<p> Many colleges and universities have space on campus that extends beyond a traditional classroom. These areas include but are not limited to dining hall facilities, residence halls, college bookstores, and outdoor quads that serve as a focal point of the institution. In the case of a small, private, Los Angeles-based art and design college, this type of space was not always formally available to its students. Thus, a sense of student community engagement was absent from the college experience.</p><p> The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how the implementation of a new multipurpose space at a college of art and design had the ability to alter the social and academic experiences of art and design students. The study amplified the voices of students who lacked power and longevity at an art and design institution. In a case study method of design, an interview protocol was used for primary data collection, with additional data obtained through document collection and participant observation. Environmental theory served as a conceptual framework for this research. Ten students and seven faculty, staff, or other administrators participated in this study in the fall of 2016. Findings emphasized that art and design students have a need to foster expression and thrive in environments where strong levels of student engagement are present. </p><p> The new facility serves as the central platform to highlight values or desires that ultimately sustain the heartbeat and magnificence of the new space. Participant motivation to utilize the new space was driven by the opportunity to experience stronger engagement in spaces that were previously nonexistent. While data were collected from multiple college stakeholders, the primary focus of this research was the influence on student culture. The findings suggested a need for new systematic processes that equate to a series of short- and long-term recommenda- tions for policy and practice.</p><p> This study provides recommendations for policies and practice that may transfer to similar institutional contexts and provide institutional leaders with insights and strategies to develop community and facilitate a stronger sense of campus life in the context of an art and design school.</p>

<p> Policy changes influence various aspects of art education such as K-12 art education curricula, state licensure systems, and contexts of art teacher preparation. Despite strong relationships between art education policy and practical fields, few studies have attempted to understand art education from the perspective of policy analysis. This study explores the connections between art education policy and the field of art education through a focus on art teacher preparation in Indiana. Additional attention was paid to perceptions of the appropriateness of alternative licensure routes in relation to policies of academic and quality standards and the extent to which visual art teachers&rsquo; sense of identity as teachers and artists is affected by appropriation of these standards.</p><p> The theoretical framework of this study is the need to understand policy appropriation of standards (including visual art and art teacher preparation standards) as an on-going process, that is continually influenced and changed by internal (human level) and external (institutional level) factors. The appropriation process is effectively expressed through practices, narratives, and texts of practitioners.</p><p> To understand the status and factors of the art education policy appropriation in art teacher preparation, I collected data as printed or digital documents, and as interviews with faculty members and pre-service art teachers in two traditional visual art teacher preparation programs in Indiana. I analyzed external (institutional level) and internal (human level) factors to adopt and work with state and national standards. While national standards for visual art education (were adopted by many states and presented as voluntary policy, in Indiana the national standards were built into the Indiana&rsquo;s Academic Standards for Visual Art Standards for K-12 students. Visual art teachers were required to complete a traditional teacher preparation program and pass examinations to become licensed to teach art.</p><p> Findings reveal that faculty of higher art teacher education programs in Indiana paid attention to the national and state standards in K-12 visual art and the standards for teacher education when preparing students to become licensed K-12 art educators. External motivations were accreditations system for teacher preparation requested by Indiana Department of Education related to NCATE. Schools and districts could be external motivations that pre-service art teachers adopt the standards in order to succeed in a job market. Internal factors were respects of roles and leaders of art education associations, desires to train/be qualified teachers and attain balanced knowledge between art studio and art education. Alternative routes to licensure were viewed as economically advantageous but not supportive of high-quality education. Policy had little impact on issues of identity. I concluded with recommendations for improvement in art teacher preparation that were needs of supportive policies for pre-service teachers&rsquo; teaching and teaching licensure including traditional and alternative licensures.</p><p>

<p> This was a quantitative, non-experimental, cross-sectional research study that surveyed California homeschooling parents with children in grades K-6 during the 2016&ndash;17 academic year. The purpose was to discover the methodologies and activities California homeschooled K-6th grade students received and experienced in the four arts disciplines: music, dance, theater and fine art. The data was collected through an online survey and a random representation of the research participants. The data collected included collecting specific information regarding arts activities and lessons, the approximated time and hours of instruction, and the locations or places where the lessons and activities were conducted. There were a total of 178 responses collected from the research participants. The overall participation rates within the four arts disciplines for this sample population of California homeschooling students in grades K-6 during the 2016&ndash;17 year in music was 80.34%, dance was 48.32%, theater was 52.81% and visual arts was 94.39%. The specific activities, lessons, time and locations were analyzed and discussed. This research concluded that the sample population participates in visual arts activities and lessons mainly in the home, and music, dance, and theater activities and lessons are experienced at private studios or theaters. It was additionally noted that just over 11% of the California homeschooling parents participating referenced the VAPA standards.</p><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. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

<p> Students in the United States have historically struggled with mathematics, especially with problems that require higher-order thinking Even struggling students, however, often show considerable interest in the arts. Unfortunately, the literature sheds almost no light on how the arts might be useful in helping students become proficient in rigorous mathematics.</p><p> I created <i>Beautiful, Beautiful Math (BBM)</i> to both intrigue students and require them to use higher-order thinking In <i>BBM</i> lessons, students interact with an object of art in order to learn mathematics. </p><p> My overarching research question was: "How can objects of art be used as effective catalysts for higher-order thinking in mathematics lessons?" In this study, "higher-order mathematical thinking" was operationally defined as having students actively engaged, working and talking together, on math tasks that require high levels of Webb's Depth of Knowledge. Three research sub-questions informed this study: 1. What do exemplary <i>Beautiful, Beautiful Math (BBM)</i> lessons look like? 2. To what extent do <i> BBM</i> lessons result in students' higher-order thinking in mathematics? 3. What are key design features and other implementation factors that need to be in place for BBM lessons to have the desired outcomes?</p><p> A constructivist learning philosophy coupled with recent cognitive psychology research informed my study. Using an action research methodology, three teachers participated in two cycles of creating <i>BBM</i> lessons. I collected eight sources of data: The Performance Assessment for Quality Teaching (PAQT) scores for each lesson, including a baseline lessons and two <i>BBM</i> lessons for each participant; video recordings of the <i>BBM</i> lesson implementations; lesson plans; audio recordings of planning sessions; audio recordings of post-lesson debriefs; audio recordings of my post-study interviews with the participants; student survey responses; and my researcher's journal. I then created tables of the PAQT scores merged with the lesson plans, which helped me search for patterns among the different lessons. Additionally, I wrote narratives of each teacher's experiences with <i>BBM</i>, which became a rich source of information.</p><p> Results show that <i>BBM</i> lessons increased higher-order thinking across all three teachers when compared with their "typical" baseline lesson. The cognitive rigor of the mathematical tasks showed especially strong growth. Additionally, students were highly engaged and active in mathematical discourse. Those <i>BBM</i> lessons determined to be "exemplary," based on their extremely high PAQT scores, had several important design features in common, including strong integration between the work of art and the mathematics content, the use of Visual Thinking Strategy questions, and a cycle of problem solving. Inquiry-based pedagogical practices and the culture and climate of the classroom and school were found to be additional keys to the success of <i> BBM</i> lessons.</p><p> Products from this study include: a set of instructions that will allow other teachers to create <i>BBM</i> lessons; a <i>BBM</i> workshop that I facilitated at the local art museum for math and art teachers from around our county; a collection of twelve <i>BBM</i> lessons for the museum's library and website; and collaboration between one of the teachers and myself to design a workshop for a fall NCTM conference.</p>

The purpose of this study was to explore and assess creative avenues that challenge racism in urban high schools. A project study was established at one racially and ethnically diverse high school through the development of an anti-racist peer education curriculum model that used perspectives from multicultural education, the arts and media. The school system, with a student population of 25,000, had been experiencing racial problems and welcomed the study. The project study approach was used in order to analyze student responses to creating an anti-racist/multicultural arts and media curriculum. The participants of the project created a problem-solving play entitled "Let's Stop Racism in Our Schools," and performed it three times during the course of the study. The major goal of this research was to discover, through the eyes of students, if their learning, attitudes and behavior were affected by racism. Another goal was to demonstrate the significance of using multicultural arts to address racism in schools. Data collection methods included student interviews, field notes, audience surveys, and production videotapes. In addition, quantitative surveys on race relations and multicultural arts were used as support data. As a result of this study, students were able to identify creative ways of addressing racism in school and share their perceptions of how racism has affected their learning. All of the participants agreed that utilizing their "voice" throughout the project made them feel empowered to reach out to others. The study found that students experienced feelings of discouragement, guilt, anger, and pressure to over-achieve because of racism. The implications of this study are relevant for grades K-12 and beyond because it brings the issue out in the open, thereby enabling a greater chance for reduction. It is important for educators nationwide to take a look at students' points of views and ability to take a stand and make a difference in school curricula. Administrators should consider allowing students to become more involved with curricular development. In addition, this study should encourage all school personnel to consider the arts and multicultural education as integral aspects of education in all basic subject areas.

The purpose of this study is to explore, identify, and describe the causal relationship between leadership and the phenomena that produce an environment conducive for growth of the arts in higher education, by recording the thoughts, perceptions, and experiences of individuals who are, or were, in leadership roles at selected institutions. The institutions chosen for this study were The Ohio State University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Each institution is noted for distinction in the arts. Both institutions are state funded land-grant universities, with comprehensive arts programs in the performing and visual arts and have professional arts presenting centers on campus. Through “expert nomination,” over fifty participants were invited to take part in this study. The participants were central administrators, mid-level administrators, chairs, and arts faculty. Qualitative research methods were used in collecting the data through the use of a guided, open-ended and in-depth interview with each participant. The research questions for this study focused on the participant's view of: (1) how the history of the campus connected with the history and growth of the arts at the institution, (2) what were the most significant integrative components of the arts on the campus, (3) what accounted for the growth of the arts on the campus, (4) what was the perception of the educative role of the arts on campus, and (5) what would be the ideal situation for the arts on campus. The analysis of the data revealed three major areas where leadership had effected the growth of the arts on these two campuses: (1) the creation of an environment that encourages collaborative and outreach ventures, (2) the creation of an environment that is based on a shared vision and goals, (3) the creation of an environment that generates faculty and staff excitement and high morale.

This collective case study examined students' beliefs and perceptions regarding art education and investigated factors that influence and shape students' art attitudes and their intrinsic valuing of art. The main focus of this investigation was centered on students' voice regarding art education and on the conceptions students hold about the value and significance of art. A phenomenographic orientation guided this research. The study was based on classroom observations, interviews and critiques with 12 highs school art students taking elective art courses. The analysis of data involved a constant comparative method to develop categories and themes. Three major themes were developed to explain and describe the results of this study. 1) Art Attitudes—explored students' beliefs and conceptions about art. A working definition of "art attitude" was developed to serve as a steppingstone in this inquiry. The ABC model, focusing on affective, behavioral, and cognitive modes, was employed to organize data. Students' emotional responses, actions and verbal indications of behavioral tendencies and cognitive evaluations of artistic experiences described their art attitudes. 2) Inspiring Mechanisms—investigated various influences exerting a positive impact on attitude formation. This section was organized into four categories: Introspections, Art Valuing, Consequential Art Experiences, and Family Zone. 3) Inhibiting Mechanisms—examined the negative forces that affect students' art attitudes and their valuation of art. This section was organized into two categories: Disengagement and Creative Trepidations. Study results suggest that the process of attitude formation involves a collection of determinants. Some of them promote increasingly positive attitudes: positive personal experiences, meaningful learning, engagement, self-esteem and nurturing family environment. While other determinants, such as anxiety, boredom, and poor self-perception exert a negative influence. Inspiring and inhibiting mechanisms exert impact on students' perceptions and beliefs about art and their self-concept as artists. These forces shape students' attitudes and affect how they feel, think and respond to artistic experiences. The attitudes that students form consequently determine their willingness or reluctance to expose themselves to new ideas and their eagerness or apathy to learn and experience more about art.

This research looks at the effects of learning environments on the creative process of learning. The literature search addresses fundamentals of, and relationships between learning, creative process and art-making through neurophysiological, aesthetic, and psychobiological theory. These three things are further tied together through a movement analysis tool—the Kestenberg Movement Profile (KMP)—which underscores the common tie between the three: bodily movement in the forces of space, weight, and time of the three-dimensional world in which we live. The Kestenberg Movement Profile was used to analyze the movement of preschool children in three activity categories of movement: formal activities, improvisational dance, and art-making. A gestalt notation of group movement was done; the notation was scored and plotted separately for each activity category. An interpretation of each activity profile was done for KMP factors related to the creative process of learning. These factors were: developmental age being expressed in each activity, as well as affect, self-esteem, learning styles and structures, creative and social intelligence, and agreement between internal states and the effective communication of those states. Results showed formal activities as hindering the creative process of learning. Formal activities required highly controlled bodily movement of the children. This research study indicates, as the literature suggests, that children of this age group—ages three-and-a-half to five years—develop a healthy self-identify and intelligence through bodily movement and creative spontaneity.

The purpose of my study is to investigate, through in-depth phenomenological interviews, the methods or strategies African American artists have employed to either: (1) survive in a Eurocentrically biased art world; (2) combat a Eurocentrically biased art world; or (3) challenge or change a Eurocentrically biased art world. The methods these artists use to survive, combat, or attempt to change the art establishment affects what we see as observers of the artist's visual expressions. The same methods also give us clues to how African American artists survive in contemporary society. The nine artist participants were Lois Mailou Jones, Calvin Burnett, Richard Yarde, Kofi Kayiga, Cheryl Warrick, Nelson Stevens, Paul Goodnight, Michael Borders, Shirley Whitaker. Each interview was conducted in three parts, with each session lasting at least 90 minutes. Part I focused on the past experiences of the participants. This could involve childhood experiences as well as those relating to their artistic training. Part II concentrated on present experiences, what is it like to be an African American artist in the northeastern United States in the 1990s. Also, how these artists go about finding exhibition opportunities, how their work has been received, and in their opinion why. Part III centered on meaning, what the participant's experiences as an African American artist, communicator, and individual mean to them. The interviews were audio tape-recorded and later transcribed and analyzed. It is the written transcript that formed the foundation of the participants' profiles. The artist profiles have made it clear that these artists do indeed reflect a microcosm of African American society, with all its biases, dreams and aspirations. The study has reaffirmed that a given racial group can have a common goal, but the means to achieve that goal can be viewed with all the variations of hues that make up the African American community. When the concept is understood, that we are all individuals, categorization by race or sex seems quite an inadequate means for understanding who African American artists are as people or as image makers. These artists are a mirror of society in general, and their art is a catalyst for the discussion of larger issues that affect the entire African American community.