| I don’t remember when I first heard the expression,
often attributed to Picasso, that “Those who can do;
those who can’t teach.” As someone who decided,
even before four years of art school, that I wanted to teach,
this statement has always bothered me. It seemed to influence
the ways in which others reacted to those of us who were
committed to both creative expression and pedagogy.
Despite our commitment to making art, our work was perceived
as not quite as good as that of those who committed only to
the life of the artist. This issue of Educational Insights lessens
this sometimes anxious relationship between doing and teaching.
It explores the connections between doing and teaching, shows
the mutuality, and portrays the effective educator as also creative.
My own field of visual art education, as well as those of
music education, drama and theatre education, and dance education,
all have their own literatures. Located in either Schools
of Visual or Performing Arts or in Schools of Education,
each of these areas is supported by significant graduate
programs in various parts of the world. Historically, the
connection between Creative Writing and Education has been
less well developed. I would like to think that the relationship
between UBC’s Centre for Cross-Faculty Inquiry in Education
(CCFI) and the Graduate Program in Creative Writing is a
notable exception. Several CCFI doctoral students (including
recent Ph.D. graduates Luanne Armstrong and Madeline Sonik)
have come from Creative Writing; they have brought with them
a strong commitment to writing and publishing; Educational
Insights and our students have benefited significantly
by their presence in the Faculty of Education. Through a
number of jointly planned initiatives, this cross-faculty
relationship has been carefully nurtured by faculty and students
alike. There is a richness of cross-fertilization that engages
and opens new spaces of possibility.
This issue of EI celebrates and
deepens this relationship. CCFI’s mandate is to be
a catalytic space for exactly this type of cross-faculty
inquiry. Of course this issue will interest writers, but
it is timely too in that educators and researchers, who
may have never taken a creative writing course are being
challenged to consider a variety of ways to share their
work. Research paradigms and academic writing have been
challenged to become more “artistic,” to
capture nuance, to offer experiential entry points. To see
the reader, as a visual artist would a viewer. And in this
issue we admire both the amazing writing and the incredible
visual contributions: It is indeed the work of those who both “do” and “teach.” |
