Professor Kelli Jo Moran (chairperson and professor in the Department of Professional Studies in Education), Ragia Hassan (a Curriculum and Instruction doctoral candidate), and Chin-Yi Huang (a Curriculum and Instruction doctoral student) presented a poster titled “Teaching Artists Teaching Future Teachers: Building Pre-Service Teachers’ Cross-Curricular Capacities through Teaching Artist Residencies” at the 47th annual Conference of the Eastern Educational Research Association on February 8, 2024.

Doctoral Canidates and Professors presenting at a conference. Description

This poster presentation focused on an exploratory qualitative study of an innovative teaching strategy of using teaching artist residencies in teacher education programs. Teaching artist residencies in early childhood settings are collaborations between professional artists and classroom teachers. The teaching artist and classroom teacher co-plan instructional experiences for children to learn the artist's craft while also learning in other content areas that are part of the academic curriculum. This university teacher education program has incorporated teaching artist residencies into its curriculum for early childhood and elementary school teachers for nearly 10 years.

The purpose of this presentation is to describe how a Wool Felted Puppet-Making Residency was integrated into the curriculum of a Western Pennsylvania teacher education program, including goals and objectives, and to present preliminary findings from the in-progress study of pre-service teacher, university faculty, teaching artist and program coordinator perceptions.