Art Education
College of Arts and Architecture
School of Visual Arts
Penn State ranks as one of the outstanding land-grant universities in the country. The University has earned national acclaim as a major research center. Penn State’s Art Education Program in the School of Visual Arts makes a valuable contribution to the University’s commitment to quality research, dedicated teaching, and the preparation of talented graduate students for careers in research and teaching. Penn State is one of the largest land-grant universities in the United States, with approximately 71,000 students at twenty-three locations throughout Pennsylvania. Of the 42,000 students at the University Park campus, more than 7,000 are enrolled in graduate programs.
Among the campus’ outstanding academic facilities are many sophisticated computer and research laboratories. The School of Visual Arts has two computer labs, available for use by its graduate students, in Patterson Building. The University Libraries system has 3.6 million catalogued volumes and an extensive collection of periodicals and government documents—all of which can be accessed through the computerized Library Information Access System (LIAS), the University’s on-line catalog. In addition, the archives of the National Art Education Association and of Viktor Lowenfeld, one of the founders of the modern discipline of art education, are housed in the library archives at Penn State.
With its record of important publications and research, the faculty of the Art Education Program has established a national reputation as one of the leading programs in art education. This tradition is a long and prestigious one; since the beginning of the graduate program in 1947, the Art Education Program has awarded more than 300 doctoral degrees and numerous master's degrees. In addition, ten Penn State doctoral students were awarded Getty Doctoral Dissertation Fellowships, nearly one-quarter of the forty-two fellowships given from 1991 to 1999 and more than any other art education graduate program. Our graduates have gone on to become important leaders in the field of art education.
Like other comparable programs, the graduate program in art education offers instruction in the traditional areas of teacher preparation and issues related to public school teaching. With a combination of depth, breadth, and quality perhaps unmatched elsewhere in the nation, the faculty in art education combine these research interests with the study of the intersection of art education and contemporary philosophy, postmodernism, semiotics, museum studies, assessment and evaluation, child growth and development, curriculum theory, the history of art education, visual culture, and contemporary cultural issues. The program also has strength in studio areas of research in art education due to close relationships with faculty in the School of Visual Arts. In addition, all students’ programs are arranged to facilitate preparation in the associated fields of their interest, such as aesthetics, curriculum and instruction, philosophy, and women’s studies. There is a provision for directed research, collaboration, and in-depth consultation by students with members of the faculty.
What distinguishes this graduate program from others is the strong interest and unique strength in the broad philosophical and historical understandings of the field of art education, and in some of the less traditional fields that now command increasing interest among graduate students and faculty in art education. A common thread that binds together many of our courses and research is an interest among many of the faculty in the interdisciplinary study of art education. Some of the areas that are explored in the Art Education Program at Penn State include pedagogy, qualitative research, policy studies, visual culture, diversity, interpretation, museums, epistemology, aesthetics, history, identity, technology, performance, critical theory, children's culture, and gender issues. With the development of dual degrees between Art Education and Women’s Studies, as well as the interests of faculty in the School of Visual Arts, the Art Education Program ranks as one of the nation’s foremost programs for the study of art, art education, and gender issues.
Graduate students in art education benefit from the relatively small size of this selective program. Small seminars provide ample opportunity for intellectual dialogues with professors and fellow students. Professors work closely with their students to ensure successful completion of the program and placement in teaching and research positions.
At Penn State, you will discover a lively intellectual climate that encourages and supports a rigorous and stimulating graduate program. Graduate students benefit from the many colloquia, conferences, symposia, and special events on campus, as well as those sponsored by the program. In addition, you will become acquainted with varied research methodologies in art education, an introduction that will enable you to develop an important and timely area of research. In addition to acquiring substantive expertise in the discipline, students are strongly encouraged to develop competence in areas removed from their main field of specialization.
All graduate students are expected to complete a research project that makes a significant, original contribution to the field of art education. But the program’s commitment to producing outstanding teachers is of no less importance than the commitment to scholarship. The program makes every effort to support Ph.D. candidates and to provide each Ph.D. candidate with an opportunity for supervised teaching of his or her own course. Whenever possible, this opportunity is extended to master’s degree students. This teaching experience and training has proved invaluable in placing graduates of the program in the openings available each year.
We invite you to compete for admission to our relatively small and highly selective graduate program. Within the context of a large Research One university, you will be privileged to learn the skills of teaching and research with eminent and emerging leaders of our profession.
Applicants to the graduate program must meet the general Graduate School admission requirements, as well as additional admission requirements stipulated by the program (see “Application Procedures").
Penn State is committed to the policy that all persons shall have equal access to programs, facilities, admission, and employment without regard to personal characteristics, not related to ability, performance, or qualifications as determined by University policy, or by state or federal authorities. For more information on diversity programs at Penn State, please visit Penn State’s Diversity site or contact the Affirmative Action Director, The Pennsylvania State University, 328 Boucke Building, University Park PA 16802-5901; tel. (814) 863-0471; TDD (814) 865-3175.