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Because of their positions as educational leaders, principals' art experiences and atti-
Correspondence
tudes toward art education are of interest for art education advocacy. Through use of concerning this article
a survey questionnaire and interviews, data were gathered to provide descriptive should be addressed to
information and to look for relationships between Missouri principals' art experiences the author at Central
and attitudes toward art education. A 79% return rate (n = 225) was achieved.Missouri State
Attitudes toward art education were found to be generally positive. Those withUniversity, Art Center
elementary teaching certification had significantly higher attitude scores when
AC 122, Warrensburg,
compared with other certifications groups. Qualitative descriptions of art experiences MO 64093. E-mail:
as well as positive correlation with attitude scale scores suggested the following asluehrman@cmsu.edu
important educative art experiences: influence of the family, college art classes; visits
This paper is based on
to art museums; and influence of art teacher/colleagues. Single events that resemble
the author's doctoral
crystallizing experiences (museum visit or use specific art media), as well as longer-
dissertation, The Art
term continuity of experience (classes or a series of experiences) characterized the
descriptions. Interviews revealed cases of combined home and school influences, asExperiences ofMissouri
Public School Principals
well as cases where school art experiences alone appeared to foster positive attitudes.
and Their Attitude
Toward Art Education
Arthur Efland writes, "what people believe about art and its value is
(1999), The University
likely to affect whether it is taught or not" (1995, p. 25). A principal's of Missouri-Columbia.
beliefs about the value of art and art education have the potential to affect
the status of visual art within the school. As pedagogical leader, the princi-
pal fills a key role in regard to the implementation of visual art education
within the school. In a variety of implicit and explicit ways the principal
establishes educational priorities, sending messages to the school and
community about the relative importance of art education as a part of the
school curriculum. Through the management of the school district funds
allocated to the school, the principal has a degree of control over the
funding of the art program. She or he makes important decisions about
class scheduling, class size, and facility use, and often has a strong voice in
the hiring of teachers for the building. The principal also evaluates the
performance of the art teacher, monitoring the planning and teaching of
lessons. Other than the teacher who teaches visual art, the principal is the
most important figure for the delivery of art instruction in the school
(National Art Education Association, 1992; National Art Education
Association, n. d.).
Cooperation between the art teacher and the principal is essential if art
education is to flourish and grow. Miller (1980) found that Missouri art
teachers underestimated principals' attitudes toward art when asked to
respond in the way they thought their principal would to items on an
attitude scale.
coded for themes and dimensions, and then compared with the quantita- survey, the beginning of
statewide standardized
tive data to provide illustrations of or contradictions to statistical trends.
assessment of the fine
Discussion of Results arts was an educational
issue within Missouri
The relatively high overall return rate itself (79%) could be interpreted
and may have stimu-
as evidence that Missouri principals' as a whole had a concern for lated
or greater interest in
interest in art education.2 On average, principals' scores on Part One
artof
for this population.
ence. Some others may have involved family members, but in many
instances not enough information was provided to accurately determine
whether it was a school- or family-related art experience. This was true for
four of the interviewees, Principals C, D, E, and F, all revealed that a
parent or grandparent had either mediated the "stand-out" art experience
they had written about, or had positively influenced their attitude toward
art in other ways. For example, in Principal D's case the interview
revealed family outings to art museums and art fairs in the Chicago area
during youth, even though he chose to describe, as a "stand-out" art expe-
rience, a college undergraduate program that required him to attend a
certain number of campus fine arts events. Evidently in Principal D's
case, family background prepared him to appreciate and value this later
college art experience.
Teacher-Mediated Art Experiences: During Schooling and
Through Contact with Art Teacher/Colleagues
Though the social mediation of the home was apparently important in
relationship with attitude toward art education, teacher-mediated experi-
ences also were found to be important. A large majority of Missouri prin-
cipals believed that their colleagues who were art educators had
influenced their attitudes toward art education. When asked to rate the
influence of art teacher/colleagues on their attitude toward art, the vast
majority of principals indicated that these individuals had influenced their
attitudes in a positive way, either "somewhat positive" (41%) or "very
positive" (42%). Of the remaining respondents, 12% claimed "no effect"
on attitude, while only 5% indicated any kind of negative influence. In
addition, the rating of art teacher/colleague influence was positively corre-
lated with scores on the attitude scale, r = .37 (p < .0001). One respon-
dent's written comments effectively describe not only the effect the art
teacher can have on a student, but also the way negative early experiences
for the principal can perhaps be overcome by the effect of the art
teacher/colleague:
I felt I had no art talent. I don't remember in junior high ever
receiving any praise for effort. I also don't recall learning concepts.
Today when I visit art classes at the elementary level, I am amazed
at the knowledge that is taught and the application of concepts-
I'm finally being taught. (Luehrman, 1999, p. 179)
As the comment above illustrates, the role of the teacher as an influ-
ence was also evident among the responses given to Part Five of the ques-
tionnaire. For 60 of the 111 written responses, a social mediator for the
"stand-out" art experience could be determined. Of these 60, 37 (62%)
mentioned a teacher from their school years and 7 (12%) mentioned an
art teacher/colleague. Only 6 (10%) directly identified a family member
as the mediator for their "stand-out" art experience. The remaining 10
were split evenly between experiences mediated either by one of their own
students, or one of their peers when they were in school.
The dominance of teacher-mediated experiences may be partially due
to the education-oriented context of the survey. But, it also seems possible
that, as in the previously mentioned case of Principal D, art experiences
that had taken place within the context of the home or with family
members were more likely to be taken for granted, thought of as
commonplace, less dramatic, and therefore not as likely to be considered
as a "stand-out" event.
Among the other interviews, Principals A and B revealed no encour-
agement in art from home, but emphasized the influence of their art
classes and art educator colleagues as important to their view of the value
of art and art education. All of the remaining four interviewees described
a combination of school and home influences in their backgrounds.
Number and Value of Art Classes Taken
More than 19% of the principals responding did not recall having had
an art class with an art specialist at any level of their K-12 schooling.
Nearly 9% recalled completing their entire schooling, including higher
education degrees, without ever having had an art class with an art
specialist. No significant relationship was found between attitude toward
art education and recollections of the number of years of art with an art
specialist during elementary school, or number of semesters of art taken at
either during middle school/junior high or high school. However, find-
ings did reveal a positive relationship between the number of college art
classes taken and attitude toward art education (r = .18, p = .0088).
In a demographic finding that sheds some light on this positive correla-
tion, principals with elementary classroom teaching certification reported
having had significantly more college semesters of art than did principals
with other types of teaching certification [F (1,210) = 19.03, p = .0001].
These findings are of interest in conjunction with the previously
mentioned difference on attitude scale scores found between the Teaching
Certification groups. Historically, in Missouri teacher certification
programs, those who seek elementary classroom certification must take a
college-level art education methods class that is not required of other
education majors.
In a related finding the correlation between principals' attitude scale
scores and their rating of peer influence during college proved to be
significant (r = .27, p = .0006). This statistic appeared to be driven by the
group of principals who had elementary classroom teaching certification
3Correlation between (r = .34, p < .0001).3 Rating of peer influence during other levels of
attitude and peer schooling did not prove significantly correlated with attitude scale scores.
influence for principals
Though the number of art classes taken during K-12 levels of schooling
with other types of
teaching certification was not significantly related to attitude toward art education, principals'
was r = .10, p > .05 perceptions of the value of their elementary and high school art classes did
A relatively weak but positive relationship was also found between atti- before high school
graduation; adulthood,
tude scale scores and principals' recollections of how often their teachers
as after high school
showed acclaimed art images as a part of their high school art classes graduation.
(r = .18, p = .0485). Similar analysis for recalled use of art images during
the elementary, middle, and college levels did not yield significant correla-
tion. Support for the idea that exposure to art images during high school
might have been a particularly memorable or meaningful experience for
many principals was not born out in the analysis of data from Part Five of
the questionnaire as will be revealed in subsequent discussion.
Missouri principals tended to value their art classes more if they
remembered being shown acclaimed art images as a part of these classes.
When the rating they gave for the value of their elementary, middle level,
high school, and college art classes was considered in relationship with
these recollections, a positive correlation was found for each of the four
levels of schooling. Beginning with elementary classes, the correlation
statistics for these analyses were, respectively, r = .27 (p = .0109), r = .31
(p = .0007), r = .37 (p < .0001) and r = .37 (p < .0001).
The data from the written descriptions of art experiences from Part Five
of the Questionnaire provided further evidence of the importance of expo-
sure to art images. Among the respondents who supplied a written descrip-
tion of an art experience that "stood out" in their memory (n = 111),
viewing art images in either a museum or school setting was a frequently
described type of art experience (n=37, or 33%), second only to artmak-
ing/media experiences (n = 58, or 52%). Single or multiple museum visits
were the subject of 25 of these descriptions, while all but one of the
remaining 12 described college-level art appreciation classes, the sole
exception being the elementary school art history experiences of Principal
A which will be described shortly. The fact that none of the school art
appreciation experiences described had occurred during high school
contrasts with the previously mentioned relationship between attitude
toward art education and recollections of how often art images were used
in high school classes.
Five of the six interviewees described art museum visits as being mean-
ingful experiences that happened during their youth and/or adulthood. It
is interesting to note that in the interview accounts, each of the visits to
an art museum during youth was associated with a family outing.
Determining the context of art museum visits described in the written
responses to Part Five of the questionnaire was often difficult because of
the brevity of many of the responses. Only one of the responses made
5Respondent 1102
specific mention of the museum visit as a school-sponsored event.5 It is
stated, "Visiting (an)
art gallery/2nd or 3rd likely that most of the museum visits during youth were family outings.
grade, on the visit we For example, Principal C wrote about visiting an art museum in
were allowed to 'draw'
Pittsburgh, PA; the fact that he went with his grandparents was revealed
a painting."
only through the interview.
All six of the principals interviewed discussed positive school art experi-
ences that involved the use of art images in teaching. In the interviews,
Principals A and B both indicated they believed that valuable school art
experiences that relied on viewing historically acclaimed art images had
helped them form a positive attitude toward art when art experiences
were not provided within the context of the home. Principal B's most
memorable art experience was a college music appreciation course during
which the lecturer used acclaimed art and architecture to illustrate the
contemporary visual art of the time when the music was being composed.
Principal A's story is particularly interesting. A significant experience for
him was his grade 3 through 6 art classes during the late 1950s and early
1960s. These classes provided enjoyable art media experiences but were
also characterized by a particularly pressure-packed weekly art history
memorization and recognition task. This task involved remembering,
over the course of his 4 years in the school, the artist's name, title, and
country of origin for more than 100 works of art. If called on, failure to
correctly identify all of these facts for the work chosen by the teacher
would mean losing one's seat to the next person who could answer
correctly. Though the memorization tasks were very stressful, he believed
they were responsible for a life-long interest in art, as evidenced by his
many visits to art museums, the art books in his office collection, and his
strong support of the art program in his school. Principal A described
how each year he arranges and chaperones a group of middle school
students on a field trip to a regional art museum. Regarding the source of
his interest in art he stated, "Certainly there was nothing in the home
environment.., no family member that would have generated that. So, I
think it was the fact that maybe I had some knowledge... that other
people that I met later didn't have, because of that experience. And then,
I just wanted to build on it."
instances relatively small. Qualitative data from the questionnaire and the
interviews helped to provide a more comprehensive view of principals' art
experiences when considered along with the quantitative results. Keeping
this in mind, the study did reveal a wide variety of art experience factors
that offer avenues for more specific study in future research. Among these
factors were the cultural climate of the home, college art classes, visits to
art museums or galleries, use of art images in teaching, and the influence
of colleagues who teach art.
The correlation found between attitude toward art education and vari-
ables related to the cultural climate of the home was in keeping with
Bourdieu's (1972) theory of cultural reproduction and consistent with
findings from other studies (Ganzeboom, 1996; Haanstra, Oud, Nagel,
& Ganzeboom, 1997). Though the correlation statistics for the home-
related variables were relatively low in strength, the number of them
found to be significant, together with the influence of the home that was
revealed in the interviews, reaffirms the importance of art experiences
within this social context. Ways to control for these types of variables
must be carefully considered if one is to conduct meaningful study of the
effects of school-related factors on attitudes toward art and art education.
Findings suggested that principals' art experiences during college may
have been particularly influential on their attitudes toward art and art
education. Though not strong, significant relationship was found between
attitude toward art education and two variables: the number of college
level art courses and the rating of influence of peers during college.
Though it is possible that these relationships were due to additional oppor-
tunities at the college level for principals to choose courses in which they
were predisposed to have an interest, the qualitative evidence supported
the importance of college experiences. More than one-quarter of the
descriptions of "stand-out" art experiences occurred during the college
years and nearly all were positive. In addition, each of the interviewees
described positive effects for their college art experiences. Additional
research regarding college art courses is also needed to find out whether or
not differences in teacher preparation, such as the art methods classes
required for elementary classroom teaching certification, might be a signif-
icant factor for the stronger positive attitude toward art education found
among principals who had elementary teaching certification.
Considering the significant relationship found between ratings of the
value of art courses and attitude toward art education, one could interpret
this as suggesting that the quality of principals' art courses was more
important than the number of art courses. However, other forces, such as
the cultural climate of the home, may have been at work here as well,
predisposing principals to be more receptive and extract more benefit
from their art classes than those who did not have this type of family
background.
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Table 1
Relationship Between Art Education Attitude Scale Scores
and Art Experience Variables
APPENDIX A: QUESTIONNAIRE
Attitude Toward Art Education and Art Experiences of Missouri Principals
Instructions:
Please circle the response that best reflects your level of agreement or disagreement with the
following ideas about art education. There are no right or wrong answers and all information
will be kept confidential. So, please answer as freely as possible what you believe. What is
important to this study is your view.
Strongly Strongly
Disagree Disagree Undecided
Strongly Strongly
Disagree Disagree Undecided Agre
1. During what elementary grades did you have regularly scheduled art classes with an art
specialist?
(Please circle each grade during which you did) K 1 2 3 4 5
2. As a student, how many semesters of art did you have at each level? (Please circle the
number)
(Number of semesters of art)
a. Grades 6, 7, & 8 ................0 1 2 3 4 5 6
b. Grades 9 through 12 ...........0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
c. College/University................0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
3. Remembering when you were a student, what are your feelings about the value of the art
experiences you had in school? (skip the levels at which you had no art instruction).
No Limited No Somewhat Highly
Value Value Opinion Valuable Valuable
a. Elementary school...........................( ( ) ( ) () ( )
b. Middle school/jr. high ...................( ) ( ) ( ) () ( )
c. High school....................................( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
d. College classes................................. ( ) ( ) ( ) (
4. When you were a student, how often did the art teacher show works by famous artists as a
part of the lesson? (please check an answer for each level)
Almost Had No
Always Often So
a. Elementary school ....................( ) () ( ) () ( )
b. Middle school/jr. high .................( ) ( ) () () ( )
c. High school...............................() () () () ()
d. College classes........................... ( ) ( ) ( ) () ( )
5. When you were a student, what kind of effect did your classmates and peers h
on your art experiences?
Very Somewhat No Somewhat Very
Negative Negative Effect Positive Positive
a. Elementary school.....................( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
b. Middle school/jr. high ...................( ) ( ) ( ) ( (
c. H igh school oo ............ ...................( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
d. College classes ...........................( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
6. Check the answer that most closely fits the number of times you participated in th
art-related activities during childhood (elementary through high school age).
Once or 3-5 6-10 More than
Never Twice Times Times 10 times
() () () () ()
6. How would you rate the importance of art e
For each level, please check one answer
Non- Limited Moderate Considerable
Essential Importance Importance Importance Essential
a. Elementary ............................................() ( ) () ( ) ()
b. Middle school/junior high....................( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
c. H igh school................................. ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
d. College....................... ....................... () () () () ()
1. Recall an art or art education experience, either positive or negative, that stands out in
your mind. Please describe.
(If you were unable to recall any art experiences that stand out, skip #2 & #3 of this section.)
2. Which best describes the impact you believe this experience has had on your attitude
toward art.
Strong Strong
Negative Negative N
() () () () ()
3. What effect do you believe this experien
your school's art program?
Strong Strong
Negative Negative N
() () () () ()
1. Including the current year, what is the total number of years that you have
professional educator (teaching + administration).
1-5 6-10 11-15 16-20 21-25 26 or more
2. Please list the content area(s) and grade levels that you are certi