Contextualizing Aesthetics as Social Engagement for Teacher Education

Abstract

Aesthetics is a type of literacy; however, it has been missing in generalist meta-analyses of teacher education. This article adds to the literature by synthesizing aesthetics theory, especially for implications of the historical development of ideas related to visual arts and aesthetics broadly defined for inclusive teacher preparation that promotes social engagement. Various viewpoints are explored in this article for contextualizing the field of aesthetics education as it relates to the preparation of generalist K–12 teachers who are not training to be fine arts teachers. With context, generalist K–12 teachers can be equipped to integrate the arts across other content areas.