Professional Development in Art Education Today: A Survey of Kansas Art Teachers

Abstract

It has been more than a decade since a survey of art teachers' professional situations, self-perceptions, opinions, and purposes has been conducted. In that time, discipline-based approaches to art education (DBAE) have been introduced through pre-service and in-service programs. This new statewide survey of Kansas art teachers was undertaken to determine if situations, perceptions, and opinions have changed and to determine if DBAE has had an impact on these teachers and their professional development. In addition, the relationship between teaching experience, level of education, and teaching strengths was examined. Statistical analyses of demographic/descriptive responses and content analyses of open-ended responses yielded these results, among others: with one exception, no statistical relationship exists between teaching experience, level of education, and teaching strengths; DBAE has had little influence on art teachers, and art teachers said that a lack of funding for and low status of art programs were current and future issues confronting art education. Findings have implications for pre-service preparation and in-service professional development programs.