This qualitative study analyzed the use of postmodern pedagogy in a first-year art teacher's classroom. The unit studied was a printmaking and bookmaking lesson that emphasized collaboration, student empowerment, and art as a form of communication. The three primary postmodern goals were: to instill in students a desire for empowerment; to spark a desire to change stereotypes and misconceptions of teenagers through personal narratives; to counter the perception of artists as solitary geniuses through collaboration. For my personal goals as a teacher, I hoped to create a safe and authentic learning environment through the implementation of postmodern strategies. The study was successful in reaching all but two of its goals. Students' weakest areas were using art as a form of communication and dispelling stereotypes. In all other aspects however, the results of the study indicate that students and teacher alike responded positively to the postmodern elements of the lesson.

Little research has been conducted with respect to students and teaching assistants who participate in and react to university-level general education art appreciation courses. Many instructors and teaching assistants have little knowledge of teacher education. Most teaching assistants have had no teaching experience. Through portraiture, this study examines the various types of students and teaching assistants who engage in this course. Portraiture is an innovative method of gathering, analyzing, and presenting data. Future research must be conducted to determine if instructors and teaching assistants learn about this student population through reading these portraits.

This thesis is a narrative of the development and design of an exhibition guide entitled Exhibition Guide for the Student Artist. The guide was created for use with student artists who will exhibit at the Union Galleries. The contents of the Exhibition Guide were based on an analysis of data collected from questionnaires administered to university students and curators of community galleries. The data were compared for common themes and threads. A series of questions about exhibiting emerged which formed the basis for the guide. The purpose of the guide is to help art students, new to the exhibition process, and to encourage their professional development. The Exhibition Guide for the Student Artist will be publicized by the Arizona Student Unions in January 2003.

<p> This study examines the South Side Community Art Center in Chicago, its history, educational mission, and the ways in which its collection of primarily African American art can be used as an art education resource. The data collection for this qualitative case study included questionnaires focusing on the collection and the Center&rsquo;s history and mission, in-depth interviews with three Center administrators and one visual artist, informal personal communication, and observational notes. All data was examined using content analysis. Respondents indications concluded that the mission and goals of the Center grew out of its WPA beginnings and was primarily to support the artists and to educate the community about the value of African American art; that the Center&rsquo;s education mission revolved around its educational programming; that the art collection had been used in the past to teach about the Black Power Movement and makes references to important events in history; and that the Center&rsquo;s relationship to the community was multi-faceted and included outreach to local schools in after-school art programs. </p><p> The center&rsquo;s art collection, because of the themes inherent in many of the works, make important connections to key events in American history such as the WPA, WWII, the Great Depression and the Black migration that facilitates meaning making across the life span. The study&rsquo;s results provided evidence of the South Side Community Art Center&rsquo;s role as not only a repository for regional and national African American art and artists, but also as an educational hub for visual culture, art study and relevance for contemporary life themes.</p>

This microethnography focuses on a single arts magnet middle school in a large urban southwest city to describe administrators, teachers, and students understandings of the relationship between art and literacy, how they use art and literacy in content instructional experiences, and how the environment they create supports literacy in two sign systems. The school provided a rich visual environment, an informed group of participants with a stated commitment to the arts and the academics, and a setting where art was supported and valued. Data collection utilized informal interviews with three administrators, twenty-six content area teachers and fourteen sixth, seventh and eight grade students, observations of classroom and the environment at large, and the collection of artifacts which included photographs taken by the students to record their perspectives of how art and literacy were used in their daily lives at school. Relying on a method of constant comparative analysis and data collection carried on concurrently during the study, a triangulated picture of content literacy and the visual arts emerged to reflect the three perspectives of the participants. This study dispels the notion that art is marginal in content literacy activities while advancing the notion that art is a meaning-making activity and essential to development of an aesthetic, literate person. Moreover, this study serves to persuade teachers, reluctant to bring art into their instructional experiences because they do not feel competent as artists, that talent is not a prerequisite nor a relevant concept for those who embrace a semiotic perspective and transmediation as the focus of instruction.

This thesis examines the context, content and pedagogy of visual art education in the Reform Jewish supplemental religious school. The study was guided by three major research questions: (1) What beliefs about art education are held by Reform Jewish educators? (2) What is the form and content of existing art education practices in the supplemental religious school setting? (3) What do these Reform Jewish educators perceive as necessary for the enhancement of the art education component of their curriculum? A study of a Reform Jewish supplemental school was conducted by myself as a teacher/researcher. Also, a sample of professional Reform Jewish educators was surveyed to determine art education beliefs and practices in the supplemental religious school setting. Survey results suggest a discrepancy between survey participants beliefs and practices in art education and those advocated by art educators. Contextual factors common to these settings are found to hinder possibilities for comprehensive visual arts education in the supplemental religious school. The study asserts that Jewish art education curricula must be developed from a discipline-based art education perspective in order to use instructional time most effectively.

<p> The scope of this thesis is to examine the potential benefits artists-in-residence offer students in community based after-school art programs. This thesis looks at two artists-in-residence who participated in the same after school program in southeast Washington, D.C., between the years of 2011 and 2013. The ArtReach After School program was developed by the Corcoran Gallery of Art's community education department and serves as the basis for research contained herein. Research focuses on the ways artists' residencies benefit youth and adolescents through aiding in the development of life skills. Data was collected through personal interviews with the resident artists, program directors, and students who participated in the residency. Researchers also observed interactions between students and resident artists on field trips and classroom observations. Based on the widely accepted theories of developmental psychologists Erik Erikson and Howard Gardner, it was found that artist residencies do nurture experiences that aid in the development of life skills such as critical thinking, collaboration, and peer-interaction in youth and adolescent learners. After-school art programs provide an environment suited for embracing these skills that are commonly outweighed by the need to raise test scores in traditional public schools. This thesis explores the potential of one after-school art program that has successfully implemented an artist residency program.</p>

<p> This study investigated yard-spaces as artistic sites that are created and maintained through design processes involving aesthetic choices. The field of art education has grown to consider everyday objects and places worthy of exploration as important signifiers of cultural views, values, and expectations. Yard-spaces, as everyday places, are often taken for granted, and aesthetic choices that conform to social norms often have detrimental effects on the environment. This study investigated conformist and non-conformist aesthetic choices, the environmental effects of these choices, and the influences affecting design and maintenance choices for yard-space appearances. </p><p> A gap in knowledge was discovered for recognizing socially conformist aesthetic choices and social expectations for yard-space appearances. This gap was addressed by implementing a researcher-developed place-based environmental art curriculum with fifth grade students from my own teaching practice. Changes in students' attitudes and perceptions of the aesthetic choices affecting yard-space appearances indicated growth in aesthetic understanding and environmental concern. Introspection on the ways social norms are communicated through visual messages was transformational to my teaching practice as I developed a heightened awareness of social influences on my students. Therefore, the curriculum developed for this study is offered as an example to art educators interested in raising students' social and ecological consciousness and also for art educators interested in raising their own awareness of the social influences affecting students' aesthetic choices. </p><p> Barriers to enacting change due to aesthetic attachment to appearances and psychological ownership of property impeded the willingness of participants to consider aesthetic changes for their yard-spaces. Research of these barriers is recommended for student learning to move beyond understanding of environmentally beneficial aesthetic choices to enacting these choices. New knowledge that was generated through this research revealed strategies for encouraging aesthetic and environmental understanding of yard-space appearances, but further research is necessary to understand the barriers that impede the enactment of social and ecological change.</p>

Thesis (Ed.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-02, Section: A, page: 0441. Adviser: Christine M. Thompson. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 201-206) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2007. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-11, Section: A, page: 4581. Adviser: Paul Duncum. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 310-332) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.