Vol. 11 No. 2 (2015)

EDITORIAL

Authors:  Glen Coutts

Pages 181-182

ARTICLES

Employing mindfulness via art in education

Authors:  Jodi Patterson

Pages: 185-192

Abstract
Visual art is often misunderstood and under-applied in a venue where it has the potential to help humans the most: the general elementary classroom. Teacher training programmes that mandate an art class can help propel art’s offering by exposing future teachers to the increasing role mindfulness via art can play in school regarding cognitive, social and emotional well-being. This article cites ways and means to incorporate mindful art experiences into the classroom to help enhance both teaching and learning.

A cross-cultural collaboration exploring art literacy, creativity and social transformation in China

Authors: Jonathan Silverman and Yi Xiaoming 

Pages: 193-212

Abstract
Two art educators, from the United States and China, reflect on their collaboration to plan, implement and assess a cross-cultural experience. They developed a ten-day residency for art education students at Nanjing Normal University in China. The pedagogy presented emphasized the interplay between skill development and personal expression, product and process, and social-directed knowledge and social transformation. Through analysing student critiques, reflective discussions and survey responses the authors framed five categories critical for planning cross-cultural exchanges and broadening the scope of art education: Sensing others’ cultural orientation, Building community, Scaffolding art literacy, Minding the gap between technique and creativity, and Reflecting on identity and visual culture. In a global society, culturally responsive art educators benefit when collaborating to help their students gain new perspectives on cultural assumptions, analyse common concepts such as aesthetics, visual literacy and critique, and reflect on the interdependence of teaching, creating art and social responsibility.

Altermodern art education: Theory and practice

Authors:  Marike Hoekstra and Talita Groenendijk 

Pages: 213-228

Abstract
Art education in schools today needs to include the development of its direct relation to contemporary art, global developments and the lives of young people. Notions on contemporary art, migration and globalization, put forward by Nicolas Bourriaud in The Radicant and the Tate Triennial, are connected with relevant developments in art education. Key parameters following from theory are intercultural, process-oriented and student-based. The empirical study consists of a design research program to investigate the possibilities of Altermodern Art Education, having six trained art teachers implement the central design parameters in eight-week projects with 14 to 17 year olds.

An artist-in-residence: Teaching with a sense of urgency

Authors:  Tracey Hunter-Doniger

Pages: 229-243

Abstract
This case study demonstrates the value of a ‘sense of urgency’ within the context of artist-in-residence programmes in K-12 public schools. Although the notion of a sense of urgency is often referred to within the context of business, this study reveals ways that this concept can be applied to an educational situation as well. In this article, a case study is presented in which an artist-in-residence created an environment where students in an Advanced Placement sculpture class set goals maintained constant vigilance, took risks and learnt to evaluate their own skills. This article indicates that using a sense of urgency as a pedagogical style can bring an additional learning benefit to students.

Creating art-based approaches in working life development: The shift from success to significance

Authors: Mirja Hiltunen and  Pälvi Rantala 

Pages: 245-260

Abstract
The aim of this article is to analyse and identify the structure of activities occurring during a series of art workshops conducted in one particular work-based community, with a view to exploring links between modern working life and the fields of art and art education. The researchers took part in the workshops as participant observers. The research showed that art-oriented activities can make different organizational cultures more visible and open to further development. Participants can apply the experience gained in art workshops to their own work practice, using it to strengthen group coherence, to express ideas better and to become more emotionally engaged in their jobs. It can foster mental strength and faith in a personal way of working, and encourage people to try things that they have not tried before.

Photography, critical pedagogy and ‘Difficult Knowledge’

Authors:  Ya’ara Gil-Glazer 

Pages: 261-276

Abstract
This article reports on a study of students’ reactions, perceptions and attitudes towards photographs that convey difficult knowledge to which they were exposed in an academic course. Difficult knowledge in this context refers to photographs that address disturbing topics such as violence, suffering and pain, extreme sexuality and gender identity. Research results indicate that while most of the students’ initial responses to such photographs displayed both attraction and repulsion, the photographs were also perceived as having great potential for promoting critical educational discourse. In addition, the results reveal that the sensitive use of photographs containing difficult knowledge is highly significant for an effective discussion in educational contexts.

Zema and Peter Haworth: A double-jointed biography from the history of art education

Authors:  Dustin Garnet 

Pages: 277-297

Abstract
In this double-jointed biography, the author narrates the tandem tale of two parallel lives that directly contributed to the art community in Toronto, Canada, for generations. Each of these two great Canadians dedicated over 30 years to the instruction of visual art education at Central Technical School (CTS) and their lasting legacy has produced some of Canada’s most celebrated artists. Zema (Bobs) Haworth and Peter Haworth immigrated to Canada from England in the early 1920s and developed into successful artists, advocates, educators and socialites whose lives were inextricably intertwined with the larger institutional history of the Art Department at CTS. Tracing Zema’s and Peter’s lives through archival research, published memoirs and interviews, photos, and other personal documents, the author explores how this couple embodied the ideal of the artist-teacher and contributed to the visual arts at both the local and national levels.

The occupation of art museum educator in the time of Occupy Museums

Authors:  Nadine M. Kalin

Pages: 299-309

Abstract
This article considers the occupation of art museum educator in the time of Occupy Museums (OM). I maintain these two different forms of occupations – the job of educator as occupation within art museums and OM as an offshoot of the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protests as occupation – are both related and at odds with one another in the context of the art museum under neo-liberal managerialism. The working lives of art museum educators are morphing into occupations within art institutions that employ populist veiling tactics as cover for labour abuse in fulfilling their missions. OM reveals contradictions inherent to a museum system working hard to normalize such economic injustices, with a particular focus on the workers associated with these institutions. Current trends in art museum education and features of OM are analysed through neo-liberalist and horizontalist ideologies, bringing to light similar anti-hierarchical motivations, aiming for dissimilar ends. The article closes with a call for a return to modified forms of verticality in institutions based on cultures of mutual support instead of capitalism alone.

Images used in visual arts education textbooks for secondary education: A study in Spain

Authors:  Idoia Marcellan Baraze and  Ainhoa Gómez Pintado and  Ilargi Olaiz

Pages: 311-326

Abstract
In this article we report on a study of images in visual arts education textbooks in the Basque Country (Spain). Studying textbooks is important because they are used extensively in Spanish schools. Our initial theory is that student’ lives are rich in images, mainly from media culture, but their textbooks, in contrast, offer more traditional images of art. Our analysis of images in the textbooks identified very different types of artistic images to the media ones. We saw a different use of them; ‘art’ is given a higher priority and is defined by aesthetic and hegemonic historical criteria. We could see a different treatment between artistic images and media culture, which seemed to imply a hierarchical relationship between the two. What seemed to us to be missing were links that might allow students to make meaningful connections between art and media culture images and the students’ life experience.

BOOK REVIEWS

From Child Art to Visual Language of Youth: New Models and Tools for Assessment of Learning and Creation in Art Education, Andrea  Karpati and  Emil Gaul (eds) (2013)

Author: Fiona Blaikie

Pages: 327-330

Explorations in Virtual Worlds: New Digital Multi-Media Literacy Investigations for Art Education, Mary  Stokrocki (ed.)

Authors: Andrea Karpati

Pages: 330-332

Ecologies of Invention, Andy dong, John Conomos and Brad Buckley (eds) (2013)

Author: King-chung Siu

Pages 332-334