Different and competing conceptions of knowledge have recently been the focus of debate in education, especially art education. The cognitive science conception of knowledge as information processing and storage in long-term memory is especially prominent in educational policy. By contrast, within writing that is directly about art education,…

Although the art historical canon has been the subject of fierce debate, it remains an essential construct, shaping textbooks and survey courses. Visual representations of the canon often illustrate these narratives. Students encounter diagrams in their studies and it is important to make them aware of the illusion of scientific objectivity. This…

This paper reviews one of the first systematic programs in the history of art, developed in 1877 by P.V. Pavlov (1823-1895), professor of history at the University of St. Vladimir in Kiev. It is stressed that P. Pavlov's program is a rare case of preserving the original curriculum of educational courses developed by Russian art historians of the…

Dissent has its own special place in art education. It has two stereotypical, polarized faces. The first is a classical institution modelled on Italian and French academies. As official places, they aimed at elevating art to the rank of science and making it an expression and instrument of power. The opposite image of the school is an oasis of…

This article explores some of the complexities of teaching art and design history to students in a Design Extended Curriculum Programme at a university of technology in the context of post-1994 South African society--a society troubled by the ghosts of colonial and apartheid histories that agitate the present/future. Tracking a series of…

This essay offers a broad look at the way critique as a mode, method, and attitude in post-war art history research and teaching intersects with occurrences of critique in humanities scholarship and teaching generally, but also how distorted forms of critique occur in contexts outside the academic field. The essay outlines concerns raised by…

As policymakers and other stakeholders continue to intensify their questions and critiques of art history's place in the higher education curriculum in the United States (U.S.), researchers have not pointedly addressed its place in the K-12 curriculum. How has art history been incorporated into K-12 art classrooms in the past, and how is it being…

Art and design students in higher education often prioritize design skills over written communication. With the opportunity to restructure courses around increased asynchronous flexibility arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, the author of this manuscript (who is also the course instructor) has developed a hybrid-blended course design in the art…

This paper seeks to re-evaluate the pedagogical and curricular influence of Fluxus artists who have been under addressed in curriculum studies scholarship. Between the late 1950s and early 1970s this group of avant-garde artist-pedagogues experimented with new ways to think about curriculum and pedagogy in institutes of higher education and in…

In connecting personal stories with historical and cultural contexts, art becomes more accessible. We have integrated into this article our family stories that connect our personal experiences, historical, social, and cultural contexts with artmaking. They frame their family stories as "funds of knowledge," or knowledge and skills…

This article investigates the ways in which drawing is taught and assessed in post-16 UK schools and colleges, with a particular focus on A Level art and design courses. Through an historical survey of the development of syllabi and assessment methods, it traces how the role of drawing in the curriculum has changed over the past sixty years. From…

As museums strive to become more welcoming and accessible, house museums occupy complex positions. The Frick Collection's scale is more intimate than that of many art museums; the general stability of the installation renders the collection more familiar, and the taste on display is personal and idiosyncratic rather than authoritative. As…

The author--in the role of one teacher observing another--documented a spring 2021 remote introductory art history course during the COVID-19 pandemic when graduate student teaching assistants called a campus-wide strike. Forced to improvise, the professor replaced formal analysis papers and exams with an ungraded journal. Drawing from the content…

This essay explores two canonical installations at the Metropolitan Museum of Art: The Cloisters and African galleries in the Rockefeller wing. After providing a brief history of the formation of these collections and their display strategies, I analyze the effect of exhibition design for a visitor's judgments and impressions of the works of art.…

This is a personal reflection on an encounter with the works of the nineteenth-century painter J. M. W. Turner in London's Tate Britain exhibition "Late Turner: Painting Set Free". The article discusses the deeply subjective nature of engaging with artworks, and touches upon theories that might account for the ineffable but moving…