Written by Virginia Spivey, Contributing Editor at Art History Teaching Resources (AHTR)

Check out the Art History Pedagogy & Practice e-journal hub at Art History Teaching Resources (AHTR), and read the linked White Paper. AHTR is a peer-populated platform for art history teaching content including lesson plans, book reviews, image clusters, and classroom and museum activities. 

Slated to launch in Fall 2016, Art History Pedagogy and Practice is a new academic peer-reviewed journal devoted to pedagogical research in art history.  Inspired by discussions at the College Art Association in 2015 and supported by a Digital Projects Award from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, ArtHistoryTeachingResources.org (AHTR) began this initiative in response to the lack of scholarship of teaching and learning (SOTL) in the discipline.  The idea was to build on the success of the AHTR Weekly as a popular forum where practitioners already share their experiments and ideas about teaching art history in a range of learning environments.

Over the summer, AHTR worked with the research firm of Randi Korn & Associates to conduct a survey that revealed significant interest in this project.  AHTR is excited about the potential of Art History Pedagogy and Practice to build bridges connecting the traditionally siloed community of academic art historians to others involved in SOTL, museum education and art education at the K-16 level, and the digital humanities.  AHTR recently launched an “e-journal hub” where regular updates will be posted about Art History Pedagogy and Practice, along with information and resources about SOTL and best practices in educational research.  As we move forward in this endeavor, we encourage visitors to visit the site to provide feedback and comments about the project.  

Download White Paper on the Need for a Journal of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Art History (PDF)

White Paper Summary

While art historians in higher education devote extensive amounts of time, effort, and energy to the job of teaching, the attitude persists that this role is separate, or even a distraction, from the primary responsibility to contribute as scholars in the field. Maintaining the duality of teaching and scholarly activity devalues the crucial relationship of pedagogical practice to art historical study, and precludes the potential for research in teaching and learning to have significant impact on the discipline itself.  In order to realize this potential, the scholarship of teaching and learning in art history (SOTH-AH) must be acknowledged as a legitimate area of intellectual inquiry by the institutions and communities encompassing academic art history.  A peer-reviewed journal devoted to SOTL-AH would facilitate this process by providing scholars a space to share research on pedagogical topics, and encourage further academic investigation and discourse around teaching and learning in art history.  

This white paper identifies the need for SOTL-AH based on a recent survey of art historians in higher education and a review of current literature addressing pedagogical topics.  It considers the impact  an academic journal devoted to this topic would have on the art history and related fields that include study of visual and material culture.  As a solution to the lack of SOTL-AH, Art History Teaching Resources (AHTR) began Art History Pedagogy and Practice (AHPP), a peer-reviewed e-journal, that will advance and disseminate academic research on art history’s pedagogy.  This initiative builds on the community and pedagogical inquiry AHTR has developed since its launch in 2011.  AHPP will be housed on Academic Works, CUNY’s Digital Commons repository as an open-access publication that will impose no subscription or contributor fees.   

Stay Tuned

Check the AHPP e-journal hub for updates about the e-journal and to learn more about ways to become involved with Art History Pedagogy & Practice.