Circles of context in deciphering meaning to visual art objects: Pedagogical practices in art education

Developing interpretive skills for understanding artworks is one of the thrusts of art education. Thus, the content of art education should primarily support aesthetic experiences through reflective studio practices. This study sought to explore pedagogical strategies for the interpretation of artworks by art and design specialist students from two purposively selected teacher’s colleges. The study adopted a qualitative research method nested in the interpretive research design. Data were generated using in-depth interviews with four art and design lecturers, focus group discussions with students and analysis of artworks. The findings of the study showed that participants had conceptualized the term visual metaphors as well as the interpretation of western visual metaphors. Findings also showed that students created representational art with limited symbolism and showed over-reliance on traditional art criticism model of analysing artworks. The study proposes the use of postmodern approaches to analysis and interpretation of African artworks and visual art-based instructional pedagogy.