Week VIII

Irish Context & Responses

In the eighth and penultimate week of this term, I find myself once again in a small block caused by poor time and personal life management. However, I have been able to advance in the secondary research contextualized in Ireland, as my lecturers recommended me last week. In addition, two of the three teachers to whom I sent the questions have answered me, so I will write down here my initial conclusions on the subject -especially in regard to the upcoming final presentation-.

To better understand the position of women artists in the Irish curriculum, I initially searched for educational programs in universities. In my first search, I noticed that they barely focus on a gender perspective, except for a second-year course in Art History at Trinity College: HHU13002 Gender: History, Culture, and Representation. I was very interested in the fact that there was a whole department dedicated to gender in Art History, so the main lecturer, Dr. Catherine Lawless, has been added to my contacts list and I hope to speak with her soon. As for the rest of the university programs, I will need to request the curricula from the universities themselves, as they are not public and it is difficult to know the list of artists given to students.

The next step was to focus on Irish institutes. I found the Irish system much more difficult to access than the Spanish one - again, perhaps because it is more alien to me. Nevertheless, I managed to find a way to access the curriculum of the last year of Irish high school, equivalent to the Spanish one, through the final exams and their contents. Thus, I analyzed a total of 16 exams, from the last 4 years, both Ordinary and Higher Levels (Studyclix, 2023). After comparing the names of artists that students had to learn, the conclusions were as follows:

Out of a total of 64 artists*, only 9 were women, representing 14%. Moreover, they were relegated to the Irish history section - so there were no women of other nationalities - and they were not prior to 1850.

I was able to observe that the situation in Ireland was similar to the Spanish one: efforts were being made to advance towards a more equitable art history, but there are still many steps to be taken while the contents remain so unbalanced.

In relation to this, the responses I have received so far from the teachers of a high school in northern Spain - Consuelo and Paula - were quite interesting. Their opinions answered the questions that I attached in the previous week's entry.

· When they went to university, they were aware of the lack of female representation, although they understood it as a consequence of the secondary role that women have always had in history. Except for exceptional cases, they took for granted that there were no female artists. Additionally, at the time they went to university, there was not the same access to information that exists today, so it was also difficult for them to find accessible sources of information about female artists.

· Despite not appearing on curricula or textbooks, the teachers mentioned that it was obvious that women existed and had existed. Therefore, their interest was in making students aware that restricting women's education in the past, was decisive in this lack of great names in history. (At this point I agree, although as a personal note, I must point out that: while it is true that women faced many obstacles and impediments when it came to standing out or accessing education, we have many examples of great women who were brave enough to break with what was predetermined, and their personal lives were affected by their artistic vocations -not being the case for men-).

· The standards required in the last year of high school do not include female artists, and therefore teachers must adjust to the proposed content since students are under great pressure and it is not the time to investigate topics that are not required in the final end-of-year exam. Thus, this need to name women is highlighted; otherwise, it will be overlooked simply because there are more important contents.

· Paula commented that in five years of college, they only mentioned four women (and we emphasize mentioning because their biographies or artistic trajectories were not delved into). These names were Luisa Roldán, Artemisia Gentileschi, María Blachard, and an architect whose name the interviewee could not remember.

· Both teachers mention the silence in the curriculum regarding women artists, although some names are starting to be included in the programs. Consuelo noted that women artists should not be treated as a separate curiosity, but rather any human artistic creation should be understood, studied, and transmitted.

· The lack of knowledge on the part of teachers is notable, among other things because they themselves come from study plans in which this topic was not addressed, and if they do not know it, they cannot teach it. This matter highlights the need for immediate teacher training on this topic in case gender perspective is included in the curriculum.

· Both of them have a majority of female students in their classes, and they agree that including a gender perspective in their teaching is part of their job. They believe there is no risk in making students aware that women are not less creative, but have simply been denied certain opportunities due to their gender. They coincide in believing that the teaching community is quite aware, and gender perspective is just another way to promote critical thinking among students.

· Finally, both consider that a general wording like that of the latest educational legislation in Spain is not enough, since teachers' lack of knowledge about the topic may lead to omitting some relevant figures. Instead, they would like to see specific names of women artists.

*Keep in mind that for the analysis, repeated names were removed in order to obtain a more accurate result.

1. HHU13002 gender: History, culture, and representation (no date) HHU13002 Gender: History, Culture, and Representation - The Centre for Gender and Women's Studies - Trinity College Dublin. Available at: https://www.tcd.ie/cgws/courses/Gender-History.php (Accessed: March 11, 2023).

2. Keogh, A. (2020), Art as Activism #stateoftheart: The Art Teachers Association of Ireland's campaign towards reform of the Leaving Certificate Art Curriculum. Int J Art Des Educ, 39: 85-97.

3. Leaving Cert Art - exam papers & marking schemes (2020) The Leaving Cert. Available at: https://theleavingcert.com/exam-papers/art/ (Accessed: March 11, 2023).

4. Nochlin, L. (2020) From 1971: Why have there been no great women artists?, ARTnews.com. ARTnews.com. Available at: https://www.artnews.com/art-news/retrospective/why-have-there-been-no-great-women-artists-4201/ (Accessed: Febuary 24, 2023).

5. Nochlin, L. (2021) Why have there been no great women artists? London: Thames & Hudson.

6. Past exam papers: State exams by Topic & Marking Schemes (no date) Studyclix. Available at: https://www.studyclix.ie/papers#1042726 (Accessed: March 11, 2023).

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