Visual Culture in Art Education, Circa 2009

Abstract

Abstract The article offers a personal view of the current status of visual culture in art education. The author argues that all the activity suggests that visual culture is now an art educational paradigm, though the great divergence of practice and understanding suggests it is a name only. Evidence suggesting the current paradigmatic nature of visual culture includes the number of publications and conference presentations on visual culture; reports of classroom activity; robust debate among proponents; outside criticism; and a sense that for many it has become naturalized as part of their accepted practice. At the same time the great divergence among this activity includes employing the term as though it continued primarily to mean traditional art forms and practices; only superficially related to popular culture; idea development without any specific content; a dialogic and critical inquiry pedagogy; an exclusive focus on deconstruction; deconstruction of one media and response in another media; and, finally, practices that emulate media education. The author concludes by claiming that visual culture in art education remains a work in progress.