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Research in Visual Arts Education - Bilderlernen.at

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FROM PSYCHOLOGY TO SEMIOTICSSwedish Studies and Curricula until 1994Lars L<strong>in</strong>dströmIntroductionMore than other subjects, art educ<strong>at</strong>ion <strong>in</strong> Sweden has experienced farreach<strong>in</strong>gchanges and con flicts. The discourse has gone through a series ofpa ra digm shifts. Th<strong>in</strong>gs th<strong>at</strong> once were regarded as the core of the subjecthave been releg<strong>at</strong>ed to the edge of it or have been erased completely. Morethan once, p<strong>at</strong>terns of thought, aims, subject m<strong>at</strong>ter, and meth ods have beenradically transformed. This is true not only of educ<strong>at</strong>ional philosophies butof ap proa ches to art educ<strong>at</strong>ional research as well. Never theless, a spirit ofcont<strong>in</strong>uity, with frag ments of different and often conflict<strong>in</strong>g tradi tions exist<strong>in</strong>gside by side, seems to have characterized the teach<strong>in</strong>g of art <strong>in</strong> most classrooms.Here I will focus on art educ<strong>at</strong>ion <strong>in</strong> the primary school, grades 1 through6 (students 7–13 years of age), and the lower se con dary school, grades 7through 9 (students 13–16 years of age). I will rel<strong>at</strong>e art educ<strong>at</strong>ional studiesto educ<strong>at</strong>ional philosophies, curricula, and practice of art educ<strong>at</strong>ion <strong>in</strong> Swedishschools. 5 S<strong>in</strong>ce my focus is on the <strong>in</strong>teraction be tween theory and practice,the outl<strong>in</strong>e is organized as a chronological analysis of the de velopmentof art edu c<strong>at</strong>ion <strong>in</strong>terspersed with sections on research and other studies.Historical studies of art educ<strong>at</strong>ionBefore start<strong>in</strong>g my present<strong>at</strong>ion of educ<strong>at</strong>ional paradigm shifts, however, Ishould men tion a few studies available for anyone who has acquired an <strong>in</strong>terest<strong>in</strong> the history of art educa tion <strong>in</strong> Sweden. For example, <strong>in</strong> 1980 Stig Eklund <strong>at</strong>Umeå University pub lished a book let with a gre<strong>at</strong> deal of quota tions fromofficial documents (Eklund, 1980). And <strong>in</strong> their doc toral thesis on art educ<strong>at</strong>ion,Sten Pettersson and Gun nar Åsén wrote an extensive chapter on thedevelop ment of the subject <strong>in</strong> Sweden, analys<strong>in</strong>g the liter<strong>at</strong>ure from themid-19th century until the 1980 school curriculum (Pettersson & Åsén,5 The study of Swedish art educ<strong>at</strong>ion until 1994 is presented <strong>at</strong> gre<strong>at</strong>er length <strong>in</strong> <strong>Arts</strong> <strong>Educ<strong>at</strong>ion</strong> PolicyReview, May 1997.36 NORDIC VISUAL ARTS EDUCATION IN TRANSITION

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