The effects of violent media fare upon young people are of great concern for educators and parents alike. Recently, some visual art educators have attempted to deal with the issue under the rubric of visual culture. Adopting a critical position toward media violence, they have developed programs that attempt to encourage in their students a view…

Background/Context: New technologies have been largely absent in arts education curriculum even though they offer opportunities to address arts integration, equity, and the technological prerequisites of an increasingly digital age. This paper draws upon the emerging professional field of "media arts" and the ways in which youth use new…

For many North Americans, tattoos reflect hopes, values, or beliefs and act as vehicles to communicate those beliefs to others. For some, tattoos offer a means to reclaim a sense of ownership and control over their body. Tattoos are particularly popular with teenagers who explore their identity through experimentation with their outward…

The author contends that by reclaiming their own valuable connection to reflective artistic experience and reception, aesthetic theory and art education can contribute to a reconceptualization of autonomy and critique and, perhaps more importantly, to a reorientation of educational practice. Adorno's aesthetics is exceptionally relevant to this…

A new movement has appeared recommending, in part, that the field of art education should lessen its traditional ties to drawing, painting, and the study of masterpieces to become the study of visual culture. Visual cultural study refers to an all-encompassing category of cultural practice that includes the fine arts but also deals with the study…

Since the mid-1980s, arts policymakers in Minnesota have positioned "media arts"--defined as the "study and practice of examining human communication through photography, film or video, audio, computer or digital arts, and interactive media"--within the realm of aesthetic education and considered it one of six arts areas. This…

"Art and Social Justice Education" offers inspiration and tools for educators to craft critical, meaningful, and transformative arts education curriculum and arts integration projects. The images, descriptive texts, essays, and resources are grounded within a clear social justice framework and linked to ideas about culture as commons. Essays and a…

In this response to Arthur Efland's article, "The Entwined Nature of the Aesthetic: A Discourse of Visual Culture" ("Studies in Art Education," 2004, 45(3), 234-251), the author acknowledges that Efland's attempt to find a middle ground between two rival versions of art education--aesthetic education and visual culture--is both welcome and needed.…

In this article, we explore changing definitions of kitsch and simultaneously examine the relevance of kitsch to contemporary society. Using a number of examples, including a focus on kitsch related to September 11, 2001, we explore the current popularity of kitsch in society. We analyze the growth and influence of kitsch in everyday life and in…

This article examines positions in favor of the inclusion of popular culture in an education curricula by Vincent Lanier, June King McFee, Laura Chapman, and Brent and Marjory Wilson. It is argued that their work, both individually and collectively, focused on the realm of the everyday and helped posit popular cultural images as legitimate objects…

The term globalization has come into popular use in many areas of discourse. For the most part, it refers to the development of global financial markets, the growth of transnational corporations, and their increasing domination over national and local economies. As the authors use the term in this article, the meaning and significance of…

Studying imagery, irrespective of the kind, must focus equally upon its aesthetic attractiveness, its sensory lures, and its oftentimes dubious social ideology. The terms "aesthetic" and "ideology" are addressed as problematic and are defined in current, ordinary language terms: aesthetics as visual appearances and their effects and ideology as a…

In contemporary society, what, why, and how students come to gain knowledge and understandings of art defies traditional boundaries. In part, this is because of the prevalence of many forms of popular visual culture. In this article, the authors present three vignettes that demonstrate the ways in which three young children created connections…

It is time for new ideas and models for art education. Current developments in contemporary art, learning theory and in art education itself demand new approaches and provide inspiration and guidance for change. Each area brings particular components to the table but they all have one primary element in common: a call for art education that is…

Examines a range of art educators' proposals to include popular culture within the general art curriculum. The proposals are based on four basic social theories: (1) liberal humanism; (2) two variants of liberal pluralism; (3) and Neo-Marxism. Concludes by emphasizing the need for Neo-Marxist theory in the school setting. (BSR)