Humanism and Inquiry in Art Education

National Art Education Association

Humanism and Inquiry in Art EducationAuthor(s): William StewartSource: Art Education, Vol. 24, No. 3 (Mar., 1971), pp. 19-21Published by: National Art Education AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3191556 .

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Humanism And William Stewart Humanism can be generically defined as a frame of reference or a pattern of ideas for thought and action that is characterized by a sensitive concern for human interests, values, and dignity. It also represents a height- ened concern for the uniqueness and potential of the individual toward the refinement and enrichment of his individual and collective reality. To Read it is a system of ideas which seeks a "coherent conception of human existence and an affirmation, as firm as the empirical facts will allow, of any values that give signifi- cance to our daily activities". He defines humanism in terms of a "sensuous apprehension of being".

It is timely to explore the advan- tages of utilizing humanism as a frame or system of ideas to expand and enrich our concept of inquiry in teaching and learning the visual arts. The richer concept of process and structure available through the frame of humanism can expand for the field of art education what Mumford calls an "existentially underdimensioned reality" that is now available for understanding process, strategy, and value of learning and teaching in the visual arts. These are the characteristics of this system of ideas called humanism that I consider to be especially important to the field of art education:

Inquiry In Art 1. It is a system of ideas that allows

us to strive for psychological satisfaction and fulfillment rather than quantitative reward such as material goods or technologi- cal utilitarianism.

2. It allows a fluid process of mak- ing judgments about directions or goals and not a static process based upon fixed goals or ideal static states.

3. Its organization is in relation to new knowledge and technology and in an open-ended form to accommodate change in aims and valuations in society, education, art, and art education.

4. It rejects the old ideas of simple causation. The system functions, as does everything else in actual experience, in a multiple casual manner. Furthermore, as Huxley suggests, such a system must not be based upon a linear cause-and-effect relationship.

5. Inquiry processes are seen to be cybernetic, involving feedback; the output of the process is always simultaneously results and causes.

6. The idea-system admits to no obvious dualisms. It affirms the unity of mind and body, uni- versal instead of particular, the unity of the spiritual and the material.

7. It also avoids absolutes, includ- ing absolute truth, absolute morality, absolute perfection, and absolute authority.

Education 8. The present stage of the evolu-

tion of man is recognized as a cultural one, and it is psycho- sociological in nature.

9. It excepts the notion that truth must have a biographical context as well as an ideological or theoretical one. It subscribes to the "lively consciousness" of men and women as they are in their daily, vital reality.

10. It recognizes that the real cause of the alienation and dehuman- ization of man is the deadening of his sensitivities.

Such a configuration of thought and action can add richness to the dimensions of the reality of learning and teaching in the visual arts in a number of ways. It suggests that natural differences of methods and values can be developed independ- ently and concomitantly within the field and that these natural differences concerned with methodology, strategy, and values are not the result of poor logic, inadequate understanding, or poor communica- tion, but are the necessary dimensions of an organically evolving, intellect- ually vigorous area of inquiry. Such a rich base of models and structures, teaching, and valuing is a necessary aspect of an emerging discipline. They all create a wealth of concrete insights and alternative structures. Therefore, a new configuration of inquiry derived from humanism could be typified by a richness of formative ideas, projec- tions, and inventive patterns of ideas. There is also the potential for a new set of symbolic structures necessary to understand both the forming and

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experiencing processes in learning in the visual arts.

According to Huxley, the methods of humanism suggest an inquiry that rejects isolation, disorganizing, separating out, reductivism, and dualities. Instead it suggests a con-

figuration whose pattern reflects the richness and potential of the processes and experiences inherent in the arts. Any system of inquiry that utilizes those patterns of ideas called "humanism" utilizes an organic, cybernetic system which encourages a variety of ways of knowing and experiencing the arts. The possible configuration of the discipline of art education suggested by this model is an organic one which accounts for many ways of knowing and valuing. It also admits to the probability of the complexity of solutions as well as problems.

Read observes that the great humanists of the fifteenth and six- teenth centuries, in a scholarly manner, were concerned with the correct use of language. Their purpose was to make clear and public the "mysteries of scholasticism". The work of the humanists then was a revivification of language and symbolic discourse". Read sees an urgent need for a humanism of this kind today. It appears to be as vitally needed as another dimension of inquiry in art education. Comparing modern psychology with medieval scholasticism, he describes the former

as "an extensive array of expert knowledge for the most part written in a repulsive jargon, and before it can become human, a truth accessible to individual men, it must clarify its imagery and refashion its vocabulary."

This concept of humanism adds another rich dimension to inquiry in art education, a rigorous yet sensitive desire to take the "verbalizations" of the empirical sciences and other disciplines as well and transform them into a humane literature that would effect the quality of our thoughts and activities.

This human literature could con- stitute a rich dimension toward improving an effective language to explain or describe art and its relationship to other aspects of learning and experiencing. Recog- nizing the inadequacy of scientific language to describe adequately a richer reality of teaching and learning in the visual arts, this dimension of inquiry would explore the varieties of language and the value of com- binatory ones that could be more effective in describing the dynamic transactional nature of art experiences.

The frame of humanism could create a richer reality for the discipline of art education than the emphasis which has been placed upon the scientific method utilizing "objective consciousness" to describe the essence and dimensions of the field. The scientific method has not fared very well in accounting for the

singular, the personal, the non- repeatable, and the rational and irrational private domains of experiences that make learning in the arts unique.

Cronbach and Suppes, in discussing the development of educational research, report that the earlier scientific movement in education was isolated from the substantive areas of the arts and the sciences. It is their opinion that this isolation made focus too narrow, goals too obtuse, concepts and models too abstract to have meaning to teachers who have a sense of reality also derived from other ways of knowing and understanding.

This same report suggests that there should be greater depth of inquiry by utilizing or drawing upon a wider part of the subject matter spectrum that constitutes insight and concepts about education. This seems to be an important recommendation for teaching and learning in the visual arts. The frame of humanism for inquiry would be such a "varied concern" or an honest desire to clarify, interpret, and intensify the meaningfulness of those forming and experiencing activities in the arts that represent involvement in those dimensions of reality.

As Cronbach and Suppes suggest, to enrich inquiry in teaching and learning in the visual arts it will be necessary to not only take advantage of the richness of concepts across the subject matter fields, but to make wider use of the appropriate method- ologies of inquiry from diverse fields such as philosophy, anthropology, sociology, psychology, and the arts themselves.

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The frame of humanism because it honors a variety of inputs, also suggests new strategies to enrich the dimensions of art education. One is an increase of cooperative ventures by universities, state departments, and school districts. These cooperative models could develop richer concepts of the discipline and a greater potential for inquiry into common concerns and problems. Such cooperative strategies would allow various informed and sensitive groups of resource people to exercise their unique insights and capabilities to make distinct contributions toward expanding the reality and purpose of the field. Such ventures would also allow looks at programs and operational points-of-view across longer periods of time so that a sense of continuity and evolution of ideas, potential, and capabilities could be realized.

It would be necessary to develop cooperative ventures that would involve diverse talents and sensitivities in the human transaction of inquiry. Such ventures would admit that the teacher and the artist know something about forming and teaching derived from their engagement in these endeavors in an experiential manner. Their contribution to in- creased dimensions of inquiry would not only be derived from what could be objectively known in the empirical or scientific sense but as Mumford suggests, as "lived" within their own vital and contributory reality.

It is one of the characteristics of the system of ideas called humanism that it is concerned with the past, the present, and the future. There is a need to accept mistakes and look at the past with a fresh eye and imagination to derive a sense of direction for the future. In addition, as Toffler warns, there is a necessary need for projection into the future as a necessary responsibility of mature inquiry. This, in light of the way our society and educational system is evolving, becomes essential if the role of art in education is to be effective. A concept of our tradi- tion, and an ability to understand the reality of the present might allow us to envision what our role might be in learning environments of the future.

The present suggests that art education can take a very important role in the future in extending the capabilities and potentialities of man to enrich, clarify and intensify his reality if the dimensions of that role are revealed in human terms and values. Art education thus far has represented a segment of the cultural reality that has excepted some depth of responsibility, tradi- tionally developed, that represents an essential set of dimensions in a pattern of ideas about the education

of the future. What contributions it can make to further humanize life and to make man aware of his capabilities and potentialities depends upon how each of us as art educators is able to expand his concepts of reality as meaningful and significant. We could, through our own insights and perceptions, make the field of art education a unique and highly contributory part of a small but growing group of individuals who are concerned with extending the values and dimensions of reality for us all.

William Stewart is associate professor of art education, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Penn., and chairman, the NAEA Seminar for Research in Art Education.

References 1 Leo J. Cronbach & Patrick Suppes,

eds., Research for Tomorow's Schools: Disciplined Inquiry for Education. London: Collier- Macmillan Ltd., 1969.

2 Julian Huxley, Essays of a Human- ist. New York: Harper & Row, 1964.

3 Julian Huxley, The Humanist Frame. New York: Harper & Row, 1961.

4 Lewis Mumford, The Myth of the Machine, The Pentagon of Power. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovano- vich, Inc., 1970.

5 Gardner Murphy & Herbert E. Spohn, Encounter with Reality. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1968.

6 Herbert Read, The Forms of Things Unknown. New York: Horizon Press, 1960.

7 Alvin Toffler, Future Shock. New York: Random House, 1970.

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Humanism and Inquiry in Art Education