Art Education at Penn State explores the making of art and curriculum as the making of ideas that matter. These ways of making are participatory, creative, and socially relevant. A purpose of Art Education at SoVA is to prepare knowledgeable, skilled, and caring professional educators to become critical, reflective practitioners, researchers and artists, and agents of change for social justice in diverse contexts of educational practice; generate and disseminate knowledge that leads to new pedagogical understandings on which more effective policies and practices can be grounded; and collaborate across disciplines, professions, and constituencies to promote social change that leads to educational improvement and transformation.
SoVA offers a Bachelor of Science in Art Education, with Pennsylvania Instructional I art teacher certification, and Post Baccalaureate Certification in Art Education. The mission is to help students prepare to be knowledgeable, skilled, and caring professional educators; critical, reflective practitioners, researchers, and artists’ as agents of change for social justice in diverse contexts of educational practice.
Art Education faculty members and students form a community of inquirers and teachers who are interested in exploring within and beyond the field of Art Education. Our community thrives on expanding the ever-changing conceptualization of what the field of Art Education was, is, and can be. A variety of observational and participatory experiences in art learning environments, and an extensive pre-practice internship are integral to the program. Upon completion of the degree, employment prospects and/or acceptance for advanced graduate studies depend upon individual achievement and qualifications.
Students in the art education program are introduced to a broad range of ideas, areas of inquiry, and experiences, with the expectation to continue to build on these varied competencies as they progress through the program’s upper level coursework. Content includes an introduction to the historical, philosophical, and sociological foundations of art curriculum, pedagogy, and practice in schools. Beyond an increasingly complex orientation to content knowledge, students in the art education program must also complete a range of place-based observational and participatory teaching experiences in art learning environments, as well as an extensive pre-practice internship.
The purpose of this curricular journey is to prepare students in the art education program to become knowledgeable, skilled, and caring professional educators; critical, reflective practitioners, researchers and artists, and agents of change for social justice in diverse contexts of educational practice; generate and disseminate knowledge that leads to new pedagogical understandings, on which more effective policies and practices can be grounded, and collaborate across disciplines, professions, and constituencies to promote social change that leads to educational improvement and transformation.
Over the course of their programs, students create and are evaluated in relationship to presentations, objects, and texts that range from drawing machines to interactive video games; from digital portfolios to graphic representations of historical movements; from curriculum documents to conventional research papers and position statements; from individually created artworks to collaboratively curated and installed exhibitions of student artwork. The faculty strives to acknowledge the diversity of tasks that art teachers will face, the audiences with whom they will communicate, and the varied tools and symbol systems involved in their work.
In addition to a growing range of integrated fieldwork experiences threaded throughout the undergraduate program, undergraduate courses are taught, for the most part, by faculty who are national leaders in the field. The faculty teach both graduate and undergraduate courses.
Undergraduate students are encouraged to extend their academic and professional opportunities while completing degree and Pennsylvania state art teacher certification requirements. Many of the strongest art education majors also complete BFA degrees in studio art. Other students have completed either dual degrees or minors in Special Education or other areas likely to increase their marketability.
Art Education Undergraduate Degree Program
Post Baccalaureate Certification
Art Education Graduate Degree Programs
Master of Professional Studies (M.P.S.)
Master of Science (M.S.) including dual-title degrees
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph. D.) including dual-title degrees
Art Education Faculty:
B. Stephen Carpenter II, Ph.D., Professor of Art Education and African American Studies, Postbaccaluareate Certification Officer in Art Education
Charles R. Garoian, Ph.D., Professor of Art Education and Art
Yvonne M. Gaudelius, Ph.D. Professor of Art Education and Women's Studies
Karen Keifer-Boyd, Ph.D., Professor of Art Education and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Wanda B. Knight, Ph.D.Associate Professor of Art Education and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Aaron Knochel, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Art Education
Kimberly Powell, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Education and Art Education, and Art Education Graduate Coordinator
Chris Schulte, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Art Education
Mary Ann Stankiewicz, Ph.D., Professor of Art Education
Graeme L. Sullivan, Ph.D., Professor of Art Education and Art, and Director, School of Visual Arts
Grace Hampton, Professor Emeritus of Art, Art Education, and Integrative Arts