Drawing from decolonial theories, I explore the history of art education in the Dominican Republic in the first half of the 20th century. I examine how racial hierarchies were activated in art classes in school through the romanticization of the countryside and the mystification of children's material culture. A distorted use of rural imagery…

The study explores the impact of critical reflection on visual communication design teaching for undergraduate programs in Pakistan. Critical reflection is a self-initiated thinking tool with practical implications to improve teaching and professional practices. The qualitative phenomenological research included teachers and practitioners from the…

There is a high interest for graphic design among the visual art disciplines in Ghana and several factors account for this. The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors that influence the preference for graphic design as the preferred visual art subject. To carry out this task, purposive sampling technique was employed to collect data…

This article discusses the use of an activity theory system as an analytical tool within the school art and design classroom. It highlights reasons for its use and makes explicit its importance for investigations into teaching and learning. It proposes that through an activity theory system, teachers and researchers are enabled to reflect on the…

Teacher opinions and discussions about Visual Culture Theory and Material Culture in art education are examined in this paper. Both approaches were compared and evaluated within their contents and fundamentals. Visual Culture Art Education (VCAE) in art education, specifically, has been criticized as having a "Neo-Marxist" or…

Sweden's Art and Music Schools (SAMS) have assumed some responsibility for facilitating refugee children's social inclusion. This article investigates how the inclusion of refugee children in SAMS is introduced by leaders as well as how the theme is constructed and addressed as a topic in policy documents (related to the national policy process…

Ideas about merit and the associated notion of a meritocracy have long been drawn upon to frame and understand a range of issues central to education policy. Little attention, however, is given to how in practice and through the workings of policy, meritocracy functions as an ideology that is struggled over by various social groups and pedagogic…

Late 19th-century Germany was shaped by industrialisation, technological progress, and urbanisation. Crises of modernisation resulted in a widespread criticism of civilisation that provided ground for the rise of numerous reform movements in various social contexts. They reacted to crises of their time by questioning established conventions,…

In this article, we tackle critical and socially engaged issues on Arctic visual culture (AVC) education in Finland, which are, in this article, considered culturally sensitive topics in Finnish art education. The article emerges from research interests in (1) place-specific issues in art teacher education, as they relate to the critical study of…

In this research article, Rubén A. Gaztambide-Fernández and Dominique Rivière examine the discursive frames that students and teachers in four specialized arts high schools in Toronto used in describing their schools as safe environments. The belief that arts high schools are safe is shared by students and teachers, particularly in relationship to…

The serious need for reform of the Leaving Certificate Art Curriculum in Ireland sets the context for this article, which tracks the social and political factors that shaped the emergence of art education in Ireland before and after the formation of the Free State. This historical framing creates the background for the training of art teachers…

Art educators have been promoting Community-Based Art Education (CBAE) in schools in order to enhance students' sense of socio-cultural identity and contextual learning about local art and culture. It cannot only bridge the gap between the students' daily lives and the communities and art, but can also enhance their inquiry, discovery and…

We consider the phenomenon of social interactions within the art museum, arguing that even the bare possibility of meeting others or intruding into their gaze can have a profoundly detrimental effect on art experience. This is done by tracing a finding from our previous studies in which we considered three museum galleries--each with the same…

The neoliberal turn in public education positions the parent as a consumer within an expanding educational marketplace. This shift is premised on the notion that the free market is best suited to promote equity. Critics of this claim highlight how a larger choice arena creates additional opportunities for privileged parents to mobilize their…

This case study uses discourse analysis to address contemporary practices in secondary school art education and in particular the intersection between what might be called formal and informal practices in students' artwork. The case study draws upon recent developments in theory around digital technology in education and informal learning to…