Relational pedagogy and the Arts

Relational Pedagogy in a New Zealand Secondary School Drama Classroom

“…The authors focus on the application of relational pedagogy to The Arts Curriculum in New Zealand (Dance, Drama, Music and Visual Arts) and how different relationships affect learning in a primary school Arts classroom. This is because in The Arts the personal, emotional and psychological world of the child is explored (Fraser et al, 2007). They moot the point, and support it with a general reference to Bergum (2003, p. 122) that teaching in The Arts does not follow traditional concepts of power, and traditional notions of knowledge construction.…”

“…Relational pedagogy in a New Zealand setting has also been explored through research in a primary school setting. Fraser et al (2007) outline a definition of the term relational pedagogy and discuss its implementation in a controlled setting. Relational pedagogy is defined in the Arts as meaning the social aspects of a classroom (relationships between peers and teachers), and the relationship with the self and the art-making process.…”

“…Details of what is meant by rituals or common practices which could either constrain or support learning in the Arts classroom are described as being unconscious assumptions on the part of the teacher about how to teach, or in some cases, what to teach. As an example, Fraser et al (2007) describes how learning in the Arts may be constrained by several common practices such as; the type of group a student is in, the topic or theme chosen by the teacher, the resource choice made by the teacher, the emphasis on verbal understanding of tasks and concepts, or even the limited use of feedback on work that was performed. Fraser et al (2004) also found that what influenced the choices of the teacher as described above was their own approach to the teaching of the chosen Art form.…”

“…Group work is used in many classroom settings and recent research into the teaching of the Arts in New Zealand has found it used extensively (Fraser et al, 2007). This research suggests that co-operative group work allows for skills such as listening, turn taking, questioning and supporting.…”

“…This research suggests that co-operative group work allows for skills such as listening, turn taking, questioning and supporting. It was also noted that to allow the development of these skills teachers need to make careful decisions about how groups are composed, the nature of the tasks engaged with, and what social and co-operative skills are required (Fraser et al, 2007).…”