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Abstract
In recent years, as organizations have increasingly recognized the transformational power of the arts and the artistic process, the fields of adult education (AE) and human resource development (HRD) have attempted to use arts-based interventions (ABIs) as new approaches to affect organizational change. Even with the growing curiosity about using artistic approaches in the AE and HRD fields, there remains a lack of arts-based studies that employ diverse theoretical perspectives or participatory/expressive arts approaches. This study aimed to explore and understand how to enhance organization members' informal and incidental learning through songwriting and performing as an expressive arts-based intervention, focused on three enhancers of informal and incidental learning: creativity, critical reflection, and proactivity (Marsick & Watkins, 1990). A total of 20 organization members from three church organizations in the Southeast and Midwest regions of the U.S. participated as attendees of the study’s intervention. Subsequently, 13 of the attendees participated in interview process. Data was collected via interviews and documentation, and analyzed using the critical incident technique, thematic analysis, narrative analysis, and sound methods for organizational case analysis and cross case analysis.
The study findings confirmed that participants experienced creativity, critical reflection, and proactivity through co-participatory songwriting and performance, which, in turn, enhanced their informal and incidental learning. It supports the literature on the enhancers of informal and incidental learning (Marsick & Watkins, 1990, 2015). The results are presented in two parts. First, the stories of three church organizations illustrate each organization’s critical learning incidents through the songwriting and performance seminar with photo montages and intervention artifacts. Second, the results of cross case analysis are presented, reflecting six themes and subthemes that demonstrate how the three enhancers—creativity, critical reflectivity, and proactivity—facilitate adults’ learning process. The findings also revealed learning of co-working and a positive shift in perspective on group collaboration as the most prominent significant learning outcomes from the intervention. Finally, the study proposes emotions as a new enhancer and projected authority as a mediator for the informal and incidental learning model. The study concludes that expressive arts-based interventions are useful as a means of informal and incidental learning facilitation.