Jana Silver

Biography
Jana Silver is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Art Education. She teaches courses in art education and arts integration and she is a certified K-12 art teacher who has been teaching art for over 25 years to children and adults in Western Massachusetts and internationally. Jana holds a Doctorate in Teacher Education and an MFA in ceramics. She studied ceramics in West Africa through Parsons School of Design. Her ceramic art has been sold and exhibited nationwide. Jana's current research focuses on elementary school general education teacher practices concerning arts integration in the United States and Japan. She was the founder and former Executive Director of a non-profit Community Arts organization in Amherst MA. Jana additionally works with Mount Holyoke College Teacher Licensure Program as the supervisor to elementary and art education licensure students.

Education
Jana has her Doctorate in Teacher Education from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, an M.F.A in Ceramics from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and her B.S. in Art Education from the State University of New York at New Paltz.

Fall 2010
IA-168T-1 Arts Integration Across Cultures

Spring 2010
IA-0211-1 Teaching Art in The Elementary School

Fall 2009
IA-0166-1 Introduction to Art Education

Spring 2009
IA-0157-1 Teaching Art to Children

Fall 2008
IA-0166-1 Introduction to Art Education

View course description here: Introduction to Art Education

Spring 2008
IA-0211-1 Teaching Art in the Elementary School 

Students I Advise
Office hour sign-up

Franklin Patterson Hall G14.

Research
Jana's research focuses on teacher education in a cross cultural context. She is currently studying American and Japanese elementary school teacher’s life histories. Her research investigates how exposure to the arts throughout their lives influences their current facility with art as a disruptive, or useful, or even subversive classroom tool.