Bird-Watching and Beyond: Engaging Teachers in Aesthetics in Professional Development

• In Event: Roundtable Session 2
  In Roundtable Session: Bearing Witness, Blurring Boundaries

Abstract

This paper focuses on the professional development of one university-based lab preschool as aesthetic (Rancière, 2000/2004). Jacques Rancière’s (2000/2004) conception of aesthetic as possible in the everyday actions of individuals and communities informs this work. The preschool has dual mission of providing children ages 3, 4, and 5 enriching educational experiences while affording graduate students teaching opportunities in school setting in which theory and practice are woven in the enactment of curriculum inquiry. Situated in New York City, we create opportunities for our teachers to explore some of the resources that are pedagogically contextually unique. Each year our teachers travel to a variety of aesthetic cultural institutions, including, museums, parks and gardens as a central part of our professional development.

Author

• Heather J. Pinedo-Burns, Teachers College, Columbia University