James Bequette
Assistant professor
Ph.D., Stanford University
Art
education
30A Peik Hall
612-625-5286
bequette@umn.edu
Office hours: Fall 2009 by appointment, Spring 2010
on leave.
Preferred method of contact: e-mail
My current inquiry in art education centers on Minnesota Native populations and is inspired by 15 years spent teaching in K-12 schools with mostly American Indian students. That practitioner experience along with recent graduate study at Stanford has contributed to my conceptualization of culturally relevant art education theory and practice. My research program at the University of Minnesota is thus multifaceted: I focus on the role art education – when culturally relevant and taught from a critical perspective – can play in improving American Indian school success and White students’ understanding of colonization’s impact on Native material culture. I also study how infusing non-Western cultural knowledge in elementary arts curriculum reinforces mathematics, science, and language arts learning, and state-level education policy relevant to art teacher licensure and academic standards for visual and media arts.
Classes taught
- CI 8133 Curriculum and Instruction Core: Research Methods in Curriculum and Instruction
- CI 8132 Curriculum and Instruction Core: Teaching Theory and Research
- CI 8150 Narrative Research in Education
- CI 8079 Research in Art Education
- CI 8075 Seminar in Art Education
- CI 5078 Application of Aesthetic Theory in Education
- CI 5075 Social and Historical Foundations of Art Education
- CI 5065 Improving Art Programs in the Schools
- CI 5050 Postmodern Visual Culture and Global Education
Selected publications
Bequette, J. (in press). Tapping a postcolonial community’s cultural capital: Empowering Native artists to engage more fully with traditional culture and their children’s art education. Visual Arts Research.
Bequette, J. & Brennan, C. (2008). Advancing media arts education in visual arts classrooms: Addressing policy ambiguities and gaps in art teacher preparation. Studies in Art Education 49(4). 328-342.
Bequette, J. (2007). Traditional arts knowledge, traditional ecological lore: the intersection of art education and environmental education. Studies in Art Education 48(4), 360-374.
Bequette, J. (2005). Renegotiating boundaries between authenticity and relevance when choosing content for an American Indian multicultural arts program. Journal of Cultural Research in Art Education, 23(1), 64-74.
Featured research and outreach
Revised September 2009
