Same Standards, Different Classes: A Comparative Case Study of Two Art Classes Within Communities of Contrasting Socioeconomic Status

Abstract

In this comparative case study, we critically examined the implementation of art education in two art classes situated within communities of higher and lower socioeconomic status. The findings indicated that art budgets under state regulations were equitable; however, families’ and communities’ external educational resources were starkly different. In addition, school art styles were reinforced in both classes as the itinerant art teacher differentiated her instructions only subtly to produce presentable student works instead of creating content related to students’ interests and concerns. Furthermore, the art teacher’s curricular design and pedagogy, closely aligned with the state visual arts standards, emphasized middle-class ideology, modernist values, and formalist aesthetics.

Acknowledgments

A special thank-you to the cooperating itinerant art teacher and the two participating schools who made this study possible. We also thank the three anonymous reviewers for their valuable insights on the article.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ This article derives from the first author’s dissertation research undertaken at Florida State University under the sponsorship of the second author. The authors use the pronoun “we” throughout the article to illustrate their collaborative relationship as doctoral student and advisor, and in writing and revising the article published here. Yiwen Wei conceived of the initial ideas that guided this study and performed all aspects of data collection. Jeffrey Broome supervised the project, and both authors contributed to the final article presented here.

² The data were retrieved on March 5, 2019, from Zillow, a commercial real estate website, by using the schools’ zip codes.

Additional information

Funding

This research project was supported by a research grant from the National Art Education Foundation for the 2017–2018 school year.