Art Education - Case Study Example

I. INTRODUCTION Philosophy of arts education is the philosophical study of the purpose, process, nature and ideals of art education. Philosophy of art education can be considered a branch of both philosophy and art education. The multiple ways of conceiving art education coupled with the multiple fields and approaches of philosophy make philosophy of art education not only a very diverse field but also one that is not easily defined. Although there is overlap, philosophy of art education should not be conflated with educational theory, which is not defined specifically by the application of philosophy to questions in education. The existence of the differences of arts in each culture, in its broadest understanding, provides the evidence for the plurality of the diverging approaches and understanding to arts education. Being such, arts education has entered into an era where the meaning of arts is no longer attached to a reality outside human experience. But that its meaning is now re-connected to the story and integrity of life’s context - the bringing back of arts in the day to day life- is the challenge (Atkinson, 2006; Young, 2001). And it is in this situation that this paper responds. This paper intends to look into philosophy of arts education. However, as the scope of philosophy of arts education is wide and broad, the paper will limit its assessment to the schism between the modern approach and the postmodern approach. As such, the focused questions that this paper will try to address are: 1. What is the schism between the modern approach and the postmodern approach in the philosophy of arts education? 2. How is the postmodern approach responding to the contemporary challenge to arts education? In order to address these questions, the electronic databases Academic Research Premier and ERIC were searched using a combination of the following key terms: philosophy, arts, education, and arts education. Articles written only in English and published from the period of 1998 till 2008 were selected. Articles that provided an analysis of the modern and post modern approach to art education were included in the selection. Furthermore, there are certain assumptions that are used in writing this paper. These assumptions are: first, arts and education taken separately are tools which continue to shape and redefine humanity’s understanding of what it takes to be human. And second, the area under discussion which is arts education attempts to answer the question what is a human person. Moreover, the paper uses for its working definition of arts the characterisation that art is supposed to be truth disclosing, truth determining rather than just mere explanations of sensations and feelings (Young, 2001). Though the chosen definition is broad and vague; since it fails to provide a clear delineation of art compared with other branches of knowledge, nevertheless, it provides a clear purpose and objective for the pursuit of art. Thus, the definition chosen sets the parameter with which arts maybe understood – it is truth disclosing. While art education is to be understood as the “need to engage with the way art practices are embedded in socio-cultural matrices constituted by ‘knowing how’ and ‘knowing that”(Cunliffe, 2005: 207). As such, the chosen definition of art education links the understanding of art education with the contemporary demands and appreciation of the subject matter. The significance of this study is anchored on the following suppositions: First, art education is an important aspect in a person’s development more especially in a child’s social and academic development. Second, arts help in the development of the creative thinking of the person which enables the person in becoming independent and autonomous decision – maker. Third, arts education help the person develop social skills that develop tolerance for differences and patience in the midst of challenges and difficulties. Fourth, arts and arts education provide the language with which communication is no longer limited to verbal and bodily language but it cuts across perceptible language barriers. Fifth, arts education creates the common human aesthetic experience that can be shared and opened with others. Sixth, in arts education arts is shown as a continuum wherein perception of art and making of art is undistinguishable. Finally, seventh, in arts education the person is allowed to enter into subjective aesthetic experience at the same time provides us a glimpse of the community or a class sharing a similar aesthetic experience. Being such, the structure of the paper will be: first part is the discussion of the schism between modern approach and the post modern approach. The second part will be dealing with the assessment of the post modern approach with focus on the following notions: the extent of the philosophical approach, the concept underlying the philosophical approach, the rationale behind the choice of the philosophical approach, the strengths and the limitations or contradictions with the adopted approach and the possible methodological implications for the actual research. And the third part will be the conclusion. II. ARTS AND ARTS EDUCATION: THE SCHISM BETWEEN MODERN APPROACH AND POSTMODERN APPROACH Long before the modern and postmodern schism in the arts, Plato in The Republic has noted already the power of arts to influence, define and shape a person’s perception of things around him in particular and of the world in general. This known and accepted power of the arts raises question regarding the morality and immorality of the arts (Allen, 2002). And the question becomes more important in the contemporary period as art is now also appreciated as a form of entertainment (Allen, 2002). The question regarding the morality or immorality of the arts is touched discussed because it marks the distinction between the modern approach and the post modern approach in arts education. In art history, modernism is the period that succeeded Romanticism. If the period of romanticism is marked by artistic, intuitive, and creative force coming from the artist who, in turn, manifest it through the arts (Cary, 1998), modernism, on the other hand, is characterised by rigorous adherence to observation, scientific experimentation and objectivity provided by reason (Cary, 1998; Merleau- Ponty, 1962). These features of modernism are pervasive not only in the arts but in all fields of knowledge. The epistemological view as articulated by A.J. Ayer (1936) in his book Language, Truth and Logic, succinctly elucidated the foundation of modernism which is the claim that all knowledge claims that are not verifiable in the same or similar manner that scientific claims are verifiable should be relegated as pseudo-knowledge and should be treated with least concern and relegated in the periphery in the quest for knowledge. This supposition holds that articulations in philosophy, theology, arts, history and literature are not as significant as scientific knowledge since this kind of knowledge, including arts, is highly speculative and unverifiable (Ayer, 1936). In response to demands of modernism, modernism in arts has focused on objectivity. This is signified by the modernist belief on the objectivity of reality (Cary, 1998). This belief has weighty repercussion in the arts. Since, a painting is no longer viewed as representing the world, but that on its own a painting or picture can objectively stand separated from the reality of human experience (Grierson, 2007; Cary 1998). The work of arts validation is independent of the world out there, “For Cezenne, art created its own reality. The physical properties of the art object itself became the compelling interests. The art object became decontextualized. Its value is intrinsic, independent of the world” (Cary, 1998: 18). Thus, modernism in art centres on the formal properties- texture, surface, colours, style and the likes- rather than on the content of the art. In this sense, it can be claimed that modernism in arts has two fundamental attributes. First, modernism in art has created a world of art independent of the external reality that it is supposed to be representing. Its validity does not rely on whether it gives a good representation of the world; rather, its validity rests whether the formal features of the art cohere (Cary, 1998). And the second fundamental attribute of modernism in art is the explanation of the aesthetic experience using the understanding derived from the onservation of causal relations in human behaviours (Cary, 1998). And, as art is removed from the reality of human existence, question of morality and immorality becomes immaterial and insignificant; since art does not touch human reality anymore, for it has created its own reality. These facets of modernism in arts have evoked responses from scholars who hold that arts cannot be separated from human experience. And that to remove it from the subjective condition of the human person is to reduce art to nothing (Heidegger,1993; Dewey,1934; Merleau – Ponty,1962). And now, enters postmodernism in arts. Postmodernism in arts is shift of paradigm that brings back the arts right into the centre of human activities, human realm. This move in itself transforms the formalism of the modern art into a postmodern appreciation of arts that is re-integrated into the subjective condition (Cary, 1998). The view of postmodernism in arts recognises that art is connected to all facets of human existence and arts’ interrelatedness with other aspects of humanity seeks “engagement with the past and present world of art” (Cary, 1998: 31). Furthermore, postmodern conception of art holds that meaning and symbols that are used by human persons in their interactions with one another is a social construct created by society, by human beings themselves. As such, to claim that arts have a reality that is not in the world of human persons, as the moderns have claimed, is to create an illusion and a misappropriation of humanity’s creativity. Likewise, as postmodernism affords a new approach in arts education, it is defined by its recognition and respect for the plurality of voices in the public arena (Hill, 2006; Cary, 1998). It does not hold that there is only one conception of beauty and one way to reach, achieve and understand it. Rather it holds that beauty, meaning and even truth are social constructs and that knowledge of which is not an exclusive domain of one field or approach but that in itself multivariate. Thus, postmodernism in arts and arts education is a call to undertake a search for the understanding of beauty and truth which is knowledge based on subjectivity, a result of social construct and a knowledge that is not free from power relations and as such value laden (Atkinson,2006; Cary, 1998). And these aspects of postmodernism have brought forth the creation of critical art education (Cary, 1998). Moreover, postmodernism in arts produces a constant interaction between theory and practice (Esser-Hall, 2000). It seeks to provide the artist with the contextual frameworks with which the work of art can contribute to the wider perspective of the ongoing dialogue between the theory and the practice (Esser-Hall, 200). In this sense, it can even be claimed that the artist’s life becomes the arena where the creative production of the art work and the contemplation of the aesthetic experience are unified (Constantino, 2004). In light of this, postmodernism denies the validity of the divide between the artist and the object, the object of art and the subject of art, the teacher of art and the student of art. Thus, postmodern art freely combines and configures old elements and new elements of art to create new possibilities (Cary, 1998). And these new possibilities in the art are all drawn and attached from human experience, made more to the point by the aesthetic experience which is intensified and broadened by theory (Hill, 2006; Esser- Hall, 2000). Being such, postmodernism presents the ideal that theory and practise are both of equal weight in the presentation and creation of the work of art. Thus, art education needs to come up with a system that can balance theory and practise in art. In the same manner, as postmodernism acknowledges the integral role of the human experience in the expression of the arts, it likewise recognises the centrality of the concept of the body as being in the world (Merleau- Ponty, 1962; Dewey, 1934). This framework is of vital importance as it redefines the relation of the human body to the world. The redefinition of the connection of the human body points to the wisdom of the body in all its naturality, making the body an integral part of the world itself (Merleau-Ponty, 1962). It is not removing the body from the realm of the experience but that it is acknowledging that the body has its own way of presenting the world in itself Being such, postmodernism reallocates the aesthetic value from the formal and stylistic perspective back to the person who undergoes the aesthetic experiences. Thus, postmodernism in art becomes “the encounter of art and its definition and experience as art by the particular person constitutes the locus of the aesthetic value” (Cary, 1998: 36). And as such, postmodernism in art and art education inject back the question of morality and immorality of arts as postmodernism situates arts in the midst of human activities, human realm, human experiences. III. POSTMODERNISM IN ARTS EDUCATION: AN ASSESSMENT Art education definitely adopts Philosophy not only because it helps in clarifying, identifying and defining the concepts which are necessary in the study of the arts like the concepts of taste, beauty, judgment, senses, feelings and other similar philosophical concepts. More than that, the philosophical discussion opens the venue where the possibility of sharing and opening to the community the value and beauty of a particular work of art becomes a genuine ongoing dialogue among the members of the community. This is to show that when a teacher in arts presents Mozart to the class, it is not to impose to the class the teacher’s personal belief that Mozart is good; but it is to offer arguments to the listening class, to the community, that listening to Mozart is beneficial to the community as a whole (Freedman, 2003). Art education’s utilisation of philosophy moves beyond conceptual analysis which is the traditional valuation of philosophy. For together with philosophy, art education creates the framework with which “art makes people better not worse” (Allen, 2002: 22). And as art education responds to the contemporary demand of finding the limit where unity in the midst of plurality is attained, and where diversity is recognised, respected and accepted as a point where the possibility of interaction and connection becomes the link of and to knowledge. In this regard, postmodernism approach becomes the viable methodology that can accommodate the pluralist reality of the contemporary condition of art education. Going for postmodernism in art education entails the following rationale: Postmodernism is the theory that can account and accommodate the global, pluralist community. Postmodernism is suitable for the global, pluralist community since inbuilt in postmodernism is the recognition, respect and authentic acceptance of diversity which is natural in the human world (Grierson, 2007). Postmodern Theory challenges the concept of objective knowledge or view (Cary, 1998). This is significant as the contemporary world thrives in the multiplicity of perspectives and approaches to knowledge and even truth (Hill, 2006) The demand of the going back to the person as the centre of aesthetic experience (Cary, 1998) can definitely be addressed by postmodern theory as postmodernism itself calls for the subjective return to the human condition in the pursuit of knowledge and of the good life (Merleau-Ponty, 1962). Contemporary articulation on art demands the balance between theory and practise (Esser-Hall, 2000), postmodern theory as part of its tenet holds that it should be an encounter between the art and its definition and the particular experience of the individual person of the art. Finally, postmodernism rises to the challenge of art as historically embedded in a specific community (Cunliffe, 2005). And the postmodern response to this is the integration of the socio-cultural perspective in the created “matrices that constitute knowing how and knowing that” (Cunliffe, 2005: 207) Although some arguments are provided in the choice of postmodern theory for art education, there are certain strengths and limitations and even internal inconsistencies that may influence the application of postmodern theory to art education. Postmodern theory’s strengths include: The recognition of the integral role of experience in the arts, and as such, it opens windows for students experience to be an authentic door for aesthetic experience and aesthetic value.(Hill, 2006) Post modern theory in art education recognizes the importance of past and old scholarships in the understanding of the present context of arts but it does not shy away from criticising and challenging existing theories and scholarly works. (Atkinson, 2006). Postmodernism makes room for the combination and configuration of old elements of arts with the newer and more diverse elements of contemporary arts (Cary, 1998). Postmodernism laid down the foundation of critical art pedagogy (Cary,1998; Grierson,2007). Postmodernism in art education opens art to the whole society. As the locus of aesthetic value is the individual experience, the masses “which prefer the real”(Young, 2001:12) can claim their aesthetic experience as valid without the subculture social elite dictating and validating the masses’ aesthetic judgment and value. As postmodern theory in art education has its own strengths, it also has its own limitations. These are: Postmodern theory shows flaws of existing theories of art. This is good in itself. But after the deconstruction, the individual is left alone to decide that which is good from not good. And this is problematic as the human person is shaped and moulded by varying factors and conditions in life. The need to come up with a common value is still necessary if the aim is to attain authentic artistic freedom. (Coleman, 1998) As postmodernism theory in art education attempts to find the balance between theory and practise, reality is that it is not as easy as it seems. The attempt to find the balance is influenced by socio-political and economic factors and the need to raise people’s aesthetic awareness is necessary (Smith, 2005). Postmodernism holds the centrality of the concept of body in the arts. But it fails to address the commodification of the human body which is very perceptible in the 21st century medicine under cosmetic surgery. Another concern that maybe of important ramification in the postmodern theory in art education is the possibility of the presence of inconsistencies or muddles or contradictions in the philosophical approach; the question is, are there? The difficulty of postmodern theory in arts education is basically the weighing and balancing of all the compounding factors that are necessary in presenting a holistic paradigm in the creation of meaning, interpretation, understanding, analysis and construction of the work of art (Coleman, 1998; Cary, 1998). Furthermore, the challenge of finding balance between the individual and the community is also a gargantuan problem in postmodern theory (Coleman, 1998). Being such, though there are no perceptible logical contradictions and inconsistencies in postmodern theory, the hurdles that it has to surmount as it tries to strike the balance between the individual and the community (Coleman, 1998) and the equilibrium of all the other factors such as socio- economic- political and cultural dynamics of the society is a humongous feat that requires the cooperation of all stakeholders. Cary (1998) has listed down some implications of postmodern theory to arts education. These are: Production Explore non-traditional materials and construction methods Explore alternative art forms and the art forms of different cultural groups Question the primacy of art fundaments Aesthetics Question the basis for the archive and the instructional practises of downloading experts’ opinions as exclusive content of art classes. Focus on student experience of encountering art work and the formation of meaning and value judgment about it. Open the question of the relationship between the symbol and the symbolized to multiple interpretations Interrogate the assumption that that aesthetic value is located in the art object Let meaning join beauty at the centre of aesthetic discourse Art History Interrogate official versions written by old white men and invite new voices to propose different account of change in art Question the assumptions of traditional art history Look for postmodern theme such as connectedness, multiplicity in art and its relation to society Art Criticism Construct a dialogue about the value of a particular work in the context of an individual’s experience of it Question the criteria for the value in art Question the rules with which someone becomes eligible to act as an art critic___________________ SOURCE: Cary (1998: pp 44 – 45) To apply postmodern philosophy in arts education, the following is an example of an arts curriculum on dance. In the curriculum it can be seen that theory and practise are both studied. And that the context where the art of dancing is happening becomes a means of communication and understanding. Module 1: Knowing the principles and processes of performing dance Module 2: Identifying and demonstrating elements of performing dance Module 3: Seeing performing dance as a means of communication Module 4: Performing dance as relational Module 5: Performing dance and its connection with other disciples IV. CONCLUSION Post modern theory in art education provides the arena where the person or the subjective condition of both the viewer and the artist become the locus of the aesthetic experience as the person encounters art, its object and definition. Post modernism does not provide panacea for the ills of human judgment and valuation. It has its own limitations and hurdles to overcome. However, post modernism in art education opens the arena where human aesthetic experience, again, becomes the parameter for the validity of art and on how it represents the world. In the end, as the benefits of art education abounds in terms of developing creativity, social skills, decision-making and aesthetic judgment and valuation, the continuous effort to develop and enhance aesthetic awareness should be pursued by each person in particular and by society in general. REFERENCES: Ayer, A.J. (1936). Language, Truth and Logic. London: Gollancz. Allen, J.S. (2002). Plato: The morality and immorality of art, Arts Education Policy Review, Vol.104, No 2, pp 19 – 26. Atkinson, D. (2006). What is art in education? New narratives of leaning, Educational Philosophy and Theory, doi: 10.1111/j.1469-5812.2006.00229.x, pp 108 – 119. Cary, R. (1998). Critical art pedagogy: Foundations for postmodern art education. New York: Garland. Coleman, E. (1998). 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