Teaching the Arts in Testing Times: A Western Australian Perspective on COVID Impacts

Expert secondary Arts teachers are highly trained specialists well versed in face-to-face individual and group teaching pedagogies. Given the highly personalised nature of Arts teaching practice, the shift to online teaching resulting from COVID-19 lockdowns presented many with challenges for which...

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Main Authors: Paris, Lisa, Lowe, Geoffrey, Gray, Christina, Perry, Angela, Warwick, Lara
Format: Journal Article
Published: SAGE 2022
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/89764
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author Paris, Lisa
Lowe, Geoffrey
Gray, Christina
Perry, Angela
Warwick, Lara
author_facet Paris, Lisa
Lowe, Geoffrey
Gray, Christina
Perry, Angela
Warwick, Lara
author_sort Paris, Lisa
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Expert secondary Arts teachers are highly trained specialists well versed in face-to-face individual and group teaching pedagogies. Given the highly personalised nature of Arts teaching practice, the shift to online teaching resulting from COVID-19 lockdowns presented many with challenges for which they had little or no formal training. Many teachers felt stressed, isolated and unsure about where to turn for help. As there are demonstrated links between stress and attrition, it is important to reflect upon the experiences of these teachers with the aim of developing future mitigation strategies. The research reported here synthesises the online teaching experiences of 15 expert Arts specialists in Western Australia and revealed that being a digital native was not in itself sufficient to ameliorate online teaching challenges. Rather, the study found that teachers with deep pedagogical practice knowledge and a reflexive/flexible approach fared better than those with high levels of technology familiarity. The importance of collegiality and mentoring in an online setting, along with a reappraisal of teaching priorities emerged as key findings and serve as a timely reminder of the importance of collaboration, especially in testing times.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-897642023-01-31T01:46:47Z Teaching the Arts in Testing Times: A Western Australian Perspective on COVID Impacts Paris, Lisa Lowe, Geoffrey Gray, Christina Perry, Angela Warwick, Lara Expert secondary Arts teachers are highly trained specialists well versed in face-to-face individual and group teaching pedagogies. Given the highly personalised nature of Arts teaching practice, the shift to online teaching resulting from COVID-19 lockdowns presented many with challenges for which they had little or no formal training. Many teachers felt stressed, isolated and unsure about where to turn for help. As there are demonstrated links between stress and attrition, it is important to reflect upon the experiences of these teachers with the aim of developing future mitigation strategies. The research reported here synthesises the online teaching experiences of 15 expert Arts specialists in Western Australia and revealed that being a digital native was not in itself sufficient to ameliorate online teaching challenges. Rather, the study found that teachers with deep pedagogical practice knowledge and a reflexive/flexible approach fared better than those with high levels of technology familiarity. The importance of collegiality and mentoring in an online setting, along with a reappraisal of teaching priorities emerged as key findings and serve as a timely reminder of the importance of collaboration, especially in testing times. 2022 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/89764 10.1177/00049441221137074 SAGE fulltext
spellingShingle Paris, Lisa
Lowe, Geoffrey
Gray, Christina
Perry, Angela
Warwick, Lara
Teaching the Arts in Testing Times: A Western Australian Perspective on COVID Impacts
title Teaching the Arts in Testing Times: A Western Australian Perspective on COVID Impacts
title_full Teaching the Arts in Testing Times: A Western Australian Perspective on COVID Impacts
title_fullStr Teaching the Arts in Testing Times: A Western Australian Perspective on COVID Impacts
title_full_unstemmed Teaching the Arts in Testing Times: A Western Australian Perspective on COVID Impacts
title_short Teaching the Arts in Testing Times: A Western Australian Perspective on COVID Impacts
title_sort teaching the arts in testing times: a western australian perspective on covid impacts
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/89764