An assesment of Kitsch phenomenon in the context of critical pedagogy and aesthetic appreciation in art education

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the concept of Kitsch and aesthetic in terms of critical pedagogy in art education. Therefore, the study focuses on the subjects of art education in terms of critical pedagogy, value problem in art education, Modern art education with reference to Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School, Concept of Kitsch in terms of consumption relations in art education and aesthetics. In addition, opinions of the students receiving art education about the critical pedagogy, concept of Kitsch and aesthetic are investigated. This is a theoretical-analytical study structured using the "Descriptive Research" method, one of the types of qualitative research. In the context of descriptive research, past and current sources were reviewed for the concepts about critical pedagogy, Kitsch and aesthetics, which are the cut stones of the theory, and document examinations and interpretations were made. In addition to document examination, semi-structured in-depth interview method was used to discuss the social validity of qualitative data. The target population of the study is the department of Art Teaching departments of higher education institutions. The sample group to be interviewed is the 4th graders of Art Painting Department (30 people) in the Art Teaching department of Buca Education Faculty of Dokuz Eylul University. Opinions of the undergraduates who receive art education were received about the Kitsch concept and its features, Kitsch's relationship with art, whether Kitsch works are produced or not in art education, what is "Beautiful" and what is "Ugly" in works of art, "Aesthetics" concept in art education and implementation of the "Critical Pedagogy" method in art education. Opinions of the students were received through the semi-structured interview form comprising of six questions prepared by the researchers. It was appealed to expert opinion to ensure content-scope validity of the questions in the interview form. Interview with each student lasted approximately forty minutes. As a result of the reasoning data analysis, the data were turned into themes and the frequency and percentages of these themes were calculated. Direct quotations from the answers given by the students were presented in the results section. Moreover, the contents of the statements of the students were analyzed and each student was given a code for definition. These codes were S (Student), student number (1-30), gender (F-M). As a result of the evaluation of the interview questions within the scope of the study, it was determined under which themes the data will be organized and a framework was established for the data analysis. Two researchers analyzed the answers to the research questions separately. The coding processes of two researchers were calculated through the Consensus/Consensus+Divergence X 100 (Miles and Huberman, 1994) for the reliability study. Accordingly, the reliability of the research was calculated as 91%. The article agreed by the students most was "Critical pedagogy method is not used in the art education". Moreover, in a great part of the answers, take part the students' expectations from the education. The essential points of these expectations match with the basic dynamics of critical pedagogy (dialogue, praxis, self-reflection, intellectuality, context, transformation, cultural reproduction and communication). Besides, students have utopian approaches to the entire life with reference to art education. The study offers suggestions about that an alternative understanding may be established in the art education in line with the basic dynamics, purpose and practice of critical pedagogy considering the results obtained.