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Abstract
This study answers the question, the term visual culture less present in contemporary art education scholarship, and are its characteristics (if not its name) recognizable in current art education trends today? The three sets of data collected to address this question were: 1) instances of the term visual culture in Art Education and Studies in Art Education throughout their publication histories, 2) an analysis of the term and characteristics of visual culture were present in two years (2019-2020) of Art Education and Studies in Art Education, and 3) an analysis of the inclusion of visual culture within the National Visual Art Standards from 1994 and 2014. The study found that the term visual culture is less present in contemporary art education scholarship, but that characteristics of visual culture, especially those aligned with other postmodern art education approaches, remain prevalent in contemporary art education scholarship. Specifically, the theme visual culture was most present in the reviewed journal articles from 2003-2005, and the frequency of references to visual culture dropped consistently after 2010. Lastly, the National Visual Art Standards developed in 2014 were written with attention to visual culture’s concepts in ways that the standards written in 1994 were not. This study illustrates the evolution and history of the term visual culture within art education and in so doing combats scholarly oblivion and exemplifies the power of familiar language in making change.