Arts Education as a Vehicle for Social Change: An Empirical Study of Eco Arts in the K-12 Classroom

2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 61-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeniffer Sams ◽  
Doreen Sams

AbstractArts education has been part of the United States K-12 educational system for over a century. However, recent administrative policy decisions addressed theeconomic bottom lineand the 1983 report,A Nation at Risk, and complied with theNo Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001(U.S. Department of Education, 2001). These decisions resulted instandardisationof both core curricula and testing, leaving arts programs to function in a diminished capacity, curtailing both individuality and creative thinking. This study unpacks the role of the arts as change agents with the ability to: address current discourse; question ideologies and culture; convey complex problems in artistic form; engage the viewer in aesthetics; provide a perspective not found in regimented thinking; and empower creative problem solvers. This work also highlights the role of eco-art as a medium for addressing complex environmental challenges. The study also empirically examines, through a self-report survey, K-12 arts educators’ perceptions of integrating eco-arts into curricula. Findings revealed respondents’ desire to integrate eco-arts into the arts curricula and identified the most significantly perceived barriers to integration, as well as the role of policy on practicality. The authors also identify the study's limitations and recommend areas for future research.

2012 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Sullivan Sulewski ◽  
Heike Boeltzig ◽  
Rooshey Hasnain

<p>Disability arts in the United Kingdom and disability culture in the United States play important roles in expressing a positive disability identity. This paper reports on expressions about identity, in both artwork and reflective words, of 47 young artists with disabilities who were finalists in the VSA arts / Volkswagen arts competition between 2002 and 2005. As part of an evaluation of this program, we reviewed the artists' application essays and artwork. In doing so, we found a wealth of information on their perceptions of what it means to be a person with a disability and an artist, and how these two identities intersect. The findings provide insights into the role of the arts in identity formation for young people with disabilities, and point to the potential for future research on how arts and disability interact.</p><p>Keywords</p><p>affirmative model of disability, impairment, art, artists, culture, identity</p>


Author(s):  
Juliann Emmons Allison ◽  
Srinivas Parinandi

This chapter examines the development and politics of US energy policy, with an emphasis on three themes: the distribution of authority to regulate energy between national (or federal) and subnational governments, the relationship between energy and environmental policy and regulation, and the role of climate action in energy politics. It reviews patterns of energy production and consumption; provides an overview of national energy politics; and reviews literatures on federalism and energy politics and policy, the increasing integration of energy and environmental policies, and the politics of energy and climate action. The chapter concludes with a discussion of a future research agenda that underscores the significance of political polarization, subnational governance, and technological innovation for understanding US energy policy.


2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-97
Author(s):  
Lim Jae Young ◽  
Woo Harin

The arts in the United States, for a long time received strong support from both sides of the political aisle. However, in recent years, the arts have been transformed into a partisan issue that pits conservatives against liberals. The article points to the importance of political trust as a means of helping conservatives overcome their ideological inclinations and support the arts. Scholars argue that political trust influences more strongly individuals who perceive a given policy to be one that imposes ideological risks for them compared with those without such risks. Focusing on the moderating role of political trust, the article examines whether political trust can help alleviate the conservatives’ hostility to the arts. Relying on the 2016 General Social Survey, the article finds that conservatives have no direct relationship with arts spending, but they will be more likely to support arts spending when this is contingent upon political trust.


2013 ◽  
Vol 83 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Groff

In this article, Jennifer Groff explores the role of the arts in education through the lens of current research in cognitive neuroscience and the impact of technology in today's digital world. She explains that although arts education has largely used multiple intelligences theory to substantiate its presence in classrooms and schools, this relationship has ultimately hindered the field of arts education's understanding of the relationship between the arts, human development, and learning. Emerging research on the brain's cognitive processing systems has led Groff to put forth a new theory of mind, whole-mindedness. Here she presents the evidence and construct for this frame of mind, how it sits in relation to multiple intelligences theory, and how it might redefine the justification for arts education in schools, particularly in our digitally and visually rich world.


1990 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 231-238
Author(s):  
Keith Stubbs

Music has a role to play in Arts Education. This role remains largely underdeveloped. The selection of music and art as foundation subjects in the National Curriculum is divisive and fails to comprehend the fundamental concepts of arts education.This paper recognises the characteristics that are both common and distinctive between music and the arts, and reminds us of the historical factors which often prevent collaborative curriculum planning. It examines both the models and the language of collaboration, and recommends a management structure placed firmly within a single cohesive policy for the arts.


2018 ◽  
Vol 64 (3) ◽  
pp. 276-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimiko Tanaka ◽  
Larry Davidson ◽  
Thomas J Craig

Background: While the neighborhood community literature well documents a link between participation in supportive and effective community groups or activities and empowerment, there is as yet little empirical evidence of this relationship in the context of community mental health programs. Aim: The primary purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between sense of community belonging and empowerment among members of mental health clubhouses. Methods: A secondary analysis using a hierarchical regression model was conducted on cross-sectional structured interview data collected through a self-report questionnaire from 102 clubhouse members from six clubhouses in the United States and Finland. Results: The results indicated that members’ sense of clubhouse community belonging positively contributes to their empowerment. Conclusion: Fostering sense of community belonging appears to be a valid approach to catalyze empowerment. Study limitations and future research agendas were discussed.


2020 ◽  
pp. 251512742096412
Author(s):  
Josef Hanson

Arts entrepreneurship education is a multifaceted endeavor encompassing a diversity of learning contexts, from collegiate lecture halls to close apprenticeships and one-on-one coaching. Although existing research explores best practices for the arts entrepreneurship classroom, relatively few studies have been undertaken to explore the role of mentoring in arts endeavoring, the effectiveness of mentoring as a targeted pedagogical approach, and how mentoring might complement or even conflict with the tenets of classroom-based arts entrepreneurship education. The purpose of this study was to build consensus among established arts entrepreneurship educators regarding optimal mentoring activities, outcomes, and competencies. Eleven experts in the field of arts entrepreneurship participated in a multiphase Delphi procedure to generate and subsequently evaluate approaches to, and outcomes and characteristics of, effective mentoring. The result is a set of 43 expert-approved recommendations that can inform mentoring practice immediately and provide a foundation for future research in this still-emerging area of inquiry.


Affilia ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 397-412
Author(s):  
Molly C. Driessen

The purpose of this study is to conduct a feminist-based policy analysis to examine the role of power in campus sexual assault policies. This research investigated the role of power in campus policies that are in response to addressing sexual assault using a feminist policy analysis framework. McPhail’s (2003) Feminist-Based Policy Analysis Framework was used to study the policy-setting documents authored by the United States (U.S.) Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights and White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault that was established in 2014. Together, these documents encompass the federal guidelines for college campuses’ compliance, rights, and responsibility under Title IX. The Framework provides four questions to consider when analyzing the role of power within a policy. Several strengths of the policies are identified as well as tension between the power of institutions versus the power of student survivors, specifically in mandatory reporting policies. Implications for social work research, practice, and policy are explored along with identifying the study’s limitations and future research suggestions.


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