Indian Art Education and Teacher Identity as Deleuzo-Guattarian Assemblage: Narratives in A Postcolonial Globalization Context Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Manisha Sharma Graduate Program in Art Education. The Ohio State University 2012 Dissertation Committee: Kevin Tavin: Advisor Sydney Walker Christine Ballengee-Morris Deborah Smith-Shank Copyright by Manisha Sharma 2012 Abstract This dissertation examines the idea that the identity of Indian artist educators and consequently Indian art education is an assemblage of socio-cultural and ideological experience and influence, and of disciplinary transgressions into pedagogical borderlands. The primary source for the concept of assemblage as employed in this study is the writing of Deleuze and Guattari. I identify and analyze three assemblages of identity, namely: a) postcolonial self- consciousness, b) disciplinary organization, and c) social organization, to consider how art education might be approached ‘other’wise in theory and practice.
This analysis is based on narratives of learning, teaching and ideology that emerge in engaging composite voices of urban Indian art educators on their practice, with articulations of policy and curriculum voices. I employ a conceptual framework of ontological hybridity that folds Indian Vedanta philosophy onto concepts of Deleuze and Guattari, such as assemblage, rhizome, and space. I do so in context of developments in curriculum and pedagogy in art education on disciplinary and social levels. I place my dissertation within the discourse of postcolonial globalization theory, exploring the concept of ambivalence in relation to identity.
I employ a methodology located in the borderlands of narrative inquiry and grounded theory. ii For my Gods, Gurus and Family and the Spirit that drives us to the quest for knowledge. iii Acknowledgments First and foremost, I thank the divinity that led me to and guides me on the path to seeking knowledge. I give thanks to my parents and my family for giving me both the freedom and trust to find my own way and the tools do so with care and thoughtfulness.
I am blessed to have a support system that backs me no matter what. Tandons and Jyoti Gupta, that means you too. I owe thanks to the teachers, colleagues, and friends who engage me in conversations and questions, both frustrating and rewarding, on what it means to be an artist, art educator, Indian and simply, a good person. Without you I would not have had the drive and perhaps the courage to actively pursue these questions within me.
Of these many positive influences, I must name with special consideration the wisdom, guidance and constant attitude of encouragement of Dr. Kevin Tavin and Dr. Sydney Walker, and to Dr. Christine Ballengee-Morris, and Dr.
Deborah Smith-Shank inspirational people all, for forming my committee. You have nurtured my mind and my spirit and made this a very rewarding process-for that I give you heartfelt thanks. I am very conscious of my good fortune in becoming part of the tradition of excellent scholarship embodied by the OSU Art Education department; for me, it has opened wide doors of access to intellectual and professional opportunity.A (Applied Art) College of Art, Delhi 2003 .A Art Education, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago 2004-2006 .Art Educator, NIJHS, Nagoya 2006-2009 .F School, Mexico City 2009 to present .Graduate Teaching Associate, Department of Art Education, The Ohio State University Publications Sharma, M. Navjot Altaf: What Public, Whose Art? In T.), Art and Social Justice Education: Culture as Commons (pp.
Fields of Study Major Field: Art Education Minor Field: Comparative Studies v Table of Contents Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………… ii Dedication………………………………………………………………………………… iii Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………….… v List of Figures……………………………………………………………………………. viii Chapter One: Introduction Building inquiry from within and without……………………………………………. 2 Creating context……………………………………………………………………… 4 Conditions of change………………………………………………………………… 12 Primary question……………………………………………………………………… 16 Supporting questions………………………………………………………………….… 19 Recapitulation………………………………………………………………………… 23 Chapter Two: A Review of Literature Introduction…………………………………………………………………………. 25 Constructions of Indian art and visual culture……………………………………….
27 Desegregating postcolonial and globalization theory………………………. 65 In Summation………………………………………………………………………… 84 Chapter Three: Constructing the Study Introduction…………………………………………………………………. 86 Entering the study with narrative inquiry………………………………….……… 88 Defining the study………………………………………………………….………… 96 vi Content analysis………………………………………………………………………. 101 Interpreting data and building theoretical concepts………………….
106 Formatting the Presentation of data or mapping the landscape…. 108 In review……………………………………………………………………………… 121 Chapter Four: Presentation of the Data Proem…………………………………………………………………………………. 122 Art education in India: Lay of the land………………………………………………. 123 Teaching across space and place: introductory overviews……………………….
123 A narrative of learning……………………………………………………………. 128 A narrative of teaching……………………………………………………………. 139 A narrative of ideological contemplation…………………………………………. 172 In summary…………………………………………………………………………… 176 Chapter Five: Analysis and Interpretation A reflection…………………………………………………………………………… 178 Vedanta, and Deleuze & Guattari: The role of assemblage in understanding what Indian art education is.… 180 Assemblages of identity………………………………….… 181 Assemblage of postcolonial self-consciousness………………………………….… 181 Assemblage of disciplinary organization.… 190 Assemblage of social organization.… 196 Ontological hybridity and pedagogical negotiation………………………………….
204 Personal and composite narratives: Re-placing research…………………………… 210 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………. 255 Appendix A: IRB Protocol: Form of exemption……………………………………… 256 Appendix B: Research Invitation………………………………………………………. 257 Appendix C: Consent Forms…………………………………………………………… 259 Appendix D: Appendix to Chapter Four………………………………………………. 260 vii List of Figures Figure 1:Research Organizations overview……….110 Figure 2:Teacher Training programming…………………….111 Figure 3:Structure of composites-overview………………….115 Figure 4: Structure of composites-Vidya ……………………….116 Figure 5: Structure of composites-Shakti ……………………….117 Figure 6: Structure of composites-Neeta.
118 viii Chapter One: Introduction Scene: A social gathering somewhere in urban India. Polite conversation ensues between an acquaintance and myself. Acquaintance: So what is it that you do again? You are into art right? Me: Yes, I am an art educator. Acquaintance: So you teach art? Me: Yes.
Acquaintance: What kind of art do you teach? Me: Visual art and design; some photography, some art history. Acquaintance: So are you are a painter or a teacher? Are you a schoolteacher? Me: Err… not a painter exactly. I do make my own art, but I mostly teach. I have taught in schools but I also teach those who want to become art teachers…and artists.
The acquaintance looks more confused and unimpressed by the minute. Acquaintance: Oh, so you are not really an artist then? I sense a familiar feeling of frustration creep in. I smile politely and let the matter drop with a non-committal shrug and quickly switch topics with a brief, “It’s complicated. 1 Building Inquiry From Within and Without My encounter with art education as a discipline of study focusing on pedagogical concerns began with my enrollment in a master’s program in art education in the United States.
As an international student from India I was often asked about what art education was like back home. I found myself ill equipped to respond adequately to this question since the form of art education in my home country was not the same as in the culture I now lived in. Back home I knew of no one form of teacher licensure or training program for teachers of art. I had to think carefully about how to convey my understanding of this term that demanded clarification of how I understood terms such as Indian, Indian art, and Indian culture in context of art education.
As my own teaching practice developed across multiple physical and work cultures my distance from the world of Indian art education grew wider. However, the questioning of the form and functioning of art education in India followed me and I felt driven by the question of how to understand and represent it. As I began my investigation it became evident that it is unrealistic to talk in singular definitions of India as a nation, a culture, or review Indian art, and of Indian education as a singular entity. A literature review revealed that perspectives on Indian art education are mostly presented from the viewpoint of practitioners identifying themselves as art historians, art critics, and artists.
In this study I present a perspective on the field revealed in narratives of those who identify themselves initially as Indian art educators and through the process of the data collection, as artist educators. In this inquiry that began with my own personal narrative, I came to understand my position as that of an insider-outsider in 2 Indian art education, and that the location of the identity of Indian art educators lies within borderlands of disciplinarity as well as in the discourses of culture, politics and economics therein. This made postcolonial discourse fundamental to the construction of the study. Beginning from my studies and practice as artist in India, and my development as an art educator outside of it, I became more aware of my responsibility to represent Indian art education in a fair and equitable way and not as “other” in a paradigm privileging western discourse as normative.
This led to globalization concepts and contexts entering the development of my primary research question, the construction of the study and my interpretation of the literature and data that forms it. In this chapter, I introduce the background or context within which my research is formed, and explain the lacuna that this research hopes to fill. This includes an introduction to 1) my employment of postcolonial globalization as entwined theories to approach both the construction and analysis of the data I study, and 2) my quest to articulate the hybrid identity of my worldview as an art educator using the concepts of French thinkers Deleuze and Guattari (D&G) alongside those intrinsic to Vedanta ontology. The Deleuzoguattarian concept of assemblage is prominent in my research and indicates a machine or structure containing many parts that work together to perform a particular function.
They (D&G) postulate that it is in realizing its function that the machine can be named or its form made visible. With this explanation, I present the primary question of this study, which asks: How might we understand Indian art education and teacher identity as assemblage through narratives in the context of postcolonial globalization 3 discourse? I then explain the intended contribution of the research to the field after articulating the sub questions that direct this study, namely: • How might ontological hybridity in Indian art education be employed in conceptualizing pedagogies of art education? • How do postcolonial perspectives of emerging narratives of Indian art education based on personal narratives of artist educators, inform a globalized discourse of art education? Finally, in this chapter, I acknowledge the limitations and boundaries of the study before providing an overview of the conceptual and methodological framework of narrative inquiry and grounded theory that brings it to fruition. Creating Context I spent my formative years as a person, and as an artist in my home country of India. I grew up all over the country.
I was born in the metropolitan city of Mumbai located on the western coast at the cusp of northern and southern India then moved at a young age to my ancestral home, an old city called Lucknow in the northern heartland. The beginning of high school for me dawned on the Southeastern coast, in the city of Chennai and life as an undergraduate college student was spent in the capital city of New Delhi, back in the northern plains. These urban centers are very different places, geographically, linguistically, artistically and culturally. My schooling drew from diverse influences as well, from a Catholic convent school to a Hindu Vedic school, with a few others in between.
My experience of art in school was also sporadic, ranging from 4 lackluster drawing assignments given by other subject teachers who happened to be interested in art, to western academy style art lessons at school, to folk and traditional Indian craft in non-formal venues. My understanding of the term art education as being concerned with the philosophy and purpose of teaching art within larger social contexts, however, came from my higher education and practice in the United States and my experience teaching art in International schools in Japan and Mexico.