VISUAL ARTS AND INTERGENERATIONAL DIALOGUE: CULTURAL JOURNALISM PRACTICES IN TEACHER EDUCATION

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, people across the world experienced the transformation from traditional classrooms to virtual platforms, overcoming physical distance barriers. In visual art curricula, while local content was emphasized, pre-service teachers encountered real-world examples for implementing such content effectively. This research explored community-related teaching strategies that enhance students' learning, particularly in the context of distance education as students had returned to their homes. This study employed a qualitative case study design to investigate how pre-service visual art teachers in Türkiye incorporated their experiences with cultural journalism into their lesson plans and designs. The research involved six pre-service teachers enrolled in an art teaching program at a university. The findings of the study were analyzed using thematic analysis. The results revealed that the participants shifted their approach to plan design from a tourist perspective to a critical perspective. Cultural journalism practices played a significant role in helping participants move beyond clichéd representations of a place, allowing them to adopt a more in-depth and insider perspective. These practices encouraged questioning consumption-based perception management and promoted a more authentic focus on experiences—essentially fostering the ability to see without losing connection to the local context. Consequently, teacher reflected on and re-evaluated their perspectives of the places they lived through intergenerational dialog, revisiting these places as educational tools. In future research, an action study could be proposed to explore how visual culture and critical art education are conducted based on an object representing the tourist gaze in a specific locality.