A portrait of environmental integration in United States K-12 art education

Abstract

In recent years, scholars have increasingly recognized the value of the arts for furthering the aims of environmental education (EE). Likewise, art education scholars have noted the affinity between visual art and EE. Despite a long-standing environmentally oriented thread in art education literature, the extent to which United States K-12 art educators have embraced these pedagogies is unclear. We conducted survey research to examine how K-12 art educators in the US engage in environmental integration, including the extent, forms, importance of and preparedness for integration. While art educators’ overall levels of environmental integration were fair, their valuing of environmental art pedagogies was moderate, suggesting a need for additional resources and professional development. Given K-12 art teachers’ interest in environmental art pedagogies and acknowledged dearth of knowledge, we argue EE capacity-building efforts might target this field, aiming for comprehensive art teacher education experiences to sustained professional development opportunities.

Keywords:

• Environmental education
• survey
• arts-based
• art education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 We see environmental art pedagogies as various manifestations of EE within the field of art education. We acknowledge these curricular discourses arise from diverse theoretical traditions and occasionally accentuate seemingly incompatible methods. Nevertheless, we emphasize their shared aspirations to re-orient art education, ultimately, for improved environmental conditions.

2 Questionnaire items assessing environmental integration described this phenomenon as “incorporate[ing] ecological/environmental content, ecological/environmental art, ecological/environmental/sustainability issues, and/or outdoor education into any courses.” We chose to include “ecological” along with “environmental” since these concepts overlap significantly and to ensure we were capturing environmental integration to the fullest extent.

3 We would have preferred to administer the questionnaire fully online to reduce the environmental impact of this study. Unfortunately, due to NAEA restrictions, we were not able to secure access to a random sample of members’ email addresses, only postal addresses. This restriction strongly influenced our decision to administer a postal questionnaire. To encourage participation, we sent non-respondents, whose email addresses were publicly available on NAEA’s website (57% of the sample), up to two reminder emails with links to the online survey. Subsequently, all final non-respondents received a second postal survey packet.

4 Direct statistical comparisons between the two studies are difficult due to differing questionnaire response options and analyses.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Joy G. Bertling

Joy G. Bertling is an assistant professor of art education at the University of Tennessee. Her research engages with critical place-based art education and other arts-based approaches to environmental education.

Tara C. Moore

Tara Moore, PhD, BCBA-D is an Associate Professor of special education at the University of Tennessee. Dr. Moore teaches and mentors pre-service and inservice teachers at undergraduate and graduate levels, and she teaches and supports the development of graduate students in special education, school psychology, applied behavior analysis, teacher education, and cultural studies in education. The primary focus of her teaching and mentorship is to prepare future and early-career educators, behavior analysist, teacher educators, and researchers who are highly skilled and knowledgeable in identifying, implementing, and evaluating research-based practices to support students' academic and behavioral successes. Her primary research interests focus on effective classroom practices for preventing and reducing problem behaviors, increasing academic engagement, and improving learning outcomes for students with and without disabilities. She also conducts research on teachers' knowledge and use of effective classroom practices as well as strategies to increase teachers' use of effective practices.