A descriptive study of the status of art education for older adults in higher education: An examination of attitudes and coursework

The purpose of this study was to determine the attitudes held by higher education art educators pertaining to art education for older adults and to investigate how art education curricula in colleges and universities are preparing students to teach art to older adults. A 21-item survey was distributed to 889 art education faculty members containing 13 Likert-type items relating to attitudes towards art education and older adults. An eight-item follow up survey containing open-ended questions was submitted to 51 art educators who indicated that they address this area within their coursework. The results show that the majority of art educators are not addressing this topic, although they feel it is important to do so. The majority of those who are including this area are doing so by providing their students with fieldwork and volunteer experiences teaching art to older adults.