Given the arts' power to transform education (Eisner, 2004; May & Benner, 2016; United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization [UNESCO], 2011), the author build a case, as an art teacher educator living in Pakistan, to consider the critical role that the arts could play in rebuilding Pakistan's fragmented secondary education…

Dewey (1934) defined reflection as "the kind of thinking that consists in turning a subject over in the mind and giving it serious and consecutive consideration" and argued that reflective thought should be an educational aim. Today the importance of reflective thought for students, teachers, and teacher candidates is recognized. Within…

Academic disciplines are often seen as separate fields of study with little in common, when in reality they are interconnected through a multitude of complex nuances. In this article, the authors discuss how the barriers between academic disciplines have been broken down through integrated and interdisciplinary visual arts practices. They also…

What's funny about art--and why should art educators care? Art historians, critics, and artists are now taking a closer look at art that generates a laugh. This has particular relevance for art educators who seek to direct student engagement in new and exciting areas and embrace artworks that generally fall outside of the art school…

In this article, John Derby examines "The Colbert Report" as a complex visual culture phenomenon that is highly relevant to young art learners, and offers curricular strategies that build on the show's Web content (www.colbertnation.com). As media studies scholar Baym (2010) has argued, "The Colbert Report" represents a…

A primary goal of substantive art education is to communicate visually--to decipher art for meaning and to construct meaning through images and objects. Strategies available to engage students are the interdisciplinary activities found in performance, visual and written forms of creative expression, and related disciplines such as ethnography,…

Rooted in graffiti culture and its attitude toward the world, street art is regarded as a postgraffiti movement. Street art encompasses a wide array of media and techniques, such as traditional spray-painted tags, stickers, stencils, posters, photocopies, murals, paper cutouts, mosaics, street installations, performances, and video projections…

Reviews the traditional approach to ceramics education that focuses on studio-based, formalist curriculum and Modernist concerns. Argues for a comprehensive, or contextual, ceramics education in high school classrooms that would include contextual information about ceramic objects. Discusses example ceramic objects by various artists. (CMK)

Describes the different types of graffiti: (1) private forms of graffiti (doodling and latrinalia); and (2 public forms (gang graffiti, tags, and pieces). Uses teenage psychology to interpret adolescents' involvement in graffiti. Examines graffiti art in relation to its educational implications for secondary art education. (CMK)

Examines the "picture study" movement which began in the late 1800s and faded during the 1920s. Focuses especially on the work of Oscar Neal, a leading picture study advocate. Attempts to show how the aesthetic theory, beliefs about art, social assumptions, educational limitations, educational beliefs, and technology of the time interacted to make…

Presents four lesson plans that use paintings, illustrations, and photographs that tell a story. The lessons consider the use and characteristics of narrative. Includes work from, "The Book of Deeds of Alexander the Great," as well as the works of Georges de La Tour, Eileen Cowin, and Henry Ossawa Tanner. (MJP)

Examines Richard Avedon's photographic exhibit "In the American West" both as a work of art and as an important link to contemporary philosophical thought, particularly that of Jean-Paul Sartre, through its depiction of the human condition. Notes that the exhibit used as a teaching resource engages students in questions concerning art…

A Dutch art educator considers some aspects of a Dutch art curriculum. (Author/RK)

This article describes six types of photographs: (1) descriptive; (2) explanatory; (3) interpretive; (4) ethically evaluative; (5) aesthetically evaluative; and (6) theoretical. Notes that these categories overlap and that a photograph will fit into several categories simultaneously. (JDH)

Characterizes much of the current postmodernist art design as capricious and self-indulgent. Explicates three fundamental concepts from the modernist school: a notion of order; clarity of form and space; and significant contrast. Criticizes current design for its emphasis on novelty and systematic violation. (MJP)