Artistic Frames: An Arts Based Study of Teachers' Experiences with Arts Integrated English Language Arts for Students with Dis/abilities
ARTISTIC FRAMES: AN ARTS BASED STUDY OF TEACHERS' EXPERIENCES WITH ARTS INTEGRATED ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS FOR STUDENTS WITH DIS/ABILITIES by Alisha M. White This arts based, qualitative investigation focused on high school English teachers of students with learning dis/abilities (Baglieri Knopf, 2004) who used visual arts integration (Eisner, 2002) to find out how teachers experience using visual arts in English and what their experiences mean (Zoss White, 2011) in order to understand why certain experiences stood out for the teachers as being important. I framed the study theoretically with complexity theories of teaching and learning (Davis, Sumara, LuceKapler, 2008) while combining aspects of sociocultural theory (Smagorinsky, 2001; Vygotsky, 1978; Wertsch, 1991) cognitive pluralism (John Steiner, 1997) and Dewey's notion of experience (1934/1980) The teacher participants were three high school English teachers employed at an independent school for students with learning dis/abilities. A/r/tography (Irwin Springgay, 2008; Springgay, Irwin, Kind, 2005, 2008) influenced my methodology in that I created visual art to theorize the data and my experiences conducting the study. I collected data during spring and summer 2011. Data sources included participant observation and field notes (Dewalt Dewalt, 2002) photography (Coover, 2004; Harper 2000, 2002) teachers' visual texts (La Jevic Springgay, 2008) artifacts (Prior, 2003) and interviews (Smagorinsky, 2008; Smagorinsky Coppock, 1994) I used qualitative methods of coding analysis (Charmaz, 2006; Ezzy, 2002; Saldana, 2009) and visual analysis (Riessman, 2008; Rose, 2001) as well as arts based methods for educational research (Cahnmann Taylor Siegesmund, 2008) This study fills a gap in empirical research in both English education and special education by examining English teachers integrating art in classes for students with dis/abilities. Furthermore, understanding how teachers experience visual arts integration can inform methods courses for teaching secondary English educators. INDEX WORDS: Visual arts integration, arts based learning strategies, secondary English language arts, teaching students with dis/abilities, teacher experience, meaning construction, a/r/tography, visual research methods, arts based educational research, qualitative research ARTISTIC FRAMES: AN ARTS BASED STUDY OF TEACHERS' EXPERIENCES WITH ARTS INTEGRATED ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS FOR STUDENTS WITH DIS/ABILITIES by Alisha M. White