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Since beginning my graduate studies in landscape architecture, I have encountered many situations in class in which references to art were used. I discovered a connection in the usage of the jargon of art in landscape architecture study. People, for the most part, do not know what landscape architects do or who we are. In this thesis I will make the case for aligning the profession of landscape architecture with the fine arts and humanities. An art history component in the curriculum and education and training of landscape architects would augment their design and presentation skills in the workplace. I have included the results of a survey questionnaire that I sent to 65 landscape architecture teaching faculty representing 38 landscape architecture programs in the United States. These individuals held either a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, a Master of Fine Arts degree, or they had a scholarly research interest in art.

Children's responses to picture books are documented through this qualitative research involving a case study of three students in an intermediate elementary classroom. The study focuses on multiple ways of knowing through examining students' responses to these books through language and art. Specific research questions within this context are: How is the learning environment constructed to support children's responses to picture books? How do children respond to picture books?, What are the children's responses to the illustrations in picture books? and How do children create their own interpretations of the illustrations and written language in picture books? The theoretical frame for this study is based in semiotic theory and transactional theory as well as reader response research, picture books and response, visual literacy, children's responses to art, literary content analysis of picture books, reviews of picture book illustrations, interviews with illustrators, and illustrators reflecting on their artistic processes. The curriculum design developed of this study integrates children's literature and art. The curriculum cycle was an introduction of a picture book or textset, followed by a literature discussion, studio art experiences, and a reflective interview. The infusion of fine arts into the classroom curriculum more closely resembles the multiple ways children approach learning in the world outside school. The combination of written language and illustration in picture books can provide children with an introduction to literature and literacy. In the study, students were encouraged to read a variety of picture books and respond through literature discussion and art experiences. The findings related to the case study of three students were organized within two main areas: meaning making within a picture book and meaning making within the artwork. The picture book was defined as a unique art form that was central to the lives of students as they developed visual literacy. The students' responses were extremely sophisticated and showed that they were capable of complex understandings of art and literature.

This longitudinal, nine-semester, teacher research investigation focuses upon young, hearing-impaired students' responses to literature through the sign systems of Language, drama and art. Theories underlying this study are the transactional theory of literature as conceptualized by Louise Rosenblatt (1938-1983) and the semiotic process of signification put forth by C. S. Peirce (1839-1914). The questions guiding this investigation focused upon (1) the role of literature in this classroom, (2) the role of dramatization in students' "lived-through" experiences of literature, (3) patterns of visual and verbal response in these students' drawings and dictations, and (4) changes in these children's visual and verbal literary responses over the course of time. Research findings indicated a steadfast pattern of visual response (n = 559), i.e., students depicted story characters (94%), story settings (3%), or something else brought to mind (3%) in responding to literature through art. This focus was found also in students' accompanying dictations which explicated story characters' actions or feelings 41% of the time. These dictated responses revealed that students also gave retellings of story events (22%), paraphrases of story events (20%), identifications of items in drawings (4%), combined paraphrase/retellings of story events (4%), evaluations (6%) or other types of statements (1%). This study indicates that retelling as a form of literary response can serve multiple purposes within the classroom context and merits further investigation. Uniquely characteristic and focused themes of personal response were found in this investigation as well. Three of these themes are explicated in case studies of selected students whose responses to classroom literary experiences led each to pursue a path of self-realization as an artist, language learner, and contemplator of self-identity. This study indicates that contextualized literary experience within and across multiple sign systems allowed these hearing-impaired students to develop multifaceted understandings of literature, art, drama, language and life. These multifaceted understandings, in turn, led these children to deeper understandings of their own worlds of experience.

In view of current research in mental imagery and creativity, the researcher suggests that a program of art activities with clay media is advantageous for young blind children. The literature reviewed suggests the value of the young blind childs work in clay. This study discusses learning process of the blind, mental imagery and therapeutic art education. It attempts to answer three questions. The study asks how these children learn; what methods might be appropriate for art instruction, and looks for indications of the growth of imagery and creativity. The methods and activities designed and implemented are discussed in this study. Selected clay work by children are shown in photographs. The results seemed to indicate that the these activities were beneficial for young children with significant visual impairments. Recommendations are made for further study.

The purpose of this study was to determine the attitudes held by higher education art educators pertaining to art education for older adults and to investigate how art education curricula in colleges and universities are preparing students to teach art to older adults. A 21-item survey was distributed to 889 art education faculty members containing 13 Likert-type items relating to attitudes towards art education and older adults. An eight-item follow up survey containing open-ended questions was submitted to 51 art educators who indicated that they address this area within their coursework. The results show that the majority of art educators are not addressing this topic, although they feel it is important to do so. The majority of those who are including this area are doing so by providing their students with fieldwork and volunteer experiences teaching art to older adults.

This work is a qualitative inquiry, using naturalistic, descriptive methods of educational anthropology to form a case study of the teaching and learning environment in a particular graduate teaching assistant's (GTA) University Foundations drawing classroom. Data reveal relationships, patterns and forms in the GTA's teaching behaviors, classroom phenomena and the student's learning behaviors. Inferences are drawn from the descriptive data and hypotheses are formulated that concerns itself with how the particular graduate student teaches studio art and why. By recording a GTA's personal pedagogical evolution and investigating the assumptions and values that underlie the process, the researcher has discovered general characteristics of university visual arts teaching for structuring knowledge in that area. Conclusions are education in the arts is personality driven, good teaching is a sustained and willful act and curriculum must be sequentially ordered for optimum student learning.

<p> The purpose of this study was to examine how collaborative artmaking activates and supports the development of interpersonal skills in young children. By means of a qualitative case study, this study explored how collaborative art projects engage children in using problem-solving, cooperation, and negotiation skills. Data were collected through observation of small groups of preschool children as they participated in collaborative art projects. Field notes, videotaping, small group interviews, and conversations with colleagues were the primary methods for data collection. The data were analyzed using the literature from the Reggio Emilia philosophy and research on collaborative artmaking and interpersonal skills development. Thematic groupings from both deductive and inductive coding techniques were used to analyze the data and draw inferences about the findings. Results show that children co-construct knowledge through the visual language of art during collaborative artmaking. Over time, this construction supports children in their interpersonal skill development. The art medium used in the projects and the role of teacher were examined, revealing how the children were supported in developing problem-solving, cooperation, and negotiation skills. This study makes an important contribution to the literature because it draws connections between collaborative artmaking and interpersonal skill development.</p>

<p> This production-style dissertation explores the psychological aspect of drawing with dream images. It introduces a practical method, called Mythic Drawing, which can help artists work with dream images in an authentic way. For James Hillman, the founder of Archetypal Psychology, dreams do not reflect the outer world of empirical reality. Rather, they express the inner world of psychic reality through mythological resemblances. Therefore, to draw adequately with images, the artist must give up the rational approach of step-by-step formulas and abstract concepts, and instead, sensitize these methods to the metaphorical style of the dream. </p><p> The essence of Mythic Drawing is play. The artist engages the dream image as an active participant, like an actor playing a part. The role of "artist" is relativized and seen through to the many archetypal figures one embodies while drawing, such as a child, a dancer, an architect, or a shaman. The artist accepts the dream images as alive, intelligent and capable of asserting a will of their own. In this way, drawing becomes a collaborative activity that fosters a dynamic relationship between the artist and the creative figures of his or her imagination. </p><p> Using a hermeneutic method, the dissertation outlines the theoretical basis of Mythic Drawing, while at the same time examining traditional assumptions and biases in art education. It then tests the efficacy of the ideas discussed through two intensive drawing projects. A heuristic method is applied throughout the production of drawings which helps provide reflection upon and analysis of the creative process.</p>

<p> This critical ethnographic collective case study examined the process of becoming a teacher in the context of visual art education. This longitudinal study was grounded in larger educational concerns regarding the preparation of teachers for socially and culturally diverse U.S. public schools. This framing of teacher learning went beyond traditional dichotomies in educational research that maintain an artificial boundary between learning to teach content and learning to teach all students effectively and equitably. </p><p> In order to re-integrate the study of teacher learning, this research foregrounds the transactional relationship between a preservice art teacher&rsquo;s social locations (e.g., race, class, sex-gender, language) and how s/he makes sense of what it means to be an &ldquo;art teacher.&rdquo; Specifically, the study asked (a) how preservice art teachers negotiated their emerging art teacher identities in a university-based teacher education program, (b) how their social positions were implicated in that process, and (c) how their teacher identities were meditated by cultural narratives, artifacts, and practices. This approach eschewed simplistic and reductive analyses of teacher identities in order to attain a nuanced understanding of the multiple, sometimes contradictory social processes involved in becoming a teacher.</p><p> This collective case study centered six preservice art teachers with varied racial, class, gender, and sexual identities, all of whom attended the same undergraduate teacher education program in the southwestern U.S. Social practice theory of identity, and critical curriculum and cultural theory were employed in constructing a multi-leveled relational analysis of the commonalities and divergences in participants&rsquo; self-understandings over time.</p><p> Findings showed historical patterns of institutionalized racism, as well as complex class and sex-gendered meanings of art. These inequitable norms were reproduced in ways distinctive to the asocial and apolitical &ldquo;common sense&rdquo; knowledge that was mobilized within the world of art teacher education. Some participants experienced alienation and marginalization based on their social positioning in relation to the world of art education. The findings also illuminated the polyvalent nature of identity through the coexistence of hegemonic identities as well as counter-hegemonic agency. Implications and possibilities for generating more critical, equity-oriented teacher education and art education research, practice, and policy are considered.</p>