International Journal of Education & the Arts

“Intervention on a String” sought to examine puppets and puppetry in the education domain. This research project sought to examine puppets in the classroom to see if their inclusion helped raise levels of student engagement, socialisation, and participation. Moreover, this project sought to understand how and why puppets, as pedagogical tools, might foster communication and social skills that help build relationships and potentially increase self-esteem in young people.

Puppets have been used throughout the ages for entertainment as well as for the transmission of cultural stories, histories, and traditions, and have been described as an effective means of communicating with children (Bernier & O’Hare, 2005; Blumenthal, 2005; Sposito et al., 2016). However, an extensive examination of the literature surrounding puppets and puppetry in education showed that there is little research-based evidence surrounding their educational impact and benefits (Krögera & Nupponen, 2019).

In a challenging world, the spotlight on children’s wellbeing has strengthened. There is extensive research about the ways in which well-designed arts education programs positively impact children’s wellbeing. Despite this, arts education continues to be marginalised in schools. When researchers with arts education and leadership experience teamed up to consider the intransient nature of the resistance to arts education in primary/elementary schools, they conducted a collaborative autoethnography (CAE) to see if this offered new insights. The iterative process of sharing and interrogating personal stories to distil collective meanings (themes) highlighted four features of education programs that provide sustained support for children’s wellbeing: centering in a discordant world; effective leadership; experiential processes, engagement, and trust; and harnessing the transformative potential of the arts. The CAE also pointed the team towards conducting future inquiries about the currently under-researched role of the school principal in instigating cultural change that sustains meaningful arts education.

This paper examines the interplay of creativity, education, and the expressive arts. We begin by presenting a narrative literature review focusing on the use of artistic tools to promote creativity, self-expressiveness, and meaningful aspects of emotional and social learning. This review reveals strong connections between the different components of this interplay, and a special attention is given to the use of arts to promoting creativity and meaningful learning. We then propose the Empowering Creative Education Model (ECEM), which aims to provide a practical framework for employing artistic tools in each of the model's four developmental circles: I, Us, Educational and Community. Each of the four circles includes unique aspects of personal development.

Creativity and design thinking skills are considered pillars in arts practice in general. Traditional arts education, in particular, involves a tension between pure technical skill and the ability to design creatively regardless of craft limitations. The present study focuses on eliminating the boundaries between craft and art and bridging the gap between technical skills and creativity in practicing traditional textile printing arts. The paper presents a teaching procedure that is based on exploring traditional textile printing within a new dimension and achieving a balance between both the technical and creative sides. The study proposes a survey model to investigate the impact of the applied procedures and understand students' perceptions of the full range of the traditional printing creative process in action. The conclusions of this study will aid in the development of traditional arts education and practice in general and their re-exploration as flexible, expressive, and creative forms of art.

In this study, we frame learning in the tertiary-level contemporary dance class as a process of developing culturally situated shared patterns of skilled action and attention through dynamic engagement with kinetic experience. Extending existing scholarship on dance learning, we adopt the framework of cultural affordances to understand the developmental relationship between physical and general categories of attention during the learning process. Based on qualitative analysis of student and teacher interviews, we contend that the dance classes were laboratories in which cross-domain mapping (physical and general) was leveraged to develop students’ kinetic and attentional skills. Understood in this way, the physical concepts and the general concepts worked in a helical fashion, cycling through dynamic engagement with kinetic experience and the development of attentional awareness, not as pure repetition, but as a progression toward more complex, skilled, and nuanced ways of moving.

This article analyses the educational possibilities of art installations in the training of future early childhood and primary school teachers. I start by reviewing the origins of installation art before presenting an experience designed for teachers based on the creation of scale models and installation experiences. Scale model installations constitute a tool for future teachers to explore contemporary artistic creation while fostering creativity and reflection on their role as educators. This study employs a constructivist qualitative methodology using action-based research and a journal to record the progress of the students throughout the project. The initial results demonstrate the educational value of this experience and its potential to generate further educational experiences to explore contemporary art themes and other areas of the curriculum. The use of installation art in education is compatible with a diversity of approaches, materials, and media and opens the door to new lines of research.

This literature review offers compelling evidence for the significant role music and song can play in cultivating student engagement in elementary school science lessons. With students disengaging from science education, there is concern about the lack of necessary scientific literacy skills required in today's world. To explore whether music and song could be used engage students in science we conducted a thorough search of composite education databases for relevant scholarly articles published 1993-2021. Synthesis of the resulting 26 articles revealed four themes: the common goal of engagement, evidence of learning improvement, broad utility of music and songs as pedagogical tools, and limited long-term studies. While acknowledging the limited evidence presented in these articles, we emphasize that incorporating music and song into science lessons not only enriches the educational environment but also contributes to an arts-infused education known to enhance student performance across a wide range of curriculum domains. We recommend further research with a particular focus on investigating the impact of music and song on science engagement and learning over the long-term in elementary school science classrooms.

This article adheres to UN guidelines concerning the Decade of Healthy Ageing (2021-2030) which aim to improve the lives of the older population. The objective of this study is to show how social dance with artistic-scenic purposes for a socially vulnerable group of older adults (third and fourth age) contributes to active ageing from social and health perspectives. The sample comes from a social group for the over-60s years and forms part of an artistic-community project in which participant observation has been carried out for five years. To obtain more data from the sample group, an ad hoc measurement instrument is developed based on a specific literature review on the topic. The results show that dance, group, and stage performance are a vital driver for members. The analysis shows that individual perspectives are higher than group perspectives. The research provides evidence that social dance groups improve motor expressiveness, stimulate the ability to think, memorize and create, among other aspects.

In the wake of collective trauma and tragedy, artists may be called upon as “second responders” to facilitate healing and grief for a community. In this article, we explain the artists-as-second-responders discourse, including the messaging of artists feeling useful, art as diversion, and art as healing. Then, using an example of student-artists compelled to make sure “the show must go on” at Michigan State University in the days after a mass school shooting, we critique the second-responder discourse by arguing that such messaging may cause more harm to artists and facilitate problematic escapism. We also challenge the “call to serve” and offer recommendations for how, on days after, institutions can respond in more trauma-informed and supportive ways. In doing so, we argue that, in fact, the show must not always go on.

Drawing upon autoethnographic experience as a music educator, I make the assertion that transformative learning is particularly amplified in locations where a person encounters the unfamiliar, for those are often the precise places where an individual’s habitus no longer holds efficacy. To build this argument, I propose that when inner consciousness intersects with place-shaping processes, transformative learning takes place in a connected, compassionate, and creative manner. I infuse this framework with Pierre Bourdieu’s work on habitus, in which he suggests that inner consciousness shapes, and is shaped by, a person’s social encounters. Thus, in this lived aesthetic inquiry, I propose that transformative learning has substantial intersectionality with socially constructed understandings of place.

This work, framed within a mental health prevention project aimed at early childhood education teacher students, aims to evaluate the suitability of the action to promote, in the educational field, the personal identification of traumatic experiences, incorporating them as vital learning. To this end, a performative action aimed at representing suffering and the capacity to overcome it was created, in which 71 early childhood education teacher students and 3 teachers participated, and which was implemented in Coruña (Spain), in 2022, in the postcovid stage. In order to achieve the object of study, a research project was designed using public enquiry, documentary observation and participant observation to determine the suitability of the performance to the project's objectives. The results show how, through the representation of trauma, people have experienced that in the difficulties of life there is also learning, improving self-esteem and self-concept.

Art and design students in higher education often prioritize design skills over written communication. With the opportunity to restructure courses around increased asynchronous flexibility arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, the author of this manuscript (who is also the course instructor) has developed a hybrid-blended course design in the art history survey class for over three years. This design guides students toward developing teamwork skills that are crucial in the professional world. While offering tools for art history assignments, this exploratory research encourages humanities scholars to rethink their role in shaping the 21st-century professional. A model of course redesign, including its successes and limitations, is discussed.

This paper explores the experiences of six teacher learners and one teacher educator in a graduate course on aesthetic education at a Midwestern university in the U.S. Using collective autoethnography and arts-practice research, the researcher/participants examine how aesthetic experiences were activated in the learning environment and how this activation supported the development of transformational rethinking that led to the changing of formed habits of teaching. Findings reveal how aesthetic teacher education can be therapeutic, aid in building connections between the teacher and students (and among students), inspire wonder and discovery, facilitate the valuing and including of cultural and linguistic backgrounds of students, compel new perspectives, and promote attunement to process.

Our research looks into the impact of drama/theatre pedagogy practices and methodologies on teenage bullying in schools. Fifteen-year-old students from a countryside junior high school in Northern Greece participated in our mixed research model comprising a weighted questionnaire, participatory observation, reflective researcher logs and critical friend input. Our research question was whether drama/theatre pedagogy workshop participants can be empowered affectively, redefine their attitude to bullying at school, bond more closely, create synergies, and communicate more effectively in this safe setting, thus becoming more aware of themselves and their realities. Our findings show that drama/theatre pedagogy activities do create positive impact for all of the above.

Teaching in contemporary schools raises complex questions about how to engage meaningfully with diversity. Working within already politicized and fast-changing sociocultural landscapes, the diversity that teachers are required to navigate can no longer be accounted for by pre-existing categorizations. New qualities of difference are continually emerging through students’ and teachers’ own identity development and the continually evolving relationships that are part of everyday classroom work. As such, teaching also involves a dynamic approach to decision-making as to what is right and good in and through music, indeed, the very axiological premises of music education are constantly called into question. In this paper, we heuristically engage with the theoretical writings of Bauman, Greene, and Hare to formulate invitations through which music teacher education might approach these complex, dynamic, and intersecting diversities. By assuming complexity, approaching learning as an adventure, alternating between the personal and the professional, assuming a researcher disposition, fostering artistic play, and (co-)imagining possible futures, we suggest that future teachers might be equipped to resist the passive acceptance of the status quo and explore how we might practice the art of living with difference, together.

Over the past decade, the arts’ potential role in advancing mainstream transdisciplinary curriculum models, like STEM, has been more overtly recognized, both within arts and STEM communities. In this study, we explored STEAM curricula centered around data visualization, a transdisciplinary practice commonly utilized in design and STEM fields and increasingly practiced in contemporary art. Through addressing the research question “What opportunities and challenges for learning does arts-based data visualization provide Grade 4-8 students?,” this study highlights the value of transdisciplinary curriculum models that incorporate the arts for fostering K-12 students’ learning. However, the findings related to student engagement and teacher perceptions also raised some important questions. Which classroom contexts are most conducive to such inquiry? And, which contexts and conditions will avoid reinforcing the disciplinary hegemony that marginalizes the arts, a crucial, yet increasingly underappreciated, system of inquiry and knowledge needed for navigating life in the twenty-first century?

Since the 1950s, educational literature has explored the potential of translating art criticism into classroom practices. This eventually led to the emergence of educational criticism as a distinctive form of inquiry in the 1970s. However, despite its potential for exploring educational experiences and evaluating educational programs, educational criticism remains a relatively underutilized research method within the education community. It is hypothesized that educational researchers are not adequately equipped with the specialized knowledge and technical skills required for constructing an educational criticism. Based on this understanding, this paper aims to clarify what educational criticism is, how it can be used, and what criteria should be used to evaluate its quality. Methodologically, educational criticism is a type of arts-based educational inquiry that is conducted to understand and explore the characteristics, meaning, and/or value of an educational event. Researchers employing this method act as educational connoisseurs who employ the art of criticism to make public their observations of educational practices. These observations are organized through four interrelated features: description, interpretation, evaluation, and thematic analysis. To ensure the trustworthiness of educational criticism, scholars have proposed four core criteria: structural corroboration, consensual validation, referential adequacy, and instrumental utility. This analytical framework enables educational researchers to utilize educational criticism as a tool for exploring educational experiences and evaluating educational practices.

This article reflects on a week-long staff professional development program at Tezpur University), Assam, India, conducted during mid-December 2023. As a focus of the professional development, staff from the Cultural Studies Department along with visiting academics and staff from other departments at Tezpur University learned how to teach community dance to their master’s students in 2024. Embedded into this learning was a transformational pedagogical approach to teaching that offered an alternative to direct knowledge transmission. Khedkar & Nair (2016) commented on the value of this pedagogical approach, noting,
Transformative pedagogy is defined as an activist pedagogy combining the elements of constructivist and critical pedagogy that empowers students to critically examine their beliefs, values, and knowledge with the goal of developing a reflective knowledge base, an appreciation for multiple perspectives, and a sense of critical consciousness and agency. (p.232).
Outcomes have been drawn from the participants' personal reflections. All the participants responded with enthusiasm to the new ideas and learning that came from the week of professional development. Enthusiastic engagement and enjoyment observed during the sessions suggest that their positive reflections were honest and open according to the guidance they had been given. We reflect on the learning that emerged from this, both for the participants and the facilitator.

Arts integration in core learning domains has long been acknowledged as an engaging and effective pedagogical approach. Creative activities encourage students to take risks, make mistakes, and consider alternative perspectives, promoting curiosity and developing problem-solving capacity. Arts integration is valuable in classrooms also for sensitively addressing complex issues related to identity, race, and culture. Yet, despite the numerous academic and social benefits of the arts, contemporary neo-liberal constraints are gradually diminishing funding for arts-based practices in Australia. Using an interpretive, contextualized qualitative methodology based on Indigenous Storywork (Archibald, 2008), we present research findings showcasing examples provided by Indigenous experts on the potential of arts-based practices in schools. Our Indigenous Storywork demonstrates how, through an arts-based approach, a more profound appreciation of Indigenous culture and history can create an inclusive learning environment that considers local protocols and values.

The present article explores how movement-based performing arts lessons focusing on bodily imagination may expand secondary school pupils’ learning experiences. The study centers on the learning experiences and emotions of 28 participants described through art-based action research and the lens of interpretive inquiry. The results of an open thematic analysis illuminate a process where initial resistance towards physical and expressive activities gradually eased and led to changes in pupils’ views on how creative movement and learning might be connected. The authors interpret that movement-based performing arts focusing on bodily imagination may enhance embodied experiences and emotional engagement that support transformative learning in school contexts. The authors conclude that to develop school cultures that work towards sustainable futures, pedagogical approaches based on embodied transformative learning are needed, of which movement-based performing arts lessons are one potential approach.

This study focuses on supporting the key competences of 6th graders using an empathy-centred approach in visual art classes. The research represents the third cycle of pedagogical action research conducted during a 35-academic-hour course with 70 middle school students aged 12–13 in an Estonian comprehensive school. The data were collected through a research journal, participant art journals, course feedback forms, and artworks analysed inductively. The findings indicate that the students recognised and acquired visual art strategies for expressing and dealing with different emotions. Some indications of helping behaviour were also detected. From the teacher-researcher point of view, the key competence framework encouraged the reimagining of the art learning process and helped to recognise and acknowledge students with different skill sets.

The rise of online arts education content delivery has created challenges for arts educators in Initial Teacher Preparation (ITP). Consequently, educators in various arts disciplines across Australia have been regularly meeting online to share, explore and experiment with ITP arts learning practices with the aim of establishing authentic learning and assessment. However, as Eisner reminds us, one must first be an artist if we wish to develop aesthetic dispositions, creativity, and artistry within our teachers and their students. We thus considered our arts ITP teaching from an a/r/tographic perspective, interconnecting the work of each of us as artist, teacher, and researcher and their intersections. This paper shares the processes and theorizations of our two-year a/r/tographic inquiry. It reveals the potential for collective a/r/tographic inquiry as not only a valuable means of engaging in educational research for initial teacher preparation, but as bespoke online pedagogical practice for meaningful arts praxis.

Despite the ongoing debate in academic circles regarding the impact of the arts on individual and collective well-being, there is a paucity of empirical research in this area. Nevertheless, recent studies have begun to establish a significant correlation between arts engagement and a range of positive outcomes. The objective of this study is to enhance the existing conceptual framework by providing empirical evidence of how early exposure to and active engagement with the arts can influence the development of character strengths within an educational context. A comparative design was employed in the study, which included 993 fifth- and sixth-grade students in Spain. The control group consisted of students with no interest or participation in artistic activities, while the experimental group demonstrated both interest and active participation in the arts. A quantitative approach was employed to collect data via a validated questionnaire, which was then analysed to discern relationships between variables using correlation techniques and non-parametric tests. The findings indicate a significant correlation between students' interest and participation in artistic activities and their perception of character strengths. In particular, engagement with the arts is associated with higher levels of character strengths linked to the virtue of wisdom and knowledge, including creativity and a love of learning. This research makes a significant contribution to the existing body of knowledge on the role of the arts in fostering character strengths and the application of positive psychology in well-being. It highlights the importance of integrating the arts into educational settings as a central component. Furthermore, the document puts forth recommendations for future interventions.

Book Reviewed: Hendricks, K. S. (2023). The Oxford handbook of care in music education. Oxford. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197611654.001.0001

Book reviewed: Dickson, L., Murray, S., & Riddell, J. (2023). Shakespeare’s guide to hope, life, and learning. Univeristy of Toronto Press.