Designing an art program for adults with an intellectual disability: an innovative approach

The thesis develops guiding principles to underpin an art program for adults with an intellectual disability, which would itself be suitable for either a community based or more formal educational setting. A number of theoretical and practical aspects are explored, with criteria for the establishment of such an art program being developed in each chapter. These relate, respectively, to theoretical bases of art and artistic development, models for teaching and learning, curriculum design, educational context, and, finally, program evaluation and outcomes. The thesis commences with a review of literature related to aesthetics and theories of artistic development, along with that of behaviourist and cognitive/developmental theories of learning. This leads to a consideration of their applicability as models for the teaching and learning of art for adults with an intellectual disability. The recent behaviourist focus in what has often been called 'special' education, and the pre-occupation in mainstream education with competency-based outcomes have had an impact on curricula over the past few years. The thesis describes, next, some of the principles underlying curriculum design, and a number of mainstream and special education art curricula are reviewed in order to identify the degree to which they can be adapted to the provision of art education for adults with an intellectual disability. Over the last decade there has been a significant shift in the policy context of further education for adults with an intellectual disability. Concepts of inclusion, least restrictive environment and age-appropriateness have all had a marked impact on program content and delivery within diverse educational contexts. In this environment, some established overseas art programs for adults with an intellectual disability are described and compared with a local program, the Arts Project Australia studio-workshop, with particular reference to the principles of their design and implementation. The investigation of each of the above areas leads, primarily through literature review and discussion, to the establishment of a set of operational criteria for a model. These criteria are then applied in an analysis of the findings of the fieldbased research, which uses Arts Project Australia as the site of the investigation. The final discussion further develops both the implications of the literature review and the analysis of the field-based research to further elucidate broad principles which could guide the future development of art programs for adults with an intellectual disability