Arts Education

Arts education and beyond

by Anna-Lena Østern

A Modern Anacharsis Looks at Music Theory

by Peter Sonderen

Dutch Journal of Music Theory. Tijdschrift voor Muziektheorie. 2012, Volume 17 Issue 1

In this article the author focuses on the (critical) role of the outsider, or allochthon, with regard to other... more In this article the author focuses on the (critical) role of the outsider, or allochthon, with regard to other cultural fields. From historical and aesthetic viewpoints, he stresses, as a modern Anacharsis, the importance of the cultural side of music theory that hardly seems to play a role on the musical menu in art education. The Dutch aesthetician Frans Hemsterhuis serves as a guide.

'Tristan chords and random scores': exploring undergraduate student experiences of music in higher education through the lens of Bourdieu

by Gwen Moore

Within a theoretical framework drawn from Bourdieu, this article explores the relationship between undergraduate... more Within a theoretical framework drawn from Bourdieu, this article explores the relationship between undergraduate students' experiences of music in higher education and their musical backgrounds and prior music education experiences. More critically, this study aims to discover whether ideologies surrounding musical value impact on the student experience in higher education. A survey of undergraduate students of music (N=60) at a higher education music department in the Republic of Ireland was conducted. Preliminary data suggest that students' musical habitus and cultural capital impact on their experience of music within the field of higher education. Implications of findings from this study suggest a reappraisal of curricula and assessment at secondary level and of musical value and curriculum content in Irish higher education.

Sociocultural perspectives on multicultural music education:reappraising the content of music curricula in Ireland.

by Gwen Moore

Changing social demographics in all parts of the world have brought about the need for changes in curriculum content... more Changing social demographics in all parts of the world have brought about the need for changes in curriculum content in education and by extension, music education. In this paper I discuss sociocultural perspectives on multicultural music education with particular reference to a) tolerance and understanding, and b) multicultural awareness and open-mindedness as rationales for multicultural music education. Current provision for multicultural music education in second level curriculum documents and highlights from the Music Education National Debate (2004) is discussed in the light of recent sociocultural changes in Irish society. Findings from a survey and focus group discussion point to sociocultural rationale for multicultural music education in Ireland. Moreover, data from second level music teachers’ experiences and attitudes of their training and music education practice suggest that content at both second and in higher music education in Ireland is due for reappraisal. To conclude, I propose Campbell’s Concentric Circles Model (1996) as a way forward for music education practice in Ireland.

Inner, Outer, and In-Between: Why Popular Culture and the Arts Matter for Urban Youth

by Rubén Gaztambide-Fernández

Gaztambide-Fernández, R. (2007). Inner, outer, and in-between: Why popular culture and the arts matter for urban youth. Orbit, 36(3), 35 – 37.

The words “the arts” and “popular culture” don’t often appear in the same sentence in education literature. Most often... more The words “the arts” and “popular culture” don’t often appear in the same sentence in education literature. Most often they are far from each other—pitted as opposite ideas and treated differently. Rubén A. Gaztambide-Fernández sees the arts and popular culture as fields of practice that are remarkably similar. When put together both fields have the potential to matter greatly in the lives of urban youth.

Sacred Structures: Narrating Lifeworlds and Implications for Urban Arts Education Practice

by James Haywood Rolling, Jr.

Rolling, J. H. (2011). Sacred structures: Narrating lifeworlds and implications for urban arts education practice. Studies in Art Education, 53 (2), 112-124.

Utilizing the story of an art studio project involving second grade students in a new urban elementary school as they... more Utilizing the story of an art studio project involving second grade students in a new urban elementary school as they explored and engaged with architectural spaces in their community during their yearlong study of the theme of “Community,” the purpose of this writing is to theorize and codify some major tenets of a narrative and reinterpretive approach to urban arts & design education pedagogy—one that recognizes and draws upon the colliding experiences and environments of urban living as an asset to the (re)constitution of identity and community.

Arts Practice as Agency: The Right to Represent and Reinterpret Personal and Social Significance

by James Haywood Rolling, Jr.

Rolling, J. H. (2011). Arts practice as agency: The right to represent and reinterpret personal and social significance. Journal of Cultural Research in Art Education, 29, 11-24.

In this article, I reframe arts practice as agency, the right to represent and reinterpret personal and social... more In this article, I reframe arts practice as agency, the right to represent and reinterpret personal and social significance in a way that contributes a positive self-valuation. A positive self-valuation in turn becomes a berth for the beneficial habitus of the individual. Bourdieu (1990/1999) describes habitus as the locus of the capacity to generate reasonable, common sense behaviors that are beneficial to others. Arts practices are herein theorized as a stock of reasonable, common sense behaviors—making marks, making models, and making “special” aesthetic interventions that signal a person, object, artifact, action, event or phenomenon as uniquely valuable, sacred or life-sustaining. These are behaviors that human agents commonly and continually employ in response to social needs, causes, and the imperative to signify. Given the social significance of arts practice, there is also great potential in a broader application of arts education pedagogy as a force for social transformation. Brent Wilson (2005) sketches out a fundamentally democratic and transactional pedagogical framework that socially responsive and responsible educators can make use of in the cultivation of social justice, the ethical imagination, and the transformation of the systems that ill-define us.

‘The Alphabets of Nature: Children, Books and Natural History in Scotland, 1750-1800’, Nuncius, 25 (2010), 1-22.

by Matthew Daniel Eddy

Author: Matthew Daniel Eddy.

This essay examines the kinds of textbooks that were used to teach natural knowledge to children in eighteenth-century... more This essay examines the kinds of textbooks that were used to teach natural knowledge to children in eighteenth-century Scotland. Following Roger Chartier’s belief that the forms and uses of print can be employed to categorise the content of texts, I focus on three groups of books that were used in specific settings: (1) homes, academies and parish schools; (2) social and professional settings where adolescents worked; (3) and high schools. I do not take these groupings to be definitive, but more as a preliminary categorisation. Along the way I treat various historiographic points relevant to the canon of Scottish pedagogy and I comment on some issues relevant to the instruction of girls. I conclude by calling for more studies that address how and where children’s books were used during the Enlightenment.

Shifting the Curriculum: Decentralization in the Art Education Experience (2011)

by Heidi May

published in Art Education, 64(3), 33-40
http://www.arteducators.org/research/art-education

This article examines the decentralized approach to art curriculum from a pedagogical point of view, acknowledging... more This article examines the decentralized approach to art curriculum from a pedagogical point of view, acknowledging advantages and disadvantages for art educators, and its contribution to a curriculum that captures the current cultural aesthetic experience. By referring to research in art education and writings of curriculum theorists, I argue for an application of decentralized approaches to teaching visual art in contemporary
learning environments, with emphasis on instigating critical thinking within classroom critiques of student artwork. The following topics are addressed: the connection between decentralized curriculum and complexity thinking, the significance of dialogical exchange between teacher and students, the concept of emergent knowledge, and the noted desire for flexible curricular models in art education. I conclude by providing accounts of collaborative learning within university studio art courses that occur in online environments, with the intent of provoking thought for art education at all levels. Throughout, I describe a theoretical framework for understanding decentralized curriculum as I argue for a contemporary art pedagogy that is reflective of contemporary life.

Intervista a Hubert Godard

by Armando Menicacci

Article written with Emanuele Quinz published in : Armando Menicacci, Emanuele Quinz, La scene digitale. Nuovi media per la danza, Venezia, Marsilio, 2001, pp. 371-381

A Manifesto for the Study of Popular Dance

by Mary Fogarty

Appeared in Conversations across the field of dance studies (SDHS). Special Topic: "Dancing the Popular." Danielle Robinson (editor).

Counterculture, Craftsmanship, and Cyberspace Connectivity: Considerations of Contemporary Feminist Zines in/as/of Art Education.

by Courtney Weida

In Collingwood, S; Quintana, A; & Smith, C (Eds.). Feminist Cyberspaces: Pedagogy in Transition. (pp. 33-50).

This chapter examines the cyberspace presences and digital interplays of contemporary feminist zines in the contexts... more This chapter examines the cyberspace presences and digital interplays of contemporary feminist zines in the contexts of art and art education. Although the peak of zine creations as works on paper may be traced to the 1990s, this form of feminist counterculture has evolved into cyberspace forums and expressions. Zines often include not only email addresses alongside “snail mail” addresses, but also links to pdfs and related web resources. Connecting the handmade craftsmanship and hand-drawn and written techniques of zines with the grassroots connectivity enabled by the web, blogs and other online forums relating to zines or containing zines constitute interesting liminal spaces. At other times, zines may be a sort of feminist protest to male-dominated cyberspace forums. This paper explores potential and problems of zines as extensions of hypertext, the dimensionality of the screen and the page, and various expressions of personal identities via individual craftsmanship. The educational contexts of zines considered in this paper include college classrooms, K-12 teaching, as well as library collections. Recent zines addressing gender, sexuality, and motherhood will be emphasized.

How to Do Things with Pictures: A Guide to Writing in Art History

by Andrei Pop

Published as a brochure by Harvard University's Expository Writing Center in 2008, 43 p.

A practical guide to writing art history papers for newcomers to the field. I am still fond of the intermezzo called... more A practical guide to writing art history papers for newcomers to the field. I am still fond of the intermezzo called "What is Art?"

2009 How do we teach sexual health in the pacific

by Cresantia (Frances) Koya Vaka'uta

A toolkit developed to enable the teaching of Sexual and Reproductive Health in the Pacific islands utilizing a... more A toolkit developed to enable the teaching of Sexual and Reproductive Health in the Pacific islands utilizing a culturally relevant and faith-based approach.

“The Mall” and “the Plant”: Choice and the Classed Construction of Possible Futures in Two Specialized Arts Programs

by Rubén Gaztambide-Fernández

Gaztambide-Fernández, R., VanderDussen, E., Cairns, K. (2012). “The Mall” and “the Plant”: Choice and the Classed Construction of Possible Futures in Two Specialized Arts Programs. Education and Urban Society, first published on March 2, 2012 doi:10.1177/0013124512438226

This article explores how conceptions of choice and visions of the future are constructed within the context of... more This article explores how conceptions of choice and visions of the future are constructed within the context of specialized arts programs in two Canadian public high schools. The authors consider how discourses of the arts are implicated in the way that possible futures are envisioned differently, delimiting the range of choices available to students. Their analysis shows how choices are unequally distributed and possible futures unequally constructed in ways that reinforce social class hierarchies. The discussion of the data is organized around the contrast in how three tropes—“the architect,” “the fifth year,” and “being lazy”—emerge in both school contexts in relationship to students’ futures. By illustrating how the arts operate in this process, the authors challenge the common assumption that arts programs have the inherent ability to transcend social structures in general and social class processes in particular. The authors conclude by considering the implications of their analysis for how notions of choice are understood in relationship to specialized arts programs.

Il digitale nell'insegnamento della danza

by Armando Menicacci

Article published in : Armando Menicacci, Emanuele Quinz, La scene digitale. Nuovi media per la danza, Venezia, Marsilio, 2001, pp. 361-369

the Mosaic Model for Youth Development through the Arts

by Lorraine Gutierrez

Call2_Project Rendering the Real

by Sireita Mullings

Project Rendering the Real, is calling for participants for an interactive symposium and exhibition by project titled the “Fourth Moment”.

March 22nd – April 27th 2012.

www.renderingthereal.com

The intention is to interrogate the visual representations of art practitioners and their project participants, by way... more The intention is to interrogate the visual representations of art practitioners and their project participants, by way of papers, presentations, workshops and artwork.

The exhibition and symposium will run between
March 22nd – April 27th 2012.

Visit www.renderingthereal.com for more information.

Just Another Piece of Paper: Creative Research and Writing

by Amanda Bill

Practitioners in the fields of art and design often complain of the injustice of having to ‘write a book’ about their... more Practitioners in the fields of art and design often complain of the injustice of having to ‘write a book’ about their practice in order to satisfy academic definitions of research. What is the point, the argument goes, of producing ‘just another piece of paper’? The suggestion that creative work might be ‘converted’ to research by a suitable accompanying text is justly resisted. This article approaches the theory/practice binary the other way round. It outlines a research project that attempts to convert the text of a ‘conventional’ academic PhD thesis into a ‘creative’ research output. The intention is to expose the boundaries that are constructed when creativity is counted as knowledge and by doing this, to put the notion of creativity into play.

2011 Rethinking Arts Education in Oceania_Koya_CF

by Cresantia (Frances) Koya Vaka'uta

This article examines the potential of Arts Education in the Pacific islands and includes an overview of the treatment... more This article examines the potential of Arts Education in the Pacific islands and includes an overview of the treatment of the Arts in current education systems in the region.