Ceramics and Research in Action for Potable Water

This image is from a public pedagogy event on the campus of Texas A&M University in Fall 2007 and features a close up view of clay on the press ready to be formed into a filter. Image TAMU Water Project, photo Cory Arcak.


Advance book previews
contributor quotes....

B. Stephen Carpenter


Ceramics and Research in Action for Potable Water

"Our collaborative projects encompass a variety of research methodologies aimed at examining the social, cultural and environmental aspects of water's role in community health by using ceramic arts education as a means of community change."

"The TAMU Water Project operates out of a strength-based approach by working within existing contexts and with community residents, in order to more fully understand and prioritize next actions. In using the word research as a verb (to research with), rather than as a noun (to do research on), the power dynamic between researcher and researched becomes non-hierarchical. The TAMU Water Project has successfully demonstrated and utilized this approach to participant-led action research, or participatory arts-based research, as a means to lead innovation in ceramic water filter development through interdisciplinary work, successful non-hierarchical working relationships and positive community change." ( Look for the complete article by B. Stephen Carpenter and colleagues in our 2nd book in the CAIP Research Series "Creative Arts in Research for Community and Cultural Change", Detselig Temeron Press, for release May 2011.)

B. Stephen Carpenter, II is Professor of Art Education at Penn State University. He is author/co-author of numerous scholarly articles that have appeared in journals such as Art Education, Ceramics: Art and Perception, Computers in the Schools, Educational Leadership, The Journal of Aesthetic Education, The Journal of Cultural Research in Art Education, The Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy, The Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, The Journal of Visual Literacy, Studies in Art Education, and Visual Arts Research. He has also authored/co-authored numerous book chapters in art education, visual culture, and curriculum theory. In addition, he is co-author of Interdisciplinary Approaches to Teaching Art in High School (2006), and co-editor of Curriculum for a Progressive, Provocative, Poetic, and Public Pedagogy (2006). His mixed media installations and performance artworks have been exhibited in regional, national, and international exhibitions. Carpenter was editor of Art Education, the journal of the National Art Education Association (2004-2006) and is co-editor of the Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy.

See video clip