Graca, RO; (2009) Art history teaching in teacher education in southern Brazil: A study of an alternative programme and its relation to cultural identity and social aspirations. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), University of London.

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Abstract

This thesis provides a critical account of a practitioner research project in which an alternative art history teaching programme was designed and undertaken in 2002-2003. This was run as part of a fine arts teacher-training course at a culturally-diverse college in Southern Brazil. The project arose from a perceived need to transform art history teaching in Southern Brazil from being an instrument of acculturation to a process of cultural empowerment, and to enable it to be more closely aligned to the current requirements of preparing art teachers to be educators of culturally reflective visual readers. The design of the alternative programme requires changes in course content and teaching strategies. The research into the processes and impact of the alternative programme involved collecting data through observations, semi-structured interviews (individual and group), questionnaires, and tasks (assignments, reading, and critical appraisals). The analysis of this data showed that changes were possible without impairing the students' engagement with art history as a field of study. It was also found that art education and history can play a role in shaping the aspirations of immigrant families and their plans for social mobility. In examining the influence of their descendants' education in the arts on their families' plans for social mobility, it became apparent that Eurocentric art history education, which the alternative programme had sought to avoid, could still be appropriate to the social context of the students because of the value placed on it by their families. The findings of the study suggest that the students benefited from the changes introduced to the teaching programme since they led them to reflect on their own social and cultural structures, and allow them to become teachers able to employ the kind of art history teaching they prefer, even if it retains Eurocentric features.

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