Addressing Contemporary Social Issues in Art Education: A Survey of Public School Art Educators in Georgia

This descriptive research utilized a written survey to investigate the current attitudes and practices of Georgia public school art educators with regard to addressing social issues through the art education curriculum. Teachers' narrative comments along with basic descriptive data provided an informative image of teacher values, preferences, and practices in the art classroom, as well as the school atmosphere in which they teach. Generally the participating teachers voiced strong support for addressing social issues through art education, and often addressed social issues through art history content or discussion in art criticism or aesthetics. Teachers voiced concern regarding parental and administrative support for discussing sensitive social issues. Also noted was the lack of time for the development of appropriate teaching materials and adequate pre-teacher training, especially in developing mediation skills for dealing with sensitive topics during classroom discussions. In October of 1999 the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that in several metropolitan area school districts numerous elementary schools censored an image from a fifth-grade social science textbook. The offending image was a painting, Washington Crossing the Delaware, by Emanuel Leutze. In this well-known painting the ornamental orbs of Washington's watch fob are lying across his right thigh. The article reported that school districts' administrators feared that the imaginations of fifth-grade students might deduce that the general's genitalia were on display and cause disruptions in the classroom. Teacher aides in one of the school districts spent about 2 weeks painting over the offending areas in more than 2,300 books. Although this report was initially humorous in its absurdity, it is unfortunately symbolic of the climate in many of our schools today. Public schools in many instances have resorted to heightened repressive measures to suppress controversy and avoid confrontation. There is little doubt that our schools can be violent and safety issues are paramount. A national survey in 1993 indicated that nearly one in four students and one in ten teachers said they have been victims of violence on or near school property (New York Times, 1993). Along with adolescent violence, public schools must address issues of drug abuse, high drop-out rates, teen pregnancy, and absenteeism, while often relying on diminishing fiscal resources (Giroux, 1988). Educators have become increasingly aware that public schools that can no longer be viewed as institutions insolated from the rest of society. While educators often point to the lack of parental involvement and support for education today, Correspondence regarding this article should be addressed to the author at