Visual dialogue: learning journeys, 21st century skills, and arts-based research in the university art studio

Abstract

Alignment between liberal arts and professional preparation has a distinct, if not complex, historical relationship. However, little is known about how university art professors engage students in learning experiences that are situated in contemporary conditions of globalization, innovation, and technology. This study investigated how art instruction was used to create learning journeys that capture 21st century social and vocational outcomes through the experiences of two art educators and two students. An arts-based research design was used, blending conventional data collection (interviews/observations) with alternative forms of representation (drawings/sculpture). The context, social setting of the study, and the art studio, were presented, along with how the deliberate methods that studio art professors used in studio art instruction created student professional learning that prepares students to address workplace, and global challenges. The critical findings suggest that intellectual rigor was fostered between the arts and professional practice by including (1) technical elements of art education, (2) artistic work activities for students to access deeper areas of their psychological/social experience, and (3) opportunities for students to explore personal imagery as a means to prepare them for increasingly complex life and work environments. In turn, students engaged in new experiences, processes, and techniques to curate a personalized learning journey, extending beyond the boundaries of studio-based courses. The findings centered on how the participants recognized that specific skills, knowledge, and identity served students to construct their learning journeys. The critical themes identified surrounding students’ learning journeys centered on students’ approaches to learning, artistic development, being enterprising, communication and support, and setting personal standards. Students demonstrated mastery of 21st century skills, such as critical thinking, flexibility/adaptability, initiative, productivity, leadership, and social/cross-cultural skills by adapting to change, through a discipline of “making something out of nothing.”