Senior secondary art appreciation and criticism and students with intellectual disabilities: A perfect marriage or not?

In 2009, the Education Bureau published the first senior secondary Visual Arts curriculum supplementary guide for students with intellectual disabilities in Hong Kong. Before that, there were no formal senior Visual Arts curricula for teachers in either type of school. The introduction of art appreciation and criticism to teachers is highlighted particularly in the Guide. It emphasizes art appreciation and criticism as being one of the major components of the curriculum, in addition to art making. However, teaching art appreciation and criticism to students with intellectual disabilities in the Hong Kong educational context is considered ambitious and challenging. The aim of this paper is critically to examine the fundamental underpinnings of the new curriculum in terms of its theoretical and pragmatic implications for teachers and students with intellectual disabilities as set out in the supplementary guide. The author adopts contemporary concepts of teaching art appreciation and criticism as the theoretical and methodological analysis framework to argue and respond to the above-mentioned underpinnings. This paper finally concludes with some constructive insights that urge policy-makers to reflect on such issues. Copyright © 2015 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.