The challenges and opportunities of globalization require art education scholars and practitioners to develop international competencies, but research in the specific field of comparative art education is very limited at present. In this article, I provide a pragmatic framework for studying art education policy as a subfield of comparative…

Against a backdrop exploring the relationships between cultural democracy and nonprofit arts funding policies, this article describes the impact of unwritten arts funding policies that are manifest in tax breaks for individuals, foundations, and corporations as well as federal contributions to nonprofit arts organizations in the United States. We…

This article seeks to explore ways in which academic researchers' investigations and representations have been shaped by the demands of human subjects research protocols and Internal Review Board (IRB) policies. The authors explore prescriptive procedures that dissuade, if not preclude, art education researchers' investigations, with a focus…

Since the mid-1980s, arts policymakers in Minnesota have positioned "media arts"--defined as the "study and practice of examining human communication through photography, film or video, audio, computer or digital arts, and interactive media"--within the realm of aesthetic education and considered it one of six arts areas. This article explores the…

A survey conducted in the fall of 2006 on the National Art Education Association Higher Education Listserv yielded rich demographic information about the contexts, preparation, and values of 100 higher education art educator volunteer participants. The academic credentials of art educator participants, along with hiring and promotion practices in…

This article is the result of an empirical study that attempts to discern the extent to which certain factors might influence current curriculum content taught by K-12 art teachers in the United States with 0 to 7 years of teaching experience. Data were collected from a sample of 437 art teachers' completion of a survey instrument with…

The built environment has a long history of study within the field of art education as the site of material and visual culture that is reflective of, and constructed by, cultural values, traditions, and norms. As our understanding of place is challenged by postmodern theories of culture and identity, art education research and curriculum must…

This article derives from a qualitative study in which four women artists/educators of color shared narratives of the input of feminism and ethnicity in various areas of their lives that included identity, education, professional activity, and artmaking. The scope of the article is limited to their art making (connected to personal experience)…

This article examines how children's construction of relationships in exploring materials helps to explain the constructivist foundations of the Reggio Emilia approach. A quasi-naturalistic study of 12 preschool children, ages 3 and 4 years, individually exploring different kinds of collage papers reveals a range of constructivist categories…

The director of a small career academy of the arts in a public high school reflects on the conflicting demands to establish a college-preparatory program adhering to state standards and to facilitate the personal growth, artistic discovery, and democratic empowerment of teens. By narrating experiences that go to the heart of philosophical discord,…

Neuroscience research provides new models for understanding vision that challenge Betty Edwards' (1979, 1989, 1999) assumptions about right brain vision and common conventions of "realistic" drawing. Enlisting PET and fMRI technology, neuroscience documents how the brains of normal adults respond to images of recognizable objects and scenes.…

This article compares the Beehive Collective's "Plan Colombia" to a museum exhibition representing the official U.S. position on Plan Colombia. Through a dialectical (Kellner & Share, 2007; Greene, 1988) reading of "Plan Colombia" and "Target America," I examine how each uses visual narrative to promote a particular reading of Plan Colombia.…

The article reports on a research project about employability skills in novice workers. The findings were drawn from case studies in 12 enterprises across Australia that employed young people in their first jobs, in full-time work and/or in part-time work whilst at school. The research focused upon the processes by which employers developed…

Whilst the economic agenda continues to dominate adult learning policy, evidence from national surveys indicates that vocational and other learning opportunities continue to be unevenly distributed according to social class. This article argues that the concept of social capital can usefully be employed to increase participation for adults who do…

This article explores the emerging phenomenon of workplace learning brokerage and the extent to which learning brokers can facilitate workplace learning in firms that have little history of employee development. Drawing on research carried out over a 6-year period, the article puts forward a typology of practice and identifies four distinct forms…