Why Do We Teach Art Today?

Abstract

Different, and sometimes conflicting, justifications have been advanced for the importance of teaching art in schools. Following the broad historical conceptual frameworks established by Efland (1990) to describe these debates, the paper traces how these frameworks continue to be useful in categorizing contemporary arguments on the form of art education. The paper contends that many current popular justifications for art education lack a solid epistemological rationale. Out of this review, a conceptual framework that approaches art education as a study of reasoned perception is advocated as the soundest epistemological foundation for the field.