What, Even Dallas? Popular Culture Within the Art Curriculum.

This paper examines a range of proposals by art educators to include popular culture within the general art curriculum. Four basic social theories assumed by these art educators are examined: liberal humanism, two variants of liberal pluralism, and Neo-Marxism. The positions of Bersson, Beyer, Chalmers, Chapman, Feldman, Lanier, and Nadaner, in particular, are examined. Drawing on Neo-Marxist theory, the paper concludes with a proposal for adopting a sympathetic view of popular culture as it functions within peoples' lives, but one informed by a critical consciousness of the political embeddedness of both popular culture and its appraisal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]