n the history of American education, religious, economic, political and, most recently, scientific theories have provided theoretical models for general education. Few, if any, theoretical models, however, have been derived from the arts or aesthetic theories. This dissertation develops such an aesthetic model, derived from the theory of symbols presented by Nelson Goodman in Languages of Art and from the subsequent research of the Harvard Project Zero.
It is one of the contentions of this dissertation that the tendency of American education to employ educational models derived from reductionist interpretations of science has resulted in this declining status of arts education and in the failure to implement the research begun the sixties. The scientific models emphasize aspect of human development that are not characteristic of aesthetic processes, thereby requiring arts education to be justified in terms of the analytic, linguistic processes characteristic of science. The justifications attempted by organization such as CEMERAL (Central Midwest Educational Laboratory), the John David Rockefeller 3rd Fund, the Alliance for Arts Education, and the Arts, Education and American Panel have been, for the most part, unsuccessful because these organizations have failed to combat the dominance of the scientific models in general education. The aesthetic model proposed here would eliminate the need for such extraneous justification by providing a frame of reference whose principles are derived from an aesthetic theory. Within this frame of reference, the cumulative results of fifteen years’ research in arts education could then be implemented in the general education curriculum.
The second reason for developing this aesthetic model is to provide a new theoretical framework for conceptualizing goals, curricula, and educational research in ALL disciplines within general education. This reason follows from the second contention of this dissertation: that individuals in educational settings need to develop the widest possible range of human potentials. Some of these potentials are neglected or ignored in current educational models dominated by science. By providing a theoretical framework derived from the arts, this model allows for development of a diversified set of human potentials that includes non-linguistic skills and patterns of human emotion as well as the linguistic and analytic skills characteristic of the scientific models, and thereby meets an important need in contemporary society.
Three central concepts of Goodman’s theory of symbols are used to develop the aesthetic model. They are the following: symbol, forms of symbolization, and symptoms of the aesthetic. When the analysis of these concepts is applied to general education, a rationale is established in which: 1) the arts and the sciences have equal validity and adequate representation in the curriculum; 2) a plurality of responses and interpretations of experience are both encouraged and taught; and 3) “cognition” includes the use of non-linguistic and linguistic symbol systems and the incorporation of patterns of human emotions into these systems. Outlines of ways in which the model could be applied on a practical level are also provided as well as suggestions for teacher-education and examples of educational research consistent with the aesthetic model.
To read the entire dissertation go to https://epublications.marquette.edu/dissertations/AAI8104803/