Penn State’s Master of Professional Studies (MPS) in Art Education (MPS in AED), an innovative online degree program that blends electronic and experiential learning, began in 2010 and closed in 2022. The curriculum for this 30-credit course of study offered art education professionals new ways of looking at familiar teaching situations while advancing their careers.
After completing the MPS in AED action research course, in which students learn how to conduct critical action research that develops, leads to, implements, and assesses a genuinely well-informed social action in the midst of an emerging teaching and learning landscape, the culminating experience for the program is to complete one cycle of an action research project. Action research is a form of intervention into the public pedagogy of objects, signs, ideas, and practices of our everyday world. The research itself is a conscious effort to change conditions, envision potentials, and develop empowering actions.
Linked below are the action research projects of MPS in AED graduates, which provides valuable insight into the field of art education.
- Elizabeth Eagle (2017). De/Constructing Photographs and Re/Constructing Memory, Time, and Place Through Collage and Painting: A Visual Autoethnography
- Arielle Finamore (2018). Students’ Understanding of the Purposes of Digital Portfolios in an Art Room Setting
- Caroline Froebel (2020). Quilted Narratives Shining Light on Social Injustices in Education Institutions and Public Settings
- Heather Fry (2015). Teaching Meaning: Making High School Art Culture
- Jacqueline Geiple (2018). Gamification Strategies in Studio Art Classrooms: Can They Impact Student Mindsets in Artistic Community, Engagement, Artistic Growth, and Exploration?
- Tara Ehling Halvorson (2017). The Reciprocity of Public Art and Community: Taking Meaningful Art Education Beyond the Studio Classroom
- Danna Kerns-Streett (2015). Integrated Lessons for Math and Language Arts
- Zena Kirby (2018). Academic Performance Enhanced by Art Education
- Courtney Latorre (2022). Cross-curricular Collaboration and Art-making with Students Impact on a Teacher’s Happiness and Mental Well-being
- Elizabeth Leslie (2020). First-grade Literary and Visual Arts: Teaching Valuing Diversity During a Pandemic
- Stephanie Melachrinos (2016). Weaving Border Crossings
- Susan Miville (2017). Creative Connections: Facilitation of Interdisciplinary, Experiential, Thematic Approaches in Professional Development and Collaborative Curricular Planning Between High School Teachers and Orchestra Musician Teaching Artists
- Nicole Packard (2018). Art for Social Justice Change: Exploring Social Justice Art in the Sixth Grade Classroom
- Rebecca Panitch (2020). Interdisciplinary Learning—A Study in Lesson Planning
- Lance Rautzhan (2020). Remixing the Colonial Keystone: Activating the Audible for Pedagogical Potential
- Kelli Reppart (2013). How, What, and Why Students Learn in an Art Workshop Setting
- Kerry Royer (2020). An Audio-Enhanced Art Exhibit in a Hospital Setting
- Kimberly B. Stamm (2019). Sonic Warfare to Visual Representation: A Study of Self Though the Artistic Lens of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
- Andrea Thompson (2022). Inclusive and Reflective Story Telling, LGBTQ+ Youth, and Comics
- Nicole Tucker (2018). Art Activism Matters: Implementing Social Justice Art Pedagogy
- Anya Wallace (2013). Pleasure (Re)Collected by Young Black Women and Girls in the Vibrator Project
Scholarship & Research Integrity (SARI) online training program provided by the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) is at the SARI@PSU Resource Portal. Penn State requires that each graduate student receive Scholarship and Research Integrity (SARI) certificates prior to conducting research and within the first year of the graduate program. If you are in the MPS degree program, complete CITI training by the end of semester that you take the AED 815: Action Research course. To do so, go to Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI). This link at https://www.research.psu.edu/irb will guide you through the process to apply for IRB approval.
Action Research Faculty Committee: Prior to conducting action research for the Master of Professional Studies in Art Education degree, form a committee of two art education graduate faculty members at Penn State. To do so, email the faculty members with a request to serve on your committee, and ask one of the two to serve as chair of your committee. Provide in your email request information on the topics or directions that you are considering for action research and a tentative timeline to complete the study. Fill out and sign the committee form and email the form to the proposed committee members to sign.
- Zena Kirby received the Professional Master’s Excellence Award in 2018 for her MPS research.
- Lance Rautzhan received the Professional Master’s Excellence Award in 2020 for his MPS research: Remixing the Colonial Keystone: Activating the Audible for Pedagogical Potential