Popular media such as films, television programmes/commercials and magazines have become the dominant source through which children learn about others and their world, develop attitudes and beliefs as manifested in media expressions, and formulate their sense of identity. Popular media have enormous influence on children who are constantly…

Beginning with an understanding of visual culture as a postmodern discourse, this article argues for more focused attention to how visual culture presents a critical rethinking of subjectivity within art education. Through an analysis of a language of bombardment, a discourse that positions the subject as bombarded by media messages, this article…

Discussing Ralph Smith's monograph EXCELLENCE IN ART EDUCATION: IDEAS AND INITIATIVES, the author criticizes the reliance on "classics" or "masterpieces" for art education. Stating that Smith's elitism is unbeneficial, Hobbs advocates a mixture of the classics and local and popular art with a disposition to interpret and…

Argues that excellence in art education is not elitist, but that commitment to excellence is a traditional democratic value. Elaborates by describing the nature of beneficial elitism. Concludes that a synthesis of beneficial elitism and beneficial populism are required for the success of art education in a democracy. (BSR)

Believes that Pop Art is one approach to the problem of involving students with their environment. (RB)

Within the sister fields of art and art education, we seem to be equally at sea in our efforts to establish priorities, reassess our values, and redirect our energies. (Author)

The author supports a nonvalue-laden acceptance and examination of the popular arts, and a better understanding of popular culture as an appropriate concern in art education. She suggests some groundwork for understanding and makes recommendations for the inclusion of the popular arts in the art curriculum. (Author/SJL)

Hauntology refers to spectral traces, phantom voices, and palimpsestic discourses that help construct a way of understanding ourselves and acting in the world. This essay explores the hauntological shifts within art education's struggle over popular (visual) culture through a review of positions that view popular culture as an embodiment of…

Media programs like hip-hop music videos are powerful aesthetic agents that inspire teenagers. Thus, they have tremendous influence on young people's identity formation, lifestyle choices, and knowledge construction which are manifested in the ways teens dress, express themselves, behave, and interact with each other. However, because of the…

The compelling career of the late Margaret Trowell and her efforts to infuse local cultures into the study of art in East Africa are discussed. Her chief concern was to make it plain that art is of the people and natural to the people. (RM)

Drawing on themes found in James Marshall's writings on Nietzsche, the arts and the self, this paper explores the nature of influence in the arts and its relevance to education. It considers what Harold Bloom has called the "anxiety of influence" and amplifies this in terms of broader questions concerning Emersonian self-reliance. The particular…

In this paper, the author describes popular visual culture as seductive, engaging the interest of children and adults because it is both complex and highly sophisticated in aesthetic terms. The author states his agreement with the proponents of a visual culture approach designed to broaden the content of art teaching beyond fine arts to include…

Distinguished international scholars from a wide range of disciplines (including curriculum studies, foundations of education, adult education, higher education, and consumer education) come together in this book to explore consumption and its relation to learning, identity development, and education. Readers will learn about a variety of ways in…

Reviews Ralph Smith's article "The Question of Elitism." Questions Smith's criteria for excellence and his assertion that art must be judged by a single, absolute scale. Argues that populism is pervasive in all aspects of American life and that elitism is deadening to culture. (BSR)

Teachers and students who are ethnographers and who study the artifacts and "visual sign making" of their own culture will learn to value and understand the arts, as well as to produce art that matters. (Author)