While it would be egregious not to acknowledge the dire state and looming removal of art and music programs in many schools today, it is equally important to recognize that individual classroom atmosphere ultimately begins with and emanates from the primary/elementary teacher. Teaching of young children is a soulful experience; it comes from the…

In the quest for more effective education, how can direct personal engagement with actual aesthetic experiences--attendance of performances, participation in artistic workshops and activities, and viewing of actual artworks--play an important role? Art educators have a tremendous opportunity to guide students to engage mind, body, and soul--until…

This article aims to examine the kinds of teaching practices that correspond to the various educational roles ascribed to the arts within school curricula. Three teaching approaches are analyzed: (1) "teaching the arts", in which the arts are treated as distinct cognitive teaching subjects; (2) "teaching through the arts", in which the arts are…

Introducing reclaimed materials into the art classroom provides students with unique opportunities to connect ordinary, discarded objects with unique, personal artistic creations. In an effort to better understand this connection, this article explores existing pedagogical precedents that support the role of the inclusion of reclaimed materials in…

The discourse of aesthetics appears repeatedly throughout literature in art education and is employed frequently through K-12 classroom practice. This article discusses the use and uselessness of the discourse of aesthetics in art education. Discourse, as used in this article, refers to the specific term "aesthetics," and all the individual and…

Kevin Tavin has boldly gone where few would dare--to challenge the usefulness of one of the most cherished ideas in art education, that of aesthetics. The author believes that three of Tavin's arguments are completely sound: What is often offered as an entirely unproblematic idea is deeply implicated in historical repression, art education's…

This article proposes a way to expand the study of arts education within new contexts of technology and globalization. Drawing upon theories that have informed arts and aesthetic education in the past, the authors suggest new applications for these ideas to ensure that arts education sustains its significance in twenty-first-century society. The…

Teaching young children ways to appreciate art is not the daunting task that it appears to be. At a very young age, children are quite capable of having an aesthetic experience on their own terms, whether it be the delight of mixing different textured foods on the high chair table top or becoming visually engaged with a mobile that is suspended…

In contemporary society, what, why, and how students come to gain knowledge and understandings of art defies traditional boundaries. In part, this is because of the prevalence of many forms of popular visual culture. In this article, the authors present three vignettes that demonstrate the ways in which three young children created connections…

One of the most challenging concepts for preservice and experienced art teachers is to comprehend the difference between aesthetics and art criticism. In this article, the author discusses aesthetics from a historical perspective and reflects on how it can be defined and used in the art classroom. Gardner's (1983) intrapersonal and interpersonal…

The art education literature has recently given a good deal of attention to the topic of Visual Culture in Art Education (VCAE). VCAE appears to some art educators as the next new emphasis in art education following Discipline-Based Art Education. At least four recent theme issues of Art Education have addressed the topic in various ways. All of…

Memories of our schooling and teaching experiences shape our curriculum and pedagogical decision-making process in art education when we become teachers and teacher educators. In this paper, using Hannah Arendt's Actor-Spectator Theory, I engage in retrospective critical introspection of my practices as an art teacher and curriculum developer in…

The first purpose of Art Education in public schools, articulated in the eighteenth century, was the ability to shape an imaginatively responsible, empathetic, democratic citizenry; this remains an aim for today, which is hard to achieve. This article explores the continuing tension between this original goal and other versions of Art Education,…

The influence of discipline-based art education has been transformed into new avenues for teaching and learning that require an array of bridges to traverse creating new approaches and settings for art teaching and learning. The concept of interdisciplinary learning is one that should be scrutinized closely and research and practical applications…

The decline in public support for the arts is evident in diminished audience approbation as much as in support by public and, increasingly, private sources. This article postulates that the same phenomenon is taking place with the decrease of arts education in our schools. The author argues that our schools are taking on an increasingly…