One of the traditional privileges for teachers in the United States has been control over the curriculum. Unlike most countries in the world, the United States does not have a national curriculum "per se", enabling teachers to make curriculum decisions that most benefit local students. However, the Elementary and Secondary Act, also known as the…

Conceptions of student creativity have shifted historically as ideas about art and education have changed. The ways people think about art, including those related to creative practice, require continual reconsideration in times of change. Art educators have begun reconsidering a range of art concepts and principles to better support contemporary…

This article is the report of a large-scale, international research project involving focus group interviews of adolescent and young adult members of a variety of self-initiated visual culture groups in five urban areas (Amsterdam, Budapest, Chicago, Helsinki, and Hong Kong). Each group was established by young people around their interests in the…

This article addresses dimensions of contemporary policy that are influencing art teaching and learning. In the light of recent policy, and its challenges to creativity, art educators have been placed in the position where we need to make trouble through a re-definition and extension of professional responsibility. In response to negative impacts…

This article is based on nearly 25 years of working with and studying folk art and folk artists. While certified art educators and their university teachers may think they are inclusive in their understandings about art and learning processes, generally speaking, they are either unaware or tend to ignore folk artists' ways of understanding the…

Focuses on ways in which a group of high school students responded to fine art and other forms of visual culture, such as advertising images, cartoons, and propaganda posters. Discusses three emergent themes in student responses: (1) purposes of imagery; (2) interpretation of images; and (3) relationships among images. (DSK)

Asks how art should be taught in a culture in which television and electronic media constitute the primary media with which young people interact. Suggests that art educators should focus on how students use technology, the production and viewing of technological images, and the ways that such images have meaning. (DSK)

Observes that the need for art education to include discussions of popular visual culture that influences student knowledge grows more pressing as mass communication increasingly becomes a major source of information about art. Discusses representations of culture in art in advertising and art in film. Specifically looks at art in the film…

Explains that an important relationship exists among democracy, visual technologies, and education. Stresses that one of the essential responsibilities of art education must be to teach students about the power of technological imagery and how to use that power for democratic forms of expression. (CMK)

Asks how art should be taught in the postmodern world. Argues that art education must change in two ways: (1) discussions of fine art must focus on the meaning of postmodern art and concepts; and (2) incorporating postmodern concepts to address the broad range of visual culture encountered by students. (DSK)

Argues that art educators must be acquainted with recent trends in art history, particularly the shift from connoisseurship toward cultural and sociological concerns. Presents a brief overview of art history practice in schools, followed by some recommendations for teaching from new perspectives. (KM)

Discusses three issues pertaining to the use of interactive graphic hardware and software in schools: (1) computer graphic production processes; (2) the social dynamics of computer graphics production in school; and (3) the qualities of imagery. Concludes that art educators must consider what particular art concepts could and should be taught…

Describes how art education in the 1940s and 1950s was influenced by national social and political issues. Elaborates on conceptions of good citizenship and the new nationalism and internationalism which were emphasized. Claims this curriculum model withheld from children knowledge of the complexities of art and society. (BSR)

Presents gender issues in the context of a broad definition of art education. Reports on a study of the ability of 115 eighth- and 11th-grade students to assess critically gender stereotypes. Provides five recommendations for dealing with gender issues in the art education curriculum. (CFR)

Discusses philanthropy in three parts: (1) development of foundation philanthropy, (2) Andrew Carnegie's vision to "civilize" the United States, (3) historical background and purpose of the Minnesota Owatonna Project. Concludes by stating that there is nothing inherently good or evil about philanthropic bureaucracies, pointing out that it is…