| This study explores what constitutes best practice in art education in the museum, community, school and university, as defined by art educators who have received awards for distinguished practice and service by the National Art Education Association (NAEA). I interviewed four NAEA-recognized art educators using qualitative ethnographic methods. Reviewing Dewey's "Art as Experience" and "Experience and Nature" as the theoretic lens, I also explored recent scholarship from NAEA-published journals. Based on the NAEA literature, it was apparent that the profession of art education is in transition, with the modernist values of the past being challenged by the postmodern present. Dewey's understanding of the place and importance of art in everyday life and contemporary society provides a conceptual bridge between these polarities. Through interpretation and analysis of the themes that emerged from the interviews, a portrait of "best practice" across the field of act education was illuminated, as practiced by four NAEA-recognized art educators. |
