Artistry in education and aesthetic education : a report of arts-based staff training and learning

Abstract

The central theme of this article is to investigate the potential advantages to school management and teacher training in South Africa of an aesthetic approach or arts-based staff development. It is argued that the field of education with its specific body of professional and scientific knowledge seems unable to offer satisfying solutions to pressing problems in post-apartheid South African schools. It is suggested that the arts should be explored for answers and solutions. The opinions and attitudes of school management teams from some of the poorest schools in the Free State Province of South Africa were analysed in order to gauge whether any positive change had occurred in their professional knowledge, confidence and self awareness after the said teams had been exposed to arts-based staff training and learning workshops. The positive change that was detected may be ascribable to the application of an aesthetic approach being followed during in-service workshops. Statistical analysis of the pre- and post-unit responses of 117 attendants of management training workshops indicated that there had indeed been some statistically significant improvements in their professional knowledge, in their confidence as managers and in their perception of themselves as educational artists. Most appear to have been quite prepared to see themselves as educational artists. The positive changes could provide some encouragement and a kind of quantitative basis for the advocates of aesthetic education.