This volume contains papers presented at the 1997 meeting of the American Educational Research Association; many were presented as part of Arts and Learning programs. The papers gathered in the volume explore in a variety of ways the notions of space: artistic, cultural, domestic, personal, political, public, private, and virtual and how spaces may be viewed as a text for teaching and learning. Following a message from the Chair (L. A. Kantner) and a preface/introduction (S. R. Klein), the volume begins with these papers: "Experiencing Art, Self, and Others through Metaphor: Implications for Teacher Education" (C. S. Jeffers); and "Electronic Learning Communities and Art Education" (D. Krug). A section titled "The Semiotics of Space," organized by D. Smith-Shank, contains these papers: "Postmodern Museum Space" (R. M. Diket); "From Place to Space, Security to Freedom: Semiotics of Placelessness" (C. S. Jeffers); "Personal Spaces" (L. A. Kantner); "Semiotics, the World Wide Web, and Art Education" (M. Koos); "Personal Reliquaries as Signifying Spaces: Celebrating the Ordinary" (S. Myers); "Space for Women's Artwork within the Male Tradition" (D. Smith-Shank); "A Semiotic Analysis of Representations of Footbinding" (M. Wyrick); and "Reflections on Reflections on the Semiotics of Space" (G. Shank). Other papers are: "Creating an Atmosphere for Thinking: Art Museum Docents' Higher Thinking Abilities and Their Use of Questions and Directives during School Tours" (L. Wendling); "Vygotsky, Activity Theory and Art in Education" (J. D. Betts); "Have We Been Approaching Arts Education Backward?" (M. Goldberg); and "On the Importance of Research in Theatre/Drama Education: What is Research and What has it to do with Drama/Theatre Education?" (S. Schonmann). (BT)