International Journal of Education & the Arts

Citation: Broome, J. (2016). The art teacher and multi-age homeroom teachers: Qualitative observations and comparisons. International Journal of Education & the Arts, 17(27). Retrieved from http://www.ijea.org/v17n27/.

Multi-age classrooms feature the intentional grouping of students from consecutive grade levels for the purpose of fostering a nurturing classroom atmosphere. While an abundance of research on multi-age education has been produced throughout the past 50 years, only recent efforts have seen researchers turn their attention to the experiences of art teachers working with mixed-age groups. The purpose of this article is to characterize the qualities of mixed-age instruction for an art teacher and a group of homeroom teachers through the collection of qualitative observations and interviews at a selected school site, with the intent of describing the congruities and incongruities in their instructional practices and organizational strategies. The results detail subtle organizational differences, yet congruent practices related to thematic instruction and cooperative learning, and emergent findings related to the importance of forming communities of multi-age practice and adopting an ethic of caring.