Action research on visual culture education in visual arts teacher training

With the developments in technology, reproduction of images thanks to technological opportunities change and transform not only the social life but also the art, meaning of art and its production in today's world of visual stimuli. The importance of imaging technologies both in life experiences and in the field of art has made it necessary to examine these fields with visual culture studies. The emphasis of culture on experiences in visual format has caused visual culture to appear as a field of study and brought forward visual culture education which helps analyze and give meaning to visual stimuli that individuals come across. In this respect, recent theoretical discussions in the field of art education have all focused on including visual culture education – associated with such paradigms as critical pedagogy - into art education. The present study is believed to reveal the relationships between art, education, culture, society, new technologies and media and to emphasize their importance. In the study, various activities were prepared to teach these relationships not only via the traditional connections of today's Visual Art Education but also via the visual culture studies that, as a new tendency, combine theory and practice. As there are limited related studies and sources in literature, this study is important in many respects. In institutions giving art education, there is no sufficient course content which will help access to other disciplines, which includes daily visual experiences via the socio-cultural area and various media and which will allow a critical approach. In this study, which aimed at determining how to include visual culture studies in art education, the action research design was used. As the researcher was a research assistant in the department of Fine Arts Education at the Education Faculty of Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, the study was carried out within the scope of the course of Art Studio. The participants in the study were 12 senior students taking the course of Art Studio in the department of Fine Arts Education at the Education Faculty of Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University in the Fall Term and Spring Term of the academic year of 2012-2013 and the faculty member giving this course. The research data were collected in 44 class hours in a period of 11 weeks between 1 October 2012 - 4 April 2013. In the study, the video records of classes, researcher's journals, students' journals, semi-structured interviews, documents and students' art studies were used. The research data were analyzed with the content analysis method, and the findings obtained were interpreted within the framework of the research questions. Based on the results obtained, several suggestions were put forward for practice and for future studies. Some of the important findings obtained in the study are as follows: • It was seen that with the visual culture studies, the students raised their awareness of the social and cultural functions of images; that they made critical interpretations; and that they made good use of their daily experiences. • With this study, it was revealed that the students interrogated social issues from an artistic perspective and that they raised their awareness of both modern art production and social issues. • It was seen that the students were able to avoid their prejudice against reading and research in time. • The students reported that visual culture studies would contribute to their future teaching experiences. Key Words: Art education, Visual Culture, Critical Pedagogy, Interdisciplinary Learning