Social Reconstructionism in Art Education

Social reconstructionist art education strives to empower human agency to understand and transform unjust social relationships through aesthetic experience. Scholarly work in art education conduc-ted with respect to social reconstructionism has been largely theore-tical. This study thus investigated the manner in which junior high students understand, interpret, and act upon a social reconstructionist art curriculum. Specific research questions included: 1) what kinds of artistic and verbal expression were generated by students as they engaged in social issues-based art inquiry? 2) to what extent are their visual and verbal artifacts reflective of social reconstructionist posi-tions? Social reconstructionist art education has significant potential for empowering students to examine contemporary issues and be-come informed citizens capable of confronting unjust social relation-ships. However, to promote art education for social betterment, art educators must reconceptualize the field of art education and move beyond appreciating art as a form of aesthetic construct. Several re-commendations concerning future implementation of social recon-structionist art education are drawn.