Artistically talented students' perceptions of what it means to be "smart": An analysis of intelligence and talent in secondary art education

The following study developed from personal and professional experiences identifying as an artistically talented individual and working in art education. From these experiences as an artist, art teacher, and fine arts administrator, there has been a consistent disconnect with notions of talent, art education, and intelligence. From this disconnect, I often found myself advocating for art education and talent to be understood from the perspective of an intellectual domain, yet school policies, administrators, teachers and students seemed to maintain art and art education as being something other than intellectual. In response to this, the following study was designed to investigate artistically talented art students' perceptions of intelligence in relation to their talents and their willingness or unwillingness to self-identify as "smart". This was to study this disconnect from the students that would be directly impacted by such a view. This study also examined artistically talented students' perceptions of intelligence in relation to art creation and art education as it pertains to students' beliefs in their academic abilities. This study further examined, the system of schooling that fosters a bias paradigm in which a students' claim to intelligence is restrictive through educational practices, and constructed norms. This study was conducted at three inner-city high schools with twelve identified artistically talented students participating in an advanced art class. This study utilized arts-based educational research as its methodology. Artwork, sketch journals, and interviews were the method of data collection. Through the analysis, four themes emerged that reflects the participants' perception. These themes are; 1) intelligence is perceived as a "matter of mind" and is distinct from talent which is perceived as "a skill developed through effort", 2) art education's value is within its emotional and expressive aspects, 3) art education is perceived by others as limiting and not valued, and 4) participant perceptions of their academic confidence is described by their "effort". This study concluded with interpretations and implications of these findings regarding multiple intelligence theory, relational aspects of talent and intelligence and the "art kid", implications for gifted education, academic self-efficacy, and art education