Paul Ricoeur's Theory of Interpretation: Some Implications for Critical Inquiry in Art Education

David Ecker, Edmund Feldman, and Ralph Smith,' among others, describe critical inquiry as an essential component of art education. Ecker has noted that most studio instructors spend more time giving criticism than demonstrating artistic techniques and suggests that the critic-teacher is the most appropriate model for the art educator. Feldman has identified the difference between good and bad art students as a difference in their ability to apply critical insights to their work and favors instruction in criticism to compensate for the overemphasis on the value of artistic performance in art education. In a more general educational context, Smith has advocated the teaching of aesthetic criticism on the grounds that its ultimate aim is the furtherance of humane values, and Feldman has argued for certain character building consequences resulting from the practice of art criticism.2 Finally, Ecker has described critical inquiry as the method of aesthetic education.