This article examines the transformative educational practices and democratic ethos of Black Mountain College, an experimental institution ahead of its time. Drawing on insights from scholars like Rhea Estelle Lathan and Susan Kates, Muir positions Black Mountain as a site of community literacies, by prioritizing democratic engagement, diversity,…

During the last few years Educational Teacher Performance Assessment (edTPA) has increasingly become a hot issue in teacher education programs in the United States. edTPA has become so important for a teacher candidate because many states mandate that candidates pass the test with a state-designated score as a requirement for the initial teaching…

The literature on civic engagement in higher education is rich with examples of courses and programs that promote the development of students as engaged citizens in our democracy. However, few of them involve the arts. This fact is unfortunate because all forms of engagement with the arts is an important and effective means of achieving our civic…

From 2015 through 2019, the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) conducted a project that was intended to test the utility of Shared Shelf to the teaching and research needs of small colleges. Shared Shelf (now called JSTOR Forum) made it possible for a collection of material assembled by one faculty member--for example, butterfly specimens--to…

The problem to be addressed by this study was the lack of student retention on the part of community college students, how that was perceived by faculty, staff, and students, and how retention could potentially be impacted by student participation in fine arts courses and activities. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine fine arts…

In this article, the author challenges the recurrent theory-practice divide in art teacher preparation and its splintering implications for sustaining certain pedagogical practices in K-12 schools. Specifically, the author focuses on the pedagogical practice of emergent curriculum and the derivative curricular cycle of listening, observing,…

Very little information exists regarding the mental health needs of student artists. This study compared psychological symptoms and diagnoses of college students in 3 conservatories (n = 607) with those of college students in traditional colleges and universities (n = 87,105). The study found no difference in psychological symptoms except for…

The authors developed an integrated science-and-art program to engage science students from a performing arts high school in hands-on, inquiry based lab experiences. The students participated in eight biology-focused investigations at a local university with undergraduate mentors. After the laboratory phase of the project, the high school students…

There is a growing interest in STEAM (STEM + Arts) education nationwide. To uncover why these interdisciplinary initiatives can play a significant role in the student educational experience, it is crucial to identify characteristics of university students, who are participating and enrolled in STEM and arts curricula. We are interested in students…

Oulipo (Ouvroir de Littérature potentielle, or Workshop on potential literature), an over 50-year old movement that began in France, seeks to apply mathematical constraints to literature and the arts. In this article, I will give a brief survey of this movement and how I have built a learning module based on it for my mathematics for the liberal…

The need for increased creativity in education is currently being proposed in much innovative thinking on higher education as universities are forced to recreate themselves. There are four conditions facing higher education worldwide: alignment, motivation, connection, and direction. Higher education is characterized by a hierarchy of subjects and…

This study examined college students' visits to natural areas on campus and how these visits relate to place identity and environmentally responsible behaviors. The majority (76.5%) of the 115 participants visited the natural areas, and 55.7% of these students visited for a course requirement. Students who lived on campus, were younger, and…

Self-reflective writing is one method of inquiring into one's inner experience of learning. But what aspects of self are honors students invited to reflect on when they are asked to write informally in their notebooks on what they've just heard or read? Are they asked to explore their "thoughts" and "feelings"?…

Art educators should be concerned with teaching their students to make critical connections between the classroom and the outside world. One effective way to make these critical connections is to provide students with the opportunity to engage in community-based art endeavors. In this article, three university art educators discuss engaging…

The University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA), located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, is highly unusual. A component of the University of North Carolina system, it is "dedicated entirely to the professional training of students possessing talents in the performing, visual and moving image arts." This paper addresses the…