Art Education since 1915

The School of Art Education has a strong pedagogical expertise in the areas of visual culture, art and the production of artistic knowledge. Art education plays a significant role in conceiving art as a culturally influential resource. Pedagogical skills are required when artistic knowledge is substantiated for the use of different fields and user groups.

The School of Art Education educates the pedagogues of the art field; for schools, for the areas of adult education and liberal adult education and for various expert assignments of the art field. The emphasis of research is on developing the teaching methods within visual arts, design and environmental education, as well as on the relationship between art and well-being. As a foundation for these applied areas there is basic research in for example visual cultures, the nature of artistic processes and the experiential essence of art.

Description of education

The Degree Programme in Art Education is a teacher education programme specialising in visual culture education. It covers art, design, architecture and the built environment, visual media and new learning environments. As the major subject, visual culture education approaches these topics from the point of view of art, pedagogy and research. The programme provides diverse  competence in art pedagogy in the field of visual culture, and the necessary qualifications for working as an art teacher.

Major subject studies include the necessary content for eligibility to teach art at primary and secondary level.

Validity of qualification

The Master of Arts part of the degree programme in Art Education is a subject teacher qualification focused on one teachin subject.

The MA programme contains studies in art as a teaching subject, as well as pedagogical studies for teacher which qualify graduates to teach art at primary, lower secondary and upper secondary level. The validity of teaching  qualifications is regulated by the Decree on Qualification Requirements for Teaching Personnel (A986/1998, A865/2005), and education leading to teaching qualifications in regulated by the Degree on
University Degrees (794/2004).

Combined with Master's studies and teacher pedagogy studies (60 ECTS), the minor subject studies in art as a teaching subject (60 ECTS) provide graduates with eligibility for teaching art at primary and lower secondary level.

Objectives of degree programme

The objective of the programme is to provide student with diverse knowledge and skills in various aspects of art and other elements of visual culture, as well as up-to-date, essential competence in art as subject of instruction.

Graduates have:

• the ability to critically examine the educational and social significance of the arts and other elements of visual culture, and to follow developments in the field;
• solid competence in the forms of expression of art and visual culture, and the ability to develop their visual expression in order to provide depth for their teaching and thus to support the artistic development of learneers;
• in-depth knowledge of art, visual communication, environmental planning and design, and architecture as socially and culturally changing phenomena to an extent that allows students to teach these topics, and an ability to consider and assess aecthetic questions with various types of learners;
• the necessary knowledge and skills in general pedagogy, art education and, particularly, the theory and practice of art teaching to allow students to integrate these into their own philosophy on art pedagogy and their teaching work, promoting artistic learning and personal growth in multicultural world.