Art Education Commons^™

The Mind’S Eyes: An Autoethnographic Exploration Of Learning To Draw In Adulthood, Ramona Crawford

Educational Studies Dissertations

Amid a long period of deskilling in art school curricula, craft has been denigrated as inferior to art and confining for artists, but can craft liberate imagination? The purpose of this study was to understand the relationship between an adult learner’s self-perceived capacity for imaginative expression in representational drawing and the development of her artisanal judgment during a self-directed program of classical study, online and in-person, over a period of 22 months (mostly during the coronavirus pandemic). The researcher created, coded, and analyzed drawings, photographs, field notes, diaries, and video recordings to track cognitive events and situative factors encountered in …

The Teaching Artist Experience: An Art-Based Study Exploring Teaching Artists' Perspectives On The Efficacy Of Employment-Based Training And Support, Tessa Bry Taylor

Educational Studies Dissertations

This art-based research study seeks to examine teaching artists’ current perspectives on the models of training and support provided to them by their employers. The study was conducted with a group of teaching artists exploring two key research questions: What models of training and support do teaching artists receive? What are teaching artists perspectives on the efficacy of those models? Responses were explored collaboratively through a cyclical process of artmaking, reflection, and discussion designed and facilitated by the artist-researcher. The study yielded the following outcomes: teaching artists believe training and support received from employers is inefficient and inconsistent; teaching artists …

What Can A Studio Approach To Teaching Tell Us About The Academic And Social Learning Of Middle School Students? An Exploration Of Student Understanding Of How Making Art Supports Their Academic And Social Learning., Maureen Creegan- Quinquis, Maureen A. Creegan-Quinquis

Educational Studies Dissertations

This study explores the types of social and academic learning typically overlooked in public school education. Art-based approaches to academic learning have been labeled as“fluff.” Education policymakers hold a biased view of the arts. When asked to consider art as a viable epistemology, cognition theorists have dismissed art as irrational. These biased views have contributed to the marginalization of the field of art education. The purpose of this study was to question this bias through an art-based studio approach to research. The goal was to explore how middle school students understand the role of visual arts in their own academic …

Perspectives Of High School Photography Teachers Regarding Visual Literacy, Kristi Oliver

Educational Studies Dissertations

This qualitative study investigated the perspectives of high school photography teachers regarding visual literacy. A qualitative methodology that used a phenomenographic research design was employed to gain understanding about the perspectives of high school photography teachers in their conceptualization, perceptions, and experiences surrounding visual literacy. A survey/ questionnaire was used to explore participants’ paths towards becoming a high school photography teacher, the amount of years they have been teaching, and their geographic location. Participants perception of school demographics such as school size, community contexts, racial, ethnic, and economic diversity were also collected. Additional prompts were designed to investigate curricular influences, …

The Way Of The Artist Educator: Understanding The Fusion Of Artistic Studio Practice And Teaching Pedagogy Of K-12 Visual Arts Educators, Christopher M. Strickland

Educational Studies Dissertations

The purpose of this autoethnographic study was to examine the experiences of Artist Educators and how they perceive the fusion of their artistic studio practice and teaching pedagogy impacts their creative and teaching practices. This study involved a focus group of six individuals, including the researcher. All the participants were practicing artists, currently employed or recently retired K-12 Visual Arts Education certified in the states of Maine or New Hampshire and members of the Kittery Art Association. This study used a combination of interviews and an arts-based method for data collection. All the data were analyzed and resulted in the …

Art Teachers’ Perceptions Of The Relationship Between Personal Artistic Creative Work And The Practice Of Teaching, Dianne Lynn

Educational Studies Dissertations

Abstract

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore visual art teachers’ perceptions of the relationship between their artistic creative processes and their teaching. National Visual Arts Standards, developed by National Coalition for Core Arts Standards, and New York State Learning Standards for the Arts assert that teaching creativity is essential. Based on this foundational idea and guided by a phenomenological research method with additional strategies drawn from arts-based research, this study sought to understand what art teachers learn from continuing a creative practice, the impact a creative practice has on learning environments, and to understand the relationship between …

Interdisciplinary Arts As An Agent For Community Building In A U.S. Public School, Ida Pappas

Educational Studies Dissertations

The aim of my dissertation research is to understand the relationship between interdisciplinary arts experiences and the establishment of a community culture in a mainstream public high school in northeast United States. With this research, I hope to provide evidence to support the inclusion of interdisciplinary arts projects in the fabric of students’ high school curricular and extra-curricular experiences. Through engagement in design, art, video, music, dance, theater and the close study of a minority culture, high school participants provided regular responses to planned survey questions and open-ended survey questions (Experience Sampling), as well as through interviews, written prompts and …

The Theatre Missionary: Exploring The Early Career Teaching Experiences Of Theatre Educators Through Artistic Inquiry, Robert Andrew Strickland

Educational Studies Dissertations

For educators entering a fine arts classroom for the first time the transition can be quite difficult. Fine arts teachers are often the only specialists in their subject area at a school, placing them in a new situation without a mentor to guide them through the process. The difficulties can be exacerbated by the ideological, financial, and social marginalization of the arts in many schools. Despite the challenges faced by new fine arts educators, little research has focused specifically on their transitions into K-12 classrooms. To explore these transitional experiences this study was guided by the research question: How do …

Text And Texture: An Arts-Based Exploration Of Transformation In Adult Learning: A Dissertation, Enid E. Larsen

Educational Studies Dissertations

This research explored the transformational and co-transformational potential of collage, assemblage and mixed media in an accelerated undergraduate adult course on imagination and creativity. The methods were qualitative and arts-based artist-teacher inquiry within a constructivist art class for ten, female adult learners. Informed by the researcher's living inquiry through visual auto-ethnography, a collagist methodology shaped the research, including syllabus construction, course delivery and data gathering. Process was an emergent and interpretative analytic tool, drawn from multiple perspectives of artwork and reflections by the students, and the multiple identities inherent to the artist-teacher researcher.

Portraits Of Leadership: Relationships Among Gender, Age, And Creativity, Diane Caton Desrosiers

Educational Studies Dissertations

This Portraits of Leadership research focuses on using children's artwork to study girls' perceptions of leadership. 244 school age children were asked to draw their image of a leader and to write descriptions of why they chose this person as a leader. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were conducted to determine the relationships among gender, age, and creativity and choice of leader in drawing and written descriptions. Results indicate that, though both girls and boys chose males as leaders more often than females, girls' portraits conformed to the literature regarding gender roles and traditional leadership styles. Implications are suggested for educational …

Teaching For The Aesthetic Experience, Margaret G. Black

Educational Studies Dissertations

This study answered the question, "How to teach for the Aesthetic Experience in the visual arts?" Six women art educators served as study participants. The researcher identified five components of aesthetic experience: perception, cognition, imagination, emotion, and discovery. Informed by theories of conversational teaching methods, aesthetic development, and adult development, the researcher designed and executed a qualitative case study that incorporated all five components. Art viewing, art making, and evaluative response were the tools used in the study to foster aesthetic understanding.

The Politics Of Art Education In The Public Schools, Wendy Campbell

Educational Studies Dissertations

In this study, I examine why the subject of art has been marginalized in the public schools and why art continues to be vulnerable to budget cuts and reductions in staff despite the fact that national art education standards are now in place. I also suggest a way to remedy the situation. My analysis concerning why art has been marginalized comes from an integration of insights from three discourses: feminism, postmodernism, and the perspective implied by the literature and practices of the twelve step recovery community. Writers in all three discourses suggest that the world view of the dominant culture …

Imagining Imagination: A Phenomenological Study Of Children's Drawings Of Imagination, Robert M. Callahan

Educational Studies Dissertations

A phenomenological study of imagination employing "archetypal hermeneutics." The theoretical background for the research comes from the disciplines of Archetypal Psychology and Ontological Design. The research focuses on 296 Kindergarten to fifth grade public school children's drawings of imagination within an educational setting and aims at understanding imagination and its educational value. The research demonstrates that images of imagination are purposeful and intelligible when viewed with imagination, and it provides distinctions regarding imagination's nature. Images seen imaginally were regarded as teachers which deepen learning, the artistic process, and living in the world. Conclusions challenge developmental theories of learning based on …