Philosophical Questions in Art Education: Why the Arts Can and Should Be Taught in Schools

This book examines the rationale of incorporating the arts in the school curriculum from a philosophical, rather than pedagogical, perspective.

Educational resources are frequently under scrutiny, and education policy makers wish to maximize the use of public funds and children’s time at school, leaving the arts as a lower priority. To understand the logic behind this, Lorand revisits milestones in the history of the philosophy of art to address core questions in art education, namely, what are the challenges of teaching the arts? And why teach the arts at all?

Lorand draws on the work of a broad range of philosophers including Dewey, Eisner, Greene, Hume, Plato, Kant, Langer, Read and Schiller. The book aims to show how attempts to justify art as a tool for societal and individual improvement fail in advocating art education. Ultimately she claims that the arts should be taught because children have the right to receive art education. That right stems from the unique nature of art.

Dorit Barchana-Lorand is Head of Theoretical Studies in the School of Art, Arts Faculty at Kibbutzim College, Israel.