Creating artful leadership

Instructional leadership, connoisseurship and critique: using an arts‐based approach to extend conversations about teaching

“…Consequently, when instructional leaders as connoisseurs embrace both the critique and aesthetic of the teaching art they are more likely to create contexts for such inquiry and more likely to express value for such practice and teachers are more likely to reflect on both their pedagogical skills and their aesthetic competencies (Eisner 1983, 1998a, 1998b, Klein 1999 Z. KELEHEAR Behar-Horenstein et al 2004). In other words, the instructional leader is modelling the habits of connoisseurship and supporting the teachers becoming connoisseurs in their own classrooms.…”

“…The key to encouraging teachers to engage in critique and aesthetic evaluation of teaching was to begin using the language of a discipline rooted in critique and aesthetics, art (Klein 1999, Behar-Horenstein et al 2004). Feldman's four step approach offers students a specific process for undertaking art criticism.…”

“…craft) and artistic (i.e. aesthetic) dimensions of instruction (Eisner 1983, Klein 1999, Behar-Horenstein et al 2004.…”

“…The extent to which one can reflect on past observations and experiences and draw meaning from those memories affects very specifically the way one begins to envision the future (Arredondo Rucinski 2005, Sullivan and Glanz 2006) and, generally speaking, the degree to which a student (Dewey 1958, Newmann andWehlage 1995), a teacher (Greene 1971, Smith 1971, Crawford 1987, Eisner 1994, Moore 1994 or an instructional leader (Blumberg 1989, Barone 1998, Eisner 1998a, 1998b, Klein 1999) reflects on the learning and teaching practices parallels the degree to which they engage in and recognize an authentic (Newmann and Wehlage 1995) experience. It is this last component that offers a guiding question for this investigation.…”

“…It is this last component that offers a guiding question for this investigation. How might considering the instructional leader as connoisseur (Eisner 1998b) help provide a model of observation that would more completely capture the fine grained subtleties of effective teaching, in a word the aesthetic (Klein 1999, Behar-Horenstein et al 2004)?…”