School Art in an Era of Accountability and Compliance: New Art Teachers and the Complex Relations of Public Schools

Abstract

Concern regarding the static nature of school art curricula has caused some higher educators to question what happens when graduates of art education programs transition from being preservice teachers associated with the university to in-service teachers working in schools. Why is it that graduates do not seem to be fulfilling their roles as the change-makers many hope they will be? In this article, I offer insights gleaned through work with new, in-service art teachers in a qualitative research study to suggest that school art practices as implemented by beginning art teachers are shaped in part by forces of accountability and compliance that are pervasive in current school contexts. My analysis attempts to shift the focus of concern from the individual actions of beginning art teachers to the regulatory nature of the audit culture in public schools and its productive effects with regard to school art.