Teachers’ Views on the Use of Photography in Teaching Arts in Croatian Primary Schools
Abstract
Contemporary art education relies on the use of diverse methods, approaches, art techniques, and technologies. Although photography is part of daily visual communication and gallery exhibitions, there is no structured approach to photography as a medium for learning the arts in Croatian primary schools. The objectives of the quantitative study were to determine art teachers’ views on (1) their knowledge about photography, (2) their abilities in using photography in art teaching, (3) obstacles to using photography in art teaching, and (4) the importance of photography in students’ visual culture. Regarding the fourth objective, we wanted to examine possible differences in terms of the teachers’ gender, age, and length of service. A survey was conducted with 112 teachers who teach arts in 5th to 8th grades in 17 Croatian counties. The results of the descriptive statistics were supplemented with a qualitative analysis of the teachers’ responses in the questionnaire. The results show that the teachers perceive their knowledge about photography obtained by formal education as average, but they assess their abilities to apply photography in their lessons as slightly better. The main problem, in their view, is a low number of art lessons in the Croatian curriculum. The teachers generally agree that photography is very important in a student’s visual culture, regardless of the teachers’ gender, age. and years of service. These findings indicate the need to place greater emphasis on photography as an artistic medium in primary school, as it may generate new visual knowledge and artistic skills.
Downloads
References
Beck, R. J. (2009). The cultivation of students’ metaphoric imagination of peace in a creative photography program. International Journal of Education & the Arts, 10(18), 1–27. http://www.ijea.org/v10n18/
Bedi, K., & Varga, M. (2018). Visual perception and attitudes of students toward the role and importance of photography – studentsʹ creative and artistic photographic works through projectâ€based learning. Media Dialogues. Journal for research of the media and society, 30(11), 5–17.
Bessell, A. G., Deese, W. B., & Medina, A. L. (2007). Photolanguage: How a picture can inspire a thousand words. American Journal of Evaluation, 28(4), 558–569. https://doi.org/10.1177/1098214007306372
Croatian Bureau of Statistics. (2019). Basic schools – end of 2017/2018 school year and beginning of 2018/2019 school year (8.1.2). https://www.dzs.hr
Eisner, E. (2002). The arts and the creation of mind. Yale University Press.
Freund, G. (1980). Photography & society. D. R. Godine.
Gadsden, V. L. (2008). The arts and education: Knowledge generation, pedagogy, and the discourse of learning. Review of Research in Education, 32(1), 29–61. https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732X07309691
IBM Corporation. (2016). IBM SPSS Statistics for Macintosh, Version 23.0. IBM Corporation.
Kolb, D. A., Boyatzis, R. E., & Mainemelis, C. (2001). Experiential learning theory: Previous research and new directions. In R. J. Sternberg & L.-F. Zhang (Eds.), The educational psychology series. Perspectives on thinking, learning, and cognitive styles (pp. 227–247). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.
Linardić, L. (2015). Attitudes of primary school pupils about printmaking. MetodiÄki obzori, 10(2015)1(21), 2–11. https://doi.org/10.32728/mo.10.1.2015.01
Ledinšćak, J., Popović, Ž., Bogut, I., & Užarević, Z. (2017). Fotografiranje kao postupak u nastavi: PriruÄnik za uÄitelje i studente uÄiteljskih i prirodoslovnih studija [Photography as a teaching procedure: A handbook for teachers and students of teacher and science studies]. SveuÄiliÅ¡te Josipa Jurja Strossmayera u Osijeku, Fakultet za odgojne i obrazovne znanosti.
Ministry of Science and Education [Ministarstvo znanosti i obrazovanja]. (2019). Odluka o donošenju kurikuluma za nastavni predmet Likovne kulture za osnovne škole i Likovne umjetnosti za gimnazije u Republici Hrvatskoj [Decision on adopting the curriculum for arts in primary school and the history of art in the Croatian high schools]. (NN 7/2019). https://narodne-novine.nn.hr/clanci/sluzbeni/2019_01_7_162.html
Ministry of Science, Education and Sports [Ministarstvo znanosti, obrazovanja i Å¡porta]. (2006). HNOS: Nastavni plan i program za osnovnu Å¡kolu [Curriculum for primary schools].
Newbury, D. (1996). Photography in schools: Current trends in theory and practice. Journal of Art & Design Education, 15(1), 17–22.
Peraica, A. (2010). Fotografija kao dokaz [Photography as evidence] (Doctoral dissertation). Filozofski fakultet u Rijeci.
Rand, G., & Zakia, R. D. (2006). Teaching photography: Tools for the imaging educator. Taylor & Francis.
Share, J. (2015). Cameras in classrooms: Photography’s pedagogical potential. In D. M. Baylen & A. D’Alba (Eds.), Essentials of teaching and integrating visual and media literacy (pp. 97–118). Springer.
Sharples, M., Davison, L., Thomas, G. V., & Rudman, P. D. (2003). Children as photographers: An analysis of children’s photographic behaviour and intention at three age levels. SAGE Publications, 2(3), 303–330.
Sontag, S. (2005). On Photography. Rosetta Books LLC., Straus & Giroux.
Tacol, T. (1999). DidaktiÄni pristop k naÄrtovanju likovnih nalog. Izbrana poglavja iz likovne didaktike [Didactic approach to design art tasks. Selected topics in art didactics]. Debora.
TomÅ¡iÄ ÄŒerkez, B. (2014). Perceptual literacy and the construction of significant meanings within art education. International Journal of Art & Design Education, 33(2), 272–285. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1476-8070.2014.01770.x
TomÅ¡iÄ ÄŒerkez, B. (2015). Teaching and learning through art. Center for Educational Policy Studies Journal, 5(3), 5–9.
Triacca, S. (2017). Teaching and learning with pictures the use of photography in primary schools. Proceedings of the International and Interdisciplinary Conference IMMAGINI? Image and Imagination between Representation, Communication, Education and Psychology, 1(9), 952.
Turković, V. (2009). Arts education in transition: Arts education in the European educational system. Metodika: Äasopis za teoriju i praksu, 10(18), 152–187.
UNESCO. (2006). RoadMap for arts education. The World Conference on Arts Education: Building Creative Capacities for the 21st Century.
http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/CLT/CLT/pdf/Arts_Edu_RoadMap_en.pdf
Vogrinc, J. (2008). Kvalitativno raziskovanje na pedagoÅ¡kem podroÄju [Qualitative research in the pedagogical field]. PedagoÅ¡ka fakulteta UL.
Županić Benić, M. (2017). StruÄne kompetencije uÄitelja u kurikulu umjetniÄkih podruÄja. [Teacher competences in the arts curriculum] (Doctoral dissertation). Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors are confirming that they are the authors of the submitted article, which will be published online in the Center for Educational Policy Studies Journal (for short: CEPS Journal) by University of Ljubljana Press (University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Education, Kardeljeva ploščad 16, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia). The Author’s/Authors’ name(s) will be evident in the article in the journal. All decisions regarding layout and distribution of the work are in the hands of the publisher.
- The Authors guarantee that the work is their own original creation and does not infringe any statutory or common-law copyright or any proprietary right of any third party. In case of claims by third parties, authors commit themselves to defend the interests of the publisher, and shall cover any potential costs.
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
