Arts-based researchers distinguish themselves from other qualitative researchers on the grounds that they use artistic processes and practices in their inquiries and in the communication of their research outcomes. Like artists, they operate out of a particular community of practice, with its own distinctive history of emergence, set of…

"Eternal return" is a condition that characterizes the world of art education and its scholarship, though it seems that the phenomenon goes largely unnoticed by many writing in the field today. The failure to name our work as part of an existing family of ideas, with themes that may date back to the years 1950-1970 or earlier, has implications not…

Reconceptualizing contemporary notions about creativity in visual arts education should be an important issue in art education today. Currently, creativity may not be a primary focus at National Art Education Association conferences or in its publications. There are recent indications that art education is a site where creativity can be developed…

In this commentary, I argue that Kevin Tavin's (2008) use of Lacan's "objet a" in his "Studies in Art Education" commentary "The Magical Quality of Aesthetics" is not a helpful analogy or solution for art education's search for the role of aesthetics. I offer that a pragmatist and dialogic viewpoint may be more useful and, because it describes the…

This article focuses on issues of childhood identity and urban environment. It discusses how a performance art pedagogy inspired by nomadic and relational aesthetics can provide a framework to promote creative learning experiences that address migratory conditions and forms of public alienation lived by young people today. As Lefebvre (1991)…

Postmodern street art operates under a set of references that requires art educators and researchers to adopt alternative analytical frameworks in order to understand its meanings. In this article, we describe social semiotics, critical discourse analysis, and postmodern street performance as well as the relevance of the former two in interpreting…

Research has shown that the study of children's drawings can shed light on certain problems, allowing many invisible sides of children's school life to emerge. Based on the results of that research, this article will study whether the use of drawings, and art in general, could lead to the reduction of social and academic marginalization and to the…

Historically, the majority of studies on children's image making have emphasized the appraisal of children's graphic development and/or the artistic qualities of children's pictures, thereby assigning them the status of self-contained visual artifacts and objects of analysis in their own right. However, such a product-oriented paradigm of inquiry…

This article reports on a study of creativity in art education, and more particularly, what teaching and learning to be creative implies. The study employs Pierre Bourdieu's concepts of the habitus, symbolic capital, and misrecognition. These concepts are demonstrably relevant for understanding creativity as a kind of social reasoning that is…

Drawing upon Lacanian psychoanalytic theory, neuroscience brain research, and the practices of contemporary artists Ann Hamilton, Jasper Johns, Elizabeth Murray, and Oliver Herring, this article argues for the relevance of conscious and unconscious knowledge in artistic practice. Parallels drawn between Lacanian psychoanalytic clinical practice…

This book explores how the arts, with their focus on aesthetic ways of knowing, impact the learning of our college students. Chapter 1, "Jamie: A Learner Profile," profiles the learning of Jamie, an elementary art teacher who was a student in a 2-week summer courses. The book starts with this profile to metaphorically prime the pump with images,…

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 feature article of this issue of Translations: "Educational Reform and Its Connection to Art Instruction: Art and Writing" (James Blasingname) presents the history and purposes of art education. This purpose falls within the broadly stated "Art for Life's Sake." The editors chose articles that "promote research on how people grapple with life…

Most art teachers are puzzled about what educational philosophy is and why it is needed. On the one hand, they feel that they should be able to articulate a guiding philosophy for what they do in the classroom. But just as typically, they perceive philosophy to be "a difficult study of obscure subjects," remote from their practical concerns as…

This book began with the idea that it would describe a set of arts-based service-learning courses developed and implemented during the unique multi-year project, Linking Service-Learning and the Visual Arts. These courses, in photography, graphic design, ceramics, and art education were to be offered as models, perhaps, or better yet, as…