Quality in performing arts education : perceptions of teacher-artist-practitioners

Abstract

The notion of quality in learning and teaching resides in all jurisdictions that have structured and formalised education, but what quality means to one individual, discipline or institution may not be what it means to another. That being the case, quality is in the eye of the beholder. The academic community unites in its agreement that quality in learning and teaching is important, and on campuses around the world, good quality has become the common denominator that engenders shared understanding between students, teachers and stakeholders.

The purpose of this study is to explore perceptions of quality within the broad context of performing arts education. Specifically, the study will focus on how quality in students or student performers of dance, drama and music is defined from the point of view of teacher-artist-practitioners. Thus, what is quality and what does quality mean in the performing arts art forms? What are the qualities of good quality student dancers, actors and musicians?

Research into quality in general has been prolific, but research into quality in performing arts and student performers has been scant. At the same time, the applicability of existing quality paradigms to the performing arts is somewhat questionable due to the different pedagogical approaches to learning and teaching, particularly those used in conservatoires, and also the outcomes students are expected to achieve. The present study aims to put quality squarely within the context of performing arts education and attempts to fill the gap in the literature in this area.

In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight faculty members at the researcher’s workplace: a local tertiary performing arts academy works. These faculty members were from the dance discipline (two respondents), drama discipline (three respondents) and music discipline (three respondents). As part of research methodology, an innovative form of conceptual mapping was conceived of at the beginning of the data collection exercise and was continually refined throughout the entire research process. This approach, visual co-conceptualisation, involved researcher and respondent working together closely to create highly individualised conceptual maps to visually articulate the respondents’ perceptions of quality in student performers.

The principal findings are firstly, that quality can be articulated in terms three broad domains: physical-technical, academic-intellectual and heArt, each describing the distinct qualities or attributes that make up quality student dancers, actors and musicians, and that all three domains had to be present; secondly, that these domains have an internal hierarchy where, for some performance disciplines, the physical-technical can be considered the most important, if not fundamental, to being or becoming a quality performer; and thirdly, that there was interplay and intraplay within and across these domains, indicating that in order for performers to showcase quality in their performances, they had to demonstrate that these domains, rather than being static or working in isolation, interacted dynamically at varying degrees. In sum, the existence of all three domains and their subsequent interactivity were key not only to identifying quality in the performing arts in general but more specifically in student performers.

The findings aim to provide a deeper insight into quality that is grounded in the performing arts, and these will contribute to the much needed discussion concerning indicators of quality relevant to the disciplines of dance, drama and music. Also, given the current emphasis on outcomes-based education in Hong Kong, the significance of the findings, particularly with regard to the innate or natural born qualities of student performers—physical and cognitive—questions the extent to which they can or indeed ought to be assessed. Finally, the study, through its use of an innovative visual co-conceptualisation approach has an additional contribution to make towards qualitative research methodology, especially for studies involving visual and performing arts, performance and those for which providing a visual account would have a far greater impact than traditional narrative.