Discovering Studies in Art Education (1997)

Nearly 30 years ago a young high school art teacher from Aotearoa/New Zealand wanted to do graduate work in New York. The naive Antipodean thought that New York might be the center of the art world, but that's another editorial. Instead he arrived at Indiana University to begin a magistral degree in art education. few months before this event he didn't really know where Indiana was located, and he'd certainly never heard of Bloomington. The Fulbright Foundation, which provided his fellowship, thought that a New Zealander would be happier in a midwestern college town, and cautioned against applying to graduate programs in large urban centers. And so he landed, amongst the corn, in what became his Field of Dreams (Kinsella, 1982). In 1968 I was not only unfamiliar with American geography-I knew nothing of American art educators and their research. Harlan Hoffa, Guy Hubbard, and Mary Rouse quickly filled in the blanks, and my acculturation began. I was introduced to the 9-year-old journal, Studies in Art Education, when June King McFee was editor. She was later to become my Ph.D. mentor. Weekly assignments nearly always involved reviewing one or more papers in Studies. Not much has changed for my own graduate students. I joined the National Art Education Association and began subscribing to Studies. I also collected back copies and one of my treasured possessions is Volume 1, Number 1, edited by a very young Jerome Hausman who is now completing another term on the present Studies Advisory Board. I was becoming an art educator. By the mid-1970s I too was publishing in Studies, and served my first term on the Board. In the years that have passed, with the exception of Manuel Barkan, I have met all of the previous editors. Some have become friends and all are respected and valued colleagues. In this regard, it is a particular pleasure to welcome Studies in Art Education back to the University of British Columbia where Ronald N. MacGregor edited volumes 23 and 24. Although it may sound just the expected thing to say, it is not; it is indeed a great honor to be serving the National Art Education Association and the art education community as senior editor of the journal that has meant so much to my own professional development. I welcome Michael Parsons as co-editor. In 2 years Michael will be the senior editor who leads this journal into the 21st century. I also welcome Paul Bolin, Doug Boughton, and David Pariser as new members of the Advisory Board. The editorial assistance of Karen Knutson is much appreciated, and I thank the University of British Columbia for financing this position. When you become an editor, you read small print very carefully and with more than previous attention to detail. I wonder how many Studies readers have ever read the Editorial Policy on the inside front cover of each issue of this journal? Not long after I first began reading Studies, editorial policy was expressed as follows: Studies in Art Education is devoted to the scholarly examination of and issues in the field of art education. The journal welcomes thoughtful manuscripts dealing with significant problems in the field and invites workers in areas other than art education to contribute. The journal is interested in philosophical and historical materials, as well as empirical studies. Papers which develop new theoretical approaches to the understanding of issues in art education are especially welcome. If this statement is compared with that used today (which dates from the 1980s), we find that the later statement has more flesh, but that otherwise not very much has changed. However, the astute might notice that there is one small difference between the 1970s' statement and the outside cover of the journal. The statement puts research before issues, while the outside cover has always presented Studies as A Journal of Issues and Research in Art Education. …