A History of Disability and Art Education

Drawing on recent theoretical frameworks from critical disability studies and art education including normalcy, ableism, dis/ability and Crip theory, this book offers an analysis of the conceptualisation of ability in art education and its relationship with disability.

Drawing on the work of Yamamoto in Japan, Cizek and Lowenfeld in Austria, Ruskin and Richardson in England and Dewey and Eisner in the United States, it critically examines the influence of ideas such as the dominance of vision and visuality
the emergence of psychological perspectives
the Child Art movement
the implications of assessment regimes
and the relevance of art education as a critical social practice on the production of dis/ability.

Offering a sustained inquiry into the differential values attributed to learners and their work and the implications of this for framing our understanding of dis/ability in art education, this book shows that although art educators have frequently advocated for the universal appeal and importance of art education, they have done so within historical contexts that have produced and determined problematic ideas regarding dis/ability.

It will be of interest to all scholars and students of disability studies, art in education, art history and education studies.