~Flourish~

An Arts-Based Investigation of Creativity and Happiness in Teaching

Dr. Willow Brown, UNBC Charity Brown, M.Ed. (U of A) CSEA Fear No Art! Conference, Edmonton, AB. October, 2012. 1

~Hello and Welcome

Willow Brown brown@unbc.ca
-Teacher Educator - Researcher in School Improvement & Instructional Leadership, UNBC

- Aspiring a/r/tographer

Charity Brown

charity.brown@epsb.ca

(guest appearance, Lukas Fianta-Brown, aged 3 weeks)

-Artist, Grade 6 teacher at McKee (on leave) - recent M.Ed. grad Visual Art Education, U of A

~What does it mean to flourish?

~People who are flourishing have

things they love to do and things they know they are good at (engagement, accomplishment). They have fulfilling relationships. Their lives have purpose and meaning. Those who flourish feel happy frequently (positive emotion) and they will tell you that they are, overall, pleased with themselves, with others, and with life.

~Create a Vision
If we, as teachers, were truly flourishing, what would be different? ~For ourselves? ~For our students? ~For our families?

~Positive Psychology Asks

~How many teachers are

flourishing? How many are merely surviving?

~Under what conditions

does flourishing increase?
.

~Would we flourish or would we be

happier if we had more money, better administrators, more supportive spouses, students who are well-cared for and well-prepared for what we need to teach them?

~Positive psychology findings tell

us probably notbut even if the answer were yes, what should we do until we then? Why not take control instead of waiting for the white knight of happiness to charge into our lives?

~ Our Purpose for Inquiry

~Learn to take charge

of our own well-being; learn about happiness and how we can create more of it in our own lives. Then share that knowledge with teachers and students.

~Catalyst Literature
~ Martin Seligmans book, Flourish: A Visionary new
Understanding of Happiness and Well-being ~sane, sage, groundbreaking advice to help you plan your way to a joyful and fulfilling life ~PERMA framework - Components of human wellbeing include positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment.

~Catalyst Literature
~ 100 of the worlds leading positive
psychologists from 50 countries share what their research has taught them about happiness.

Summarized in a few words:

~Think positively and be proactive.

Keys
~Think less about sad things, and more about happy things; spend more time doing things you enjoy. Seek beauty. Allow yourself to feel. ~Cherish the people who are important to you. ~Engage your skills; happiness begins with your own unique history and abilities.

More Keys
~Believe in your own efforts; trust that you can determine outcomes. (Conquer the fear!) ~Enjoy what you have; reframe perceived failures in terms of successes. ~Become a happiness detective, always observing your own feeling tone and nurturing the good times. ~Seek and anticipate support. Make contributions. Build community.

Method: Arts-Based Research

~Process
1. review content texts (literature) 2. make sense of them through visual expression and journaling 3. Analyze your images and insights 4. Share findings (Barone & Eisner, 1997)

Rationale for Choice of Method:

~happiness is a subjective construct, suited to personal exploration ~creating images contributes, in itself, to 3 of 5 components of happiness engagement, meaning, accomplishment ~artistic expression, shared in community, may enhance abilities to create happiness

~Invitation to Join Us
~Express happiness using your own unique strengths, talents, and ideas.
~Listen to and look for intuitive understandings ~ Review and reflect to find new meaning. ~Share!
.

Our Skills, Talents, Ideas

Willow
~line ~calligraphy ~Goal: create flourishing figures (an alternative to STICK DEATH)

Charity
~form ~sculpture ~Goal: to explore how teachers find comfort in personal and shared experiences

~What Weve Learned...

Charity: Flourishing, like the making of art , is an ongoing process. It doesnt just happen but requires effort. Its a daily discipline of appreciating the small joys. See more thoughts @JoyfulTiny on Twitter

FEAR NO ART

Your Invitation to Join this Inquiry Process: How can I express happiness using my own unique strengths and talents? (Choose a method and a medium.) 2. Listen

~What Weve Learned...

Willow: Well-being comes with Choice and Voice: 1. In discipline, there is freedom. (Without accomplishment, choices are limited.) 2. Learn to be your authentic self! (Self-knowledge and selfexpression are keys to life satisfaction.)
.

~Final Thought

Creativity contributes to positive relationships with self and others, with nature, and with the world. Thinking about and expressing beauty and goodness in our own way increases optimism, the feeling that the world is a good place and we will flourish in it.
.

~But Please, No Phony Sunshine...

Undeniably, life isbrimming with negatives: acute and chronic disease, disability, sorrow, death, disaster, bleak family, social, economic and political conditions an uninterrupted flow of demands, from bearable to devastating. Sometimes we languish there. However, we are resilient beings: we are able to bounce back returning to where we were before but also to bounce forward going beyond where we were at first. The very overcoming of inordinate demands is often a source of growth and new strength for future hardships. Our strengths help us to bear up, to overcome, and eventually to flourish again. DJW Strumpfer, South Africa

~Thank-you!