ACTION RESEARCH AND ART EDUCATION:

PRINCIPLES AND POSSIBILITIES

Chapter 5
Inquiry in Action:
Paradigms, Methodologies, and Perspectives in Art Education Research
By Sheri R. Klein Kansas City Art Institute.
Research for K-12 Art Education

OVERVIEW OF ACTION RESEARCH

Art teachers - are visual observers within their classrooms and the schools
itself.
Action research is the field of systematic inquiry in practice to what we
reflect on and to the practice we teach. (Reflection-in-action to reflectionon-action)
Issues moving from student teacher to professional status (can give the
teacher a feeling of isolation for both the new and experienced educator.)
They need to think about new ways of recreating what they know, to help
get over burnout rate. Action research helps teachers not to feel that
isolation as bad.

The Action Research Cycle

Action research is a continuous

flow of information between the
teacher and their teaching
practice.

Cyclical the cycle of

pedagogy theory.

Reflection component that

enables a constant flow into the
teaching practice.

Inquiry and pursuit of finding

answers to reflected questions.

Three levels of reflectivity

practices technical reflection,
practical reflection, and critical
reflection.

PHILOSOPHICALLY SPEAKING
A/r/tography is a visual research methodology that is used
by art educators in the process of inquiring new information.
In this process to explore the pedagogical questions into
each interpretation of what we see or learn. The findings of
Taxonomy of Educational research Paradigms,
Frameworks, Methods, Methodologies and Aims.

KINDS AND PURPOSES FOR DATE

ASSOCIATED WITH ACTION RESEARCH
In action research data can be a combination of collected data:
Written
Numerical
Visual data
PHOTOS
VIDEOS
COMPUTER-GENERATED DRAWINGS
DIAGRAMS
SKETCHES
PORTFOLIOS
CHARS
GRAPHS
Arts-Bases Research data (ABER)

CONSIDERATION IN DEVELOPING
ACTION RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Relevance:
Ask question that are relevant to the context.
Selecting topics and issues:
(1) students learning. (2) instruction. (3) assessment. (4) environment/school culture. (5)
community. (6) experiences of a teacher-researcher.
Why are you researching this?
Sharing the results:
Report should include:
Introduction.
Description of the context.
Research question
Data collection timeline
Methods
Proposed actions
Conclusions.

QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER

CONSIDERATION
Snapshots: Action Research in Art Education:

Being part of NAEA

Have an over all understanding of visual arts
Why arts education is useful Important.
Know what has come before before you.

Preservice art education:

Encourage student teacher to become part of the classroom.

Read and do literature research - question to what is happing in the classroom.
What can you bring to the classroom

Technology
Questions data collections.
Drawing conclusions to problems that are happing at the time.

Partnerships:

Open dialogue (Classroom Teachers/principle/District/State.) Stakeholders

Collaborator.
Mentoring Students.

Action research as social justice:

Action research in this sense is a way to respond to questions that explore the intersections of pedagogy, art,
and activism.
Look to NAEA meeting to help you with questions and ways to understand.
Collaborative information (NAEA)

CONCLUSION
We as Art Educators are in the unique position to engage students
to embrace new art based methods and find support within the
profession through using :
NAEA Mentors Research Professional Development
Asking Questions Collaborating - Teaching Practice

- Simply put Action Research is A better understanding of what is

going on.

 I leave you with this:

Be the Agents of Change and Research is Never Simple.