Visual Culture in Art Education

The theory and practice behind visual culture based art education is an interesting approach to teaching and engaging students in the visual arts. The three articles used to bring these theories to light and for review and reflection, encouraged and argued how crucial the use and importance of critical thinking, like other theories, is for students.
In the article The Disconnect Between Theory and Practice in a Visual Culture Approach to Art Education, Rebekka Herrmann cautions multiple times that visual culture art education if not carefully implemented thoughtfully considered may become “teacher directed without research or inquiry on the part of the student”, “the student is again forced into a teacher determined product”, or “Even though questioning and discussion occurs, the lesson is teacher directed and guided toward a particular end on which the artmaking project is based”.
I found some if not most Herrmann’s arguments contradictory. In placing responsibility into the hands of the students to discover an idea “worth investigating” requires the art teacher to have the knowledge and ability to LEAD discussions and engage students in a meaningful investigation. “They must also have enough knowledge of art history and contemporary art to present meaningful examples of artists who have dealt with similar issues in a variety of ways.” It would seem in her argument to “provide opportunities for investigation and research that can result in artmaking rather than focusing primarily on technical skill acquisition” is limited. Why can’t there also be skill acquisition? In her argument it seems that the art teacher still controls the outcome, which is ultimately the purpose of an educator, to instruct and teach. It seems her concerns are in the teacher’s control of ideas, and it is difficult to define, however I do agree that we need to empower the students with a more meaningful approach to the contemporary art world as she states.
The approach from Arthur D. Efland’s article, Problems Confronting Visual Culture, was a bit more palatable. Not wanting to divorce oneself completely from fine art studies (technical acquisition, art history, formalism), recognized again that “works of fine art play their principal role. They belong in the art education curriculum, not to give us aesthetic experiences, though they do that well, but to remind us of our human potential.” Authur also cautions that visual culture will experience growing pains like any new movement, in “its excessive breadth since the number of genres covered by programs in visual culture can be so enormous as to become unmanageable in the time allotted for teaching the arts”. He explained the postmodern era defined by Arthur Danto, “One zone is the art world where the fine arts serve as it’s main preoccupation, while the other regions include the mass media and the popular culture… Boundaries that once kept these zones apart have either disappeared or are in the process of erasure”. Acknowledgment of the changes that occur is extremely important, it would seem evermore important for a contemporary and future art educator to be well versed in art history.
Written in 1997, I found the article, Art Education for New Times, by Paul Duncum 
fascinating. I tried to place myself into the year 1997 and how technology affected my life personally. A mere three years earlier email was simply, a black screen, with white text. Duncum does not warn but informs readers that, “ it is crucial for art education to acknowledge that while visual communication survives, it has changed it’s form. Imagery is now infinitely more plentiful, pervasive, immediate, and ephemerial, than ever before. And proponents of the information highway promise a high level of interactivity.”
As discussed in our topics of advocacy, aesthetics, multiculturalism, and now visual culture the primary goal of education in the arts is to encourage critical thinking, while creating a structure in which creative learning can occur. In my instruction I embrace flexibility, willingness, and openness and search to find balance in theories that all seem to have some validity. We need to acknowledge the interrupting nature of visual/ mass media/ information highway noise and find a place for it in the education of art, but in balance with the foundation of art history, manipulation of materials, and critical thinking skills.

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