A Review on Accessing to Arts Education in Primary Schools: A Case Study in Turkey

Abstract

Historical process shows that, societies have evolved to different philosophies, policies and different approaches in terms of the sense of education. Today, the sense of education, which refers to the potential of human, is based on human nature, curiosity, need to know and do, and perceives individual as a whole, has been observed to become widespread. Undoubtedly, as all rivers fall into the sea, the sense of education evolving to an approach that accepts human as a whole in cognitive, affective, and psychomotor terms stands before the “exercise for the body”, “music for the soul” perception that has taken the learner and the learning process fragmentary since Plato. The main problem of the educational systems today is that they are individualist, competitive, based on over comparisons, and test-based. Inter- countries over comparisons resulted in the formation of educational programs, which are copied from each other and lack authenticity, originality, and uniqueness elements. Today, one of the learning-teaching methods that refers to the entity unity of human, and aims at developing the common faculties of human; knowing (mind), feeling (conscience and aesthetics) and doing (psychomotor) requirements together, is “drama in education”. Drama should take place in education frequently as both a subject and a method in school programs and teacher training programs. The present research evaluates classroom teachers’ perspectives of how art education is taken at primary schools, who conducts the education, the equipment of schools in accordance with student needs, and art education self-efficacy perceptions of teachers, in accordance with national and international regulations and in terms of children’s right to access art. The main purpose of the present research is studying classroom teachers’ perspectives of art education courses conducted in the province of Aydın, at schools from different socio-economic statuses. Work-group of the research consists of teachers, who teach art at twelve different primary schools in provincial centre of Aydin, Turkey. Schools were selected among low, medium and high level schools in terms of socio economic status, in accordance with purposive sampling method. Sampling method can be defined as “criterion-based sampling”. The present research employed qualitative research techniques, and tried to obtain detailed data with semi-structured interviews. According to the findings obtained in the present research, classroom teachers perceive themselves as inefficient in conducting art education classes, they have problems in implementation and with time, the schools lack equipment and for this reason they have difficulty in creating authentic working environments.