The Visual Arts in Basic Education: Reasons and Concerns

Abstract

To talk about art education among us, in the national context, is not simple. When it comes to our educational system, despite the general difficulty of reaching consensus regarding the complex relationship between art and education, there has been a lack of the consistency of a valid vision; which generally flows between more or less enlightened political wills, and is still, even today, not consensually accepted as a relevant domain in the formation of the individual, whether in society in general, or in school.
Similarly, although we live in a time where images of the most varied origins and intentions flood our daily lives which we do not know how to “read” deeply, the space set for the visual arts in our educational system is also very small and of little acceptance by many educational communities.
Taking into consideration that research in art education is a space of constant inquiry, questioning, and exploration, and that art education itself is a space in which one wishes to establish close relations between theories and practices in a mixture that can never ignore its essence, that is, of what is art, I intend to explore a set of ideas about the reasons why I consider that it is imperative that the learning in the visual arts in basic education should be fostered. As well as to encourage reflection on the classroom practices that are desired, practices based on pedagogies that stimulate the development of deep learning, which might bring students closer to the essence of what is art, encouraging them to question, to explore, to engage in the exercise of confrontation of ideas and to create.