Facilitadoras del equilibrio territorial y el aumento de la calidad de vida urbana

Throughout each stage in the project’s life cycle, aesthetic discovery framed the students’ experiences in considering their role in their communities, or civic identity. The dominant mode of artmaking that I guided the students through was Final Portfolio construction, which was a synthesis of each mode of artmaking with an emphasis on collage. Each mode of artmaking was not mutually exclusive because they worked together, like a collage. They were assembled into a portfolio like a collage of pages. The pages themselves were a collaged assembling of images, text, found objects, etc.

Similarly, the stages of service-learning were not mutually exclusive. They worked together like a collage, as well, each stage containing elements of others. For example, while planning and preparing, they practiced reflection upon their previous experiences to shed light on the choices they ought to make next. Taking action through the fire station service project and Video Project were simultaneously their practice of sharing with the community. Service- learning itself was a collage of experiences, each stage working together and enmeshed in some ways to create and portray stories.

Therefore, I chose the method of collage as a contribution to the field regarding how to document and analyze the students’ products and processes. Through collage, the students integrated of each mode of artmaking. As portrayed by Ginger in the introduction to this chapter, students synthesized their understanding of community, community service, and their sense of community through their expressions of collage. They considered their community in new ways through collage primarily on Final Portfolio pages that they created as a collage containing images (e.g., photography, drawings, paintings, magazine clippings), text (e.g., written journaling, magazine clippings, stampings), and/or other aesthetic embellishments (such

as stickers, stamps, found objects). Students practiced their primarily collaged aesthetic expressions throughout the duration of the overall project through the Final Portfolio construction. Regarding value of collage in education, Butler-Kisber (2008) explains,

These forms of collage, as well as others, can be used in the final representational product to enhance understanding, show poignancy, open avenues for discussion and further reflection, and contribute to persuasiveness, as shown in the doctoral dissertations of Finley (1998), Promislow (2005), and Steeves (2000). These three approaches are collage as a memoing/reflective process (Butler-Kisber, 2007; Davis & Butler-Kisber, 1999; McDermott, 2002), collage as a conceptualizing approach (Butler-Kisber, et a1., 2005), and collage as an elicitation for writing or discussion (Butler-Kisber, Rudd, & Stewart, 2007; Williams, 2000). (p. 269)

Referring to Butler-Kisber’s description, the students in my study created a collaged final product that represented their experiences, enhanced their understanding, showed poignancy, and opened avenues for discussion and further reflection. It was a means to support persuasive arguments, such as the formal presentation of the Final Portfolios with the supporting community during the final meeting and the informal presentation to others in their community beyond the study. In this study, the Final Portfolios encompassed the three approaches to collage described by Butler-Kisber (2008): a memoing/reflective process, a conceptualizing approach, and an elicitation for writing or discussion.

Students practiced memoing through what I described as journaling. Students practiced the reflective process of memoing/journaling during Final Portfolio page construction by providing supporting text on the page, such as next to photos or tying sets of photos together. The text contributed to the collaged story that was conveyed by the students. Students also

practiced memoing/journaling while completing “in-class” worksheets that were designed to guide the students through the process of reflection. Through the worksheets, students considered specific question regarding specific projects. For example, through the worksheet at the start of the Video Project, I asked the students to reflect upon what they enjoyed and learned about the assisted living center experience. They then used this worksheet as a reference during their video recorded message to the assisted living center.

Collage making was also a conceptualizing approach. While reflecting, the students found that they had a story to tell. Portraying the story verbally differs from aesthetically. In my interview with Ginger outside of her house in the woods, she shared with me that collage was her favored mode of reflective artmaking because “it makes the most sense to me.” In discussing her Box 3D Project, she expressed that collage was her preferred method of telling her story, because she enjoyed it so much and it came easily to her. As a conceptualizing approach, collage making upon and within her Box 3D Project helped her to process her thoughts regarding the assisted living center (Figures 32 & 33). On the outside, she felt that she expressed being “cheery and bright,” having “peace, love, joy, faith,” and showing a desire to “give.” She used text and images from magazine clippings to explicitly portray her feelings. Her text was coupled with images of smiling, laughing, and posing girls/woman portraying the message of the text. However, on the inside, she felt a tension between how she wanted to respond (with peacefulness) and how she actually felt (confused and awkward). “I have the word ‘mix’ inside because I had a whole bunch of mixed emotions. Peace, love, and [confusion].” She chose images to symbolically represent other feelings: “The food represents how I was feeling hungry.” Thus, through her Box 3D Project, Ginger expressed dissonance, as well as enjoyment, with the

process of creating the collages in her Final Portfolio pages. Collage as a conceptualizing approach made the most sense to her.

Figure 33: Ginger's Box 3D Project (inside, bottom)

For each student, creating the pages allowed them the opportunity to cohesively assemble the elements of their story. Such elements included the subjects, main characters, actions, key points, titles, images, timeframe, their voice, and their thoughts regarding the story. Collage making provided the opportunity for the students to take the pieces of their story, represent them aesthetically onto the Final Portfolio page, and to think more deeply about the elements in the process.

The key to the practice was considering the clarity with which they represented their story to an audience of outsiders who did not know the information regarding the project. To “read” the page affectively, or visual literacy, the audience would want to know, “Who are these people on the page? What are they doing? What are you doing? What did you learn from the experience? Why should I care?” Therefore, creating the Final Portfolio pages was a conceptual

approach to deciding how to share the project with others in the community. It was a means of providing clarity to their reflections within themselves by considering how they would tell their thoughts to others as they “read” their Final Portfolio.

Students practiced writing on the page itself and then separately about the page. Some students wrote stories within their collaged work, and other preferred to write pieces separately to coincide with the page. As in Ginger’s example at the introduction to this chapter, students created metaphors of service through collage, and to support the collection of images and text that they selected from magazines (some drew images as well), students wrote about their creation, providing a textual explanation of the piece. The pair of pages was then added to the Final Portfolio.

The entire process of collage making inspired group discussions and questions throughout. The students were inspired in part because “The collage-making process […] challenges the dichotomy of the intellect and the senses,” (Butler-Kisber, 2008, p. 9) and they wanted to verbally engage with the challenges they were internally experiencing. Beyond topics regarding the page creation itself, students were inspired to discuss a wide variety of topics, including politics, religion, family, desires for civic engagement, questions regarding the value and impact of the projects within the study, and related personal dilemmas with which they had been struggling. The group of students also engaged in presentations and discussions regarding their creations. Thus, discussion was central to the practice of collage making.

Butler-Kisber (2008) makes a call for research through multimedia artmaking that is reflective, especially collage. She states, “What is needed [...] is an integration of the criteria for evaluating arts-informed research with those for evaluating visual images, with a particular focus on collage. Although this is no easy task, it would be a worthwhile endeavor, and one that would

be well received in the field” (p. 273). In my study, I infuse arts-based research with experiential learning practices, specifically reflective artmaking about and during service-learning. I evaluate visual images with a particular focus on the collage of Final Portfolio construction through visual literacy practices and a capacities-based analysis. Butler-Kisber (2008) continues, “More public accounts of researchers' explorations with the medium, more opportunities for exchanges between researchers and artists, and efforts to make available lists of exemplary works are needed” (p. 274). This study provides my exploration with collage through working with the students to create the Final Portfolio.

Collage as reflective artmaking within service-learning appears to be welcomed in the field of arts-based research, as well (Bagnoli, 2009; Barry, 1996; Eisner, 2005; Butler-Kisber, 2008). For example, Eisner (2005) makes a call for more arts-based research by those who are knowledgeable in creating at least one of a diverse set of artistic expressions, including collage, stating, “We need to broaden the array of forms of representation that can be used in the conduct of educational research” (p. 17). Being knowledgeable in a diverse set of artistic expressions, I provide evidence for broadening the array of forms of representation to collage making within educational research through the reflective artmaking about and during service-learning within this study.