I contributed Chapter 10: The Distance of Education to the anthology Futures of Performance: The Responsibility of Performing Arts in Higher Education, edited by Karen Schupp.
My chapter is about the online proffessional Practice BA, and MA courses I have created based on harnessing the internet as a medium for being present in the field with students, in their performance-practice lives. This was before the “2020/21 COVID-19 pandemic wrenched arts education onto the Zoom screen.” I draw on my 12 years of writing curriculum and teaching online with performance arts students to write a brief history of the development of these courses, and reflect on their strengths and weaknesses. “I suggest the online learning space offers more than just temporary replacements for in-person classes. In this chapter, I use the distance-education course I wrote/co-wrote and directed/co-directed for 12.5 years as a case study. The strangeness of “teaching” performance artists through an online course was often at odds with the main body of the university. However, the use of online mediums to educate was not to replace the physicality of being together, familiar to a traditional construction of university. Rather, it allowed students to practice arts around the world in early career settings, such as apprenticeships in touring companies. The courses utilized the Internet and distance education frameworks to create a performing arts pedagogical framework, drawing on network theory and connectivism. I conclude the chapter by suggesting the embodied, creative knowledges of the performing arts have much to offer general pedagogical responses to the digital world of the 21st century.”
Citation: Akinleye, A. (2024). The distance of education. In Karen Schupp (Ed.), Futures of Performance: The Responsibilities of Performing Arts in Higher Education (pp. 127-144). Routledge.
About the Anthology
Futures of Performance edited by Karen Schupp, inspires both current and future artists/academics to reflect on their roles and responsibilities in igniting future-forward thinking and practices for the performing arts in higher education.
The book presents a breadth of new perspectives from the disciplines of music, dance, theatre, and mediated performance and from a range of institutional contexts. Chapters from teachers across various contexts of higher education are organized according to the three main areas of responsibilities of performing arts education: to academia, to society, and to the field as a whole. With the intention of illuminating the intricacy of how performing arts are situated and function in higher education, the book addresses key questions including: How are the performing arts valued in higher education? How are programs addressing equity? What responsibilities do performing arts programs have to stakeholders inside and outside of the academy? What are programs’ ethical obligations to students and how are those met? Futures of Performance examines these questions and offers models that can give us some of the potential answers. This is a crucial and timely resource for anyone in a decision-making position within the university performing arts sector, from administrators, to educators, to those in leadership positions.