Research Translation

To read a copy of the research paper translated below you can click... here

RESEARCH TRANSLATION

Art Experiences and Attitudes toward Art Education: A Survey and Descriptive Study of Missouri Public School Principals

By:  Mick Luehrman

SUMMARY

This paper provides an overview of a study conducted to determine Missouri Public school principal’s attitudes towards art education in relation to their previous art experiences.  Mick Luehrman was interested in discovering whether previous art influences within the home, in college courses, in previous public school years, and/or within their current work environment influence their current perception of art education.  Variables for previous art experiences are both listed and described in detail within the paper.  Some of the variables considered include; art attitudes within the home, art exposure within art museums or galleries throughout life, completed college art courses, peer influence throughout college, how art images were used in courses, and the effect of fellow art educators in their area/building. 

After defining variables to include in the study, a three-part questionnaire was developed.  This questionnaire included sections on attitudes about art education, demographics, previous art experiences, and an open question for principals to tell about a big art moment from their life.  This questionnaire was then mailed to a set of principals within the state of Missouri.  This set was first compiled and organized based on gender and school level.  The original set of 2084 principals within the state of Missouri was then sliced randomly down to the 297 potential questionnaire participants.  The questionnaire resulted in 79% participation.

After the questionnaire process, interviews were conducted with a select number of principals based upon school level and attitude (be it positive or negative) on art education.  Due to the small number of negatively influenced principals being willing to be interviewed, the interview set of candidates was small.  However, this gave Mick Luehrman the opportunity to dive into detail about their experiences, thoughts, and attitudes providing him with a richer understanding of their responses to the questionnaire.

After completing the interviews, Luehrman was able to compile the quantitative data from the questionnaire, the narrative responses from the open-ended questionnaire question, and the qualitative data from the interviews.  This complex data source provided him with strong evidence for closing correlations and claims. 

Some of such claims include that there is evidence to support that over all Missouri principals had an interest or care for art education.  Principals with elementary teaching experience had a more positive attitude towards art education than teachers who were located at a higher school level.  Principals who grew up in a home where art was supported, who had a big art moment in their life, who visited art museums throughout their life, who had been frequently exposed to art images in school, who took art courses in college or who had positive peer influence in regard to the arts in college all had more positive outlooks on art education that those who did not have these life experiences. One correlation discussed is how the number of college art courses taken coupled with elementary teaching certification led to positive attitudes about art education.  In addition, for principals who discussed their previous art courses it was determined that the value of the course was more influential to the previous art student than to the number of courses taken during their schooling years.  One variable tied to a valuable art course was the number of art images shown.  The more art images shown, the greater the value being placed on the course.

In conclusion, Mike Luehrman wants educators to remember that they are responsible for shaping current and future perceptions of art education each and every day that they teach.  They need to provide ALL students the opportunity to view art within a museum/or gallery setting.  That all art educators should frequently show and expose their students to a variety of art work over the course of the class and educators should included opportunities for parents/guardians to become involved in the art department as well.

RESEARCH PROBLEM

Is the problem clearly stated?

Yes, the problem is clearly stated within both the abstract and the paper.

 

 Is the importance of the research discussed? 

Yes, the importance of the research is discussed within the first four pages of the paper.  Mike Luehrman defines the roles of principals within the schools and communities for which they reside.  Their role as principal can make or break an art program, therefore making or breaking positive art education attitudes for our students.

 Are the variables and other important terms clearly defined?

Yes, the variables and other important terms are clearly listed, defined, relevancy discussed.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Is the review of previous research well organized? 

Yes, the review of previous research fits in seamlessly with Mike Luehrmans explanations and findings.  They are woven into the paper to support points and claims.

 Are the cited sources relevant? 

Yes, the cited sources pertain to the variables, research questions, and findings.

 Are the cited sources current? primary? secondary? Discuss.

The interviews and questionnaires conducted provided an opportunity for primary sources because the information was delivered first hand straight to Luehrman during the time of the study.  Where as the cited sources from previous research is a combination of secondary, tertiary, etc. sources because they are writings from people that wrote over a wide range of time and wide range of primary reasons.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS or HYPOTHESES

Are research questions and/or hypotheses stated clearly?  

Yes, the research hypotheses is stated clearly from the first sentence of the abstract: “This study described the art experiences of Missouri public school principals and looked for relationships between art experiences and attitudes toward art education.”

Are the hypotheses null? directional?

Due to Luehrman believing their may be a relationship between art experiences and attitudes towards art, he was making a directional hypotheses.

DATA SOURCES/SAMPLING  

Is the data source/sample clearly described? Discuss. 

The data source/sample is clearly described and chunked into sections based upon the variables they discuss.  However, I feel that there could have been greater organization to correlations found between these chunked variables.

Is the method of selection clearly described?

Yes, Luehrman takes time to describe the bones of the questionnaire, how sample sets were chosen, how the questionnaire was delivered, how interviewees were determined, etc.

 Is the sample size acceptable? Discuss.

Yes, I feel that the sample size of 208 participants is enough to determine correlations and claims.  For a true sampling for the state, it would be nice to know if all parts of the state have been represented.  If these participants grew up in Missouri schools or traveled in after adulthood.  However, those topics would bring in new variables.

MEASUREMENT TOOLS

Is an adequate description of all measurement tools provided?

Yes, all measurement tools are listed and resources for where to find more information about them are given within the citations.  Defining some of these research methods would have been nice.  Such as, ANOVA, MANOVA and chi-square procedures were never defined.

Are validity and reliability data reported?

Validity and reliability are embedded into the study because the questionnaire and interview questions did not exist until needed for this study.

METHODOLOGY/PROCEDURES

Are adequate descriptions of the methods and procedures provided?

Yes, adequate descriptions of the methods and procedures are provided.  They are listed, defined, and discussed in sequential order.

 

What, if any, important information is missing?

A piece of important information that was never mentioned in the paper is where the principals grew up.  If one principal grew up abroad, while another was in the Bronx, and another was down in southern Mississippi, I feel that due the drastic differences in cultural growth should be noted.

Were appropriate statistics selected for the study?

Yes, I feel that the statistics selected aided in correlations claims.

RESULTS

Are the results understandable?

The results are understandable, but could be better organized.

Were the research questions answered?

Yes, the research question was clearly supported with statistical and narrative evidence that there is a relationship between ones previous art experiences and ones current attitude towards art education.

 Were all hypotheses tested?

Yes

DISCUSSION

Are the conclusions related to the hypotheses and research

questions?

Yes the conclusions discuss findings from the questionnaire, the open ended question at the end of the questionnaire and further insight gained from the interviews.  Without these conclusions, the reader would not know the results of the study.

Are the generalizations made by the author appropriate?

Yes, the claims and correlations claimed are supported by the author and gray areas were marked with more vague vocabulary such as; strong suggest.  

Is the research of any practical importance? Discuss. 

This research is applicable to all art educators and all principals in order to gain a better understanding of one another, our perceptions about art education and the importance of providing a rich art education experience for all of our students.