Abstract
Research impacting this project was gathered in relationship to classroom observations conducted at the elementary school level. Students’ crafting and expressing various aspects of identity (personal, social, and cultural) focuses the research, as explored through teaching/learning music/other arts within a changing academic/social schooling culture. Particular focus is granted into how educating students in arts and artistry impacts identity understandings in schools. Studies into arts’ historical and social significance also contribute to the creation of this text. Particular consideration is given to various converging yet complex questions encircling how artistic understandings and endeavors may support identity and/or socialize individuals and groups. Multiple theories of personal/social identity and self-organizing principles are considered for their potential to demonstrate how individuals and groups have, at their core, concurrent needs for complexity and unity. Each of these also holds essential elements of what is meant by terms used to symbolize “identity” (whether individual, social, cultural), and various identifiers (race, gender, socio-economic levels, education, class, trauma/its absence, occupation, and other types of “status states”). The complexity of these multiple terms often confuses core understandings of what identity is and what it offers. This project intends to consider “identity” within a context of “organizing principles” for this reason. Found within the arts, these are also reflected in physics, cultural studies, and social structures, as well. A framework to further explore students’ development, understanding, and expression of identities is proposed, including questions and themes for continued discussion.
Presenters
Clydia ForehandSchool Counselor, Counseling Center, Tulsa Public Schools, Oklahoma, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Learner Diversity and Identities
KEYWORDS
Identity, Criticality, Organizing Principles in Arts, Emergency of Cooperation, Swarm Intelligence
