INCORPORATING A HOLISTIC APPROACH IN THE CLASSROOM

Incorporating a Holistic Approach in the Classroom

Danielle Vogel
University of Missouri

INCORPORATING A HOLISTIC APPROACH IN THE CLASSROOM

Literature Review
Providing a safe environment for students is a crucial step for teachers to set the stage
for a learning community that fosters open dialogue, investigation, experimentation and inquiry
for the art education classroom. The most significant finding while reading through 17 journal
articles and four books was exploring teachers who are implementing a holistic approach in the
classroom and the benefits they have observed. When directly looking for process based
learning projects or art, there was very little information that emerged in the search engines.
However, when shifting the lens of research to a safe environment for students, holistic
education began to surface with significant links to the whole student, community building
techniques (including collaboration), and inquiry.
As a result of these findings, this review of literature will explore ideas of implementing
a holistic approach to education within the classroom. The readings suggest a teacher who
utilizes a holistic approach to education lays a safe foundation for fertilization and growth of
the whole student, while opening space for inquiry and dialogue exploring different processes
and community building that travel beyond the boundaries of the classroom out into the world.
Upon further investigation into applying a holistic approach to education, Rita Irwins method
of a/r/tography, released in her book A/r/tography: Rendering self through arts-based living
inquiry in 2006, presents key elements that reflect similar key elements to a holistic education.
Holistic Approach
John P. Miller has been researching holistic education for over 30 years. His book,
Holistic Learning and Spirituality in Education: Breaking New Ground was released in 2005. He

INCORPORATING A HOLISTIC APPROACH IN THE CLASSROOM

defines it as, Holistic education attempts to nurture the development of the whole person.
This includes the intellectual, emotional, physical, social, aesthetic, and spiritual. Perhaps the
defining aspect of holistic education is the spiritual, (Miller, 2005, pg. 2). He theorizes
pedagogy of wholeness, discusses specific practices integrating the self, soul and spirit in the
classroom, and inspiring wholeness as the poetics of holistic education. The main difference
between current mainstream education and holistic education is that the majority of our
schools are pushing to train students to compete in a global economy. Miller also references a
previous book he wrote in 2001 which states there are 3 key principles in holistic education
which are connectedness, inclusion, and balance (Miller, 2005, pg. 2).
Seymour Simmons, an Associate Professor of Fine Arts at Winthrop University, defines
holistic education very similar to Miller, focusing on the many dimensions of the individualbody, emotions, intellect and spirit-all needing development and integration within the whole
(Simmons, 2006, pg. 41). Simmons has done a great deal of research involving Howard
Gardners list of Multiple Intelligences (MI) and has proposed existential intelligence as an
additional category, which explores the nature of existence in its multifarious guises
according to Gardner in Simmons article (Simmons, 2006, pg. 41). Existential intelligence
opens the door, to the one most controversial aspect of holistic education, the spiritual. By
incorporating this element into Gardners list, Simmons would be opening the door for
educators to have a fresh new perspective to add to multiple intelligences that is not typically
incorporated into mainstream education.

INCORPORATING A HOLISTIC APPROACH IN THE CLASSROOM

Laurel Campbell, Associate Professor and Director of Art Education at Indiana

University-Purdue University, Fort Wayne, pulls on Millers 3 key elements to Holistic
Education. She hones in on the controversial defining aspect of the spiritual like Miller and
Simmons. Campbell (2011) references holistic theorists who view spirituality as an awareness
of the interconnectedness of everyone and everything, distinguishing it from religion, which can
lead to personal transformation (pg. 18). Campbell points out controversial issues surrounding
holistic education containing a spiritual component also. She expands on the meaning of
spirituality and religion and breaks down the specific differences. While Simmons focuses on
adding Existential Intelligence to MI theory, Campbell (2011) focuses on how holistic curriculum
can follow a transformative model which connects the whole student and the curriculum,
instead of being two separate entities (pg. 24).
Campbell defines concepts that should be present if a teacher is to adapt a holistic
approach. They are self-inquiry, self-expression, discussing spiritual awareness, learning
empathy for others, promoting purpose, value on relationships, responsibility for others and
environment, and encouraging personal transformation (Campbell, 2011, pg. 23). Campbell
suggests that a holistic approach to art education is one way to lay the foundation for students
to experience a transformation of self, while learning to appreciate social and cultural forces
that help form their lives. By integrating issues of multiculturalism, diversity of perspectives,
respect for individual learners, and critical thinking strategies with art education and a holistic
approach it is possible to promote social change through intellectual inquiry (Campbell, 2011,
pg. 23).

INCORPORATING A HOLISTIC APPROACH IN THE CLASSROOM

Miller, Simmons, and Campbell are just three leading forces promoting holistic
education in the field of art education focusing on wholeness and connection within the
individual and into the community to bring about promising social change. Ideas of the
spiritual in education only seem to surface around holistic methods while the spiritual and
religion have been the root of the majority of art across time up until the past century or so.
Holistic education not only builds a strong sense of self within the individual student, it leads to
an understanding of a bigger picture, which promotes inquiry and dialogue.
Inquiry & Dialogue
P. J. Palmer is an author, activist, and educator who graduated from the University of
California at Berkeley with a Ph.D. in sociology. In Chapter 3 of To know as we are known: A
spirituality of education, Palmer (1983) argues that truth is the key to teaching and conception
of truth grounded in a rigorous and demanding love is the key to reaching students (pg. 43).
He touches on how children pull away from a teacher who tries to share their power because
they are conditioned to conventional pedagogy, which ultimately tries to remove the self by
keeping them in passive fact finding state.
He addresses conventional pedagogy further: It conveys a view of reality that simplifies
our lives. By this view, we and our world become objects to be lined up, counted,
organized and owned, rather than a community of selves and spirits related to each
other in a complex web of accountability called truth. The conventional pedagogy
pretends to give us mastery over the world, relieving us of the need for mutual

INCORPORATING A HOLISTIC APPROACH IN THE CLASSROOM

VULNERABILITY that the new epistemologies, and truth itself, imply (Palmer, 1983, pg.
39).
While Palmer does not refer to this method specifically as a holistic approach to education, it
lines up with acknowledgement of the spiritual and exploration of the individual, like Miller,
Campbell and Simmons. By basing this work in truth, Palmer is laying a foundation of trust with
students to open dialogue and communicate with students through inquiry as they explore
what truth is to them on an individual and collective level.
Terry Barrett is a Professor of Art Education at the Ohio State University who, unlike
Palmer, directly discusses ways to improve dialogue about art in the classroom. Encompassing
the artwork and art of professional artists, she shares research she has found from professional
critics and how it relates to students of all ages. Barrett provides techniques she uses to
facilitate constructive dialogue, prompting student interpretations, addressing judgments to
uncover the value of the work, and looking for meaning. She talks about transferability among
the students, but unlike holistic approaches she does not touch on transformative aspects of
the whole student. Her ideas are thorough, explained well and she does talk about building
trust with students, which is a key element to a safe environment (Barrett, 2004, pg. 93).
Karinna Riddett-Moore is a Ph.D. student at the University of Georgia and teaches full
time as a visual arts instructor at Notre Dame Academy in Georgia. Her research focus explores
how aesthetic engagement can encourage empathy and caring in the classroom. Coming from
artful inquiry she looks at arts-based research and teacher research while looking at her
classroom and her teaching methods. By looking for ways to encourage empathetic responses

INCORPORATING A HOLISTIC APPROACH IN THE CLASSROOM

and action, she is opening not only a dialogue with students and herself, but implementing
actual change in the environment. Her focus on relationship building through aesthetics as a
practice opens space for students to explore their own relationship to self and others. Through
this process she undertakes with her students and art inquiry, she creates a safe environment
for students to share through dialogue and empathize among each other.
Nicole Porter is a secondary art educator who shared her story in the A/r/tography text
by Rita Irwin. Specifically she shares her experience of bringing her personal artwork into her
classroom. She begins by quietly working on her paintings without telling the students what
she is doing. They begin to inquire about why she would bring her work to the studio.
Ultimately she broke down the barrier between the art teacher and student by putting herself
on an equal level as her student artists. This lead to her being more trustworthy and
approachable as a teacher. The classroom became a studio as the students began to come
together and support each other, while watching and learning from her process of making art.
By creating a safe environment, in a previously unproductive and haphazard environment,
Porter laid the groundwork for inquiry into art making and process while opening dialogue in
her classroom studio. Her experience is similar to Springgay and La Jevic who will be addressed
shortly.
Process & A/r/tography
Porter uses a/r/tography methods by combining her expertise as an artist, teacher and
researcher to share her process of making art and inquiry into the process, while setting a new
foundation in her classroom. She did not have any idea what would happen to her as an artist,

INCORPORATING A HOLISTIC APPROACH IN THE CLASSROOM

as a teacher, or as a researcher if she brought her own work into the classroom, which she had
yet to teach in. She hoped that it would help the students inquire and become interested in her
process to encourage and inspire their process. By allowing her own vulnerability to come
through, exposing her work and ideas to the potential criticisms of her students, she like Palmer
stood in her truth. This then allowed her students to find their own truth about their interest in
making their own artwork. She does not directly address a holistic approach, yet her criteria of
building a safe environment that her students did not previously have, eventually did evolve
out of her vulnerability.
Stephanie Springgay is a PHD candidate for art education and Lisa La Jevic is an assistant
professor of art education and womens studies, both at Pennsylvania State University. They
look at a/r/tography methodology with preservice teachers and reflective journaling in the
article A/r/tography as an ethics of Embodiment. They discuss a/r/tography as a method that
demands that education become a risk that breaks through, disrupts, and interrupts
convention(La Jevic & Springgay, 2008, pg. 71). The use of visual journaling is using the art
making as research inquiry, meaning making and embodied learning. Through this process of
journaling, the students voice is heard through response to readings. They interpret the
readings in their journaling, which opens dialogue. Through the process of visual journaling
students are asked to reflect, inquire, research, and teach what their bodies and minds are
expressing. During this process the individuals response is unveiled as they respond to self and
others. This is an example of how a specific process of reflective journaling creates an
openness to communicate and create dialogue both through visual means and verbal (La Jevic
& Srpinggay, 2008, pg. 73).

INCORPORATING A HOLISTIC APPROACH IN THE CLASSROOM

Stephanie Springgay and Rita Irwin (author of A/r/tography), wrote an article in 2005
entitled A/r/tography as Living Inquiry Through Art and Text. In this article they look at 6
different renderings of a/r/tography as methodological concepts including contiguity, living
inquiry, metaphor and metonymy, openings, reverberations, and excess. By looking at these 6
renderings through an a/r/tographic lens an artist-teacher-researcher is not looking for a
particular concept or research finding; but rather, it is a possibility of creating meaning, a
possibility of what it is, is not, and what it might beeach rendering moving alongside and
between the others (Springgay & Irwin, 2005, pg. 909). An a/r/tographical approach looks at
all the aspects of being and knowing and the spaces that dwell between the areas one does not
typically address in an attempt to understand more or become more. There is no wrong
answer, but a continual investigation, research, inquiry and understanding that through the
process of exploration, new ways of knowing emerge.
Conclusion
There are a multitude of different processes that one can undergo at any given time,
however there was very little information that was available on the specific impact of a process
based lesson on students, which I found somewhat surprising. Upon researching this I
stumbled into the topic of holistic education, which lit a fire of curiosity in me. There is decent
amount of information available from multiple authors on the significance of applying a holistic
approach to teaching practices. My earliest source was in 1983 although they referenced some
of the great philosophers of ancient times, and the most recent I found useful was 2011. Many

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of the sources have similar authors within their reference lists that repeat which shows a
networking community of scholars who have been researching this for quite some time.
Taking a holistic approach to education is not a new idea but is re-emerging as a means
to look at the whole student connected to a community as opposed to mainstream education
focusing on an individual improving individual scores. Part of this appears to be due to our
current educational system failing in many areas, particularly around assessment. One
commonality in holistic approaches to education is that it lays a very firm foundation of a safe
environment for students. When a child is looked at as a whole person they are capable of
experiencing a transformative experience that allows them to connect to the common good of
all people and things. Dialogue or conversation about what is going on in the classroom, with
life, in the world begins to emerge as students look into the meaning of their art making and
those around them. They begin to inquire and question why things are happening. In turn,
this helps nurture our world from an empathetic place. It opens doors for collaboration and
community building.
A/r/tographical methods of study incorporate many holistic approaches as they come
from a constructivist view also. I did not find much mention of a/r/tography being a holistic
approach, but I think it warrants further investigation. A teacher must reflect and inquire on a
deep personal level in order to have a strong foundation worthy of providing a safe
environment for their students to learn, grow and transform. A/r/tography explores the depth
of this process as the artist-teacher-researcher is constantly in a state of metamorphosis.
Through this being in a state of process; questioning, wondering, being, and knowing, the

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teacher is in a state of discovering wholeness themselves, which is a holistic approach. While

the research I have found so far is not incorporating a/r/tography into the art education
classroom for the students, I think this can be pushed further into a/r/lographers, artistresearcher-learners. I would go so far as to say it is already being done, just not defined. Which
could essentially continue to grow as safe environments are developed further through
incorporating the holistic, the spiritual, the universal connectedness of all things paving the way
for a/r/cographers, artist-researcher-collaborators.

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References
Barrett, T. (2004). Improving Student Dialogue About Art. Teaching Artist Journal, 2(2), 87-94.
Campbell, L. H. (2011). Holistic Art Education: A Transformative Approach to Teaching Art. Art
Education, 18-24.
Hetland, L., Teachers College (New York, & N.Y.). (2007). Studio thinking: The real benefits of
visual arts education. New York: Teachers College Press.
Irwin, R. L., & De, C. A. (2004). A/r/tography: Rendering self through arts-based living inquiry.
Vancouver, Canada: Pacific Educational Press.
Ketsman, O. (2013). The Creative Process Entailed in the Construction of Classroom Curriculum.
Critical Questions in Education, 4(1), 21-29.
La Jevic, Lisa & Springgay, Stephanie. (2008). A/r/tography as an Ethics of Embodiment: Visual
Journals in Preservice Education. Qualitative Inquiry, 14(1), 67-89.
Miller, J. P. (2005). Holistic Learning and Spirituality in Education: Breaking New Ground.
Albany: State University of New York Press.
Palmer, P. J. (1983). To know as we are known: A spirituality of education. San Francisco:
Harper & Row.
Simmons, Seymour. (2006). Living the Questions: Existential Intelligence in the Context of
Holistic Art Education. Visual Arts Research, 32(1), 41-52.

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Springgay, Stephanie & Irwin, Rita. (2005). A/r/tography as Living Inquiry Through Art andText.
Qualitative Inquiry, 11(6), 897-912.
Riddett-Moore, K. (2009). Encouraging Empathy through Aesthetic Engagement: An Art Lesson
in Living Compositions. International Journal of Education & the Arts, 10(2).