Navigating Changes: Taiwanese Art Teachers' Experiences With Aesthetic Education Strategies

Abstract

This study examines how Taiwanese art teachers perceive the potential and challenges of implementing Aesthetic Education strategies, a pedagogical approach rooted in Maxine Greene's philosophy and further developed by the Lincoln Center Institute. In the context of Taiwan's curriculum reforms, nine participants in a master's‐level visual arts teaching course engaged in thematic curriculum development, mock teaching and reflective practice across seven seminar sessions. Data were generated through classroom observations, focus‐group interviews, lesson plans and written reflections and were analysed inductively. Participants valued the strategies' emphasis on teacher–student dialogue, multiple interpretations of artworks and student meaning‐making. However, they also expressed concern about managing unpredictable responses during open‐ended discussion and about addressing complex social issues alongside other purposes of visual arts education. The findings suggest that Aesthetic Education strategies may themselves entail limitations and tensions when their emphasis on open‐ended inquiry and critical engagement encounters other priorities, including studio‐based learning and curricular expectations. These tensions reflect not only issues of teacher preparation but also teachers' professional negotiations within particular classroom and curricular contexts. The study identifies two possible areas in which teacher education may support art educators' context‐sensitive professional judgement: engagement with the meaning‐making dimension of Aesthetic Education and interdisciplinary perspectives relevant to visual and social issues. Overall, the study contributes to discussions of how Aesthetic Education strategies may be critically and contextually negotiated within Taiwanese visual arts education.