Social Reconstructionism in Art Education

Social reconstructionist art education strives to empower human agency to understand and transform unjust social relationships through aesthetic experience. Scholarly work in art education conduc­ted with respect to social reconstructionism has been largely theore­tical.This study thus investigated the manner in which junior high students understand interpret and act upon a social reconstructionist art curriculum. Specific research questions included: 1) what kinds of artistic and verbal expression were generated by students as they engaged in social issues-based art inquiry? 2) to what extent are their visual and verbal artifacts reflective of social reconstructionist posi­tions? Social reconstructionist art education has significant potential for empowering students to examine contemporary issues and be­come informed citizens capable of confronting unjust social relation­ships. However to promote art education for social betterment art educators must reconceptualize the field of art education and move beyond appreciating art as a form of aesthetic construct. Several re­commendations concerning future implementation of social recon­structionist art education are drawn.