The Potential of Visual Arts Education: Strengthening Pre-Service Primary Teachers’ Cultural Identity

Abstract

This article reports on research focused on a visual arts education course offered during a primary teacher training in Chile. It was driven by the increasing cultural diversity in Chilean schools, the potential of art education to respond to this context and the limited space that this field has in the national curriculum, an issue that is replicated in most teachers’ training programmes. Intercultural and students’ cultural funds of knowledge theories informed a framework that was implemented in the investigated course to strengthen pre-service teachers’ cultural identity and the adoption of culturally inclusive practices. Through focus groups with the students and analysis of their visual journals, the research explored whether the course impacted their perception of visual arts education, and their cultural identities. Through a/r/tography, an arts-based methodology that articulates art, research and education, the study presents the students’ voices and imagery, testimonies that contributed to reassess the space given to art education in primary schools and teacher training programmes.