The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is an internationally known arts institution in Washington, DC. The Kennedy Center recognized that many young people need equitable and ongoing access to the arts in schools because access to the arts often depends on school budgets, scheduling constraints, and administrative commitment. In 2009,…

Defining social justice art education can help teacher candidates understand what it is and how to use related pedagogies to address issues of access, equity, and power in their future classrooms. In this article, we explore social justice art education with preservice teachers through a lesson based on the work of socially engaged artist Aram Han…

Knowing that vulnerability and risk-taking are both necessary to the educational experience (Willcox, 2017), the author became curious to know what role vulnerability plays in the self-expressive artmaking process, and what could be learned from the uncomfortable feelings that emerge when an artist feels vulnerable. The author also wondered what…

This article presents a preservice art teacher training project completed in the fall of 2021 as part of an elementary practicum course. The project was designed to focus on cultivating resilience in elementary school students, especially those from economically disadvantaged situations, who may have accrued increased learning loss during the…

Very few studies have focused on learning about art through picture books. More importantly, teachers are trained as generalists and have minimal knowledge about supporting children to learn art, particularly through picture books. This project aimed to explore the aesthetic learning potential of picture books in kindergartens. The project was…

Teacher education has underutilized the inclusion of art museum education experiences for preservice teachers (Henry, 2004). Teacher educators recognize that learning by doing is effective, which is why some early field experience is required in most teacher education programs (Darling-Hammond, 2006). Teacher education places preservice teachers…

In 2013, an art college in a large Northeastern city in the United States launched the Art College Scholars (ACS) program in response to the growing exclusion of high-achieving, low-income students from higher education, and a need to diversify the pool of art and design school applicants. The 3-year ACS program offers 80 hours of art and design…

Drawing is a ubiquitous feature of early childhood education and classrooms. Its versatility makes it the kind of connective tissue that can integrate subject matter effortlessly; it is cost-efficient and does not require teachers to have specialized drawing skills in order for it to be effective. In other words, young children do not need to be…

Although art classrooms are rich with demonstrations, discussions, and artmaking, the COVID-19 pandemic brought unprecedented challenges to art educators wanting to engage students in studio-rich practices. As one solution, Bitmoji classrooms emerged in response to emergency remote teaching (ERT). Bitmoji classrooms--containing an instructor's…

What if young students could explore science, technology, engineering, art, and math (STEAM) subjects through autonomous and creative play? What if children were treated like artists and encouraged to formulate and explore their thoughts, theories, and ideas starting at the age of 4? What if educators relinquished their traditional roles as…

This article questions the significance of art teacher as moral support for reconsidering the often taken-for-granted roles of students and teachers in art education settings. This theme arose in a qualitative case study conducted in a community-based Saturday Art School program at a Midwestern university campus. In this article, the author shares…

In this article, learning about Native American culture is explored, but culturally sensitive practices also have implications for shaping learning experiences about other cultures. Fortunately, there are reputable and well-thought-out curriculum resources to counter misinformation about Native Americans (Caldwell-Wood & Mitten, 1991; Denver…

Many scholars and educators are moving toward an anti-oppressive paradigm in art education, transitioning away from imposing norms in an effort to think more creatively about teaching practices and classroom culture (Kraehe, 2019). Reflecting deeper on her position as a White, middle-class, female teacher who taught in an underserved community,…

During her career as a public university teaching assistant, Ting Fang (Claire) Chien observed many students who were not enrolled in an art degree program ("non-art-major students") struggle with studio art projects. As a result, she developed the Daily Life Object Project (DLOP) to show these students that art is connected to and…

Art integration has been used to explore "the relevance and approaches to arts education connected to [the larger] curriculum and instruction with learners of all ages, including teacher learners" (Cahnmann-Taylor & Sanders-Bustle, 2019, p. 2). Art integration utilizes commonalities among the many components of other disciplines.…