International Journal of Art & Design Education

2017 - Volume 36: Number 1

An Autoethnographical Study of Culture, Power, Identity and Art Education in Post-Colonial South Korea (pages 9–20)

JEUNG, OK-HEE

VOL 36.1

This article reflects my experiences of learning art in the 1970s and 1980s and my teaching career in school art education in twenty-first century South Korea. This autobiographical reflection shows how I have struggled with my identity as an art teacher in the post-colonial context of Western influences on Korean society since World War II. There has been greater tension and a greater struggle for different values, practices and identities when new values and practices have been introduced into the particular socio-cultural context of South Korea. My struggles with particular kinds of pedagogic identity valued within the rapidly changing political, economic and cultural context of Western influences on Korean art education demonstrate the hidden structural mechanism of the relationship between culture, power and identity in the post-colonial world of globalisation. This study as an autoethnographical research provides critical insights into how identities are produced by pedagogic discourses and practices of art education that are constructed through the specific systems of practice and language which transmit and regulate such identities and values.

Keywords

autoethography, culture, power, identity, post-colonial world, art education

DOI: 10.1111/jade.12055

Bridging the Gap: A Manual Primer into Design Computing in the Context of Basic Design Education (pages 21–38)

SAFAK UYSAL, V and TOPALOGLU, FULDEN

VOL 36.1

Design education is in need of a wider restructuring to accommodate new developments and paradigmatic shifts brought forth by the information age, all of which capitalise a move towards complexity theory, systems science and digital technologies. The intention of this article is to approach one particular aspect of this need: that is, how basic design education can be reconsidered to establish the arguably broken link between the ‘learning by doing’ tradition of a Bauhaus-oriented basic design education with the computational and parametric logic necessitated by contemporary design technologies. The authors present the overall outlines of a basic design course as offered in Beykent University Department of Industrial Design in Istanbul, Turkey. The programme consists of a series of exercises grouped in five modules and two ‘binders’ that are structured to link the fundamental notions and operations of design thinking covered in basic design courses of the first year with the analytical and computational-reasoning competencies that are developed mostly in the later years of design education.

Keywords

basic design education, computational design, Bauhaus, computer aided design, learning by doing, industrial design

DOI: 10.1111/jade.12048

Feel the Fear: Learning Graphic Design in Affective Places and Online Spaces (pages 39–49)

NOTTINGHAM, ANITRA

VOL 36.1

This article explores the idea of pedagogic affect in both onsite and online graphic design learning spaces, and speculates on the role that this affect plays in the formation of the design student. I argue that embodied design knowledge is built by interactions with design professionals, activities that mimic the daily work of designers, and practices of display such as exemplar student work galleries within design schools. Therefore bodies in motion, and the places they move within, take on more importance in the making-up of a graphic design student than we may expect. This idea has obvious implications for online design learning.

Drawing on concepts from both Actor-Network Theory (ANT) and Non-Representational Theory (NRT), this article works three empirical instances of affect. The analysis presented is targeted towards exploring the contribution of affect to teaching in onsite and online learning spaces. As the practices described here carry through time and space to other design schools, the findings put forward have implications for a broad suite of practices in design education. Thinking through how affect plays out in the onsite design school points the way towards the creation of more vibrant online learning spaces.

Keywords

graphic design, affect, learning spaces, online learning, actor-network theory, non-representational theory

DOI: 10.1111/jade.12058

The Position of Museum and Gallery Educators in Spain: Some Paradoxes (pages 50–60)

AMENGUAL-QUEVEDO, IRENE

VOL 36.1

This article presents some of the reflections articulated in the author's doctoral thesis: Saberes y aprendizajes en la construcción de la identidad y la subjetividad de una educadora de museos: El caso del proyecto Cartografiem-nos en el museo Es Baluard. (Knowledge and learning in the construction of the identity and the subjectivity of a gallery educator: The case of ʻMapping ourselvesʼ at Es Baluard Museum), produced at the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Barcelona (2012). The author deals with the question of the professional development of museum and gallery educators, exploring some of the paradoxes that operate in the discourses and practices that surround this collective. The second part of the article is dedicated to demonstrating the knowledge and learning implicated in the experiences of museum and gallery educators. Offering a view from the inside of the professional sphere will serve to counteract more official descriptions, in which museum and gallery education is usually understood as an artisan profession which requires little training or qualifications. Finally, this article poses questions regarding the research of educational practice within the field of museums and galleries.

Keywords

museum ,gallery, education, professionalism, reseach

DOI: 10.1111/jade.12070

The Perfect Marriage? – Language and Art Criticism in the Hong Kong Public Examination Context (pages 61–70)

LAU, CHUNG-YIM and TAM, CHEUNG-ON

VOL 36.1

Art education in Hong Kong has undergone various changes in response to educational reform. In art assessment, a major change in the Hong Kong New Senior Secondary (NSS) Curriculum is the inclusion of art criticism as a compulsory component of the new public examination. Assessing students’ abilities to interpret art in an art criticism public examination context is a critical issue in Hong Kong because the new senior secondary curriculum and assessment has brought attention to the role of written language in the art examination paper. This means the examination assesses not only students’ abilities to interpret art, but also their language abilities required to respond to art in written form. Since this new mode of assessment of art criticism has been published a number of issues have appeared. Recent studies show that teachers and students perceive this development negatively and they believe that the written format will assess students’ written language abilities rather than their critical abilities. These findings challenge the justification of the new art assessment policy and raise questions about the role of written language in responding to art. This article aims to raise the issue of the marriage between language and art criticism in the Hong Kong public examination context. It argues and examines the relationship of language to art interpretation, reasoning in the assessment, and issues in the public art criticism examination context. The issues addressed in this article provide opportunities for researchers and policy makers to reconsider and refine the new form of examination.

Keywords

art assessment, art criticism, art interpretation, language, public examination

DOI: 10.1111/jade.12071

George Wallis (1811–1891) and Ernest Beinfeld Havell (1861–1934): Juxtaposing Historical Perspectives on Nineteenth-Century Drawing Books in England and India (pages 71–81)

KANTAWALA, AMI and DAICHENDT, G.JAMES

VOL 36.1

Drawing books can be seen as a vital component to teaching and learning art. They serve as an excellent resource for understanding the historical context of teaching drawing. As the industrial revolution geared forward in the nineteenth century, drawing books became a crucial source for sharing and disseminating educational philosophies for the teaching of drawing as well as understanding artistic practices. Serving many informal and traditional educational contexts, drawing books can be seen as evidence of how people learned or were taught. Although many accounts of teaching of drawing are known, little is documented about the many drawing manuals developed by art educators in England and its colonies, specifically India. This article examines nineteenth-century drawing books by George Wallis (1811–91) and Ernest Beinfeld Havell (1861–1934) and the subsequent influence of these books on art education in England and India. Through comparison between the different approaches of authoring these drawing books, one could argue that both Havell and Wallis pursued nationalistic and personal goals by juxtaposing the authoring styles of their books. It was evident that George Wallis’ authorship of his drawing books was grounded in his philosophy of education, appreciation for design education, and dedication to England. Havell's drawing books, on the other hand, attempted to provide students with the knowledge of Indian sculpture, architecture and painting thereby exposing them to India's artistic heritage as well as raising awareness about utilising Indian art as the basis of instruction at the Indian art schools as part of the larger Indian nationalist movement against British rule. Their histories cumulatively bring to print a specific account of drawing manuals used during the nineteenth century and their influence on the teaching and learning of drawing in England and India.

Keywords

George Wallis, E.B. Havell, drawing books, England, India, colonialism

DOI: 10.1111/jade.12073

A Fresh Theoretical Perspective on Practice-Led Research (pages 82–91)

HAWKINS, BARBARA and WILSON, BRETT

VOL 36.1

Practice-led research in art and design has now come of age and can take its place alongside other forms of research at the academic ‘high table’. It no longer needs to be treated with ‘special consideration’ as a new form of intellectual enquiry. The research craft developed by those involved in practice-led research admits them to a broader community of practice engaged in questioning the conceptual basis of how we perceive and make sense of the world around us. The objective/subjective divide that preoccupied an earlier generation of academics has eventually been replaced by a more nuanced epistemological framework able to embrace PhDs that include non-textual artefacts as part of their exposition. An increasing number of academic institutions around the world have taken up the debate and now participate in practice-led research programmes. However, for early-career researchers in these fields there are still many hurdles to overcome, some of which are unique to this form of endeavour, as we outline. This article has been developed from a series of seminars and workshops presented by the authors to early-career practice-led researchers as part of their Project Dialogue programme which seeks greater engagement between the arts and sciences.

Keywords

research, practice-led PhD, transdisciplinary, epistemology

DOI: 10.1111/jade.12074

Practice into Pedagogy into Practice: Collaborative Postcards from Hong Kong (pages 92–105)

ARCHER, CAROL

VOL 36.1

A collaborative postcard project completed by 22 students as part of a drawing course conducted at a university in Hong Kong is introduced. The project entailed inviting students into an art practice in which the author was herself engaged as a practitioner as well as a researcher. After introducing the educational context in which the project took place, the author provides an account – informed by ‘participant-observer’ feedback from students – of how the project unfolded and was experienced. In the second section of the article the creative and pedagogic efficacy of the project is considered with reference to the experience-centred and dialogic principles expressed in the educational philosophies of John Dewey, Simone Weil, Hannah Arendt and Paulo Freire. The third section draws on insights from scholars working in a range of disciplines – cultural history, anthropology, sociology and psychology – to argue that a particular set of organisational and collaborative dynamics catalysed students’ levels of engagement, creativity and motivation. The article argues that the collaborative postcard project is an example of an experience-centred and practice-based pedagogy that is founded on dialogue, mutual generosity and experimental play, and engenders in students the ‘quality of mental process’ that is, for John Dewey, ‘the measure of educative growth’.

Keywords

practice-based pedagogy, drawing, creativity, collaboration, dialogue

DOI: 10.1111/jade.12072

Design Pedagogy for an Unknown Future: A View from the Expanding Field of Design Scholarship and Professional Practice (pages 106–117)

WILSON, STEPHANIE ELIZABETH and ZAMBERLAN, LISA

VOL 36.1

This article draws on current research investigating the notion of design for an unknown future. It reflects on recent thinking about the role of creativity in design practice and discusses implications for the development and assessment of creativity in the design studio. It begins with a review of literature on the issues and challenges associated with the assessment of creativity in design education. It then discusses and distinguishes three significant assessment models in design and creative arts education and emphasises the importance of opening debate on notions of creativity within the discipline. Following this, the article examines recent developments in the way that creativity is being practised, driven, fostered and implemented in contemporary design practice, and argues that these recent developments must feature in current scholarship about the development and assessment of creativity in design education. The article recommends areas for future research that pay close attention to developments in the rapidly expanding field of design practice.

Keywords

creativity, assessment, design education, design pedagogy, design practice

DOI: 10.1111/jade.12076

Doodling Effects on Junior High School Students’ Learning (pages 118–125)

TADAYON, MARIAM and AFHAMI, REZA

VOL 36.1

The main purpose of this study was to assess the effects of doodling on the learning performance of high school female students in Tehran. The design of this research was a pre-test–post-test with a control group. A group of 169 junior high school 12–13 year-old students was chosen for this study. After being taught a section of the Natural Science course, the students were asked to answer questions related to the lessons. After that, their grades were used as the pre-test scores. The post-test was carried out after the devised treatment. During ten sessions of the same course and teacher, the students were each given a blank sheet of paper and were asked for doodling if they felt like doing it. After each session, a couple of relevant written questions were asked to evaluate how well students had learned the lessons. The experiment and control group both consisted of 27 randomly selected students; participants in the experiment group were doodlers and those in the control group did not doodle. To evaluate the doodling effect a t-test analysis was performed. Comparison of the grades showed that the experiment group outperformed the control group significantly.

Keywords

doodling, learning, educational performance, female adolescent, student 

DOI: 10.1111/jade.12081