Abstract
The dissertation addresses, both theoretically and practically, gender issues in the teaching of art education (AE) at the lower secondary schools. In the theoretical framework, the author defines the concept of gender from a postmodern point of view and places it in a broader cultural and historical context.
Gender is further explored in detail through selected post/structural theories, including Jacques Lacan's psychoanalytic theory of subjectivity, Michel Foucault's discursive formation of the subject, Judith Butler's gender performativity, Margaret Mead's anthropological conception of femininity and masculinity, and semiotic character theories. The theoretical part also focuses on explaining the paradigm shift in the pedagogical sciences, a description of the necessary balance of radical and postmodern pedagogical constructivism in relation to cultural values and the fulfillment of general and specific educational goals of art education and transformation of contemporary Czech school culture.
The possibilities of semiotic gender analysis are described here as specific didactic methods of working with visual representations in the teaching of discursively conceived art education. The research part of the thesis addresses the basic research question: How do art teachers at the lower secondary schools teach gender topics? The research is divided into two studies.
The first, quantitative-qualitative study, analyzes the data collected in the form of a questionnaire survey with teachers of AE and shows what gender topics appear in teaching, what teaching methods teachers use, what educational goals they pursue and whether there is a critical reflection of possible gender stereotypes. The second, qualitative study based in grounded theory, analyzes in-depth interviews with art teachers and reflects on their gender performative tactics they apply in teaching.
The main output of the second study is a model of a gender-balanced teaching tactics, which uses a combination of feminine and masculine approach as a means of developing students' visual literacy.