to get others acting silly as she sits back and pretends to have no idea how everyone got off track. Colleen struggles
academically. She has creative ideas but has a difficult time communicating those ideas to others. Her limited writing skills make it difficult for her to fully express her deep thoughts. She enjoys art and making crafts. Her family is very involved in school and encourages her to try lots of activities. She is not very confident in her abilities and seeks affirmation before moving forward with any artistic decision. Colleen is easily embarrassed but tries to find the silver lining of any situation she is not initially pleased with. She does not consider herself to be an artist despite the fact that she enjoys creating.
Data Collection
Ethnographic data collection methods were used throughout the case study including observations, interviews, visual data, and documents. According to Merriam (2009), the “data collection techniques used as well as the specific information considered to be data in a study, are determined by the researcher’s theoretical orientation, by the problem and purpose of the
study, and by the sample selected” (p. 86). The use of multiple sources of data collection allowed data triangulation for validity.
Observations
I collected field notes that recorded my observations throughout the eight weeks in both the museum and studio sessions of the case study. I served as a partial participant observer, acting both as a guide in the study and an observer. This ethnographic method of data collection allowed me access into their small social museum group. By participating with the students they realized that we were equal learners. It also allowed me to create a relationship with the students that facilitated natural, spontaneous conversations. By participating and observing
simultaneously, the students did not change their behavior as they may have in front of an outside observer.
Documents
Journals - Students were asked to keep a written journal throughout the case study. The journals contained researcher generated prompts based on the events that unfolded each week.
Participants were encouraged to respond to the prompt as well as use their journal for personal reflections and thoughts. These journal entries were coded, analyzed, and interpreted.
According to Hamilton and Corbett (2013), “Encouraging participants in your research to write a journal or reflective log can be a way of understanding the inner world of the individual and the professional and personal aspects of participant experiences and responses” (p. 102).
Sketchbooks - Students were asked to keep a sketchbook throughout the case study. The sketchbooks contained a series of prompts but students were encouraged to fill the pages with
whatever they were inspired to draw or create. There drawings were categorized, analyzed and interpreted.
Photographs -I took photographs of the students interacting within the museum setting and creating during the studio portion of the study. Photographs were also taken of their artwork and during their exhibition at the museum. These photos were used for analysis and also to elicit interview responses and to validate participant answers. Harper (2002) contends that
photographs provide validity to research. Harper states that photo elicitation “works (or does not) for rather mysterious reasons” (p. 22). The photo allows a viewer to see an event that has passed and this phenomena “of seeming to retrieve something that has disappeared belongs alone to the photograph, and it leads to deep and interesting talk” (Harper, 2002, p, 23).
Student generated writing-Part of the data collection included written responses to different activities such as descriptive paragraphs, written justifications for choices made in the gallery, poems, title creations and artists statements.
Initial Questionnaire - This was given to the students at the beginning of the study to provide a basis for their past museum experiences and their thoughts on their artistic identity. According to Hamilton and Corbett (2013), “a questionnaire can give the researcher a broader
understanding of a particular group or groups and this allows you to contextualize the work done