Using a multilayered qualitative approach I draw from hermeneutical phenomenology informed by autoethnography through a case study to illuminate the culture and community of three elementary art rooms through the lens of socioeconomic status. Through my own story of having limited art education as a child from a rural working class background I simultaneously tell the story of students from three economically diverse schools in the same district. Focusing on their experiences within the space of the art room, I explore the ways children negotiate identity, notions of class, and interpret the shared district art curriculum. A rich description of each school along with interviews and conversations with children elicit important dialogue in terms of how the curriculum, in both hidden and overt ways, promotes a particular art aesthetic. Through a digestion of image, story and interviews with administrators, teachers and students this project focuses on the importance of action research and revealing one's own identity as a teacher and researcher as one attempts to unfold the multifaceted space of the art room. Front and center, this project calls for relevant and meaningful curriculum tied to the interests and lives of the children. My attempt is to tell the stories of the children I was privileged to work with for a semester. My research is intermingled with my experiences as a public school teacher for thirteen years, partnered with my own multifaceted identity as artist/child/working class/mother/student/teacher/middle class/learner.

Bakalauro darbo tema Rėkyvos mokyklos interjero įrangos ir mažosios architektūros kompleksinis projektas. Potemė - mokytojų kambario ir dailės kabineto interjero projektas. Kuriant interjerą pasirinktam objektui, mano tikslas buvo funkcionalumas, patogumas ir kokybiškumas. Atsižvelgiant į tai, kad didžiosios daugumos Lietuvos mokyklų interjeras yra tradicinis ir kuriamas pagal nusistovėjusias taisykles bei principus, ypač siekta pasirinktoms mokyklos patalpoms suteikti išskirtinumo, paįvairinti jas unikaliomis detalėmis ir mokyklos aplinką atspindinčiomis spalvomis. Rėkyvos pagrindinė mokykla yra išskirtinėje gamtinėje aplinkoje. Prie mokyklos yra ežeras, gausu augmenijos, įrengti parkai, puoselėjama ekologija. Būtent todėl kuriant mokytojų kambario ir dailės kabineto interjerą pasirinktos natūralios gamtos spalvos ir medžiagos. Stengiausi patalpų erdves užpildyti saikingai, neapkrauti jų įranga ir baldais, nes dėl didelių srautų į pirmą vietą iškyla erdvės klausimas. Atsižvelgta ir į mokyklai taikomus ergonominius reikalavimus bei personalo poreikius, juos ištirti panaudotas edukacinis tyrimas. Savo darbo tikslą pasiekiau: suprojektavau visuomeninius poreikius tenkinantį projektą. Pateikiau detalius baldinės įrangos, lubų, apšvietimo ir grindų dangų planus. Taip pat detalias projekto išklotines. Darbo pristatyme pateikiau 4 planšetus, video medžiagą ir rašto darbą su eskizais ir brėžiniais. Manau, kad mano projektas yra funkcionalus ir savo formomis ir spalvingumu. / My bacaalaureate work subject is interior equipment and small architecture complex project in Rėkyvos school. Thematic is teachers and art room interior project. Creating interior for the chosen object my purpose was functionality, comfortability and quality. Regarding to that majority Lithuania’s schools interiors are traditional and created by routine, it was specially intended to create originality, with variety of unique things and colors that reflect the schools environment. Rėkyvos high school is in a unique natures environment. There is a lake near it, a lot of vegetation, installed parks, cherished ecology. This is the main reason why natural colors and materials were chosen to decorate the teachers and art rooms. I tried not to fill all the free space with equipment and furniture because the lack of space is the main reason when it comes to heavy streams. I considered ergonomic and personnel demands for the school with help of educational research. My work objective was achieved: I designed a project that meets all social demands. I supplied all furniture equipment, ceiling, illumination and floor cover plans. Also detailed project information. In work presentation I supplied 4 plans, video footage and all paper work with sketches and drawings. I think that my project is functional in it’s shapes and flamboyance.

For many years, and particularly since the 1980s, the state has taken an interest in the curriculum of state-funded secondary schools. This interest has focused largely on utilitarian imperatives for employment and economic sustainability. A consequence of this utilitarian conception of state education is that art viewed, as a less useful subject within the curriculum, is threatened by this. Against an historic discourse about the nature of art itself and why it is taught and its value in society, the question of 'What is art'? and 'What is the role of the art teacher'? continue to defy a consensus that is useful to teachers. Concurrently, these important arguments have inevitably impinged on the practice of art teachers who find themselves distanced from cherished liberal and social imperatives, and confused about what is expected of them. This study looks at how these pervasive arguments make an impact on teachers who, although studied as artists and trained to teach art, now find themselves dubbed 'art and design' teachers as the requirements of the state and its increasingly utilitarian system exerts more control over their working lives. More than twice as many art graduates (3.4% of fine art graduates in 2016) enter teaching than design graduates (1.3% design graduates in 2016) (Logan and Prichard, 2016). A piece of qualitative research was completed with a combined sample of 23 teachers. Building on Efland's streams of influence underpinning the development of art education: Expressionist, Scientific Rationalist and Reconstructivist; and Hickman's rationales for art education: Social Utility, Personal Growth and Visual Literacy, a tentative theory is proposed and hypotheses explored. Some teachers questioned revealed sadness at a perceived reduction in time for lessons devoted to self-expression, art history, cultures, critical evaluation, experimentation, imagination, risk taking, and creativity. Some teachers felt deeply that they and their subject is misunderstood, undervalued and under threat. Many were not comfortable with a role that was at variance with the one they had been trained for. Some teachers suggested their role was no longer concerned with developing children's individual talents but had become too design-based, too predictable, too linear, and too concerned with measurable outcomes and results. Capturing the words of 23 teachers in interviews and surveys contributes to the literature and provides teachers, policy makers and future researchers with vital insights into what an art teacher is and why they teach art, and how this is at variance with National Curriculum aims. These insights are vital because the present lack of consensus about such fundamental arguments has contributed to a devaluing of art in the curriculum to a point where the future of art in state-funded secondary schools is no longer guaranteed.