Visual arts education provisions for primary schools in Turkey

This article examines the history of art education in Turkey. Since the beginning, the purposes of the arts and art education have been a point of discussion by various authorities. Whether art education should be taught, and how it needs to be taught, have been at the forefront of educationalists' minds. As a result, introducing certain models of art education has been a challenge. The objective of this article is to present the changes in art education since the 19th century in Turkey. The main focus is on art education practices and policies and an overview of key events in Turkey's history of art education. The article also presents issues related to the importance of visual arts education in Turkish primary school settings. In so doing, this research aims to show readers how past developments helped to create the current visual art education policy in Turkey.     

The New Teacher of Art

Because of education reform policy and misconceptions about artistry and artistic assessment, visual art education remains in the margins of high school education. One response to the lack of supportive arts education policy is the Advanced Placement (AP) Studio Art Program, a visual arts assessment at the high school level that engages large numbers of students in rigorous art experiences. This article reviews the structure and characteristics of the AP portfolio assessment as a basis for critique and policy analysis. At issue are the reliability of this assessment's measurements and its level of credibility with key constituencies. These concerns are especially relevant in a testing culture in which objective evaluations are highly regarded and art education programs are often threatened. The authors suggest possibilities for future research and policy recommendations for secondary art education.     

Defining quality in visual art education for young children: Building on the position statement of the Early Childhood Art Educators

ABSTRACT

This article reflects the collective voices of four early childhood visual arts educators, each of whom is a member of the Early Childhood Art Educators (ECAE) Issues Group of the National Arts Educators Association. The authors frame the article around the ECAE position statement, Art: Essential for Early Learning (2016) Early Childhood Art Educators. (2016). Art: Essential for early learning, position statement on early childhood art education (Rev. ed.). Reston, VA: National Art Education Association. Retrieved from https://www.arteducators.org/advocacy/articles/127-position-statement-on-early-childhood-art-education [Google Scholar], which focuses on the central role of art interactions among young children, educators, environments, and materials. The authors describe eight principles that underlie the statement from philosophical viewpoints, and provide practical examples of the principles in action. Amid a varied policy landscape for visual art in early childhood, the authors assert that children need organized, materials-rich environments that invite discovery, interaction, sensory and kinesthetic exploration, wonder, inquiry, and imagination in relationship with responsive educators who value young children's diverse abilities, interests, questions, ideas, and cultural experiences. The authors explore issues and possibilities resulting when educators work to bring visual arts fully and dynamically into the lives of young children in diverse education and care spaces. In closing, the authors explore the realities of visual arts policies in the early childhood education and art education fields while emphasizing the critical need for supportive pedagogical practices in all early childhood classrooms.     

Gardening for Homonyms: Integrating Science and Language Arts to Support Children's Creative Use of Multiple Meaning Words

Curriculum integration can increase the presence of science at the elementary level. The purpose of this article is to share how two second-grade teachers have integrated language arts content as a part of science-language arts instruction in a garden-based learning context. One application was a teacher-designed Gardening for Homonyms lesson, which supported new ways of thinking about words and wordplay while developing science vocabulary related to structure and function, diversity of life, and interdependent relationships in ecosystems. This article provides the lesson and discusses its implementation in two second-grade classrooms. Examples of student work illustrate children's creative thought around and application of multiple meaning words. Pre-, post-, and extended posttest measures of students' ability to generate and to use homonyms demonstrate that this science-language arts integrated lesson can result in both short- and long-term learning. Applications and follow-up from the lesson over two subsequent years have engaged second and third grade students in study/inquiry about plant growth and life cycles while utilizing many facets of language arts, which have ranged from labeling an experimental design and writing predictions and results to conversing about digital “GigaPan” images on growing strawberries.     

Community arts: (Re)contextualizing the narrative of teaching and learning

ABSTRACT

Education in the United States is often characterized by testing and standardized outcomes, and bears little relevance to the culture and the community that surrounds both students and teachers. Conversely, community arts connect the philosophies of art and education to the larger spheres of culture and community. The community thus becomes an educational space in which both the teachers and students are motivated to learn from each other through a reciprocal relationship that changes the dynamic of both teaching and learning. Consequently, the (re)contextualization of art and education within culture and community has distinct policy implications regarding both what we teach and the way we teach it. There is an opportunity to increase the significance of art education in a democratic society if we embrace practices that empower preservice teachers to analyze how artmaking practices shape their own sensibilities and those of the communities in which they live. This article suggests a field experience model for informing cross-cultural understandings of community-based pedagogy, participation, and collaboration that challenges existing educational policy while informing the values and beliefs of the preservice teacher. It presents the opportunity to develop socially relevant programs for use in the teaching of art that include community, social justice, democracy, collective responsibility, activism, and equity—among others—that confront established perceptions of both art and education.     

Swinging into art with pendulum paintings

Children are captivated with how things work and they like to build things and in many ways, engineering comes naturally for them. Progress does not come from technology alone but from the melding of technology and creative thinking through art and design. There has been a push for STEAM-based curricula to be included in science classrooms and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) provides the framework for integrating engineering design into the structure of science education. The push for the STEAM platform is derived from the lack of creativity and innovation in recent college graduates in the United States. This STEAM-based unit meshes engineering design, representing and interpreting data, visual arts, and motion/stability. As students investigated and analyzed pendulum motion, they also created unique pendulum paintings. Throughout this unit our students applied their content knowledge across several disciplines and in turn allowed them to gain a better understanding and retention of these concepts. Through creating their own pendulum paintings, the students learned about pendulums and how they work, designed and constructed their own pendulums, and applied prior knowledge of forces and motion in a controlled experiment.     

Visual immersion for cultural understanding and multimodal literacy

ABSTRACT

When considering inclusive art curriculum that accommodates all learners, including English language learners, two distinct yet inseparable issues come to mind. The first is that English language learner students can use visual language and visual literacy skills inherent in visual arts curriculum to scaffold learning in and through the arts. Second, in facilitating a sense of belonging for students whose home language and cultural aesthetic may be different from those of the dominant school culture, an authentically developed multicultural art curriculum can guide self-efficacy and inclusiveness. Both aspects of teaching art for English language learners can have the added benefits of facilitating collaborative learning opportunities and increasing worldviews for all students.     

Integrating microscopy,art, and humanities to power STEAM learning in biology

Close observation is central to both art and science as practitioners in both disciplines describe, compare, and seek to understand or interpret the natural world. Indeed, as the artist and writer Guy Davenport noted, “The vision by which we discover the hidden in nature is sometimes called science, sometimes called art.” In the last decade, the movement to integrate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics with arts and humanities (i.e., STEAM learning) has gained traction in K–12 education. A recent National Academies report (2018) examines the case for integrating humanities and the arts in undergraduate STEM education. Microscopy provides an excellent vehicle for engaging all kinds of students in integrative (STEAM) learning about biology and for encouraging them to observe the world closely. In this essay adapted from my keynote address to the American Microscopical Society in 2020, I highlight activities and approaches that use microscopy to engage learners of all kinds, examine how using microscopes changes students’ attitudes about science and biology, and explore the intersection of microscopy and visual art.     

Education Through Art

In this article, the author revisits a case study presented in Arts Education Policy Review 105(1) in September/October 2003. The author discusses Arts Collaborator's Incorporated's (ACI) efforts to educate the community about art and about arts opportunities in River City. Themes visited in the discussion are community development through the arts, and connecting economic development to education. Implications for the arts education community that the author draws from this discussion are (a) ACI has assets and connections that the arts education community may not have, (b) ACI uses its influence to teach and promote certain kinds of art, and (c) the arts education community needs to be aware of advocacy groups to maintain education standards and to fully use available opportunities.     

Stormy Winds and Southern Comfort(s): On Categories,Strategies, and Cartographies

How do we see Southeast Asian and diasporic visual culture today? This is the central question we ask in the Introduction to this special issue of Visual Anthropology. To answer the question, we trouble the geographic designation of “Southeast Asia” and how the region’s arts and culture have traveled and are received at the present moment. We posit that we need to see Southeast Asia and its diasporas differently. Most notably, we argue that through the lens of gender and sexuality we can better visualize and analyze the critical and creative strategies of artists and writers situated in many parts of the world. We foreground the collected essays, art pieces and poetry that query what it means to labor for the state, the art world or the academy. And as we emphasize, the collection brings together—in color, in varying compositions, in long and short form—the dynamism of art and media texts in all of their complex circulations.     

Estimating the effect of music and arts coursework on college admissions outcomes

The purpose of this study was to examine postsecondary admissions outcomes for music and arts students as compared to their non-arts peers using nationally representative data (N = 14,900) from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002. Controlling for certain observable differences between students who do and do not elect arts courses, music students were more likely to apply to college and to attend college than their non-arts peers. Arts students were similar to non-arts students in terms of college selectivity and pursued science, technology, mathematics, and engineering majors at similar rates to non-arts students. This analysis suggests taking arts coursework in high school does not hinder successful college admissions outcomes as may be feared by well-intentioned guidance counselors or parents. Implications for college admission and local policies are considered.     

Dancing to the top: How collective action revitalized arts education in Boston

In 2009, a group of local foundations, the school district, arts organizations, and the Mayor's Office launched the Boston Public Schools Arts Education Initiative (BPS-AE)—a multiyear, citywide, public–private initiative aimed at increasing BPS students' access to in-school arts education. Managed by a strong local intermediary with deep experience in education, this initiative used several complementary, overlaid strategies: direct service, system building, and community engagement—all of which were supported by a philanthropic collaborative of local and national funders. Today, 17,000 more BPS students receive arts education; nearly 130 additional full-time certified arts teachers have been hired; and district spending on arts has risen to $26 million annually, compared to $15 million in 2009. There is also growing demand from the larger community for more and better arts education. In 2015, BPS-AE produced a case study that provides a more detailed explication of the multitiered strategy it used to achieve these results. The study offers recommendations as to how other cities can involve diverse key constituencies to advance this kind of initiative, create leadership structures that support effective citywide collaboration, engage community stakeholders in participatory planning processes, leverage private philanthropy to boost public funding, and develop a centralized support system for school principals and arts teachers.     

Fostering systems thinking in student teachers of biology and geography – an intervention study

ABSTRACT

Developing students’ systems thinking is an often-posed demand in education for sustainable development (ESD) and science literacy. Several studies have shown that systems thinking can be fostered in students of different education levels. Therefore, science teachers who are required to teach ESD-relevant topics should be proficient in systems thinking and be able to transfer that knowledge effectively to their students. The research project SysThema (Systems Thinking in Ecological and Multidimensional Areas) investigated the effect of three courses designed to foster systems thinking in student teachers of biology and geography. Courses varied in their proportions of technical fundamentals of system science and didactical content for teaching systems thinking. To conceptualise systems thinking, a heuristic structural competence model for systems thinking was developed. This model served as the basis for a test in evaluating the courses in a quasi-experimental intervention study that employed a pre-, post- and follow-up test control group design. After the completion of the courses, a high effect of fostering systems thinking was found in all treatment groups compared to the control group.     

Language policy,language ideology,and visual art education for emergent bilingual students

ABSTRACT

In 1968 the Bilingual Education Act marked the first comprehensive federal intervention in the schooling of language minoritized students by creating financial incentives for bilingual education in an effort to address social and educational inequities created by poverty and linguistic isolation in schools. Since that time federal education policies related to language instruction for emergent bilingual students have undergone a number of shifts that reflect changing ideological perspectives on language and citizenship. These shifts, in turn, frame seemingly neutral educational requirements for preservice and practicing art educators related to language and visual art instruction, implicating art educators in ideological stances toward students and families who primarily speak languages other than English. This article reviews the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in its most recent reauthorization as the Every Student Succeeds Act, and offers insight into ideological implications of standards and assessments that impact art educator preparation and art teaching practices with regard to language in the art classroom, including the National Core Arts Standards and the Education Teacher Performance Assessment. Implications regarding ways art education, framed by ideological policies, might support or undermine social and educational inequities educational policies are intended to address are discussed.     

The rise of creative youth development

ABSTRACT

Creative youth development (CYD) is a dynamic area of community arts education that successfully bridges youth development and arts education. CYD is an intentional, holistic practice that combines hands-on artmaking and skill building in the arts with development of life skills to support young people in successfully participating in adolescence and navigating into adulthood. Young people in CYD programs exhibit high levels of artistic skill and accomplishment along with increased self-esteem and sense of belonging. CYD participants are immersed in a broad array of rigorous artistic endeavors, including creating documentary films, researching and reporting on community issues through radio broadcasts, writing and staging new theatrical works, and engaging in thoughtful critique of one another's visual art work. The impact for youth of program participation extends beyond pride in artistic accomplishment. Throughout the United States, teen participants in CYD programs assert that the programs saved their lives, putting them on positive trajectories and away from gangs, drug use, crime, and ennui. This article provides a definition for the term creative youth development, describes core characteristics of CYD programs, and briefly describes four CYD programs. It provides background on the origins and history of creative youth development, including current advances in the field and signs the field is coalescing. The article describes creative youth development in the larger contexts of arts education and of education reform. Lastly, the article discusses policy, funding, and research needs and opportunities and provides questions for consideration.     

Arts Education Partnerships: Informing Policy through the Development of Culture and Creativity within a Collaborative Project Approach

Arts education partnerships have become an important means for developing and sustaining school arts programs that engage students, teachers, and communities. Tapping into additional perspectives, resources, and support from arts agencies and postsecondary institutions, arts education partnerships strengthen arts education infrastructure within schools and develop a web of sustainable relationships whereby stakeholders mutually benefit. This article provides a snapshot of an arts education partnership in action that develops creative and cultural competencies in middle school students through a theme-based collaborative project approach. This article informs policy by recommending support for arts education partnerships that develop social and creative capital among schools and postsecondary institutions and within the communities surrounding these institutions.     

An Integrated Unit

In this article, the author analyzes Arthur Efland's Art and Cognition, which advocates study of the visual arts for its cognitive benefits. The author argues that Efland's cognitive premises are largely sound but that his specific recommendations often belie the general principles he espouses. Efland focuses on the interpretation of baffling works that deliberately flout traditional views of what constitutes a work of art. He thereby ignores his own emphasis on the role of categorization in human cognition. Moreover, although he stresses the cognitive importance of individual goals and intentions, Efland favors sociopolitical interpretations. Such interpretations disregard contradictory evidence of the artist's likely intentions and downplay the personal value of art. The author views Efland's emphasis on visual metaphor as inconsistent with his recognition that the visual arts possess a distinctive immediacy and directness.     

Art education under development in Palestine: de- and repoliticization via universal values,institutional critique,and reflexive practice

This article studies ways in which art education is mobilized to modify subjective and aesthetic performances of Palestinian students, considering debates surrounding depoliticization and development funding in Palestine. It explores the subject matter and critical stance deemed appropriate for self-directed art projects within a Ramallah art school. Moving beyond arguments put forward within existing literature on the depoliticizing impact of aid funding by drawing on ethnographic detail, the article explores how students experience and respond to this education. Despite being shaped by structures of control that arguably encourage depoliticization, many students understood this education as also opening a space for unpicking and critical examination of such structures. The article locates instances in which this repoliticization was invoked by students, in balance with their awareness of the complexity and contingency of this process.     

The eugenics movement and its impact on art education in the United States

This article argues that the eugenics movement has had three major influences on education in the United States, and reveals how these influences have had an impact on visual arts education in particular. The first influence began with a debate between John Dewey and David Snedden that resulted in a two-tiered tracking system that separated college bound and vocational students. The second is the influence of eugenics on the establishment of the hierarchical framework for the public school curriculum. The third influence of eugenics discussed in this article is its impact on standardized testing. These influences have justified American imperialism in schools, and have led to the marginalization of visual arts education in the United States.     

Drama as a valuable learning medium in early childhood

ABSTRACT

Theater arts encompass unique art forms comprising highly developed pedagogical applications apart from theater as performance. Specifically, the use of drama as a learning medium, referred to in the field as process drama, is most emphatically applicable to the education of young children. Young children actively gain skills in dialogue, collaboration, and creative problem solving, by collectively pretending, with teacher guidance, to be in an imaginative elsewhere—something most are well adept at from their own natural dramatic play. This article argues that ages 3–8 represent a critical time for children to benefit from process drama integrated into the curriculum and highlights the unique impact process drama can make when it is used to explore a particular problem, situation, or theme, referencing related national core arts. Documentation from well-established programs is presented, and recommendations for training drama teachers on how to work in early childhood and for early childhood teachers on how to integrate process drama into their curriculum are presented.