Abstract :
This paper contributes to the on-going debate
about specialisation and teaching art in primary
schools. Moreover it provides a starting point for
further research and the design of in-service
training that responds to the different needs and
attitudes of primary school teachers in relation to
teaching art. This is done by investigating several
profiles of teachers who teach art in primary
schools in Cyprus. It describes five profiles of
teachers, which emerged from analysing data
from pupils (questionnaire and interview data)
and teachers (interview data) and thus brings a
fresh insight to the learning-teaching situation.
There are two profiles of art specialist teachers,
named asartist-teacherand specialist-teacher, and
three profiles of non-art specialist teachers,
named as enthusiastic, disappointed, and indifferent
non-specialist. The most effective teacher in
the pupils’ eyes is the specialist-teacher, who integrates
more successfully than the others their
subject matter knowledge, pedagogical knowledge,
knowledge of learners and knowledge of
the environmental conditions.
