This article discusses contemporary contextualist curriculum approaches that suggest that both content and meaning can be co-constructed by teachers and learners, can remain flexible and open-ended, and can acknowledge the constant influx of real-life issues that arise in the daily lives of learners. The author, an Assistant Professor of Art…

Education in European countries is subject to many competing demands which have an influence on the organisation and content of arts education. Increasing globalisation has brought both benefits and challenges, including those arising from increased international competition, migration and multiculturalism, advancements in technology and the…

"Education Matters" is the monthly newsletter of the Association of American Educators (AAE), an organization dedicated to advancing the American teaching profession through personal growth, professional development, teacher advocacy and protection. This issue of the newsletter includes: (1) Is She Your Competition? Are India's Students…

During spring, 2005 The University of Montana, Department of Drama/Dance successfully piloted a small ArtsBridge Program through a new service-learning course for advanced dance and drama students. This article describes the process of setting up the university-public school partnership; describes challenges to faculty, staff, scholars and host…

A week after the 9/11 WTC event, the collage project that Nell Ruby and her class had been working on in a basic design classroom lacked relevance. They had been working from master works, analyzing hue and value relationships, color schemes, shape, and composition. The master works seemed unimportant because of the immense emotional impact of the…

The purpose of this article is to explore the relationships among art, language, and communication through the use of children's art books in early childhood teaching. By children's art books, meaning books for children that serve as contexts for reproductions of artworks, are stunning works of art themselves, engage the curiosity and thinking of…

Counselor educators and supervisors can enhance the group supervision process by intentionally selecting expressive arts activities designed to help supervisees develop personal awareness. Expressive arts activities also can serve to increase group understanding and cohesion. The authors provide a rationale for using expressive arts in…

A charter school serving a residential program for students at risk employs creativity in the arts to motivate academic achievement, provide productive after-school programming, and build a sense of community.

Many experiential education programs are developed on pillars promoting craftsmanship. Changing cultural situations have altered both our definition of, and the experiences offered to, participants that influence their concept of craftsmanship. By using Kurt Hahn's educational ideas, various experiences are explored and critiqued to determine what…

Community partnerships serving young children and families take many forms. This article presents six community partnerships that are engaged in innovative and creative approaches to learning. These programs have varied goals, but they share a common focus on linking community resources to enhance learning opportunities for the children and…

In this article I integrate the process of the artist with the practice of mentoring. The acts of listening to inquiry into their lives and research. Particular attention is made to the context of working with graduate students in a faculty of education. I specifically draw on arts-based educational research methods to explore a poetic way of…

This article examines the practice of teaching content-based disciplines through visual art. Qualitative and ethnographic methods are used in researching the teaching practice of a Bible teacher in a Jewish day school. The teaching method under study provides for active learning of the biblical text and demonstrates sensitivity to students'…

The article takes as its starting point my recent ethnography of the Welsh National Opera Company, and the forthcoming monograph "Everyday Arias: making opera work". In the course of that work I revisited the theme of performance: the ethnography of performance and the performance of ethnography. I discuss briefly the everyday work of…

This article examines the concept of an early childhood teacher learning, in stages, a new method for integrating the arts into the early childhood curriculum. An early childhood graduate course, Aesthetics as Learning, is the learning ground. In this course, the graduate students discover the "Adult Within," the "Child Within," the "Teacher…

Developing reflective practice in pre-service student teachers is a goal of many teacher education programs. This article describes three activities used in a graduate teacher education program that were designed to use an arts focus to provoke deeper reflection about teaching and learning. Clay tiles were used for illustrating personal metaphors…