Rethinking art education through integrating outdoor learning practices as sites of memory

Abstract

Outdoor learning through its immersive experience can be an avenue for critical inquiry in artmaking. Malaysian artists Piyadasa and Suleiman claim artists have not engaged in critical thinking and have become craftsmen instead of thinkers. Artmaking becomes concerned with superficial form, technique and style rather than content. The art education in Malaysian schools has emphasized the technical ‘know-how’ of art production with little critical inquiry, focusing on the end product of art as craft and not a thinking process. Outdoor learning, through the context of time and place as social materials, aims to inculcate critical thinking and develop a student’s voice and Malaysian identity. Redefining outdoor learning as sites of memory, this paper presents four types of spaces: physical space in natural and urban environments, communicative space, collaborative space and media space through an art gallery, as ways of integrating artistic thinking and developing a Malaysian identity through art education.