Rachel Fendler
Chair
Professor
Department of Art Education
Rachel Fendler, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Art Education at Florida State University. She currently serves as Chair of the Department of Art Education. She received her BA in Art History from Smith College, an MA in Visual Culture Studies and an MA in Arts and Education from the University of Barcelona. She received her Ph.D. in Arts and Education from the University of Barcelona.
Dr. Fendler has developed projects in a number of informal educational environments that combine creative practice, new media, and collaboration with teens. She was Co-Chair of the Art Education Research Institute (2021-2022) and past Secretary of the Arts Based Research SIG of the American Educational Research Association (2018-2020). She has presented and published at the state, national, and international level. Her research and curriculum development consider how creative practice and place-based inquiry may offer young people, and their communities, opportunities to reimagine modes of being together. This research is interested in the ways that art making may generate a sphere of action for youth civic engagement, both in and outside schools.
Contact
Education
PhD, University of Barcelona. Arts and Education. Supervisor: Dr. Fernando Hernández Hernández.
MA, University of Barcelona. Arts and Education.
MA, University of Barcelona. Visual Culture Studies.
Teaching Areas
Doctoral Seminar: Social Foundations of Art Education (ARE6931)
Introduction to Applied Research Methods (ARE5785)
Proposal Writing in the Arts (ARE5782)
Research Survey (ARE5745)
Seminar in Professional Practices (ARE5950)
Special Topics: Cultural Politics & Public Pedagogies (ARE5930)
Social Reconstruction in Art Education (ARE5650)
Research Areas
I serve as major professor to doctoral students in the Ph.D. and Ed.D. programs in our department.
My research areas include: civically engaged art education, arts-based educational research, curriculum and pedagogy, poststructural theory in education, affect theory, teacher professional development, youth participatory action research
Select Scholarly Works & Awards
Award: Florida Art Education Association, Higher Educator of the Year (2025).
Fendler, R., & Shields, S. S. (2025). Curricularizing Social Movements: Intersecting Art, Pedagogy, and Social Change. Journal of Cultural Research in Art Education 42(1), 10-27.
Scott, S. S., & Fendler, R. (2025). Teaching How to Think Like an Artist: Cultivating Local Understanding Through Research Informed Creative Practices. Art Education, 73(5).
Shields, S. S., & Fendler, R. (2023). Developing a Curriculum Model for Civically Engaged Art Education: Engaging Youth through Artistic Research. Routledge.
Shields, S. S., Fendler, R., & Henn, D. (2020). A Vision of Civically Engaged Art Education: Teens as Arts-Based Researchers. Studies in Art Education, 61(2), 123-141.
Fendler, R., Shields, S. S., & Henn, D. (2020). # thefutureisnow: A Model for Civically Engaged Art Education. Art Education, 73(5), 10-15.
Fendler, R. (2019). Desire Paths: A Reflection With Preservice Students in the Eventful Space of Learning. Studies in Art Education 60(4), 275-286.