Dancing with Line: Inquiry, Democracy, and Aesthetic Development as an Approach to Art Education

This qualitative study examines an art lesson in a multiage inquiry-based charter school. The arts curriculum focused on democratic process, dialogical interaction, aesthetic and imaginative understanding, and visual culture art education. Questions considered in the research were: Within an inquiry-based setting what might an art lesson look like? How does creating a dialogical/democratic art classroom support inquiry-based learning? How does an inquiry-based art classroom support and extend creativity and imagination? How might an inquiry-based elementary art curriculum incorporate visual culture? The inquiry process gave students the latitude to practice individual creativity. Imaginative processes were engaged as students planned their own lesson, created their own problems, and expressed their answers through a performance.