Skip to main content

College of Arts and Sciences Newsroom

Global Art Education

University of Dayton senior Mary Guida blazed a potential new path for art education majors this summer, teaching art classes at a Marianist school in Santiago, Chile, to pilot a proposed global experiential learning program.

Along the way, she encountered a classroom of kindergartners dressed as seafarers and aquatic creatures to celebrate Día de las Glorias Navales, or Navy Day; watched a 95-year-old woman smash a birthday piñata; and engaged high school students in a discussion about western and Latin American street art.

Guida, an art education major from Columbus, Ohio, spent six weeks in Chile, where she taught art to K-12 students alongside Chilean art educators at Instituto Miguel León Prado in San Miguel, Santiago. For much of that time, she lived in Huechurabra with the Marianist family of Marisol Policroni, the school’s nurse.

The goal was for Guida to help the Department of Art and Design determine the cost and implementation strategy for the proposed experiential learning opportunity. Her insights into the experience also could help faculty tailor the program for future students.

The program aligns with the University’s Catholic Marianist social justice mission and would help set its art education major apart from those at other institutions, said assistant professor Darden Bradshaw, who serves as area coordinator for art education.

Bradshaw traveled with Guida for the first week to help get her situated in Chile. She credits Guida’s sense of adventure and Spanish language skills for making the pilot trip a success.

“Mary quickly and with excitement embraced the experience in Santiago,” Bradshaw said. “Travel to a foreign country can be challenging in many ways — including the destabilization of leaving your comfort behind. She expressed not only an interest in Chile as a country, but in the customs, practices and cultural exploration that would enlarge her knowledge and ability to relate to the people she met.”

Despite five years of Spanish language courses in middle and high school, Guida said communication was a challenge. Few of her students, fellow teachers or host family members spoke English. She worked with a translator, but her students — like American teenagers — often used slang, unfamiliar words and abbreviations when speaking.

“Teachers need to be able to communicate to different learners,” Guida said. “Pushing yourself into this situation where you’re uncomfortable and you don’t know how to communicate, that’s how you become a better communicator. As far as future educators going into this program, I believe that is a very large lesson and life skill to obtain.”

Guida prepared for the trip by taking Foundations of Art Education, which introduces students to both global and western art education theories and philosophies. The course also examines trends and changes in global art education to prepare future art educators to meet the needs of the growing global community.

She also took Philosophy of Education with Ernesto Rosen Velasquez, an associate professor of philosophy who specializes in Latino issues. In that class, she wrote papers comparing western education with that in Latin America.

“I was really looking forward to seeing that in person, how much Latin American philosophy plays into their education system,” Guida said. “If I had not taken that course it would not have been the same experience.”

At Instituto Miguel León Prado, Guida worked in the art room with students in grades seven through 12. For the first three weeks, she observed the teacher, Alejandra Troncoso, to learn how she presented the curriculum.

Guida then conducted her own class for two weeks with sophomore students, who did nonrepresentational color self-portraits using oil pastels. Some students were more successful than others in meeting the exercise’s goal, which she attributed to her language barrier.

Her biggest challenge was covering for three days when Troncoso was sick. Guida showed one class a documentary about the shadowy British street artist Banksy. That led to a conversation about street art in Santiago, Banksy as a western artist and the art auctioneers who sell his murals on location for vast sums of money.

“We looked at all the social justice issues that go into these paintings all over Santiago and Valparaiso — that very rich Latin American culture around street art and murals,” Guida said. “I translated a bit for the kids: ‘So, they’re taking this art off the wall. It’s out of context, but now it’s worth a million dollars. Does that transfer to the murals across the street?’ They’re like, ‘No, because it’s meant for the people.’ We had a really nice cultural difference conversation about that.”

Bradshaw hopes to continue and grow the global art education program.

“If it can become a sustainable program, not only will future art educators benefit in their professional and personal identities through such an experiential learning opportunity situated in Santiago, but our relationship with the students and teachers at the Marianist school will be strengthened,” Bradshaw said.

- Dave Larsen, communication coordinator, College of Arts and Sciences

Previous Post

Advice to the Class of 2022

This year, the University of Dayton College of Arts and Sciences welcomes more than 1,025 first-year students, representing nearly half of the University’s more than 2,200 new students from 39 states and 18 countries.
Read More
Next Post

Building Cultural Curiosity

A new season of professional arts performances begins Sep. 20 at the University of Dayton. ArtsLIVE, the University’s premiere professional performance series, showcases a wide range of disciplines and cultural traditions. The program has served both community and campus audiences since 1961.
Read More