Evan drew this after reading "Preparing Doctoral Students for Doctoral Studies for Epistemological Diversity" by Aaron M. Pallas, in Educational Researcher, Vol. 30, No. 5, June/July 2001 pp. 6 - 11. Art equalizes the playing field and can offer a metaphor/symbol/semiotic as a way of communicating. Doctoral work is about vocabulary. What is practical and useful to real world knowledge is shelved differently than the theoretical texts that follow traditions. Common sense is replaced with difficult language used as a disguise for easy-to-grasp concepts. The nature of this is only to protect the communities who speak such language and to keep an esoteric coterie in an academic position of power. Yet, the adage, “When in Rome…” is practical here. Survival in any land is getting used to the tongue in which the native speaks. (Ah, the irony here is that the native tongue is a privileged one.)
The building being shook by jumbo hands comes from "Fertile Obession: Validity After Postructuralism". The article touches upon the notion of needing to check validity by shaking/disrupting/shifting the presented information/evidence. Evan's drawing is a literal representation of challenging the research or "shaking/checking the foundations". There’s irony in how Lather uses high brow language to address the end of truth in science. It is a lot of work to understand this vocabulary of theory to come to the conclusion that no theories matter. This postmodern self-consciousness seems to be misled (in Bryan's opinion). In the pursuit to represent more stories and more language of those without power, the academic language reasserts power and elitism. Again, the academy has become the Star Bellied Sneetches.
The next drawing is of two people in front of ab art piece, confused as to what they are looking at. This comes from "Visual Art as a Vehicle for Educational Research". The drawing spurred from a quote that discusses the issues challenging the use of art-based approaches. "Art-based approaches can be used in both the data gathering phase and the reporting phase, but in the latter there is the added complication of audience interpretation where audiences (or rather, spectators) might be less accustomed to dealing with the interpretation of images"(316). At last, notes Bryan, an article that seems relevant. We are, after all, visual creatures, and from the interpretation of the artistic expression, much insight can be found. I am a linguistic learner, but I recognized many of my students learned better with visuals. I tried to create semiotics as a guide for a diverse student population and learned that, often, the difficult concepts and tasks I undertook as a classroom teacher, could be better democratized through the use of art. It evened the playing field a little more. I also like this article for its investigation, although slight, on audience interpretation. The more I pursue my understanding of ‘teaching writing’ the more I am realizing that audience awareness is key.
This is Evan's piece drawn after reading "Concetpual Structure of Visual Metaphor", displaying a sequence of figures going clockwise. In the researcher's findings the "structure" of visual metaphor, or what exactly goes into the work seemed to be a combination of "life experiences, art practices(idea generation, materials, techniques) art practices in the social web (collaborating,community) and relationship to the artwork". Evan tried to put all of that in the drawing. Kind of. Jean Hicks, director of the Louisville Writing Project, used to talk about metaphorical ways of knowing and, like a classroom of writers, a classroom of artists need to be coached towards metaphors that represent who they are. They may have a start to their own thinking, but they may need activities to take such thinking further.
Evan's next drawing is from the "Form Carries Experience: A Story of the Art and Form of Knowledge," with the discontinuous staircase that forbids one from getting to the top or "goal". There's a lot of drawings that could have been done from the article but the quote that reads "It is so frustrating to be asked for help and you find you can't because of some reason you can't understand" (276). The quote struck Evan emotionally in a "man I really feel for ya lady" as if I decided to watch a Lifetime movie. The quote demonstrates the restrictions of communication - when you can't do it with words. Evan thinks. Karen Scott-Hoy paints, narrates, and thinks deeply about her eye-practice in a foreign land. Her story and paintings communicate more meaning bout her study and research. It transcends data as new data.
The last drawing (before the finger monsters) is the Art not making the subject test from "Valid Knowledge and the Problem of Practical Arts Curricula". Much like the previous articles Evan sketched from one quote that immediately drew a picture in his head when he read it; "...the fact that these subjects have traditionally failed the critical test of discipline structure tactily means that they do not belong. They do not qualify as valid knowledge" (181). This tension was all over Kentucky curriculum, notes Bryan, especially with the writing portfolio. Should English educators prepare their students for work-place writing or should they prepare the students for academic, high brow writing? The problem is that the state tries to take control with mandates instead of allowing an educator's intuition for best instruction. Instead of knowing students as individuals, the State mandates a conformity that all kids should be the same. This is scary.
The finger monster drawings stem from one hall-way disciplinarian at an inner city middle school who resembled a thumb. Face and neck-wise. I wouldn't want to thumb wrestle these bad-boys, admits Bryan.
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