Arts education can be an important part of the elementary child's experience. However, keeping the arts in schools is often a challenge because of funding concerns and competing academic priorities. An important strategy in arts education advocacy and policy is arts integration. Arts integration creates a rationale for the arts based on the…

The emphasis on STEM disciplines in schools has caused advocates for art education to propose the addition of the arts to the study of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, transforming STEM into STEAM. However, it is important that the larger purposes of art and education that have traditionally been embraced by the liberal arts are…

The emphasis on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) disciplines in schools has caused advocates for art education to propose the addition of the arts to the study of STEM, transforming STEM into STEAM. One method of implementing STEAM is Design Thinking (Henriksen, 2017). STEAM education and Design Thinking are both models for…

This article describes a qualitative study of pre-service art education students that was designed to explore relationships between mindfulness, self-inquiry, and artistic practices. The researchers, who are art educators, were curious about how mindfulness practices might connect, overlap or influence the personal artistic practice of the…

This article presents an overview and continuation of a study investigating how artist awareness and critical response might provide a better understanding of mindfulness and its practice within art education. While there are distinct advantages to mindfulness practices in education, these practices might also have problematic aspects, such as…

Place-based education incorporates local communities into school curriculum, recognizing the importance of local traditions, communities, and ecosystems, and emphasizing content that has reference to community life and local ecology. One elementary art teacher worked to connect place to her own artistic identity and to her work teaching elementary…

Disruptive student behavior, a common concern for teachers, presents particular challenges for those who teach art. Class-Wide Function-Related Intervention Teams (CW-FIT) is a multitiered intervention for implementing effective classroom management strategies aligned with schoolwide positive behavior interventions and supports. CW-FIT has proven…

Many K-12 art teachers have rich artistic backgrounds and continue to be active as artists in spite of the challenges of time, energy, and stereotypes that insist a real artist would not teach. This article describes a research project that examined the educational dynamic engendered by teachers who are also artists. We interviewed and observed…

Immigration is making this country and schools increasingly diverse. An unfortunate consequence of this condition is prejudice, discrimination, and lack of understanding. The challenge for educators is to create learning opportunities that will allow students to gain understanding and appreciation of the differences among the people who are in…

Research on learning in the visual arts suggests that art education must be situated in compelling personal contexts if it is to succeed in creating new ways of thinking, knowing, and representing. The personal context always has cultural dimensions. This article describes a visual art curriculum that embraces the personal context of place in a…

The human condition in the post-modern world is increasingly nomadic. A sense of displacement and alienation is pervasive. Schools emphasize abstracted knowledge removed from the experience of students. Many people feel detached from the places where they live and have no particular sense of belonging or responsibility toward their communities.…

In contemporary life and education, the local is marginalized in favor of large-scale economies of consumption that are indifferent to ecological concerns. The consequences of neglecting local human and natural communities include a degraded habitat, loss of wilderness, alienation, rootlessness, and lack of connection to communities. Critical…