Promoting Art Education in the Asamang Community Through Mural Paintings

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Date
2012
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Visual Arts Education is gradually becoming unpopular in the Asamang Community. Teachers in the basic schools either refuse to teach Visual Arts or give little attention to its teaching. In the Junior High Schools (JHS), the Visual Arts component of Basic Design and Technology (BDT) is entirely ignored since all five schools in the community do not offer it. Hence the students lack the requisite level of knowledge in Visual Arts expected of J.H.S. students that will even propel them to choose the programme in the Senior High School. The situation is the same in the S.H.S. where few students offer Visual Arts as a result of many challenges. The population studied consisted of students, primary school teachers, BDT teachers, heads of schools, one education officer and ordinary citizens in the Asamang community. The purposive sampling technique was used to select five heads of schools, 26 teachers and one education officer whereas the stratified sampling technique was used to select 65 students and five citizens from whom data was collected in the Asamang community. The research revealed that primary school pupils are not given the needed tuition in the Creative Arts. Besides, most teachers in the primary schools were not trained to teach Art thus making them handicapped as far as the subject is concerned. The situation was not very different in the Junior High Schools where there is lack of qualified teachers to handle the Visual Arts part of the BDT subject. These problems have adversely affects the students’ entry into Senior High School to the extent that Asamang SHS has very few students in the Art department. In all schools, basic tools, materials and equipment used for teaching and learning of Art were lacking. This study was therefore geared towards the promotion of Visual Arts Education in the Asamang community of Ashanti Region. This involved the researcher organizing some S.H.S Visual Arts students to paint murals that depicted careers in the field of Art to serve as a tool for creating awareness for Art as a subject of study. The research methods employed were action and descriptive research under the qualitative research methodology with interviews and questionnaire administration as the research instruments. The study recommended that the Sekyere South District Education Officers should find a means of organizing in-service training in the Creative Arts for the teachers to ensure that they would teach the subject in the schools. They should also invite resource persons in the art industry to organise in-service training programmes and to enable them sensitize all teachers and heads in the primary and JHS on the need for creativity development for the pupils. Students in the JHS should be given regular orientation courses in all the Art subjects to help them select their SHS programmes of study. Also, the Ministry of Education and other stakeholders in education should help in the supply of basic art tools, materials and equipment to enhance effective teaching of Art in the schools.
Description
A Thesis Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Art Education
Keywords
Citation