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Feldman On Feldman, Edmund Feldman

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

The inadequacy of writing on the sociology of art has been mentioned. We know the names of those who have taken a sociological approach--Frederick Antal, Arnold Hauser, Anthony Blunt, John Berger, and Tim Clark. Much of the sociology of art has been written by Marxists who have a political as well as a sociological axe to grind. Still, we in art education should be doing more sociological analysis, more work on the consumption of art --with art defined to include every type of man-made image. I fought for the admission of this Social Theory Caucus as an affiliated group of …

Professional Networking In Art Education, Karen A. Hamblen

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

The social scientist provides three levels of analysis whereby the sociology of art educators can be examined: (1) statistical information, (2) formal organizational structures, and (3) informal, life-world experiences. Although the first two levels provide valuable information, it is proposed that it is within informal, life-world experiences that professional networking occurs and where the character of much of the field of art education is shaped. In this descriptive and analytical study, the sociology of art educators is examined as a function of networks of power and influence. The discussion is limited to art educators with PhD or EdD degrees who …

The Pervasiveness Of Culture: Significance For Art Education, Barbara A. Boyer

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

Much of what we learn, we are not aware of -- it is at a taken-for-granted level. This learning is so embedded in our thinking and behavior that even as educators we are often unable to work with or examine these cultural beliefs and assumptions in our teaching and social interactions. In this paper, it is proposed that art educators identify the pervasiveness of culture particularly within educational settings and how cultural attitudes related to art are internalized with in society and affect the teaching/learning process.

The Feldman Approach: A Catalyst For Examining Issues In Art Criticism Instruction, Karen A. Hamblen

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

In this discussion, I would like to address four issues in relationship to the Feldman (1981) method as well as to the larger concerns of art criticism implementation. I assume that a goal we have in common is to have art criticism be part of the curriculum. The problem needs to be looked at not just in terms of the Feldman method, although that can serve as a framework, but to the larger issues of art criticism instruction per se. There needs to be an assessment of what may be present or missing in literature on art criticism. The issues …

Medical College Of Virginia Hospitals 125 Years Of Health Care 1861 - 1986, Hunter H. Mcguire

VCU University History Books

The Medical College of Virginia (MCV) grew in size and reputation in the latter half of the twentieth century, amid a time of technological advancements in the medical field and the rise of teaching hospitals. Starting with the opening of the College Infirmary in 1861, this book follows the history of MCV’s hospitals. Also discussed is MCV’s role during the Civil War, contributions to the college, and William T. Sanger’s influence on the school’s growth. The book includes photos of the buildings and a timeline of the hospitals.

Essay Writing In College Mathematics And Its Effect On Achievement, Gerald Lee Burton

Theses and Dissertations

This experiment was designed to determine the effect essay writing has on learning introductory level college mathematics, learning mathematical skills, problem-solving and mathematical applications, and the retention of new knowledge in mathematics. The independent variable was the writing of essays. Essay writing included responding to questions assigned as homework and addressing mathematical situations presented in in-class activities. The dependent variables were overall achievement, skills, applications, and retention in each of these areas. The sample consisted of five classes of introductory-level algebra at Virginia State University. The experimental group consisted of 50 students in two classes; the control group was made …

Preface And Table Of Contents

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

The membership of The Caucus on Social Theory and Art Education has identified the need to raise questions about issues that affect the teaching of art from a critical knowledge of its social ramifications. The papers in BULLETIN NUMBER FIVE acknowledge the importance of looking at art teachers, looking at ourselves, to gain perspective on the art education process as a socially relevant experience.

The Art Educator As Disenfranchised Intellectual: A Problem Of Social Legitimation, Karen A. Hamblen

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

In this paper the occupational role and options of art educators are examined with the discussion generally limited to those art educators that have doctorates or prospects of university employment. On the basis of a theory that artistic knowledge comprises a form of cultural capital, it is proposed that the art educator is able to exercise power to the degree aesthetic capital is legitimated in modern society. It is further proposed that the art educator is particularly vulnerable to the Western world view wherein conditional legitimation is given to affective knowledge modalities and nonquantifiable learning. As a result, art educators …

Hold The Pickles, Hold The Lettuce, Special Orders Do Upset Us: The Franchise System In American Art Education, Tom Anderson

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

I have a history of advocating locally specific art content as very important to the construction of art curricula. This position arises from my readings in the area of socially contextual aesthetics. By art content I mean not only thematic content but also formal qualities, media, and technical execution all of which contribute to an artwork's style. By locally specific art content I mean the style of the work as it arises from a specific place at a specific time, and which in some way reflects the collective consciousness of the culture or subculture of the work's genesis. If one …

The Journal Of Social Theory In Art Education

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

The membership of The Caucus on Social Theory and Art Education has identified the need to raise questions about issues that affect the teaching of art from a critical knowledge of its social ramifications. The papers in BULLETIN NUMBER FIVE acknowledge the importance of looking at art teachers, looking at ourselves, to gain perspective on the art education process as a socially relevant experience.

Cultural Knowledge: The Unrecognized Responsibility Of Art Education, Helen J. Muth

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

Art educators are a subgroup within the larger culture whose role it is to communicate information and skills in the visual arts for guiding individuals to find greater personal satisfaction in the visual arts, to gain knowledge of the visual arts as areas of specialized interest, and to become aware of the contribution the visual arts make to their cultural heritage. This paper proposes that the kinds of information that future art teachers gain while training in their specialized area fails to prepare them adequately for their role. A parallelism discovered in the work of cultural geographer, Yi-Fu Tuan (1974) …

Art As A Social Study: Theory Into Practice, Graeme Chalmers

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

The concept of dialogue is one that is rarely applied in art education. The attitude prevails that teachers of art know what is best, that students are ignorant of "real" art, that student aesthetic experiences are trivial or worthless, and so they, the teachers, settle for a curriculum and teaching approach that reaches less than 5% of the students. The remaining 95% plus are regimented in activities less meaningful than Trivia Pursuit or are ignored altogether. Dialogue is not one sided. For knowledge to take place, the learner must have access to meaning and meaning cannot be handed down like …

Thought On Social Contextualism In Art And Art Education, Tom Anderson

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

Art as a manifestation and reflect ion of culture has been clearly established. Discussions of various depth on the subject are available in many general art education texts. However, the concept of art as a reflection of culture may take many forms and thus has the potential for ambiguity. Culture, as defined by the social sciences, is the complex of knowledge, beliefs, mores, customs, laws, and social institutions held by human beings as a part of society. Culture, in this sense, does not refer to what is commonly known as high culture, except as high culture is included in the …

Art Education In Social Context, Dan Nadaner

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

Discourse about art, like other discourse, contains limits as well as possibilities for creating meaning about human experience. The following essay raises a series of questions about the difference between the discourse of most art education, and the discourse of contemporary art critics and artists. Why are these subcultures of the art world different, and what is the significance of their separation? Is art education systematically losing its capacity to make contact at the level of human experience? Has it alienated itself from larger social concerns? These issues are explored through general review of art education discourse and through the …

Playing In Public Or Creatively Expressing The Aesthetic Dimension In Social Life, Duke Madenfort

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

This philosophical study is in part a critical examination of Richard Sennett's sociological account of what it means to be out in public in the company of strangers and expressing oneself aesthetically in a playful, self-distanced encounter with them. His urging for a rediscovery of the classic mid-eighteenth century connection between actors on the stage and persons on the street in order to make social life aesthetic once again is seen as having significant implications for art educators concerned with putting into practice the aesthetic and social function of art and art education. The arguments developed in the paper take …

Nicaragua, Art And Social Change: Interviews With Three Artists, Betty Laduke

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

Five years after their participation in the successful 1979 revolutionary struggle against the Somoza dictatorship, the artists of Nicaragua continue to be an effective force in redefining, shaping and defending their country's cultural heritage. In these years it has also become evident that the government continues to value and support all of the arts as a significant component in the formation of a national consciousness and identity. The data for the following paper is based on the author’s personal experiences in Nicaragua. Starting in 1981, four summers were spent interviewing artists, visiting the places where they worked, and talking to …

Book Review: Who Needs It: A Review Of Instant Art Instant Culture, David M. Quick

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

Book review for Instant Art Instant Culture: The Unspoken Policy for American Schools, Laura Chapman, Teachers College Press, New York, 1982.

A Descriptive Study Of The Relationship Of Teaching Level And Subject Area Assignment To Teachers' Attitudes Toward Critical Thinking, Patricia Barnes Walker

Theses and Dissertations

This study describes teachers' attitudes toward critical thinking: their definitions of critical thinking, the importance of critical thinking in their daily lives, how important it is to them that their students use critical thinking in class, whose responsibility it is to teach critical thinking, and who or what has influenced their attitudes about critical thinking. Each of these aspects of critical thinking was analyzed by teaching level (elementary, middle, or high school) and by subject area assignment (English, social studies, mathematics, science, and "other") to determine if relationships exist between these attributes and attitudes toward critical thinking.

The population sample …

Preface And Table Of Contents

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

The works presented here examine critical practice in art education, recognize the relevance of political understanding for art educators, present the significant contributions of Herbert Read from a humanist frame of reference, continue the dialogue on the A.I.M. statement, and examine the use of metaphor from a social perspective. The majority of the articles in this issue are derived from presentations made at the 23rd annual N.A.E.A. convention.

The Arts, School Practice, And Cultural Transformation, Landon E. Beyer

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

Attempts at articulating and instituting socially responsive programs in art education are heartening and long overdue. The work of the Caucus on Social Theory and Art Education and the Bulletin as a reflection of the issues dealt with by the caucus, are laudatory and provocative. I seek to further these efforts in this essay by: 1) elaborating the social context within which schools function, and detailing how the political, economic, and ideological interests our educational system serves affect school policy, organizational structures within education, and school practice generally; and 2) suggest how the arts may be an effective force in …

The Journal Of Social Theory In Art Education

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

The works presented here examine critical practice in art education, recognize the relevance of political understanding for art educators, present the significant contributions of Herbert Read from a humanist frame of reference, continue the dialogue on the A.I.M. statement, and examine the use of metaphor from a social perspective. The majority of the articles in this issue are derived from presentations made at the 23rd annual N.A.E.A. convention.

What Is The Meaning Of “Art Means Work”? (A Critical Response To The A.I.M. Statement), Cathy A. Brooks

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

The A.I.M Statement's endorsement of good work is significant; not as a guide that shows us a clear direction to follow, but for its manifestation of the social and economic contradictions that must be critically addressed if we are to forge a path toward realistic and effective art education for this society. It is that these contradictions have been exposed and my critical reflection prodded that I am most appreciative.

The Cultures Of Aesthetic Discourse (Cad): Origins, Contradictions, And Implications, Karen A. Hamblen

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

Art has long been accepted as comprising a visual language that communicates cultural values and qualitative meanings through its subject matter, functions, and stylistic characteristics. However, not until this century has visual art also been considered as a language system of signs and symbols amenable to systematic verbal analysis and evaluation. Consistent with this development, in recent years art educators have increasingly proposed that art instruction include various art criticism activities. This author personally considers an interest in art criticism to be a positive development for the field of art education inasmuch as it offers a much-needed counterbalance to the …

A.I.M. Revisited, Jack A. Hobbs

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

In case you may have forgotten: AIM is the acronym for Art in the Mainstream, a statement of "value and commitment", authored by Edmund Burke Feldman. AIM first appeared in the March '82 issue of Art Education and then again in the September issue where it was the subject of a "mini issue." According to AIM, art means three things: work, language, and values. Americans need to relearn the value of work, and art is the best way to do this. Visual imagery is a type of language, and, like any language, it needs to be learned. Finally, art and …

Art Education And The Social Use Of Metaphor, Nancy R. Johnson

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

Human beings are greatly dependent upon social knowledge as a basis for directing their actions in the world and interpreting the actions of others. The dominant quality of social knowledge, or culture, is that it is symbolic. Consider the concept of culture offered by anthropologist Clifford Geertz: "(Cultura) denotes a historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbols, a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes toward life".

Educational Policy And Social Transfiguration, Lanny Milbrandt

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

Many art teachers in the public schools are in a seemingly constant struggle to legitimize their programs in the eyes of school administrators, the public, and their students. These art teachers; our colleagues, often find themselves in the uncomfortable position of having to react to educational policy that may negatively impact upon the art program of their school district or state.

Social Theory And Social Practice In Art Teacher Education, Dan Nadaner

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

It seems clear that art educators must think clearly about the design of teacher education programs if social theory is to become social practice. The obstacles to successful integration of theory and practice are many, ranging from the logistics of engaging artist-teachers in theoretical studies, to the intrinsically different natures of theoretical and practical activities. And it is difficult to guarantee that such amorphous qualities as flexible dialogue, love, hope, and mutual trust can be made part of a teacher education program, even when a deliberate effort is made to do so. But while the model of teacher education discussed …

The Nature Of Philosophical Criticism, Ann L. Sherman

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

Nielsen challenges philosophers to examine the nature of philosophy. He criticizes them for adhering to 'philosophy for philosophy's' sake and points out the non-neutrality of philosophy. Nielsen and other radical philosophers ask: In what sense are the concepts and distinctions which philosopher address 'ordinary'? What are the societal influences on the formation of their discourse? What are the societal consequences of their discourse? Can philosophy be conceived in such a way as to perform a critical service to society? and In what ways does or should philosophy interface with other disciplines?

The Humanism Of Herbert Read, Charles G. Wieder

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

As readers of the Social Theory Caucus Bulletin, you are probably, by and large, more familiar with Herbert Read's views on art education than others in our field. One would expect that you are also generally more sympathetic with his theoretical orientation as well as more aware of the relevance of his work to current educational concerns. This essay will focus on the historical basis of Read's moral ideas, and their implications for the work that lies ahead for this group of socially concerned art educators.

Preface And Table Of Contents

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

Bulletin Number 3 continues the lively exchange of ideas, information, and views about the relationship among art, social and cultural values, and education. The assembled authors provide us with thought-provoking articles on modern art, educational ideology, and curriculum; with vigorous arguments from differing sides of the "elitism versus populism" debate; with socially-oriented reviews of major art education texts; and with an annotated bibliography of relevant study resources.