| Today's art educators are pressed to demonstrate the worth of their classes in a competitive educational market where finances are limited, STEM fields are highly valued and schools must demonstrate advances on standardized tests. This thesis includes a historical review of trends in education in general, and art education in specific, since the 1950s when John Dewey's progressive education theories were most influential. This in-depth overview provides a context for the challenges art educators face today as well as providing potential solutions to those challenges. In Tim Burton's 2010 movie adaptation of Alice in Wonderland, the Mad Hatter challenged Alice to recover the "muchness" she had lost. Using contemporary language and scholarship, this thesis articulates a basis for recovering the muchness in art education.;The thesis includes an innovative eighteen-lesson curriculum plan designed to help high school students find their "muchness" which exploring Photoshop. This program values diversity and highlights the work of artists who share heritage, race or history with the students, and incorporates cross curricular language and communication goals and includes development of Studio Habits of Mind (Hetland, Winner, Veenema, 2007) and 21st Century skills (Jenkins, 2009) using the Principles of Possibility (Gude, 2004). This dynamic curriculum supports the author's contention that art education is and can be "much more muchier" than it is given credit. |
