Artistic Education Areas: Methodological Integration

Introduction

The function of art in school is educational. The cultural/spiritual/intercultural challenges and disorientation of youth in society require reconceptualization of curricula in arts. On the one hand, as noted by Howard (2014, p. 1) the dispute over education practice exists because defined knowledge within the curriculum is instilled with cultural signifiers that either perpetuate the status quo or challenge the dominant culture narrative. On another hand, the artistic education areas - literature, music, theatre, visual arts, choreography, etc. - are articulated with different weight in the educational process. The role of artistic education in forming the competences for young people for life has been widely recognized in the twenty-first century. However, only music and visual arts are taught in school, at primary and secondary levels, in most European countries (EACEA, 2009). Each educational institution has the freedom to choose optional artistic subjects. However, this does not contribute to the harmonization of education toward the artistic act. The notion of artistic education can be interpreted as “a continuous process of the personality spiritual self-realization through different forms of contact with the art” (Morari, 2005, p. 5). The areas of artistic education should be stressed upon the formation/creation/edification of the personality/being/self of the pupil, not on the learning/acquisition of art as a subject of study, as goal in itself. Let us suppose that the theoretical-methodological integration of the areas of artistic education may insure the coherence and synergy of the action of arts over every personality, by capitalizing the arts potential and appropriate exploration of the educational-artistic methodologies.

The inconsistent methodological approach of the demarche of artistic education in different schools, and the low interference between the axiological fundamentals of the artistic education areas and methodological fundamentals of the arts as curricular subject in contemporary school, generates the problem of the research: Which are the theoretical-practical benchmarks of methodological integration of artistic education areas in general education? The general perspective of the chapter is to describe theoretical resources for the methodological substantiation of the integration process of artistic education areas in the context of postmodernism.

The chapter comprises several key subsections, which in total delineate the idea of methodological integration of artistic education areas. The first subsection connects different artistic works on a common platform and establishes ideas about the synthesis of art and unity of art works. The next subsection uses a critical methodological framework to describe the applicability of the principles of intellect in art and artistic education, as well as the role of existential, expressive and actional artistic phenomenon in the formation of a complex vision about art. The next subsection uses a critical pedagogy framework to analyze the system of values of artistic education from the perspective of educational system components (epistemological, teleological, technological and content) depending on the nature of the knowledge object and from the perspective of didactic technologies. Moreover, it reveals the content and indicators of artistic education as well as levels and awareness of artistic experience and its functions in the training and development of personality. The last subsection examines postmodernist trends in twenty-first century learning outcomes through conceptualization of attitudes as the main element of integration of the artistic experiences not only by on the behavioral, but also the inner level – the psychological actions, acquiring as a result of education and personal artistic education.