Why Art Learning Matters: Parents' Perspectives on Outside-of-School Art Program

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 6
  In Roundtable Session: Approaches and Perspectives Surrounding Arts Learning

Abstract

Parents’ influence on their children is profound and lasting, and it shapes children’s values, interests in art, and opportunities for out-of-school art learning. Out-of-school art programs are popular options that serve students’ various forms of art learning beyond the formal art curriculum in school settings. When investigating young children’s art learning experiences within out-of-school art programs, scholars and educators primarily focus on the issues related to curriculum and learners and rarely address parents. Yet, parents are the gatekeepers who determine their children’s art learning opportunities. Therefore, this study adopts Bronfenbrenner’s social ecological theory, systematically investigating parents’ narratives of their micro- and macro-contexts and how those contexts shaped their experiences of placing their children in an outside-of-school art program.

Author

• Meng-Jung Yang, Northern Illinois University