Since its inception in 2003, it is becoming increasingly evident that meaningful pursuits in the field of Children’s Global Arts can change lives. The specific intention of this research has been to document ‘tales of transformation’ as shared by various global arts participants to discover how individuals can alter the way they perceive the world and their role within it. Through the power of art, story, and relationship, a renewed perspective of education emerges that compels us to look very differently at what it means to teach and to learn in an interdependent and fragile world. By the closing chapter, hope for humanity is restored by rethinking schools as agents for change where a focus on disposition and inquiry rather than curriculum and methodology, provide the value and significance for education in the 21st century. Chapter 1 opens up the dialogue by presenting the challenges facing many children in the world today, including those living in ‘privileged’ societies such as Canada. It also confronts the educational profession to assume its role and responsibility in addressing the problems and solutions that face children and the world. Chapter 2 provides background knowledge and theory in areas significant to this dissertation, including transformational learning, educational change, arts-based research, and child advocating philosophies. Chapter 3 explains my research intention and process, including a glimpse into humanistic and holistic pedagogy. The true beginning of this dissertation unfolds in Chapter 4 as stories begin to be told through a pivotal Children’s Global Art’s event - the Learning and the World We Want conference - held in Victoria in November 2003. The serendipitous nature of this initiative also unfolds through the highlighting of the Global Arts catalogue, DVD, website, Children`s Global Arts Foundation, and team approach. The classroom and community scenarios revealed in Chapters 5-8 demonstrate ways in which the global arts project, under the mentorship of experienced educators and facilitators, have provided a safe environment for students of diverse age, background and worldview, to break through a “culture of silence” through creative and candid encounters with Self and Others. Chapter 9 compels us to look critically at Canada’s privileged society and culture, and brings awareness to the prevailing paradox and hegemonic forces at play when considering global educational initiatives. Weaving the global arts stories and patterns of this dissertation together, Chapter 10 highlights unifying elements of transformation, revealing answers to original research questions, and a refreshing sense of hope for our troubled world: • How are experiences in Children’s Global Arts shifting the ways those involved view the world and their role within it? • What are the key elements that contribute to those experiences? Chapter 11 outlines the implications and support for Children’s Global Arts at the classroom and school level by taking a closer look at basic school structures, and identifying ways in which they can be perceived differently in order to accommodate transformational understandings as identified in the preceding chapters of this dissertation. The concluding Chapter (12) provides a final reflection of this research journey. Woven throughout the chapters of this dissertation, readers will also come across a few interludes, and a multiple arrangement of images and discourses, that bring greater depth and meaning to this journey, and help to convey the interconnectedness of experiences worldwide.

This study developed new mapping techniques and methodologies for understanding creativity in terms of connectivity and interaction between human and non-human actors in a design classroom. The researcher applied qualitative methods of data collection combining both observation of classroom activities and focus group interviews in order to map a creativity network. The findings indicate that creativity is a complex weather-like system (or what I call "creative climate") composed of many sub-networks and diffused networks. Four interactions emerged from the study: (a) the creative climate is composed of the circulation of bodies and objects forming networks and sub-networks, (b) centers and corners/edges are a measure of connectivity and interaction in classroom space design, (c) roundness is a measure of classroom style and the space of connectivity usage, and (d) plugs-in creativity is a measure of technology consolidation. This study attempted to fill the gap in the literature on creativity and classroom design by explaining the role of non-human actors in shaping the creative climate in the classroom, especially the role of the classroom space itself as an actor. The implication of this study in art education opens a new opportunity for research in designing innovative classrooms. Also, it will allow future investigation of the phenomenon of creativity as a climate system based on the interaction between human and non-human actors.

The purpose of this action research study was to determine how a critical theory curriculum implemented in a college-level art appreciation course impacted student understanding of an encyclopedic art museum. A critical theory-based curriculum unit was designed and implemented, and students were given assignments to assess their learning. The most significant assignment centered on a self-guided student visit to the art museum in which students made detailed observations of the museum spaces and responded to articles critiquing museum practices. These documents, together with class discussions and my personal observations, were analyzed and described in this research study. The data revealed that students had a high level of regard for and interest in art museums, were capable of understanding how history and context influences museum practices, detected multiple instances of bias in art museum galleries, and self-reported high levels of cognition and empowerment based on their experiences. The data suggested that, in college students, both art appreciation instructors and museum educators have an ideal audience in which to facilitate sustained, higher-level, critical theory-based museum learning experiences.

This research seeks to explore how the metal arts are taught to women in Kuwait in an undergraduate setting, making the call for the use of feminist pedagogy when teaching the metal arts to women in Kuwait. This research is achieved using the qualitative methodology of analytic autoethnography. The theoretical framework is a feminist lens bridging the social construction of gender with the gendering of objects and feminist standpoint theory. The data comes from the experiences of creating three of my own pieces of artwork as well as the pieces themselves in tandem with historical, political, and cultural contexts. The analysis from this research is then bridged with feminist pedagogy in order to begin to develop an inclusive metal arts curriculum for women in Kuwait.

West Dallas AR is an interactive location-based app, using the power of multimedia and augmented reality to highlight the stories shared by West Dallas residents.

For years now, students have been learning from two different types of teachers: Teachers who received certification from a traditional training program at a university and teachers who became certified through alternative certification routes. Does the educational preparation of an art teacher matter? Is alternative certification as effectual as traditional teacher preparation programs? Darling- Hammond (2006) says, "Evidence indicates that teachers who have had more preparation for teaching are more confident and successful with students than those who have had little or none." This thesis will examine and analyze alternative teacher certification in art education for the state of Florida, in a selected county in central Florida, and the traditional teacher certification program via a university path. I am choosing to base this study on my own program of study. I am on the path receive a Bachelor's degree through a traditional art education preparation program. This topic will be discussed by conducting a review of literature. Articles from scholars will be cited in order to provide evidence to support the conclusion that art teachers who are traditionally certified are better prepared for the art classroom than art teachers who attained certification via an alternative route. In order to carry out this investigation, an autoethnography will be included, which will include personal experiences, such as going through a traditional art teacher certification program, which is a four year Bachelor's degree in art education and observing art teachers who have completed different types of certification, leading me to the conclusion that traditionally certified art teachers are more prepared.

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