Extending Thurber’s and Zimmerman’s models for developing feminist leadership in art education through collaboration, community building, and creativity

Abstract

Extending Thurber's andZimmerman's models for developing feminist leadership in art education through collaboration, community building, and creativity absTracT In this article, I describe how Frances Thurber (1946-2012 and I began in the early 1990s to conduct research concerning empowerment and leadership themes in art teacher education. Over the next decade, we were involved in researching leadership issues in art teacher education and conducted a series of studies that focused on both theory and practice related to developing voice, collaboration, and social action as components of feminist leadership in art education. Our goal was to educate in-service art teachers to become empowered and take leadership roles in programmes in Nebraska and Indiana. By 2002, we had constructed several pedagogical models as a

Teacher's Views of Art Education in Primary Schools in Scotland

“…General professional development theory (Hargreaves & Fullan 2012) and theories which focus on developing leadership in art and design education (Thurber & Zimmerman 2002; Manifold & Zimmerman 2011; Zimmerman 2014) both start with the individual and the importance of secure knowledge and understanding in order to deliver the subject with confidence. Essentially, primary teachers need to embrace an art teacher identity (Allison 2013).…”

“…There seems to be little evidence of emerging future leaders of art and design education in Scottish primary education, and instead, we are presented with a group of people who are willing to be told how to teach the subject. The most recent work of Zimmerman (2014) reflects on their leadership models and identifies a need to include creativity within them. The responses to the survey would suggest that this is currently not present in the profession in primary schools and that instead we have a compliant profession wanting more guidance from the government or local authorities on how to teach art and design.…”

“…This is done by combining the domain of knowledge and belief in themselves, with the domain focused on knowledge of the art curriculum and pedagogy. Stage 2 moves this towards a collaborative community focused on networking and advocacy opportunities (Zimmerman 2014) with mentoring and sharing practice being key elements. The sense of a community was key to the model in all its forms (Thurber & Zimmerman 2002; Zimmerman 2014; Gregory 2019) and was reflected in the works of others such as Allison (2013) who believes that teacher identity is linked to confidence and competence; therefore, a strong sense of artistic identity leads to improved art practice in the classroom.…”

“…Stage 2 moves this towards a collaborative community focused on networking and advocacy opportunities (Zimmerman 2014) with mentoring and sharing practice being key elements. The sense of a community was key to the model in all its forms (Thurber & Zimmerman 2002; Zimmerman 2014; Gregory 2019) and was reflected in the works of others such as Allison (2013) who believes that teacher identity is linked to confidence and competence; therefore, a strong sense of artistic identity leads to improved art practice in the classroom. This can be achieved through mentorship and quality professional development that supports the individual within a networked environment.…”