Social Reconstructionism in Art Education

ISBN-13: 9783639051926 / Angielski / Miękka / 2008 / 200 str.

Sheng Kuan Chung

Opis

Social reconstructionist art education strives to empower human agency to understand and transform unjust social relationships through aesthetic experience. Scholarly work in art education conduc­ted with respect to social reconstructionism has been largely theore­tical.This study thus investigated the manner in which junior high students understand, interpret, and act upon a social reconstructionist art curriculum. Specific research questions included: 1) what kinds of artistic and verbal expression were generated by students as they engaged in social issues-based art inquiry? 2) to what extent are their visual and verbal artifacts reflective of social reconstructionist posi­tions? Social reconstructionist art education has significant potential for empowering students to examine contemporary issues and be­come informed citizens capable of confronting unjust social relation­ships. However, to promote art education for social betterment, art educators must reconceptualize the field of art education and move beyond appreciating art as a form of aesthetic construct. Several re­commendations concerning future implementation of social recon­structionist art education are drawn.

O autorze

Chung, Sheng Kuan Sheng Kuan Chung teaches at the University of Houston. He has a B.Ed. from National Hsinchu Teachers College, Taiwan, an MA from New York University and a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. His research interests include social reconstructionist art education (visual/media culture and social issues) and Asian aesthetics.