This study examines how two community art programs in Brazil have empowered participants through art practice. The programs are contextualized historically and theoretically to address how program participants from varying social, cultural, and economic backgrounds, are prepared to be responsible world citizens. / text

<p> Integrated art curriculum is established in many school programs as a vital addition to curriculum design in the arts. When utilized as tools for learning and growing, model programs contain key elements that provide insights into how children function in a variety of educational settings. Based on the success of an innovative integrated art program in a rural school district, the following dissertation unpacks the specific elements that contribute to its success and relates their applicability as motivational tools. Through focus on the processes of evidence-based decision-making for program development and the experiences of the art educator, the students and the school-wide community, the integrated art program is examined as it evolved as a leader in creating philosophical change towards collaborative practice. Rationale is then provided for the use of visual art as an intervention component in the school&rsquo;s alternative education model. The development of an art intervention program called Studio Express is introduced and highlights the strategic processes by which art may be used as a means of positive self-expression for the student at-risk in the public school setting. Evidence is also provided that supports expressive art making processes as an aide in the development of positive self-leadership qualities in diverse student populations. The sustainability of such leadership art programs is implied through the further teaching of their development to post-secondary education students.</p>

This study is an experiment in landscape art where artists put large pieces of fabric in personally significant places to be marked by the land. Landscape art is a site of power that can challenge embedded assumptions regarding national identity within tensions among local, national, and global scales. This research ruptures the Canadian myth of wilderness nation through the creation of an alternative landscape art that is informed by a theoretical discourse on the threshold as a site of difference and of learning. Inspired by the creative processes of the participating artists, Peter von Tiesenhausen, Pat Beaton, and Robert Dmytruk, I consider pedagogical implications for art education when pedagogy is structured on the powerful premise that learning is an uncertain, relational, and continual process. Using my understanding of the methodology of a/r/tography, I create and poetically analyze art that offers opportunities for personal reflection into the nature of transformative educational practices. This form of arts-based research is influenced by the notion of assemblage, as presented by Deleuze and Guattari (1984), as well as practices of narrative, action research, and autoethnography, all of which echo the research method of currere (Pinar & Grumet, 1976). Within a/r/tography, image and text are creatively juxtaposed to inspire new understandings about the pedagogical thresholds among my roles of artist, researcher, and teacher. Arguing that social change must begin from a personal awareness of one's tacit values, I posit that a/r/tography can be an educational opening into reflection of such values due to the embodied, personal nature of art-making. Through a philosophical discussion of subjectivity and community following the work of Jean-Luc Nancy and Jacque Derrida, I take the participants' and my local, significant places as sites from which to reverse the binary of landscape and artist, following an artistic version of deconstruction. From this a/r/tographical inquiry into elements of the land that serve as structural and heuristic supports, I critique the neoliberal subject position within nationalism, education, and landscape art. I draw on understandings of identity as theorized and performed from the premise that it, like learning, is an unpredictable, relational activity of emergence that is alway slocated on the threshold of difference between one person and another. Thus, I examine the educational, ontological, and social importance of what it means to exist within community in the land. In doing so, I raise questions regarding the normative structures of our educational institutions and suggest that social transformation could begin through art practices as a creative form of pedagogy.

<p> The purpose of this study was to examine how collaborative artmaking activates and supports the development of interpersonal skills in young children. By means of a qualitative case study, this study explored how collaborative art projects engage children in using problem-solving, cooperation, and negotiation skills. Data were collected through observation of small groups of preschool children as they participated in collaborative art projects. Field notes, videotaping, small group interviews, and conversations with colleagues were the primary methods for data collection. The data were analyzed using the literature from the Reggio Emilia philosophy and research on collaborative artmaking and interpersonal skills development. Thematic groupings from both deductive and inductive coding techniques were used to analyze the data and draw inferences about the findings. Results show that children co-construct knowledge through the visual language of art during collaborative artmaking. Over time, this construction supports children in their interpersonal skill development. The art medium used in the projects and the role of teacher were examined, revealing how the children were supported in developing problem-solving, cooperation, and negotiation skills. This study makes an important contribution to the literature because it draws connections between collaborative artmaking and interpersonal skill development.</p>

<p> This critical ethnographic collective case study examined the process of becoming a teacher in the context of visual art education. This longitudinal study was grounded in larger educational concerns regarding the preparation of teachers for socially and culturally diverse U.S. public schools. This framing of teacher learning went beyond traditional dichotomies in educational research that maintain an artificial boundary between learning to teach content and learning to teach all students effectively and equitably. </p><p> In order to re-integrate the study of teacher learning, this research foregrounds the transactional relationship between a preservice art teacher&rsquo;s social locations (e.g., race, class, sex-gender, language) and how s/he makes sense of what it means to be an &ldquo;art teacher.&rdquo; Specifically, the study asked (a) how preservice art teachers negotiated their emerging art teacher identities in a university-based teacher education program, (b) how their social positions were implicated in that process, and (c) how their teacher identities were meditated by cultural narratives, artifacts, and practices. This approach eschewed simplistic and reductive analyses of teacher identities in order to attain a nuanced understanding of the multiple, sometimes contradictory social processes involved in becoming a teacher.</p><p> This collective case study centered six preservice art teachers with varied racial, class, gender, and sexual identities, all of whom attended the same undergraduate teacher education program in the southwestern U.S. Social practice theory of identity, and critical curriculum and cultural theory were employed in constructing a multi-leveled relational analysis of the commonalities and divergences in participants&rsquo; self-understandings over time.</p><p> Findings showed historical patterns of institutionalized racism, as well as complex class and sex-gendered meanings of art. These inequitable norms were reproduced in ways distinctive to the asocial and apolitical &ldquo;common sense&rdquo; knowledge that was mobilized within the world of art teacher education. Some participants experienced alienation and marginalization based on their social positioning in relation to the world of art education. The findings also illuminated the polyvalent nature of identity through the coexistence of hegemonic identities as well as counter-hegemonic agency. Implications and possibilities for generating more critical, equity-oriented teacher education and art education research, practice, and policy are considered.</p>

<p> The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between exposure to the arts and performance in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) subjects. STEAM, an integration of arts-based instruction into science and math related fields, is viewed as an alternative to traditional STEM academies. The literature briefly examines the current state of STEM programs and the deficiencies in graduate quality and quantity and the call from employers for a more innovative workforce. Advocates for STEAM argue for arts as a means to improve creativity, collaboration, risk-taking and exploration. Arguments against arts in STEM are grounded in political opinions concerning arts funding and logistical complications of implementing STEAM. However, some schools and STEM programs have embraced the STEAM premise and have begun to integrate arts into the traditional curriculum. The 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) dataset was utilized to determine a correlation between the number of arts credits earned and mathematics/science achievement. Results from the NAEP dataset indicated a correlation between the amount of arts credits and increased achievement scores in science and math. The same correlation was found when controlling for demographic factors such as gender, race, and socio-economic status (SES). Overall, the arts' greatest impact was on students identified as "at-risk" or underrepresented in STEM fields. Controlling for these variable groups, one can note the quantifiable differences in scores. Overall, findings of the study provide empirical support for the addition of arts in STEM.</p>

<p> As educators grapple with the issue of eliminating achievement gaps that exist among student groups, instructing for students' diverse learning needs while effectively meeting the demands of the curriculum can be a daunting task. Arts integration (AI) is a research-based strategy that has been demonstrated to lead to positive effects in student achievement with the greatest effect being among students who qualify for federal meals benefits (FARMS) (Deasy, 2002; Catterall, 1999; Rabkin &amp; Redmond, 2006). This mixed-methods study evaluated state mandated reading assessment data for a cohort of grade three students for the years 2011, 2012, and 2013 within one school district in Maryland using a formula developed by the Maryland State Department of Education to determine student change scores. While analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) of AI and change scores for FARMS and non-FARMS students did not yield a positive relationship, further qualitative analysis of principal and teacher interviews and classroom observations at five public AI elementary schools revealed perceptions among educators of a positive relationship of AI to student achievement. Utilizing a grounded theory approach to examine emergent themes, a theory of effective models of arts integration was developed to include the elements of: shared vision, student engagement, rigorous instruction and teacher capacity. This study provided information regarding the optimal method of delivering arts integrated instruction that may lead to student achievement and reduce the achievement gap between FARMS and non-FARMS students. </p>

This research has a primary focus on the middle school setting and how schools, students, and art educators might benefit from an interdisciplinary art curriculum. In this thesis I outline how cross-curricular inclusions in art lessons have the potential to be a fantastic advocacy tool for fine arts departments. I also investigate the differences between interdisciplinary inclusions in the visual art classroom and arts integrated school models as well as the beneficial relationship that can exist between these two pedagogical approaches. Additionally, I examine through literary review and curriculum development, some of the positive and negative influence in academic subject areas and more importantly art disciplines. My final and primary aim in examining various methods of cross-curricular inclusion is to shed light upon the immense potential for student development via dynamic interdisciplinary art curriculum.

<p> The arts represent a range of visual and performance based fields that have shown to have profound intrinsic and cognitive benefits. Building on this premise, one of the emerging ways to integrate the arts with other academic disciplines is the inclusion of the arts with the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) learning, renaming it STEAM. This qualitative study aims to understand the experiences of individuals that have pioneered university programs that integrate the arts with STEM and to share student learning experiences within these interdisciplinary programs. Bolman and Deal's theories of organizational development, sociocultural theory, and experiential learning theory are the three guiding frameworks in the analysis of leadership and student learning in the selected university programs. Using a collective case study methodology, I compare and contrast extant and interview data to paint the picture of two distinct university programs.</p>

<p> The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the development of children's drawing skills through the use of technology. The research involved five children two girls and three boys, ages three to five years in a preschool center located in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Specifically, the researcher observed and analyzed the response of the selected children to the use of tablet-based programs in the development of their drawing skills. The result showed that boys between three to four were more interactive with drawing on the iPad than girls. This result will be helpful for teachers and technology specialists to understand how to optimize technology to support early childhood artistic efforts.</p><p> The first chapter of this thesis is an introduction and holds the purpose of the study. The second chapter is a review of literature. Chapter three is the methodology. And in chapter four, findings and results are discussed. Chapter five is the conclusion and recommendations for further study.</p>