Abstracts Education

Diveristy at hand: a study of teacher perceptions of multicultural art education principles and practices

by Herbert Daniel DeFoor

Multicultural visual art education varies widely across the nation,both in quantity and quality. Models of art education difer in their level of commitment to the presentation of multicultural content, as well as the purposes for including that content. We can theorize that efective teachers want to utilize a variety of content, techniques,and outcomes in their classrooms, but to what extent do classroom practices reflect the dominant multicultural perspectives and priorities of the scholarly literature of art education? The primary purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between scholarly writing on multicultural art education and the perceptions of K-12 visual art teachers. Qualitative research methods were used to identify a sample population and to colect,analyze,and report data on the perspectives and practices of 14 K-12 visual art teachers regarding seven multicultural art education topics: 1)curriculum ,content,and resources,2)art education, political action, and social reform, 3)aesthetics, 4)Western and non-Western artistic traditions, 5)the cultural contexts of objects and artifacts, 6)teacher training, and 7)cultural contexts of teachers and learners. A case study approach was employed for the study. A cross-case summary of the data was compared to the professional literature on multicultural art education to determine points of congruence and incongruence between multicultural art education theory and teachers’ perspectives and practices. Implications of the study for teacher preparation program s,for practicing visual art teachers, for the profession of art education, and for art advocacy are presented in the last chapter. The imlications include concerns for preserving the cultural contexts of objects and artifacts, increasing teacher awareness of cultural influences on artistic and aesthetic preferences, and establishing the role of multicultural social issues in visual arti nstruction. Multiculturalart education’s contribution to helping teachers and students accommodate the diversity of the classroom is also discussed.