A study in four parts of the development of Art and Design Education in the nineteenth century. Although the 1835-36 Select Committee on Arts and Manufactures is cited as the starting point the actual scope of this study predates 1835 and Part I looks at the important antecedents that led up to the setting up of this Committee, being the point at which Design Education was perceived as an important necessity to support the country's industrial growth and ward off the threat of foreign competition. Part 11 looks at the outcome of that Committee and the setting up of the Metropolitan and Provincial Schools of Design. Part III covers the Oepartment of Practical Art/Department of Science and Art, and how the South Kensington System created by Henry Cole controlled Art and Design Education. The final Part IV looks at the forces that eroded South Kensington particularly the influence of the Fine Arts, and Art and Craft Movement, and the increasing control of municipal authority. The finishing point of the study is the 1902 Education Act.

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.

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The teoretical part of the thesis provides a discussion on the creative work with wood and focuses on wood as a traditional material, which plays a fundamental role not only in the lives of humans, but also in the visual arts culture. This part further discusses the application of this topic in the art and design education with special reference to the relevant educational curricular documentation, methodology of art education through projects and the cross-curriculum relation with eviromental education. The practical part of the thesis was realised in the 2nd class of the Komensky primary school in the town Dačice, the Czech Republic. This part introduces a creative project centred on the topic of wood while discussing its applicability for the art and design education at the lower primary schools. The project consists of the seven creative lessons as a part of the regular art education, which are duly elaborated upon in the practical part.