Native American Art Lesson Plans in School Arts: A Content Analysis

Abstract

This article presents an examination of two studies which explored and examined multicultural art education. A content analysis of Native American themed articles in School Arts magazine from 1985-2004 was conducted to understand how art educators addressed this issue in their curriculum and to identify sound criteria by which to develop art education curriculum. Once the criteria for best practices in multicultural art education was identified, an action research design was used to investigate the impact of Native American themed art lessons on student learning and on multicultural awareness. The overarching aim of both studies was to uncover best practices for creating and teaching elementary art curriculum on Native American art and contemporary Native American artists.