Project Team
Adam Ellis, Sociology
Jessica Rumboldt, Centre for Teaching Excellence
Project Summary
This research project sought to explore and understand how urban arts may be utilized as a teaching mechanism to increase engagement in course content and subsequent learning outcomes. In this respect our project examined whether students find learning advantages by not only utilizing pre-existing urban art to learn about core theory/issues, but also as a means to express their own insights through artistic expression (e.g., using hip hop as a visual/linguistic/sonic tool to understand and critically articulate how they see the world).
Questions Investigated
- How can the urban arts and the Urban Artz Lab (UAL hereafter) be used as a vehicle to engage with students?
- How can the urban arts and the UAL be used to interpret and work through complex theories/concepts about the ‘streets’ ?
- Are students better able to retain and apply information as a result of arts-based learning?
Findings/Insights:
- Through student evaluations we learned that access to not only the urban arts lab, but also music/arts materials increased interest in education. We learned that students responded positively to a course that used alternative teaching/learning methods that move beyond the status quo – e.g., mainstream lectures.
- Students demonstrated a high capacity to engage with complex course material. By using a diverse set of learning methods (e.g., in-class exercises/urban art work (Dj’ing, grafittit, beat making, rapping), students were able to use experiential learning to unpack, critically explore and understand course content.
- Through course evaluations, and informal interviews students highlighted that the use of urban arts in the classroom enabled them to better understand and digest course material. They also noted that the urban arts lab/classroom allowed them to have a safe space to discuss challenging life/social issues, contexts that were rare in mainstream courses. Students also indicated that the focus on positionality/autoethnorapghy allowed them to centralize their own voices/stories, again contexts that are usually not supported in mainstream classes.
Dissemination and Impact:
- At the individual level: The work developed through this project inspired my upcoming book Know the Ledge: Taking on the University Industrial Project. In this book I highlight how the urban arts can be used within pedagogy, to not only support racialized/criminalized/marginalized/indigenous students, but to also provide a framework to protect children/youth from the push out of education at a young age.
- At the Department/School and/or Faculty/Unit levels: My colleague and I presented our mid-term findings at CTE’s annual conference.
Impact of the project:
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Teaching: This research project, and the urban arts pedagogy developed, is rooted in my own experience of being pushed out of education. It is also inspired by my own work within the urban arts. This has allowed me to organically develop an alternative pedagogy outside the status quo. That said, I have leaned a lot about the successes and challenges in implementing a pedagogy that is in direct conflict with colonial education. In my time since this course I have lost access to the music studio (that I helped build) as a result of internal faculty politics. Further, while the school promotes diversity in teaching and decolonizing approaches, I feel this is largely performative. I have applied for funding and asked for support in this approach to teaching with no positive outcomes. As such, I teach the course with my won equipment, which is also not enough to support student learning. I am deflated in a way because I have seen the positive outcomes of this approach, especially with non-traditional students. But it feels at times like no one cares.
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Connections with people from different disciplines, faculties, and/or disciplines about teaching and learning: Through this project we developed several professional relationships within and outside of the University of Waterloo. Some of these folks include Jessica Rumboldt (CTE), Kevin George aka Grand Schema (who helped teach students how to rap), and Carols Fernandez who volunteered his time to help with the music engineering.
References
Culton, K., and Munoz, J.A. (2016). Lady Gaga Meets Ritzer: Using Music to Teach Sociological Theory. Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy. 3(1) 35-43.
Holtzman, M. (2005). Teaching Sociological through Active Learning: The Irrigation Exercise. Teaching Sociology. 33(2), 206-12.
Hunter, L., and Frawley, E. (2022). Engaging Students Using an Arts-Based Pedagogy: Teaching and Learning Sociological Theory through Film. Teaching Sociology. 0(0), 1-13.
Rieger, K., and Chermonas, M. (2013). Arts-Based Learning: Analysis of the Concept for Nursing Education. International Journal of Nursing Education Scholarship. 10(1), 53-62.
Perry, M., Maffulli, N., Wilson, S., and Morrisey, D. (2011). The Effectiveness of Arts-Based Interventions in Medical Education: A Literature Review. Medical Education. 45(2), 141-48.