Teaching art with artworks: Pre-service primary teachers’ aesthetic preferences

In many countries, generalist teachers and not art specialists teach art in primary education. This article examines the range of pre-service primary school teachers’ aesthetic preference and explores what kind of artworks they would most likely choose for organizing learning activities for children, as well as reasons that influence their choices. The kind of artworks they choose will likely have an effect on their pupils’ understandings of art. A mixed methodology research study was carried out with 91 pre-service primary school teachers in Cyprus. The data indicate that the participants had a rather limited understanding of art and reflected a narrow range of ideas and values. Although many participants did not perform non-reflective judgments about artworks, their strong attraction to colours and notions of realism entwine with expression implied that popular culture ideas and modernism ideas about art would be largely reflected in their teaching, thus denying children with encounters with other forms of art.