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112 Editorial

JADE 24.2 ©NSEAD/Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2005

Before discussing the contents of this edition I want to bring to readers’ attention a specialissue of the journal which is being planned for February 2007. This edition will focus uponlesbian and gay issues in art education and willbe edited by Professor Nick Stanley. Such issueshave received little discussion on how theymight impact upon the art and design curricu-lum in secondary and further education. Thepaper by Nicholas Addison in the last edition ofthe journal (24.1) is a rare contribution to a studyof how art might be used as a vehicle in educa-tional sites for students to explore issues ofsexuality. The subject might still be perceived bymany educators as taboo or at least a littledangerous to investigate with their students.Though in recent years there have been somesignificant developments in addressing issuesconcerning art education and cultural diversitylittle has been achieved under the banner ofsocial inclusion for addressing sexual identifica-tions. In many ways we know little about theimpact of sexual identifications upon art practiceand how such identifications might be exploredand understood through such practice. Theintention of this special edition is therefore tohighlight these and other related issues andthereby to provide a distinct focus upon animportant issue in the field of art and designeducation in our contemporary social world.

Now back to the contents of this edition whichare as usual quite wide ranging. There are threearticles on drawing practice; the first by Sue Coxis a study of children’s drawing practices in a nurs-ery classroom. She discusses the range ofrepresentational purposes that children use intheir drawing practices and argues persuasivelyfor an understanding of the context of practice or

the situated nature of practice in order to graspthe meaning of drawing for the child. The articleshows clearly that rather than viewing drawing asa process of representation in the sense of repro-ducing objects in the world it is a productivemeaning-making process that functions intandem with and inter-related with other meaningmaking practices such as language. To deny thechild access to drawing or other kinds of visualpractice is therefore to deny a crucial mode ofmeaning and signification for the child.

The reissue of a nineteenth century drawingcourse provides Deanna Petherbridge with themomentum to undertake a brief historicaloverview of western models of ‘good practice’.The article crystallises around the recurrentdebate between the value of drawing from‘nature’ or drawing from cultural models orsources where the former has, historically, occu-pied the higher moral and pedagogical ground.Petherbridge moves on to discuss several artistswhose work utilises sources from popular cultureand she asks how such work might be of value forstudio practices. The answer lies in the way suchsources can be employed effectively to producesocial and ideological critique. Thus employingcultural sources in drawing and other art practicescan be a powerful means by which students canexplore meaning. Only very recently the NFER,Arts Council and Tate research project, School Art:What’s in it? identified that this crucial aspect of artpractice, the exploration of meaning, is sadly lack-ing in much secondary art education, where themajor emphasis is placed upon technique andformal qualities.

The third and final article on drawing comesfrom Scotland, in it Glen Coutts and Paul Dougallexplore the purposes of drawing in the secondary


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art and design curriculum with a selected group ofteachers. In many ways the research data rein-forces the conclusions of School Art: What’s in it?The teachers’ comments suggest that they placea strong emphasis upon teaching the basics of line, tone, texture etc, although pedagogicalmethods vary. Many argue that drawing is a funda-mental practice but we are not provided withdetailed reasons apart from a general associationbetween drawing and understanding. There islittle evidence of any discussion, for example, ofthe use of drawing for the production and explo-ration of meaning.

Claire Robins is concerned with curatorialissues and practices in the field of art and designeducation. Her article stems from a DfES fundedresearch project, Creative Connections, and sheprovides a clear and persuasive argument for thevalue of understanding curatorial issues in rela-tion to developing a critical engagement withgalleries and museums. Such understanding, sheargues, would help to alleviate many concerns ofteachers and their students when visitinggalleries and also empower the use of these sitesas learning resources. The way in which exhibi-tions or collections are displayed is often notinterrogated by visitors and yet the organisation,space and layout of exhibits are themselves semi-otic processes whose underlying ideology isfrequently unnoticed. We might do well to askwhen visiting galleries and museums how we areencouraged to look at exhibits and how thereforewe become constructed socially and culturally asviewers. It is therefore important to recognise thatviewing practices are never innocent and arealways criss-crossed with specific ideas andvalues that affect and facilitate viewing.

Lori Kent is concerned with conversation in theart studio in New York classrooms and the impor-tance of giving serious thought to this form ofcommunication for developing ideas and under-standing. After a very brief account of historicalforms of ‘studio conversations’ she selects threeteachers from New York in order to explore theircommunication styles. Though the article is

concerned with identifying and briefly analysingstyles of conversation that underpin differentteachers’ practices, it points towards the impor-tant domain of how linguistic practices form ourunderstanding of art practice and objects. Kent istherefore hinting at the textualising of the visualand the importance of understanding this trans-ferential process.

Alan Thornton continues the idea of reflectionin his argument for artist teachers to be reflectivepractitioners. His article relates centrally to theartist-teacher initiatives that have developed in theUK in recent years and follows an earlier paper byJeff Adams in Volume 22.2. The theoretical argu-ment is based upon Donald Schon’s writings onthe reflective practitioner and Thornton suggeststhat the dual identity of artist-teacher along with itsattendant conflicts might be resolved throughadopting a reflective approach to such conflictsand their manifestations in practice. Since itspublication in the early 1980s Schon’s work hasbeen influential upon practitioner-based research,or action research, into professional practices,recognising the importance of the authority of thepractitioner in addressing and analysing thephenomenology of his or her practice. A key issueconcerning any reflective practice which is notaddressed in detail by the article is the crucial needto attend to the reflective construction of practiceitself. That is to say to try to unpack the ideologicalground of reflection.

Yannick Joye provides an article on fractal artarguing that exposure to fractal geometries canenhance learning within art and design educationbut also across and between other curriculumareas. Essentially fractal geometries areconcerned with infinities working inwards ratherthan outwards. A snowflake is a good examplewhere as we examine each portion of the flake thesame pattern is repeated, so we are concernedwith patterns that repeat on themselves andwithin themselves. Joye argues that exposure tosuch patterning principles is important for devel-oping our understanding of design and has thepotential for creating close associations between


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areas of practice such as art and mathematics.Jane Parker discusses the topic of creativity inrelation to developing innovative and originalideas in art and design education. The articleconcentrates on the use of sketchbooks as animportant medium for developing thinking andpractice within GCSE examination courses. Thearticle proceeds to challenge the idea that GCSEassessment criteria restrict creativity and lead to formulaic practices by arguing that the use of sketchbooks can engender authentic andcreative work.

A critique of GCSE examination assessment isthe major theme of Leslie Cunliffe’s article inwhich his key thesis is that the assessment crite-ria are confused. He argues that althoughstudents are required to provide evidence of practical understanding and conceptual under-standing, that is to say the ability to make art andthe ability to understand art (historical andcultural), students are not required to supply writ-ten or spoken evidence for the latter. Cunliffetherefore asks what form could such conceptual,historical or cultural understanding take andconcludes that the key medium for this form ofunderstanding is writing or speech.

The final article by Maria de Eca continues thetheme of assessment in art and design educationand describes the procedure of using portfoliosfor external assessment in Portuguese schools.This topic was previously discussed by FionaBlaikie, Diederik Schonau and John Steers inVolume 23.3. The article describes a small projectin which five schools participated in this form ofassessment and concludes that such assess-ment practice encourages productive dialogueand learning between students and teachers aswell as more potential for professional develop-ment for teachers. The article also drawsattention to what are perceived as shortcomingsof portfolio assessment, largely relating toteacher influence.

Dennis Atkinson

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