Art Education Commons^™

Artful Healing: Exploring Creative Expression And Play In Children's Hospitals, Phoebe Strobino

Masters Theses

This thesis explores the role and accessibility of creative expression and play in children’s hospitals, and the impact these ideas have on patients. I explored these ideas through teaching four lessons at Hasbro Children’s Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island. Two of these lessons were taught in group sessions, and two were taught in one-on-one sessions, with participants ranging in age. Following an introduction to each lesson, I provide the plan itself along with general observations and reflections on teaching. Due to the nature of the setting, information is kept purposefully broad throughout my observations in order to respect the anonymity …

The Importance Of Interdisciplinary Art Teaching: Reflections On Chinese K-12 Art Education, Shixin Zhou

Masters Theses

Central to this thesis investigation is the premise that interdisciplinary art is important for children and youth, especially in the context of Chinese art education. Designed to investigate a movement in art education beyond traditional boundaries, this investigation manifests in four stages of research and concludes with a teaching philosophy for the Chinese school system.

First, the author explores the current state of traditional art classes in China, along with the issues and challenges faced by current art educators. Second, with the objective of creating a positive model built on clear conceptual and practical tools, art integration and interdisciplinary art …

Toona Sinensis 桃花心木, Li Yang

Masters Theses

This thesis is my journey as an artist and art educator in search of creativity through the lens of sustainability, which may reveal the existence of questions one wonders about but does not provide a specific answer or solution to this within a limited time frame. Through this inquiry, questions are repeatedly asked: What is the definition of art? If art and education have a tremendous impact on human thought and perception, do they point people in the right direction when confronted with global issues such as cultural and natural sustainability? If so, what is the essential difference between art …

Deconstruct The Center: Making Space For The Voices In The Margins, Taylor Varnado

Masters Theses

This thesis explores the implementation of culturally relevant/responsive teaching within the art classroom. The question that guided the research was: How can art teachers incorporate culturally relevant teaching into their curriculum to support equity and inclusion within the educational setting? In order to answer this question, I examined the current state of implementation through interviews, surveys, a literature review, work-based experiences, and classroom observations. The researcher determined a need for additional resources and a pathway for implementation through this examination.

Practice Makes Perfect : Finding Inspiration In Art Education, Mercedes Rose Crespo

Masters Theses

Divergences in art are symbolic of the complexities of life. When the trajectory of our lives change so does our work. This thesis project is a reflection of the art making process and how it is affected by the influence the arts has on our lives. Seeking artistic inspirations led me to Rhode Island where there is creativity in everything from the coffee shop atmosphere to the museums. This is a showcasing of my experience during my course of study at the Rhode Island School of Design’s Master of Arts in Art + Design Education program. Through photographic inquiry and …

Care, Inclusivity, And Accessibility In Glass Art Education, Bridget Provan

Masters Theses

In glass art education care, inclusivity, and accessibility have been recurring themes that have kept arising in my journey. Specifically, why are they absent? As an art educator, I feel it is important to support and educate all students and their entire being. As an art student when I received any care I felt it was extraordinary but, in reflection, I feel it should be the minimum an educator provides. In my thesis I explore the importance of care, inclusivity, and accessibility in glass education and how to incorporate all three into multiple educational settings. This thesis is a culmination …

Contemporary Eco Theory In Art Education: Field Notes And Desire Paths, Margaret K. Mccullough

Masters Theses

This thesis is an investigation into patterns and overlaps of three critical elements in our world, art, nature, and education. Integral to this investigation and the contributions to humanity of these three are the accurate depiction of specific realities, upon which Science and the majority of global citizens agree, aesthetic sensibility, as well as beneficent solutions (i.e. those which do no harm.) Together we will examine the intersection of subjects, what they combine to achieve. We will consider how, taught and learned in unison, they may take on a position of greater prominence in efforts to solve real world problems. …

The Subconscious As Politics: An Inquiry Of Collaborative Design Education Through Radical Speculation, Nina Jun Yuchi

Masters Theses

For two years, I’ve been keeping a dream journal in which I record anything I can remember as soon as I wake up. The pages have slowly filled up with scrawls and doodles and fragmented memoirs of a life that doesn’t even seem like mine and yet, every dream I can vividly remember feels like a portal into an alternate dimension in which my subconscious reality is as tangible as my conscious one.

Eventually, dreaming became a key method in my research to seek out and materialize alternative worlds. It became the object of my obsessive interest in visualizing speculative …

Revolution Of Steam Education: The Importance Of Interdisciplinary Art Education (Steam) In Elementary Education, Suyu Chen

Masters Theses

This thesis discusses how interdisciplinary art education benefits young children from different aspects, including gender bias in disciplines, developing creativity and imagination, motivating children to engage the class and improving their efficiency of studying. Through an interview with a STEAM educator and my own curriculum development, I show some examples of what STEAM can look like in the elementary class. I demonstrate that there is evidence showing that STEAM education can create an engaging learning environment for young children. When STEAM projects are introduced, children are more focused and interested in classroom activities when compared to STEM projects alone.

Making Space : Creative Learners, Digital Spaces, And The Relationships Between Them, Natalia Spritzer

Masters Theses

This thesis is an inquiry into the growing prevalence of digital learning environments or digital spaces in order to assess the impact of leveraging these spaces on learners' creative identities. What is being examined in particular are web-folios or personal websites (digital spaces), the interactions that learners have with these environments, and how it infers to the potential of digital space as a medium for a variety of advancements. Through qualitative analysis in the form of observations, interviews, and surveys done throughout a collaborative research workshop, this thesis speculates that digital space can be utilized as a means for providing …

A Collision Of Technology And Art Learning, Feifei Shen

Masters Theses

This research thesis investigates the integration of technological tools into the curriculum and pedagogy of art education. By focusing explicitly on art education outside of school, it examines how technological tools expand the art learning possibilities for children and youth, enrich their art learning experiences in balance and connection with traditional arts media as well as strengthen engagement for those digital natives. Meanwhile, this research aims to contribute to a current understanding of technology integration into art curriculum and pedagogy for children and youth through literature reviews and research projects using a variety of methodologies, and then to determine what …

Pop/Art: The Birth Of Underground Music And The British Art School, 1960–1980, Andrew Cappetta

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

“Pop/Art: The Birth of Underground Music and the British Art School, 1960-1980” argues that the British art school became a training ground for underground musicians in the 1960s and the 1970s because of changes in art school pedagogy and policy in the post-war period. New educational philosophies propagated during the late 1950s and 1960s, above all Basic Design and Behaviorism, redefined the artist as an intermedial experimenter, collapsed distinctions between fine art and design, and theorized the art object as a dynamic and interactive matrix between the maker and viewer. These initiatives, which evolved from art school reforms that began …

An Embodied Drama Therapy Approach To Restorative School Practices: A Method, Sarah Harmer

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Restorative School Practices offer schools a circle structure to shift the punitive mindset and power dynamics commonly found in America’s schools, to a model that focuses on relationship, connection, and mutual respect. Drama therapy interventions utilize embodied or active work that engage the entire person. The purpose of this thesis was to create a method to explore the addition of embodied drama therapy techniques to deepen the experience of the restorative school circle process. Three community-building and social emotional learning focused circles, in a second, fourth, and sixth grade class, were compared using the traditional scripts and then the same …

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 Significance Of Sonic Branding To Strategically Stimulate Consumer Behavior: Content Analysis Of Four Interviews From Jeanna Isham’S “Sound In Marketing” Podcast, Ina Beilina

Student Theses and Dissertations

Purpose:
Sonic branding is not just about composing jingles like McDonald’s “I’m Lovin’ It.” Sonic branding is an industry that strategically designs a cohesive auditory component of a brand’s corporate identity. This paper examines the psychological impact of music and sound on consumer behavior reviewing studies from the past 40 years and investigates the significance of stimulating auditory perception by infusing sound in consumer experience in the modern 2020s.

Design/methodology/approach:
Qualitative content analysis of audio media was used to test two hypotheses. Four archival oral interview recordings from Jeanna Isham’s podcast “Sound in Marketing” featuring the sonic branding experts …

The Gallery As A Site Of Convergence: The Role Of Creative Environments At Postsecondary Institutions, Jordán Francisco Sandoval

Master's Theses

Not enough research explores the role of creative environments at postsecondary institutions. In response, this qualitative research study focuses upon university galleries believing them to be exemplary artistic spaces within college campuses. Using a theoretical framework of place-consciousness, the researcher examined the functions of the Mary and Carter Thacher Gallery at the University of San Francisco (USF), paying close attention to the ways it engaged the academic community in terms of scholarship and instruction. Informed by grounded theory and phenomenology, this study interviewed five professors who integrated a gallery visit into their curriculum during the 2021-2022 academic year. Collecting these …

Student Voice And Choice: Factors Influencing Student Participation In Secondary Arts Classes In An Urban Public School District, Alan D. Lambert Ed. D.

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy ETDs

The purpose of this study was to capture the student voice regarding the value, importance, and relevance of visual and performing arts education in public schools. The host institution for the study was an urban school district in the southern central United States serving 75,000 students, with 55% students identified as Hispanic, and 52% of students experiencing poverty. Graduating seniors responded via questionnaires with forced choice and open-ended items regarding several topics, including what they do in their free time, how they perceive the value of arts classes at school, access to arts classes and the match of their interests …

The Role Of Imagination And Art In Children's Books, Muge Li

Theses - ALL

This thesis is to investigate the importance of imagination and art in children's picture books. Imagination plays an important role during childhood. This creative ability can help children to confront and solve problems. The thesis first examines child development theories that indicate children are cognitively adaptable to the surrounding world through imagination. Cognitive theory, introduced by Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget, and sociocultural theory, established by Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky are studied and explained. Imagination is considered a cognitive process. Through the use of their imagination, children can observe the unknown world, think about possibilities, and understand other people. Children's picture …

Cultural Formation Of Place: Making Yourself At Home, Olivia Arratia

Art Theses and Dissertations

The environment you grow up in can become a pivotal part of your existence. The sights, smells, people, and places you experience every day can transform the way you see the world. Growing up in a Mexican-American household has brought its own set of experiences that have made me the artist I am today. I am one of many contemporary artists building on the foundations of their heritage and the Chicano movement. I am also a Mexican-American artist expanding the identity and extending the legacy in the 21st century. This paper will investigate how Mexican-American heritage has influenced my artistic …

Sharing Walks As A Witnessing Practice: Exploring Movement-Based Pedagogies, Catalina Hernandez-Cabal

Feminist Pedagogy

How we walk—or our inability to do so—is telling of who we have been. I propose this simple movement practice as a pedagogical engagement with the concept of faithful witnessing, which refers to attending to modes of power unbalance that might go unnoticed, and to people's creative and resistant possibilities (Lugones, 2003; Figueroa-Vásquez, 2015). This activity is suggested to provoke reflections about how we understand and experience social difference and power unbalances. The work introduces a simple score (a creative prompt) to explore walking-with others, creating instructions to teach others our movement, learning others', and delving into conversations concerning the …

An Artistic Response To Social Unrest In Hong Kong: Utilizing The Arts To Build Up And Sustain An Understanding And Respectful Community, Shue-Kei Joanna Mok

Peace and Conflict Studies

The 2019–20 Hong Kong protests, commenced in March 2019, were triggered by the introduction of The Fugitive Offenders and Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Legislation Bill 2019 by the Hong Kong government. In June 2019, peaceful civil disobedience escalated into violence, signalling the emergence of polarization and antagonism in the city. As of December 2019, an estimated 300,000 excess probable depressive cases and 810,000 suspected PTSD cases were associated with the 2019–20 social unrest. Furthermore with the pandemic, the hopelessness manifested in the city and citizen’s mental wellbeing are of extreme concern. Given the holistic and therapeutic nature of …

Food Insecurity Among Niu College Students, Hannah Schaumberg

Student Projects

Many people with certain privileges never notice them, because they are so fixated on the hasty generalizations of what is seen on the surface rather than the interior aspects. For many students, understanding and recognizing privileges is the main concept to understanding their surroundings. The concept of reflecting on their interactions and knowledge of food insecurity will be curasol among communities. By researching the concepts of food insecurities among NIU students, we can bring awareness of the topic within society. The focus is to understand which intersectional groups are affected by food insecurity and to bring awareness of the subject …

Examining The Effect Of Social Emotional Learning On Student Perceptions Of The Safety And Comfortability In The Theatre Classroom, Emily Wooten

Masters of Education in Teaching and Learning

This study examined the effects of social emotional learning (SEL) on student perceptions of safety and comfortability in the theatre classroom. The researcher implemented SEL lessons using a morning meeting/class meeting format. Data was collected using a pre-survey, field notes, and focus group interviews. Data was analyzed using the constant comparative method to look for recurring themes to use for poetic transcription. Four primary codes, entitled “Will You Please Join Us?,” “Friend or Foe?,” “Climbing the Mountain of Anxiety,” and “The Love of Theatre” were used to create their own unique poem demonstrating the thoughts and emotions of the students …

A Model For Equity In Arts Education For Youth In Greater Portland, Maine, Catherine Scheirer

Thinking Matters Symposium

Time and time again, by providing an outlet that allows innate human creativity to roam free, participation in arts activities such as dance, music, theatre, and visual arts is proven to have significant positive impacts on participants, regardless of age, experience, or background. Even though the arts have been acknowledged as critical for mental, physical, and emotional health, especially for children and adolescents, research has found that providing arts education in an equitable and culturally appropriate way is fraught with barriers. In addition, certain areas of the arts have seen a downward trend in educational priority and availability. My project …

A Boy Born On Wednesday, Charles Krampah

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

My relocation to America has presented an unprecedented space for self-examination. The components of my identity and personality have been laid bare before me; My blackness in the face of racism and white hegemony, my African heritage in the face of post-colonialism and imperialism, and my faith in the face of an increasingly secular western culture.

Am I who thought I was? Am I more or less? Why do I feel like a different person, and what does this mean for my future?

My research and art practice serve as a form of introspection. I tell an internal story in …

Invisible Until, Markeith Woods

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

“Invisible Until” explores my personal experiences while working full time at Tyson Foods in Pine Bluff, AR up until moving to Fayetteville for graduate school. The body of artwork comes from reflecting on past a present while drawing from inspiration from Jacob Lawrence, Kerry James Marshall, Jordan Casteel, and more. Using history as a tool to break down the American struggle I used conversations amongst my high school classmates to pull from their direct experiences to convey life and what it means to come from Pine Bluff. By using real people and their life events of trying to achieve progress, …

Postmarked 2022, Students Of Risd, Risd Archives

All Student Newspapers

Postmarked was a publication started during the COVID-19 pandemic by three RISD architecture students. The first issue has the theme of "sonder" and contains student writing and artwork on postcards that deal with this theme.

Creating A Classroom Culture, Molly Cahill

Honors Theses

Throughout my academic and creative life I have been in many different kinds of classrooms each possessing different values and practices. The art classroom for me was a place of exploration and play, arguably its chief and most important purpose. My thesis seeks to explore how art teachers can foster a creative classroom culture in which students are pursuing some form of expression and how art educators can engage with their students on an equal level and create together. I will also explore how the teacher as a practicing artist can further support and supplement this classroom culture. My thesis …

Using Art Education To Cultivate Self-Efficacy And Divergent Thinking, Julian Flores Rubalcaba

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to understand the experiences of an art teacher implementing art education with creative learning principles to cultivate students’ creative self-efficacy and divergent thinking at one middle school in the Inland Empire located in Southern California. The research continues to focus on how self-efficacy and divergent thinking cultivate through the process of art creation through project-based learning (Puente-Díaz & Cavazos-Arroyo, 2017). An art education is not a requirement for students to receive throughout their PK-12 general education in low socioeconomic schools due to an emphasis on the general education curriculum to focus on high-stakes standardized …

Library Resources Utilization By Lecturers In Nigerian University, Abigail Chikaodinaka Obodo Phd, Justina Nneka Eze Phd, Mercy Ifunanya Ani Phd

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This study was designed to examine the utilization of library resources by lecturers in Nigerian tertiary institutions using lecturers Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) as case study. The specific objectives of the study is to find out the level of availability of library materials in Nigerian university, and determine the extent of use of the materials by lecturers. It is also to find out the factors that impede lecturers use of the library. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population for the study consisted all the full time lecturers made up of 536 …