TERRITORY OF CREATIVITY: VISUAL ARTS IN THE CLASSROOM IN THE FINAL YEARS OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Visual arts education; Pedagogical practice; Creativity; elementary school; Art Education.
This research investigates how different pedagogical strategies in visual arts education influence the development of creativity in students in the final years of elementary school. Based in the field of Art/Education, the study draws on the contributions of Ana Mae Barbosa, (2012), Fayga Ostrower (2014), and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1996), understanding creativity as a relational, sensitive, and contextualized process linked to aesthetic experience, perception, and visual culture. This is a qualitative, pedagogical, and interventional study conducted in a public school in the city of Mossoró, Rio Grande do Norte, involving 8th and 9th grade elementary school classes. Data was produced through classroom observation, monitoring of pedagogical practices, analysis of students artistic and written productions, as well as reflective records and the field diary of the teacher-researcher. Data analysis followed a descriptive-interpretative perspective, seeking to identify evidence of the development of creativity, aesthetic involvement, authorship, and student participation, in dialogue with the theoretical references adopted. The results indicate that pedagogical strategies that articulate artistic experimentation, critical appreciation, and sociocultural contextualization favor greater engagement, creative autonomy, and the production of meaning in visual arts classes. The study seeks to contribute to the strengthening of teaching practices that are sensitive to the reality of public schools, reaffirming the relevance of visual arts education in the aesthetic, critical, and creative development of students.