BORDERLESS ARTISTIC AND CREATIVITY ASSESSMENT 26
Borderless Artistic and Creativity Assessment (BACA):
A Culturally Proficient Model for Measuring Adult Experiential Learning
Marjorie Williams-Cooper
University of Phoenix-Jersey City Campus, College of Arts and Sciences
Thomas Edison State College
DeBorah Gilbert White
University of Phoenix-Philadelphia Campus, College of Social Sciences
Author Note
Correspondence concerning this paper should be addressed to Marjorie Williams-Cooper at and DeBorah Gilbert White at and .
Abstract
Borderless Artistic and Creativity Assessment (BACA) is a culturally proficient model for measuring experiential learning of adults actively engaged in creative endeavors and artistic performance. Unlike traditional assessment models built upon western art and aesthetic philosophies that paradoxically exclude nonwestern replicas of human thought, imagination, and activities, BACA’s ethno-culturally inclusive domains reflect the growing diversity among adult learners seeking portfolio credit for online college degrees. For instance, BACA’s culturally rich Creativity and Artistic Performance Domain contextualizes nonEurocentric responses of creator artists to their worldviews, concepts of divinity, spirituality and religious traditions, cultural memory, mythology, ritual performance, roles of ancestors, cultural attitudes and taboos, oral and written traditions, food and drink preparation and consumption patterns, environment and climate, gender and sexual orientation, languages and dialects. Essentially, the BACA model for assessing adult experiential learning connected to creative processes and artistic performance is an innovative system for validating the intricately diverse threads of artistry, ingenuity, and creativity embedded in ethno-cultural expressions of humanity beyond institutional borders.
Borderless Artistic and Creativity Assessment (BACA):
A Culturally Proficient Model for Measuring Ault Experiential Learning
Introduction
Prior learning acquired by adults seeking entrance to online college-level visual and performing arts programs through portfolio credentialing requires a culturally proficient model that honors academic scholarship, workplace experiences, lifelong learning exhibited in personal affairs, and distinct ethno-cultural aesthetic expressions. Non-European adult learners immigrating into United States culture since 1960 reflect the growing diversity of the national population and the expansiveness of nonwestern ethnic communities.[1] In response to their positioning for place within the nation’s borders, educational processes must evolve toward inclusion of diverse ideas about creativity and the nature of public dialogue with ethno-cultural artistic languages. The Borderless Artistic and Creativity Assessment (BACA) model provides an inclusive lens for evaluating experiential adult learning in terms of its impact inside ethno-cultural communities, influences on social ordering of the macro-culture, and potential to add to the broad base of knowledge and wisdom that affects functionality of global communities.
Background
BACA is a culturally proficient model for measuring experiential learning of adults actively engaged in creative endeavors and artistic performance. BACA evaluates experiential learning acquired from active engagement in creative processes and artistic contributions made to the visual arts, music, dance, oral and written communication, poetry, filmmaking, theater, and culinary arts. Unlike traditional assessment models built upon western philosophies and art aesthetics that paradoxically exclude nonwestern contributions, BACA’s culturally inclusive domains reflect the growing diversity among adult learners seeking portfolio credit for online college degrees.
BACA’s practice of cultural proficiency implies application of a mindset and evaluative process that seeks to remove real, imagined, and potential boundaries to the academic evaluation of creative endeavors and artistic performances. Borderless, as it relates to BACA, is the exploration, valuation, and inclusion of ethno-cultural perspectives in the assessment of experiential learning of adults engaged in creative expression. Essentially, the BACA model provides an innovative system for validating the intricately diverse threads of artistry, ingenuity, and creativity embedded in ethno-cultural expressions of humanity beyond institutional borders.
Problem Statement
The BACA model is a culturally proficient response to notions of superiority and dominance of European images, symbolic behaviors, and philosophies assigned to the spectrum of languages that describe creativity and artistic performance. Notions of Eurocentrism that signify institutionalized racism persistently contradict ideologies relating to freedom, equality, and justice warranted by founding statements of the United States macro-culture, but these ideological contradictions are perpetuated consciously and unconsciously in social attitudes regarding aesthetics and human creativity. Any system that fundamentally devalues artistic replicas of human thought, imagination, and activities because they are nonwestern in their manifestations is problematic for collegiate institutions that enroll self-directed adult learners seeking portfolio credit for experiential learning. BACA has emerged from the professional insight, commitment to adult learning in online and on-ground classrooms, imaginations, and intuitions of Marjorie Williams-Cooper and DeBorah Gilbert White to counter and challenge institutionalized attitudes and behaviors regarding race and ethnic identity that inform evaluations of ethno-cultural creativity and artistic performance in online college degree programs.
Resolution
BACA does not intentionally seek to uproot traditional assessment processes of college-level arts programs, but it rather provides an alternative and culturally proficient lens for evaluating nonwestern ethno-cultural aesthetic expressions. Instead of submitting portfolios to assessment processes committed to Eurocentric ideas about the nature of art and how artistic performance should be valued, adult learners submit portfolios to a committee of evaluators who are knowledgeable regarding ethno-cultural artistic expressions and passionate about retaining the integrity of signs, symbols, ritual behaviors, ancestral messages, cultural memory,[2] (Floyd, 1996, p. 9) oral histories, and religio-aesthetic aspects, such as the metaphysical concept of àse, embedded in Yoruba aesthetic expressions (Abíódún, 1994, pp. 68-71). [3]
BACA Creativity and Artistic Performance Domain
BACA’s culturally rich Creativity and Artistic Performance Domain contextualizes nonEurocentric responses of creator artists to their worldviews, concepts of divinity, spirituality and religious traditions, cultural memory, mythology, ritual performance, roles of ancestors, cultural attitudes and taboos, oral and written traditions, food and drink preparation and consumption patterns, environment and climate, gender and sexual orientation, languages and dialects (e.g. the language concept of Yawulyu that expresses the creative processes of Australian Aboriginal women) (Bell, 2002). The BACA model recognizes how creator artists embed nonEurocentric worldviews into their arts, essentially working the spirit intrinsic in creativity and artistic performance so that the arts resonate with responsiveness to creator artists’ vocables, physiological embraces, mental and spiritual energies, and other sensual and intuitive workings engaged in creative processes. Further, BACA recognizes the creative responses of the artistic works themselves, as they speak back to their creator artists and audiences, which appear to be the tendencies of works for and of the spirit. In his book Working the Spirit: Ceremonies of the African Diaspora, Joseph M. Murphy (1994) writes that "works for the spirit and works of the spirit. . . . [and] [t]he reciprocity between community and spirit is expressed . . . as the community works through word, music, and movement to make the spirit present" (p. 7). For these reasons, the BACA model acknowledges that “a code of relationships [is constructed] between human beings and spirit" (p. 2) during creative processes and artistic performance, and those relationships are carried into the works that creator artists present in their portfolios. Essentially, in its assessment process, the BACA model upholds sacred traditions of ethno-cultures that translate into aesthetics, creativity, and artistic performance that is measurable as experiential learning toward portfolio credits for online college degree programs. (See BACA Creativity and Artistic Performance Components in Figures 1, 2, and 3.)
Figure 1: BACA Creativity and Artistic Performance Components
Figure 2: BACA Creativity and Artistic Performance Components
Figure 3: BACA Creativity and Artistic Performance Components
BACA Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Domain
BACA is rooted in teaching philosophies that take into account the wisdom and knowledge of education experts and teacher development professionals such as Malcolm S. Knowles (1975), Maurice Elias (1997), and Rachel Kessler (2000). Accordingly, BACA embraces andragogical learning and the social and emotional dimensions of learning (SEL) that are critical to the validation of culturally diverse worldviews of adult learners completing online college degree programs. For instance,
[A]ndragogical theory is based in the premise that maturity, ethics, and lived experiences are vital to adult learning. Utilizing its themes of self-direction, mentorship, facilitated learning, and instructor resourcefulness, andragogy urges the adult learner to draw from deep wells of lived experiences in order to inform the learning process” (Williams-Cooper, 2009, p. 3). . . . [S]ubsequently, adult learners demonstrate commitment, problem-solving skills, and the ability to make sound choices about the direction of their own learning (Williams-Cooper; Swanson & Holton, 1998, as cited in Knowles, 1984).
BACA is processed efficiently using the social and emotional dimensions of learning that are vital to ethno-cultures structured on non-linear worldviews. Intrinsic in the social and emotional learning (SEL) model is a
theoretical framework for wholeness and well-being that is achieved by (1) character-building through esteem for self and others, (2) acceptance of cultural diversity, (3) independent and critical thought processes, (4) open forums for questioning and seeking answers to life issues, (5) silence and reflection, (6) community service, (7) respect for nature and the natural environment, (8) human spirituality, (9) intuition, (10) imagination and creativity, (11) authentic expression, and (12) conflict resolution (Williams-Cooper, 2009, as cited in Elias et al., 1997; Kessler, 2000). (See SEL Domains Utilized by BACA (Kessler, 2000) in Figure 4.)
Figure 4: SEL Domain Utilized by BACA (Kessler, 2000)
BACA Social Psychological Lenses for Cultural Proficiency and Borderless Artistic Creativity Assessment Domain
BACA is informed by social psychological considerations connected to the development and nurture of the adult learners’ cultural and social identities. Adults, as self-directed learners, utilize their life experiences and the meanings made of those experiences for their socialization and understanding in educational environments (Garrison, 1997). Understanding that cultural meanings and creative expressions and interpretations are within people, and therefore are shaped culturally thorough worldview, it is imperative that adult learners have evaluators of their artistic creative expressions and evaluation models that are culturally proficient. Appreciation of culture and its influence on the worldview allows freedom for creativity to develop from a depth of knowledge that supports a positive self-concept for the artist, and an opportunity for cultural relativism and acknowledgment of differences that emerge across cultures (Stuart, 2005).
A culturally proficient model of assessment incorporating social psychological lenses provides a tool for adult learners and evaluators to best understand how each thinks, feels, and engages the other socially and culturally. Further, a culturally proficient model influences perceptions of self, others, and values connected to human diversity (Bordens & Horowitz, 2008). Cultural Proficiency is an approach to diversity that promotes awareness of cultural difference, positive response to cultural difference, and the willingness to engage and adapt as it relates to cultural difference. Culturally proficient evaluators have developed a personal and professional capacity, and utilize measurement tools that advocate, address needs, and include perspectives of culturally diverse individuals and groups (Lindsay, Nuri Robins, Terrell, 2003).
Theories guiding social psychology are socially referent and are utilized to analyze social issues, specifically problems stemming from human interactions. Three theories that are complementary to the BACA model (Social Identity Theory, Equity Theory, and Field Theory) present questions, challenges, and support for adult learners and educational institutions of higher learning experiencing increasing numbers of ethno-cultural learners and a need for educators with keen sensitivity and knowledge of cultural considerations within learning environments. Social psychologists have been in the forefront of addressing social issues stemming from attitudes and subsequent behaviors, particularly those related to pre-judgment or prejudice, intrapersonal, interpersonal, and inter-group relations. Focusing on systemic or environmental factors within learning environments can assist in determining intersecting, intertwining, and interconnecting elements of psychological and social issues regarding creativity and artistic performance assessment (Gilbert White, 2008; Neill, 2004; Collier, Minton, & Reynolds, 1991; Fisher, 1982).
A key component toward the development of the BACA model is the authentic inclusion of less dominant cultural lenses in creative expression and evaluation. Such a model for evaluation serves to remind us of the inherent privilege in social and cultural dominance and the propensity to promote the dominant culture valuations consciously and unconsciously. According to James M. Jones (1997),
We do not so much treat people from other groups worse, we treat members of our own group better! By any definition, in-group favoritism is a prejudice. . . . It is important to recognize that a fully balanced understanding of prejudice requires that we look not only at the animosities that are associated with negative prejudgments about people and the groups to which they belong, but also at the expressions of attraction, cohesion, and liking we direct toward our intimates and like-minded associates. (p. 140)
One question this concept brings to the forefront is, “How does the incident of in-group favoritism or excessive positive regard for Eurocentric or western cultural worldview impact the evaluative process? Fundamentally, the implementation of an assessment model that promotes positive regard for ethno-cultural creative expressions is found in the domains of BACA and its cultural proficiency components. (See Figure 5: Social Psychological Lenses.)
Figure 5: BACA Social Psychological Lenses
BACA Integrity Assurance Domain
BACA is framed to meet quality assurance standards for prior learning assessment (PLA) programs for adults seeking portfolio credits for online college degrees. Its two-tiered self-assessment components align with PLA program self-assessment criteria accepted by the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL) (2010, pp. 27-37). The first-level tier utilizes 10 self-assessment criteria for assuring proficient PLA programs. The integrity of BACA is further upheld by five critical factors that assure high standards of proficiency in the model. For that purpose, each of the five critical factors that form BACA’s second-level tier is respectively measured against the 10 self-assessment criteria in the first-level tier. (See Figure 6: Two-tiered Self-assessment Components.)
BACA’s first-level tier utilizes the following 10 self-assessment criteria for proficient PLA programs (Fiddler, Marienau,& Whitaker, 2006, pp. 27-37, as cited in CAEL, 2010):