Secondary school students' perceptions of social justice in visual arts education: Visual phenomenological study

The importance of social justice-oriented life and education in the world is increasing day by day. Educational policies of developed countries are organized within the framework of critical, inclusive, accessible and universal human rights. It is known that the budget allocated to education in the development plans of developed countries is the highest budget. In line with this need, with an understanding of art education emphasizing social justice,It is important for the individual to develop critical thinking skills and acquire an inquiring attitude.is gaining. In this context, the aim of the research is to examine what the secondary school students' perceptions of social justice are in the visual arts course and how they experience it in their lives, and how they can be developed and implemented through visual inquiries. This research, designed with visual phenomenology, was collected in an 8-week period between April 1 - June 1 2022 of the second semester of the 2021-2022 academic year in secondary school. The participants of the research are 6th and 7th grade 12 secondary school students and 4 visual arts teachers.Personal information form, documents, photo-sound recordings, semi-structured interview form were used as data collection tools in the research. The data of the research were analyzed by content analysis method. Within the scope of the findings of the research, four main themes were reached: "Perception of Social Justice", "Reflection of Social Justice in the Artistic Process", "Inquiry in the Visual Pedagogical Process" and "Opinions".