Cultivating Ecological Paradigms in the Art Classroom: Teacher Efficacy and the Ecological Crisis

• In Event: Roundtable Session 26
  In Roundtable Session: Embracing the Arts Through the Art of Teaching

Abstract

In our current ecological crisis, marked by metaphors of difference and separation, an ecological paradigm offers the opportunity to move into a deep recognition of the interconnectedness of living things. To help students develop this paradigm, I designed and implemented a critical place-based art curriculum in my middle school art classroom. Surveys, drawing exercises, interviews, student journals reviews, observations, and focus groups were used to investigate student experiences. Data revealed that students’ ecological paradigms increased as a result of their participation, although the human exemptionalism ideology was still present. Through analyzing the results, I strengthened my sense of teacher efficacy in helping students cultivate ecological attitudes and reaffirmed the potential value of my role as a teacher and curricular developer.

Author

• Joy Gaulden Bertling, The University of Tennessee - Knoxville