Please list all colleges and universities attended:

Please upload (in PDF format) unofficial transcripts from all previous colleges and universities attended, with evidence of an achieved cumulative grade-point average of 3.0, in previously completed undergraduate (and graduate work if applicable).

If English is not your native language, or your baccalaureate (or for applications with a graduate degree) was not completed at an institution where the language of instruction is English, please provide English proficiency test scores (TOEFL, IELTS, or PTE). For more information on requirements, please visit https://internationaladmissions.uark.edu/graduate-studies/english-proficiency.php

Please provide a brief statement describing why you are interested in the Master of Arts degree in Art Education (300 words maximum).

Please provide a short statement outlining your education, art teaching experiences, studio practice (if you a maker) achievements, and goals for graduate study in art education at the University of Arkansas (500 words maximum).

Please upload a copy of your Resume/Curriculum Vitae in PDF format.

If you wish to provide a writing sample, which could include a curriculum sample designed for K-12 classrooms, museum settings, or community learning sites (10 pages maximum, double spaced), please upload a copy in PDF format.

If you maintain a studio practice and wish to share some samples of your work, please upload a portfolio of 10-20 images (up to 5 of which may be close-up images of details of specific works, especially of large scale 2 or 3- dimensional artworks) with the title, medium(s), dimensions, and date. If you are submitting video, provide a website link to sources such as vimeo or youtube (Size limit 5 MB). 

Please provide 3 names and contact information for references who will be submitting letters of recommendation. At least two letters should be from higher education faculty or professionals who are able to write about the applicant’s academic and research ability and potential at the graduate level. 

The references will receive an email link, prompting them to upload a recommendation letter and complete a short questionnaire. Please include the following information for each reference: Name, Title, Institution, Relationship to you, email address, and phone number.

All recommendations must be received no later than February 5 for full consideration.

Our M.A. degree program in Art Education attracts artist-educators, teaching artists, and museum educators working in schools, museums, community sites. Because of its commitment to theories and practices of art learning and teaching across a range of educational sites, the program provides educational opportunities for both experienced art educators and those who are interested in the study and practice of art education but may not yet have established an extensive and lengthy teaching record.

Thus, a diversity of students representing cultures and teaching experiences within and outside the United States are encouraged to apply and supported upon entry.

Through coursework, research practice, mentorship, and the completion of a research thesis, students:

• Develop familiarity with philosophical and historical foundations of art education and contemporary orientations and issues in the field.
• Expand understandings of the cultural, political, and social contexts in which art education occurs in and across different sites of learning from traditional learning environments to less-traditional ones.
• Develop critical understandings of key diversity, inclusion, and equity theories, issues, and orientations in the field of art education, attending to how diversity, inclusion, and equity affect art learners and the experience of learning in art education.
• Grow capacities to develop curriculum and innovative pedagogical approaches for learners of different ages and in different learning contexts—schools, museums, community centers, and beyond.
• Cultivate critical understandings of research (including research methodologies) in the field of art education.
• Conceptualize and conduct research on art teaching and learning in one or more sites of learning and teaching.
• Communicate and pursue ideas and research in formats that are oral, written, and visual.
• Extend understandings of art education as a creative, educative, and scholarly discipline and practice.
• Avail of opportunities to learn in other disciplinary areas across the School of Art and the University of Arkansas to enrich understandings of art as an educative force in the world.
• Participate in professional organizations and research conferences in the field of art education and related fields.

Students admitted to the M.A. in Art Education degree program must complete a minimum of 33 credit hours to graduate.

These credit hours are distributed as follows:

Students must take 21 credit hours of graduate-level courses in art education (7 courses in total).  Twelve of these credit hours will comprise the core curriculum and 9 credit hours of additional courses that align with students’ interest and research foci.

Students will be expected to take one advanced-level course in Studio Art or Art/Design History (3 credit hours) and one advanced-level course in another area of study outside of the discipline of art education, which could include Studio Art or Art/Design History (3 credits). Students will devote the remaining 6 credit hours of their program to conducting research and writing a graduate research thesis.

Students must take the following four courses that comprise the core curriculum of the program.

_ARED 6003: Philosophical Foundations and Histories of Art Education 3.0 units        

_ARED 6063: Curriculum and Pedagogical Theories: Art Education 3.0 units

_ARED 5013: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Art Education 3.0 units

_ARED 5003: Introduction to Research Practices and Methodologies in Art Education 3.0 units

Students must take three courses from the list below as they relate to their research interests and foci. Courses will be offered based on student interest and need.

_ARED 6013: Community-Based Art Education  3.0 units        

_ARED 6033: Transnational Feminist Perspectives in Art and Education 3.0 units

_ARED 6023: Studying Queer Theory in Art Education 3.0 units

_ARED 6043: Art, Play, and Aesthetics in Childhood 3.0 units        

_ARED 6053: Inverse Inclusion as Disability Studies in Art Education 3.0 units

_ARED 695V Special Topics in Art Education 3.0 units

The Art Education faculty continues to develop new graduate course offerings as well as special topics courses. Such courses include:

_Aesthetics, Art, and Research Practice  3.0 units        

_Museums as Places of Learning 3.0 units

_Visual Culture and The Politics of Representation 3.0 units

Students are required to take one advanced-level course in Studio Art or Art/Design History and one advanced level course in another area of study outside of the discipline of art education, which could include Studio Art or Art/Design History.

Students’ interests and research foci will guide their selection of courses. It is anticipated that courses offered in the following departments, colleges, and academic units at the University of Arkansas will correspond with the research and educational interests of students pursuing the M.A. degree program in Art Education:

Studio Art (School of Art)                                                                           

Art/Design History (School of Art)                                                

Educational Research (College of Education and Health Professions)

Curriculum and Instruction (College of Education and Health Professions)

Anthropology (Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences)

Architecture (Fay Jones School of Architecture)

Theater (Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences)

Philosophy (Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences)

Political Science (Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences)

Sociology and Criminology (Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences)

History (Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences)

African and African American Studies Program (Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences)

Art Education Graduate Studies Handbook

Angela LaPorte is Professor and Director of the Art Education Program for the School of Art. She serves on the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Commission on Arts in Education, is President of the United States Society for Education Through Art, and Associate Editor of the International Journal of Lifelong Learning in Art Education.

Dr. LaPorte’s research and teaching interests include diversity and inclusion across social, generational, and cultural boundaries, focusing on understanding and reducing the implicit barriers that so often segregate individuals and communities. Her innovative pedagogical method, Inverse Inclusion, exposes student teachers to novel insights that guide their praxis and help them establish meaningful relationships in inclusion settings. The course demonstrating this pedagogy has been recognized by the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll.

She has contributed multiple chapters to books published by the National Art Education Association, including one she edited, Community Connections: Intergenerational Links in Art Education, and has published numerous scholarly papers in national and international refereed journals including Studies in Art Education, The International Journal of Education Through Art, International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education, The Journal of Cultural Research in Art Education, The International Journal of Lifelong Learning in Art Education, Artizein: Art and Teaching Journal, and Art Education. She is the recipient of the 2021 National Edwin Ziegfeld Award, 2010 Arkansas Art Educator of the Year and twice (2006/2019) as Arkansas Higher Education Art Educator of the Year, was named a Kenneth Marantz Fellow in 2019, and distinguished with the Edwin Ziegfeld National Award for Outstanding Service in 2003 by the United States Society for Education Through Art.

Dr. Christopher Schulte is Endowed Associate Professor of Art Education and Assistant Director of the School of Art. He is also Founder and Director of the Center for the Study of Childhood Art, an interdisciplinary research, teaching and community engagement center focused on reconceptualizing the study of childhood art. Informed by critical, poststructuralist, posthumanist, and decolonial approaches, Dr. Schulte’s scholarship, teaching and community engagement focus on the artistic, play-based and aesthetic practices of young children, with special attention given to the study of drawing and its relationship to historical and contemporary childhoods.

Dr. Schulte’s research has appeared in handbooks and other edited volumes, as well as national and international peer-reviewed journals, for example, Studies in Art Education, Art Education, Global Studies of Childhood, Visual Arts Research, Qualitative Inquiry, and Cultural Studies-Critical Methodologies. Dr. Schulte is co-editor with Dr. Laura Trafi-Prats of New Images of Thought in the Study of Childhood Drawing (in press, Springer), co-editor with Dr. Hayon Park of Visual Art With Young Children: Practices, Pedagogies and Learning (2021, Routledge), editor of Ethics and Research With Young Children: New Perspectives (2019, Bloomsbury), and co-editor with Dr. Christine Marmé Thompson of Communities of Practice: Art, Play and Aesthetics in Early Childhood (2018, Springer). Dr. Schulte is ABER Editor for the Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy and is an elected member of the Council for Policy Studies in Art Education. Dr. Schulte previously served as Senior Editor of the International Journal of Education & the Arts and has particiapted broadly as an editorial board member and guest reviewer for national and international research journals, including Studies in Art Education, Children's Geographies, Visual Arts Research, Qualitative Inquiry, Bank Street Occasional Papers, Canadian Review of Art Education, Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy, Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, Journal of Childhood Studies, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, Research Ethics, and the Journal of Teacher Education. 

Dr. Schulte is past-chairperson of the Seminar for Research in Art Education, past-coordinator of the Elliot Eisner Doctoral Dissertation Research Award in Art Education, and past-coordinator of the Marilyn Zurmuehlen Working Papers Session in Art Education. Prior to joining the faculty in the School of Art at the University of Arkansas, Dr. Schulte held faculty appointments at the Pennsylvania State University, the University of Georgia, and the University of Northern Iowa.

While on faculty at Penn State University, Dr. Schulte held the position of Assistant Professor of Art Education and Curriculum and Instruction (Early Childhood Education). During this time, Dr. Schulte also served as Undergraduate Coordinator for the Art Education program and as Associate Director of Research for Penn State's Center for Pedagogy in Arts and Design (C-PAD). At the University of Georgia, Dr. Schulte held the position of Assistant Professor of Art Education and was an affiliate faculty member with UGA's renowned Interdisciplinary Qualitative Studies Program. During his time at UGA, Dr. Schulte also served as Co-Area Head and Graduate Coordinator for the Art Education program. While on faculty at the University of Northern Iowa, Dr. Schulte held the position of Visiting Assistant Professor of Art Education, where he taught courses in Art and Art Education.

Injeong Yoon-Ramirez is an Endowed Assistant Professor of Art Education and Affiliate Faculty in Gender Studies at the University of Arkansas. Her research projects are deeply interconnected with her teaching and community organizing. Academically, her work addresses critical race feminism and its pedagogical implications, decolonial aesthetics, transnational feminisms, and translanguaging pedagogy. Currently, she is co-editing a transdisciplinary anthology, “Transnational Feminist Arts Praxis and Pedagogy for Decolonization: Critical Engagements with Arts and Activism” (Routledge, forthcoming in 2022). The book, as a collaborative project, features various forms of writings and artworks created by decolonial feminist artists, activists, educators, and scholars based in Bolivia, Canada, Mexico, Nigeria, South Korea, and the United States. Her articles are published in many academic journals, including Studies in Art Education, Journal of Cultural Research in Art Education, International Journal of Education Through Art, andMulticultural Perspectives.

In addition to her academic work, she founded “Entretejer/Interweave Community School” in Springdale, Arkansas in collaboration with a local non-profit organizations (www.interweavecommunity.com). Entretejer/Interweave is designed to offer a critical and creative learning space for working-class immigrant adults and families. As a director of the program, she organizes art-based bilingual classes and workshops. Based on her works on social justice and diversity in art education, she received awards, including Arkansas Higher Education Art Educator of the Year Award (2021) and Emerging Scholars by Diverse Issues in Higher Education (2018).

Students who wish to present their research at national and/or international art education conferences (and conferences in related fields) could apply for this award. An award of up to $1,000 is made available for attendance and presentation at a national conference and $2,000 for an international conference.

In addition to the annual $4000 research stipend that is awarded to all students, this competitive award is granted to support the cost of conducting research (including the purchase of supplies for research; travel to conduct fieldwork (including visiting libraries and archives; and for specialized research training) directly related to students’ M.A. research thesis. Awards of up to a maximum of $4000 are made. Awardees would be expected to share outcomes of their research members of the art education community in the school of art at the annual colloquium of student research.