Abstract:

This paper is part of an ongoing doctoral study that looks into the approaches employed by gallery educators at Balai Seni Visual Negara (BSVN) in conducting their educational programmes to a number of special education teachers from a school that specialises in special education. Pitman & El-Omami (1988) write that, gallery educator can be define as education professional person using visual arts as a tool for learning, as creative catalysts which is working with artists, curators, and the community to enable the public to have contact with artworks and practising artists. BSVN is a pioneer Malaysia's official art venue for workshops and exhibitions. As such, the three primary aspects that function as the focus of the study are: i) perceptions of gallery educators upon the expectations of the school principal, the teachers, and the parents; ii) the organization of the programme in BSVN; as well as iii) its impact upon both special education teachers and administrators. Meanwhile, the methods utilised for data collection are interviews, diary entries, observation, and document analysis. A preliminary search of the research literature has failed to identify studies that have examined this particular phenomenon and make an original contribution to the knowledge base of the emerging field of special education and education in gallery context in Malaysia. In addition, this study adopts the qualitative case study design. With that, the discussion generated in this paper only emphasises on the early pre-test data derived from one-to-one interview between a gallery educator and special education teacher.