Identifying college students' attitudes toward the art world in Saudi Arabia
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine certain aspects of Saudi Arabian college students' attitudes toward the art world and to determine if there was a relationship between students' attitudes and certain characteristics. The characteristics examined in this study included the following: student's age, sex, degree major, educational level, degree goal, previous training in art at the middle school, secondary school, and college level, and the amount of training in art at the college level. Three specific aspects of attitudes toward the art world were examined using the Fergus Art Subscale Attitude Instrument (FASAI) which consisted of three subscales designed to assess: (a) attitudes toward the visual arts in general; (b) attitudes toward art as an educational discipline; and (c) attitudes toward people in the arts. The Arabic form of FASAI was administered to 253 students enrolled in six majors at King Saud University in the Summer of 1992, including: art education majors, Arabic studies majors, English studies majors, Islamic studies majors, geographic studies majors, and other non-art majors who were taking elective courses in art education. Data obtained from participants was subdivided and analyzed in two major ways. First, the sample was subdivided according to participants' characteristics. Second, analyses were conducted to examine the six groups' attitudes toward the art world. SPSS Analysis of Variance procedures were used to identify the relationships between students' responses to the FASAI and their characteristics such as the degree goal or previous training in art. The t-test for independent samples and the Scheffe procedures were used to see if any significant differences exist between the groups on their responses to the FASAI. The findings revealed that three characteristics, student's age, educational level, and the degree goal, were found not to be significantly related to students' attitudes toward the art world. These characteristics seemed to have no relationships or effects on attitudes' scores. Other characteristics were found to have statistically significant (p $<$.05) relationships on attitude scores. These included the following: student's sex, previous training in art at the middle and secondary schools and at the college level. Art education majors scored significantly higher than the other five groups on the FASAI. There were no significant differences found in attitude scores between students who were taking elective courses in art education and other non-art groups on all three subscales and the total scale. Significant differences were found between Islamic majors and non-art majors. It was found that non-art majors scored significantly higher than Islamic majors on the FASAI.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Smith, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Art education|Educational theory
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