IMPROVING VISUAL ARTS PROGRAMS FOR NAVAJO STUDENTS THROUGH DISCIPLINE-BASED ART EDUCATION

Abstract

This thesis will promote an understanding of discipline-based art education in conjunction with some methods of Navajo culture for the purpose of teaching the visual arts. How the Navajo child responds to natural objects, and to those objects of the Southwest he or she identifies as works of art, is shaped by the culture of the Navajo child. The methods that the Native American teacher has already attained of the Navajo culture would exercise discipline-based art education and could provide a much-needed vehicle by which to converge the theoretical bases of the profession.