Mary Hafeli

Negotiating "Fit" in Student Art Work: Classroom Conversations

This study examines the ways in which students and their teachers interpret lesson guidelines, and form individual intentions for and judgments about student artworks in the middle school art class...

Forget This Article: On Scholarly Oblivion, Institutional Amnesia, and Erasure of Research History

Eternal return is a condition that characterizes the world of art education and its scholarship, though it seems that the phenomenon goes largely unnoticed by many writing in the field today. The failure to name our work as part of an existing family of ideas, with themes that may date back to the years 1950-1970 or earlier, has implications not only for how we understand the evolution of the field’s knowledge base but also for the sophistication and depth of our scholarship. This article reveals how, as a custom, contemporary researchers in art education rarely reference early research from the field. Citing evidence from personal experience and from an analysis of citations in research articles published over the past 5 years in Studies in Art Education, I present reasons why the condition exists generally in art education scholarship. Finally, I argue that our custom of not acknowledging early research results in a fragmented, incoherent knowledge base, a condition that may ultimately deter substantive refinements in our practice.

Seeking professional fulfillment: US symphony orchestra members in schools

Symphony orchestra musicians have characterized their careers as stressful, boring, and lacking in artistic integrity. In addition, they typically do not score high on job satisfaction inventories. This study describes how symphony orchestra members seek professional fulfillment through participating in school-based programs. Forty-seven musicians from two US orchestras who were participating in their orchestra’s education program were interviewed and observed in schools working with children. The interview transcriptions and classroom observation field notes and summaries were analyzed and coded for emergent themes. The results indicated that the musicians valued four major outcomes of their work in classrooms: the opportunity to express their creativity that the development of their presentations provided, the relationships forged with schools and children, the impact they could have on individual students’ lives, and the opportunity to serve the community. Orchestra musicians’ perspectives of their career paths appear to be enhanced by providing opportunities for them to work closely with students, particularly in under-resourced schools in their communities.

Learning Through Music: A Five-Year Evaluation of the Cleveland Orchestra’s Learning Through Music Program

This chapter describes a five-year evaluation of the Cleveland Orchestra’s Learning Through Music (LTM) program by a team from the Center for Arts Education Research at Teachers College, Columbia University. The LTM partnership focused on the collaborative development of music-integrated curriculum resources that supported the existing classroom curriculum. Outcomes were assessed through classroom observations, test scores, focus groups, interviews, and surveys. Data were collected from students, teachers, principals, parents, orchestra musicians, and administrators. The results showed that students’ interest in music increased and they developed skills and understandings in disciplines other than music. Teachers’ interest in music increased and their pedagogical skills were enhanced. LTM also had a positive effect on school communities and orchestra musicians felt more closely linked to the community and to children in the community.