2015 Update

 What have we been up to so far in 2015?

Well, we are busy writing articles, presenting at conferences and having some great writing published.


Conferences that you can see CoT at in 2015:

The National Art Education Association (NAEA)’s annual conference in New Orleans, Louisiana in March. You will be able to find Anna Ryoo, Kit Grauer, Ching-Chiu Lin and Francine Cunningham presenting their papers on Shifting Perceptions in the Digital Age.

Look for this presentation in the program:

Pedagogical insights gained from media arts programs taught at alternative learning sites in Canada will be shared by highlighting the complexity of teaching and learning in the current digital landscape.

The Canadian Museums Association’s (CMA) national convention in Banff, Alberta in April. You will be able to find Francine Cunningham, Jill Baird and Kit Grauer presenting on How to teach hard topics: The Native Youth Program and Indian Residential Schools as a case study. 

Look for this presentation in the program:

Residential schools refer to government and church run schools that ran from to the 18302 to the 1990s in Canada with the express goal of “assimilating and killing of the Indian in the child” (Stephen Harper, 2008). How best do we discuss sensitive topics in a way that helps students to explore, and define their own experiences? This case study will highlight how through the use of Indigenous artists, traditional arts projects and digital media opportunities were created for open dialogue and learning to flourish.


What is some work individual team members are working on:

 

Natalie LeBlanc is in the process of writing a paper on bullying and social emotional learning (SEL) by focusing on the experiences of two youths who participated in “The Bully Files” at The Gulf Island Film & Television School (GIFTS), a community-based film school located on Galiano Island, a remote island located on the west coast of Canada. Drawing on intervention strategies, or ways in which schools, parents and communities can become involved in order to help support youth affected by bullying, her paper explores how youth participatory programs such as GIFTS have positive effects on students’ social emotional learning (SEL) by specifically addressing the emotional strains that bullying brings forth. Methods for which art educators can support youth encountering bullying are also being addressed.

Anna Ryoo is in the process of writing a paper with Dr Grauer based on the research conducted in 2013 on the experiences of youth and their mentors who took part in a two week long program at the Gulf Island Film and Television School (GIFTS).

Francine Cunningham is in the process of writing a paper on her experiences as an Aboriginal youth working with the Native Youth Program and how she helped to introduce the use if digital media to the program. She will be looking at how the program has evolved and changed from its inception in 1979 to the present day and how those changes have reflected the lives of the students who take part in the program every year.

She is also working on a poetry/visual essay that looks at the commentary and themes given by students in the 2011-2014 years of the NYP.