SchoolArts: DBAE and multicultural art education in the United States of America

Abstract

This article discusses how articles written by art teachers in the magazine SchoolArts reflect developments in multicultural and discipline-based (DBAE) art education in the United States. SchoolArts, which has the largest readership of any art publication, reflects current classroom practices. Examining the articles in SchoolArts over a period of 33 years revealed that art teachers continue to teach multicultural art education based on the ‘additive approach’, which concentrates on cultural events that occur throughout a calendar year. Discipline-based art education has provided additional impetus for art teachers to write articles, in the form of lessons, about personal multicultural experiences. The article argues that, overall. articles on multicultural art in SchoolArts lack sufficient historical content and other pertinent information, thus missing the very goal teachers are trying to fulfil – to make the curriculum more culturally diverse.