Research in Visual Art Education: Implications for Music

Abstract

Abstract There is a rich heritage of visual art education research, which inquires into how visual art enriches and gives aesthetic meaning to peoples’ private and public lives and experiences. Researchers explore the studio art-making process; examine how people teach and learn within the related disciplines of aesthetics, art criticism, and art history; and grapple with a variety of theoretical and practical issues that are related, for example, to child development, visual perception, diversity, culture, multiculturalism, social perspectives, gender (including sexual orientation), controversial issues, and technology. They conduct their research using philosophical, quantitative, and qualitative forms of inquiry that are often derived from related disciplines such as sociology, history, anthropology, psychology, and curriculum theory. Essentially, researchers in visual art education confront the exciting challenges-new and old-that visual art provides artists, teachers, and learners within a postmodern world. The content for this chapter is based on an analysis of research findings in visual art education. Research was examined from the following sources: important research published in journals during the last 20 years (for example, Journal of Aesthetic Education; Journal of Multicultural and Cross-Cultural Studies in Art Education; Studies in Art Education; Visual Arts Research); the Dissertation Abstracts database; selected doctoral dissertations; existing research analyses (Allison, 1986; Burton, 1991, 1998; Da­ vis, 1977; Hamblen, 1989; Jones & McPhee, 1986; La Pierre & Zimmerman, 1997; La Pierre, Stokrocki, & Zimmerman, 2000); and significant monographs, books, and reports (for example, Smith, 2000). Other sources included the various publications of the National Art Education Association’s (NAEA) Research Commission (National Arts Education Association [NAEA], 1994, 1996, 1998). In addition, international journals were examined (for example, Canadian Review of Art Education; and the United Kingdom’s Journal of Art and Design Education), given that visual art education research has a long history in other parts of the world.