The School of Art offers Master of Arts in Art Education, this is the first graduate-level art education program offered in the state of Arkansas. This two-year program is designed for students seeking to expand and deepen their knowledge of theory and practice in art education.
Overview
Our Master of Arts (M.A.) degree program in Art Education is an accredited, two-year residency program. As a research-oriented program, it emphasizes theoretical studies and research inquiries in art education and fosters students’ personal development as art educators, researchers, and critical, reflexive, and imaginative thinkers. Designed for students seeking to expand and deepen their knowledge of theory and practice in Art Education, our program prepares culturally responsive art educators who are dedicated to developing interdisciplinary and collaborative teaching and research approaches and practices that address current and future issues and needs in the field of art education.
Students will study and learn about how art education is conceptualized and practiced across a range of different educational sites—schools, communities, and museums—and develop conceptual, inquiry, and analytical approaches for the conduct of research. They are encouraged to pursue artistic and educational research in areas and topics that interest them to contribute new understandings and knowledge to the field of art education and to their own practice as art educators.
Thanks to the transformational gift from the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation, all graduate students accepted into the program will receive funding support during the two-years of study. We are able to provide a range of graduate assistantships to all of our students, which includes a full-tuition waiver. An annual research stipend as well as a research fellowship are also available. Also, there are many opportunities for students to learn from visiting scholars and artists, pursue research work, and travel to conduct and disseminate research.
Visit Campus
Graduate students are encouraged to visit the school firsthand or to speak with the faculty about their interest in the program before applying. Graduate students can also schedule tours through the office of admissions.
To learn more about the M.A. program and/or set up a tour of the School of Art, please contact Kathy J. Brown, kjb038@uark.edu Director of Graduate Studies in Art Education and Endowed Assistant Professor of Art Education.
How to Apply
The School of Art application is free and submitted through Slideroom, a web-based portfolio and document submission system.
The application deadline is January 15th at midnight, CST, to start the application click here: http://uarkart.slideroom.com/ .
Please note that the GRE is not required for applicants to the Master of Arts program in Art Education at the School of Art at the University of Arkansas.
NOTE: Applicants who have been granted admission by the School of Art will be asked to submit a secondary application to the Graduate School before they can be fully admitted to the university (a link to the application will be provided with the School of Art's offer letter). The Graduate School application fee is $60. For more information about the circumstances in which the application fee can be waived, please review:
Please list all colleges and universities attended:
Please upload (in PDF format) unofficial transcripts from all previous colleges and universities attended, with evidence of an achieved cumulative grade-point average of 3.0, in previously completed undergraduate (and graduate work if applicable).
If English is not your native language, or your baccalaureate (or for applications with a graduate degree) was not completed at an institution where the language of instruction is English, please provide English proficiency test scores (TOEFL, IELTS, or PTE). For more information on requirements, please visit https://internationaladmissions.uark.edu/graduate-studies/english-proficiency.php
Please provide a brief statement describing why you are interested in the Master of Arts degree in Art Education (300 words maximum).
Please provide a short statement outlining your education, art teaching experiences, studio practice (if you a maker) achievements, and goals for graduate study in art education at the University of Arkansas (500 words maximum).
Please upload a copy of your Resume/Curriculum Vitae in PDF format.
If you wish to provide a writing sample, which could include a curriculum sample designed for K-12 classrooms, museum settings, or community learning sites (10 pages maximum, double spaced), please upload a copy in PDF format.
If you maintain a studio practice and wish to share some samples of your work, please upload a portfolio of 10-20 images (up to 5 of which may be close-up images of details of specific works, especially of large scale 2 or 3- dimensional artworks) with the title, medium(s), dimensions, and date. If you are submitting video, provide a website link to sources such as vimeo or youtube (Size limit 5 MB).
Please provide 3 names and contact information for references who will be submitting letters of recommendation. At least two letters should be from higher education faculty or professionals who are able to write about the applicant’s academic and research ability and potential at the graduate level.
The references will receive an email link, prompting them to upload a recommendation letter and complete a short questionnaire. Please include the following information for each reference: Name, Title, Institution, Relationship to you, email address, and phone number.
All recommendations must be received no later than February 5 for full consideration.
More Information About the M.A. Program
Our M.A. degree program in Art Education attracts artist-educators, teaching artists, and museum educators working in schools, museums, community sites. Because of its commitment to theories and practices of art learning and teaching across a range of educational sites, the program provides educational opportunities for both experienced art educators and those who are interested in the study and practice of art education but may not yet have established an extensive and lengthy teaching record.
Thus, a diversity of students representing cultures and teaching experiences within and outside the United States are encouraged to apply and supported upon entry.
Through coursework, research practice, mentorship, and the completion of a research thesis, students:
- Develop familiarity with philosophical and historical foundations of art education and contemporary orientations and issues in the field.
- Expand understandings of the cultural, political, and social contexts in which art education occurs in and across different sites of learning from traditional learning environments to less-traditional ones.
- Develop critical understandings of key diversity, inclusion, and equity theories, issues, and orientations in the field of art education, attending to how diversity, inclusion, and equity affect art learners and the experience of learning in art education.
- Grow capacities to develop curriculum and innovative pedagogical approaches for learners of different ages and in different learning contexts—schools, museums, community centers, and beyond.
- Cultivate critical understandings of research (including research methodologies) in the field of art education.
- Conceptualize and conduct research on art teaching and learning in one or more sites of learning and teaching.
- Communicate and pursue ideas and research in formats that are oral, written, and visual.
- Extend understandings of art education as a creative, educative, and scholarly discipline and practice.
- Avail of opportunities to learn in other disciplinary areas across the School of Art and the University of Arkansas to enrich understandings of art as an educative force in the world.
- Participate in professional organizations and research conferences in the field of art education and related fields.
Students admitted to the M.A. in Art Education degree program must complete a minimum of 33 credit hours to graduate.
These credit hours are distributed as follows:
Students must take 21 credit hours of graduate-level courses in art education (7 courses in total). Twelve of these credit hours will comprise the core curriculum and 9 credit hours of additional courses that align with students’ interest and research foci.
Students will be expected to take one advanced-level course in Studio Art or Art/Design History (3 credit hours) and one advanced-level course in another area of study outside of the discipline of art education, which could include Studio Art or Art/Design History (3 credits). Students will devote the remaining 6 credit hours of their program to conducting research and writing a graduate research thesis.
Students must take the following four courses that comprise the core curriculum of the program.
- ARED 6003: Philosophical Foundations and Histories of Art Education 3.0 units
- ARED 6063: Curriculum and Pedagogical Theories: Art Education 3.0 units
- ARED 5013: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Art Education 3.0 units
- ARED 5003: Introduction to Research Practices and Methodologies in Art Education 3.0 units
Students must take three courses from the list below as they relate to their research interests and foci. Courses will be offered based on student interest and need.
- ARED 6013: Community-Based Art Education 3.0 units
- ARED 6033: Transnational Feminist Perspectives in Art and Education 3.0 units
- ARED 6023: Studying Queer Theory in Art Education 3.0 units
- ARED 6043: Art, Play, and Aesthetics in Childhood 3.0 units
- ARED 6053: Inverse Inclusion as Disability Studies in Art Education 3.0 units
- ARED 695V Special Topics in Art Education 3.0 units
The Art Education faculty continues to develop new graduate course offerings as well as special topics courses. Such courses include:
- Aesthetics, Art, and Research Practice 3.0 units
- Museums as Places of Learning 3.0 units
- Visual Culture and The Politics of Representation 3.0 units
Students are required to take one advanced-level course in Studio Art or Art/Design History and one advanced level course in another area of study outside of the discipline of art education, which could include Studio Art or Art/Design History.
Students’ interests and research foci will guide their selection of courses. It is anticipated that courses offered in the following departments, colleges, and academic units at the University of Arkansas will correspond with the research and educational interests of students pursuing the M.A. degree program in Art Education:
Studio Art (School of Art)
Art/Design History (School of Art)
Educational Research (College of Education and Health Professions)
Curriculum and Instruction (College of Education and Health Professions)
Anthropology (Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences)
Architecture (Fay Jones School of Architecture)
Theater (Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences)
Philosophy (Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences)
Political Science (Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences)
Sociology and Criminology (Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences)
History (Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences)
African and African American Studies Program (Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences)
Faculty
Angela LaPorte is Professor and Director of the Art Education Program for the School of Art. She serves on the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Commission on Arts in Education, is President of the United States Society for Education Through Art, and Associate Editor of the International Journal of Lifelong Learning in Art Education.
Dr. LaPorte’s research and teaching interests include diversity and inclusion across social, generational, and cultural boundaries, focusing on understanding and reducing the implicit barriers that so often segregate individuals and communities. Her innovative pedagogical method, Inverse Inclusion, exposes student teachers to novel insights that guide their praxis and help them establish meaningful relationships in inclusion settings. The course demonstrating this pedagogy has been recognized by the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll.
She has contributed multiple chapters to books published by the National Art Education Association, including one she edited, Community Connections: Intergenerational Links in Art Education, and has published numerous scholarly papers in national and international refereed journals including Studies in Art Education, The International Journal of Education Through Art, International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education, The Journal of Cultural Research in Art Education, The International Journal of Lifelong Learning in Art Education, Artizein: Art and Teaching Journal, and Art Education. She is the recipient of the 2021 National Edwin Ziegfeld Award, 2010 Arkansas Art Educator of the Year and twice (2006/2019) as Arkansas Higher Education Art Educator of the Year, was named a Kenneth Marantz Fellow in 2019, and distinguished with the Edwin Ziegfeld National Award for Outstanding Service in 2003 by the United States Society for Education Through Art.
Dr. Christopher Schulte is Endowed Associate Professor of Art Education and Assistant Director of the School of Art. He is also Founder and Director of the Center for the Study of Childhood Art, an interdisciplinary research, teaching and community engagement center focused on reconceptualizing the study of childhood art. Informed by critical, poststructuralist, posthumanist, and decolonial approaches, Dr. Schulte’s scholarship, teaching and community engagement focus on the artistic, play-based and aesthetic practices of young children, with special attention given to the study of drawing and its relationship to historical and contemporary childhoods.
Dr. Schulte’s research has appeared in handbooks and other edited volumes, as well as national and international peer-reviewed journals, for example, Studies in Art Education, Art Education, Global Studies of Childhood, Visual Arts Research, Qualitative Inquiry, and Cultural Studies-Critical Methodologies. Dr. Schulte is co-editor with Dr. Laura Trafi-Prats of New Images of Thought in the Study of Childhood Drawing (in press, Springer), co-editor with Dr. Hayon Park of Visual Art With Young Children: Practices, Pedagogies and Learning (2021, Routledge), editor of Ethics and Research With Young Children: New Perspectives (2019, Bloomsbury), and co-editor with Dr. Christine Marmé Thompson of Communities of Practice: Art, Play and Aesthetics in Early Childhood (2018, Springer). Dr. Schulte is ABER Editor for the Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy and is an elected member of the Council for Policy Studies in Art Education. Dr. Schulte previously served as Senior Editor of the International Journal of Education & the Arts and has particiapted broadly as an editorial board member and guest reviewer for national and international research journals, including Studies in Art Education, Children's Geographies, Visual Arts Research, Qualitative Inquiry, Bank Street Occasional Papers, Canadian Review of Art Education, Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy, Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, Journal of Childhood Studies, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, Research Ethics, and the Journal of Teacher Education.
Dr. Schulte is past-chairperson of the Seminar for Research in Art Education, past-coordinator of the Elliot Eisner Doctoral Dissertation Research Award in Art Education, and past-coordinator of the Marilyn Zurmuehlen Working Papers Session in Art Education. Prior to joining the faculty in the School of Art at the University of Arkansas, Dr. Schulte held faculty appointments at the Pennsylvania State University, the University of Georgia, and the University of Northern Iowa.
While on faculty at Penn State University, Dr. Schulte held the position of Assistant Professor of Art Education and Curriculum and Instruction (Early Childhood Education). During this time, Dr. Schulte also served as Undergraduate Coordinator for the Art Education program and as Associate Director of Research for Penn State's Center for Pedagogy in Arts and Design (C-PAD). At the University of Georgia, Dr. Schulte held the position of Assistant Professor of Art Education and was an affiliate faculty member with UGA's renowned Interdisciplinary Qualitative Studies Program. During his time at UGA, Dr. Schulte also served as Co-Area Head and Graduate Coordinator for the Art Education program. While on faculty at the University of Northern Iowa, Dr. Schulte held the position of Visiting Assistant Professor of Art Education, where he taught courses in Art and Art Education.
Funding: Assistantships and Travel Scholarships
All accepted M.A. students are eligible for a full Graduate Assistantship which includes a full tuition waiver and an annual stipend of $15,000, and a Graduate Fellowship in the amount of $4,000 per year, for a total package of $19,000 of support.
There are two types of Assistantships are available—one which requires 20 hours of work per week (Assistantship A) and one which requires 10 hours per week (Assistantship B). Assignments are determined by balancing the needs of the Art Education Program and research activities of Art Education faculty members, the School of Art and the student's interests, experience, and proficiencies.
Other funding packages are also available for those who are unable to devote themselves to the work attached to a Graduate Assistantship. These awards are renewable for up to two years, contingent on making satisfactory academic progress and fulfillment of assistantship duties.
Students who wish to present their research at national and/or international art education conferences (and conferences in related fields) could apply for this award. An award of up to $1,000 is made available for attendance and presentation at a national conference and $2,000 for an international conference.
In addition to the annual $4000 research stipend that is awarded to all students, this competitive award is granted to support the cost of conducting research (including the purchase of supplies for research; travel to conduct fieldwork (including visiting libraries and archives; and for specialized research training) directly related to students’ M.A. research thesis. Awards of up to a maximum of $4000 are made. Awardees would be expected to share outcomes of their research members of the art education community in the school of art at the annual colloquium of student research.