Responding to “Why the Arts Don't Do Anything: Toward a New Vision for Cultural Production in Education”

2013 ◽  
Vol 83 (3) ◽  
pp. 513-528 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Abodeely ◽  
Ken Cole ◽  
Janna Graham ◽  
Ayanna Hudson ◽  
Carmen Mörsch
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Production ◽  
Arts Education ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Associate Professor ◽  
Cultural Practice ◽  
Harvard Educational Review ◽  
Arts In Education ◽  
The Arts ◽  
New Vision

In the spring of 2013, the Harvard Educational Review (HER) published a special issue entitled Expanding Our Vision for the Arts in Education (Vol. 83, No. 1). Following a variety of forward-looking essays and arts learner reflections concerning the potential of the arts in education, the issue concluded with a provocative scholarly article, “Why the Arts Don't Do Anything: Toward a New Vision for Cultural Production in Education,” written by Rubén A. Gaztambide-Fernández, an associate professor in the Department of Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. In this piece, Gaztambide-Fernández makes the case that advocacy for arts education is trapped within a “rhetoric of effects” because the arts, as we conceive of them in educational environments today, rely too heavily on instrumental and intrinsic outcomes while only shallowly embodying a commitment to, or a consideration of, cultural practice. Gaztambide-Fernández further argues that what counts as “the arts” is based on traditional, Eurocentric, hierarchical notions of aesthetic experience. According to him, this discursive positioning of the arts within traditional Eurocentric power structures complicates arts teaching and learning for arts educators, especially those committed to issues of social justice. As an alternative, he suggests discursively repositioning the arts within a “rhetoric of cultural production,” positing that such a discursive shift would reconceptualize arts education as experiences that produce culture.

Thinking Otherwise About the Arts in Education—A Rejoinder

2013 ◽  
Vol 83 (4) ◽  
pp. 636-643 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rubén Gaztambide-Fernández
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
Arts Education ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Harvard Educational Review ◽  
National Endowment ◽  
Washington Dc ◽  
Arts In Education ◽  
The Arts ◽  
New Vision

In this essay, Rubén Gaztambide-Fernández reflects on the comments made in a forum convened to reflect on his article “Why the Arts Don't Do Anything: Toward a New Vision for Cultural Production in Education,” published in the Harvard Educational Review (HER)'s special issue entitled Expanding Our Vision for the Arts in Education (Vol. 83, No. 1). Participants in the forum (published in HER Vol. 83, No.3) were John Abodeely, manager of national partnerships, John F. Kennedy Center for the Arts, Washington, DC; Ken Cole, associate director, National Guild for Community Arts Education, New York City; Janna Graham, project curator of the Serpentine Gallery, Centre for Possible Studies, London; Ayanna N. Hudson, director of arts education, National Endowment for the Arts, Washington, DC; and Carmen Mörsch, head of the Research Institute for Art Education, Zurich University of the Arts. In his original essay, Gaztambide-Fernández makes the case that advocacy for arts education is trapped within a “rhetoric of effects” that relies too heavily on causal arguments for the arts, whether construed as instrumental or intrinsic. Gaztambide- Fernández further argues that what counts as “the arts” is based on traditional, Eurocentric, hierarchical notions of aesthetic experience. As an alternative, he suggests a “rhetoric of cultural production” that would focus on the cultural processes and experiences that ensue in particular contexts shaped by practices of symbolic work and creativity. Here the author engages the forum's discussion in an effort to clarify his argument and move the dialogue forward.

Editors' Introduction: Expanding Our Vision for the Arts in Education

2013 ◽  
Vol 83 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward Clapp ◽  
Laura Edwards
Keyword(s):  
Arts Education ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Harvard Educational Review ◽  
Arts In Education ◽  
The Arts ◽  
History Of ◽  
Education Journal ◽  
Generalist Education ◽  
Sociocultural Interactions ◽  
Education Symposium

In 1991 the Harvard Educational Review presented a two-part arts education symposium (vol. 61, nos. 1 & 3) that was published the following year as Arts as Education (Goldberg & Phillips, 1992). Then, HER editors were troubled to look back on the history of our journal and find scant discussion of issues pertaining to the arts in education. Twenty years after the Arts as Education symposium, we remain troubled that the topic of arts teaching and learning has continued to remain a stranger to the pages of our journal, only rarely making an appearance in the occasional article or Book Note. While we are dismayed by this lack of focus on the arts in a generalist education journal such as our own, we wonder, Should we really be surprised by the absence of arts education content in HER? Given that our current educational landscape is so deeply fixated on standardized tests, measurable outcomes in rigid content areas, and increased “achievement” at all costs, perhaps it makes sense that the arts—though fundamental to how we make meaning of ourselves, our environments, and our sociocultural interactions—are relegated to the margins of dominant discussions on education and therefore sadly absent from HER's pages.

Why the Arts Don't Do Anything: Toward a New Vision for Cultural Production in Education

2013 ◽  
Vol 83 (1) ◽  
pp. 211-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rubén Gaztambide-Fernández
Keyword(s):  
Education Research ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
Arts In Education ◽  
The Arts ◽  
The World ◽  
New Vision ◽  
Discursive Approach

In this essay Rubén A. Gaztambide-Fernández uses a discursive approach to argue that mainstream arts in education scholarship and advocacy construes “the arts” as a definable naturalistic phenomenon that exists in the world and is available to be observed and measured. In the course of his analysis, he examines how this construction is employed through what he calls the rhetoric of effects as part of the mainstream discourses used in arts in education research today. He describes how this positivistic rhetoric masks the complexity of those practices and processes associated with the arts, limiting the possibilities for productively employing such practices in education. In addition, he explores how discourses of the arts both arise out of and continually reify hierarchical conceptions of artistic practices in education and broader society. He concludes by proposing an alternative rhetoric of cultural production, arguing that moving toward this new way of understanding practices and processes of symbolic creativity is critical for expanding our vision for the arts in education.

scholarly journals “I think the arts are as prominent as any subject”: A study of arts education in two Scandinavian schools

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Catharina Christophersen ◽  
Cecilia Ferm Thorgersen
Keyword(s):  
Educational Leadership ◽  
Personal Growth ◽  
Arts Education ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Educational Systems ◽  
School Life ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Challenging Situation

The arts seem to be under pressure in many educational systems, which is demonstrated by a general lack of recognition of aesthetic experience and learning, a lack of emphasis on the arts in education, and often also a lack of fully competent teachers. Despite the challenging situation facing the arts in schools in general, there are exceptions. Some schools do choose to focus on the arts. This article is based on an ethnographic double case study that explored arts education practices in two such Scandinavian schools. The purpose was to examine how education in the arts subjects was carried out in the schools, and how the actors perceived, articulated and legitimated the educational practices in the arts subjects. The case descriptions of the two schools imply that the educational leadership in the schools were of great importance. Further, that the arts are integrated as a natural part of everyday school life, and both schools have taken a holistic approach to education, in which the arts are perceived to involve and contribute to learning in the broadest sense, as well as to the pupils’ social and personal growth. Also, the case descriptions show that arts education practices were carried out in a creative, but challenging tension between frames and freedom.

The Future of the Arts in Education? Alternative Strategies

1992 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-17
Author(s):  
Robert Long
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Performing Arts ◽  
Arts Education ◽  
Alternative Strategies ◽  
Arts In Education ◽  
The Arts ◽  
The Future ◽  
Art Forms ◽  
Education Act ◽  
Sustained Responses

Much speculation exists as to the prospect Music and the Performing Arts face in the wake of the 1988 Education Act. Research shows that interaction and fusion, which exist between Music and the Performing Arts, intensify expressive character for young people, and generate more powerful and sustained responses, in comparison with single art forms.Results of experiments show the value of fused artefacts with significant implications for future Arts education, as regards both making and appraising.

scholarly journals The Capacity of Assessment in Arts Education

2010 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 3-12
Author(s):  
Christopher DeLuca
Keyword(s):  
Arts Education ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Dominant Role ◽  
Performance Assessments ◽  
Practical Approach ◽  
Creative Development ◽  
Theoretical Rationale ◽  
Traditional Assessment ◽  
Assessment Of Learning ◽  
The Arts

Assessments play a dominant role in teaching and learning within current accountability frameworks of education. In such contexts, assessments may be perceived as barriers to promoting creativity within arts education. In this article, I examine emerging research that pushes educators to reframe assessment as a pedagogical structure that supports the development of creativity in students. I begin by justifying the integration of newer forms of assessment (i.e., assessment for and as learning) within traditional assessment of learning structures and in relation to our aim of developing students’ creative capacities. I then consider the practice of constructing performance assessments that maintain criteria that encourage creative development rather than limit it. Thus my purpose in writing this article is to provide both a theoretical rationale for assessment integration in the arts as well as a practical approach to arts assessment that works within the current structures of assessment in schools.

Purposes of Arts Education

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Heaton ◽  
Richard Hickman
Keyword(s):  
Personal Growth ◽  
Arts Education ◽  
Culturally Relevant ◽  
Social Utility ◽  
Cognitive Value ◽  
Arts In Education ◽  
The Arts ◽  
The World ◽  
Aesthetic Awareness ◽  
Different Parts

A range of arguments is used to justify the inclusion of the arts in schools’ curricula from different parts of the world, moreover, "the arts" can mean different things to different audiences. It is therefore useful to contextualize why and how arts education contributes to such things as social utility, personal growth, and aesthetic awareness. Arts education in many countries is being marginalized, and the cognitive value of arts education is being sidelined. By reinstating the arts in education as cognitively driven, culturally relevant, and progressive, an arts offering can be formed that aligns with, and advances, contemporary perspectives and practices in education.

scholarly journals The Arts and the Authentic Learner

2007 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zuzana Vasko
Keyword(s):  
Market Economy ◽  
Contemporary Art ◽  
Arts Education ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
The Self ◽  
Meaningful Life ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Visual Artist

Amidst a goal-oriented society driven by a market economy, knowing one’s truer values and finding a sense of personal authenticity may seem challenging. With the view that education is to prepare a student for a meaningful life, this paper looks toward how arts education and the encouragement of aesthetic experience can go a long way toward helping students find a sense of authenticity in their lives. The arts foster a connection with the self as well as with our peers and the culture of which we are a part. The humanizing characteristics of art such as the emotions, intuition, our bodies and senses, and our beliefs are explored, as is the role of contemporary art. While this paper takes the viewpoint of a visual artist, the ideas apply to the arts in general.

scholarly journals The Arts and Staying Cool

2008 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 365-374 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felicity McArdle
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Arts Education ◽  
Arts In Education ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Letting Go ◽  
Current Practices

Art can be messy. Teaching art can be messy. Teaching can be a messy process. The art of making a space for the playfulness and messiness of teaching requires courage and letting go. This article develops the verandah metaphor for re-thinking the place of the arts in education, in order to make space for some of the institutionalised ambivalence in arts education. Four sites of practice are examined, where contingencies come into play, and where current practices act to both enable and constrain our ways of working with young children. The article concludes with some new (messy) possibilities for seeing and thinking about arts education.

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