Syllabus as artistic material: An incomplete and subjective collection of permissions and metaphors for teacher posture

The syllabus—one of the most ubiquitous materials of schooling—is commonly overlooked and considered to be innocuous because of its mundane nature. However, the syllabus ought to be treated with more careful consideration because it is something that teachers make (something they need to be accountable for) and actively shapes the postures that teachers and students take (something they should be aware of). Seeing the syllabus this way adheres to a view that the syllabus, as a genre, is an active agent in shaping the world and those who use it, leading to questions like: As a material, what does the syllabus do or what do teachers do through the syllabus? Where did the syllabus genre come from? What are the theories, coherence, or logic that are embedded in this material? What forces shaped it into the concretized form currently seen in education? How does the syllabus shape the educational experience for students? How does the syllabus act on teachers? Who does it benefit or hurt? Part of this dissertation stems from the author’s desire to be a more self-reflective and responsible educator and navigate the complex and tensional landscape of education. The author is not trying to destroy the syllabus or replace it with something new––but is simply asking how this seemingly impossible and rigid material, that often serves to promote one linear way of thinking about education, can be made pliable to allow for other teaching postures to be taken and to encourage other ubiquities in education to become pliable materials as well. Through a series of gestures informed by permissions taken from artists and arts-based research methodologies, the author offers an expanded vocabulary, permissions, and metaphors for thinking of the syllabus and teaching. While the syllabus historically has been described as a contract, a permanent record, or teaching tool, the author proposes that the syllabus can—in fact—be a living curriculum, a proxy to reveal or unearth complacencies about the curriculum (what is worth knowing) and reestablish possibly lost beliefs about pedagogy (the relationality of education), and a catalyst for imagining "schooling" as a dynamic and complex set of relationships (at its core).

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Art Education

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2024

Author dc:creator

• Ostraff, Kaleb J.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Lucero, Jorge
• Travis, Sarah
• Russell, Lindsay R
• Altshuler, Joseph

• Syllabus
• Arts-based Research
• Arts Education

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2024 Kaleb Ostraff

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/124306

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F124306