Discipline-Based Art Education: An Old Idea Whose Time Has Come Again? An Annotated Bibliography.

Overview & Synopsis

Art education in the United States has constantly sought some degree of reinforcement of purpose throughout its history. By closely examining some of the experiences of the past, insights into the validity of a discipline-based approach to art education should emerge. Such knowledge should enlighten the profession, so that rational and valid decisions, based on sound research and thoughtful consideration, may be made for the future. This study shows that while child-centered curriculum has dominated art educational practice since the 1940s, recent concern with the lack of focus and intellectual challenge in art education has generated a new examination of the purpose of art education. Discipline-based art education, as proposed by the Getty Center for Education in the Arts, is one means of accomplishing this reversion. The annotations section of this paper is presented in two parts. Part 1 reviews the literature pertaining to selected early elements of subject-centered art education (29 citations). Part 2 reviews research on aesthetic education as the problematic sub-discipline of discipline-based art education (15 citations). In the concluding section, it is recommended that research be continued in these areas so that a consensus among art educators can be reached, and advocacy for increased art education nurtured. (PPB)