Comparative Study of Master's degree of Art Education Courses in Selected Universities with the aim of Proposing Practical Courses for the Establishment of this field in Iran

Teaching art is one of the most important issues from childhood to adulthood. How art is taught and what topics and categories should be considered in this education is so important that it has led to the formation of an independent field under the title of art education at the world level, and is offered in universities of many countries. Meanwhile, its absence and necessity of this field in Iran are clearly visible. The purpose of this article was to compare the curriculum of art education at the master's level among the eighteen universities of USA, Canada, UK, Germany, India, Singapore, UAE (Dubai) and South Africa. All universities have been selected purposefully as study samples. The comparative research method was based on the theory of George Brady and the data was collected from to the website of the selected universities. The main research question is: How is the curriculum of art education at master's level in other countries? And what common and non-common courses are offered for this field? The result of this research shows that the total number of courses available in eighteen selected universities is ninety courses. Among these, seventeen courses are taught jointly in universities. This shows that these lessons are very important. Based on the comparison and analysis of the obtained information, these courses can be presented in ten categories including Art lessons, Research method, Historical and philosophical lessons, Technology and current issues in art education, Learning and psychology topics, Teaching method and teacher training, Basics and theories in art education, Art workshop lessons, Curriculum and training and Thesis. The courses of each category were presented along with the priority, based on the frequency and repetition of courses in selected universities. These findings can be used in the development of this field in the country and be adapted according to the country's educational policies.Introduction Teaching art is a crucial issue from childhood to adulthood. The significance of how art is taught and what topics should be covered in art education has led to the establishment of an independent academic discipline called "Art Education" worldwide, offered in numerous universities across different countries. However, its absence and the necessity for this field in Iran are clearly evident. This paper aims to conduct a comparative analysis of the curriculum, focusing on the courses offered in the Master's degree program in Art Education at 18 universities: 1. Tufts University, USA 2. University of Illinois, USA 3. Kent State University, USA 4. Indiana University, USA 5. Penn State University, USA 6. University of Florida, USA 7. Adelphi University, USA 8. Boston University, USA 9. University of Cincinnati, USA 10. Concordia University, Canada 11. University of British Columbia, Canada 12. Middlesex University Dubai 13. Jamia Millia Islamia, India 14. Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 15. Leipzig University, Germany 16. Giessen University, Germany 17. UCL University, England 18. Stellenbosch University, South Africa. All universities were purposefully selected as case studies.Regarding the importance and necessity of art education and the establishment of this field in Iran, it can be said that since art plays a fundamental and strategic role in cultural development and social orientation across various population layers, it requires individuals who not only teach art effectively but also teach *good* art to others. Achieving this goal requires a well-structured curriculum in Art Education that trains graduates with both theoretical and practical expertise in teaching art. Unfortunately, in our country, art education has been treated superficially and left without a precise and scientific plan. In contrast, in the discussion of art education in developed countries, there are very important and necessary issues in the field of education, such as psychology, cultural, social issues, and targeted policies, which the art teacher should be aware of and have learned the methods of art education based on various conditions. Therefore, it can be said that art education has its own conditions and requirements, which in its scientific form is beyond teaching a mere technique that requires attention and specialized planning. Methodology This research falls into the category of developmental studies and employs a comparative analysis method based on George Bereday’s (1969) theory, which consists of four stages: description, interpretation, juxtaposition, and comparison. The information and data of the research were collected by reviewing the official websites of the selected universities and qualitatively analyzing course titles and content. This research initially started with a comprehensive and complete look at all universities offering the field of "Art Education" in different countries from different continents (Asia, Africa, America, and Europe), but since access to the curriculum of all those universities was not possible, only those universities that had this possibility were included in the research community, among which examples were used and presented in this article that have geographical-cultural diversity. Finally, 18 universities from eight countries of the United States, Canada, England, Germany, India, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates (Dubai), and South Africa were selected as case studies. Research FindingsTo answer the main research question "What is the structure of the Art Education curriculum at the master's level in other countries, and based on comparative studies, what courses can be proposed for establishing this field in Iran?" It is necessary to first find answers to other initial questions, which are: 1. What courses are offered in the Master’s Art Education programs at the 18 selected universities? 2. Under what titles can the courses offered in the 18 selected universities be categorized? 3. Which courses are commonly taught across these universities? 4. How can the common courses be ranked from the most to the least frequently offered? In order to achieve the goal of the research, it is necessary to answer the questions based on the sequence presented. Discussion of Results and ConclusionFirst, the courses in Art Education at each university were studied, and their titles were extracted to compile a list. The total number of courses across the 18 universities amounted to 90, as presented in Table 1. In the next step of the research, by examining the course titles and the content of the courses, they were categorized. Finally, the results of these reviews showed that eleven important categories are offered in the field of art education in the studied universities, which in order of priority are: 1. Art courses 2. Research methods 3. Historical and philosophical courses 4. Technology and current topics in art education 5. Learning and psychology topics 6. Cultural foundations 7. Teaching methods and teacher training 8. Foundations and theories in art education 9. Art workshop courses 10. Curriculum and instruction 11. Thesis. Out of the 90 courses, only 17 were commonly taught across some universities. A comparison of these courses with Table 2, which outlines the course categories, shows that these courses fall into ten categories. This suggests that these ten categories are among the most important topics in art education curriculum planning. Importantly, the only category that did not contain any commonly offered core courses was Cultural Foundations. This suggests that cultural studies in Art Education should be customized based on the specific needs of each society and offered as elective courses that reflect the culture and identity of the target country. Finally, by comparing and analyzing the previous tables, the most frequently offered courses were identified and ranked by priority. The results, presented in Table 4, highlight the importance and priority of these courses in prominent universities worldwide. These findings can be utilized in developing the Art Education program in Iran, adapting it to the country's educational policies.

Récupéré en direct depuis OpenAlex et désinversé. Les résumés ne sont pas conservés dans cette base de données : les index inversés représentent 8,6 Go des 9,3 Go de texte de la base, et le serveur dispose de 13 Go libres.