Pedagogy & the Graduate Assistant [ page 3 ]

I was not always so confident and self-assured in my role as a teacher. In 1981, following the completion of my MFA degree, I began my teaching career as coordinator of the drawing and figure drawing programs at a university in the great northern plains. The memory of first walking into a classroom of students for which I had complete responsibility still fills me with a hazy recollection of terror. I was no longer the student waiting to be showered with pearls of wisdom from my instructor. I was the instructor. The sense of awe and responsibility that I felt was overwhelming, especially since my own undergraduate experience in the 1970’s left much to be desired. The majority of faculty at that time remained under the influence of modernist thinking. Abstraction dominated and teaching was often conducted in the laissez-faire tradition of passive instruction or non-teaching, even at the foundation level. In recognizing my own desire to teach at the postsecondary level, I took inspiration from those few teachers who actively engaged with me as a student on a technical, formal and conceptual level. With few exceptions, there were no real lectures or demonstrations given, no slides shown to serve as examples, no textbooks or reference materials as recommended or required reading, no formal group critiques or discussions of materials and process, no mention of current philosophies or issues in the art world. As students, we were often left to fend for ourselves. For the student with some natural ability, it may not have been a traumatic experience, but for the student who needed more guidance and encouragement, it was often an experience filled with frustration and a sense of failure. This was not the environment I wanted to repeat with the students for whom I was responsible. Once again, although in a very different role, I found myself on my own as I embarked on my teaching career.

After two years in the frigid northern plains, I gratefully acknowledged the opportunity I had been given to initiate my teaching career, and sought a new teaching position in a less isolated part of the country. I had the good fortune to be hired at Kendall College of Art and Design, where I have remained since. It was here that I first encountered a group of colleagues who were as active and enthusiastic in the classroom as they were in their own studios. Their energy and commitment as both artists and teachers was what I had been looking for. The recognition that the two activities could in fact nourish rather than deplete each other was a reflection of my own beliefs. Many of us had had similar experiences as undergraduate students, and were anxious to provide our students with a more substantial education. Ironically, it was here as a teacher that I found myself feeling most like a student, and it was here that I came to recognize that learning is an integral part of teaching.

I quickly realized to what degree I was responsible for my own development as a teacher. Although textbooks for students provided some guidance for classroom exercises and emphases, I found myself overwhelmed with innumerable questions about teaching and no consistent or reliable resource for answers. “What do I teach, when do I teach it, what are the best techniques for presenting information, how much homework should I assign, what kind of homework should I assign, how do I set up a syllabus and materials list, what kinds of restrictions or boundaries should I set for the classroom, what do I need to consider in grading student work, how do I handle a difficult student, what should I do if I am asked a question and I don’t know the answer...?” The list was very long. Initially I believed that I was alone in my anxiety and uncertainty. But in retrospect, this was clearly not the case. After countless conversations over the years with new or entry level teachers, including GTA’s, it became evident that my early experiences as a teacher were and are all too common today.

As I became more skillful and confident as a studio instructor, I saw with increasing clarity the significance of the foundation experience for the student of visual arts. The quality of this introductory experience had the power to broadly influence a student’s attitude toward their education in the arts. In considering all the variables involved in a student’s educational environment, including facilities, geographical location, student/teacher ratios, diversification in the student body, socio-economic and educational background, availability of scholarships, grants, and other financial aid, no factor was more important than the teacher. She or he had the capacity to create an atmosphere of wonder, confidence, enthusiasm and joyful anticipation for the experience of learning, or to create an atmosphere of dread, defeat, confusion, discouragement and apathy. As the facilitator of the learning experience, I recognized that the instructor’s attitude, whether positive or negative or indifferent, is highly contagious.