Polarizing Prose: E. D. Hirsch and Cultural
Literacy
by
Todd Kefor
March 20, 2012
Theories of education and human development create a sense of
collective structure, a foundation for our critical understanding of learning.
Certain theories gain a foothold and enter the maelstrom of practice and
critique, affecting educational cultures in some profound way. E. D. Hirsch
Jr.’s model of cultural literacy is one such theory, a proposition that has
left a mark- though not without resistance- on the contemporary landscape of
educational thought. What makes E. D. Hirsch, Jr. such a polarizing figure?
Which aspects of his work elicit praise; which spur aversion? What do these
divergent reactions reveal about existing facets of educational theory and
curricula?
In analyzing Hirsch’s contributions to educational and developmental
theory and prevailing critiques surrounding his thought, specific features of
his writing and ideas play a role in the divisiveness surrounding him, a
divisiveness that may actually deter young and emerging scholars from pursuing
“the many fruitful topics for research” suggested by his most controversial
work, Cultural Literacy (1987) (Lazere, 2009, p. 503). Hirsch’s
educational territory is vast, yet his developmental concerns are couched in
literacy- more specifically- in American literacy. Like Dewey, Hirsch’s
brand of educational theory is (primarily) made in- and for- America.
Simultaneously earning acclaim and spurring controversy, the theories posited
by E. D. Hirsch contain several polarizing characteristics: Hirsch’s
distinctive linguistic style and his penchant for implicative audacity. These
traits serve to aid Hirsch in impacting the contemporary educational landscape
but, conversely, elicit a host of critical responses from peers. A
juxtaposition of the interpretations of Hirsch’s style and brashness leads to a
more comprehensive contextualization of his theories regarding literacy,
culture, development, and education.
An Overview of Hirsch’s Theoretical Stance
Foundationally, Hirsch (2006) frames his proposals around a seemingly
perpetual critique of contemporary student underachievement, indicating, “we
have a national responsibility to take stock of the contents of schooling”
(Hirsch, 1983, p. 165). He warns that “employers now often need to rely on
immigrants from Asia and Eastern Europe to do the math that our own high school
graduates cannot do” and cites troubling statistics for American students: “by
tenth grade they score fifteenth in reading among twenty-seven countries, which
is not promising at all for their (and our) economic future” (Hirsch, 2006, p.
1). Hirsch (1983) is even willing to dispel the American symbol of the melting
pot, which juxtaposes the “symbol of the stew pot, where our national
ingredients kept their individual characteristics and contributed to the flavor
and vitality of the whole” (p. 160). He labels this “doctrine” that of
“pluralism” and calls for a restoration of balance between the equally American
traditions of unity and diversity” (Hirsch, 1983, pp. 160-161). Offering an
anecdotal critique of the “remarkable document” that was the curriculum guide
to the study of English in the state of California, Hirsch (1983) reports that,
upon perusal, he did “not find the title of a single recommended work. Such
curricular guides are produced on the theory that the actual contents of
English courses are simply vehicles for inculcating formal skills, and that
contents can be left to local choice” (p. 161). Hirsch (1983) pinpoints history
and English as the crux of culture making.
Hirsch (2006) describes America as being heavily guided by a Romantic
spirit; a spirit “that powerfully influenced our young nation in its
beginnings” and “still dominates our thinking about education and many other
things” (p. 4). In fact, Hirsch (2006) suggests that transcendentalism,
pragmatism, and progressivism can be viewed as cryptic epithets for
romanticism.
Hirsch (2006) characterizes our modern educational movement as formalism,
another educational movement not immune to critique. According to Hirsch
(2006), formalism posits that “instead of burdening our minds with a lot of
dead facts, we should become expert in solving problems, in thinking
critically- in reading fluently- and then we will be able to learn anything we
need” (p. 11) and that such an approach is a “barrier to our students’
achievement in reading”, consuming time and effort that “could be devoted to
gaining general knowledge, which is the central requisite for high reading
skill” (p. 14). Clark (2009) proposes that what Hirsch calls formalism
“infects every level of education, from grade schools to high schools to
universities (at both the undergraduate and graduate levels) to education
schools, the last perhaps most of all” (p. 509). Clark (2009) agrees that
formalism has “become a habit of mind so deeply ingrained in the collective
psyche of educators that it is virtually impossible to change or uproot” and
characterizes it as an “entrenched pedagogical prejudice” that “leaves students
feeling their education is strangely without content — empty and meaningless”
(p. 509).
As recently as 2010, Hirsch has enumerated his literacy-based
educational theories into four distinct arguments and critiques: “prior
knowledge of the subject matter of a text is more important to reading
comprehension than technical reading skill”; “reading tests are progressively
tests of background knowledge”; “instruction in reading strategies is of
limited value and, beyond ten lessons, useless” and “vocabulary growth is
glacially slow, helped only modestly by explicit vocabulary study, which should
be used sparingly and in connection with coherent subject matter” (pp. 12-13).
Reedy (2006) offers a succinct and accessible synopsis of Hirsch’s correlation
between literacy and culture:
Being able to read differs from text to text and requires ‘specific
background knowledge’ that writers assume readers have. (Reading The New
England Journal of Medicine is one thing; reading a Harry Potter book
another.) Writers in our culture do not identify Jesus or Plato but should
identify, for example, Jacques Derrida when writing for the general public.
Jesus and Plato are part of the background knowledge writers expect readers to
have; Derrida is not. Schools that want their graduates to be literate should
teach the shared background knowledge that literate people in our culture
(i.e., those who are able to read and write) possess. This is the inherited
body of knowledge on which the culture is based, and transmitting it to the
younger generation has been the purpose of education in all cultures, ancient
and modern, with the possible exception of our own since the 1960s. (p. 33)
He supplements his arguments, in part, by dispelling prevailing
concerns regarding the negative effects of American society on learning,
“pointing to developed countries whose students read better than ours yet spend
as much or more time on video games, computers, television, and the movies”
(Hirsch, 2006, p. 14). In an attempt to stock support for such claims, Hirsch
(2006) is careful to remove blame from educators, claiming that “there is far
too much criticism of teachers and principals for poor educational outcomes
that have little to do with their native abilities or their desire to help children
and a lot to do with prevailing educational ideas” (p. 16), a strategy that may
backfire in its potential to represent teachers as hapless victims dominated by
established theory and incapable of generating change.
Critical to a survey of Hirsch’s contributions to educational thought
are his theory of cultural literacy and his publication of a text by the same
name. In 1983, Hirsch set the stage for his cultural literacy framework:
“Without appropriate, tacitly shared background knowledge, people cannot
understand newspapers. A certain extent of shared, canonical knowledge is
inherently necessary to a literate democracy” (p. 165). He described a
particular canon of cultural information that should serve as a collective,
foundational knowledge base: “For this canonical information I have proposed
the term ‘cultural literacy.’ It is a translinguistic knowledge on which
linguistic literacy depends. You cannot have one without the other” (Hirsch,
1983, p. 165). To support this dependency, Hirsch (1983) cites foreign language
instruction, pointing out that second language education benefits from cultural
awareness and immersion (pp. 165-166). Pentony (1997) pinpoints Cultural
Literacy’s (1987) thesis:
Cultural Literacy has generated enormous interest since its
publication in 1987. Its major thesis is that poor readers do not know much
about their cultural background and are therefore put at a serious disadvantage
in reading comprehension (p. 39).
Also essential in understanding Hirsch’s concept of cultural literacy
is the duality of the word literacy. To first-time readers, cultural
literacy may suggest a holistic movement along the lines of multiculturalism.
Hirsch views literacy- even in conjunction with culture-
denotatively as it pertains to reading and writing and connotatively, as it
pertains to understanding. Considering Hirsch’s fusion of culture (heritage)
and literacy, Schroeder (1989) writes favorably:
What Hirsch is speaking of is a heritage of symbols that enrich
our writing, speaking, reading, listening, seeing, communication and lives.
This heritage provides a common currency of allusions to events, personages,
literary works and artifacts of different kinds that not only are ornaments to
communication, but often are highly efficient ways of encapsulating
complicated, abstruse or elusive thoughts. So alluding to a scandal as another
“Teapot Dome,” or a riotous committee as a “Donnybrook Fair,” or a tax form as
“Kafkaesque,” or an administrative spokesperson as a “Greek messenger,” or a
beauty as “Junoesque” are shorthand ways of communicating with cultural symbols
that contain far more than a small change of basic literacy. (p. 18)
Hirsch’s lifelong immersion in the world of literature elicits an
emphasis on dwindling literacy as the root of America’s academic decline, which
he labels “tragic”, declaring that “reading ability correlates with almost
everything that a democratic education aims to provide, including the ability
to be an informed citizen who can actively participate in the self-government
of a democracy” (Hirsch, 2006, p. 2). He indicates “the national decline in our
literacy has accompanied a decline in our use of common, nationwide materials
in the subject most closely connected with literacy, “English’” (Hirsch, 1983,
p. 159). He leans toward philosophy in defending his link between literacy and
culture, claiming:
Knowledge of words is an adjunct to knowledge of cultural realities
signified by words, and to whole domains of experience to which words refer.
Specific words go with specific knowledge. And when we begin to contemplate how
to teach specific knowledge, we are led back inexorably to the contents of the
school curriculum, whether or not those contents are linked, as they used to
be, to specific texts. (Hirsch, 1983, p. 160).
Literacy, according to Hirsch (1983), is not just a formal skill, but
also a political decision. He claims that this decision:
To want a literate society is a value-laden one that carries
costs as well as advantages. English teachers by profession are committed to
the ideology of literacy. They cannot successfully avoid the political
implications of that ideology by hiding behind the skirts of methodology and
research. Literacy implies specific contents as well as formal skills. (p.
162).
Lazere (2009) offers his advocacy for cultural literacy, asking:
Is it so unreasonable a goal for all Americans — and especially
college graduates — to be able to read at that level? Many of my middle-class
white college students cannot, alas. I have never heard doctrinaire advocates
of multiculturalism and diversity address the question of what is the
minimal level of common knowledge and reading material that it is advantageous
for Americans of all identities to have in common.Why should this be a taboo
question for open inquiry? (p. 502)
To offer a quantitative option, Hirsch has worked to create an
assessment system, a 115-item test to measure his construct of cultural literacy,
and has reported a correlation of .92 between the Verbal Scholastic Achievement
Test (SAT) and the Cultural Literacy Test (CLT) with eleventh and
twelfth graders in a randomly selected Virginia sample” (Pentony, 1997). As a complement
to his promotion of cultural literacy, Hirsch has also developed a Core
Knowledge Curriculum that has been successfully implemented in existing schools
(Shields, 1992).
It is beyond question that Hirsch has put forth significant
contributions to learning. Also incontestable are the unique aspects of his
theoretical packaging, particularly his style and bravado, which leave readers
and theorists either yearning for more or awaiting the next publication to
criticize.
Hirsch’s Linguistic Style
Hirsch is a writer and a professor of literature and writing. He is
supplied with, and frequently draws upon, sets of linguistic and rhetorical
tools. Some find his prose delightfully literary; to others, his singular
style is merely a carefully tailored cloak for the promotion of radical theory.
Scott’s (1988) review of Hirsch’s Cultural Literacy criticizes the
book’s “summary style” and use of anecdotal material, which tends to obscure
what is an otherwise “serious, documented study by a serious, experienced
scholar, propounding a thesis that is theoretically independent of its
traditionalist wrappings” (p. 333). Scott’s (1988) review claims that Hirsch’s
rhetorical facade tended to push the salient points of Cultural Literacy into
a “background that was widely perceived as either theoretically blurry or just
plain irresponsible” (p. 333). Some even consider Hirsch’s use of the word
“culture” questionable; Schroeder (1989) writes:
‘Culture’ is a slippery word. As Hirsch uses it, he certainly is not
speaking in anthropological terms. His culture is closer to the idea of a
‘cultured person,’ or the ‘cultural events’ section of the Sunday newspaper.
(p. 18)
Seaton (1989) writes that:
The style of Cultural Literacy comes to a surprise to one who assumes
that no book on educational policy gets to be a bestseller without conjuring up
an apocalyptic vision of present disasters alleviated only by the certainty of
overwhelming success if the book’s revolutionary changes are implemented…At any
rate, he ignores the rules of the genre. (p. 1)
In considering Clark’s (2009) characterization of Hirsch’s style and
“misleadingly lucid prose”, one encounters a more favorable stance:
Reading Hirsch is an education in itself, for his clear, quiet prose
continually tests and calls on us to exercise the art of implication and
inference he advocates as vital to reading comprehension. He practices what he
preaches. It is the implications of his argument that are complex, and it is
the logic of implication (or inference) itself that I discuss not only as the
central idea in Hirsch’s two projects — their content or substance — but also
as what most readers seem no longer able either to understand or to practice.
(p. 510)
In his 2009 article succinctly titled Response, Hirsch reacts
to much of the contemporary criticism surrounding his work, beginning with an
acknowledgement of Cook’s kind suggestion that his “account of cultural
literacy has a number of uses in pedagogy and rhetoric” but quickly conceding
that “not everyone has been so kind regarding the rhetoricity of” his work (p.
520). Consider Hirsch’s (2009) paradoxical use of rhetoric to explain
his rhetoric:
For many years I directed the first-year writing program at the
University of Virginia, and I used to teach students that rhetoric is hugely
important. At the same time, I used to describe the ancient Greek quarrel of
Plato and Aristotle with the Sophists about whether rhetoric was more important
than dialectic in human affairs — dialectic being the ancient equivalent of
science. Plato and Aristotle disagreed with each other on that point, for Plato
thought, against Aristotle, that in actuality rhetoric usually trumps
dialectic. Both agreed that this should not be the case, and they tried
very hard to educate their students so it would not be the case for them. Was Cultural
Literacy basically ideology and rhetoric masked as science? That would
depend on whether its science is actually sound, correct, true. (p. 520)
Hirsch’s stylistic voice differs from the more common clinical
discourse of developmental and educational theorists. This voice is refreshing
to some, objectionable to others. Hirsch (1983) himself has stated that “words
are not purely formal counters of language; they represent large underlying
domains of content” (p. 164). In concert with his words, his domains of content
induce an even greater variation and degree of responses. Hirsch’s work is infused
with these domains, pervading his writing and drawing connections between both
related and disparate contexts.
Hirsch’s Penchant for Implicative Audacity
Hirsch’s aforementioned tendency to encapsulate periods of educational
theory into particular “isms” suggests his impulse to offer singular,
individualized models to serve his discourse. This inclination is
mirrored in his attempt to establish a universal cultural literacy list and-
more pervasively- in his unwillingness to shy away from bold, decisive
implication (and explication). Hirsch (2006) willingly acknowledges the
polarizing nature of his discourse, describing his own work as “enormously
controversial”, even “damned with great hostility by cultural reformers and
education professors as a reactionary tract aimed at preserving the
intellectual domination of white Anglo-Saxon males, and as a means of boring
children with mindless drills and stuffing them with ‘mere facts’” (p. 6). The
fact that Hirsch mindfully concedes the controversies surrounding his work may
indeed exacerbate them, underscoring his theoretical staunchness in the face of
criticism.
Hirsch (2006) describes our current schools and colleges as
“anti-intellectual”, a result of “the mistaken dogma that reading is a formal skill
that can be transferred from one task to another regardless of subject matter”,
claiming that “the factual knowledge that is found in books is the key to
reading comprehension” (p. 10). “For children to make substantial progress in
reading,” Hirsch (2006) clams, “they must make early and substantial progress
in knowledge” (p. 11) and, more decisively, “instruction in reading strategies
is of limited value and, beyond ten lessons, useless” (2010, p. 12). Here, in
Hirsch’s willingness to enumerate the limitation as “ten”, we find evidence of
his habit of setting forth an incomprehensibly precise reality, a reality that
can be perceived as narrow, even haphazard.
Hirsch (1983) is perfectly capable of infusing an amalgam of elements
into a single paragraph, prompting his readers to ponder the innumerable
connections between educational theory and anthropology, history, politics,
technology, race, etc.:
Although I have argued that a literate society depends upon shared
information, I have said little about what that information should be. That is
chiefly a political question. Estimable cultures exist that are ignorant of
Shakespeare and the First Amendment. Indeed, estimable cultures exist that are
entirely ignorant of reading and writing. On the other hand, no culture exists
that is ignorant of its own traditions. In a literate society, culture and
cultural literacy are nearly synonymous terms. American culture, always large
and heterogeneous, and increasingly lacking a common acculturative curriculum,
is perhaps getting fragmented enough to lose its coherence as a culture.
Television is perhaps our only national curriculum, despite the justified
complaints against it as a partial cause of the literacy decline. My hunch is
that this complaint is overstated. The decline in literacy skills, I have
suggested, is mainly a result of cultural fragmentation. Within black culture,
for instance, blacks are more literate than whites… (p. 167)
While education is so critically aligned with any number of global
concerns, Hirsch’s tendency to invite an exponential number of tangents within
a brief passage invites an equally exponential number of criticisms.
Not all critics find fault in the implications housed within Hirsch’s
prose. Lazere (2009) notes that Hirsch “generally avoids invective, is benignly
reasonable, and generally tries to reconcile his positions with opposing ones,
as Cook shows with several examples” but admits that Hirsch does “have some
quirky notions that have been justifiably refuted by critics” and is “not
always the most effective articulator of his most important ideas” (p. 501). To
exemplify Hirsch’s missteps, Lazere (2009) points to a particularly bold
sentence from Cultural Literacy (1987): “Only a few hundred
pages of information stand between the literate and the illiterate, between
independence and autonomy” (Hirsch, p. 143). In addressing Cultural Literacy
(1997), Cook (2009) admits that “like other reviewers of Hirsch’s work, I too
sense that there are aspects of the book’s argument with which we can take
exception, elements that fall flat or that do not quite do exactly what they
set out to accomplish” (p. 488) and, ultimately, views Hirsch’s theory of
cultural literacy as “an intriguing pedagogical concept”:
What Hirsch advocates as cultural literacy is not docile enculturation
in some monolithic, stable-knowledge-entity but is something like a heuristic
for rhetorical invention that stresses the relevance of being merely familiar
with certain cultural doxai, opinions, attitudes, or values. Instilling
in students enough cultural familiarity to rhetorically operate comfortably and
nimbly within the bounds of particular bodies of knowledge- whatever they might
be- is an intriguing pedagogical concept and one to which I think we should be
more open. (p. 493)
His confidence unflappable, Hirsch ends an introductory chapter (2006)
with the guarantee that if his “recommendations are followed, reading scores
will rise for all groups of children, and so will scores in math and science”
(p. 21). He stands behind his former theory that “the effectiveness of English
prose as an instrument of communication gradually increased, and after the
invention of printing, through a trial-and-error process that slowly uncovered
some of the psycholinguistic principles of efficient communication in prose”,
suggesting that college “freshmen could learn in a semester what earlier
writers had taken centuries to achieve” (Hirsch, 1983, p. 162). These types of
bold, seemingly slapdash and unsubstantiated statements open the floodgates for
denigration and contribute to the delineation between Hirsch’s supporters and
critics.
In his book The Global Achievement Gap, Tony Wagner (2008)
first acknowledges the general rationale behind Hirsch’s notion of cultural
literacy: “Do I think all students should memorize their times tables? Have a
basic knowledge of geography and the timelines of U.S. history? Be exposed to
Shakespeare? Speak a second language? Absolutely.” (p. 261). Wagner (2008) then
offers an extended caveat that highlights the underlying complexities in
forming a universal curriculum for cultural literacy:
E. D. Hirsch does not include knowledge of Sunni and Shiite cultures
and the long history of their conflict in his list of what’s critical for
cultural literacy; yet without this understanding, you simply cannot comprehend
what is happening in the Middle East today. Similarly, it’s relatively easy for
all of us to agree that the works of Shakespeare should be on the list of high
school classics, but what about a more contemporary book like Reading Lolita in
Tehran by author and professor Azar Nafisi, or world-literature giants like the
South African novelist J. M. Coetzee, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2003,
or a young author like Edwidge Danticat, the Haitian-born American writer who
chronicles the immigrant experience so powerfully? (p. 262)
To contextualize the previous anecdotal nature of curricular priority,
Wagner (2008) openly acknowledges the pitfalls of constructing a universally
applicable curriculum:
First there is the sheer quantity of content, and the fact that it
continues to grow exponentially. In science, what is considered ‘true’ must be
constantly updated- such as the recent change in the definition of a planet.
Content in the humanities continues to expand as well. How do you decide, for
example, which of the above authors all students should be exposed to-
especially when scholars in the field do not, themselves, agree on who belongs
on a ‘must read’ list and who does not? (p. 262)
Ultimately admitting that he does not see an easy solution to
accommodating divergent priorities in a ubiquitous, culturally-sensitive
curriculum (p. 262), Wagner (2008) reveals a fundamental flaw in Hirsch’s
proposition, highlighting the dubious potential for greater academia coming to
an agreement regarding a finite list of essential subject matter for cultural
sensitivity. According to Taylor and Hoechsmann (2011), Hirsch’s cultural
literacy is “a regressive, Eurocentric and andro-centric canon” of “cultural
and historical knowledge” representing a “shrunken worldview” (p. 220).
Simonson and Walker (1988) describe Hirsch’s cultural literacy canon as
overwhelmingly white, male, academic, eastern American, and Eurocentric.
Though commendable in its core intentions, the act of constructing a
finite list of items that are necessary for cultural literacy is, in itself,
brazen. In promoting such a list, Hirsch implies that an individual is capable
of dictating a set of static elements that suit the cultural, ethnic, developmental,
educational, religious, political and personal needs of the inhabitants of the
United States, a country comprised of one of the most diverse populations the
globe has to offer. Though this attempt appears futile, it mirrors the
formation of any curriculum in any state or school, highlighting the same
quandary in any curricular endeavor. As Schroeder (1989) notes, “more than any
other nation we relegate a large portion of education to an uncoordinated
complex of informal, institutional and commercial agents” (p. 17). Despite its
delicacy, this balance of collective standards and educational autonomy is an
equilibrium that Hirsch is perfectly willing to tip in his direction. For this
reason, his work is inherently divisive.
Conclusions
Cook (2009) touches upon the legacy of Hirsch’s work:
Since its publication more than twenty years ago, E. D. Hirsch’s Cultural
Literacy (1987) has become something of an academic urban legend, which is
to say that it has begun to take on a life of its own in the way that all
enduring urban legends eventually do. As everybody knows, what matters
most to the staying power of any good story is not so much its finer
details but its sheer audacity, its power to resonate shock and
provocation”. (p. 487)
Hirsch also compels us- in one way or another- toward the
contemplation of our own expectations for modern education and curricula: do we
want a staunch, directed force shaping our educational progress or do we prefer
to treat such theorists as suggestive, offering unique stances as malleable
entities to be reshaped, reformed? Ellwanger & Cook (2009) describe the
“crucial moment” in which Cultural Literacy (1987) “demanded not only
that we consider the merits of a variety of curricular ideals but also that we
question the assumptions driving higher education in the United States” (p.
471).
Hirsch’s theories were largely posited at the threshold of a
technological dawn. The Internet and our increasing global awareness could have
one of two potential effects on the fate of cultural literacy. Most likely,
educators will need to drastically expand the scope of Hirsch’s Americanized
curricular implications to accommodate the inevitability of cultural expansion
and increasing globalization; less likely is the potential for a reactionary
movement toward reinvigorating the patriotic spirit encased within Hirsch’s
theories, a spirit that remains palpable in certain political and geographical
factions within our nation. The ideal solution is a theoretical compromise that
would expand the cultural horizons of our collective literacy while preserving
the uniquely American history and core as an essential part of the whole.
Ultimately, cultural literacy comes down to identity, and wrestling with the
dynamic between what is taught and what it says about us is likely an eternal,
albeit worthwhile struggle. Like Rousseau, Piaget and- perhaps most
correspondingly- Dewey, Hirsch has left both his progeny and his detractors
with the worthy task of sifting through a singular and powerful viewpoint, a
viewpoint forecasted in Hirsch’s (1983) final paragraph from his original
proposal for cultural literacy:
Where does this leave us? What issues are raised? If I am right in my
interpretations of the evidence- and I have seen no alternative interpretations
in the literature- then we can only raise our reading and writing skills
significantly by consciously redefining and extending our cultural literacy.
And yet our current national effort in the schools is largely run on the
premise that the best way to proceed is through a culturally neutral,
skills-approach to reading and writing. But if skill in writing and in reading
comes about chiefly through what I have termed cultural literacy, then radical
consequences follow. These consequences are not merely educational but social
and political in scope- and the scope is vast. I shall not attempt to set out
these consequences here, but it will be obvious that acting upon them would
involve our dismantling and casting aside the educational assumptions of the past
half century. (p. 169)
In the end, the epitaph on E. D. Hirsch’s gravestone may indeed be
divided into two columns. His work has undoubtedly marked the recent history of
educational and curricular theory, simultaneously gaining ardent support and
fervent protest. His intellectual tentacles reach into countless domains,
reestablishing the ubiquitous nature and value of education. As a nod to his
literary spirit, one might liken Hirsch to a many-tentacled creature; such a
being may represent a worship-worthy idol, a beast to be slayed or a being that
will evolve with the changing landscapes of education and human development.
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Books.
Distributed Leadership as an Antidote for Teacher
Attrition
by
Todd Kefor
2013
Distributed Leadership as an Antidote for Teacher Attrition
Sustainability of a work force is of obvious importance to leaders
across all cultures and organizational structures. Without a sustainable pool
of committed employees, growth is stilted, and the opportunity for inheritance
is sacrificed. Educational systems are not an exception to this sustainability
standard. Despite this understanding, teacher attrition is an undeniable
problem that plagues today’s educational system, as substantiated by the
breadth of modern research surrounding it (Billingsley, 2004; Boe, Sunderland,
& Cook, 2008; Boyd, Grossman, Ing, Lankford, Loeb, & Wyckoff, 2011;
Coladarci, 1992; Doune Macdonald, 1999; Hulpia, Devos, & Roeseel, 2009;
Feiman-Nemser, 2003; Fox & McNulty, 2010; Gonzalez, Brown, & Slate,
2008; Harris, 2003; Ingersoll & Smith, 2003; Margolis & Nagel, 2006;
Muijs & Harris, 2006; Somech & Bogler, 2002).
Each year, waves of fledgling educators choose to abandon the very
profession to which they had devoted much of their adult lives and educational
endeavors. Though this literature reflects the myriad conditions surrounding
and impetuses contributing to such educator migration, it also offers an
equally scattered mélange of solutions for its counteraction. Situational and
regional problems exacerbate the complexities of these teachers’ motives,
making a prescriptive solution to the plague of attrition nebulous.
The intention of this literature review is to synthesize prevailing
attrition literature with the aims and strengths of distributed leadership
perspective. This pairing attempts to align the problem of teacher attrition
with components of and solutions offered by distributed leadership theory and
practice, seeking to answer the question: how can distributed leadership theory
and practice mitigate teacher attrition?
The research identified hereafter reflects the duality of the research
question. A number of studies and papers represent the breadth of teacher
attrition and its link to administrative leadership practice. Additional
literature provides insight into distributed leadership theory and practice,
with focus devoted to portions of such literature that align the motives of
this concept with the needs of educators and emerging leaders on the cusp of
professional departure.
The following literature review includes an account of modern teacher
attrition, an exploration of administrational effects on attrition, and
introduction to the distributed leadership model, and a proposition asserting
the potentials of distributed leadership practices as a solution for the
attrition phenomenon. The distributed leadership model offers solutions to many
of the management fissures that are responsible for, or inadequate in resolving
teacher attrition. Distributed leadership’s malleability, its potential effects
on teacher initiation, and its potential to empower fledgling leaders are
salient among these resolutions.
Exodus: Teacher Attrition in Modern Education
Impeding efforts to reverse the trend of teacher attrition is the
multitude of potential circumstances that contribute to it. Existing research
is, naturally, reflective of this miscellany. Teacher attrition is generally
positioned within research focusing upon personnel shortages, the depletion of
resources and expertise, or the status and working conditions endured by
teachers, resulting in the fragmentation of solutions. (Doune Macdonald, 1999).
It is worth noting that some research has found that, despite claims
of excessive teacher attrition as the chief source of teacher shortages,
attrition and transfer rates are becoming increasingly lower than in other
occupations, denoting a potential overreaction to attrition (Boe, Sunderland,
& Cook, 2008). Despite such claims, the bulk of attrition research is an
inherent representation of widespread concern.
Other research pinpoints fewer, more specific impetuses for attrition.
Some concerns rest within the inbuilt qualities of the job itself. The
widespread lack of adequate compensation is often cited as a contributing, but
perhaps not salient reason for migration (Gonzalez, Brown, & Slate, 2008;
Wagner, 1993). Another factor put forth by Bartlett (2004) is the often
unspoken link between expanding roles and compensation: though the intentions
of teacher leadership policies are often positive, the assignment of increased
obligation with no compensation may be viewed unfavorably if implemented
haphazardly. Bartlett (2004) takes a binary approach in considering the
benefits of teacher empowerment with the drawbacks of rapid responsibility
expansion, a duality that appears to encourage attrition if the balance errs on
the side of overwhelming teachers with tertiary duties and obligations.
Research that proposes few stimuli for attrition is overshadowed by the mass of
existing literature suggesting manifold sources.
Though many studies imply a very particular cause for localized
attrition, solutions for such issues may be equally contained. Of greater
concern are the numerous studies that employ a broad organizational lens and
produce correspondingly commodious results. Doune Macdonald (1999) acknowledges
this complexity, noting that many reported outcomes worldwide suggest that
teachers have become discontented with oppressive administrative chores and
structural reforms exacerbated by increases in accountability and oversight.
Somech & Bogler (2002) explored “the relationships of teacher professional
and organizational commitment with participation in decision making and with
organizational citizenship behavior” (p. 555). Despite studies claiming that
professional commitment has a negative association with organizational
commitment, this study indicated a positive relationship between organizational
and professional commitment with implications for both teachers and
administrators (Somech & Bogler, 2002). One major study found that the three
most influential factors contributing to migration were lack of administrative
support, difficulties with student discipline, and low salaries (Gonzalez, et
al., 2008). Ingersoll & Smith (2003) found that the working conditions
acknowledged by new teachers as factors in their decision to depart include a
lack of administrative support, poor student discipline and student motivation,
and lack of participation in decision making (Ingersoll, 2003). Billingsley
(2004) arrived at four salient predictors of teacher attrition: teacher
characteristics and personal factors, teacher qualifications, work
environments, and teachers’ affective reactions to work (Billingsley, 2004).
A seminal literature review from Doune Macdonald (1999) substantiates
these claims of empirical fragmentation in the teacher attrition literature and
ultimately proposes either a singular focus, or an amalgam of overhauls for:
remuneration, working conditions (including the empowerment of teacher
responsibility and leadership and collegial relationships between teachers and
administrators, support and recognition), and career opportunities and
instructional support and concludes that research concerning teacher attrition
requires the development of more comprehensive databases on teaching personnel
and increased clarity of how attrition is being framed and investigated. “While
not always explicitly stated,” writes Doune MacDonald (1999), much of the study
of attrition is positioned within an individualistic, human capital theory
perspective in line with empirical-analytic methods” claiming that research
suggests “that teachers consider monetary (income, promotion, other benefits)
and non-monetary (conditions of work such as the physical environment,
convenient hours, relationships with co-workers) factors in making career
decisions alongside considering the costs involved in undergoing retraining for
a new occupation and income foregone during this process” (p. 837). Other
studies center on the dire state of retention in special education programs, where
attrition and migration are most common (Gersten, Keating, Yovanoff, &
Harniss, 2001). This literature review depicts a level of complexity drawn from
an accumulation of attrition-prone institutions, providing a bleakly complex
outlook for patterns of attrition in the United States and worldwide.
Despite the fissured landscape of attrition literature, attitudes
regarding the potential for progressive solutions are positive. Ingersoll &
Smith (2003) use data to direct efforts toward transforming existing school
policy instead of relying on teacher recruitment as a means of alleviating
attrition, claiming that recruiting more teachers will not solve the teacher
crisis if substantial numbers of teachers continue to leave (Ingersoll &
Smith, 2003).
Doune Macdonald (1999) claims that attrition may be “seen as a conduit
through which the teaching profession is revitalized with educational
innovation and new recruits” (p. 846). In the end, the management and
organization of schools, though often flawed in districts with high attrition,
can also play a significant role in their solution (Ingersoll & Smith,
2003). The complexity of attrition’s roots points to emergent patterns among
the research; one such pattern is the either deleterious or constructive effects
of administrative leadership on teachers’ attitudes and decisions.
Administrative Leadership and Teacher Attrition
The binary roles that administrational leadership plays in teacher
attrition are a recurring theme among studies and literature. Teacher perspectives
and experiences with school administration are formative in generating teacher
resiliency and overall teacher satisfaction (Margolis & Nagel, 2006), with
one study reporting that migrant respondents cited administration as “one of
the biggest influential factors in not returning to the profession” (Gonzalez,
et al., 2008, p. 6). In studies of teachers, the lack of support by
administrators is often significant, even among their most predominant stress
factors (Keiper & Busselle, 1996; Margolis & Nagel, 2006). More
specifically, participants cited impudence from administration as one of the
biggest negative contributors to their impressions (Gonzalez, et al., 2008). A
large-scale study from The Southeast Center for Teaching Quality (2005a, 2005b)
found a correlation between teacher attrition and a perceived lack of
administrative support and pinpointed divides between how teachers and
principals viewed working conditions in schools. Billingsley (2004) notes that
teachers are more likely to leave teaching when support from administrators and
colleagues is absent or weak. A paper from Boyd, Grossman, Ing, Lankford, Loeb,
and Wyckoff (2011) concludes that teachers’ perceptions of the school
administration have by far the greatest influence on teacher-retention
decisions. While the authors address several measures of school context, the
results of the analysis point to the salience of administrative support in
teacher retention (Boyd, et al., 2011).
On a reciprocally positive note, administrative support is often
aligned with teacher retention. Retained teachers are almost four times more
likely to strongly distinguish administrators’ behavior as supportive and
encouraging than leavers (Billingsley, 2004). Special and general educators who
report higher levels of principal support reported lower stress and more
commitment to and satisfaction with their jobs than those receiving less
support (Billingsley & Cross, 1992 as cited by Billingsley, 2004). Teachers
who planned to remain are more likely than leavers to indicate that they
received support from school administration for inclusion, program enhancement,
and problem solving (Westling & Whitten, 1996 as cited by Billingsley,
2004). Billingsley (2004) also notes that Schnorr (1995) reported that the top-rated
incentive for special education teacher retention was a supportive principal
(88%). This research confirms that constructive, supportive leadership systems
can directly affect the teacher experience in positive ways.
Quite often, the scale and specificity of these studies may indicate
the subjective and potentially localized nature of administrations’ effect upon
attrition. There appears to be great variation in administrative effects on
teacher job satisfaction, with comparatively ineffective leadership systems
generating seismic influence over staffs. Though modern patterns of attrition
do not necessitate an immediate insurgency, the future successes of the
educational system demand sustainability in the form of a populous of prepared
and committed workers who contribute to its sphere and facilitate its
inheritance. Such a populous demands new systems of leadership to usher and
preserve changes that invite and preserve our best and brightest educators.
An Introduction to Distributed Leadership
Progressive leadership models offer direction and structure applicable
to a number of educational plights, including teacher attrition. One such model
is that of distributed leadership, which aims to empower greater numbers of
effective leaders and represents a departure from the traditional hierarchies
stereotypical of educational leadership systems (Spillane, 2005).
In its distributed form, leadership’s ability to stretch roles and
responsibilities across an educational populous in a situation-dependent
context are amplified (Spillane, 2006), offering the flexibility necessary to
counteract significant causes of teacher attrition. Also innate to this
perspective is the empowerment of non-administrative educators, a likely
antidote to many of the disengagements that contribute to teacher
dissatisfaction as reflected in the teacher attrition literature. Spillane
(2005) writes, “From a distributed perspective, leadership is a system of
practice comprised of a collection of interacting components: leaders,
followers, and situation. These interacting components must be understood
together because the system is more than the sum of the component parts or
practices” (p. 150). This approach to leadership as a network counters many of
the struggling hierarchies cited in attrition literature.
Spillane, et al. (2001) claim that “distributed
change perspective
can help leaders identify dimensions of their practice, articulate relations
among these dimensions, and think about changing their practice” (p. 27), a
transformation necessitated in order to relieve teacher dissatisfaction and
attrition. The empowerment of non-administrative leaders under the framework of
distributed leadership allows for exponential and collective leadership in
schools (Spillane, et al., 2001), offering a potential antidote for teacher
attrition.
Distributed Leadership and Teacher Attrition
It is clear from the research that opportunities exist to utilize
administrative systems in a way that promotes teacher retention. A synthesis of
seminal distributed leadership literature and teacher attrition studies
provides a fortuitous arrangement of potential solutions to teacher migration.
A number of studies cite the prevalence of leadership inadequacies as direct or
indirect contributors to teacher attrition (Billingsley, 2004; Boe, Sunderland,
& Cook, 2008; Boyd, Grossman, Ing, Lankford, Loeb, & Wyckoff, 2011;
Coladarci, 1992; Doune Macdonald, 1999; Hulpia, Devos, & Roeseel, 2009;
Feiman-Nemser, 2003; Fox & McNulty, 2010; Gonzalez, Brown, & Slate,
2008; Harris, 2003; Ingersoll & Smith, 2003; Margolis & Nagel, 2006;
Muijs & Harris, 2006; Somech & Bogler, 2002).
Research suggests that policies geared toward refining school
administration may be effective at reducing teacher turnover (Boyd, et al.,
2011). Further research aiming to define and explore the conceptual nature of
support from teacher and administrator points of view is needed (Boyd, et al.,
2011), though when taken as a whole, the literature points to the potency of
leadership’s effect on retention and attrition, approaches to administrative
remedies are ambiguous and fragmented, representing a portion of proposed
solutions to the teacher attrition trend. Providing administrators with
“efficacious” strategies is a “promising approach” to resolving the negative
effects associated with educational transformation (Margolis & Nagel, 2006,
p. 157). The distributed leadership model offers solutions to many of the
management deficits that are responsible for, or inadequate in resolving
teacher attrition. Distributed leadership’s malleability, its potential effects
on teacher initiation, and its potential to empower fledgling leaders are
prominent among these resolutions.
The Malleability of Distributed Leadership
The aforementioned complexity of teacher attrition origins
necessitates an adaptive framework flexible enough to accommodate great
variation. Hope lies in the potential malleability of administrative support,
suggesting that policies aimed at improving school administration may be
effective at reducing teacher turnover (Boyd, et al., 2011). It is clear that
the continuum between school leadership and teachers is fertile ground for
attrition prevention (Boyd, et al., 2011). Prevailing research clarifies
misconceptions of distributed leadership and asserts its malleability
(Spillane, 2005), manipulability suitable for tackling complexities unique to
districts and schools.
Spillane is clear in noting that “distributed leadership is a
perspective- a conceptual or diagnostic tool for thinking about school
leadership…not a blueprint for effective leadership nor a prescription for how
school leadership should be practiced” (p. 149). This flexibility and
conceptual nature is imperative when addressing an issue such as teacher
attrition, which is the byproduct of regional and situational uniqueness. In
distributed leadership, leadership itself is encapsulated as a role that
“involves the identification, acquisition, allocation, coordination, and use of
the social, material, and cultural resources necessary to establish the
conditions for the possibility of teaching and learning” (Spillane, et al.,
2001, p. 24).
Spillane (2005) asserts distributed leadership’s malleability as
suitable for tackling complexities unique to districts and schools. He is clear
in noting that “distributed leadership is a perspective- a conceptual or
diagnostic tool for thinking about school leadership…not a blueprint for
effective leadership nor a prescription for how school leadership should be
practiced” (Spillane, 2005, p. 149). This flexibility and conceptual nature is
imperative when addressing an issue such as teacher attrition, which is the
byproduct of regional and situational uniqueness.
Initiation and the Leadership Network
It is certainly sensible to ensure that any reform directed at
reducing attrition includes an emphasis on teacher initiation, mentoring, and
general career assimilation. Such a model should serve and support new
educators from the moment the ink has dried on their contracts, providing them
with an immediate and effective system of supports and direction. Distributed
leadership theory promotes the development of such a system of support and
direction, a leadership network of sorts.
Doune Macdonald (1999) notes that concerns for attrition must first
focus upon these fledgling educators. Some research suggests that new teachers,
in particular, may tend to ascribe their difficulties to administration,
characterizing the experiences of new teachers as a form of an “enculturation”
process lacking fluidity and quality in induction, intervention, etc.
(Feiman-Nemser, 2003, p. 28). Interactions with colleagues, supervisors, and
students strengthen or weaken new teachers' dispositions toward job performance
and satisfaction, and these teachers may tend to ascribe their difficulties to
existing administrations (Feiman-Nemser, 2003).
Attrition research calls for solutions to flaws in teacher initiations
programs, using approaches and terminologies indicative of the distributed
leadership approach. For example, Boe et al. (2008) call for more varied
and wide-ranging induction programs tailored to a variety of specific conditions
and increased standardization of curriculum and instruction. Fox & McNulty
(2010) propose specific directives or strategies to empower and retain
teachers. These “strategies for developing such affable environments include
understanding the transition involved in becoming teacher, recognizing the
affective phases of teaching, allying with teachers who share a similar
philosophy and pedagogy, seeking opportunities for formal and informal support
systems, and networking with other professionals” (Fox & McNulty, 2010, p.
312). These communal practices work to increase teacher satisfaction (Fox &
McNulty, 2010) and correspond to the distributed leadership perspective, as
Spillane (2005) proposes leadership networks based in part on subject areas and
curricular complexes. The direct applicability of the aims of distributed
leadership theory to the fertile but delicate period of teacher initiation can
hold great potential for systems concerned with the swinging pendulum of
retention and attrition.
Teacher Empowerment and the Distributed Leadership Continuum
Though Spillane (2005) cautions against the oversimplification of
distributed leadership as simply a multiple leader model, distributed
leadership allows for multiple leadership roles within a given school system,
providing a continuum of leadership responsibilities beyond the walls of the
central office. This network of opportunities provides fledgling and veteran
educators with avenues of leadership and influence. Leadership can be
encapsulated as a role that “involves the identification, acquisition,
allocation, coordination, and use of the social, material, and cultural
resources necessary to establish the conditions for the possibility of teaching
and learning” (Spillane, et al., 2001, p. 24).
Spillane, et al. (2001) claim that “distributed change perspective can
help leaders identify dimensions of their practice, articulate relations among
these dimensions, and think about changing their practice” (p. 27), a
transformation necessitated in order to relieve teacher dissatisfaction and
attrition. The empowerment of non-administrative leaders under the framework of
distributed leadership allows for exponential and collective leadership in
schools (Spillane, et al., 2001), offering a potential (but broad) antidote for
teacher attrition. Practical applications of such networks, such as student
teaching practicums, professional learning communities, mentoring systems, and
departmental and interdisciplinary system interactions are realistic means of
extending a given teacher’s experience and influence beyond the challenges of
the classroom.
Attrition literature reveals the potential that teacher leadership
opportunities offer. The bulk of these sources do not explicitly tie retention
to distributed leadership, yet much of the language and strategies appear
parallel. Muijs & Harris (2006) build upon the notion that “teacher
leadership is increasingly being seen as a key vehicle for school improvement
and renewal” (p. 961). The researchers explore both the ways in which teacher
leadership can influence school and teacher development, and what in-school
factors can help or hinder the development of teacher leadership in schools
(Muijs & Harris, 2006), finding that teacher leadership was seen to empower
teachers, and added to school improvement through this enablement and via the
dispersal of good practice and initiatives produced by teachers. The authors
conclude that “a range of conditions needed to be in place in schools for
teacher leadership to be successful, including a culture of trust and support,
structures that supported teacher leadership but were clear and transparent,
strong leadership, with the head usually being the originator of teacher
leadership, and engagement in innovative forms of professional development”
(Muijs & Harris, 2006, p. 961).
Taylor, Goeke, Klein, Onore, & Geist (2011) reveal three
significant ways in which the work of teacher leaders was advanced and
enhanced: “identifying and amplifying their professional voice, deepening and
extending their voice as they plan, and reframing their work/shift
responsibility through constructing widening circles of influence and impact”
(Taylor, et al., 2011, p. 920). These findings are significant to this
literature in their implicit alignment with the nature of distributed
leadership theory and practice, suggesting a number of practical applications
to counter attrition.
Though much of the research pertaining the constructive effects of
teacher empowerment on attrition is implicit, some is conveniently explicit.
Specifically, Harris (2003) examines the relationship between teacher
leadership and distributed leadership, focusing primarily on activity theory as
defined via distributed leadership (Harris, 2003). Harris (2003) indicates
important connections and overlaps between distributed leadership and teacher
leadership and identifies the likely sources of opposition to the idea of
teachers as leaders and investigates how distributing leadership to teachers
may contribute to building professional learning communities within and
(between) schools (Harris, 2003). Hulpia, Devos, & Roeseel (2009) research
the “relation between distributed leadership, the cohesion of the leadership
team, participative decision-making, context variables, and the organizational
commitment and job satisfaction of teachers and teacher leaders” (p. 291),
finding that the interrelation of the leadership team and the extent of
leadership support was strongly correlated to organizational commitment and
indirectly related to job satisfaction (Hulpia, et al., 2009). The authors
conclude,
“To increase the level of organizational commitment and job
satisfaction of teachers and teacher leaders, large schools need to invest in
the cohesion among the leadership team members. This implies that in large
schools the leadership team must lead the school in a collaborative and
interactive way. This can be attained by defining clear roles for the different
team members, developing an open communication where all members can speak
freely and share the same school goals. In defining the roles of the different
team members these elements are more important than a highly formal
distribution of leadership functions and the participation of teachers in
school decision-making” (Hulpia, et al., 2009, p. 312).
Overall, the existing body of relevant research points to the
potential of teacher leadership roles as enhancing voice, opportunity, and
efficacy in teachers. When coupled with the malleability of distributed
leadership and effective induction systems, teacher leadership completes a
triad of antidotal practices that may diminish the trend in teacher
attrition.
Prevailing literature indicates that the distributed leadership
model offers practical solutions to the plague of teacher attrition.
Distributed leadership’s manipulability, its potential effects on teacher
initiation, and its potential to empower young teacher leaders are promising
among these resolutions. Though these potential solutions supply a
theoretical approach to a complementary synthesis of teacher retention and
distributed leadership, existing literature is chiefly implicit in its merging
of the two.
Further theoretical and empirical research is necessary to generate an
effective and practical model of distributed leadership implementation aimed at
amplifying teacher satisfaction and retention. Of additional interest are the
potential effects of distributed leadership implementation on administrative
job satisfaction, retention and attrition.
An ideal model of distributed leadership implementation should,
ideally, take into account the entire range and variety of positions and roles
for the benefit of systems and districts. This model should move beyond
theoretical proposition toward a flexible yet concrete blueprint for both
schools that suffer from attrition and those that wish to maintain or nurture a
positive network of leadership.
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Prevailing Assessments of Creativity: Viability
and Potential for Standardized Application
by
Todd Kefor
March 18, 2012
Abstract
Standardization has become a fixture in American academics, forcing
educators to reassess the nature and value of existing test models. These tests
represent attempts to measure intellectual and academic aptitude, overlooking
other human qualities such as creativity. Existing research regarding
creativity is vast and varied. The following research examines the literature
surrounding major, existing tests of creativity and assesses their academic
applicability. Findings indicate that a synthesis of these tests represents a
feasible option for future assessments. Though several existing test models
contain elements that may be adapted, further development and a trickle-down
incorporation approach are necessary to produce a creativity test that is
viable for assimilation into mainstream academic testing.
In a time of economic plight and educational turmoil, it is tempting
to perceive creativity as a lesser human quality. Creativity’s place in the
world of academia inhabits a particularly esoteric space and is classified via
countless definitions. Despite these challenges and complexities, variations on
creativity’s very definition and consequent applicability appear to promote its
value, particularly during our current epoch, which is largely centered on a number
of traditional standardized tests. An examination of existing measures of
creativity reveals several prevailing frameworks. Facets of these existing
frameworks represent future possibilities for adapting and implementing
creativity tests into mainstream academia.
Though standardization remains a contentious and polarizing topic, the
demand for creativity seems to require a ubiquitous standard of measurement. Is
creativity measurable? Is it worth measuring? Which facets of prevailing
creativity test models represent possibilities for applicable design? What
steps are necessary for synthesizing existing test components to arrive at an
applicable design? Constructing viable responses to these questions demands: 1)
an exploration of the literature surrounding the definition of- and demand for-
creativity and its most prevalent paradigms; 2) the establishment of
creativity’s relationship to divergent thinking; 3) the survey of established
tests of creativity, and 4) an exposition of problems facing the adaptation of
current test models into the modern academic world.
The Demand for Creativity
One of creativity’s most outspoken proponents is Sir Ken Robinson,
(2011), who states:
The pace of change is quickening every day. New technologies are
transforming how we think, work, play and relate to each other. At the same
time, the population of the earth is larger and growing faster than at any time
in history. Many of the challenges that we face are being generated by the
powerful interaction of these forces. The problem is that many of established
ways of doing things, in business, in government and education, are rooted in
old ways of thinking. They are facing backwards, not forwards. As a result,
many people and organizations are having a hard time coping with these changes
and feel left behind or alienated by them. To face these challenges we have to
understand their nature; to meet them, we have to recognize that cultivating
our natural powers of imagination, creativity and innovation is not an option
but an urgent necessity. (p. 19)
Robinson (2011) is not alone in the recognition of creativity’s
contemporary value. A recent (2010) Newseek article from Bronson & Merryman
titled The creativity crisis presents the need for creative thinking and
learning as an issue pertinent to contemporary America. O’Donnell and
Micklethwaite (1999) (as cited by Shaheen, 2010, p. 167), who documented the
growing trend in the inclusion of creativity into educational policy documents
worldwide, cite progress in Canada, where creative thinking is a curricular
mainstay (p. 8); in Korea, where an educated person is defined as “healthy,
independent, creative and moral” (p. 33); in Sweden, where the “conditions for
developing creative skills” (p. 52) are mandated; and in Japan, where The
National Council on Educational Reform has outlined the growth of creativity as
the most important objective of education for the 21st century. A
recent Scottish policy statement (Scottish Executive, 2004) proclaims:
The creativity of Scots- from the classroom to the boardroom- is the
edge we need in a competitive world. Our duty…is to create the conditions that
allow that creativity to flourish- whether in arts, sciences, commerce or
industry. Creativity is as valuable in retail, education, health, government
and business as in culture. (as cited by Shaheen, p. 167)
Standardizing creativity may appear- at first- a daunting, perhaps
futile endeavor. Surprisingly, efforts to standardize creativity have indeed
pervaded scholarly literature for the past several decades. Kaufman, A. C.,
Plucker, J. A. & Baer, J. (2008):
…believe that creativity is a natural candidate to supplement
traditional measures of ability and achievement. One reason is that creativity
is related to intelligence and academic ability, yet not so closely related as
to not account for additional variance. Another promising reason is the
reduction in gender and ethnicity differences. Finally, many facets of
education have highlighted a specific interest in the measurement of
creativity. (p. 10)
As represented in modern literature, the fields of education and
industry place particular value on creativity, indicating a need for a system
of creativity measurement. As a result of its inherent complexity, creativity’s
conceptual mosaic must be explored in order to properly evaluate the systems
that govern creativity’s measurement. If creativity’s elements are indeed
measurable and objective, a collective definition and paradigm must be
determined.
The Paradigms of Creativity
Inherent to any study of creativity are the implications regarding
creativity’s very definition, which is naturally encapsulated in the selection
of test measures. Zeng, Proctor, and Salvendy (2011) indicate “there is
consensus that creativity is a multifaceted phenomenon, which renders it
complex and suggests that a definition of creativity should depend on specific
research interests” (p. 25). Reflecting the complexities in merely defining
creativity is a scientific study from Stenberg and Lubart (1999) that
ultimately reduces its classification to seven specific paradigms. The fourth and,
for the purpose of this study, most applicable paradigm is the psychometric
approach to the study of creativity, which aims to evaluate creative abilities
using quantitative methods and tests similar to intelligence tests (Lapeniene,
D. & Bruneckiene, J., 2010). This paradigm, according to McWilliam &
Dawson (2008), is valuable in that it incorporates scientific methodology in
the aim of measuring creativity, which is by nature abstruse.
The variance of the remaining creativity paradigms illustrates the convolution
involved in pinpointing a universal perception of creativity: the first
paradigm is mystical approach of the study of creativity, through which
creativity is associated with mystical beliefs (Lapeniene, D. &
Bruneckiene, J., 2010). The second paradigm is psychodynamic approach to the
study of creativity based on the thought that creativity arises from the
tension between conscious reality and unconscious drives (Lapeniene, D. &
Bruneckiene, J., 2010). The third paradigm represents a no-nonsense,
comparatively pragmatic approach to the study of creativity whose
representatives are concerned with developing creativity, defined as creative
thinking and problem solving ability (Lapeniene, D. & Bruneckiene, J.,
2010).
The fifth paradigm, which shares traits with the aforementioned
psychometric fourth, is a cognitive approach that seeks to recognize the mental
representations of creative thinking: problem solving and decision making, for
example (Lapeniene, D. & Bruneckiene, J., 2010). The sixth paradigm
includes social-personality approaches in the study of creativity,
accommodating individualistic connotations in the designation of creativity
(Lapeniene, D. & Bruneckiene, J., 2010). The seventh and final paradigm,
according to Stenberg and Lubart (1999), asserts that creativity is born of
confluent sources (Lapeniene, D. & Bruneckiene, J., 2010).
Any study regarding creativity would be remiss to neglect the
contributions of Csiktzentmihalyi (1988), who introduced systems perspective
for the study of creativity (Lapeniene, D. & Bruneckiene, J., 2010).
According to Csiktzentmihalyi (1988), creativity is viewed as a symbiotic
system comprised of three elements: the first element is the individual
(creative person) who masters the knowledge of a specific domain and is able to
change or improve it; the second element is the field which contains experts
who evaluate, accept or refuse creative ideas of individuals; and the third is
domain, or the context in which innovation and usefulness of creative ideas is
defined (Csiktzentmihalyi, 1988 as cited by Lapeniene, D. & Bruneckiene,
J., 2010).
These paradigms represent a careful sample of an otherwise
overwhelming multitude of definitions for creativity. This amalgam of research
concerns for creativity assessors is tempered only by its fourth offering,
which is conveniently pertinent to an investigation into the realm of
creativity testing. The psychometric approach to creativity assessment ties
creativity’s designation to a closely related thought process- divergent
thinking- pushing its very nature toward a more evaluative position.
Divergent Thinking: Psychometrics and Evaluative Potential
Guilford, a pioneer and often-cited contributor to the realms of
creativity and divergent thinking, defines divergent thinking as “a kind of
thinking that doesn’t aim at producing single correct answers, but unusual,
various and original ideas and solutions” (as cited by Kousoulas & Mega,
2009, p. 210). Divergent thinking, or the ability to generate different
solutions to a given problem, is generally accepted as a means of measuring
one’s creative capacities. (Zeng et al., 2011). Kaufman, Plucker &
Baer (2008) identify four aspects of divergent thinking that are frequently
mentioned in the literature: fluency, originality, flexibility and elaboration. Kaufman
et al. (2008) indicate that:
Articles on divergent thinking frequently appear in the major
creativity journals, most books include lengthy discussions of divergent
thinking (some focus on it nearly exclusively), school districts frequently use
DT tests to identify creative potential, and DT tests are used extensively
around the world to assess creativity (p. 15).
This link between divergent thinking and the history of creativity
testing is critical. Kaufman et al. (2008) convey the history of creativity
assessments:
The majority of creativity assessment work from the 1950s through the
1970s—and even the 1980s—focused on divergent thinking. Indeed, given the
perceived overemphasis on convergent skills at the time, the push to emphasize
divergent aspects of cognition was understandable…As creativity became popular
in the 1960s (and was much supported by considerable federal funding in the
United States), much of the research and practical application dealt with
divergent thinking and related assessments. This work serves as the foundation
for all current efforts to understand creativity, hence the continued emphasis
on DT in many current scholars’ work…Second, many of the major figures in
creativity research and education have been fascinated with the role of
divergent thinking in creativity…Developments in the assessment of intelligence
in the 20th century probably put significant pressure on creativity
researchers to follow a parallel path in the measurement of creativity.
Psychometric were a powerful force in the previous century, and as creativity
became a hot topic in mid-century it was natural for researchers to look to
other major areas of psychological assessment for inspiration, with
intelligence foremost among these areas. Given the rather undifferentiated
conceptions of creativity that existed in those years, pushing hard to develop
DT tests was perfectly logical…Fourth, and probably most important, there is a
legitimate case to be made that divergent thinking is a key component of
creativity, and, more specifically, creative problem solving (pp. 15-18).
Robinson (2010) describes a divergent thinking test from George Land
and Beth Jarman, authors of Breakpoint and Beyond: Mastering the Future
Today (1998), in which a longitudinal study measured a sharp, startling
decline (from kindergarten to fifth grade) in student responses to divergent
tasks. This decline represents the apparent need to reconsider educational
theory and practice in order to preserve the human ability to think
divergently, and a valid assessment for creativity and divergent thinking would
provide the foundation that our current, standardized educational system
necessitates.
Despite the relative acceptance of existing DT test models, they are
often scrutinized for their lack of capability in accurately evaluating and
individual’s real-world potential for creative thought and action (Zeng et al.,
2011). Despite this scrutiny, creativity tests that center on divergent
thinking- The Test for Creative Thinking: Drawing Production (TCT-DP) and The
Torrance Tests for Creative Thinking- represent the most objective and
enumerative possibilities for eventual test construction.
A Survey of Prevailing Test Models
The Test for
Creative Thinking: Drawing Production
Germany’s Urban (2005) investigates the drawing production component
creativity tests, extracting this test section from the Test for Creative
Thinking, or TCT-DP. This test, which differs from the literal-based divergent
thinking test systems, asks takers to approach in incomplete visual form,
converting an abstraction into a finished rendering (Urban, 2005). This method
may appear superficially subjective until the criteria, which are extensive,
particular, and thorough- are considered.
The drawings are assessed relative to the following principles: continuations:
any use, continuation or extension of the six given figural fragments; completion:
any additions, completions, complements, supplements made to the used,
continued or extended figural fragments; new elements: any new figure,
symbol or element; connections made with a line: between one figural
fragment or figure or another; connections made to produce a theme: any
figure contributing to a compositional theme; boundary breaking that is
fragment dependent: any use, continuation or extension of the small open
square located outside the square frame; boundary breaking that is fragment
independent; perspective: any breaking away from two-dimensionality; humor
and affectivity: any drawing which elicits a humorous response, shows
affection, emotion, or strong expressive power; unconventionality: manipulation
of the material, any surrealistic, fictional and/or abstract elements or
drawings, any usage of symbols or signs or unconventional use of given
fragments; and, finally, speed: a breakdown of points, beyond a
certain score-limit, according to the time spent on the drawing production
(Urban, 2005). These criteria not only add a level of standard objectivity to
the process, but also create a set of standards attainable for artists and
non-artists, effectively leveling the playing field.
Though creativity is represented in most, if not all facets of
academic study, it is often associated with art. The benefit of the TCT-DP test
and its counterparts (that contain drawing production components) is that
drawing removes most potential age or linguistic-based variability; Urban
(2005) writes of the TCT-DP:
Because of a broad applicability, even to young children, and of an
optimal culture-fairness we decided to operationalise our concept by means of a
drawing production. According to the definition and consistent with the
practical applicability of the test, the objectivity of the administration
procedure, and for reasons of the availability of materials, of a common
perceptional or informational basis, of comparability of the material
presuppositions and conditions for different test takers, certain basic stimuli
had to be designed and incorporated into the test. (p. 273)
Urban’s (2005) claim is substantiated by Cropley (1996, p.227), who
writes:
The TCT-DP is a major addition to the battery of creativity tests. It
offers an approachto creativity tests that goes beyond the divergent-convergent
thinking distinction. It also goes some way towards incorporating
non-cognitive aspects into measurement of creativity. The procedure itself
is interesting for the people being tested as well as for those scoring
the test. The manual reviewed here is highly readable, and is
also thorough, providing not only practical instructions but also
convincing theoretical and technical material justifying use of the test
by both researchers and practitioners.
The Torrance Test for
Creative Thinking
Dr. E. Paul Torrance developed the Torrance Test for Creative
Thinking, or TTCT, in 1966 (Kim, 2006). This test has been reformed 4 times,
translated into at least 35 languages and is perhaps the most cited and
ubiquitous of all creativity assessments (Kim, 2006). The TTCT measures
fluency, originality, elaboration, abstractness of titles and resistance to
premature closure (Kim, 2006). Torrance was very conservative in his contextualization
of his own assessment, never concluding that his tests assess all dimensions of
creativity or should be used alone and recommended the creation of a game-like,
thinking, or problem-solving atmosphere, avoiding the threatening situation associated
with testing (Kim, 2006). Despite Torrance’s own caveats, it is difficult to
locate creativity assessment research that lacks some reference to Torrance and
his tests, and research has indicated that the TTCT is racially and
socio-economically unbiased (Kim, 2006). Kim (2006) writes:
The TTCT appears to be a good measure, not only for identifying and
educating the gifted but also for discovering and encouraging everyday life
creativity in the general population. When used appropriately, the TTCT is an
important part of Torrance’s legacy and dream: to nurture and enhance
creativity among students. (p. 11)
The Torrance model is not without its flaws or detractors as Baer
(2011) has indicated; however, it is often looked upon and cited as the
foundation for many existing test forms and creativity testing in general.
The Neurocognitive Model for Assessing Divergent Thinking
Chiara Brandoni and O. Roger Anderson (2009) of Columbia University
advocate a new neurocognitive model for divergent thinking assessment based on
neuroscientific literature and pertinent cognitive science literature that
currently has strong supporting theoretical linkages to neuroscientific
evidence. This system measures the cognitive responses to an image (painting)
via a complex collection of response data (Brandoni & Anderson, 2009). This
model, though complex and clinical, represents “a stepping stone for future
research in teaching and learning grounded in a more fundamental scientific
basis” citing a “great need in education for the encouragement of production of
new ideas and ways of thinking (divergent thinking)” and providing “a
convenient way of assessing fundamental aspects of divergent thinking”
(Brandoni & Anderson, 2009, p. 336).
Contemporary Research Concerns for Creativity Tests: A Sampling of
Applicability Measures Creativity Tests and Gender-Neutrality: The
Dissertations of Roue (2011) and Donnell (2004)
Consensus would likely indicate that a legitimate assessment for
creativity must be gender-neutral. At the University of Minnesota, Roue (2011)
developed a dissertation that sought to examine and reveal potential
differences between genders in relation to divergent thinking capacities and
offers an exploration of potential gender-bias that may otherwise be overlooked
in considering creativity assessments. Roue (2011) cites “a shortage of
scientists and engineers at a crucial time when technological innovation
depends on the involvement of our nation‘s best and brightest, representing all
segments of our diverse society” supported by “limited research” conducted to
“determine whether there are fundamental differences between boys and girls in
the area of creativity and its key component, divergent thinking”, classifying
divergent thinking as a “critical dimension of inventiveness in science and
engineering related creativity” (p. 10).
Roue’s (2011) study “investigated whether grade level differences in
divergent thinking exist among 8th and 11th grade students. The data collected
were rated by three judges and individual scores were created as an average of
the three judge’s scores. Roue (2011) compiled participant responses, noting
some qualitative results in regard to students’ divergent thinking responses.
Roue’s (2011) research study finds that there is no difference between girls
and boys on the three measures of divergent thinking (fluency, flexibility, and
originality).
Roue (2011) aims for ultimate applicability, calling for “putting all
of these things into a classroom curriculum that avoids teaching from subject
area boxes” to “promote creativity and integration of subjects across the
curriculum” (p. 106). The relative removal of gender-bias in the domain of
divergent thinking serves as a microcosmic representation of the potential
applicability of such tests.
At Texas A&M University, Donnell (2004) produced a similar
dissertation to explore and measure creative behavior in young learners, paying
particular attention to the social constructs surrounding perceptions of
creativity in young people. In exploring the socio-educational frameworks
surrounding young creative minds, the study offers a glimpse into the
possibilities for identifying, preserving, and promoting the creative
capacities of students. Donnell (2004) points to a void in the understanding of
creative development in young learners. In approaching this research, Donnell
(2004) provides readers with the definitions of giftedness; creativity;
fluency, flexibility, and originality (criteria for divergent thinking tests);
friendship, sensitivity, and divergent thinking (attitude survey components);
friendship, sensitivity, and divergent thinking (commonplace definitions). She
cites the Pearson correlation, Torrance Test for Creative Thinking (TTCT), and
Friendship, Sensitivity, and Divergent Thinking Attitude Survey (FSDTAS)
techniques as tools for analyzing data (Donnell, 2004).
Donnell’s (2004) dissertation culminates in declaring that
“correlational results were highly significant indicating that those who scored
high on creativity responded quite differently to the attitude variables than
those who scored low on creativity” and “as anticipated, no significant gender
differences were found in the study” (p. 52). In regard to her first question,
Donnell found “significant relationships between creativity test scores and
friendship attitudes” (p. 53). The response to her second research question
concluded that relationships between student creativity and sensitivity exist
(Donnell, 2004, p. 54). The third research question found that “the highly
creative seem to be more imaginative and curious and often view themselves as
having the ability to solve unusual problems” (Donnell, 2004, pp. 54-55). The
fourth and final research question ends with the assertion that “no overall
significant gender differences” affected student thinking (Donnell, 2004, p.
55).Donnell (2004) lists a total of 7 recommendations for further studies: the
study should be replicated with a larger sample size; the FSDTAS needs further
research to establish its validity; the FSDTAS should be expanded to include
other differentiation aspects; studies should be conducted to explain the
isolation of creatively gifted youth; studies should be conducted to determine
reasons for increased sensitivity in creatively gifted youngsters; studies need
to examine teacher intervention for peer pressures; and studies should be
conducted to help parents and educators understand highly creative students as
divergent thinkers (pp. 56-57).
These dissertations highlight the socio-academic relevance of
divergent thinking tests and represent a consensual elimination of gender bias,
a key concern in any standardized test.
Creativity Tests and Concern for Experiential-Neutrality
Runco and Acar’s (2010) study analyzed the potential for divergent
thinking tests, finding that “experience can play a role in certain divergent
thinking tasks” (p. 146). More specifically, the study shows that originality,
a key factor in most existing creativity tests, is unfairly amplified by
experiential bias (Runco & Acar, 2010). “Given the importance of reliable
and unbiased testing”, these researchers advocate additional research into the
experiential bias encased within divergent thinking assessments (Runco, &
Acar, 2010, p. 148). Though this potential bias must be considered carefully,
experiential factors remain a pervasive concern for all standardized measures
and are not necessarily unique to measures of creativity.
Comparative Analysis: Test Potential to Predict Real-world
Creativity
For the function of their study’s research interests, Zeng et al.
(2011) classify creativity as “the goal-oriented individual/team cognitive
process that results in a product (idea, solution, service, etc.) that, being
judged as novel and appropriate, evokes people’s intention to purchase, adopt,
use, and appreciate it” (p. 25). Seeking to capitalize on creativity’s relation
to the real world, Zeng et al. (2011) subscribe to a definition that “emphasizes
customer satisfaction and business success, reflecting the notion of commercial
creativity” (p. 25). This practical definition of creativity contributes to the
already meaningful nature of this study.
Zeng et al. (2011) characterize existing tests of divergent thinking
as containing six major flaws: “lack of construct validity; not testing the
integrated general creative process; neglect of domain specificity and
expertise; and poor predictive, ecological, and discriminant validities” (p.
24). This characterization leads to a critical synopsis of existing DT tests.
Through a careful survey of the preeminent creative thinking tests,
Zeng et al. (2011) aim to appraise their value. Zeng et al. (2011) design a
study that:
concentrates on addressing the issue of how to reliably, validly
assess and predict people’s real- world creative potential. We review relevant
literatures regarding the concept of creativity, creative process, the
psychometric approach, and DT tests to pinpoint weaknesses of traditional DT
instruments. We then summarize insights derived from this evaluation and
discuss the benefit of developing creativity assessment tools tailored for
specific professional domains (p. 25).
Zeng et al. (2011) utilize the critical theory construct to assess
creativity and divergent thinking assessments, treating existing measures
through case method. Careful attention is paid not only to each test, but also
to the components encapsulated therein. Zeng et al. (2011) categorize presently
available measures of creativity into ten distinct categories: psychometric
tools (DT tests), personality inventories, attitude and interest batteries,
biographical inventories, peer nominations, teacher nominations, supervisor
ratings, judgments of productions, eminence, and self-reported creative
activities and achievements. Subjects include three of the most popular
creativity tests developed through the psychometrics approach, an approach
identified as the most quantifiable (Zeng et al., 2011). For the study, Zeng et
al. (2011) evaluate four DT tests: The Structure of the Intellect (SOI)
Divergent Production Test, the Wallach-Kogan and Getzels-Jackson Tests of
Creative Thinking, and the Torrance Test for Creative Thinking. This decision
to focus on the psychometric measures of creativity adds a necessary
quantitative element to an otherwise qualitative investigation.
Zeng et al. (2011) qualitatively critique the flaws of such tests
through a comparative and critical analysis of their similarities and
differences. The researchers use three tables to offer description and
rationale for the four DT tests, their fourth and final table representing an
instrument accounting for the similarities and differences between the
aforementioned DT tests (Zeng et al., 2011). A developed analysis is offered
for each; critical flaws are exposed, and then explored carefully.
Zeng et al. (2011) argue that “tasks used in creative thinking
measurement should incorporate testing of domain-specific expertise according
to the specific application area of interest” (p. 33); call for the “critical
need to improve current instruments so that they are able to better predict
real-world creative accomplishments” (p. 34); pinpoint the paucity of research
“conducted employing real- world problems to assess creative potentials in
certain domains, which implies appreciable room for further improving
conventional DT tests” (p. 34); and criticize existing tests’ potential for
“discriminant” scoring based (p. 34). In light of these findings, the authors
agree that “no creative thinking test can purport to represent a comprehensive
and adequate assessment of creative potential across multiple domains”
(Treffinger , 1985 as cited by Zeng et al., 2011). These findings result in a
convincing argument that contains several recommendations for future test
designs.
Zeng et al. (2011) conclude that “great room for improvement in
testing creative thinking abilities can be identified upon scrutinizing
presently existing DT batteries” (p. 30). Though qualitative, Zeng et al.’s
(2011) study finds merit in its reliance on widely accepted, quantifiable tests
for divergent thinking. The article includes a thorough and convincing overview
of the tests’ collective shortcomings (pp. 30-34), and offers sound direction
for future DT test constructs. Central to the positionality of the research is
their contemporary and forthrightly identified definition for creativity, which
is a vital component to objective research in a particularly subjective field.
Also appropriate to the research was the explanation for selection of these
particular divergent thinking tests as subjects.
Ideally, the researchers would have proposed a divergent thinking test
model that incorporated the qualities recommended. Though the inclusion of a
propositional model would certainly increase the immediate applicability of
Zeng et al.’ s (2011) findings, future researchers operating in the realm of
creativity measures will find an astute critique of the prevailing tests for
divergent thinking in Zeng et al.’s (2011) Can traditional divergent
thinking tests be trusted in measuring and predicting real-world creativity?
Typically, creativity tests are evaluated in singular fashion, with research
articles promoting or critiquing a given test. In contrast, Zeng et al.’s
(2011) study synthesizes the strengths and weaknesses of several, offering a
broad spectrum of considerations for fellow researchers. Perhaps future
research will employ the very qualities of creativity we seek to assess, ultimately
proposing an ideal test design.
Parallelism between Traditional Academic and Creativity Assessments
An understanding of creativity and the available tests for its
measurement requires an analysis of Stephen J. Dollinger’s 2011 study “Standardized
minds” or individuality? Admissions tests and creativity revisited from the
Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. Dollinger
(2011) weighs the findings of creative measures against the more traditional
American College Testing assessment, or ACT. Another study from Kim (2005)
found a “negligible relationship between creativity and IQ scores,” indicating
that “even students with low IQ scores can be creative” and suggesting that
teacher awareness of latent creativity can only benefit student growth.
Dollinger (2011) claims “College Admissions Tests are designed to predict
academic achievement” but “are often criticized as being biased in favor of
selecting students more inclined to superficial learning than creativity”,
noting, “empirical literature hints that such tests might predict creative
outcomes…but few studies have considered actual creative products” (p. 329).
This quandary leads to Dollinger’s (2011) qualitative investigation, which
stems from four hypotheses posed as research questions:
(1) Does the ACT predict creativity? Assuming an affirmative answer,
two others are considered: (2) Does the ACT still predict creativity when the
best individual difference predictor—openness to experience—is included in the
model? Relatedly, do ACT scores and openness interact in predicting creativity?
(3) Is the ACT still predictive of creative product ratings when self- reported
creative accomplishments are included in the model as a predictor? (p. 332)
Dollinger (2011) surveys and synthesizes existing creativity tests,
culminating in an experimental method through which he samples “720 university
students (61% female) who received course credit in a Personality Psychology
course for extracredit activities in one of four consecutive years”, drawing
parallels between students’ ACT scores and their performance on his creativity
test (p. 332). Dollinger’s (2011) quantitative measure of creativity included:
a) creative behavior inventory (with a set of predetermined correlations to
creative thought and behavior), b) drawing product (in which students are asked
to complete or add on to an incomplete abstraction) and c) photographic
individuality (a portfolio of images prompted by the question, “who are
you?”). Dollinger (2011) utilizes components of generally accepted
creativity assessments hybridized for the sake of his experiment and elicits
the responses of judge panel to objectively evaluate the results of the drawing
product (b) and photographic individuality measures (c). Dollinger (2011)
appraises his sample group through these test components and applies these
findings to their prior performances on the ACT.
Based on Dollinger’s (2011) results, he affirms that “claims that
standardized tests are biased against creative thinkers do not receive support
in the present data” and “admissions tests may be as valid for predicting
creativity as the best personality measures and are probably better for this
purpose than most critics and students themselves think they are” (p. 337). His
findings may imply two divergent possibilities. One possibility is that
existing tests such as the ACT may indirectly account for a test taker’s
creativity, measuring- either indirectly or simultaneously- an individuals
creative capacities via traditional means. A second possibility may imply an
innate correspondence between traditional academic and creative thinking
cognitions. In other words, students who perform well on a standard test such
as the ACT are likely to perform as well on a creativity measure.
Summation
While educators and the educated populace claim to value creativity as
an essential human capacity, this appreciation is not reflected in current
forms of academic measurement. Exploring the literature surrounding the
definition of- and demand for- creativity and its most prevalent paradigms,
establishing creativity’s relationship to divergent thinking, surveying
established tests of creativity exposes the problems facing the additions of
current test models into the modern academic world. Educators must examine the surprisingly
vast and complex research regarding creativity and distill findings into a
practical pilot application; educators must also remain open to unorthodox
approaches (drawing production models) as components to objective creativity
assessments. Adding such a test as a supplement to existing measurements will
aid in its assimilation and provide the time for critical feedback and
revision.
Though constructing a hybridized, collective creativity test does not
represent a comprehensive solution to the promotion of creativity, it does
represent a symbol of value that contrasts significantly with the prevailing-
and perhaps antiquated- system of knowledge acquisition. In other words, what
we test reflects what we value. Though several existing test models contain
elements that may be adapted, further development and a trickle-down
incorporation approach are necessary to produce a creativity test that is
viable for assimilation into mainstream academic testing. In elementary school,
developmentally-sensitive teaching and learning tends to make natural
accommodations for the innate creativity of youngsters; a child drawing, for
example, is viewed as a natural and valuable creative process. On the
opposite end of the spectrum sit both academia and the global marketplace; as
the literature has proven, these factions demand scholars and members of the
work force whose creativity is developed. Between these poles is the void in
which divergent thinking declines (Land & Jarman, 1992).
Kahl, Fonseca &Witte (2009) call for a balance of approaches in
creativity research, suggesting that the psychometric and qualitative
approaches of today require a more qualitative complement. One solution that
demands exploration is a trickle-down approach to creativity assessments.
Junior high school and secondary educators are already burdened with the heft
of the standardized system, and will likely require palpable and convincing
motivation for including creativity and its assessments into an already sizeable
domain of standards. One example of this trickle-down approach would be for
colleges and universities to accept a yet-to-be-developed creativity test as a
complement to (not a replacement for) the SAT, ACT, AP, etc. High and middle
schools would likely heed this call and reconstruct existing frameworks to
cater to the inevitability that some students will elect to take such an
assessment. Kaufman, et al. (2008) note that “the fact that creativity is not
assessed on current measures of ability and achievement is often cited as one
reason why these tests are not valid or significant (p. 11). If creativity is a
natural candidate to supplement traditional measures of ability and achievement
(Kaufman, et al.), educators must meet the demands of today by working together
to develop a synthesized test that is devoid of cultural and gender biases,
available to all students, and acknowledges the innate qualities that may be
passing through the gates of our educational system untapped and under-appreciated.
References
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Baer, J. (2011). How divergent thinking tests mislead us: are the
Torrance tests still relevant in the 21st century? The division 10
debate. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. 5 (4), pp.
309-313. doi: 10.1037/s0025210
Brandoni, C., & Anderson, O. R., (2009). A new neurocognitive
model for assessing divergent thinking: Applicability, evidence of
reliability, and implications for educational theory and practice. Creativity
Research Journal, 21(4), 326-337. doi: 10.1080/10400410903297352
Bronson, P. and Merryman, A. (2010) The creativity crisis. Newsweek.
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Zeichnerisch (TSD-Z) [Test of Creative Thinking - Drawing Production (TCT-DP)]. High Ability
Studies, 7, 224-227.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1988). Society, Culture, and Person: A Systems
View of Creativity. In R.J.Sternberg (Ed.),The Nature of Creativity (pp.
325-339). Cambridge University Press.
Dollinger, S. J. (2011). “Standardized minds” or individuality?
Admissions tests and creativity revisited. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity,
and the Arts. 5 (4), pp. 329-341. doi: 10.1037/a0023659.
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gifted students creativity test scores and self-perceptions regarding
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Echoes of the
Pestalozzian Drawing Method in the Contemporary American Atelier System
by
Todd Kefor
2012
In The Education of Man, Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746-1827) asks,
“What else is education but the reverent joining of the past to the gloom of the
future by making wise use of the present?” (1951, p. 31). It is widely known
that the art teaching methodology developed by Pestalozzi in the 1800s
continues to influence contemporary schools, especially at the kindergarten and
primary grades (Tarr, 1989). Less discernible is the fact that, in the present
American atelier movement are echoes of the past, where the drawing methods
proposed over two hundred years ago by Pestalozzi- though developed, mutated,
and camouflaged- have clung to life.
At present, the United States has played host to resurgence of
classical realism in art education, a revival represented by the establishment
of atelier schools across the continent. Though many of Pestalozzi’s drawing
models are discernibly suggestive of ancient and Renaissance approaches, his
effort to construct a universal system of drawing for all students was
comparatively novel. Pestalozzi’s interest in drawing centered on the
development of children, while the Atelier system arguably represents the apex
of draftsmanship in the United States today. Despite the obvious contextual
disparities between Pestalozzi’s original intent and the motives of the modern
American atelier system, their shared principles reflect a common foundational
structure for academic approaches to drawing and suggest a collective
recognition of the process of drawing as a viable scholastic endeavor.
The Pestallozian Drawing Method: Inception and Migration
Ashwin (1981) pinpoints the infancy of Pestalozzi’s drawing
methodology: “Pestalozzi’s earliest ideas on the teaching of drawing appear in
his diary for 1774, where he records his attempts to educate his three-year-old
son Jean-Jacques. On 14 February the boy was drawing straight lines under his
father’s direction” (p. 140). Prior to this track in curricular drawing design,
Pestalozzi’s career was marked by a number of fruitless attempts to establish
Swiss schools to advance the educational ideals espoused by Rousseau (Efland,
1990). Based on his foundational and inclusive belief that all children benefit
from education, Pestalozzi created schools for underprivileged children,
seeking methods of teaching that would develop their latent potential (Tarr,
1989; Efland, 1990). The foundation of these schools in Burgdorf and later at
Yverdun represented Pestalozzi’s response to a wake of orphans in Switzerland,
where his classrooms included instruction in reading, writing, arithmetic, and
manual skills, and were organized around his view that instruction should begin
with the observation of form (Efland, 1990). Pestalozzi also recognized a link
between observation and the teaching of language and number (Efland, 1990).
His successes in educational practice at Burgdorf began to bring him
international acknowledgment as the leading educational reformer of the early
nineteenth century (Efland, 1990). Pestalozzi believed that people learn by
hearing sounds, both spoken and sung; by the study of form, which includes
measurement and drawing; and finally by the study of number (Efland, 1990). He
also believed that measurement plays a crucial role in making sense impressions
clear in all three areas (Efland, 1990). Punctuating his conviction in the
power of mark making, Pestalozzi only introduced writing after basic line
drawing had been mastered (Tarr, 1989).
Pestalozzi’s eventual curricular framework included three departments:
exercise in form with reference to truth (geometry); exercises in form with
reference to beauty (drawing); and progressive exercises in drawing from nature
(the imitation of light and shade) (Efland, 1990). Seeking a uniform framework
for drawing instruction, Pestalozzi did not supply drawing masters, providing
instead a method that could be used by a regular teacher in a common school
(Efland, 1990).
Pestalozzi discarded the seemingly ubiquitous view that drawing was a
luxury; instead, he believed that drawing had a role to play in the cultivation
of aesthetic receptivity and judgment (Efland, 1990). He was not alone in his
efforts to formalize a drawing curriculum; with Johannes Christopher Buss, a
teacher at Pestalozzi's school in Yverdon, Pestalozzi published a book on
drawing, ABC der Anschauung, in 1803 (Anschauung has traditionally been
translated as "sense impression"), in which they outlined prearranged
drawing sequences, beginning with straight horizontal lines, moving to vertical
lines, oblique lines, and ultimately curves (Tarr, 1989). Buss ultimately
devised a task of systematic drawing methods that would avoid the pitfalls of
trial-and-error methods (Ashwin, 1981).
Most systems of drawing education for children that developed in the
first years of the nineteenth century were restricted to outline drawing and
were made up of a series of exercises starting with simple geometric figures-
straight and curved lines, angles, plane and solid shapes, and simple ornaments
(Efland, 1990). Exercises involving shading and value were minimized, and the
quality of a student's work was judged by precision and neatness (Efland,
1990). Ashwin (1981) characterizes the inconspicuous debt owed to Pestalozzi:
“Many drawing teachers of the nineteenth century explicitly rejected certain
features of the Pestalozzian system of drawing, but almost all courses devised
for the class teaching of drawing made use of certain of its innovations” (p.
149).
Pestallozian drawing found its way to the United States by a number of
routes. The first and most direct link was through his colleague Joseph Neef, a
devotee of Pestalozzian drawing who referred to his mentor’s framework as “a
beloved maxim”, an “immutable rule” (Efland, 1990; Neef, J., 1969). Neef
ultimately emigrated to Philadelphia, where he implemented drawing courses
(Efland, 1990). Records also reveal that drawing was also promoted in curricula
designed by Pestalozzi’s associate Hermann Krusi, whose son eventually
published a drawing course based on Pestalozzian theory in 1872 (Efland, 1990).
Pestalozzian influence in The United States also arrived via a series of
reports on the Prussian schools by such travelers to the continent as William
Woodbridge, Henry Barnard, Horace Mann, and Calvin Stowe; these writers
disseminated their complimentary reports of Prussian schools through the medium
of educational journals (Efland, 1990). Fowle's drawing manual, which was used in
Boston, was similarly grounded in geometry (Efland, 1990). Though pinpointing a
concrete historical link between Pestalozzi’s original methods and contemporary
American ateliers proves elusive, three fundamental parallels- the
predetermined progression of the artist, the emphasis on observation, and the
value of mimicry and copying- reveal essential undercurrents that are difficult
to ignore.
Progression
Not only did Pestalozzi believe instruction should be matched to
children's readiness to learn, he also believed instruction should be sequenced
from simple to complex skills and concepts; these ideas about form, proportion,
number, and sequencing of instruction are clearly illustrated in his method of
teaching drawing (Tarr, 1989). Pestalozzi formulated the lessons as a
teacher-class response sequence in which the teacher demonstrated a line and
identified it, followed by the children mimicking the teacher (Tarr, 1989). The
teacher would then draw a second line, longer than the first, and the action-question-response
sequence would continue (Ashwin, 1981). When the children had mastered these
basic lines, they would be allowed to draw objects whose form could be
expressed with them (Ashwin, 1981). Pestalozzi’s goal was to arrange
information in graduated steps so that differences in new ideas shall be
trivial and almost imperceptible, to encourage students to make the simple
perfect before going on to the complex (Efland, 1990). Pestalozzi (1801/1898)
summarized his incremental, scaffolded approach to drawing:
This should be presented to the child in the following way: We show
him the properties of straight lines, unconnected each by itself, under many
conditions and in different arbitrary directions, and make him clearly
conscious of the different appearances, without considering their further uses
(p.191).
Pestalozzi sought a method that would begin with simple forms and then
move gradually to the complex (Efland, A.1990 D., p. 79). The exercises
proceeded in a strict simple-to-complex sequence (Efland, 1990). Ashwin (1981)
writes, “Turning his attention to the precise form which such a drawing course
might take, Pestalozzi was forced to renounce at the outset the kinds of
complexity which confronted the child in even the drawing of the most simple object
from nature” (p. 142).
Neef characterized Pestalozzi’s emphasis on progression:
Nature, good models, and common sense, shall be our drawing masters.
But neither in cultivating this art nor in any point else, shall we deviate
from our beloved maxim, or lose sight of our immutable rule…We shall therefore
begin by the most simple, and then thence we shall proceed to the easy, by slow
degrees we shall approach the difficult, and by slower degrees proceed to the
most difficult (1808/1969, pp. 46-47).
Efland (1990) articulates Pestalozzi’s urge “to bring all things
essentially related to each other together; to subordinate all unessential
things; to arrange all objects according to their likeness; to strengthen sense
impressions of important objects by allowing them to be experienced through
different senses” (pp. 52-53).
The great ateliers at the end of the 18th century promoted a
neoclassical style of art, a laborious process of building up the darks and
lights in a drawing (Efland, 1990). Students were also required to keep
notebooks in which they made quick impressions of nature and people and were
required to draw from casts for a period of time (Efland, 1990). Though varied
in subject matter and order, most American ateliers incorporate a system of
progression that begins with the “block-in” drawing- a derivation of
Pestalozzi’s “outline”. Artists then begin to build value and consequent form,
copy from Bargue plates, copy a masterwork, draw from plaster casts
(observation), and eventually render the human form.
Pestalozzi’s systemization of order and progression is mirrored in the
modern atelier approach, representing the treatment of drawing not as an
esoteric, loosely structured, experiential phenomena but as a standardized,
successive learning process. Atelier director Juliette Aristides (2006)
validates Pestalozzi’s emphasis on staged progression while referencing the
maturation of the student, claiming “there are no shortcuts to greatness;
becoming a master artist takes a lifetime of sustained effort, study, and
focus. The atelier curriculum points the way to the goal of mastery, but it is
the diligent personal application of these principles over time that determine
success” (p. 14).
Observation
Pestalozzi’s proposed progressions equipped students with the tools
with which to approach observational drawing. Though it may appear
counterintuitive to separate observation and drawing, the twentieth century
proved otherwise. Twentieth-century art movements emphasized originality,
abstraction, expression, and unconventionality, collectively dismissing the
significance of prior artistic movements. The focus of modern ateliers
represents a return to the past, which in turn reestablishes the tremendous
importance of observational skill.
Efland (1990) articulates Pestalozzi’s urge “to strengthen sense
impressions of important objects by allowing them to be experienced through
different senses” (pp. 52-53). Like Rousseau before him, Pestalozzi believed
that nature is the source of truth, and truth is obtained through the senses
(Efland, 1990). In addition, Pestalozzi posited that there is a natural
progression by which the learning process enables the mind to engage the
objects of the world; in the first stages one receives sense impressions that
are vague, disorganized, and confused; later, one is able to find order and
clarity in these impressions (Efland, 1990).
Today, The Ryder School (Santa Fe) atelier instructor Anthony Ryder, a
highly accomplished draftsman, teacher and author, addresses the observational
emphasis in his book, The artist’s complete guide to figure drawing: A
contemporary perspective on the classical tradition (2000). Like Pestalozzi,
Ryder (2000) writes of drawing as a “language” with “its own vocabulary”,
requiring that the draftsperson receive “impressions of the model with open
awareness” (p.11). He claims “students often want to learn how to draw. But it
is far more important for them to learn what they are drawing…the student is
presented with a vast quantity of information…he processes and interprets this
information, formulating it in terms he can understand” (Ryder, 2000, p. 11).
This modern return to observation serves to validate Pestalozzi’s belief that
drawing is, at its core, a sensory experience.
Among observational drawing’s most educative traits is the notion of a
finite reality, an objective, predetermined subject. This objectivity aligns
the expectations of the instructor with those of the student, ultimately
producing a rendering that is innately and immediately evaluative.
The Viability of Mimicry
Central to Pestalozzi’s conception of drawing was the reliance on
imitation (Efland, 1983). The value of mimicry (Pestalozzi) and master copying
(atelier) represents a distinction and departure from Rousseau (1761), who
wrote:
All children in the course of their endless imitation try to draw; and
I would have Emile cultivate this art; not so much for art's sake, as to give
him exactness and flexibility of hand...So I shall take good care not to
provide him with a drawing master, who would only set him to copy copies and
draw from drawings. Nature should be his only teacher, and things his only
models. He should have the real thing before his eyes, not its copy on paper.
Let him draw a house from a house, a tree from a tree, a man from a man; so
that he may train himself to observe objects and their appearance accurately
and not take false and conventional copies for truth (p. 108).
Rousseau clearly influenced Pestalozzi’s aforementioned emphasis on
observation but shirked the tradition of master copying for an explicit
reliance on direct observation. Prior to the utilization of geometric lines in
Pestallozian schools, students taught themselves to draw by copying other
drawings and surrounding art academies began with the most difficult subject of
all, the human figure, a daunting subject for any budding artist (Efland,
1990). One notable benefit of copying is the streamlining of observation: in
executing a copy, students learn to translate two-dimensional information to a
two-dimensional surface before tackling the transfer of three-dimensional
objects onto a two-dimensional plane.
Aristides (2006) qualifies the master copy experience:
By imitating the accomplishments of artists who came before you, you will
surpass your current skill level and gain insights into the master’s working
method and use of materials. This lesson often provides surprising solutions to
problems and enlarges a student’s vocabulary…through the process of analyzing,
deconstructing, and rebuilding a masterwork, you will gain experiential
knowledge of the working methods of the master that cannot be found in any
other way (p. 126).
When asked if he believes copying is an effective component of
artistic progress, Water Street Atelier and Grand Central Academy founder Jacob
Collins responds, “Yes, very much. When I was a teenager, I would go to the Met
and copy from Rembrandt, Gustave Courbet and others, which I did for a number
of years. Most of the time when I copied, I did so in oil, watercolor or
pencil, and although I wasn’t employed as an official copyist, I learned a
great deal” (Wurster, 2007, p. 32). Aristides (2006) claims that the atelier
movement of today acknowledges that a solid path to artistic prominence must
understand and build upon knowledge of the achievements already attained
throughout art history.
In the twentieth century, artistic mimesis was largely frowned upon,
cast aside to allow for experimentation and innovation. Research requires the
coverage and assimilation of existing work in the aim of producing a novel and
defensible idea. Perhaps artistic mimicry represents this same approach,
requiring an artist to benefit from the existing triumphs left in the wake by
generations of masters before setting out to define his or her own artistic
style and niche.
Conclusion
Skilled draftspersons are often thought of as walking aberrations,
individuals blessed with a unique, predisposed skill-set. The error in this
thinking is in its diminishment of the draftsperson’s development, development
Pestalozzi sought to address and promote in his methodology. Pestalozzi’s goal
to formalize a universal drawing program speaks of both his desire to include
all learners and his respect for the developmental value of drawing.
Most of us begin our lives as budding artists- plastering images on
refrigerator doors, seeking to grasp the power of tools and materials,
exploring- with a simple crayon- our conception of what it means to be human.
Though this sense of freedom and wonder with which children approach a piece of
fresh paper is something to be defended and preserved, the age of
standardization requires a renewed effort to reestablish the art of drawing as
an intellectual pursuit, a byproduct of serious investment, planning, time, and
deliberation. Perhaps an accomplished draftsperson is not the consequence of
innate talent, but the embodiment of dedication, intelligence, and curiosity-
qualities that can be built, shaped, and advanced; qualities that will never
fall out of style.
References
Aristides, J. (2006). Classical drawing atelier: A contemporary guide
to traditional studio practice. New York: Watson-Guptill, (pp. 14-126).
Ashwin, C. (1981). Drawing and education in German-speaking Europe:
1800-1900. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, (p. 56).
Ashwin, C. (1981). Pestalozzi and the origins of pedagogical drawing.
British Journal of Educational Studies. Vol. XXIX (2), (pp. 140-142).
Efland, A. D. (1990). A history of art education: Intellectual and
social currents in teaching the visual arts. Columbia University, NY: Teachers
College Press, (pp. 53-86).
Efland, A. D. (1983). Art and music in the Pestallozian tradition. Journal
of Research in Music Education, 31 (3), 165-178. Retrieved from JSTOR.
Neef, J. (1969). Sketch of a plan and method of education. Salem, NH:
Ayer. (Original work published 1808)
Pestalozzi, J. H. (1951) The education of man. New York: Philosophical
Library, (p. 31).
Pestalozzi, J. H., (1898). How Gertrude teaches her children (L.
Holland & F. turner, Trans.). Syracuse: C. W. Bardeen. (Original work
published 1801).
Rousseau, J. J., (1976). Emile. (B. Foxley, Trans.). London: J. M.
Dent & Sons. (Original work published 1761) (p. 108).
Ryder, A. (2000). The artist’s complete guide to figure drawing: A
contemporary perspective on the classical tradition. New York: Watson-Guptill,
(p. 11).
Tarr, P. (1989). Pestalozzian and Froebelian influences on contemporary
elementary school art. Studies in Art Education. 30 (2),115-121. Retrieved from
JSTOR.
Wurster, L. (2007, May). Process of illumination. The Artist’s
Magazine, May 2007 30-3.
The Helicopter Parenting Phenomenon
by
Todd Kefor
2012
The Helicopter Parenting Phenomenon
Parental and familial involvement in the academic pursuits of young
Americans is indubitably essential, and successful learning communities have
modeled the overwhelmingly positive effects that engaged parents can have on
the educational experiences of their children. At the opposite pole of this
parent involvement continuum rests an extreme caricature of such individuals,
known colloquially as helicopter parents. According to Hirsch & Goldberger
(2010), the term helicopter parents typically characterizes “parents—most
often, mothers— who ‘hover’ over their children to shelter them from stress,
resolve their problems, and offer unwavering, on-the-spot support and
affirmation” (p. 30).
Living in an epoch of educational reconstruction leaves no shortage of
significant issues or concerns demanding serious and immediate attention. In a
struggling economy rife with under supported, underperforming academic
institutions, the prospect of paying serious attention to overinvolved parents
may appear frivolous. Upon closer inspection, however, the upward trend in
helicopter parenting represents an intriguing echo of psychological,
sociological, and even economic conditions that contribute to its prevalence.
It is essential to acknowledge “the fact that this behavior describes
a minority of parents” and that it may result from institutional failures in
providing parents with “adequate information and avenues of appropriate
relationships” with schools (Cutright, 2008, p. 40). Yet- like many other
socio-cultural aberrations- helicopter parents may in fact represent a
profound, generational shift in the educational expectations. Helicopter
parenting is a “driving force of change” transpiring in our society, showing no
signs of reversing (Hunt, J. 2008, p. 9). Hirsch & Goldberger (2010)
contend that “50 years ago, in loco parentis was the operating philosophy on
college campuses;” universities were expected to operate as substitute parents,
supervising and guiding student behavior (p. 30). They claim that by the 1970s,
the function of adults on college campuses had morphed to one of “coordinating
and guiding student life” (Hirsch & Goldberger , 2010, p. 30). Today,
Hirsch & Goldberger (2010) believe that “the pendulum appears to have swung
back as the millennial generation arrives at college having experienced the
most involved parents in history” (p. 30). In considering the following
anecdote from Kennedy (2009), the director of university housing at the
University of South Carolina, one appreciates the potential extensiveness of
the helicopter parent:
Recently, a graduate student had failed to check out of a residence
hall before moving to a university-owned apartment building. He was being
billed double, and I knew it. We tried multiple ways to notify the student:
e-mail, voicemail, and even an envelope stuffed in each of his mailboxes, but
to no avail. Finally, his mother called to complain about the double billing,
and I explained to her that we had been trying, without success, to reach her
son. The mother was angry that the school hadn’t tried to contact her instead.
As a student affairs educator versed in student development theory, I attempted
to coach the mother into allowing her son to take care of these types of daily
tasks himself, to which she replied, “he is a doctoral student in biology,
fully immersed in his studies. He should not have to bother with these
details.” I treaded lightly with my response: “Don’t you think it is time for
him to do these things on his own? he’s forty-six.” As you might imagine, she
gave me an earful, along the lines of how dare I tell her how to raise her son
(p. 16).
Despite its hyperbolic effect, the preceding snapshot does illustrate
a demographic of parents who are perfectly willing to go to great lengths in
the interest of their children’s success. This manifestation is reflected in a
2006 study of student affairs authorities at 127 American institutions, in
which 93 percent indicated a palpable increase in contact with parents in the
last five years (Merriman, 2007). The culture of helicopter parenting typically
begins in a natural, more familiar form when children enter school. Most
middle-class parents spend innumerable hours organizing schedules and taking
their children to practices, lessons, to tutoring sessions and enrichment
classes (Coburn, 2006).
Without question, the bulk of scholarly research surrounding
helicopter parenting comes from the higher education perspective. This lopsided
concentration reflects the transition from high school to college as a symbol
of the literal and figurative bridge to independence and maturation; each fall,
vehicles stuffed with clothing, furniture and supplies head toward the campuses
that dot the American landscape, carrying wide-eyed young scholars and their
teary-eyed parents. Though the ceremonial goodbyes often represent a shift
toward adulthood, many parents are unable to cease their incessant involvement
in their children’s lives. In some ways, the college entrance system
facilitates this continued involvement. Parents arrive to college equipped with
a “gamut of personal knowledge about college and how it works” (Cutright, 2008,
p. 40). For example, the college admission and financial aid procedure supports
(and often requires) parent participation. They have been enthusiastically
involved in the “college admissions marathon, reviewing college websites and
view-books and accompanying their children on campus visits” (Coburn, 2006, p.
10). By the time parents drop their children off, they have been on campus
tours and convened with college counselors; they are emotionally invested in
the college choice process and often perpetuate their initial involvement
(Carney-Hall, 2008). The responsibilities of accommodating this seismic shift
fall abruptly on the shoulders of higher education professionals, who have
thereby produced the majority of literature surrounding it.
It is common for parents to enter the collegiate territory with
questions, concerns, and “an earnest, heartfelt intention to be supportive of
both institution and student during the many transitions that are part of the
collegiate experience” (Cutright, 2008, p. 40). Though parents’ investment in
the initial college process is largely natural and innocuous, the perpetuation
of these behaviors has produced the majority of critical literature on the
subject. For better or for worse, parental involvement can affect many
components of the college experience: student development, institutional
philosophies and policies, programs and services, and administrative structure
(Carney-Hall, 2008).
Facets of the Helicopter Parent Dynamic
Unfortunately, as asserted by Carney-Hall (2008), anecdotal opinions
about parent relations overshadow the higher education literature while
scientific research on the influence of parent involvement on college students
is limited. Nevertheless, existing research indicates that the pervasiveness of
helicopter parenting, particularly at the college level, is the byproduct of
specific psychological, sociological, and even economic conditions that
contribute to its commonness.
The psychological facet
There are certain psychological features that characterize helicopter
parents. Helicopter parents perpetually orbit their children, “interceding as
soon as the child faces an unpleasant situation or uncertainty” and often
confess that their own self-esteem may directly dependent upon the success of
their child (Hunt, 2008, p. 9).
In a study done of 408 parents, Eaton and Pomerantz found that twenty
percent of the parents were found to base their own self- worth on the
performance of their child (as cited by Schellenbarger, 2005). This
psychological platform undoubtedly influences their behavior. In a veritable
perfect storm of psychological dispositions, the recipients of this
attentiveness are the generation who has “had their play dates managed and have
been fed a steady diet of ‘you are special and extraordinary’ since birth”
(Hirsch & Goldberger, 2010, p. 30).
The psychological profile of the modern college student includes a
predisposition for clarity. These incoming, rubric-reared students prefer high
levels of organization and loath ambiguity (Hunt, 2008). Along with the
helicopter offspring, instructional styles must morph in order to find the
common ground where true learning occurs (Hunt, 2008).
To repair this psychological quandary, Hirsch & Goldberger (2010)
maintain that we must educate students and their parents about suitable roles
and the path to becoming an autonomous and accountable adult while working with
faculty and staff to embrace a common perception and philosophy about how to
interact with parents and students and respond to concerns without encouraging
psychological dependence. Eliminating helicopter parenting requires us to
“empower students to take responsibility for their education and to develop the
skills they will need for their life after college,” an effort necessitating “a
balance of energies, both coming forward and backing off, guidance without interference,
support without intrusion, and, ultimately, trust in ourselves and in our
students” (Hirsch & Goldberger, 2010, p. 30).
The sociological facet
In addition to this psychological profile, there are several
sociological factors that contribute to the helicopter parent phenomenon.
First, the parent-child dynamic has mutated. Parents today usually have fewer
children than their family of origin, allowing for increased financial and
temporal contributions to each child (Hunt, 2008). Consequently, the
contemporary cohort of college students are a “protected and programmed group”
(Hunt, 2008, p. 9), a “generation of mandatory car seats, bike helmets, play
groups, soccer leagues and swim teams” (Strauss, 2006, p. 8).
In extreme cases, helicopter parents “cross the line into unethical
areas, unwittingly teaching their children it is acceptable to use plagiarism,
falsify records such as high school transcripts and bully others to get their
way” (Hunt, 2008, p. 9). Another sociological force that exacerbates the
helicopter parent phenomenon is the ubiquitous and growing ability to be in
constant communication with others. (Cutright, 2008; Hunt, 2008). Parents
identify lapses or lulls in the chain of communication as deviations from the
norm.
As a secondary teacher, I can attest to the consistency of parent
communications from kindergarten to graduation. In the suburban school district
where I teach, grades, rubrics, newsletters, blogs, websites, links, homework,
assignments and feedback are posted almost daily to a parent-accessible web
system, producing a degree of accessibility that actually allows for the
potential completion of coursework from a remote location. In fact, this
virtual network is stipulated in the contracts of the teachers, who are held to
a rigid and consistent minimum in regard to update frequency and quality.
Emails and telephone conversations are steady and open houses, conferences and
meetings are commonplace. In my district, parents have constant access to a
nearly real-time narrative of their children’s academic experience. Each year,
this system becomes less of an abnormality and more of a norm. The transitional
weaning from this sphere of availability and interaction to the expectations of
young adulthood is littered with sociological complications for such parents.
The economic facet
The economic perspective of the helicopter parent spectacle is one of
great novelty. Though superficially disconnected, current economic conditions
have had a substantial influence on the practice of helicopter parenting.
Parental over-engagement is more understandable when one considers the
tremendous financial investment that students (often buttressed by their
parents) make toward higher education (Kennedy, 2009).
Kennedy (2009) writes astutely about the economic perspective,
founding a theory on the fact that he cost of higher education has overtaken
inflation. She notes that parents of college students are prone to hovering in
an attempt to supervise “the emotional and financial investment they have made
in their child” (Kennedy, 2009, p. 19). Perceiving higher education as an
investment, parents characterize themselves as “consumers and higher education
as a product or service” (Coburn & Treeger, 1997 as cited by Kennedy,
2009). As with any other consumer-product relationship, parents employ their
right to communicate their opinions and demands, especially in scenarios in
which they feel that the product or service is not meeting their expectations
(Kennedy, 2009).
Sympathizing with helicopter parents is possible when viewing them
through this lens of consumerism. As essential contributors with profound
monetary stakes on the educational table, the degree of their involvement,
though questionable at times, is founded on a palpable, fiscal commitment that
may affect their lives in profound ways.
Kennedy (2009) notes that a contributing factor to the perpetuation of
helicopter parenting is the simple fact that it works. If overbearing parents
continue to achieve, in their minds, positive results, this trend may prove
difficult to control. The triad of psychological, sociological, and economic
factors will require a congruently complex set of solutions if notable change
is to occur.
Conclusion
As educators, we cannot run from the hum of the propellers. We are
indeed copilots on the same valiant and sometimes perilous mission of educating
America’s youth, and need to reach for a compromise in the best interest of
young people. A wide-angled, holistic lens that takes into consideration the
entirety of these students’ developmental profiles may provide such a solution.
Like the academic overhaul model exemplified by Geoffrey Canada, the complexity
of the solution must match the complexity of the problem (Tough, 2008). Coburn
(2006) writes that “the challenge is to figure out how to enlist these already
involved parents in our mutual goal of helping students become engaged
learners, competent and creative problem solvers, and responsible and effective
citizens—in essence, helping students grow up” (p. 14).
In response to this call, higher education professionals have begun to
move toward such a compromise, “taking creative steps to enlist today’s
involved parents in ways that promote—rather than thwart—student development
and engaged learning” (Coburn, 2006, p. 14). Colleges and universities can make
vital allies of parents by distinguishing their concerns, attending to them
with timely information and guidance, and keeping circuits of communication open
to give individual attention to particular circumstances (Cutright, 2008).
Others diagnose their presence and are using subtle (and not so subtle) methods
to limit interference with- and speed the maturation process of- their child
(Hunt, 2008). Many universities have established the position of a parent
coordinator to alleviate potential issues (Lum, 2006). Kennedy (2009) suggests
that answers may come from taking a serious look at student development
theories and assessing their applicability to the current dynamic.
Perhaps an approach consistent with the aforementioned treatment of
college students and their hovering parents represents the best solution. This
multi-pronged response system, if successful, could trickle down to the
kindergarten-secondary system.
As educators, we demand of ourselves clear goals and expectations,
appropriate guidance, engaging learning environments and high expectations. If
the goals and expectations for parental involvement are clear and offer ample
opportunity for appropriate, positive parent involvement, we may suitably
channel the valuable willingness of these individuals toward common aims. If we
offer guidance and support to parents who misdirect their energies, perhaps we
can relay them to appropriate forums. Perchance replacing a fraction of
communications- which are currently comprised of technology and mailings- with
more face-to-face engagement will invite opinion and work to merge the
parent-campus disconnect.
The balance is delicate: how direct, how consistent should parent
involvement be? As a teacher, I take pride and maintain confidence in the
abilities of educators to assume responsibility for the nation’s children. As
the parent of two young children, I am becoming increasingly familiar with the
need for- and value of- parental involvement in education. Through the lens of
parenthood, our perspectives widen. On one hand, when it comes to my children,
I am their chief protector, their academic tour guide, and an unwavering
juggernaut of encouragement and advocacy. On the other hand, I recognize that
the complex educational system is best navigated with a degree of realism that
acknowledges its shortcomings. If we are aiming to develop lifelong, intrinsic
learners, the onus of this navigation must be assumed with relish by the child,
the student, from an early age, their pursuits merely supplemented by a
metaphorical pilot, no longer hovering but instead positioned firmly on the
ground, a short walk from the battlefield.
References
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