Art & Culture in a Course for Elementary Teachers. The Artistic Languages and Art Research--Research as an Educational Process in the Elementary Teacher's Training.

A study surveyed 99 teacher education students from the Instituto de Educacao de Nova Friburgo (Brazil) by asking open-ended and private questions to know the number and/or the access of students to existing artistic and cultural languages. The research was divided into two stages: (1) an investigation about the information brought by the students from several teaching institutions so that their realities could be known; and (2) a research project conducted by the students themselves about the artistic and cultural languages with the key focal point occurring when each student group presented their results to the class. There were seven languages (music, plastic arts, dance, theater, film, television, and literature) identified for stage two so each class was divided into seven groups to research the languages with different themes. In part two of stage two, the essence of part 1 was maintained, by trying to encircle the country's regional or folkloric knowledge. The general knowledge was limited to the specific one, according to the area or region, changing from the macro to the micro. In part 2, the folkloric languages that permeate Brazilian popular art were emphasized. Results note the difficulties, limitations, and deficiencies of the school and the educational structure of the state and the country. The study noted that students had difficulties in their development of knowledge, with the cultural codes interpretation, and especially with the decentralization of the class over the teacher who knows everything and teaches everything. Includes two graphs with the study's results. (Contains 11 references.) (BT)