Support, Encore, Related Arts, Connections

Art (and music, physical education, technology, librarians, dance, and theatre) teachers get called lots of names.

Many school administrators lump these subjects together into a conglomeration of messy, untested, classes with the perspective that these subjects primarily exist to serve as planning periods for the 'real' teachers. To be consistent with "grade level teaching teams" (ex. Third Grade teachers) and "subject level teaching teams" (Math teachers), administrators create a label/category/grouping for us.

In other schools, I was a member of the "related arts" team. In my high school placement, I was an "art teacher" (whoda thought?!), but my return to teaching in a new district I (and my colleagues) are referred to as "support."

...

Support?

like?

In February, I posted a quick and informal survey on the closed Facebook group "Art Teachers" asking:

In my school district art teachers, as well as music, technology, physical education teachers, and librarians, are called "support" teachers and sometimes "encore"or "connections" teachers. I've been in another district where we were called "related arts" teachers. I'm curious to know, how are you labeled in your school/district? What are your thoughts on the label?

​At the time there were 12,911 members. The post received 231 responses. Most responses were the "label" without answering the additional questions.

Let's see the results:

I think the winner goes to the art teacher who is referred to as a "pull out teacher."

Seriously?!

Looks like the graphic organizer pulled apart some of the two word names like "pull-out," "non-core," "____ teacher" (fill in the blank on that one); there weren't many who were just called "teacher."

Those who did answer the follow up questions seemed as frustrated with their label as I am with mine.

I have a lot of questions and thoughts about this leading me to research "label theory" and art teacher identity. I have seen a few studies about how labels affect student growth and learning, but I wonder how do labels affect teacher - more specifically, art teachers - performance and retention? Are there studies about this?

Soon I will share my experience and observations of teaching under the "support" label this school year, but in the meantime, let's advocate for the importance of art, music, physical education, technology, librarian, dance, and theatre in our schools.

Art education professor, Dr. Shannon Elliot at Memphis College of Art did a statewide survey on art teacher labels across the state and created a series of bumper sticker advocacy tools like the one pictured at the beginning of this post and I hope to delve into her work further.