Northern Ireland's well-known civil strife between Catholics and Protestants had enjoyed an uneasy peace, but a recent outbreak of new violence in 2010 caused disappointment to these authors. Bernard Conlon and Tom Anderson collaborated on creating a new children's peace mural with the Kids' Guernica Peace Mural Project in West…

We believe that the current environmental crisis can be addressed by changing our relationship with the Earth that sustains us. This entails a reorientation of the idea of self to include an understanding that one is integrally and relationally part of everyone and everything else. Grounded on the ideologies of deep ecology and interbeing, we…

This article draws on chapter 8 of "Art for Life: Authentic Instruction in Art," by Tom Anderson and Melody Milbrandt (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2005) [c] McGraw-Hill. Reprinted by permission.Why do people make art? And why should we teach students to make it? At the root of it, we make art to make sense of things, to give meaning to our existence.…

Defines aesthetics when framed as critical inquiry as the process of teaching students to use critical strategies of professional philosophers to develop aesthetic content. Addresses four major aesthetic issues: meaning and value in art, how to discuss art, aesthetic experience, and beauty. Presents a sequence of critical-inquiry activities. (CMK)

Describes the author's book, which offers a day-in-the-life account of six art teachers, and its theoretical foundations. Presents background information and personal profiles of the six teachers. Includes quotes from the teachers pertaining to the most important thing they teach, their frustrations, and the most satisfying aspect of their jobs.…

Asserts that aesthetic questions and aesthetic understanding provide the framework for learning in art. Contrasts formalism (the belief that art exists for its own sake) with contextualism (the belief that art is part of a social communication system). Maintains that a balanced art program should incorporate both approaches. (MJP)

Reports on a survey of U.S. and Canadian graduate programs in art education. Examines responses from 124 programs to determine the location, scope, and nature of graduate programs in art education including the content and strategies that are addressed. Presents detailed findings and general conclusions. (DSK)

Guidelines for talking about art with elementary students are presented. A critical factor in developing children's art talk experiences is an organized, well rounded, and well developed plan that recognizes the differences between talk about student art and more general talk about professional art. (RM)

If art reflects, transmits, and extends human culture, studio art should be taught in a socially conscious manner. A theoretical foundation and practical suggestions for implementing a socially-defined studio curriculum in art are presented. (RM)

The author urges art educators to contribute to holistic education by emphasizing the unique and alternative modes of thinking and acting which are intrinsic to visual arts. He presents two exercises to help students develop a perceptual rather than conceptual or linguistic mode. (Author/SJL)

Explores the sources of art criticism and reviews some extant pedagogical models. Outlines the content skills to be developed and the role of art criticism in a discipline-based teacher training curriculum. Recommends that art criticism should incorporate pedagogy and other disciplines of art. (KM)

Asserts that content-based art education, which is dominated by discipline-based art education at the elementary level, is also represented by a secondary model developed within the International Baccalaureate Program. Maintains that the program provides a content-based structure and fosters thinking skills, creativity, and critical appreciation.…

Argues that drawing in art is a visual, intellectual, and emotional act. Provides suggestions for helping students understand these three perceptions. Discusses the impact on curriculum design in art education. (CFR)

Maintains that the National Arts Standards allows for the inclusion of multicultural perspectives integrated within a dominant European American culture. This places the responsibility for a truly representative and multicultural curriculum back on the art teacher. Provides a neat and concise summary of the arguments for and against multicultural…

Argues that social change can be evidenced in the absence of an image. Discusses how murals painted by children 50 years after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki do not depict "the bomb," but it pervades the murals nonetheless. Shows that viewers draw unintended analogies between the images and the bombings. (DSK)