Teachers’ Training

39 art teachers from public schools in a number of peripheral cities of Armenia attended one week of advanced training in both August and November 2023. Also this round of the project Teachers’ Training was organised in cooperation with the Armenian State Pedagogical University (ASPU). Each week the group was joined by two resident and three international artists/art docents, who shared their skills and knowledge during the workshops. As in the previous course (launched in 2022) the workshops took place in Aghavnadzor. Due to the current situation in Armenia, in the November session, the residence and workshop location was shared with people seeking asylum and fleeing the Karabakh region. Especially the children among them became part of the week and enthusiastically joined in wherever they could.

The selection of the participants was made from a pool of over 400 applicants, demonstrating the very high demand for professional development training of this type, as well as the desire for exchange with local and foreign experts and the popularity of the workshops from the previous year. 

Both weeks consisted of three sets of five parallel workshops conducted by two local and three international art docents. Each participant had the chance to take part in three workshops (out of fifteen) each week. Work in smaller groups of max. 8 persons made it possible for the participants to achieve more in-depth learning and benefit from intensive communication with the tutors.

The programme, which aimed at diversification of the school curriculum and inclusion of more creative methods, included individual and group work on the following topics: colours and their use for creation of geometric compositions; organising of geometric figures; abstractionism as a method; work with clay; the method of felting for creating pictures; poetic and conceptual approaches; creating masks and theatre play; mandalas, community art, art therapy, and expressive art; development of ideas from simple patterns into complex works; working in indoor and open-air environments; use of games in classroom settings for inclusion of students with learning difficulties; drawing techniques; competent use of diverse means of artistic expression; application of natural, waste and secondary materials with the aim of reducing negative impacts on the environment, etc.

The workshops in the first session were accompanied by a lecture on the current state of the Armenian education system and a day-long training in media literacy. Within this framework participants were introduced to topics such as the psychological analysis of students’ behaviour or how to deal with stressful situations and relaxation techniques. A psychologist was also invited for the second session in November and participants had the opportunity to discuss their questions with her (many of them concerned with how to work with children with special needs). 

Each week was attended by two external evaluators, all of whom are experts selected by the ASPU. In the second week particularly, the evaluators became so engaged and part of the group that one of them shared her skill in making traditional dolls, which resulted in an additional evening class. 

Both weeks ended with an exhibition of the pieces produced during the workshops. 

For many of the participants this project was the first time they had spent a week away from their families. However, despite a broad range of professional experiences and ages they quickly formed strong bonds of expertise and friendship. In addition to the further education, central to the projects is the establishment of networks that will assist the art teachers in working together in the future. 

37 teachers who teach art in schools in Armenia’s border region with Azerbaijan met in late August for the first part of the two one-week trainings in the course house in Aghavnadzor. They had been selected from almost eighty applicants. The initially somewhat tense atmosphere – for many of them it was their first week away from their family – quickly dissolved as people began to do practical artistic work in small groups under the guidance of five lecturers. Each lecturer had prepared a one-and-a-half-day programme on a different topic, and the participants were able to choose and switch between these options three times during the course. For example, there was a programme on the topic of colour and mixing colours, a programme on sculpting and drawing with a variety of materials, a classic programme on drawing techniques, one on free artistic self-expression, and one on artistic work inspired by bird feathers. After the participants had tried out everything by themselves, the application of the working methods in the classroom was discussed. A lecture on curriculum reform in Armenia and a full day on teaching media literacy complemented the practice-centred work. The course week ended with an exhibition of all the works created. Everyone was amazed and also a little proud of what had been achieved here!

The second week of the training was scheduled for mid-October, but in September the war with Azerbaijan flared up again. Would the participants now be able to devote themselves to art for a week? In the end, 36 of 37 participants decided to come (‚We want to live as normal a life as possible, even in this difficult situation.‘) and we were able to continue the course as planned: with new content (graphic design, making fanzines, designing masks, working with mandalas) and also with artistic work in nature. It was always important to use working materials that are also available to teachers at their schools. The theoretical part of the course dealt with curricular issues, as well as with possibilities of psychological support for young people in the classroom.
In the course of the week, more and more works were created. Supplemented with works that had been produced as ‚homework‘ since the first course, they formed the rich final exhibition, an adequate setting for the presentation of diplomas to all graduates of the course.