To get started with online resources and references, here are two to consider.
A doctoral student, Sho Botham, has created a site about ethics and dance (http://www.ethicsdance.co.uk/). She is currently collecting data for her dissertation from professional dancers. She also has a resource page for those interested in ethical issues specific to dance education. These resources consider a variety of issues including body image and physical health of dance students. Much looks interesting to delve into.
The Music Teachers’ National Association has developed a code of ethics (http://www.mtna.org/AboutMTNA/CodeofEthics/tabid/468/Default.aspx). They have divided their code into three sections – “Commitment to Students”, “Commitment to Colleagues” and “Commitment to Society”. Under each of these are ethical tenets. The code focuses on how to treat others and represent one’s self as a teacher of music. I believe that in our codes we also have a responsibility to include our art form in the code. A section entitled “Commitment to Music” might offer interesting possibilities to consider our ethical responsibility to our art form.
What could our “Commitment to Music” look like? What is our ethical responsibility to music or the other art forms?
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
What would Gandhi do?
Last night in class we discussed Gandhi. We read A Higher Standard of Leadership: Lessons from the Life of Gandhi, by Keshavan Nair, an excellent and readable book that reflects on Gandhi. Nair notes that young Gandhi read and was heavily influenced by John Ruskin’s essays, “Unto This Last”. I know of Ruskin as a modest visual artist but he was also a 19th century thinker and writer. While not all of Ruskin’s points were adopted by Gandhi, the idea that “all work has the same value” struck him.
Ok, so what does this have to do with us and arts education? Follow me through this. The recent Coburn Amendment to the federal stimulus package removed arts organizations of all stripes from eligibility. This struck a huge nerve, of course, in the arts community because to many of us it suggested that somehow our work – our jobs - did not hold the same value as others. Subtext - our work was not worthwhile. Fortunately, arts jobs were included in the final package, including funding for the National Endowment for the Arts. But the initial blow landed.
In light of this national kick-in-the-pants, we need to consider Ruskin’s idea of “all work has the same value”. We very much want our work and our art forms to share equal status with other areas of education. We expect to be fairly compensated for this work. I think this is particularly important in an ethical framework as fair compensation has historically eluded artists and arts educators. We should expect our work and our contributions to schools to be equally valued.
Gandhi would probably support this expectation on our part but I suspect he would also ask us how we are meeting that same challenge. Do we arts education folks also value all work equally? Do we see our own work as special, elevated and different? It would be easy to. The arts can transcend and illuminate. But that could also be a trap that allows us to believe our air is more rarified. Do we recognize that all work has value? Nair calls this “meeting responsibilities while insisting on rights”. Are we willing to do what we are asking of others?
Another possible standard…
- Adequate compensation for arts education work.
Recognizing that work in arts education is a professional undertaking, requiring education and experience, teachers and artists should be compensated in accordance with other professionals across the curriculum.
Ok, so what does this have to do with us and arts education? Follow me through this. The recent Coburn Amendment to the federal stimulus package removed arts organizations of all stripes from eligibility. This struck a huge nerve, of course, in the arts community because to many of us it suggested that somehow our work – our jobs - did not hold the same value as others. Subtext - our work was not worthwhile. Fortunately, arts jobs were included in the final package, including funding for the National Endowment for the Arts. But the initial blow landed.
In light of this national kick-in-the-pants, we need to consider Ruskin’s idea of “all work has the same value”. We very much want our work and our art forms to share equal status with other areas of education. We expect to be fairly compensated for this work. I think this is particularly important in an ethical framework as fair compensation has historically eluded artists and arts educators. We should expect our work and our contributions to schools to be equally valued.
Gandhi would probably support this expectation on our part but I suspect he would also ask us how we are meeting that same challenge. Do we arts education folks also value all work equally? Do we see our own work as special, elevated and different? It would be easy to. The arts can transcend and illuminate. But that could also be a trap that allows us to believe our air is more rarified. Do we recognize that all work has value? Nair calls this “meeting responsibilities while insisting on rights”. Are we willing to do what we are asking of others?
Another possible standard…
- Adequate compensation for arts education work.
Recognizing that work in arts education is a professional undertaking, requiring education and experience, teachers and artists should be compensated in accordance with other professionals across the curriculum.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Getting started
I teach "Ethics & Leadership" in the University of San Diego's Nonprofit Leadership graduate program. My students are working on a code of ethics project and their work has led me to think about the role of ethics in my own field, arts education.
To start, when I talk about ethics, I refer to Frank Griswold's definition. "Ethics is about the rules we choose to live by once we decide we want to live together." I like this frame for a variety of reasons but in part because it involves consensus and choice. I think of ethics not only as regulators (which they are and which we need) but also as inspiration, encouraging us to rise to our better selves.
Out in the field there are a few stabs at codes of ethics in arts education. This led me to wonder if there are some universal ethical principles that might guide all arts education endeavors. Are there some fundamental ethics that could guide and enhance our work in schools and communities?
So, I ask, what might an ethical framework for arts education look like? What tenets or principles might it contain?
Here are some initial thoughts on my part in no particular order. Please respond to these or provide your own.
- Freedom of artistic expression. I suggest that we have an ethical responsibility to our students as well as to our art forms to promote the freedom of artistic expression in educational contexts.
- Sufficient resources for art making and art learning These resources include but are not limited to:
o time allotted to the arts during the school day
o well-trained professionals to teach (both credentialed teachers and professional artists)
o appropriate space in which to make and learn art. The blacktop would not typically be considered an appropriate place to learn math – why would we teach dance there?
o adequate budgets
- Honesty and transparency with donors and supporters. This extends to any nonprofit but it is always good to ask, “Are we using our resources appropriately and in accordance with donor wishes?”
- Authentic criteria for learning and success. Is the use of math and language arts test scores ethical in assessing the arts? Should we consider the ethical ramifications of assessment in the arts? (For full disclosure, one of my current arts education research projects includes test scores as an indicator of student learning. This was a pre-condition of funding the project).
What are your thoughts? I look forward to the conversation.
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