Engagement among adolescents is a crucial factor for identity formation and positive youth development (Barker, 2015; Kegan, 1994). To
help address disengagement, socially engaged art education (SEAE) practices have emerged, combining art with action-oriented curricula to
critically examine the community and connect to it through meaningful experiences (Helguera, 2011). This current study aimed to better
understand how the social dynamics at school and in the student’s own neighborhood impacted the roots of engagement, particularly from school
and the larger community, and to address the need to understand interventions that engage, such as those led by art. To study youth
engagement in the context of disenfranchised school environments, I designed a pragmatic informed participatory research study, which
included six art-infused civic activities that incorporated reflection, action, and artful dialogue framed by Reason’s (1994) co-operative
inquiry process. Through this research approach, I explored the perceptions that 16 12th-grade high school students had about their community
and their desire to connect and to serve. Using an embedded mixed-methods design (Creswell, 2014), the art-infused civic activities and data
collection took place simultaneously. The methods used included questionnaires and surveys, field observations, participant-produced
documents, visual methods, interviews, and focus groups. An analysis of the data yielded several findings regarding the participants’
perceptions and connections to their community. For the participants in this study, community was the product of finding and discovering
commonalities and feeling safe, as well as having opportunities to attain new skills. The students identified a lot of deficiencies at
school, which led them to feel that school was not part of their community. However, despite this apathy, the students expressed appreciation
for opportunities that allowed them to bond with their peers and teachers. Engagement in the art-infused civic activities resulted in
students attaining newly formed perspectives about their peers and the school staff. The participants reported viewing them as having the
capacity to show a caring side. Through these activities, they also saw themselves as more empathetic and able to make an impact in their
community. Although some of the participants had been involved in service activities prior to this study, they felt that in this study the
experiences were more meaningful because they were able to reflect and understand the magnitude of their contribution. Even though most
participants expressed having a desire to help both their community and school, they also felt that this could not be accomplished until they
became financially stable. This study contributes to the field of art education by examining the viability of art projects that aim to
address youth disengagement, and to better understand the impact that art education has on youth engagement dynamics in the context of
low-SES communities. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Art Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for
the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester 2017. / June 29, 2017. / Civic Engagement, Community Engagement, Participatory Research, Photovoice, Service-Learning, Youth
Engagement / Includes bibliographical references. / Theresa Van Lith, Professor Directing Dissertation; Peter Easton, University Representative; Rachel
Fendler, Committee Member; Sara Scott Shields, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_604945 |
| Contributors | Agama, Marisa Victoria (author), Van Lith, Theresa (professor directing dissertation), Easton, Peter (university representative), Fendler, Rachel Loveitt (committee member), Shields, Sara Scott (committee member), Florida State University (degree granting institution), College of Fine Arts (degree granting college), Department of Art Education (degree granting departmentdgg) |
| Publisher | Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text, doctoral thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (238 pages), computer, application/pdf |
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