Art (and music, physical education, technology, librarians, dance, and theatre) teachers get called lots of names.
Many school
administrators lump these subjects together into a
conglomeration of messy, untested, classes with the perspective that these
subjects primarily exist to serve as planning periods for the 'real' teachers.
To be consistent with "grade level teaching teams" (ex. Third
Grade teachers) and "subject level teaching teams" (Math
teachers), administrators create a label/category/grouping for us.
In other schools, I
was a member of the "related arts" team. In my high school
placement, I was an "art teacher" (who 'da thought?!), but my
return to teaching in a new district art, music, technology, physical education
teachers, and librarians are generally referred to as "support."
...
Support?
like this kind of "support"?
Or maybe
In February, I posted
a quick and informal survey on the closed Facebook group "Art
Teachers" asking:
In my school district
art teachers, as well as music, technology, physical education teachers, and
librarians, are called "support" teachers and sometimes
"encore"or "connections" teachers. I've been in another
district where we were called "related arts" teachers. I'm curious to
know, how are you labeled in your school/district? What are your thoughts on
the label?
At the time there
were 12,911 members. The post received 231 responses. Most responses were the
"label" without answering the additional questions.
Here are the results
in word-cloud form:
I think the winner
goes to the art teacher who is referred to as a "pull out teacher."
Those who did answer
the follow up questions seemed as frustrated with their label as I am with
mine.
A few of the responses include:
"Using terms such as Encore, specials, etc. are not true reflections of what is being taught. Like a puzzle if you are missing one or more pieces the puzzle is not complete. When educating our children we need to address the whole child not just select parts."
"Support…and I hate it…I always felt like I was an undergarment, a stretchy elastic strap for some kind of improved look…what the hell is “support” - and how does “support” become a subject. I have fought this for decades, but now I say-- I am “support.”"
"We're called the extras, I think it’s so stupid, I hate it."
I have a lot of
questions and thoughts about this leading me to research "label
theory" and art teacher identity. I have seen a few studies about how
labels affect student growth and learning, but I wonder how do labels affect
teacher - more specifically, art teachers - performance and
retention? Are there studies about this?
Let's advocate
for the importance of art, music, physical education, technology, librarian,
dance, and theatre in our schools. Several teachers commented their efforts on changing the label. One art ed professor, Dr. Shannon Elliot created a series of
bumper sticker advocacy tools like the one below to address the
"support" issue.
What are you called in your school? Are you challenging it?
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