Student Teachers Building a Sustainable Future Through Constructing Equality in Visual Arts Education

Abstract

This article presents a discussion about primary school visual arts education from the point of view of social sustainability and in the context of teacher education in Finland. The study focuses on the student teachers’ understanding and pedagogic thinking of the equality construction in visual arts. In this case study the research data comprises the learning portfolios of student teachers (N=25) from the visual arts teaching course at the University of Helsinki in which they designed and carried out pedagogical workshops of visual arts to promote equality. The data were examined with the methods of qualitative content analysis. In this context, the student teachers found engaging elements in the aims and practices of visual arts to be the way to enhance equality. Visual arts education was found to offer a functional space for enhancing the agency, social skills and values needed in a sustainable future.