Higher Education of Art and Craft in Pakistan - Essay Example

Higher Education of Art and Craft In Pakistan Higher education of art and craft in Pakistan Introduction Research in arts is a systematic knowledge generating activity. The instructors teach subjects in schools and universities, and they may make designs to maintain a pedagogical perspective (Pitri, 2003). In this paper, we will seek the knowledge embodied in the art and craft. Exploration within art and craft in higher education has increased recently. For this reason, many researchers have received training in other disciplines such as art history, pedagogy, and psychology. This paper critically reviews the relevant literature concerned with the development and implementation of art and craft education. Focusing on higher education, this paper will analyze the various modes that might contribute to the understanding teaching art and craft of higher education. The paper will reflect an understanding on the knowledge generating activities in the field of art and craft. The paper gives an interpretation of the practices of art and craft of higher education in Pakistan. Historical perspective of art and craft in Pakistan After the independence, Bangladesh was portioned in to two states, India and Pakistan. Bengal was dividend into East and West Pakistan. Due to the geographical distances between East and West Pakistan and culture, the art of Pakistan was developed independently. Their rulers’ discriminatory attitude led to the beginning of the struggle for political and cultural rights. As a result, the inhabitant of East Pakistan adopted indigenous traditions in the arts as a strategy to resist the communal cultural concept of Pakistan based religion (Mansur, 2007). Several art teachers opted to move to East Pakistan. However, a university had already been established in Dhaka, which created a good environment for cultural growth. Excitement of a new nation led to the need for building a separate Pakistan identity for the dividend nation. Following, the first exhibition was established to encourage the rulers to establish an art school in Dhaka and the birth of Pakistan (Selim, 1998). This was an attempt to introduce a Muslim identity to bridge their geographical distance and cultural differences. This strategy was successful; as a result an art institute was established in Dhaka. The building of the institution was very significant because Dhaka had no schools or galleries. Artists integrated to expand the intelligentsia group in Dhaka, and become against the Pakistani rulers. It was the beginning of the long involvements of the artists with the political struggle. The art of these artists addressed the environment as well as the society within which they were living. They adopted the contextual use of the modern language. Their art addressed the environment and society within which they were situated (Kumar, 2002). One of the most influential was Abiden, the founder of institute of fine art. The institute was committed to creating conducive environment for learning art artists. In the late 1930s, the academic art schools started to show the influence of the European. Art and craft in higher education A clear definition of art and craft and clarifying its importance has been a major challenge among many scholars. Rogers and Plaster (1994) suggest that art educators should clarify understanding of art and the goals of art education, as well as examine the beliefs about art and art education, held by those in positions to make and affect policies. Studies have show the problems encountered in understanding the educative process in the realm of arts, are enormously difficult because of artistic learning and aesthetic experience are very sophisticated aspects of human action. The art education has dominated such that it is to a point of becoming an anachronism art and craft subject neither meets the needs of students and the society as a whole nor keeps pace with professional practice (Steers, 2005). Art and craft education in Pakistan is taught throughout the secondary schools, and it is taught in courses at Universities and University Colleges within the various teacher trainings. There is also a teacher training for Art and Crafts on bachelor level, and Art and Crafts is a subject and research area on master’s level. In teacher education, the subjects areas are the same, while, in the art and craft training, the subject are pedagogic, art history, theory, and practical aesthetical work (Swann, 2005). The field of Art and Crafts is different from other art and design courses because of its context of an application. Making professionals in art and craft Art and craft researcher Chanda (1998) claims that art and craft has been given much attention when the national education priorities were affirmed. Introduction of art and craft curriculum in higher education enable the students to identify the attributes required for teaching the subject and how the learners can promote or hinder artistic development through interaction with others. The significance of art and craft to the curriculum is very essential to the students because it will enable them to develop creative and problem-solving skills. For this reason, untrained teachers in art and craft may hold particular views on the student’s creativity. Thus, creative students need teachers with the confidence to take creative risks. In addition to creativity, Sharp (2004) states that that art and craft stimulates student’s imaginative capacities and powers of observation and broadens student’s appreciation of the beauty of nature and development of respect for their environment. According to Shusterman (2006) aesthetics is crucial because it helps us to understand the power of the history of art. Much has been done in Pakistan art and craft curriculum, the students are presented with a variety of images and artifacts of art, and craft. Viewing artwork, the educator can determine what the student notice about a particular work and how they feel about every process of encountering the artwork. The student teacher learns how to encourage the students to talk about art and craft objects, so that they can generate interest in making art and craft and nature art language development. Art and craft play an important role in helping students express their feelings. Most art and craft researchers believe that art and craft has a value in expressing a person’s feelings and emotions. The student should be encouraged to invent different means of expression and communication. The value of art and craft in the curriculum helps the students to communicate their own ideas and beliefs that are related to their cultural experiences. There already may be sculptures that commemorate historical events or people. Thus, it would be useful to students to create their timeline ranging from a particular history to current events (Pitri, 2003). Students should be exposed to past cultures to study and recognize the importance of history through artifacts. Pitri (2003) emphasizes that art and craft help pupils to understand cultural change and differences because they are characteristic expression of any culture. Art and craft course is a vehicle for promoting self-expression, imagination, creativity and knowledge of an individual effective potential. The educationist also refers it to be a convectional scholastic subject. Introduction of art and craft in higher education may help the students to prepare more adequately in case future problems, opportunities and need. The role of art and craft education enables the students to fulfill their part as the public representative. The individuals will be involved in making decisions about artists’ plans, proposals, museums, art gallery, and many others that require informed and educates aesthetic judgments and discrimination (Walker, 1996). Research on Education in Art and Crafts as a making professional There are two main approaches in research in education in art and creates as a making professional namely knowledge production disciplinarily. Through research, we have come across four modes for the implicit and the explicit aspects relating to teaching and learning art and craft. These modes are learning from the professionals, mastery of techniques, exploring ideas, and developing products. Specific knowledge and skills are taught, and creating an environment allows the students to develop the process of art and craft. The content and creativity modes are consistent with ideas of creativity in creating products and designs that are original. Learning from the professionals In a traditional perspective, learning from the masters is a process whereby the students are apprenticed to master and learns from watching and emulating the styles of the educator. In a contemporary approach, this may involve explicit imitation of a particular artist and reproduction of various artworks. It incorporates viewing and score analysis of different artist, time period, and styles (Lynch, 2001). These activities would result in students building a knowledge base with which to frame their designs, and to broaden their ‘art and craft perspective so that they are less likely to copy ideas and designs of the artists. Therefore, art and craft education in the higher institution is very paramount and uses teaching strategies such as lecture, demonstration, and modeling. Learning activities in Pakistan consist of the completion of short exercise emulating a particular artist or designer styles, and where the students identify designer techniques through score analysis and observation. Mastery of techniques Students must learn the design techniques for them to become a set of tools that are then drawn upon subconsciously. Students are encouraged to try various compositional techniques, and some textbooks are providing suggested exercises (Trimis and Savva, 2004). The students master discrete skills in an approach painting by numbers. Mastery of techniques is a demonstration and modeling, and learning activities and assessment tasks. These techniques consist of exercises that indicate the student understanding and application of several techniques. Teaching strategies involve creating an environment where students will learn, as well as practice content knowledge and skills essential by the teacher (Ohio State University TETAC Mentors, 2002). As such, this mode could be regarded as teacher-centered. The remaining two modes are qualitatively different because they are more concerned with the creative process. Exploring ideas The students are encouraged to work continually to refine their products. The emphasis is on students to revise and extend their work, and engaging in actions of self-reflection. One of the problem-solving techniques is trial and error. This allows the students to explore ideas from skill and techniques. Students become more creative by using senses, feelings and intuition. In this mode, the teaching strategies used help the student to have freedom and space for design ideas through formative feedback (Ortegren, 2007). The educator’s role is to guide and advice. Learning activities include presenting and workshop, peer feedback, and reflective practice. Assessment strategies could include reflective journals and peer evaluation and would allow freedom for the student to choose their own path. Exploring ideas emphasis on the whole composition and learning process, rather than on discrete exercises and techniques of a particular artist. Exploring ideas is mainly developed in higher education where trial and error experimentation is actively encouraged, and creative problem-solving. In the research on teaching and learning art with pre-service teacher in higher education, group drawing tasks are used to model approaches that pre-service teachers might be expected to use in their own classroom. Developing ideas It is assumed that the student learns a design based on other three models, and they can be creative and develop their own products and styles. The role of the educator reduces, which allow the student to have freedom to find their own creativity resulting in personal style and individual expression. The instructor takes the role of the advisor and mentor. Teaching strategies that are clear are based on examining intentions and problem-solving where the teacher’s intention is not to be prescriptive (Szekely, 2005). Developing ideas and assessment strategies are student-centered to allow the student to have a range of choice and freedom without limitations (Pavlou, 2004). For this reason, it is important to emphasis on group artwork in the development of individual design. This appears appropriate because in higher institution, the emphasis seems to be on meaning making, and empowerment rather than development of unique design. The instructor uses multiple assessments to have an in-depth knowledge and disposition of the student teacher. Importance of art and craft in higher education The works of the modern art pioneers in Pakistan has preserved links to the continuity and the emergence of shifting ideas of new nation and cultural identity. The generation of artists who were the former students of Dhaka, went to USA and Europe to study. Art has led to the establishment of new nation which is connected to with the whole world. The students have become part of the international scene of the modern art through training in art Institute of Dhaka by using the methods of Calcutta Art School (Mansur, 2007). The painters used abstraction because it represented the emotional, artistic, intellectual and the understanding of the art. Art and craft in Pakistan has brought hope for democratic and socialist country which allowed the Bengali culture to flourish. The artists also got an opportunity to travel to various countries worldwide and participation in international exhibitions, resulting in a relation with the worlds in art and education. The contacts with the foreign countries have brought further changes in the art world. The new generation artists have renewed the inspiration for the Bengali culture, which helped people to communicate and effort to incorporate social and political influence in their work. Due to the increase in demand in the contemporary art world, Pakistan artists have connected with artists in the world. Participation in the Venice Biennales in 2011 and the Art summit has increased the probability of Pakistan to reach the global art space. Dhaka has also developed an art market with various artists, collectors, and critics. Multinational enterprises, entrepreneur, and company owners have come to figure strongly in the local art world. Art and culture are significant tools of power and control. References List Sharp, C. (2004). Developing Young Children’s Creativity: What Can We Learn from Research? National Foundation for Education Research, available at: http://www.nfer.ac.uk/nfer/publications/55502/55502.pdf Chanda, J. (1998). Art History Methods: Three Options for Art Education Practice. The Journal of Aesthetic Education, 51 (5) 17-24 Lynch, G. (2001). The Importance of Art in Child Development: Available athttp://www.pbs.org/parents/education/music-arts/the-importance-of-art-inchild-development/. Kumar, R. Siva. (2002). Culture Specificity, Art Language and the Practice of Modernism: An Indian Perspective’, in Pratapaditya Pal (ed.), Marg A Magazine of the Arts, 53(3), pp. 8-19. Mansur, A (2007). Painting: Colonial Period to the Present, in Lala Rukh Selim (ed.), Cultural Survey of Bangladesh Series-8 Art and Crafts, Dhaka: Asiatic Society of Bangladesh, pp. 23-73. Ohio State University Transforming Education Through the Art Challenge (TETAC) Mentors(2002). Integrated Curriculum: Possibilities for the Arts. The Journal of the National Art Education Association, 55 (3) 12–21. Ortegren, H. (2007). Formative Evaluation of Projects in Art Pedagogy. Journal of Research in Teacher Education,14 (2) 109-119. Pavlou, V.(2004). Profiling Primary School Teachers in Relation to Art Teaching. Journal of Art and Design Education,23 (1) 35–47. Pitri, E. (2003). Conceptua l Problem Solving During Artistic Representation. The Journal of the National Art Education Association, 56 (4), 19-23. Rogers , M. and Plaster, J. (1994).Art Education in Initial Teacher Education: A negotiated Education. Journal of Art and Design Education, 13 (2), 173-187. Selim, L. (2007). Sculpture: Colonial to Contemporary, in Lala Rukh Selim (ed.), Cultural Survey of Bangladesh Series-8: Art and Crafts, Dhaka: Asiatic Society of Bangladesh, pp. 120-40. Vandal. S.H. (2004). Art Education in Pakistan: A Case Study of Bringing Art to School Children at the Informal Level Pakistan. Paper presented at the UNESCO Regional Expert Symposium on Arts Education in Asia, Hong Kong, 2004 at: http://portal.unesco.org/culture/es/files/40487/12668582913pakistan.pdf/pakistan.pdf Shusterman, R. (2006) Towards and Aesthetics of Research. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 59, (3), 275-285. Steers, J. (2005). Orthodox, Creativity and Opportunity. International Journal of Art & Design Education,25 (3),297–307.Retrieved from www.nsead.org/downloads. February 16, 2015. Stout,C.J . (2006). Studies in Art Education. The National Art Education Association, 47 (3), 195-197. Swann, A. (2005).The Role of Media and Emerging Representation in Early Childhood. The Journal of the National Art Education Association, 58, (4), 36-47. Szekely, G (2005). Teaching Students to become Independent Artists. The Journal of the National Art Education Association, 58 (1),41–51. Trimis, E. and Savva, A (2004). The In-Depth Studio Approach: Incorporating an Art Museum Programme into a Pre-Primary Classroom. The Journal of the National Art Education Association, 57(6), 20-23. Walker., M. (1996). Becoming Dialogical: Creating a Place for Dialogue in Art Education. The Journal of the National Art Education Association, 57 (3), 48–53. Read More