The Effect of Saudi Arabian History and Culture on the Nature and Efficiency of the Art Education Curriculum - Research Proposal Example

1 1.0 Introduction The idea that Saudi Arabian unique historical and cultural context largely influence art education curriculum development in the country is not an entirely new phenomenon. However, art researchers often investigate the extent and mode of impacts of history and culture on the efficiency of art education curriculum (Powell and Marcow-Speiser, 2005). 1.1 Statement of the Problem The statement of the problem that will be investigated in this paper is: in what manner do the historical and cultural contexts exactly influence the art education curriculum in Saudi Arabia? Pinar (1995) confirmed that history and cultural development are two primary ingredients of curriculum design. In other words, to develop an all-encompassing art education curriculum, it is important that elements of Saudi Arabia’s history and culture must be reflected in a way that art students can easily be familiarized with their surroundings. Pinar (1995) believed that “curricula” are living “texts” that exactly reflect historical and cultural processes in a particular location. Without doubt, a curriculum will not be effective if it excludes the dynamic aspects of human development—which are, categorically, history and culture. 1.2 Purpose of the Study The main purpose of this study is to identify the processes or mechanisms through which historical and cultural issues can influence the quality or effectiveness of art education 2 curriculum in Saudi Arabia. More so, historical culture has a unique effect on each individual, society, and environment. To reach the goal of having a successful art programs in Saudi Arabia and significant lecturers and professors, resources such as art, culture, heritage and history should present diverse approaches to develop curriculum and the performance and achievements of such educational programs (Powell and Marcow-Speiser, 2005). 1.3 Research Questions The following research questions will be answered in this paper so as to demonstrate that historical events as well as cultural activities can impact the quality or performance of art education curriculum in Saudi Arabia. What is the importance of historical culture in Saudi Arabia? How does culture affect the curriculum of art educational programs? How does culture influence programs that are given back to the Saudi Arabian Environment? What are the definite effects of historical culture on the effectiveness of art education curriculum used at Saudi Arabian schools? Providing answers to the questions above will help substantiate the fact that Saudi Arabian art education curriculum has indeed being affected by the historical culture of the country. 3 2.0 Literature Review 3.0 Methodology This study will use a mixed methodology through the use of an inductive and deductive framework to find answers to some research questions above. The reason for the combination of inductive and deductive frameworks lies in making use of the advantages of both. Many of the problems that educational research explores are done more effectively through the combination of inductive and deductive methods. The inductive method is better suited for the use and interpretation of qualitative data, while the deductive method has more emphasis on measurement and therefore is better suited for use in quantitative research and the interpretation of quantitative data (Khan, 1999). This study will employ a mixed methodology by collecting both qualitative and quantitative data. The qualitative data will be secondary data as compiled through a literature review above and will make up the body of knowledge on the subject of the capability of the influence of Saudi Arabian historical culture on the country’s art education curriculum. From the analysis of the secondary resources (in the literature review above), some points have been obtained from the facts presented in the literature to design the questionnaire for extracting the quantitative primary data. The questionnaire method has been chosen to acquire the required quantitative data for the purpose of the study. Questionnaires are one of the effective means to get 4 quantitative data and are popularly used in many research studies, because of the limited constraints it puts the researcher in and the usefulness of the data received through it. For this study, an open questionnaire will be used over a closed questionnaire. In an open questionnaire there is greater structure, which allows for probing deeply into the participants’ minds to remove the disadvantage of receiving superficial data, as in the case of a closed questionnaire (Foddy and Foddy, 1994). The questionnaires are supplied to the participants who have worked as art education curriculum designers in Saudi Arabia for a minimum of 5 years. The purpose of choosing the experienced curriculum developers is to reduce risks due to lack of enough knowledge of how historical culture could influence a particular curriculum. 3.1 Sample Size Twenty (24) participants will be randomly selected as main people to provide answers to the questionnaires. This random selection means that any of the 24 participants has an equal opportunity to contribute meaningfully to the study. The participants will be further classified into two groups (a pair of samples) based on their length of experience as art education curriculum designers or developers. Sample 1 (in the spreadsheet) represents those with up to 5 years of experience and Sample 2 (in the spreadsheet) are the art education curriculum designers with more than 5 years of experience. Hence, the total sample size is 24 (N=24). Random selection is employed to reduce the impact of bias on 5 the study. A large sample size has been selected to make the sample more representative of the cross section of the participants and thereby increase the validity and reliability of the study (Foddy and Foddy, 1994). 3.2 Statistical Calculations The responses from each set of 12 participants are input into a spreadsheet, together with the estimation of their percentages of impacts of Saudi Arabian historical culture on the value or efficiency of art education curriculum. Relevant remarks about these responses are also provided on the spreadsheet. The Z-score, population mean and sample mean are calculated for each data. SSPS is used to generate most of the data tabulated and processed in the results section. The statistics are necessary for estimating the actual effects of history and culture on the final art education curriculum in the country. Efforts are made to solicit the actual information about the experiences of the participants in art education curriculum designing. This is to maintain a trend of validity and reliability in the results produced in this studies. To guarantee this reliability of statistical results, participants are strictly chosen to reflect those who have had up to 5 years of experience developing art education curriculum and those who have more than 5 years of continuous art education curriculum designing. This research requires a great deal of reliability because it deals with a dynamic subject-matter 6 3.3 The Design of Questionnaires The questions the participants will answer are concerned about their experience designing art education curriculum in Saudi Arabia. They will be asked if historical culture influenced some of the art education curricula they had developed before. The belief is that if they had noticed any impact of Saudi Arabian history and culture on the resultant art education curricula they had made on one occasion or the other. Question1: Did you ever use Saudi Arabian history as the basis for determining what contents an art education curriculum should have? Question 2: How often had the Saudi Arabian culture influenced what art education students in the country need to learn? Question 3: Are there any direct or indirect references to Saudi Arabian history and culture in the country’s art education? Question 4: Does using historical culture in art education curriculum help art students to better under their studies? Question 5: Will art education become ineffective with mentioning Saudi Arabian history and culture? 7 Each of the questionnaires will contain all the five questions above, and none of the participants will be given any hints about their possible answers. They also will not be required to submit their personal information as names, telephone numbers, email addresses and so on for confidentiality purpose. They will only be identified by number 1-12 for either Sample 1 or Sample 2, which will give them the willingness to join in the survey. Requesting personal information will drive many important participants away and derail the unique purpose of this study. 8 4.0 Conclusion: Draft Results and Conclusion The following information describes the expected results and conclusion to be drawn on the findings from this study. 4.1 Draft Results This study will utilize advanced statistical tool like SPSS for analysis. However, other simple statistical tools like classification, tabulation, averages and percentages will also be employed for clear statistical analysis of the data. These tools will be used to estimate the means of the variables arising from each group of participants, and their t-test would be tested against each other to determine the extent of Type 1 Error, significance and freedom among the estimated variables. SPSS Output Paired samples statistics Mean N Std Deviation Std Error Mean Pair Pre-Test Scores 2.433 12 .261 7.521-E02 1 Post-Test Scores 2.533 12 .281 8.103-E02 The table above shows the mean (M), number of participants (N), standard deviation and standard error mean of the tested variables. 9 The post T-Scores came higher than the pre T-Scores. The correlations between the two variables are as follows: Paired Samples Correlations N Correlation Sig Pair Pre Test-Scores & 1 Post Test-Scores 12 .829 .001 The table above reveals that there is a very strong positive correlation. This proves that there is every possibility that Saudi Arabian history and culture can likely influence the nature and efficiency of the art education curriculum in the country. This inference is possible because all other factors or variables that may have impacts on the curriculum have been taken into considerations. The results of the paired T samples are shown in the table above. For the paired differences for both pre-and post-test scores, Mean comes out at -1.00 E-01, Standard deviation is 0.160 while standard Error Mean comes out as 4.606 E-02. In the table below, we can see that T, degrees of freedom, and significance. 12 The T value = -2.171 We have 11 degrees of freedom Our significance is 0.053 If the significance value is less than 0.05, there is a significant difference. If the significance value is greater than 0.05, there is no significant difference. Hence, our significance is greater than 0.05, meaning that there is possibly a significant difference between the experiences of the two sets of participants: (I) those who have designed art education curriculum for up to 5 years; and (ii) those who have designed Saudi Arabian art education curriculum for more than 5 years. The level of difference in their experiences may be due to their length of actual practical practice. Below is an SPSS-generated Q-Q Plot for the variables that represent the impact of historical culture on Saudi Arabian art education curriculum: The Normal Q-Q plot of Saudi Arabian Art Education curriculum above reveals an interesting trend, which confirms that the curriculum has been effective, irrespective of the level of experience of the curriculum developers or designers. This is an encouraging discovery, and it tends to confirm that Saudi Arabian historical culture is a viable ingredient that has made the curriculum to be effective. 14 4.2 Conclusion Conclusion will be drawn from the correlation between the facts presented in the literature review and the research findings. This is to test the truthfulness of the assertion that art education curriculum in Saudi Arabia may have been probably influenced by the past and current history and culture of Saudi Arabia. The results for this research will be able to confirm that such a proposition is in existence in Saudi Arabia. 15 References Foddy, W., and Foddy, H,W. (1994). Constructing questions for interviews and questionnaires: theory and practice in social research. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Khan, M.S. (1999). Educational research. Orlando, FL: APH Publishing. Pinar, W. (1995). Understanding curriculum: an introduction to the study of historical and contemporary curriculum discourses. New York: Peter Lang. Powell, M.C., and Marcow-Speiser, V. (2005). The arts, education, and social change: little signs of hope. New York: Peter Lang. Read More