A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF ON-SITE DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH IN ART EDUCATION: AN INITIAL CONTRIBUTION TO EDUCATIONAL ETHNOLOGY

A pervasive problem was perceived in educational research: the difficulty of organizing a large number of small scale studies into a cohesive body of information. In an attempt to address this problem, a number of existing on-site descriptive studies investigating art education programs in schools were examined from the perspective of ethnology.;This initial contribution to an ethnology of art education was organized according to a structure derived from Hymes (1980). Hymes suggested educational ethnology can be summarized by three words: (1) cumulative, (2) comparative, and (3) cooperative. Twenty-five on-site descriptive studies investigating art education programs in schools were presented in this study for cooperative use by university researchers, art teachers and educators. Data collected through preliminary analysis of sociocultural dimensions of studies were presented in a cumulative manner under headings of eight generated categories. A system of weighted key word indexing was used to sort the data. This type of data sorting was judged to more accurately relect the complex interrelationships present among categories than a hierarchical system. Two major interrelationship patterns were identified. These interrelationships provided the basis for comparative analysis. Comparisons focused on two issues: (1) the structure of art programs in schools, and (2) the design of art curriculum in schools.;A similar comparative process was followed in each case. First, individual studies were examined in terms of the particular issue. Next, contextual data from selected studies were compared. Examination of these comparisons resulted in better understanding of interrelationships within and among specific school contexts. Implications were drawn for each issue.;Examination of comparisons overall suggested art educators face a corresponding problem when structuring an art program or designing an art curriculum. This problem appeared to be the need for operational strategies enabling art teachers to structure programs and design curriculum in a manner that includes the values and expectations of the participants in a school context as well as personal and professional orientations to art.;The purpose of this study was to present an initial contribution to an ethnology of art education. Educational ethnology refers to systemic comparison of ethnographies and related studies conducted in school settings.