Aesthetic Education Research

The relationship between aesthetic research and the area of curriculum consists of at least two [Page 13]aspects. The first, dating to the second half of the 20th century, is research into school curriculum that incorporates aesthetics through the arts, as well as the aesthetic dimensions of the general curriculum. The second aspect, dating to the 1990s, draws on aesthetic-based research methodology to study curriculum. Both aspects focus on the operational, day-to-day curriculum, and students' experiences of curriculum, using mostly but not exclusively qualitative methods.

The term aesthetics, coined in 1735 by Alexander Baumgarten to denote a theoretical and practical discipline aimed at the perfection of sensory cognition, derives from the Greek aisthanomai, perception by means of the senses. Aesthetics has since evolved to refer to the ...