2020-2021 Collaborative Inquiry Report

Our Process for 2020-2021

The inquiry process is structured to enable lead teachers from each participating school to meet four times over the year for professional development and to share their observations on the impact of artmaking within the studio for student learning.

This year our meetings took place online due to Covid with presentations by Dr. Sylvia Kind in November and Aaron-Nelson Moody (Splash) in February. Dr. Kind is an artist, scholar and ‘atelierista’ at Capilano University in the Department of Early Childhood Education and Pedagogy. She presented some of her current work and research in cultivating the studio as an ever-evolving space of thinking and co-creation. Sylvia is interested in the spaces where children’s ideas collide and intersect, activating new avenues of thinking and discovering. Splash, whose Squamish name means “Splashing Eagle”, is a Coast Salish carver and teacher who has shared his work, practice and cultural knowledge with students in schools across Vancouver for more than a decade.

Although our inquiry was entirely online this year, data was still gathered and documented by teachers over the course of the residencies through photos, shared observation, teacher and student written reflections and post residency on-line debrief interviews.

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AIRS' Collaborative Inquiry

The AIRS program seeks to gather ongoing action research through a collaborative inquiry process on the impact of long-term engagement in the visual arts for academic achievement and social emotional learning in school. This research is essential for demonstrating the vital importance of the arts for child development and ensuring that education in the arts is protected and funded within public schools for the benefit of future generations. In addition, through our research we are continually gathering data to determine best practices for collaboration between artists and teachers in schools to maintain successful, flexible and innovative residencies that strengthen student learning and meet the core competency goals of the new BC curriculum.

“The Art and Discovery Studio demonstrates the potential for art activities to enhance children’s self-regulation by integrating social and emotional awareness with cognitive capacities such as patience and sustained attention.”

Dr. Jane Garland, Professor Emeritus in Psychiatry, UBC

The Collaborative Inquiry Process

Teachers from each school participating in the AIRS program come together four times during the year to share their observations and reflect on the impact of collaborating with a resident artist within a dedicated studio in their school on student learning. Each school develops its own inquiry question specific to their specific school context. For the 2012/20 school year, inquiries were developed under the overarching question: "How does sustained collaboration with a resident artist in an established studio impact student learning in relation to the curriculum, the core competencies and the FirstPeoples’ Principles of Learning?" Findings from the collaborative inquiry are documented and compiled into a year end final report that can be accessed below.

The 2019/20 inquiry was facilitated by Christine Giesbrecht, district mentor support teacher with presentations by Maggie Milne Martens, AIRS director and Indigenous teaching artists Shelley MacDonald and Candice Halls-Howcroft.

2019/2020 Inquiry: Integrating Indigenous Perspectives

On February 19, 2020 teachers who have AIRS studios in their schools gathered as a part of the collaborative inquiry process. In this session, the teachers shared how students are engaging in the studio with the artists, and discussed how art making processes might intersect with Indigenous protocols and perspectives. The gathering was facilitated by indigenous artists and art educators, Shelley MacDonald and Candice Halls (pictured below left), who joined the discussion to share their knowledge and invite teachers into a deeper understanding of how to integrate Indigenous ways of knowing and the arts into their classrooms.

Our Findings

While each studio invited a unique experience for students dependent on the vision of the artist and the kinds of material engagements students were offered, there was marked consistency in teacher observations of student learning across all sites. One of the key findings is the way in which the art making process powerfully builds student capacity in all of the core competency areas with particular intensity in the areas of creativity as well as positive personal and cultural identity, personal and social awareness and social responsibility. Risk-taking, independent problem solving, and openness to new ideas were all habits of mind that were observed and fostered in the studio. More importantly, the artmaking process has demonstrable impact on

student’s sense of self, building confidence in their own creative capacities and the value of their ideas. For many students who struggle in the classroom, the studio is a place for them to flourish and for their talents to be recognized and valued.

It is important to note that these learning outcomes were not pre- determined goals but were observed as being intrinsically nurtured through the art making process itself; that in the midst of the messy, chaotic, non-linear, haptic, and sometimes frustrating process of wrestling and transforming raw materials into significant form, that students are themselves transformed.

Land Acknowledgement

The Artist In Residence Studio program is honoured to be working together on the unceded, unsurrendered and traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm|Musqueam, Sḵwxwú7mesh|Squamish & səlilwətaɬ |Tsleil-Waututh people, where we learn, live and work. We humbly acknowledge that we are unlearning and relearning and with this acknowledgement comes the commitment to engage in ongoing acts of reconciliation.

PHONETIC PRONUNCIATION: xʷməθkʷəy̓əm - Musqueam (pronounced Mus-kwee-um) Sḵwxwú7mesh - Squamish Nation (pronounced Skwa-mish) səlilwətaɬ - Tsleil-Waututh (pronounced Slay-wah-tuth) Please do not capitalize x in xʷməθkʷəy̓əm & s in səlilwətaɬ Do capitalize S in Skwxwú7mesh *The above has been shared by Chas Desjarlais- District Principal of Indigenous Education.

Artist in residence studio program (AIRS)

2020-2021 Collaborative Inquiry Report

AIRS Collaborative Inquiry Final Report 2019/2020

AIRS' Collaborative Inquiry

The Collaborative Inquiry Process

2019/2020 Collaborative inquiry

2019/2020 Inquiry: Integrating Indigenous Perspectives

Podcast - Integrating Indigenous Perspectives

Our Findings

Past inquiries

2018/2019

2018/2019

2018/2019

2017/2018

2018/2019

2018/2019

Land Acknowledgement