FACULTY


Michael J. Parsons
Research Professor
Art Education: Philosophy of Art, Psychology of Art, Children's Development, Interpretation, Integrated Curriculum, Distance Learning, Assessment of Learning in Art, International Developments in Art Education

parsonsm@illinois.edu | CV

Degrees:

B.A. (Hons), Oxford University, England; M.A. and Ph.D., University of Illinois

Michael Parsons has been a Visiting Research Professor of Art Education at Illinois since 2006. Previously he was professor and chairperson of art education at the Ohio State University. He was born in England, where he studied English language and literature at Oxford University; in 1973 he moved to the University of Illinois, where he studied the history and philosophy of education. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the NAEA, has edited Studies in Art Education, and has taught and consulted in a number of countries, most recently in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Portugal and Jamaica.

He teaches occasional graduate seminars at Illinois. The most recent was on Lacan and art education.

Selected Works

He has published widely in art education and has made many conference presentations. His most recent interests are in metaphor in art, embodiment and meaning, integrated curriculum and the assessment of student learning in art.

Books include:

  • How We Understand Art: A Cognitive Developmental Account of Aesthetic Experience, Cambridge University Press, 1987. Translated and published in Portuguese, Spanish and Japanese.
  • (with Gene Blocker) Aesthetics and Education, University of Illinois Press, 1993; published in Chinese, 1997.
  • Globalization, Art, and Education. Anthology edited with Elizabeth Delacruz, Alice Arnold, Ann Kuo, NAEA, 2009.

Recent articles include:

  • "Art and integrated curriculum," in Eisner and Day (eds.), Handbook of Research and Policy in Art Education, Erlbaum and Associates, 2004.
  • "Interpreting Art through Metaphor," International Journal of art and Design Education, forthcoming.
  • "Art and Cognition: Integrating the visual arts in the curriculum," Studies in Art Education, Vol 46, No. 4 (Summer 2005), pp.369-377.
  • "The role of the visual arts in the growth of mind," Studies in Art Education, Vol 46, No 1. (Fall 2004)
  • "Endpoints, repertoires, and toolboxes: Development in art as the acquisition of tools," The International Journal of Arts Education, Vol. 1, No 1 (May 2003), pp 67-82.
  • "Aesthetic experience and the construction of meanings," The Journal of Aesthetic Education, Vol 36, No. 2 (Summer 2002), pp. 24-37.