Art and Indigenous culture are inseparable. From the immaculately decorated lodges and war shirts of thousands of years to contemporary mixed and digital media images, Indigenous arts are expressions of survivance. Creative arts have sustained Indigenous ways of knowing, being, doing, and healing through attempted cultural genocide. Research has…

In this extract from, and commentary on, my master's thesis, "The Brooch of Bergen Belsen: A Journey of Historiographic Poiesis" (winning York University Department of Education Best Major Research Paper 2010), I explore a single aesthetic experience, an encounter with a small hand-made floral cloth brooch donated to the Holocaust…

The authors investigated the effectiveness of a mindfulness art activity compared with a free draw/coloring activity on test anxiety in children. The sample consisted of 152 students (50% female; Mage = 10.38 years, SD = 0.88 years) randomly assigned to a mindful (n = 76) or free (n = 76) group. Participants completed a standardized measure of…

As educators at a faculty of education, the authors found that teacher candidates (TCs) invariably purchased new materials whenever they had an assignment requiring some form of construction activity. They were concerned about this learned, consumer behavior; lessons of moderation in using the Earth's resources are important elements of…

This formative intervention documents the emergence of a hybrid activity aiming at student engagement and academic achievement. In this context-bound study, early stages of this activity consisted in establishing PénArt meant to enable high school students with difficulties to start up their own business at school. It involved reaching agreements…

To test the claim that digital learning tools enhance the acquisition of visual literacy in this generation of biology students, a learning intervention was carried out with 33 students enrolled in an introductory college biology course. This study compared learning outcomes following two types of learning tools: a traditional drawing activity, or…

We report the results of a climate change module delivered to 48 Grade 3/4 students in Nova Scotia, Canada. We tested for prior knowledge and evaluated interventional effectiveness using art elicitation. Common climate change misconceptions were demonstrated in their preintervention artwork, while postintervention artwork showed improved…

This study reports on the longitudinal analysis of a structured after-school arts program for Canadian youth, ages 9 to 15 years, from low-income communities where the relationship of peer social support, family interactions, and psychosocial outcomes is evaluated. Multi-level growth curve analyses suggest an increase in prosocial development with…