The purpose of this study was to discover whether the expanded educational goals for primary level Music and Art in British Columbia's Year 2000 Curriculum are met when the curriculum is integrated and teaching is done through themes. The sample population selected for this study was the lower mainland of British Columbia. 12 school districts participated in this study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 administrators of Fine Arts Programmes, District Principals or Consultants. The results indicate that educational goals for Music and Art can be achieved when thematic units are used to integrate the curriculum but only when the classroom teacher can be described as a specialist in primary Music and Art, having a personal background in Art and Music, or having a degree as a Fine Arts Major. The curriculum-as-practiced differs considerably from the curriculum-as-planned due to lack of resources, in-service education and program scheduling. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

This field study of two-year-old children using art materials in a preschool setting was concerned with how children constructed meaning about the art-making process through their interactions with others. The study was theoretically grounded in the work of George Herbert Mead, Herbert Blumer and Lev Vygotsky, who share a common view that meaning is socially constructed through interpersonal interactions. The study focused on children’s early use of art media and their social interaction as a significant factor in their artistic expression. Monthly videotaped and written observations documented four 2-year-aids’ participation with art media during their attendance at weekly parent-2-year old program. Over two subsequent years, the data were expanded to include observations of additional 2- year-aids, and parent and teacher interviews. Observations in a 3 and 4-year-old classroom coupled with extensive teacher interviews provided insights into teachers’ assumptions and values which guided their interactions. Observations of the 2-year-olds were coded into art episodes, and analyzed in terms of behaviours, interactions, and values. Based on Vygotsky’s idea that children’s shift from biological development to higher cognitive functioning occurs through interpersonal interaction, children’s exploratory use of materials was described. Analysis of their explorations revealed that intentionality and visual interest were crucial components in their art experiences. Analysis suggested that children as young as 2 years possess aesthetic sensitivity. There did not appear to be any single factor that could account for children’s selection or placement of colors or marks on a piece of paper. Social interactions around art-making occurred within spatial-temporal frames which contributed to the way the art-making context was defined by the participants. Through interpretations derived from interactions with peers and adults, children constructed understanding about cultural values for work, production, ownership, and neatness. They learned little about art skills or the relationship of their art-making experiences to art in the adult world. The study concludes with presentation of an interactionist model of children’s artistic expression which describes the dialectical relationship between biological development and social interaction. The model eliminates the need to debate issues around innate or cultural origins of children’s visual expression, through its inclusion of biological and social components. Using the interactionist model and Vygotsky’s notion of scaffolding can help teachers address conflicts surrounding the definition of developmentally appropriate art education for young children. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

This qualitative study compares an "integrated" art program with a "discipline-oriented" art program at the grade eight level in two Ontario public schools. Data were collected through ethnographic interview and observation. The comparison is based upon the intentional, curricular, structural and evaluative dimensions of schooling as outlined by Eisner (1991). The study indicates that integrative practices are complex and multi- dimensional. Integrated outcomes occur and may be cultivated within a discipline-oriented school structure. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

This study presents Aboriginal artists' perspectives on the study of Native art in the school curriculum. The case study is a naturalistic inquiry that employs ethnographic techniques to interview nine Saskatchewan artists, five females and four males. Overall, the artists agree on having Native art content in school programs, especially for Native students. All the artists believe that Aboriginal peoples should be involved in the definition and presentation of their art in the school curriculum. The artists show that content, and materials, may or may not be traditional. The artists prefer an observing and modelling approach to teaching bead and leather work, and to teaching drawing and painting. The male artists, primarily, support a research approach for studying the vast, diverse, and complex art of indigenous peoples. As well as learning about the art, the artists stress learning from the art including history, ecology, and about art from a non-Western perspective. The words, stories, and views of all the artists emphasize that art is a dynamic part of Aboriginal peoples' lives and cultures; one which they are willing to explain and share. Native art is a rich resource for school curriculum. It is a resource that must be and can be shaped by Aboriginal peoples. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

The search for the, presence of aesthetic education in the visual arts and its connection to history in the formative part of British Columbia's development, up to 1945, was the intent of this study. I propose that aesthetic education has been present in the public schools of British Columbia through most of the time span of this study. The time span 1872 to 1945 was chosen as a logical time frame for the study; the inception of the public school system to its total reorganization, both physically and financially, following the Cameron report (1945). A thorough review of the documents written by the Department of Education; Annual Reports of the Public Schools, Curricula for Public Schools, Programmes of Studies, and surveys were all read for traces, snippets, innuendos, and allusions to, the subject of this study. Loral and general histories as well as histories of education were read in search of connecting webs of commonality. International and intercontinental "movements" in the visual arts were examined to see any connection with the development of aesthetic education in the visual arts in British Columbia. The unstable economy of British Columbia, based as it is on primary resource extraction and international markets, has had Its effect on the development of British Columbia and its public schools. Being a geographically convoluted region with isolated pockets of population, ease of transportation between points in British Columbia has also shown its influence on the educational system. The Department of Education was aware of international movements in aesthetic education in the visual arts, but the finances of the Individual 649 active school districts varied from a few wealthy city districts to hundreds of impoverished rural districts. The type of teacher training also played a major part in the growth of aesthetic education. On paper then it seemed as though the pupils of British Columbia's Public Schools were receiving a contemporary aesthetic education, but in fact this idea was only a dream in many areas of British Columbia. / Education, Faculty of / Graduate

Using the biographical approach, this thesis examines the transfer of British art education methodology to B.C. schools. Early chapters make a close study of the school art curriculum in Britain and its comprehensive restructuring between 1890 and 1910. Later chapters analyse the transfer of these British ideas to B.C., showing how they eventually formed the basis of the British Columbia art curriculum. As a British immigrant in 1909, William Percy Weston belonged to the dominant ethnic and cultural group then settling in B.C.. With British training and teaching experience, he brought with him the belief, fundamental to British art education, that natural form was the basis of design and beauty. Never abandoning this notion, he spread his ideas well beyond the Provincial Normal School, where he was Art Master from 1914 to 1946. Apart from playing a major role in the art training of teachers he was largely responsible for writing the official provincial art text in 1924 and completely responsible for its 1933 revision. He dominated the 1936 rewriting of elementary and secondary art programmes which became a part of the province's complete overhaul of curricula. Weston also became a prominent artist. Among the first to develop a new vision of the western Canadian landscape, he was an important member of the local artistic community. He finally received national recognition, becoming a charter member of the Canadian Group of Painters in 1933 and the first B.C. Associate of the Royal Canadian Academy in 1936. Throughout the nineteen-thirties he exhibited extensively in national exhibitions and his work was chosen to represent Canada abroad. This thesis shows how British educational ideas were sustained in B.C. by the predominantly British educational establishment long after they were rejected in Britain. Investigating reasons, often unforeseen, for curricular change, the thesis raises important questions about the inadequacy of much curriculum history with its emphasis on official policy and disregard for classroom practice. In elucidating Weston's thought and practice contextually, the thesis points out the conditions which allowed Weston to have such wide influence, contrasting his educational conservatism with his artistic experimentation. Furthermore, it offers an explanation for the way in which school art education policy developed in B.C. and underscores the complex of reasons which encourages, or impedes, change in educational practice. Although ultimately Weston's predominance may have held up educational change in art within the province, he nevertheless brought a coherent and plausible philosophy of art education to B.C. schools, one that served the province well for three or more decades. His enthusiastic and able championing of that philosophy did much to encourage teaching of the subject. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate

In September 1985, a new Fine Arts Curriculum Guide/Resource Book was introduced in elementary schools throughout British Columbia. The purpose of this study was to investigate a practitioner's use of the guide within her classroom. Enquiry into the quality of the practitioner's living within the tensionality between this curriculum-as-plan and her curriculum-as-lived experience provided a counterpoint for the researcher's personal reflections on her experiences as a school art specialist and district resource person. An art education evaluation model based on art criticism concepts provided a flexible framework for this study. Classroom observations and reflective dialogue between teacher and researcher raised these issues: the lack of integration and balance between artistic, linguistic, and mathematical modes of learning within the overall school curriculum; the nature of school art, child art and art appreciation as each relates to curriculum goals for art education; evaluation in art education; and the "being" of children and the "being" of women teachers within present educational institutions. The study generated reflections on possible changes in the roles of learners, teachers, art specialists, and educational researchers as they adapt to curriculum change. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

The purpose of this research was to investigate the past art experiences and the beliefs about ability to create art as held by beginning elementary generalist teachers, and the effects of those beliefs on art teaching. Constructivism as a learning theory formed the theoretical framework for this study. An investigation of the related literature explored the topics of ability to create art, elementary generalist teachers of art, beginning teachers, teachers' beliefs, preparation of art teachers, and beginning teachers' images of self as art teacher. The research, consisting of two phases, was conducted using a descriptive case study methodology. Phase one of the study consisted of using semi-structured interviews with eight elementary generalist teachers in order to determine their past art experiences and their beliefs about their ability to create art. Three of those participants formed the purposeful sample for phase two of the study which consisted of observations of five art lessons per participant, along with pre and post interviews. An extended final interview was conducted along with documentation examination and interviews with school personnel. The thesis which emerged from this study is that beliefs about ability to create art were formed from prior experiences with art, and that beliefs about an ability to create art affected the art teaching practice of the participants. The participants believed that they do not have an ability to create art and do not have the natural talent required to be an artist. These beliefs, along with their limited background in art, lack of subject matter knowledge in art, and their status as beginning teachers adversely affected their art teaching practice. This study revealed eight specific connections between beginning teachers' beliefs about their ability to create art and their art teaching practice. Insights into these beliefs about art making and their connections to art teaching suggest important implications. Noteworthy among these implications are the need for teacher education programs to provide for personal art making skill development and the need for schools to provide support and accountability within art education for beginning teachers. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

As a museum educator who embraces social education and reflects on the postmodern condition, I found working within a traditional museum context to present challenges. As a result, I conducted an action research project focusing on ways to improve my own practice and affect change based on my engagement with visual culture discourse and the docents I teach. Having chosen action research, I implemented various teaching approaches and collected data over the course of several months. These data collection methods included interviews, museum documents, observational notes, recorded teaching practice, and daily journal entries. Narrative analysis was then used to interpret the collected data, specifically focusing how participants, including myself, make sense out of our experiences and how we value them.

Transitional theory of teaching reading -- Ezra Jack Keats -- Artistic elements of color, shape, and pattern -- Use of collage in creation of picture storybooks.