Vol. 6 No. 3 (2010)

Volume 6 Issue 3

Cover Date: December 2010

Contents

Editorial

Glen Coutts  University of Lapland

Page Start: 275

 

To access this and earlier issues, please CLICK HERE.

 

Demystifying three-dimensional virtual worlds for art education

Authors:  Lilly (Li-Fen) Lu

Page Start: 279

 

Abstract

Three-dimensional (3D) virtual worlds (VW) have great potential for contemporary art education. This article introduces the characteristics of 3D VWs and addresses the theory and practice of utilizing the VWs as virtual learning environments (VLE) for art education. The author investigated student art conversations conducted and facilitated through a 3D VW, Art Caf, in Second Life (SL) after students visited the virtual exhibitions. The findings show that all participants were highly engaged and motivated to participate in art conversations in SL. They were able to be open and freely discuss art in depth because of their anonymous identities. Study implications and recommendations for future research and art education practice are addressed in the conclusion.

 

 

 

Illuminating the gap: An overview of classroom-based arts education research in Australia

Authors:  Christopher Klopper and  Bianca Power

Page Start: 293

 

Abstract

Arts education is an internationally recognized term referencing education through the arts. The term arts is seen to encompass different things in different contexts, including but not limited to the performing arts- music, dance, drama, and theatre; visual arts, media, industrial arts, and literary arts. In this article, the authors provide an overview to date of classroom-based arts education research in Australia. In so doing, the gap in the literature describing and discussing classroom-based arts education is illuminated. We call for attendance to classroom-based arts education research in Australia given that the heart of curriculum transfer and transformation is in the classroom. We offer a research methodology and design of practitioner enquiry to empower and enlighten collective knowledge sharing of professional practice. Such attendance will establish a base that can bring about sustained policy and practice change.

Freedom and dignity Identity through creation

Authors:  Carl-Peter Buschkühle

Page Start: 309

 

Abstract
The Images & Identity research project, which is funded by the European Union, develops materials that can be used for the multidisciplinary teaching within the subjects of Citizenship Education and Art Education. On the basis of a project in a class of year 9 German high-school pupils focusing on the issue of Freedom and Dignity, this article examines the extent to which art education can act as creative work on identity. Joseph Beuys once stated: Everyone is an artist. In this comment, he refers to every individual's ability to shape their own life. In order to do so, the individual needs to comprehensively train his/her creative abilities. Is art, in connection with reflected knowledge and individual creation, able to advance the development of such abilities? If so, does this give rise to the prospect of art as an alternative principle of education and learning?

 

Considering the framework of art appreciation repertoires

Authors:  Wenchun Wang and  Kazuhiro Ishizaki

Page Start: 327

 

Abstract

We consider a framework of repertoires in art appreciation and suggest its relationship with learning in art appreciation of youth. An art writing programme was administered to 31 students ranging from junior high school to graduate school. Their art writings were analysed according to two themes: (1) the diverse elements of repertoires and their acquisition; (2) the relation of complex repertoires to proficiency in art appreciation. First, the framework of repertoires is presented, and analytical standards for art writings are established. Undergraduate/graduate students showed greater diversity and accumulation of appreciation skills in their repertoires than did junior and senior high school students. In addition, case analyses demonstrate that the properties of accumulation and diversity in repertoires are essential to forming complex repertoires. Further, the formation of complex repertoires can be said to be an important step for attaining sophisticated art appreciation.

 

The museum experience in the environment of the Japanese collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Authors:  Jungwon Lee

Page Start: 343

 

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine how viewers experienced the museum environments of the Japanese collection, and to explore how these physical environments affected visitors' experiences. The museum environment selected for the study was the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. A phenomenological research methodology using qualitative data-gathering techniques and analysis was employed. Data-gathering involved the observation and description of the museum environment housing the Japanese collections, the observation of visitor behaviour, including conversations at the research site, and in-depth interviews with visitors. The proposed study provides a model for the phenomenological examination of personal meaning-making in museums. It is hoped that this study will encourage museum educators, curators, designers and directors to reconsider museum exhibitions and physical environments in order to facilitate the process of making meaning by visitors.

An intercultural learning of similarities and differences of rituals and customs of two cultures

Authors:  Steve Willis and  Ryan Shin

Page Start: 361

 

Abstract

In this article, we present intercultural learning as an art education approach that can develop a student's sense of cultural diversity and its value by qualitative immersion in and comparison to other cultures (Amorim 2001). As an example, we chose two popular rituals, Korean Ancestor Worship Ceremony and Native American Sweat Lodge, which are written as anecdotal narratives providing first-person voice to cultural experiences, to discuss cultural similarities and differences discovered in both ceremonies. We hope that our approach of intercultural learning provides an example to honour each other's tradition and culture, treating each other as a member of the group of people who have equally invaluable cultural traditions, as well as leading to learning that cultural information should be understood in its authentic contexts.

 

Meaning making, democratic participation and art in early childhood education: Can inspiring objects structure dynamic curricula?

Authors:  Biljana C Fredriksen

Page Start: 381

 

Abstract

Young students' democratic participation in the pedagogical work of early childhood education is required by law in Norway. In order to explore pedagogical methods, which allow students' democratic participation in visual arts curricula, an action research project with a sociocultural profile was conducted. Generating space for the students' contributions required ongoing interpretation and reflection during the pedagogical work, and through this process a new understanding of curricula as dynamic emerged. During the research project the teachers and students mutually and continuously influenced each other's meaning making. This challenged the teachers to search for a suitable balance between planning and pedagogical improvisation, which involved careful listening to children. The findings from the study suggest that flexible curricula can be structured around careful choices of inspirational objects (stories, sculptures, art paintings and art materials) in art-based and interdisciplinary work in early childhood education.

 

Social functions of art: Educational, clinical, social and cultural settings. Trying a new methodology

Authors:  Catalina Rigo Vanrell and  Rosaura Navajas Seco and  Marián López Fernández-Cao and  María Del Río Diéguez and  Ana Eva Iribas Rudín and  Guillermo García Lledó and  Matilde Mollá Giner and  Julio Romero Rodríguez and  Miguel Domínguez Rigo

Page Start: 397

 

Abstract

The fruit of the work of our research group, set up ten years ago at the Faculty of Education of the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain, this article will present a review on how art can help and empower children and adults at risk of exclusion in different settings. We have been working from an intercultural, gender-equity and social inclusion perspective, introducing methods of art therapy practice. From this standpoint, we will show how our group has developed a methodology that can be validated in several domains. We will show the foundations of our proposals, and will present experiences in educational and social areas, showing how we can work on gender and interculturality, in clinical areas, where we have been working with art therapy and empowerment, and in cultural areas, where we show, from a new museological perspective, how it is possible to reconstruct new narratives that help marginalized groups to become stronger, and that transform museums into social agents for change.

 

Reviews

 

Index Volume 6

Authors:

Page Start: 421