Art Education Commons^™

Material Encounters: Making Memory Beyond The Mind, Ariel Wills

Masters Theses

Can acts of making carry the memories of our embeddedness within the world? This thesis explores how making things can nurture a sense of kinship that cuts across the organic and inorganic, erasing the distinction between living and dead, material and spiritual. Through handwork such as art-making, sewing, knitting, cooking, woodworking, and beyond, the burden of remembering and of archiving is shared across human and non-human bodies, cultivated through practices of making, and through the materials themselves. By recounting the stories of my family’s experience as Jewish immigrants in the United States, I aim to reveal how their domestic practices …

Appointment Notes/On Unwanted Help And The Misuse Of Empathy, G. H. Greer

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

The pandemic has shed light on a number of injustices. In this context, I revisit a comic I wrote to sort through an experience of ableism in academia. I encourage readers to think deeply about what teachers mean when we offer help as members of a caring profession, and consider some ways that the misuse of empathy can impede impactful help. I end with a call for systemic organization and resources to support workers in caring professions.

Art Can Empower Children And Lead Them To Think Seriously About Significant Critical Issues, Jialu Gao

Masters Theses

This thesis is an investigation of how students can benefit through art and how visual arts educators can engage students in thinking about critical issues that are happening within contemporary society. Raising people’s awareness of the value of art, and especially urging to practice art better in schools’ curriculums are the starting point. This thesis includes looking at selective literature from Elliot Eisner, Charles Fowler, Mika Munakata and other educators and authors. The author also examines select contemporary practices in art education that occur in different settings, for example, in school, in gallery, in museum, and in community. The author …

Building Empathy At The Intersection Of Art, Nature, & Culture: A Field Guide For Art Educators, Jasmine Gutbrod

Masters Theses

This thesis is an offering for those compelled to use art and design learning as a way to strengthen the resiliency of our collective cultures. By integrating intersectional place-based pedagogy into art and design learning, art educators can resist the idea that humans exist on a hierarchy with each other and other species. A deeper understanding of place can build empathy for both nature and culture, and can help educators imagine alternative classroom models that focus on building empathy within a learning environment. The importance of place is examined through a literature review, contemporary artist analysis, case studies, and interviews …

The Non-Traditional Student Enrolled Full-Time In Art School, Sarah Kathryn O'Brien

Masters Theses

The unique needs, experiences, and contributions to the classroom of non-traditional students enrolled in a full-time undergraduate art program have been under-addressed in academic research. In this thesis, the author surveys existing research and reports on a series of surveys and some follow-up interviews conducted with both students and their professors. This thesis aims to identify the unique circumstances of non-traditional students in higher education and particularly in art school. The author identifies specific opportunities for fruitful continued research and application.

Cognitive Development & Art Education: Relationship, Suitability, And Future Implications, Zheng Yao

Masters Theses

In this thesis the author sought to discover linkages between Art, Philosophy, Aesthetics, and Cognitive Science through a review of scholarship surrounding the integration of cognitive theories, art, and education. There have been numerous studies that claim that art education in elementary and secondary schools improves students' academic performance, interpersonal skills and improves attitudes to life. Nations meanwhile constantly modify standards and frameworks for teaching and learning in the visual arts. However, despite these changes, the author wondered to what extent, if at all, new standards-based visual arts curriculum frameworks were responsive to concepts within cognitive theory. This qualitative study …

Counting Pebbles Wasn't Even A Class In High School: Seeing Visual Arts Education Through A Process-Forward Lens, Em Xiangning Wang

Masters Theses

This thesis explores process-forward visual arts education in the Greater Providence arts education community. The researcher conducted interviews with arts educators as well as administrators working within organizations guided by a “process-forward” philosophy. Interview transcripts are analyzed to identify any emergent themes of intended and actualized student learning outcomes as well as other commonalities which exist among the interviewed organizations. This investigation found that, within these organizations, multiple, significant forms of student learning outcomes were identified that extended well beyond any particular aesthetic merits of the artistic products created by students

The author calls, in this thesis, for a recalibration …

When Art Education Meets Environmental Issues: The Interconnectedness Of Art And Science, Eunhyung Julie Chung

Masters Theses

In recent years, we have come to understand that the environmental crisis is no longer what we see in books or screens but it is what we are facing now. Along with the public's increasing interest in the environment post-COVID, this thesis explores the role of art in enhancing awareness of critical environmental issues. Through a literature review, the author examines theoretical concepts at the core of the history of art and science in search of ideas about the interconnectedness of science and art. The review explores why an interdisciplinary approach to education is vital to learning about environmental issues …

Assessing The Role Of Motivational Factors In Facilitating Artists’ Personal And Professional Development, Ece Gurler

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

Various factors exert influence on an artist’s impetus. If artists can learn about different ways to use these both external and internal factors to facilitate their personal and professional development, their creative process and productivity will be affected positively. According to the research, individuals display three types of orientation during the exploration and development process -and so creative process: The desire to be effective (White, 1959), autonomous (DeCharms, 1968), and related to significant others (Deci & Ryan, 1991). Effective-oriented personalities tend to be motivated by extrinsic rewards or punishment, whereas autonomously oriented people are more intrinsically motivated. However, understanding the …

Kid Smart: Relief Effort Through The Arts, Adam Leblanc

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this internship report is to analyze the nonprofit organization KID smART through the lens of my Arts Administration education and training. I will provide a breakdown of the organization’s structure and the components of my internship that occurred during KID smART’s programmatic response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Through my S.W.O.T. analysis, I connect KID smART’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to best practices of the Arts Administration industry. In conclusion, I offer recommendations of how KID smART can improve as it grows and continues to serve the New Orleans community

What Would Gloria Ladson-Billings Do?: A Pedagogical Framework That Moves, Dominique Modory

SPACE: Student Perspectives About Civic Engagement

During my time as an elementary education major at Loyola University Chicago, I was offered a position as a K-2nd grade dance instructor at McCutcheon Elementary. After some students expressed disinterest in dance, I turned to culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP), a term that is coined by pedagogical scholar Gloria Ladson-Billings, to engage, educate, and inspire my students. I explain the criticality of practicing introspection on one's biases that may unconsciously hinder a student's academic growth. Further, one must brainstorm on how to insert education into the context of students' cultures. In the article, I ruminate how, through CRP, cultural competency, …

Still Just White-Framed: Continued Coloniality, Hispanic Serving Institutions, And Latin@/X Students, Ilda Guzman

Ed.D. Dissertations in Practice

Abstract

Throughout the Pacific Northwest there are a total of 12 Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) with an average Latin@/x undergraduate full-time enrollment rate of 33.7 percent. In order to be designated as HSIs, institutions of higher education must have an enrollment rate of 25 percent or more students who identify as Latin@/x. HSIs became recognized in the late 1980s when a small number of higher education institutions enrolled a large number of Latin@/x students, yet did not have the resources to successfully educate the students (Excelencia, 2019). Since then, HSIs have consistently and continuously risen in Latin@/x enrollments. To date, …

Student Perspectives On Interdisciplinary Skill Building, Equity And Empowerment Through Arts Education And Technology During A Pandemic, Joanne Osterberg

Education | Master's Theses

This qualitative research examined how the arts extend to serve as a tool for equity in supporting students of all backgrounds, language skills, and learning levels toward access and development of acumen for learning in all subjects and disciplines. This research is situated in a theoretical framework encompassing theories of learning styles (Dunn, 2000), art education and equity (Kalin, 2012), and pedagogical approaches to the use of technology (Strycker, 2020). Sixteen students participated in a peer focus group in which they developed, reflected upon, and then co-critiqued an art project that evolved through a six-phase process, and two faculty members …

Coherence Of Dysfunctions, Ayesha Rumi

Theses - ALL

"Colonization" is by far the most sophisticated word for the attempts made to make a society financially broke and culturally orphaned. My work is a product of thoughts that occur in the midst of cultural and linguistic existential crises left by the white man's burden . My focus on Pakistani society goes beyond its relevance as the culture I call home; my focus is intended to provide a microscopic view of how culture, traditions, and norms often work in concert to dictate the course of history and the future of nations. In my work I have used western philosophy to …

Exploring Tactile Art-Making With Deafblind Students And Their Families: An Opportunity For Creative Play, Alice Rodgers

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

The impact of a deafblind diagnosis on an individual’s mental health and the well-being of the family involved can be profound. However, current research and available literature for the mental health treatment and therapy practices of deafblind persons and their families is limited (Kyzar et al., 2016; “WFDB Global Report 2018,” n.d.). This thesis used the Leeds Family Psychology and Therapy Service principles (Leeds FPTS) and the Expressive Therapies Continuum with established deafblind teaching strategies to facilitate an original arts-based community project entitled: “Things We Like.” This project provided an opportunity for deafblind students (ages three to 22) and their …

Coherence Of Dysfunctions, Ayesha Rumi

Theses - ALL

“Colonization” is by far the most sophisticated word for the attempts made to make a society financially broke and culturally orphaned. My work is a product of thoughts that occur in the midst of cultural and linguistic existential crises left by the white man’s burden . My focus on Pakistani society goes beyond its relevance as the culture I call home; my focus is intended to provide a microscopic view of how culture, traditions, and norms often work in concert to dictate the course of history and the future of nations. In my work I have used western philosophy to …

A Virtual Art Therapy Curriculum For High School Students During The Covid-19 Pandemic: Informed By Bronfenbrenner’S Ecological Systems Theory, Kendra Soule

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

During the 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic became a global health threat. In order to maintain public safety many schools had to transition onto a virtual space using online programs and classrooms. Not only did schools move to an online platform, but also mental health therapy moved to telehealth platforms to serve those affected by the pandemic. Art therapy is a form of therapy that uses the tangible art making process, art piece, and therapeutic relationship as aspects of therapy. With the move to the virtual setting, art therapists had to modify their work to fit the new setting. Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological …

Studio Expressive Arts Therapy: Towards A Classroom Method That Incorporates Art And Music, Michael Greenberg

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This thesis explored the ways in which expressive arts therapy (ExAT) could be incorporated into a small therapeutic high school’s visual arts program. Through the development and implementation of a method, intermodal exchange between visual art and music was integrated into both the school’s art program and its group counseling offerings. Informed by a literature review of studio art therapy (SAT) as related to ExAT, three different interventions were used to fit within the frameworks of the high school’s offerings. The first intervention focused on making music with a few students within art classes while the rest of the class …

Empathic Instruction Through Literary Narratives: A Quasi-Experimental Study Of An Occupational Therapy Course, Cavenaugh P. Kelly

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines concerns within the field of occupational therapy on the growing disconnect between the profession’s roots and espoused beliefs in empathic-centered care, and the modern realities of health care. In particular, the study examined whether the empathy levels of occupational therapy students would change after a course involving the close reading of literary narratives. Close reading of literary narratives has correlated with improved levels of empathy. Empathy is defined as a four-step dynamic process involving Theory of Mind (ToM), emotional resonance, emotional regulation, and empathy as a willful act. Initial study of the proposed curriculum found improved scores …

Chinese Percussion Instruction Through The Lens Of Western Pedagogy, Jonathan D. Fox

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In Chinese percussion instruction, there is an almost singular focus on folk repertoire. Instruction typically involves a three-step process: rote transmission from the teacher, memorization by the student, and reinforcement through the observation of live performances. Because this learning process is atypical of Western percussion studios, it is unsurprising that Western-trained percussionists often lack the knowledge to perform Chinese folk repertoire with appropriate instrument choice, sound, style, and technique. This study investigates socio-political impacts on the greater Chinese educational system, analyzes and contrasts percussion curricula of American tertiary institutions with their Chinese counterparts, reveals insights about contemporary Chinese percussion instruction …