Learning to teach
- Country:
- Brazil
- Organisations involved:
- São Paulo’s Museum of Modern Art
- Synopsis:
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The “Learning to Teach” programme is part of the Sao Paulo’s Museum of Modern Art, “Different Equals Programme” The programme trains young deaf people to be museum guides for visiting groups of children from the area’s schools for the deaf.
The idea for this course arose from a visit, which Marisa Szpigel, one of the museum’s staff paid to a school for deaf children known as Derdic (Rehabilitation Division for Communication Disorders of the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo) where she observed the communication between teachers and deaf students. In one class, she noticed an improvement in atmosphere and effective communication was taking place through gestures, looks and silence. She immediately realized that the difference between this group and the others lay in the fact that the professor was also deaf. This gave rise to the idea of the course: to qualify deaf teenagers for the task of welcoming deaf individuals visiting the museum. With this objective, the apprenticeship of students would gain a double functionality: they would become acquainted with art and learn how to teach it to other people.On average, 30 students aged between 13 and 16 attend the course each semester under the guidance of two teacher-artists.
Apart from them, three Derdic teachers accompany the students acting as interpreters. “Learning to teach” seeks to establish a meaningful relation between the students and art and to enable them to share this experience with others. It also seeks to make students aware that their skills in sign language represent an advantage. We do not seek to make them experts in the history of art, but would rather have them discover their own potential: some of them go on to become teachers, others prefer to produce art and still others stand out in discussing art. The training received by each individual is worked on very carefully by the teacher-artists. The first guided tour is a daunting challenge to most of the young people involved in the project as it represents their chance to develop their own route through the museum and their own interpretations of the works on that route.
This can also lead to developments in the sign language used, for example one group of two guides, Lucas and Edvaldo chose subversion as the theme for their route. In order to make sense of the concepts which they were exploring, they suggested that the group, as a whole, should come up with a definition for the word subversion, which they compared with the one they found in the dictionary. This led to a discussion about the definition of subversion, and what it was exactly that the works in the museum could be considered to subvert. At the end of the course, they had convened upon a sign to represent the idea of subversion, which was also passed on to visitors.
The partnership between the Mueum of Modern Art and the Derdic school has brought to light clearly positive consequences for both institutions. The Museum has become better qualified for dealing with deaf visitors, nowadays, many guided tours for schools of the deaf are being conducted by students of the Learning to teach course, who have become increasingly aware of the importance of the social role they are playing: on average they provide assistance to 200 deaf visitors. The school have also realised the value of the programme in developing the capacity of their students to express themselves and develop their own abilities.
Regina Girebi, one of Derdic’s teachers accompanying students to the museum, commented: “On taking part in this project, I had the opportunity of becoming more deeply acquainted with my own students and all their potential. I became aware of how much deaf persons may surprise us, given that contrary to what I thought, they are just as capable of acquiring abstract knowledge as any other hearing person and of being creative and capable of improvising for better expressing themselves.”
Teachers at Derdic mention the changes in some students as a result of their participation in the course. “Two of our students completely changed their way of being and acting after they were admitted to the course. At Derdic, they exhibited rebellious and undisciplined behaviors and showed no interest for the course. However, the Learning to teach course expanded their horizon. Artistic culture fascinated them and today they feel an urge to become increasingly acquainted with it. Contact with mam’s teacher-artists and the form in which they conduct their classes are making them more reflective and mature. The course, designed for teaching, led these students to become aware of what they are capable of, that they have potential and talent. And they were filled with pride on becoming aware that they had performed well in their guided tours for the deaf of other schools and that the whole effort had been worthwhile.”
- Issues encountered:
- Diaries were a very useful tool for students to document their learning and video feedback following the tours.
Financing the programme has been a problem as it depends on sponsorship. The program was launched in the second semester of 2002 with the sponsorship of the Culture Ministry (Federal Government) and has since been sustained with funding from private companies. - Recommendations:
- The success of this programme is evident not just in the projects which is has sparked at the museum (photography project and several exhibitions) but also in the positive impact on the lives of the students involved. The Museum of Modern Art will endeavour to continue to develop the programme in the future.
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