Today I conducted a focus group with both the yr11 groups from school A as none of them had bothered to fill in the questionnaire as I had repeatedly asked them to do. I was very apprehensive about using this method of data collection as the pilot conducted last term had been such a disaster but the student’s lack of cooperation had left me with little choice. Luckily I was able to conduct the focus group during lesson time which was an advantage as attendance would be much higher than if I had asked they to come back after school but this also meant that I was very conscious of time as I didn’t want this activity to take up too much of their teaching time. To try and get them to think about the areas that the focus group would cover I asked them all to fill in a paper copy of the questionnaire. I could have left it at this but as I had anticipated their answers were short, vague and unhelpful but it did get them to start thinking about their practice, or not as was the case of some students who randomly ticked boxes and gave one word answers when their opinion was asked, to an extent this lack of cooperation was expected of certain students.
I asked teacher X to sit in on the session to help keep the students focused and on task, upon further discussion we decided that teacher X would not be present through out the whole session as I didn’t want the students to feel as thought they were inhibited from saying what they want to say for fear of offending teacher X. I did stress to them at the beginning of the lesson that all the information they gave was solely for the purpose of my inquiry, that this was not an opportunity to unnecessarily criticize the department or any of its teachers but they should feel free to voice their opinions as none of the comments would be taken personally.
The sessions were recorded thus I had each student sign a consent from agreeing to be recorded. During the planning stages of the inquiry I struggled with the ethical implications of involving minors in my inquiry and weather or not they could be considered ‘Gillik competent’ [1] or if I should seek parental consent for their child’s involvement in my inquiry. After much discussion with teacher X it was decided that as their involvement was limited to a focus group and for a select few students some photographs of their work being published in my artefact, all of which would take place on school grounds during school hours thus it was decided that they were mature enough to decide for themselves if they wanted to be involved.
I was pleasantly surprised by the outcome of the session; the students acted much more maturely than the students involved in the pilot and gave me some very thoughtful and intellectual responses. As the students willingness to cooperate with the task I have set them has been poor up to this point I decided to use this focus group to ask the students the questions from both the questionnaires and the questions I would have asked during the interviews. I was able to do this with these students because I am already very familiar with both their work and their working styles thus I was able to direct question to particular students. Any further information I wish to get from these students I will do during lessons in a much more informal setting.
The main point which I think all students from school A agreed with is they recognise that budgetary constraints are a big issue within this department, many of them said that there have been processes and materials which they would have liked to experiment with but have not because the department is not in a position to supply it for them and they do not have sufficient funds to buy it themselves. Many of them said that their choice of material to use was based on if it was readily available in the department, thus compromising their work; hence why you will notice that the majority of the student’s work from school A has been made predominantly from chalk, charcoal and acrylic paint. I believe, as does teacher X that it is unfair that we ask the student to supply so much of their own materials especially as the school is located in an are of east London which would not be considered affluent, where it is valid to make the assumption that the majority of parents and carers of students from this school do not have a lot of spare money to be spending on expensive art supplies. During the focus group a student reminded me of an occasion last term where her work was looking into faces and how they differ between races, she did a number of casts using mod rock then wished to experiment with alginate, which is quite a natural progression when looking at casting, unfortunately school A did not have any thus she was asked to supply it herself. She was only able to buy one 500g bag as it is very expensive and unfortunately that was not enough to make a full face cast and as a result decided to take the project in another way again using the materials available in the department. The work that she produced was still of a high standard but was nowhere near as interesting as what she was making previously a fact which she had picked up on which made her very disheartened and her work lacked the focus and drive which it had before.
In the last two years school A has noticed a marked drop in students opting to take art at GCSE and I strongly believe that one of the reasons for this is because it will cost the student more to take art than it would to take another subject such as History. Some will argue that this is good, it makes them more aware of some of the expenses they will face if they plan to study art past A-level, and I have blogged previously how difficult I found my foundation year because I had been spoilt at school but if it reaches the point where students are being put off the subject for financial reasons then something is wrong. Before starting the GCSE course we expect all students to have:
· A scrap book
· A pad of good quality cartridge paper,
· A pair of scissors,
· A glue stick,
· Black gel pen, at least two,
· A range of different graded pencils,
· A set of paint brushes,
· Acrylic paints, primary colours + black and white,
· White Chalk,
· Charcoal,
· A set of oils pastels,
· Colouring pencils,
· An A2 portfolio.
Now this might seam like a lot but if it is looked after much of the stuff will last the students longer than the duration of the course and school A is not asking them to buy the highest quality materials, all of these items can be found in a pound shop or other such discount stores but in a school where a third of their students are on free school meals (which means that these students come from such a low income family that the government has decided that their parents or carers do not have to pay for any of their children’s school meals) this ‘small’ amount could make it impossible for them to study this subject. In school A the only other subject which requires such a financial commitment is Food technology and they have also noticed a decline in numbers because of the expense. In the academic year 2010-11 school A had 48 of their 168 yr11 pupils on free school meals (FSM) 10 of these students took art (27 pupils in total were entered for the exam) and only 5 of these students got a C grade or above. The overall statistics for Art were:
Now I do not want to imply that the only reason why these pupils did badly was because of a lack of funds and limited materials as with a number of the students their poor results was a result of their own lack of commitment to the course, but as I have found from the focus group with the current yr11’s, the constant inability to make the work that they want to make because of financial issues is disheartening and eventually they get to the point where they don’t even bother to think of more exciting outcomes because they know that they wont be possible.
Another point which all the students seamed to agree with is they didn’t think that art was seen as a priority within the school. At this stage of their academic career they have a lot pressure on them to succeed and to take on extra tutoring and after school work to ensure that this happens. Attendance at least one after school club a week is considered mandatory if you studying art, a point which is made clear to the students before they opt to take the subject in yr9 but as they reach yr11 the students are told that their focus should be on the core subjects and thus their extra curricular time should be spent in core subject after school clubs. On occasions students have been removed from Art lessons to take extra tutoring in core subjects. Now how can we expect the students to see the importance of this subject if they are constantly being told by other members of staff that it is not important?
I do not anticipate that this inquiry will change schools’ opinion of the creative arts subjects; especially with the possible introduction of the English Baccalaureate where in an element of creative arts within the syllabus will not be mandatory. Thus I propose that my artefact will suggest ways that high grade, experimental work can be achieved whilst working within a very limited budget.
[1] [1] ‘In 1986, the House of Lords decided in the case of Gillick v West Norfolk and Wishbech Area Health Authority that parental rights are not absolute rights. They are rights exercised by parents on the behalf of children too young to exercise them for themselves. The case concerned a child’s rights to consent to medical treatment without the parents’ knowledge. Lord Fraser said that the degree of parental control varied according to the child’s understanding and intelligence. [Doyle,D. (2007) ‘Trans-disciplinary inquiry- research with rather then research on,’ in an Ethical Approach to Practitioners Research: Dealing with Issues and Dilemmas in Action Research, A. Campbell and S. Groundwater-Smith, Eds. Evanston, IL: Routledge.]
