Department of Visual Arts

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Coloured in - investigating the challenges of an 'othered' identity within spaces of learning
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2014-04) Biscombe, Monique Isabel; Costandius, E.; Perold, Karolien; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Visual Arts.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The challenges that have occurred within the South African education context could be ascribed to the country’s political history. This is a history that includes more than three hundred and fifty years of colonialism, which has had a direct influence on the more recent Apartheid regime. Colonial and apartheid history have remained deeply ingrained in the mind-sets of South African citizens, where a sense of strict binary and hierarchal thinking is present. Feeding on the ideologies of the past, it manifests and perpetuates itself specifically within spaces of learning. The purpose of this study is to investigate how 'Othered' identity is described and experienced within spaces of learning at the Visual Arts Department at Stellenbosch University. The study is approached from a qualitative perspective, utilizing an interpretative process of collecting and analyzing data. A case study was conducted and the process involved interviews with four lecturers and eight students at the Visual Arts Department at Stellenbosch University. The investigation of ‘Othering’ within spaces of learning at the Visual Arts Department highlighted themes of ‘Othering’ and social and economic circumstances; ‘Othering’ and feelings of discomfort and pretence; ‘Othering’ and language; and ‘Othering’ and culture. Strategies regarding ‘Othering’ also emerged from the data highlighting two themes, bridging courses and diversity within spaces of learning. My findings include that ‘Othering’ is still prevalent within spaces of learning at the Visual Arts Department. Most lecturers and students seemed to be in agreement that ‘Othering’ should be addressed. It is suggested that promoting and combining processes of critical citizenship and reflective thinking within spaces of learning may encourage a necessary dialogue between lecturers and students. By improving the dialogue between lecturers and students, it may facilitate a relationship founded on mutual trust necessary for personal growth and growth within spaces of learning. It is further suggested that creating spaces of learning that are more diverse could contribute to this and provide enriching learning experiences for both lecturers and students.
Critical citizenship education : investigating new understandings in a teaching and learning environment at Montagu High School, Western Cape.
(2015-12) Smidt, Wendy; Costandius, E.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Education. Dept. of Visual Arts.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This research focused on the perceptions of critical citizenship of twelve participants who are Visual Arts learners at Montagu High School in the Western Cape. My aim with this research was to investigate new understandings of the notion of critical citizenship in our teaching and learning environment. These new understandings involved a deeper insight specifically into the Visual Arts learners’ perceptions of concepts such as identity, culture, democracy, equality and citizenship. The theoretical perspectives that informed my research were perspectives on Critical Citizenship Education, on Globalisation and Education, and on Learning Strategies for Critical Citizenship Education. These include collaborative learning, dialogue and reflection. The chapter on context discusses current global developments regarding Critical Citizenship Education, as well as education in a national context; the FET phase of Visual Arts education as a field of study; and Montagu High School as institutional context. The current CAPS Curriculum (2011) served as a framework for the Visual Culture Study -content. Three practical projects were investigated to establish which new understandings the participants (learners) could develop about the notion of critical citizenship and its associated meanings in a teaching and learning environment. A case study research design was chosen for the empirical part of this qualitative study and I as researcher used an inductive content analysis process whereby data was organised according to emerging themes. The presentation and discussion of data aim to reflect the learners’ personal understandings, which were used by the researcher to form conclusions about the issues which have been researched. A prominent focus in the learners’ reflections on Critical Citizenship Education was the different understandings of ‘culture’. Some learners reacted strongly to media reports about various acts of vandalism aimed at national monuments in South Africa. These learners also expressed their concern about their own future in this country. My research suggests that educators need to reflect upon and reinterpret their teaching strategies towards the promotion of learners’ consciousness of Critical Citizenship Education as a way of life. Educators should encourage learners to engage in learning through curiosity, which will empower them with knowledge, skills and critical-creative attitudes to make informed decisions. In terms of future study, it might be useful to examine the link between culture and learning in the South African context more closely.
A diffractive analysis of a grade 10 art project conducted at the Tygerberg Art Centre situated in Parow, Cape Town
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-03) Kotze, Roline; Perold-Bull, K.; Costandius, E.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Visual Arts.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Despite indisputable proof that humanity’s attitudes and actions towards the earth pose alarming threats to both the earth’s life-supporting systems and humanity’s future as a species, we generally seem to exhibit little evidence of any real fear of the doom that might be awaiting us. Traditionally these concerns fall within the parameters of environmental education. However, according to some theorists, current environmental education modules are failing to foster any meaningful engagement with the vast, complex, interrelated and intertwined problems facing the contemporary world. I am of the opinion that an alternative route to this end could be explored in art and art education, due to the fact that certain aspects thereof allow for open-ended exploration that may create spaces for transdisciplinary investigations. My recent introduction to posthumanist, new materialist and affective theories opened up the possibility of interesting perspectives on issues related to our being (and doing) in the world, as they encompass notions of our dynamically shifting bodily enmeshment with the material world and our responsibility to be accountable from where we are in our situated position. They provided me with the theoretical tools with which these issues could be explored as interrelated entities in an integrated whole. The research entailed an in depth, post-qualitative analysis of an art project that had been conducted at the Tygerberg Art Centre from April 2016 to June 2016. Diffraction was used as analytical tool to establish whether useful insights, which could fruitfully inform the development of art projects that critically examine how we as humans live in relation to the earth’s systems and other life forms, might be revealed. The main aim of the study was therefore to explore the role of art education as medium in facilitating critical awareness in learners of the relation of humans to all non-human others on earth. Diffraction was chosen as analytical tool for its potential to elucidate insights that might not have come to the fore if other methods were used. The study indicated that before learners will truly be concerned about the destruction of the earth, they first need to understand the materiality of their own bodies, and the latter’s intra-active co-constitution with all other matter. Yet, theorists maintain that education curricula still mostly ignore the body as site of learning. These curricula are entrenched in humanism’s dualistic thinking patterns with an inclination towards established, predetermined answers and outcomes to problematic questions, which foreclose the discovery of new possibilities. Nonetheless, I argue that, even within our present education system, art education could begin to challenge the vast constructs of humanist-based education, particularly with reference to the latter’s influences on the wider contexts of environmental education. However, in the long term, we will need education research programmes that are based on non-anthropocentric posthumanist and new materialist theories. Educators will then hopefully begin to explore ways in which curricula might be adapted to incorporate these perspectives. This, in turn, will hopefully pave the way for learners to engage more critically with humanity’s relations with the non-human other and the earth’s systems and matter(s).
Elitism in contemporary art : investigating high school learners' responses to the Cape Town Art Fair
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-03) Goldswain, Warwick; Costandius, E.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Visual Arts.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This research was initiated as a result of my experience as an art learner in a high school and at university, where notable disparities in the approach between the institutions became evident. Traditional schooling seemed out of touch with contemporary strategies, while contemporary art displayed elitist tendencies of its own. The purpose of this research was to investigate the various manifestations of elitism in contemporary art. Problems included historical elitism in art, as well as contemporary strategies that were difficult to link to movements of the past. In a South African context, issues of concern included the isolation of public and private art entities from the wider demographic, as well as outdated strategies of art education at school level. Secondary purposes of the research were to investigate the response of high school learners to the Cape Town Art Fair (CTAF) and to investigate how school is implicated in creating disparities between education and contemporary art. The research was conducted using empirical case studies of 24 high school art learners from Curro Durbanville. This adopted the form of a written questionnaire about learners’ experiences of the CTAF and focus group discussions about selected artwork from the CTAF. The paradigm for this approach was interpretive, since multiple measures of observation were used. An inductive content analysis method was used in evaluating the data. The findings of the research were that learners preferred naturalistic art over alternative aesthetic strategies. Learners struggled to comprehend the conceptual content of the work, while strategies of appropriation or irony were generally misinterpreted. The fact that most of the artworks engaged relevant issues made it “different from the art museums”, although many learners expressed a desire for more “positive art”. Learners noted the diversity of art shown at the CTAF, although it was felt to cater mainly for buyers and those with appreciation for art, and to lack public engagement and space for up-and-coming artists. The conclusions of the research were that buyer-and-seller models such as the CTAF were largely isolated from the wider demographic of South Africa, who were physically and economically marginalised. The lack of alternative spaces made these models the dominant means of public engagement with art. This was further problematised by the tendency of art to exist in an intellectual and wealthy preserve. School strategies of art production also seemed outdated, adding to the observed disparity. These strategies emphasised narrow ways of seeing perpetuated by an emphasis on “the conquest of visual appearance” and notions of the art object (Danto 1997:125). These strategies were disparate from contemporary trends since they exclude alternative, connective, intuitive, or spiritual ways of seeing, which might themselves offer possibilities for new ways of being.
Exploring safe spaces for students to engage with critical and caring thinking regarding portrayals of ‘self’ and ‘other’
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2018-03) Strydom, Esti; Costandius, E.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Visual Arts.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: As an educator at a private higher education institution, I have observed that there is very little critical dialogue on politically sensitive issues in the classes I teach. A sense of rainbowism, which emphasises sameness between the citizens of South Africa, permeates the classroom culture. This kind of thinking creates a barrier in understanding and empathising with the lived experiences of those whom we view as ‘other’ to ourselves based on our (and their) appearance, culture, race, religion, sex, gender identity and class. Based on these observations, I designed and subsequently implemented two projects in the Professional Photography programme. These were used as a catalyst to initiate difficult conversations. The first project, titled Globalisation and Culture, asked the students to position themselves in terms of social and cultural identity via the selection and photographing of a culturally significant object paired with an environmental self or family portrait. The second project, Conscious Citizenship, asked the students to interview and create environmental portraits of previously unknown people they viewed as outside of their own social identity. The purpose of this study was to investigate how the introduction of critical citizenship education in the second-year Professional Photography programme could promote critical and caring thinking among students. The research also aimed to observe the ways in which creating safe spaces of learning could allow for Freirean conscientising. The research design was that of a case study and research was conducted in a qualitative manner. Inductive content analysis was carried out, with data being organised into categories and patterns that emerged during the research. The data were collected through audio recordings, questionnaires, reflective essays, interview questions and photographic imagery. It was found that students were very hesitant and showed considerable anxiety about discussing differences within a classroom space. Furthermore, some of them had never spoken to people from outside of their social identity groups, and as such, these projects were extremely challenging for them. The students’ photographic and written work showed themes of white normativity, internalised racism and myths of cultural inferiority. By employing a pedagogy of discomfort to facilitate group discussions, ethical violence towards black, coloured and Indian students could not be entirely avoided due to my own positionality. The parameters of a safe space of learning meant that I also needed to be compassionate towards white students grappling with uncomfortable emotions. This balancing act was necessary due to the nature of these projects being compulsory assessments within a private higher education environment and because splitting groups according to any race-based criterion would be unfeasible. Through the process of facilitating these projects I have been left with questions regarding who, according to their positionality, would be an appropriate person to teach these kinds of projects.
An investigation of critical citizenship education : exploring art making processes in the South African context
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2014-04) Nieuwoudt, Leanri; Costandius, E.; Perold, Karolien; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Visual Arts.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The notion of critical citizenship has become a diverse phenomenon in both South African and global contemporary societies. The purpose of this study is to investigate how the teaching and learning of critical citizenship can be improved in the South African context through participation in art-making processes. This was done by following a qualitative approach and a case study design. The following themes were explored in this study: conceptual abilities; the technicalities of practice; art and emotional development; and collaborative art making. The findings in this investigation showed that involvement in art-making processes certainly contributes to the development of a learner’s ability to become more intelligent, self initiated and critical thinkers. The investigation also shows that the visual arts learning area is recognized as an educational practice that encourages critical thinking and the ability to conceptualize, but the implementation of critical citizenship in both the practical and theoretical teaching of art-making processes is currently lacking. It is suggested that a holistic understanding of both practical and theoretical components in the grade 9 visual arts learning area should be maintained on an equal footing. The emotional development of learners is also identified as a source of concern, since it influences a learner’s adherence to participation with others. It is further suggested that collaborative art making urges learners to engage with the ideas of others in the classroom and therefore can encourage tolerance towards other members of the group. Critical citizenship education in the teaching and learning of the visual arts learning area can have more robust impact on the future of a democratic society if it is implemented more directly in the classroom environment.

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Browsing Department of Visual Arts by browse.metadata.advisor "Costandius, E."

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