Students’ Perspectives On Education Expanded Through Slow And Silent Learning

In contrast to mainstream educational practices in the United States that prize efficiency and accelerated learning, Associate Professor Dan Barney of the art education program researches slow and silent ways of teaching and learning. In this framework, a learner sits beside the teacher in an exchange with little formal or didactic instruction. Barney’s inquiry focuses on the following question: What can art educators glean by studying educational practices within cultural locales with a history of slow and silent ways of teaching?

For his research Barney traveled with professors Tara Carpenter and Mark Graham, and eight students to Ecuador in July to study the time-consuming, meticulous art of backstrap loom weaving from a family that has been learning and teaching it for generations.