Reimagining a Visual Arts Curriculum Through Relational Inquiry

• In Event: Transforming Arts Education: Meaningful Curriculum, Pedagogy, and Professional Development in and Through the Arts

Abstract

The authors propose a visual arts curriculum that is reconceptualized through the intersection of contemporary art practices, relational aesthetics, postproduction, curriculum studies, and inquiry methods such as arts based research and qualitative bricolage. Drawing from Author #1’s work as a practicing artist and from a recent participatory research study in a public secondary art classroom, the authors weave conceptual and theoretical perspectives of a relational inquiry to form an emergent visual arts curricular frame. Such a frame is articulated through a conceptual interpretation of the data, which includes artifacts and narratives created by the student and teacher research participants. The authors argue that a critical relational inquiry extends current art curriculum discourse from conversations about content to conversations about engagements.

Authors

• Daniel T. Barney, Brigham Young University

• Nadine M. Kalin, University of North Texas