Teaching visual culture in the context of visual arts teacher education

ABSTRACT This article addresses what kind of learning-teaching process should be applied to teach visual culture teaching in the Special Teaching Methods II course given as part of the visual arts teacher education program in Turkey. The study was designed with action research which is, one of the qualitative research methods using a two-step process. The first step was achieved with the participation of 24 preservice art teachers in a state university. In the second step, four volunteers were selected from among the participants of the first step and their process of implementing lesson plans in a visual arts course of a secondary school was examined. Data were obtained from observations, document analysis, and interviews which were then analyzed inductively. This paper focuses on four themes that emerged from the analysis of the data: realize, practice, relate and experience. In the study, it was concluded that preservice teachers develop awareness of how visual culture shapes meaning, shows willingness to raise awareness of society by drawing attention to social problems in their artistic work, and that their lesson plans effectively reflect their achievements regarding visual culture studies.