21ST CENTURY SCHOOLING

Culture of Education

One complexity of teaching art is that it can be very confusing and is always debatable. It is subjective and abstract yet at the same time needs to have concrete methods. Taking the students out of their conditioning, and perceptions and working from preconceived notions is one of the prime tasks. Thus, developing a perception of the student's traits and then helping them develop a sound perception of the creative process is a central concept in teaching art. I do not start teaching a student with an end objective or a specific result. I start with start principles – the student’s intrinsic ability or natural talent and fundamentals of visual art; a combination of these. Any methodology that I might opt for is usually based on the potential and scope of the student and changes are accommodated as the student makes further progress in the course. For me, each student is an assignment in hand. I would opt for any method if finds it effective, however unconventional it may be!

It is very effective if one could inculcate sound observation and drawing skills from direct observation. It is equally important to develop visual thinking. Like the student seeks motivation from a teacher, as a teacher I would like to be motivated by the students too. Students who are ready to learn are one of the most inspiring aspects of a classroom. As we all know, good culture develops good taste, so it is important to develop a good learning culture, especially in art. I prefer students of different age groups sharing the same classroom at the same time as it provides a better learning experience. Encouraging students to discuss their work as well as their peer’s work in terms of concepts, expressiveness of the work, use of imagery and metaphors, skill, and the process is what I would encourage in a classroom. A good library helps a lot in today’s art education, though it is not a very real thing in Indian conditions. The pandemic has opened up a whole lot of new opportunities for accessing the best galleries and museums throughout the world through online platforms; this is surely an advantage.

To me, a great level of interaction with the students is central to the facilitation process. These discussions would result in exchanging many views; information and knowledge that are otherwise less explored in conventional school classrooms. I believe that connecting to one’s own culture and living environment is important and this is constantly addressed in my classroom. Direct, primary-level study of one’s own environment and documentation by noting down personal observations and responses forms a central part of learning. These are then analyzed laterally against other available resources and information, both primary and secondary. Students visit museums, galleries, and monuments with historic significance to study the art and understand the nature of the larger aesthetic practices. All visits are supplemented with actual works on the site. Direct personal one-to-one interactions with artists are highly encouraged.

I try to maintain a healthy level of interaction with my fellow practitioners, both the art world and art educators. This helps me share views and validate my own practice and gain new insights into professional practice. Interacting with the class teachers within the school, students' own peer group outside the art class, and parents and other stakeholders of students' life is very important in understanding and shaping up the pedagogical units to support the learning of a student, who attends an art class only for a few hours. Inviting all these stakeholders in a student’s life to art room learning helps me to not only share the learning that each student experiences but also support a balanced and healthy learning atmosphere. In fact, the development of a good learning atmosphere is the ‘hidden curriculum’. I would like to see pedagogy as ‘a culture for learning’ than just a method of learning. I strongly believe that the collaboration of ‘tasteful’ people in the area of education is a must. It is not the curriculum that calls the shots, but this collaboration of tasteful people. The curriculum is a by-product of such collaborations. To know how and where to follow, invent, change and evolve, contribute or even resist, sensitize and empathize is a part of the learning process. A curriculum is merely a tool that we adopt to bring culture into human life!

I strongly believe that socially we have moved from a position of transforming the knowledge from elder to younger to what could be called a ‘simultaneous knowledge acquisition’. The authoritarian positions have withered, and so has the pedestal. In a sense, the structure of hegemony has been broken down and collaborative forms have developed in their place. Wherever this is not well understood there is a conflict. This new condition has changed the configuration and dynamics of the traditional concepts of the cultural equation; of parent-child at home and teacher-student social equation at schools. Both these, homes and schools, are institutions in a sense, and hierarchical in their nature. Sharing positions with a sense of equal hierarchy may be perceived as a threat in its conventional makings. So the need for a triangular discourse of home -student- the teacher is crucial in our times because parent and school or teacher is a partners in a student’s learning.