Introduction
Making art is messy, unpredictable, and divergent. Teaching art can empower students to embrace the messy, unpredictable, and divergent in life. The Bachelor of Art Education, P-12 (BAE, P-12) major integrates art-making and art-looking to explore the powerful intersection of material and process exploration, visual and cultural literacy, and identity work and personal meaning-making in art. Art education theory comingles with practice as we teach and learn with one another, drawing on current, interrelated art education pedagogies so that each student develops their own, unique teaching philosophy in the process.
This major must be accompanied by a professional preparation program in secondary education and leads to an endorsement in visual arts. See the Secondary Education section of this catalog for program admission, completion, and teacher certification requirements.
Why Consider an Art P-12 Major?
The BAE, P-12 major prepares students to teach as an art specialist in elementary, middle, and high schools. The program includes foundational studio art courses, additional media-specific art courses, art history survey courses, and three art education courses, including topics such as artistic development in childhood and adolescence, curriculum design and assessment, diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion in art education spaces, art education advocacy, identity work, and narrative meaning-making in art, equipping majors with an array of artistic and pedagogical practices to integrate into their future art classrooms.
Student Resources
Department website: Art and Art History
Contact information: Fine Arts 116, 360-650-3660, ArtInfo@wwu.edu; Teacher Education Admission, 360-650-6161, wce.teachered.admiss@wwu.edu.
Department advising: Admitted and/or current students visit the Apply to Art website.
Degree Works: Current students should also log on to Degree Works to check student-specific program progress.
Career Services Center: Connect major to a career
How to Declare (Admission and Declaration Process):
Most classes in the Studio area are restricted to majors only. An online application is required to access classes in this area. The application will include a portfolio of recent work and an unofficial transcript of any college-level courses already taken.
Application Deadlines
Application deadlines are by midnight on October 15 and January 31.
Grade Requirements
A grade of C (2.0) or better is required for courses in the elementary education professional program and all courses required for the endorsement.
