A Preliminary Stage Theory of Teaching Artists' Professional Development
[Article]
Saraniero, Patricia
Nationwide, many public school districts are struggling to keep arts education available for their students. One response to dwindling arts instruction has been the use of teaching artists. A teaching artist is at once a practicing artist and an educator. The formal empirical research on teaching artists is limited. This study used a mixed-method design, incorporating both surveys of and interviews with teaching artists, to develop a better understanding of the experiences and impact of teaching artists. A sequential quantitative-qualitative analysis process integrated two different data sets into a comprehensive whole that was able to suggest the beginnings of a stage theory of teaching artist professional development. Participating artists were from all four art areas (dance, music, theatre & visual arts) and had done teaching artist work in a k-12 public school.