role of literature in art education

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Visual Literacy and Art Education: A Review of the Literature

"What is currently being done by art and design researchers and educators to engage learners in the pursuit of visual and media literacy? This paper looked specifically at visual arts education and related fields to determine what trends, motivations and criticisms exist that either encourage or dissuade scholars from taking up or promoting visual literacy. Several prominent themes were found under the banner of ‘Visual Literacy’ that are discussed in detail; The Rise in Visual Information and Consumption, The Inseparability of Visual Literacy and Popular Visual Culture, The Importance of Learning to Deconstruct our Visual World and The Role of Technologies and New Media. The major themes are then followed by further discussion on The Benefits of Visual literacy as well as implications for future study. "

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Rebekah Bainbridge

James Elkins

This book is an edited volume, with contributions by Barbara Stafford, W.J.T. Mitchell, Jon Simons, Jonathan Crary, and others. It was the product of a combined conference and exhibition of the same name, which has generated another book, "Visual Practices Across the University" (which is uploaded, in its entirety, on this site) and "Visual Cultures" (not yet published). "Visual Literacy" is intended to survey the meanings of the expression, and related notions such as visual competence. Some contributors are interested in the theory of literacy when it pertains to the visual; others in its rhetoric; and others in its implementation at college and secondary school level. The book is intended to serve as a resource for conversations about what comprises minimal or desirable visual ability, competence, or literacy in a university or secondary-school setting. This text is the introduction, the only part of the book I wrote--and so the only part I will upload here.

British Journal of Educational Technology

Maria D . Avgerinou

Journal of Art & Design Education

Doug Boughton

Essentials of Teaching and Integrating Visual and Media Literacy

Alexa Miller

Michael P M Mhlanga

The presence of visual elements in today’s teaching and learning is increasing as the integration of images and visual presentations with text in textbooks, instructional manuals, classroom presentations, and computer interfaces broadens. Research reported in educational literature demonstrates that using visuals in teaching results in greater degree of learning. The basic premise of this body of research is the concept of visual literacy, introducing visual literacy and stratagems to teach it in secondary schools.

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Denise R Newfield

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OUR PUBLICATIONS > Arts in Education and Creativity: A literature review

Arts in Education and Creativity: A literature review

Authors: Mike Fleming

Institution: Durham University

Full Reference: Fleming, M. (2010) Arts in Education and Creativity: A literature review. 2nd ed. London: Creativity, Culture and Education.

Report summary

This literature review offers an historical and theoretical overview of arts education, its place in the English curriculum, and its relationship with creative learning and creativity education. It centres on official policy discourse and attempts to outline key moments and movements in the history of arts education over the last 120 years. One of the author’s key messages is that we should not lump all the arts together, short synopses of four discrete arts disciplines make this argument very clearly.

The review discusses the concept of creativity in arts, looking at how the term has been used and interpreted and what this signals about the arts in education. The author concludes that ‘a vibrant and successful future for the arts in education must lie partly in effective support from politicians and policy makers but also in developing understanding and practice through continued debate and dialogue.’

Author: Mike Fleming

Full reference: Fleming, M. (2010) Arts in Education and Creativity: A literature review . 2nd ed. London: Creativity, Culture and Education.

Summary of key findings

Methodology.

Literature Review

Read the review .

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Studies, Findings, and Resources

NAEA Research Commission

July 5, 2020

Research Reports

ArtsEdSearch ArtsEdSearch is the nation’s hub for research on the impact of the arts in education. You can find summaries of relevant studies by using the search box, or by browsing research by outcome.

Advancing Arts Education Through an Expanded School Day: Lessons from Five Schools (June 2013) This is a joint study by the National Center on Time & Leaning and the Wallace Foundation. Researchers focused their work on five questions: 1) How does the school take advantage of arts education? 2) How does the school balance its human resources to accommodate teachers’ professional experiences and students’ learning? 3) How does the school integrate the arts into academic subjects? 4) What skills and competencies do educators expect students to develop? 5) What has been learned about the arts in schools?

Despite differences among the schools, there are three common approaches to arts education: 1) Educators view arts classes as a core element of their educational program; 2) The central role of the arts is reflected in how educators organize their day; and 3) Educators value that the arts affect students’ engagement and achievement in school.

Arts Education for America’s Students, A Shared Endeavor The National Art Education Association (NAEA), in partnership with 12 national arts and education organizations, has released Arts Education for America’s Students, A Shared Endeavor , a statement outlining the importance of high quality arts education and those responsible for providing it to students. A Shared Endeavor articulates the purpose and value of art education in the balanced curriculum of all students, asserts its place as a core academic subject area, and details how sequential arts learning can be supported by rigorous national standards and assessments.

AERA SIG Communication of Research Included are links to approximately 125 electronic journals in the field of education that are scholarly, peer-reviewed, full text and accessible without cost.

Americans for the Arts - Reports and Data To make a case for the arts and expand arts programs and initiatives in your community, you need the power of data to inform your decisions and build support for those decisions. Find a wide array of information and data-rich resources, publications, reports, fact sheets, and tool kits to help you do just that.

Americans for the Arts - Research Studies & Publications We know how hard you work to build arts programs in your community. Americans for the Arts produces a number of annual publications, e-newsletters, and reports to help you make the case for arts funding, educate lawmakers and citizens, and lead effective advocacy campaigns. We also conduct and produce research, surveys, and reports about the arts in America to provide quantitative, measurable impact of our field. See: Americans for the Arts Publications; Arts & Economic Prosperity IV; Arts Index; and Creative Industries.

Measures of Teaching Effectiveness The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has released its third and final research report on Measures of Teaching Effectiveness. Media coverage of the release has been extensive. In addition to the three reports, a set of guiding principles (see below) has also been issued. The MET project’s reports and publications are available on the project’s website.

NAEA-AAMD Research Study: Impact of Art Museum Programs on K–12 Students The NAEA Museum Education Division and its partner, the Association of Art Museum Directors, have completed a large-scale impact study investigating the question, What are the benefits to students of engaging with original works of art within the context of object-based art museum programs that take place during the formal school day? We hope to build on and significantly amplify the limited prior research that exists about the impact of art museum programs on participants. Our goal is to explore, at a large scale, how engaging directly with original works of art within the distinctive physical and social setting of art museums and through constructivist pedagogies, might lead to or heighten a range of student outcomes. The Samuel H. Kress Foundation provided a generous grant award to support the planning year for this impact study, which began on August 1, 2014.

National Endowment for the Arts Releases Study of Arts and Early Childhood Research In their first years, children experience rapid and important emotional, physical, and cognitive growth. What role do the arts play in early childhood development? A new report from the National Endowment for the Arts looks at research on how the arts affect young children from birth to age eight. The news is good, but several research questions remain, according to this literature review.

The Arts in Early Childhood: Social and Emotional Benefits of Arts Participation: A Literature Review and Gap-Analysis (2000-2015) The Arts in Early Childhood synthesized findings from 18 recent reports in psychology and education research journals. These studies focused on the social and emotional outcomes of young children who participated in art forms such as music, dance, theater, drawing, and painting. These quantitative studies looked at typically developing populations, as well as children with autism spectrum disorder. For more information go to www.arts.gov .

President’s Committee for the Arts and Humanities Releases Arts Education Study Reinvesting in Arts Education: Winning America’s Future Through Creative Schools Reinvesting in Arts Education makes a compelling case for arts education and the essential role it will play in preparing students for success in the knowledge and innovation economy. This report shows us the link between arts education and achievement in other subjects. It documents that the process of making art –– whether is it written, performed, sculpted, photographed, lmed, danced, or painted –– prepares children for success in the workforce not simply as artists, but all professions. Most importantly, it makes a compelling argument for creating arts-rich schools and engaging artists in ways that complement the study of other subjects such as literature, history, science, and mathematics.

The Qualities of Quality: Understanding Excellence in Arts Education (June 2009) This study, “The Qualities of Quality: Understanding Excellence in Arts Education” was authored by staff at Project Zero at Harvard University, and commissioned by the Wallace Foundation with additional support from Arts Education Partnership. The study was designed around three questions: 1) how do arts educators in the United States define high quality arts learning and teacher? 2) What do educators and administrators look for as markers of excellence? And 3) how do foundational and daily decisions affect pursuing and achieving quality?

Results follow a series of trends including that quality is tied to values, identity, and meaning; quality has overlapping dimensions, including learning, pedagogy, community dynamics, and environment; and the pursuit of quality is affected by who is teaching, where teaching takes place, what is being taught, and how programs are assessed.

SNAAP Releases Study on Arts Graduates The Strategic National Arts Alumni Project has released its findings from the fall 2010 survey of over 13,500 alumni of 154 arts high schools, arts colleges and conservators, and arts schools and departments within universities. The report is entitled Forks in the Road: The Many Paths of Arts Alumni. Respondents include graduates form fine arts, theater, dance, music, creative writing, media arts, film, design and architecture programs. The results provide insights into the lives and careers of arts graduates including what they studied in school, satisfaction with their educational training and experiences, the various jobs they have held, their involvement in the arts outside of work, and additional demographics. The findings are very positive. For example, 92% of those who wish to work currently are, with most finding employment soon after graduating. The study found that most 80% of professional fine artists were very satisfied with the opportunity to be creative at work.

Government Documents

ArtScan ArtScan, a project of the Arts Education Partnership, is a searchable clearinghouse of the latest state policies supporting education in and through the arts from all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

STATE OF THE STATES 2016 - Arts Education State Policy Summary The State of the States 2016 summarizes state policies for arts education identified in statute or administrative code for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Information is based on a comprehensive search of state education statute and codes on each state’s relevant websites. Complete results from this review are available in an online searchable database at www.aep-arts.org .

10 Years of Arts Integration from the U.S. Department of Education In the past 10 years, the Arts in Education Model Development and Dissemination (AEMDD) and Professional Development for Art Educators (PDAE) grant programs have unleashed the creative minds of students, deepened their learning experiences in core academic subjects through arts integration, and enhanced the knowledge and skills of teachers to meet high standards in the arts. Both programs emphasize collaborations between school districts and non-profit organizations that result in a well-rounded education for all students as well as greater student engagement across the curriculum and increased school attendance by both students and teachers. In addition, AEMDD projects, using rigorous evaluation measures, have documented gains in academic achievement by students involved in arts-integrated teaching and learning compared to their peers.

Arts and Achievement in At-Risk Youth: Findings from Four Longitudinal Studies (National Endowment for the Arts) Having the arts in young people’s lives is essential; we know that intuitively. Parents sing to their babies, dance with their toddlers, and occupy children with crayons and paper. And there was a time in this country when schools did their parts: bands, choruses, theatricals, and art studios used to fill the days alongside the 3 Rs, gym, social studies, science, and the rest. But over the past four decades, budget pressures andan increasing focus on just reading and math have crowded the arts out of too many school days. What’s lost? The chance for a child to express himself. The chance for the idiosyncratic child who has not yet succeeded elsewhere to shine. A sense of play, of fun, of discovery. James Catterall and his fellow authors have shown that something else is lost, too: potential. Students who have arts-rich experiences in school do better across-the-board academically, and they also become more active and engaged citizens, voting, volunteering, and generally participating at higher rates than their peers.

Arts Education in Public Elementary and Secondary Schools: 1999-2000 and 2009-10 This report presents selected findings from a congressionally mandated study on arts education in public K–12 schools. The data were collected through seven Fast Response Survey System (FRSS) surveys during the 2009-10 school year. This report provides national data about arts education for public elementary and secondary schools, elementary classroom teachers, and elementary and secondary music and visual arts specialists. Comparisons with data from the 1999–2000 FRSS arts education study are included where applicable.

Browse the supplemental tables of this report
Download, view and print the report
Download, view and print the supplemental tables
Download, view and print the Arts Flyer
Errata sheet for the report

Additional Supplemental Table : Number and percent of students in public elementary and secondary schools without instruction designated specifically for music, visual arts, dance or drama/theatre, by school poverty level: school years 2008-09 and 2009-10 Additional Supplemental Table : Percent of public elementary and secondary schools with instruction designated specifically for music, by school type: school years 2008-09 and 2009-10 Additional Supplemental Table: Elementary Schools With and Without Music Specialists

Improving the Assessment of Student Learning in the Arts–State of the Field and Recommendations, Commissioned by NEA Given the increased focus on assessment and accountability since the 1990s, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) identified the need to capture the current status of arts assessment. In 2005, the NEA began requiring a narrative statement of assessment practices to apply for arts education funds. Project applicants needed to explain their assessments methods and types of tools used to measure student knowledge and skills. Through several grant cycles, it became clear to NEA staff that applicants did not necessarily differentiate between program evaluation and assessment of student learning. As such, the NEA commissioned WestEd to examine current trends, promising techniques, and successful practices being used to assess student learning in the arts throughout the country, as well as identify potential areas in which arts assessment could be improved. Although the original intent of the study was to identify strong models of assessment practices that could serve as examples for possible replication, the study found that such models were not available and are in fact a need of the field. Thus, this report provides a description of the current state of arts assessment, including a review of the high-quality literature available, common practices being used to assess student learning, and needs of the field to improve arts assessment.

The Nation’s Report Card: Arts 2008 This report presents the results of the 2008 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) arts assessment. It was administered to a nationally representative sample of 7,900 eighth-grade public and private school students. Approximately one-half of these students were assessed in music, and the other half were assessed in visual arts.

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts was established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. To date, the NEA has awarded more than $4 billion to support artistic excellence, creativity, and innovation for the benefit of individuals and communities. The NEA extends its work through partnerships with state arts agencies, local leaders, other federal agencies, and the philanthropic sector.

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New evidence of the benefits of arts education

Subscribe to the brown center on education policy newsletter, brian kisida and bk brian kisida assistant professor, truman school of public affairs - university of missouri @briankisida daniel h. bowen dhb daniel h. bowen assistant professor, college of education and human development - texas a&m university @_dhbowen.

February 12, 2019

Engaging with art is essential to the human experience. Almost as soon as motor skills are developed, children communicate through artistic expression. The arts challenge us with different points of view, compel us to empathize with “others,” and give us the opportunity to reflect on the human condition. Empirical evidence supports these claims: Among adults, arts participation is related to behaviors that contribute to the health of civil society , such as increased civic engagement, greater social tolerance, and reductions in other-regarding behavior. Yet, while we recognize art’s transformative impacts, its place in K-12 education has become increasingly tenuous.

A critical challenge for arts education has been a lack of empirical evidence that demonstrates its educational value. Though few would deny that the arts confer intrinsic benefits, advocating “art for art’s sake” has been insufficient for preserving the arts in schools—despite national surveys showing an overwhelming majority of the public agrees that the arts are a necessary part of a well-rounded education.

Over the last few decades, the proportion of students receiving arts education has shrunk drastically . This trend is primarily attributable to the expansion of standardized-test-based accountability, which has pressured schools to focus resources on tested subjects. As the saying goes, what gets measured gets done. These pressures have disproportionately affected access to the arts in a negative way for students from historically underserved communities. For example, a federal government report found that schools designated under No Child Left Behind as needing improvement and schools with higher percentages of minority students were more likely to experience decreases in time spent on arts education.

We recently conducted the first ever large-scale, randomized controlled trial study of a city’s collective efforts to restore arts education through community partnerships and investments. Building on our previous investigations of the impacts of enriching arts field trip experiences, this study examines the effects of a sustained reinvigoration of schoolwide arts education. Specifically, our study focuses on the initial two years of Houston’s Arts Access Initiative and includes 42 elementary and middle schools with over 10,000 third- through eighth-grade students. Our study was made possible by generous support of the Houston Endowment , the National Endowment for the Arts , and the Spencer Foundation .

Due to the program’s gradual rollout and oversubscription, we implemented a lottery to randomly assign which schools initially participated. Half of these schools received substantial influxes of funding earmarked to provide students with a vast array of arts educational experiences throughout the school year. Participating schools were required to commit a monetary match to provide arts experiences. Including matched funds from the Houston Endowment, schools in the treatment group had an average of $14.67 annually per student to facilitate and enhance partnerships with arts organizations and institutions. In addition to arts education professional development for school leaders and teachers, students at the 21 treatment schools received, on average, 10 enriching arts educational experiences across dance, music, theater, and visual arts disciplines. Schools partnered with cultural organizations and institutions that provided these arts learning opportunities through before- and after-school programs, field trips, in-school performances from professional artists, and teaching-artist residencies. Principals worked with the Arts Access Initiative director and staff to help guide arts program selections that aligned with their schools’ goals.

Our research efforts were part of a multisector collaboration that united district administrators, cultural organizations and institutions, philanthropists, government officials, and researchers. Collective efforts similar to Houston’s Arts Access Initiative have become increasingly common means for supplementing arts education opportunities through school-community partnerships. Other examples include Boston’s Arts Expansion Initiative , Chicago’s Creative Schools Initiative , and Seattle’s Creative Advantage .

Through our partnership with the Houston Education Research Consortium, we obtained access to student-level demographics, attendance and disciplinary records, and test score achievement, as well as the ability to collect original survey data from all 42 schools on students’ school engagement and social and emotional-related outcomes.

We find that a substantial increase in arts educational experiences has remarkable impacts on students’ academic, social, and emotional outcomes. Relative to students assigned to the control group, treatment school students experienced a 3.6 percentage point reduction in disciplinary infractions, an improvement of 13 percent of a standard deviation in standardized writing scores, and an increase of 8 percent of a standard deviation in their compassion for others. In terms of our measure of compassion for others, students who received more arts education experiences are more interested in how other people feel and more likely to want to help people who are treated badly.

When we restrict our analysis to elementary schools, which comprised 86 percent of the sample and were the primary target of the program, we also find that increases in arts learning positively and significantly affect students’ school engagement, college aspirations, and their inclinations to draw upon works of art as a means for empathizing with others. In terms of school engagement, students in the treatment group were more likely to agree that school work is enjoyable, makes them think about things in new ways, and that their school offers programs, classes, and activities that keep them interested in school. We generally did not find evidence to suggest significant impacts on students’ math, reading, or science achievement, attendance, or our other survey outcomes, which we discuss in our full report .

As education policymakers increasingly rely on empirical evidence to guide and justify decisions, advocates struggle to make the case for the preservation and restoration of K-12 arts education. To date, there is a remarkable lack of large-scale experimental studies that investigate the educational impacts of the arts. One problem is that U.S. school systems rarely collect and report basic data that researchers could use to assess students’ access and participation in arts educational programs. Moreover, the most promising outcomes associated with arts education learning objectives extend beyond commonly reported outcomes such as math and reading test scores. There are strong reasons to suspect that engagement in arts education can improve school climate, empower students with a sense of purpose and ownership, and enhance mutual respect for their teachers and peers. Yet, as educators and policymakers have come to recognize the importance of expanding the measures we use to assess educational effectiveness, data measuring social and emotional benefits are not widely collected. Future efforts should continue to expand on the types of measures used to assess educational program and policy effectiveness.

These findings provide strong evidence that arts educational experiences can produce significant positive impacts on academic and social development. Because schools play a pivotal role in cultivating the next generation of citizens and leaders, it is imperative that we reflect on the fundamental purpose of a well-rounded education. This mission is critical in a time of heightened intolerance and pressing threats to our core democratic values. As policymakers begin to collect and value outcome measures beyond test scores, we are likely to further recognize the value of the arts in the fundamental mission of education.

Scholarship and Engagement in Education

Article title.

Benefits of Art Education: A Review of the Literature

Kimberly Lloyd , Dominican University of California Follow

Though extensive studies exist regarding the use of the arts in general education settings, a comparable amount of research is still needed to support the need for the use of the arts in special education settings. This review of the literature examined the role of the arts in general education and special education. The studies revealed that the arts provided benefits to students in both the general education and special education settings in academic, social and behavioral areas.

Since April 27, 2017

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Art Education Commons , Curriculum and Instruction Commons , Elementary Education and Teaching Commons , Special Education and Teaching Commons

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Art Education in the Classroom

The Importance of Art Education in the Classroom

November 30, 2023

Paintbrushes in plastic cups of paint in an Art Education classroom

That deceptively simple, four-word query confronts a topic that’s occupied some of the world’s greatest creators and philosophers since Plato. How we answer this question can have much bigger consequences than whether you get to buy a piece of artwork from Banksy’s online store. The issue of art’s value becomes far more pressing when policymakers and administrators decide how to allocate time and funding for art education in schools.

Art teachers must be ready to advocate for committing the necessary resources to prioritize the value of creativity in the classroom. You may have to explain the importance of art education in a school’s curriculum and present the research to back up those claims. We can become powerful advocates for the power of art and improved student outcomes by investigating the many benefits that come out of integrating more creativity into the school day and improving our classroom strategies .

Why Is Art Education In Schools Important?

Anyone who’s passionate about the arts recalls formative moments of experiencing a work of art pushing through a creative challenge. When we’re exposed to remarkable artworks or have opportunities to create, we find that art is crucial to individual growth and development and can even impact our health.

A literature review from Frontiers in Psychology outlined several studies linking aesthetic experiences with broad improvements in subjects’ emotional states that promote physical and psychological well-being. Giving learners the time, space, and materials for creative expression can lower stress, improve memory, and make them feel more socially connected. Instructors can build their careers on bringing those experiences to students in a variety of settings, like galleries, museums, or events organized by nonprofit and community organizations.

Appreciation for art also makes a significant difference in people’s lives on a macro level. Entire societies may stand to gain from an investment in the arts. Drawing on data from the General Social Survey, researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Department of Public Administration linked participation as either an audience member or creator to higher levels of civic engagement and social tolerance . This work suggests that children learning how to draw, paint, sing, or just appreciate the works made by others can help us become not just happier and healthier, but also better people. Learn about UF’s Online Master of Arts in Art Education program

How Does Art Education Help Students?

When surveyed by the nonprofit organization Americans for the Arts, members of the U.S. public overwhelmingly agreed that the arts are one aspect of a well-rounded K-12 education . In addition, a recent study conducted in Houston public schools showed that students who participated in arts education see the following benefits:

Improved writing achievement
Reduced disciplinary infractions
More student engagement
Improved college aspirations
No drop in standardized test scores

Yet, participation in the visual and performing arts is often treated as merely supplemental to other aspects of learning. As a result, there are major differences in access to art and music classes across the country.

2019 findings from the National Assessment of Educational Progress showed that eighth graders in the Northeast were much more likely to report being enrolled in a visual arts course than those in the South. Disparities were also tied to race, ethnicity, family income, and whether a school is located in a city, suburb, town, or rural area.

Meanwhile, the Nation’s Report Card shows that U.S. students continue to score lower than many of their peers in Europe and Asia on standardized tests despite years of pressure on educators to close the achievement gap. But seeking to improve student performance in math and reading does not have to come at the expense of art education.

In fact, researchers from the Johns Hopkins University School of Education, argue that instruction becomes more effective when educators integrate creative activities and make them central to academic development. Across disciplines, including STEM, there’s room to reimagine classes with a strong emphasis on drawing, painting, playing music, performing drama, and other creative pursuits. Encouraging students to use their imagination can help them actively engage with new concepts and discover connections between ideas as well as provide advantages for their social and emotional well-being.

One example of effectively integrating arts and creative expression with other fields as a pedagogical strategy can be seen in the collaboration between University of Florida faculty members Susan K. Jacobson, who studies wildlife ecology and conservation, and Robert C. Mueller, who teaches printmaking. The UF professors collaborated on an interdisciplinary project in climate change communication in which groups of graduate students from both the School of Natural Resources and the Environment and the College of the Arts visited the university’s Seahorse Key Marine Laboratory. The students participated in learning activities like scientific lectures, discussions, and making collages before working in small groups to create environmental communication materials for visitors.

As this example shows, students benefit from learning to embrace insights from multiple disciplines, and this can be valuable when they go on to pursue jobs. A 2019 survey from the National Association of Colleges and Employers showed that employers are interested in hiring professionals with skills that can be strengthened through participation in the arts, such as written communication, problem-solving, teamwork, and taking initiative. Art teachers can help students become more well-rounded and capable individuals by teaching them to develop original ideas through creative projects and practices.

The Importance of Art Education in Early Childhood and Beyond

It’s never too soon to introduce kids to the possibilities of creative expression. As outlined in a literature review from the National Endowment for the Arts, a variety of studies demonstrate the value of embedding artistic practice into early childhood education . Imaginative activities for young learners can lead to better skills in social interactions and emotional regulation.

Lessons in the arts introduce K-12 students to problem-solving techniques, which help them to see the world in new ways, and provide access to creative ways of knowing. Kids discover how art can communicate their own ideas and may become interested in creating increasingly realistic depictions and mastering new techniques. By high school, young artists can think critically about their own work and that of others, establishing a unique point of view and a sense of community with other creative individuals.

The National Core Arts Standards provide a framework for advancing students’ artistic understanding . This structure breaks down the developmental stages from Pre K through high school into 10 anchor standards. In each stage, students build creative habits as they learn to:

Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work
Organize and develop ideas and work
Refine and complete artistic work
Select, analyze, and interpret artistic work for presentation
Convey meaning through the presentation
Perceive and analyze artistic work
Interpret intent and meaning
Apply criteria to evaluate work
Make art by synthesizing and relating knowledge and personal experiences
Deepen understanding by relating artistic ideas to societal, historical, and cultural contexts

Pediatrician Dr. Perri Klass outlined the benefits of art education in schools in the New York Times, noting improvements for overall motivation, thinking, and academic achievement . An arts-integrated curriculum that asks students to draw or sing as part of the learning process may enhance their ability to recall material such as scientific principles or vocabulary. Foregrounding creativity can be especially effective for students who struggle to retain information from traditional lectures and reading assignments alone.

Art does matter in the classroom, delivering a wide range of advantages for students. Educators can make the most of that potential by equipping themselves to offer creative practice as a central feature in the curriculum and show decisionmakers how these initiatives can achieve transformative results. The University of Florida’s online Master of Arts in Art Education (MAAE) program helps teachers make a difference. This program features courses that prepare educators to work in a variety of learning environments , support students of all ages, incorporate digital tools into their pedagogy, and foster critical thinking.

About the Online Master’s in Art Education from the University of Florida

The University of Florida’s online Master of Arts in Art Education (MAAE) program engages students purposefully in art education theory and practice, contemporary art, and their own studio work. Our dynamic online learning environment fosters meaningful interaction with peers and our world-class faculty as members of a supportive, close-knit community of art educators, artists, cultural workers, and scholars. This flexible program brings you the advanced concepts and immersive, hands-on experiences you need to flourish academically and creatively.

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Community and art: creative education fostering resilience through art

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Published: 24 April 2015
Volume 16 , pages 193–201, ( 2015 )

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Hyungsook Kim 1

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While creativity is discussed as a core competence for talented people around the world in the twenty-first century, its exhibition is determined by one’s character. Creativity and character education, therefore, should not be considered as separate matters, but the systematically related matters, and exhibition of creativity, can be carried away by character. The purpose of this study is to apply community-based education through art to elementary school students in an effort to enable the learners to experience the cultural facilities of their community and to cultivate their creativity and personality, thus fostering resilience in the face of the trauma of school violence. This study focuses on the importance of the experience of creating art, which can contribute to the building of a happy and safe school environment and to the cultural development of the community. First, school violence and trauma are initially investigated based on a literature review. Second, I discuss the important role of art projects to promote creativity and foster resilience. Third, community-based art education is developed and applied to elementary school students. Finally, it is concluded that community-based art education can encourage adolescents to cultivate a healthy personality and good creativity, ultimately helping them to become well-rounded. The development of practical community-based convergence education through art can contribute to establishing a happy school culture by promoting creativity and fostering resilience to the trauma of school violence.

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Introduction

The objective of this study is to investigate the role and significance of community-based art education for the prevention and reduction in school violence as well as for the healing of both the victims and the perpetrators of school violence. During adolescence, numerous physical, emotional, and mental changes occur and most adolescents are vulnerable to the resulting stress from these changes. In particular, Korean teenagers suffer from many problems as they struggle to establish their independence and resist the value system and restrictions of their society. This can lead to a pressing need to relieve themselves of their emotional and psychological desires as a result of the education system that heavily focuses on college admission. This study especially focuses on adolescence which covers elementary school students, because school violence caused by teenagers can be attributed to the unstable self-identity in this period. Self-identity has not yet been established during adolescence; thus, teenagers can be changed. Additionally, school violence could be caused by misunderstanding of others as well as self-exploring. Community-based art education which increases creativity and self-expression helped teenagers to improve self-esteem. Violence arising from the expression of adolescent aggression is being highlighted as a serious form of social pathology. Thus, art education programs are needed to heal both the adolescent victims and the adolescent aggressors. The acclimation of adolescent aggression may provide important clues to understanding widespread acts of school violence today.

Preventative efforts using diverse approaches are being made as teenage school violence is becoming more and more serious and the number of such cases is increasing recently. Although programs related to school violence have been developed and made available both domestically and internationally, such school violence relief programs experienced many difficulties in real application as time had to be specifically allotted during school and the programs targeted specific students. Additionally, most programs showed severe limitations in reducing school violence because these programs were one-time events or were merely based on presentation.

Comprehensive countermeasures, including legislation and enforcement ordinances regarding school violence prevention and measures, have been in effect since 2012, and the scope and subject of school violence have been defined in detail. All acts of violence against students both inside and outside of school are defined as school violence, and its categories include physical violence, verbal violence, extortion of money and other valuables, coercion, ostracism, sexual violence, and cyber violence. As school violence is defined as all acts of violence where a student is the victim, all forms of violence to students in and out of school are considered school violence. Currently, the government announced various comprehensive countermeasures to fight school violence due to the severity of the issue. A presented solution is the call for character education. This need was emphasized in the 2012 survey on the current status of character education conducted by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.

Therefore, this study raises questions with regard to how community-based art education can heal both the victims and the aggressors of school violence. Can creative artistic activities contribute to the healing process of the victim of school violence? To seek out the answer to such a question, this study conducted art classes in 2013 where 26 students who were victims of school violence took part. The process of recovery and healing for these students through creative activities was observed, and the students were interviewed. The 26 students who were enrolled in an elementary school in the Gwanak district in the city of Seoul participated in the recovery and healing process of school violence trauma through art projects and art-making activities during three classes.

This study, as Mastern and Powell ( 2003 ) maintained, defines resilience as the process of bouncing back to a normal or above-normal state despite exposure to school violence. I explore the specific aspects of creativity that appear most pertinent to the process of emotional resilience. Therefore, I attempt to identify the relationship between creative art making and the healing of school violence trauma that students experienced through interviews with the participating students and observations of the resulting artwork.

Review of school violence and trauma

The concept and definition of school violence can differ depending on the contemporary situation and social atmosphere, but the issue of school violence is becoming more intense, showing signs of decreasing student age levels and increasing group activities in addition to the recent increase of brutality and broadening of school violence. Accordingly, numerous studies were conducted in not only the field of education but also sociology, law, psychology, and social welfare. The establishment of various school types, a collaborative system with the police force, and intimate cooperation systems among the related organizations surrounding the community is most urgently needed in order to provide a sound means for students to find relief from the conflict and tension of adolescence (Kim and Rim 2010 ). For the prevention and measures of school violence, a comprehensive approach is necessary by establishing a cooperation system among individuals, families, schools, communities, and the government.

Henry ( 2000 ) pointed out that the traditional definition of school violence was limited to visible violence and overlooked verbal and psychological violence, and proposed that school violence be treated from the overall perspective of the society. In addition, Scandinavian nations, led by Norway, developed a program to eradicate school violence and established its major measures. Through the ombudsman system, programs are provided for children living in unsound environments (Park 2012 ). In the USA, schools and police work together to seek out solutions to school violence. In the 1970s, school violence was spotlighted as a significant social problem in the USA, and the Police-School Liaison Program (PSLP) was established as a solution to school violence and to form the direction of education as well as economic cooperation. More than 10 % of elementary, middle, and high schools in the USA utilize PSLP. The objective of this program is to secure safety inside schools and prevent the delinquency of students and school violence (Choi 2012 ).

Despite the active efforts of countries such as the USA and Norway starting two to three decades ago to deal with school violence and develop a program in response, such a school violence prevention and response program is very lacking in South Korea along with the lack of effort and determination to develop such a program. The school violence programs discussed in South Korea have mainly been conducted by organizations and institutions in the private sector. These programs mainly focused on providing information regarding the current situation on school violence, and research from an art education perspective taking into consideration the psychological and social development characteristics of students who have been exposed to school violence has not been pursued (Park et al. 2007 ). Such related research and programs had numerous limitations, including the fact that they require the separate allocation of time, lead to discomfort as specific students are targeted, are difficult for regular teachers to conduct, fail to catch the interest of the students by providing activities mainly based on showing or listening, are one-time events, and outline roles of the student or teacher that are passive and limited. In particular, the most significant reason that these programs failed to establish themselves in schools was their failure to grab the interest and attention of the students.

Therefore, this study discusses a community-based art education conducted for the healing of the victims and aggressors of school violence as well as shows that such a healing process is highly related with creative education. The art project presented in this research can bring about the interest, attention, and enjoyment of the students than any other class, and the making of art can be a critical key in the prevention of school violence. Through this artistic activity, this paper aims to contribute to fostering the proper growth and development of the students from a creative education point of view. As a part of a comprehensive approach to the problem of teenage school violence, this community-based art education can contribute to the sound growth and development of the adolescents and send them a message of hope while ultimately contributing to the public good. Therefore, this study determined that it is essential to develop an art program that aims to recover the self-esteem of and establish the identities of adolescents who have been exposed to school violence.

Most school violence aggressor students are excessively offensive and destructive, enjoy dominating other children, are easily angered, are impulsive, have difficulty accepting failure, and lack the ability to sympathize with the victim (Olweus 1995 ; Boxer and Sloan-Power 2013 ; Conger and Conger 2002 ). In addition, such students lack the ability to defer the satisfaction of their desires, acting impulsively for instant gratification rather than gaining satisfaction in the future. A survey of children who had engaged in school violence aggression revealed that the rate of these aggressors’ engaging in criminal activity after becoming an adult was high (Chung 2012 ).

Meanwhile, students who fall victim to school violence suffer from psychological and physical damage as well as social isolation in the school environment. Extensive exposure to school violence can lead to the multiple types of internal struggles including loneliness, depression, and anxiety along with conflicts with fellow classmates and misconduct outside of the school. Victims can be categorized into either passive or offensive victims. Passive victims suffer from more anxiety than regular students, exhibit higher levels of cautiousness and sensitivity, and have low self-esteem. On the other hand, offensive victims are psychologically unstable, making them similar to passive victims, but they show similar levels of aggressiveness toward the aggressors and display a tendency to strike back in response to an aggressive act. This competitive and aggressive response irritates other classmates, resulting in the acceleration of school violence suffering (Olweus 1995 ). Adolescents who experience school violence have a range of behavioral and mental health difficulties, including traumatic stress, fear, depression, confusion, helplessness, overwhelmed feelings, nervousness, horror, uneasiness, sadness, and academic difficulties. Students who are victims of school violence may feel the world is unsafe, unpredictable, and meaningless (Boxer and Sloan-Power 2013 ; Conger and Conger 2002 ; Lynch 2003 ; Mazza and Overstreet 2000 ).

Studies found that problems resulting from exposure to school violence include those related with conduct and emotions, school life maladjustment, and suicidal thoughts (Yang and Chung 1999 ; Yoon and Cho 2008 ; Kim and Lee 2010 ; Park 2010 ). An investigation of the feelings that victim students had after being exposed to school violence by Statistics Korea showed that students had difficulty adjusting to school; had low self-identity; felt fear, loneliness, sadness, and depression; had made suicidal attempts; and exhibited aggressiveness (Statistics Korea 2014 ). Teenagers who experienced school violence had low self-esteem and high levels of depression and anxiety. Thus, school violence leaves adolescents in a state of anxiety, self-deprecation, and severe depression, resulting in their reduced memory and concentration (Osofsky 1995 ; Kim 2013a re-cited).

According to a study on the current situation of school violence conducted by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and Korean Educational Development Institute in 2014, 62,000 respondents (1.4 % of the total number of respondents, 498,000,000 respondents) said that they had experienced school violence in the recent year. This corresponded to 2.4 % in elementary school, 1.3 % in middle school, and 0.6 % in high school, showing that the rate of school violence differs for each school level (Table 1 ).

Violence is defined as the repeated act of harming another person and such violence is commonly categorized into physical, verbal, and social violence. Physical violence includes recklessly hitting or causing harm through physical contact; verbal violence includes cursing, intimidation, ignoring, and making fun; and social violence includes ostracism, spreading rumors, and playing both sides against the middle. In the case of South Korea, the collectivistic culture has influenced school violence to take the form of group ostracism (Macklem 2003 ; Cho and Kim 2012 ).

The most distinctive characteristic of school violence is that the victim and assailant cannot be clearly distinguished from each other. In other words, an act of aggression can lead to bullying from other children or continuous victimization could lead to the victim becoming an assailant at one point. Students who are both the victim and assailant show the most complex psychological attributes—these students have both the characteristics of the victim and the aggressor. This study focused on such a tendency and characteristics of school violence caused by adolescents and proposed community-based art education program which could guide adolescents during such period. In this study, an art education program was organized and carried out for school violence victims and aggressor students to relieve their anger and frustration and reduce their aggressiveness in order to cultivate character.

Role of art and creativity for fostering resilience

Art education programs can play an important role in preventing the devastating effects of trauma by fostering resilience through art. Many schools have crisis teams in place to assist students and teachers in dealing with school violence. Understanding the trauma associated with school violence can inform art education and foster resilience in youth. School violence and exposure to school violence can be linked consistently to a range of psychological problems including traumatic stress, anxiety, depression, substance abuse, aggressive and antisocial behavior problems (Boxer and Sloan-Power 2013 ; Berson et al. 2002 ). Resilience from school violence should be a dynamic process encompassing positive adaptation within the context of adversity (Conger and Conger 2002 ). Since the healing process takes time, and the effects of trauma may reappear at different contexts in a student’s life, educators must be deliberate in responding to students’ reactions to school violence and provide students with healthy strategies for healing that trauma.

Rutter ( 2012 ) considers resilience as a dynamic concept and an ongoing developmental process and not a fixed attribute of an individual (Rutter 2012 ). Benard ( 1991 ) describes resilience as a set of qualities that foster a process of successful adaptation and transformation despite risk and adversity. Resiliency factors facilitate recovery from traumatic events. Resilient students face fears and try to solve problems, exhibit optimism, become positive role models, and show flexibility (Haglund et al. 2007 ). Resilient children are adaptable, flexible, effective problem solvers, have a strong sense of self-esteem, show independence in their thoughts and actions, have insight, show a high tolerance to distress, have a strong sense of the future and the ability to look at things from alternative viewpoints. Resilience is the “power of recovery” (Ibeagha et al. 2004 ). Resilient students usually have four attributes in common: social competence, problem-solving ability, autonomy, and a sense of purpose and the future. “Social competence” is the ability to elicit positive responses from others, thus establishing positive relationships with both adults and peers. “Problem-solving ability” includes planning that facilitates seeing oneself in control, and resourcefulness in seeking help from others. “Autonomy” is a sense of one’s own identity and an ability to act independently and exert some control over one’s environment. “A sense of purpose and the future” involves goals, educational aspirations, persistence, hopefulness, and a sense of a bright future (Henderson et al. 2007 ; Krovetz 2007 ; Benard 1991 ).

As Heis ( 2014 ) pointed out, art is a meaning-making endeavor that develops creative problem solving, flexibility, and resourcefulness, and addresses various perspectives and requires persistence and vision. Lowenfeld and Brittain ( 1975 ) focuses on the importance of elevating the role of art for mental and emotional health. Art educators can emphasize the role of a positive attitude in resilience through art by including lessons in their art classes that focus on artists who overcame great obstacles in their lives. Themes such as humor, identity, lifetime achievements, and so on can be addressed through art. Additionally, the therapeutic role of art can be pointed out for discussing resilience. Wexler ( 2004 ) also demonstrates how the therapeutic process of painting can resolve issues of isolation in people dealing with illness or disability. He maintains that a specific characteristic of painting is its conveyance of psychological, social, and cognitive health. Through the art class, students gain a greater sense of appreciation for life. Metzl ( 2009 ) points out the relation between resilience and creativity in art. He examined the role of creativity in fostering resilience after natural disasters, that is, Hurricane Katrina. He linked creativity and resilience and found that originality and flexibility were significant predictors of successful adaption, which suggests that originality and flexibility were significant predictors of well-being when personality traits and demographic variables were taken into account. He maintains that resilience is facilitated by creative thinking and art making, and specific aspects of creativity appear most pertinent to the process of emotional resilience (Metzl 2009 ).

Therefore, it is a very persuasive assertion that I need to develop and implement art classes in order to foster resilience. Then, I must ask, what is the role of art and creativity in fostering resilience? In this study, creativity, which has been discussed in the field of art and regarded as an important human quality, is viewed as fostering resilience. Creative people tend to cope well with and be open to new experiences. Art therapists asserted that the creative process promotes mental health, and art therapy research often demonstrates the use of art and creative production in promoting mental health. Creative tools have been used to explore resilience (Flach 1988 ; Metzl 2009 ). Creativity can provide a safe shelter for individuals in times of stress. Creativity also helps individuals learn from experiences and be better at problem solving in the future (Heise 2014 ; Wolin and Wolin 1993 ). Creativity is the ability to bring something new into existence. The human act of creating always involves a reshaping of given materials, whether physical or mental. Resilience is mostly defined as bouncing back through positive adaptation and reshaping as a response to a given condition (Barron 1969 ; Metzl 2009 ). Creativity has been discussed in relation to an ability to distance oneself from stressors through active engagement, sometimes termed “flow” (Csikszentmihalyi 1996 ; Metzl 2009 ). Accordingly, creativity through art making has long been discussed in relation to elastic thinking, flexible thinking, openness, and expressiveness (Torrance 1995 ; Dollinger et al. 2004 ; Metzl 2009 ).

Even though it is a bit novel for us to think about creative thinking and resilience models, there are several studies on the relation between creativity and resilience, as I have discussed so far. Therefore, this study maintains that art is a meaning-making process that can help students process a tragic event and begin to make sense of their world. Projecting medium through visual art is crucial for students who may lack words to describe their feelings and emotions (Loock et al. 2003 ). Thus, art education creates an environment that allows students’ creative expression and the opportunity to engage in the aesthetic process. Rather than dwelling on the traumatic event and unresolved trauma, art educators have students redirect their focus to the assets that helped the students survive. Students’ strengths thus become a source of ideation for art making.

Various previous studies were conducted regarding the healing nature of art education. Beginning in school, which is the first social organization during growth, teenagers face difficulty in forming relationships and being sociable, and the issues that these teenagers face can be overcome through art education. Art encourages students to creatively express their emotions and thoughts through various artistic techniques. Also, by actively participating in an artistic activity, students are able to engage in a rich, aesthetic experience and cultivate an artistic sensibility (Kim 2012 ). Artistic experiences obtained through art aids in the development of rich emotions, the development of aesthetic perception and understanding, and the strengthening of creativity. Also, art education allows a person to understand what is proper, beautiful, meaningful, and valuable; and it becomes the groundwork for leading a plentiful life—all to attain a moral, humane, and beautiful character (Lee et al. 2012 ). Therefore, art education fosters healthy, harmonious growth through the release of bodily energies and the expression of emotions for individuals in their childhood and adolescent periods. Art education is needed to heal the symptoms resulting from school violence including aggressiveness, anger, violence, and group ostracism by providing the opportunity for the healthy release of adolescent emotions. Footnote 1 Direct aggression transfers into constructive energy during an artistic activity as has been shown in case studies of aggressive and violent children and teenagers. Aggression is reproducible and learnable based on learning theory. The human, in front of a work of art, objectively investigates his or her desire and energy and, through this, breaks free from himself or herself by objectively confronting their rampant desires. In other words, art releases a person from emotional confinement through sensual expression.

School violence can be considered a result of the limiting of aggression inherent during the adolescent period filled with energy into restrained, suppressed energy rather than natural and flexible release. Taking this point into consideration, punishing adolescents for displaying aggression, violence, and anger is not ideal. Rather, the significance of art education, which can bring about the creative and flexible release of such emotions and behavior, needs to be acknowledged. The acclimation of emotions through art education becomes an important topic at this point.

Especially, on a personal scale, art affects the aesthetic growth and feelings of adolescents along with their emotional growth (Lowenfeld and Brittain 1975 ). Additionally, art enables teenagers to improve their communication and social relationships with other individuals and groups (Chung et al. 2007 ; Dewey 1934 ). Additionally, artistic experiences can offer teenagers the opportunity for emotional acclimation for the expression of positive and negative emotions. Artistic activities and experiences allow adolescents to project psychological issues, tensions, a sense of alienation, intimidation, and hope as art or visual language (Rubin 2005 ), and students can cultivate self-confidence and self-esteem to creatively overcome personal issues. Not only that, aesthetic activities develop adolescents’ sensibility and help their aesthetic growth by fostering various types of information literacy through a visual culture. Moreover, group artistic activities provide valuable opportunities to understand and respect others. Such aesthetic growth can significantly contribute to character growth through art. Therefore, students can connect the violence they suffered or perpetrated to the topic of art, recognize the seriousness of the problem, and develop the capacity to understand each other and resolve issues.

In addition, art classes in community-based art education allow learners to experience the cultural facilities and cultural heritage sites of the region. Such programs can contribute to fostering resilience from school violence through creative and collaborative works. They provide opportunities to understand social topics, thus ultimately contributing to the development of the regional community (Kim 2009 ). Also, community-based art education enhances the individual’s quality of life by increasing their life satisfaction through in-depth understanding of their community culture. Footnote 2

The teaching methods of community-based art education include interactive teaching, behavioral collaboration, media utilization, and service learning. Art experience activities of community-based art education utilizing regional culture facilities can enhance the ability of teenagers who have been exposed to school violence to express their inner emotions; develop emotional acclimation, character cultivation, and sociability through communication among students; and improve their self-esteem and help establish self-identity by providing the opportunity during the art experience activity to sincerely think about the future and plan for the future.

Sample lesson: art making that encourages resiliency and creativity

With regard to the planning and operation of the community-based art education program for healing from school violence, collaboration with the regional community and local governments was significant. Cooperation among the local government office, police station, middle school students, and graduate school art education program students was key for organizing and implementing the art education program for the prevention and healing of school violence. This system can be described as the basic structure of collaboration among the regional community, school, and local government. Particularly, the liaison program between the police and the school that was applied in this research was similar to the case in the USA and can be described as a model case showing a measure to solve a social issue. The school violence program was evaluated as effective in providing psychological treatment and stability by the police officers who participated, as the program provided an opportunity for participants to express their inner self through art (Park 2013 ).

Furthermore, this program offered by art education graduate school students by the support of Gwanak-gu Office was conducted with the objective of treatment, making itself available to school violence aggressor and victim students as well as potential aggressor and victim students along with socially alienated students. Information about these students was provided, allowing for more effective education. With the establishment of an intimate cooperation system between the art education graduate school students and Gwanak police station, this program was able to lend a helping hand to many adolescents suffering from school violence by offering an community-based art project which utilized information about teenagers related with school violence that the regional police station possessed and provided.

Therefore, the community-based art project which was conducted in this study for the reduction and prevention of school violence was composed of three periods. The first period of art project was “Self-seeking travel: A treasure map within me.” Students reflected on a difficult time, and then they list all of the things they did to cope. Also, students made collage visual images on a board that reflected their future self they aspire to. By making a visual board, students were able to think about who they might be or what they might do in the future and become hopeful of the possibilities the future may hold for them.

The second period of art project was “I am ooo style.” Students created and edited a video of messages about how they felt during their experiences of school violence. The video medium was not only comfortable and familiar for teenagers but also had impacts them significantly. Through the process of creating a video, students were able to think about the subject from more in-depth and diverse perspectives.

The third period of art project was “I am a tree.” Students were asked to artistically elevate their personal story about their experiences of school violence. Students were able to express their stories through book art, monoprint, and stencil technique. The final productions of artworks were bound together into one book for each student—a collection of the voice within each student (Fig. 1 ).

Community-based art projects for healing and prevention of school violence

This community-based art project discussed above resulted in the following effects with regard to art education for school violence reduction and prevention. The first effect of three community-based art projects was the opportunity to experience enjoyment, interest, and aesthetic sensibility. At the center of violence are despair, a distorted sense of pleasure, and numbness to the emotions and acts of oneself and others. Art not only expressed negative sentiments flexibly and pictorially through the use of various sensible media, subjects, and techniques in order to reduce tension but also aroused enjoyment and interest to activate aesthetic sensibility. Artistic play permitted students to represent their own ideas about the nature of objects and the rules that govern social interactions (Bickley and Phippips 2003 ).

In the community-based art program, the enjoyment of creative activity was introduced to students through various media including collage technique in the first art project, UCC (User-Created Contents) creation in the second art project, and print creation in the third art project. The impressions the students had about the first art project and the second art project were as follows: 10 students out of 12 responded “it was fun” and two students responded “I should work harder” and “I should try harder.” In this manner, self-expression through art enables students to express their emotions and feel emotional freedom by allowing them to flexibly, symbolically, and visually express ideas using various media and techniques in order to reduce aggressiveness. Art making was found to be a powerful forum of healing for school violence.

The second effect of three community-based art projects was that the process of creating art allows students to have flexible and creative thoughts, which frees the students from the trauma of school violence and recover their original state in a flexible manner. Many students who participated in the art project mentioned creative/flexible thinking. For instance, one student who participated in the art project said, “I was able to think flexibly about failure during the process of making the artworks, and this process allowed me to heal the wound that was made through school violence (Kim 2013b ).” Creativity through the second art project made the adolescents distance from stressors through active engagement, which is “flow.” Art assessment evaluates a student’s flexible thinking, as well as the principles and elements of design.

The third effect is the cultivation of problem recognition and problem-solving skills. Through the creative activity of the second and third art projects, the meaning and enjoyment of aesthetic experience is acquired as well as the recognition of violence eruption, insight into the reasons and solutions for violence reduction, and resolution skills. Students were told to create pieces satirizing Korean educational society so that they can develop a critical mind toward community and society. Students were also instructed to visually express solutions that could resolve the problems of community and society. Additionally, participants in the second and third community-based art project used visual art to share their feelings, tell stories about themselves and the world, and heal. These narratives resulted in individual and community resilience, honoring collective courage and strength (Heise 2014 ).

The fourth effect is the cultivation of community spirit and sociability as a result of engaging in flexible, cooperative activity through the second and third art projects. Negative emotions such as tension, stress, despair, anger, intimidation, and alienation were released through voluntary, flexible, and exploratory student-based art activity rather than the indicative learning method (which presents a prohibition or suppression of violence, or a strict method where punishments are given when a set rule is violated). A common emotional code is shared, and the cultivation of responsibility, cooperative relationships, community spirit, and sociability is possible by the diversification of understanding others through a flexible attitude toward the problem and group activities. A total of 4–5 students compose a team to create artwork; thus, each student can have responsibility to create cooperative relationships by helping each other complete the group artworks.

The fifth effect is to help students reframe adversity in order to see within its context possibility instead of despair. Art makings in three art projects made the adolescents reshape the given visual materials to create new physical or mental matter. This shifts the focus from the trauma to their sources of joy and strength. It helps transform their thinking from that of a victim to that of a survivor, using art to celebrate and encourage strength and a positive emotion that may benefit them in future challenges (Heise 2014 ). Art provides an opportunity to the victim and aggressor students of school violence as well as students of potential aggressiveness to visually and symbolically express themselves, as a common aspect of all these students is that they have closed hearts. By sharing through the active expression of their troubles and feelings rather than verbal or passive expression, a communication medium or forum is made available where students can sympathize with others and open up their hearts naturally.

Finally, these three community-based art project helped students to recognize human dignity through self-exploration. Through artistic activities, the students become more confident that they are valuable beings and can become more confident and brave. Students do not think pessimistically about themselves nor give up on themselves, but they also recognize that their fellow friends are as precious as they are. Therefore, consideration for others and generosity are nurtured naturally, helping them to improve their relationships and recover from their trauma. Through cooperative learning with friends, skills for improving relationships are also cultivated. Making artwork allows students to think about whether the artwork can bring about understanding from others and the process of overcoming difficulties to ultimately complete an artwork that allows students to gain self-confidence. Art making involves human expression that may lead to relief from trauma. Creative art making tends to make the individual self-sufficient, resourceful, adventurous, autonomous, independent, and perceptive.

In this study, art is defined as a creative endeavor that gives expression to emotion and thought, and is a gateway to the response of resilience. The role of community-based art education is considered a process of resilience in response to school violence. Creative thinking comes from art-making projects that play a role in models of resilience directly or indirectly.

Art experience activities in community-based art education are based on real-life issues that are relevant and important to students. Students are engaged in problem solving and are given choices in the process. An inquiry method is used to stimulate critical and creative thinking and promote engaged student learning. Students obtain mastery over art media and techniques and develop fluency and flexibility as they experiment with multiple solutions to the art problem. Through art, students develop vision and a sense of purpose (Heise 2014 ). In this context, this study brought about new motivation to teenagers in despair within an environment of school violence so that they may begin new lives. Through the community-based art education, adolescents were able to freely express their inner selves, sublimating their internal struggles and pain into artworks.

Additionally, this study showed that community-based art education also provided character training to adolescents so that they can ultimately grow into well-rounded individuals. Character is an element that is required in global society in the twenty-first century along with creativity. The development of such fostered creativity and character, lead to reduction in school violence and contributing to the establishment of a happy school culture.

Aggression corresponds to the human instinctual energy or libido, and it is claimed that a pathological problem occurs due to the suppressing or restraining of what is needed for self-protection and survival or such feelings. This energy needs to be dispersed or released, and creative release through art is connected to the concept of sublimation.

The scope of community based art education covers new region based programs for the regional residents; special groups such as vulnerable teenagers, homeless, elderly, gifted, and convicts; and the underprivileged who are not included in the main K-12 classes(Ulbricht 2005 ).

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Aesthetic presence: The role of the arts in the education of creative arts therapists in the classroom and online

• Arts based and aesthetic pedagogy is a necessary part of training in the creative arts therapies.
• Aesthetic presence supports creative arts therapies pedagogy online and in-person.
• Aesthetic presence enhances the Community of Inquiry online pedagogical framework.
• Aesthetic presence supports accessibility principles of Universal Design for Learning.
• Multi-sensory engagement attends to absence of a physical encounter and the ubiquity of multimedia.

Literature about the integral role of the arts in learning is widely available, but much less has been written about how the arts and aesthetics support education in the creative arts therapies, particularly in the online learning environment. This article introduces the concept of aesthetic presence within the Community of Inquiry pedagogical model in line with values espoused within a Universal Design for Learning framework. The authors contextualize this concept with examples of how attention to the use of aesthetic and multimedia strategies in the classroom and in the online learning environment may foster openness and connection, encourage flexibility, humor, critical thinking, and animate and facilitate conversations about emergent and emotionally difficult themes while increasing accessibility for different kinds of learners.

Introduction

We need to advance our understanding of the role of the arts and aesthetics in the education of creative arts therapists in person and online. A primary contribution of creative arts therapists, as compared to verbal psychotherapists, is that we create an aesthetic framework, embedded in a socio-cultural context, from which to explore and examine experience as it arises between the client as artist, art-making, and a witness, in reference to the client’s capacities to witness themselves, a group’s capacity to witness each other, and the therapist’s capacity to bear witness to what unfolds. We seek to facilitate aesthetic distance , an encounter within a representational realm that enables both emotional arousal and cognitive reflection ( Landy, 1983 ). It follows, then, that the arts should play a formative role in training. This is particularly true in online learning environments where, given the absence of a physical encounter and the ubiquity of multimedia, attention to multisensory engagement would have particular relevance. In this article, we introduce the concept of aesthetic presence and discuss its importance in the education of creative arts therapists (CATs) with specific attention to the online learning environment. We begin with a synthesis of literature on the arts in education and online learning in the CATs. We then argue the relevance of aesthetic presence within a Community of Inquiry (COI) model of online learning design and pedagogy and connect this to values espoused with the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework, an inclusive approach to pedagogy that attends to the needs of different kinds of learners ( CAST, 2018 ). We conclude with practical suggestions on how aesthetic presence may be enhanced in course design and instruction in the creative arts. While the recent coronavirus pandemic has forced us to make a rapid adjustment to how we teach and practice in the creative arts therapies, our hope is that these strategies may be useful going forward as we contend with course design, instruction and practice in blended in-person and online environments.

Literature review

Despite the marginal status of the arts in education, many have written about the role of arts in facilitating learning ( Beardsley, 1958 , 1975 , 1982 ; Berleant, 1991 ; Clapp & Edwards, 2013 ; Croce, 1948 ; Dewey, 1896 , 1934 ; Duke, 1988 ; Gardner, 1983 , 1994, 1999; Garrison 1997; Goldberg & Phillips, 1992 ; Granger, 2006 ; Greene, 2001 ; Hausman, 2007 ; Jackson, 1998 ; Maslak, 2006 ; Munro, 1928 ; Sawyer, 2004 ; Simmons & Hicks, 2006 ; Shusterman, 1989 , 2006, 2012 ; Webster & Wolfe, 2013 ). Some literature exists on the pedagogical use of the arts in the training of creative arts therapists ( 2015 , 2017a , 2017b , Butler, 2015 ; Deaver, 2012 ; Gaines, Butler, & Holmwood, 2015 ; Knight & Matney, 2012 ; Landy, McLellan, & McMullian, 2005 ; Landy, Hodermarska, Mowers, & Perrin, 2012 ; McMullian & Burch, 2017 ; Young, 2012 ). Even less focuses on online education in the arts therapies ( Beardall, Blanc, Cardillo, Karman, & Wiles, 2016 ; Blanc, 2018 ; Pilgrim et al., 2020 ; Sajnani et al., 2019 ).

Arts and aesthetics in education

The arts, including sound/music, movement/dance, drama/theatre, visual, literary, and media arts, offer teachers and students multiple forms of expression and facilitate skills in sensing, perceiving, observing, listening, thinking, problem-solving, and collaborating ( Clapp & Edwards, 2013 ). The value of attending to the aesthetic dimension of pedagogy has been argued by Dewey (1934) , suggesting that learning occurs through experience and that aesthetic encounters deepen reflection and integrate theory with practice. Dewey suggested the artist is able to “actively internalize, then externalize in their art, landscapes, events, relationships and ideas,” thus facilitating new insights and possibilities (quoted in Goldblatt, 2006 , p. 18). The artist transfers values from one field of experience to another, attaches them to the objects of everyday life and by imaginative insight make these objects meaningful. Therefore, art, as symbolic of lived and potential experience continues to change with every interaction to offer multiple, contextual readings and perspectives. Dewey’s observations were reflected in contemporary and subsequent ideas about how people learn. For example, Jung described the concept of active imagination, where the verbal free association of ideas, images, and beliefs could be expressed in visualizations, written and spoken narratives, drawn and painted images. From a learning perspective, active imagination creates a bridge by allowing the unconscious mind to teach the conscious body by facilitating new relationships between latent ideas, feelings, and desires ( Semetsky, 2012 ). Building on Dewey’s ideas, Bruner (1966) described a learning process that oscillates between enactive representation (doing), iconic representation (images of real situations), and symbolic representation. Working with the arts in education encourages socio-emotional engagement, integrates understanding, and fosters inquiry even in subjects that do not traditionally involve the arts. For example, Sutherland (2000) explored the ways in which the integration of arts and non-verbal methods into traditionally “core” classes such mathematics have helped to develop these skills. Furthermore, research in this area has demonstrated how symbolic, metaphoric, and poetic thinking shapes reasoning ( Thibodeau & Boroditsky, 2011 ). As Webster and Wolfe (2013) wrote in a Harvard Education Review survey of the arts in education:

Aesthetic pedagogy allows students to create connections through imagining ideas and exploring how they relate to everything else one understands and feels. Such a ‘scenic’ appreciation is not a luxury which teachers may indulge in as ‘an extra,’ but rather we contend that these aesthetic aspects are essential for learning experiences in order to help assist students to make important connections. (p. 24)

Freire (1973) contributed significantly to how we understand the value of the arts in education through a critical lens. He described codification as the gathering of localized information and lived experience in order to create visual images of real situations that could then be used to catalyze dialogue and critical thinking. Boal (1979) extended Freire’s ideas through enactive learning wherein participants act out, replay, apply, and actively seek out, rather than passively receive, information as a means for learning and liberation. Lorde (1984) saw the arts, poetry specifically, as a liberatory epistemology of learning and unlearning, particularly for women, racialized people, and/or members of the queer community. As she wrote, “Poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence […] Poetry is the way we help give name to the nameless so it can be thought. The farthest external horizons of our hopes and fears are cobbled by our poems, carved from the rock experiences of our daily lives” ( Lorde, 1984 , p. 37). Hooks (1994) has similarly written extensively about her use of expressive writing, storytelling, arts-based experiences, and consideration of the role of the body in the classroom, seeing education as a practice of affective and interpersonal freedom and transgression.

Universal design for learning

The arts have been used in order to engage with and more fully include different kinds of learners ( Simmons & Hicks, 2006 ). Bloom’s (1956) widely used taxonomy of learning included an affective domain, and Gardner’s (1999) theory of multiple intelligences included musical-rhythmic, visual-spatial, and bodily-kinesthetic ways of knowing. Most recently, the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework calls attention to the relationship between emotion and learning and the domination of text in pedagogical materials. A UDL framework emphasizes the need for multiple means of engagement, expression, and representation so that students have various pathways “for accessing and comprehending information, for demonstrating what they know, and for increasing motivation and persistence” ( UDL on Campus, n.d. ). The arts support these goals by strengthening socio-emotional coping skills, and self-awareness so as to allow students to find the right personal balance of demands and resources, sustain effort, foster collaboration, and self-regulation ( Farrington et al., 2019 ).

It is clear that the aesthetic dimension of learning engages a powerful mix of higher order thinking skills, imagination and creativity, self-regulated learning, interpersonal interaction, and affective, socio-emotional engagement. With the wealth of insight available on the importance of arts in education, it is imperative that we examine how the arts are integrated in the training of creative arts therapists where the arts are privileged as a way of sensing, knowing, regulating, and representing lived experience.

Arts-based pedagogy in the training of creative arts therapists

There is a small but growing literature on how the arts are utilized in the teaching and training of CATs, whether in person or online. Several have written about the essential nature of art making in art therapy education ( Deaver, 2012 ; Gerber, 2006 ; Wix, 1996 ). Deaver and McAuliffe (2009) and Fish (2008) explored the use of art-making in supervision and internship training. Cahn (2000) specifically addressed the use of studio-based art therapy education. Julliard et al. (2000) discussed the use of arts-based evaluation in research education. Deaver’s (2012) mixed-methods study pointed to the personal and professional importance of the consistent use of the arts across the curriculum. In dance/movement therapy, dance has been explored as a source of knowledge ( Capello, 2007 ), a method for the personal and embodied growth of trainees ( 2010 , Federman, 2011 ; Payne, 2004 ), and as a way to expand an educator’s movement repertoire in order to strengthen their approach to teaching future dance/movement therapists ( Young, 2012 ). In music therapy, the curriculum requires music therapy trainees to first learn a series of musical competencies in a primary instrument/voice, percussion skills, composition, and improvisation, and then practice applying these skills to a music therapy context ( Goodman, 2011 ). Knight and Matney (2012 , 2014) highlighted the value of teaching functional percussion skills through a simultaneous contextualization of these skills in a music therapy approach. These authors also pointed to the rarity of the term “pedagogy” in music therapy writing and suggest that there is a need for further research into the training of future music therapists due to the lack of empirical studies on the topic.

Butler (2015 , 2017a , Butler, 2017b) has written about the use of drama exercises in drama therapy classrooms and asserts that such approaches are necessary in drama therapy education. His qualitative research pointed to the complexity of training students in therapeutic work without it becoming therapy, as well as the importance of learning through arts-based practice. He suggested that drama therapy education must engage students in “continual embodied reflective practice rather than a merely cognitive reflection” (p.113). Several have built on Landy’s (1982) four-part education model, suggesting additional ways to incorporate embodied and drama-based forms of learning ( Landy et al., 2005 ), including the use of existing theatrical characters and monologues to learn about clinical diagnoses ( McMullian & Burch, 2017 ), embodying clients and therapists in supervision ( Landy et al., 2012 ), and weaving situated, psychodynamic, and enactive learning with experiential activities ( Butler, 2017a ).

Creative arts therapies and online learning

Only six publications to date are known to have explored teaching CATs online ( Beardall et al., 2016 ; Blanc, 2018 ; LaGasse & Hickle, 2015 ; Pilgrim et al., 2020 ; Sajnani et al., 2019 ; Vega & Keith, 2012 ). Vega and Keith (2012) focused their research on the scope of online learning in music therapy courses and conducted the first in-depth study in the US. Their research revealed that many of the music therapy educators who were surveyed had received queries about online learning, suggesting a growing interest in the adaption of music therapy in online and distance settings. This initial survey research provided a snapshot of the state of online learning in music therapy and confirmed that, as of their publication date, no training program was offered fully online.

LaGasse and Hickle’s (2015) mixed methods study compared the perception of community and learning for music therapists in an online and residential graduate course. Their quantitative results found no significant difference in perceptions of community. Their qualitative data suggested that the presence of the instructor, peer interaction, and multiple online tools were important in creating a sense of community for those enrolled in the online course. Online students did have a statistically significant higher perception of learning score than their residential peers, which the researchers attribute to the online students having more experience in the field and thus more investment in the learning process. No qualitative or quantitative measures examined the role of music or aesthetics in perceptions of community or learning.

Beardall et al. (2016) outlined the development of a comprehensive hybrid low-residency training program for dance/movement therapists. The authors described their attempts to develop an “embodied online presence,” as a way for students and faculty to create and sustain a kinesthetic and affective presence online. They articulated the importance of creating opportunities for their dance/movement students to develop and trust their “bodily-felt sense” (p. 417) through a variety of explicit activities involving filmed and synchronous dance and movement exercises and assignments, as well as instructors’ “listening to and observing students’ verbal and non-verbal cues and responding sensitively” (p. 412). The authors spent a significant part of their article articulating their use of a range of synchronous and asynchronous tools for teaching, discussion, and assignments, which may be helpful for others interested in developing or improving online and hybrid learning options for CATs. Blanc’s (2018) phenomenological pilot study explored more deeply this concept of embodied presence for DMT hybrid students, finding importance in arts-based responses and layered engagement between movement, other arts responses, and cognitive learning. She provided a sample of these layered assignments and indicates the importance of further research into embodied presence and the use of the arts in creating meaningful online learning environments. Sajnani et al. (2019) wrote about one university’s transition to a hybrid delivery model for training in the expressive therapies. This chapter outlined best practices in online CATs pedagogy, synthesized in the acronym SPECTRAA which stands for Student-faculty contact; Prompt feedback; Effective use of technology; Communication of expectations; Time on task; Respect for diverse abilities and learning styles; Active learning; and Aesthetic and embodied presence.

The most recent publication, co-authored by Pilgrim et al. (2020) , presented findings on the first low-residency drama therapy cohort at Lesley University. This phenomenological study explored this cohort’s experiences, finding that virtual methods for creating experiences of embodiment, connection, and relationship using a combination of technology and artistic expression were seen as critically important. The study also found that several students began to shift away from the dramatic medium during the online teaching components of the hybrid program. Furthermore, this study reported that the most substantial critiques of the program centered on some course instructors’ lack of relational presence and communication. We see this article as a contribution to addressing ways in which instructors might develop an aesthetic presence to support relationship building and artistry in their course design and instruction in order to mitigate the kinds of difficulties that students face in an online learning environment.

The community of inquiry framework: foundations and adaptations

A foundational model for conceptualizing a successful online learning experience has been theCommunity of Inquiry Model (COI) ( Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2010 ). The COI model presents three “presences” required in a successful learning experience: teaching presence, cognitive presence, and social presence integrated seamlessly in an online environment ( Garrison & Cleveland-Innes, 2005 , p. 134). The COI model clarified the importance of the educational experience culminating in more than simply the mastery of content or cognitive engagement. It arose naturally to meet the challenge of creating a strong sense of community within a text-based environment ( Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2001 ). What follows below is a brief overview of the teaching, social, and cognitive presences articulated by COI, as well as some of the critiques of this model.

Teaching presence

Teaching presence is the “design, facilitation, and direction of cognitive and social processes for the purpose of realizing personally meaningful and educationally worthwhile learning outcomes” ( Anderson, Liam, Garrison, & Archer, 2001 , p. 5). Whereas in a traditional classroom environment, teaching presence may be intuitive and communicated strongly through non-verbal cues; teaching presence in the online environment needs to be an intentional process. For example, Glazier (2016) conducted a study of rapport-building strategies in the online classroom to improve student success, including providing video updates, personal emails, and personalized comments on assignments. Students receiving these rapport-building communications from their instructor were observed to have both higher grades and lower attrition rates.

Social presence

Social presence, particularly in the context of computer-mediated communication, is the degree to which the environment can facilitate immediacy. As Rourke, Anderson, Garrison, and Archer (2007) describe, social presence includes verbal and nonverbal communication practices that increase closeness and interaction with instructors and students alike. Social presence “supports cognitive objectives through its ability to instigate, sustain, and support critical thinking in a community of learners” ( Rourke et al., 2007 , p. 53), facilitating learning that is both socially and emotionally engaged. It has been identified as a key predictor of student satisfaction; in one study, it accounted for 60 % of satisfaction ( Gunawardena & Zittle, 1997 ). Sung and Mayer (2012) identify five facets of social presence that impact student success and satisfaction, namely, “social respect (e.g. receiving timely responses), social sharing (e.g., sharing information or expressing beliefs), open mind (e.g., expressing agreement or receiving positive feedback), social identity (e.g., being called by name), and intimacy (e.g., sharing personal experiences)” (p. 1738). It is important to note that some have argued that social presence does not need to be included as a separate presence in COI and have been critical of its inclusion ( Annand, 2011 ).

Cognitive presence

Finally, cognitive presence is fundamental to a learning environment that cultivates critical thinking skills ( Garrison et al., 2001 ) and while it is held by the learner, it is heavily guided by the interactions in the learning experience. The underlying principle of cognitive presence is engagement in the practical inquiry process, and “the extent to which the participants in any particular configuration of a community of inquiry are able to construct meaning through sustained communication” ( Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000 , p. 89). Garrison and Cleveland-Innes (2005) conclude that cognitive presence is reliant on the quality of interactions that occur throughout the instructional experience, and suggest instructors provide clear expectations and structuring of activities, conduct assessment aligned with intended goals, and select manageable and appropriate online content. As Garrison et al. (2000) articulate, cognitive presence facilitates students’ working through problems or issues that emerge in learning through exploration and meaning making.

Limits of COI

The COI model by its very nature is reductionist, dissecting the components of a learning community for analysis by instructors and learning designers interested in ensuring a full learning experience. In terms of its comprehensiveness, various authors have explored whether there are other “presences” or gaps. Lam (2015) and Shea and Bidjerano (2010) observed that COI lacks an explicit focus on the learner. Vladimirschi (2012) identified the need to consider cross-cultural implications. Cleveland-Innes and Campbell (2012) suggested a need for developing emotional presence as part of social presence. Kang, Kim, and Park (2007) also explored emotional presence, through the components of perception, expression, and management, arguing it requires its own attention. Anderson (2016) suggested agency be added as a fourth presence. Agency also is relevant to the often-ignored conative domain ( Reeves, 2006 ), which emphasizes the development of a learner’s self-regulation. Beardall et al. (2016) and Blanc (2018) called for the inclusion of embodied presence to emphasize the importance of kinesthetic and affective engagement, especially in the training of dance movement therapists. Finally, recently published best practices for online education depart from spheres of presence but point instead to the importance of relevant and authentic content, a variety of multimedia sources including audio, video, and text, opportunities for individual and collaborative expression in projects, multiple approaches to reflection including writing, podcast, and videos, and explicit connections between learning objectives and content ( Kumar, Martin, Budhrani, & Ritzhaupt, 2019 ).

Towards aesthetic presence online

Our proposed concept of aesthetic presence does not suggest a fourth, separate domain within the COI framework. Rather, when deconstructing our online and hybrid graduate learning experience, it became clear that there was something missing in the COI model, both when explicitly teaching CATs and other courses. Our experience indicated that attending to the aesthetic dimension of online learning enhanced all three domains. The skillful use of images, sound/music, poetry, video and audio logs, and performances, for example, offered teachers and students multiple approaches to communicate and express themselves (teaching presence), open up and engage with concepts (cognitive presence), and interact with one another (social presence) (see Fig. 1 ). By paying attention to the use of arts and aesthetics, learning often resulted in rich dialogue, particularly when students were learning about sensitive topics (e.g., course material focused on privilege and oppression in the therapeutic relationship). Indeed, Parrish (2009) describes aesthetic experiences as “heightened, immersive, and particularly meaningful ones” and that they are “important to us because they demonstrate the expressive power of life” (p. 513).

Relationship of aesthetic presence to community of inquiry framework.

This is not to suggest that text-based feedback cannot build an effective learning community; however, the use of technologies that take advantage of a multi-sensorial learning environment have been shown to increase a sense of community for students online ( Kumar et al., 2019 ). For example, a study conducted on the use of asynchronous audio feedback in online learning found that audio feedback was more effective than text-based feedback for conveying nuance and was associated with students’ feelings of increased involvement and learning community interactions, increased retention of content, and perceptions of care about the student ( Ice, Curtis, Phillips, & Wells, 2007 ). In this study, students were three times more likely to apply content when audio commenting was provided than when text commenting only was provided, suggesting greater engagement with the course’s content. To this end, we propose a definition for aesthetic presence and suggest how it might be applied in online learning environments in order to enhance learning experience.

Definition of aesthetic presence

Aesthetic presence involves a dynamic interplay of symbols, metaphors, and multisensory technologies to facilitate a complex representation of experience wherein imagination, cognition, and affect are optimally engaged. As previous literature has suggested, attention to the use of enactive, iconic, symbolic, embodied, and other sensory strategies may animate conversation, foster openness and connection, encourage flexibility and critical thinking, and facilitate conversations about emergent and emotionally difficult themes. Aesthetic presence can be embodied in the instructor’s approach, embedded in face to face, hybrid, and online course design, included in curricular activities and assignments, and fostered in and between students.

Practical suggestions to integrate aesthetic presence in online course design

In this section, we describe the necessary institutional commitment to acquire and use adequate technology to support online learning with a view to enhance aesthetic presence. We then include examples drawn from our own experiences designing and instructing courses to offer possibilities for cultivating an aesthetic presence in the virtual classroom. These serve as examples of how cognitive, social, and teaching presence can be enhanced by the arts.

Institutional commitment to technology and aesthetically oriented design

We are living in a visual economy where affect, experience, and content are communicated through animation, video, and biometrics. Perhaps it is not surprising then that, while traditional instructional design models and literature are lacking in this area, recent literature in instructional design emphasizes the value of the aesthetic experience. As our capacities to capture and share images and video have become increasingly commonplace, our capabilities in online learning have been transformed ( Nakamura, 2009 ). The relative ease with which one can now incorporate aesthetic presence into online and blended teaching has directly benefited from available technologies that readily allow for audio recordings, video recordings, image sharing, and live interaction time. Today’s learners can easily take photos or video and upload those multimedia objects to share with others through an ever-growing number of social media platforms, and can do so privately within the instructional experience if tools provided by the institution are able to support this. For example, investment in key platforms that integrate with learning management systems to support students and faculty in integrating multimedia and video into the learning experience seamlessly and privately such as Voicethread (multimedia), Kaltura (video streaming), and LiveText (eportfolio) are recommended. Because the tools are integrated into the learning management system and were selected because of their intuitive user interface, little technical expertise is required for either instructors or students to use these tools. Ensuring that technology decision-making is aligned with instructional needs is a component of the decision-making process for acquiring technology tools to support instruction.

At the same time, when learners and instructors have rudimentary communication design and a conceptual and technical skill-set in aesthetics, the online environment is greatly enhanced. For example, learners and instructors need to be attentive to the environment and background in which they are recording video to ensure that it does not distract from their message. Similarly, they need basic orientation in framing an image to ensure they capture critical visual data and in basic audio to ensure that the audio is adequate for the instructional audience. Finally, a commitment to aesthetic presence should inform the design of the user interface in online learning platforms. From our perspective, a beautifully laid out, intuitive interface communicates care for the learning experience that will unfold and enhances an online community learning environment.

Cultivating social presence through emoticons and humor

When moving from a face-to-face to virtual instructional context, one of the biggest challenges is creating opportunities for immediacy and emotional engagement. The emotions embodied in the learning process can range from: positive emotions that motivate learners and enhance creative thinking, to negative emotions (such as situational anxiety) which, if not managed well, can undermine the learning process. Meyer and Jones (2012) articulate the ways in which technology might inhibit affective engagement and, more critically, engagement in the learning process as a whole. They write, “Email, for example, works against the individual's ability to perceive accurately the other's emotional state because the other person cannot be seen or felt, thereby muting empathy and perhaps providing an explanation of the "online disinhibition effect," which occurs when one does not deal face-to-face with the effects of one's rudeness (p.100).

The use of emojis, emoticons, and other forms of affective representation have recently been assessed for their utility in online learning. As Dunlap et al. (2015) wrote,

One way people make up for the lack of nonverbal behaviors and cues in primarily text-based environments is by using paralanguage, specifically emoticons. […]For instance, people use :-) to show that they are happy or smiling. When used in text-based EMC (e.g., email, threaded discussion forums, texting, social networking), emoticons function as textual representations of the nonverbal behaviors and cues prevalent in face-to-face communication, designed to convey clarity of intent and emotion in efficient, direct, and transparent ways. (p. 2)

Emoticons may serve to facilitate a nuanced exchange between students and may be used to instill a sense of humor in the virtual classroom, as well as provide cues to both instructors and students of embodied, affective aspects of learning. Similarly, Orr (2010) has also suggested the use of emoticons and textually based description of body language or emotions when providing distance supervision. Additionally, Meyer and Jones (2012) offered a synthesis of the use of humor in online courses in order to increase: learning, motivation for participation, enjoyment, and social bonding, and the sense of “bringing life” to the community. Recognizing that laughter is less common online than in a face to face setting, Meyer and Jones (2012) called for a better understanding in how people “go online and feel emotion, including laughter and anger” (p.109). Goodboy, Booth-Butterfield, Bolkan, and Griffin (2015) introduced the concept of instructional humor processing theory, which posits that humor connected to course content may be motivating; whereas other types of humor might be distracting and interfere with learning. Rourke, Anderson, Garrison, and Archer (1999) discussed the importance of humor and the expression of emotions in order to help instructors establish a social presence that is ideal for online learning.

From a practical standpoint, this involves investing in user interfaces that permit the use of emoticons and avatars. It also means that online education may necessarily need to make use of personalized learning environments (phones, tablets, ipads, etc.) that permit an exchange of advanced personalized emotion technology such as bitmoji which are personalized avatars ( Dabbagh & Kitsantas, 2012 ; Walton, 2016 ). Sajnani (2020) used bitmojis to explore Landy’s notion of role, counter-role, and guide in drama therapy. In the online classroom, one of the authors (NS), used this strategy to explore identity which seemed to be motivating in that students found it fun to create and share. Opportunities to cultivate affective immediacy and humor in online learning begins with the tone set by initial communications and assignments through the modeling of the instructor. When facilitating online learning, we have found that modeling the use of emoticons and/or textual descriptions of nonverbal affective cues early on in the semester helps to facilitate broader adoption of interweaving emotional cues in the online space.

The use of icebreakers in online learning is already a best practice ( Chlup & Collins, 2010 ; Goodyear, Salmon, Spector, Steeples, & Tickner, 2001 ; McGrath, Gregory, Farley, & Roberts, 2014 ). However, icebreakers also present an excellent opportunity for students to interact using a full range of multisensory technologies. For example, the instructor might assign a “check in” or introduction assignment in which students are invited to upload a written paragraph along with a video or image of a cartoon, photograph, dance, song, comic strip, or poem that represents something about who they are or why they have chosen to take a particular course. Another icebreaker example used by one of the authors (CM) at the beginning of a synchronous virtual class was to ask attendees to make a sound and movement over video to demonstrate how they were feeling about their capstone research project. Members of class portrayed a wide range of movements, sounds, and affect that demonstrated some levels of stress. As they witnessed the others in the class and themselves making these sounds and movements, many burst into spontaneously laughter and verbally reflected feeling both more connected to their classmates and their bodies. This permission for play, embodiment, and affect expression through an icebreaker also allowed students to engage with the research content of that lesson with more presence and engagement. In this example, the instructor also intentionally chose to make a sound and movement from her position teaching the course, which students reflected as important in demystifying the process of research and writing.

Indeed, instructors are encouraged to create their own arts-based introductions in order to model risk taking and to enhance their teaching and social presence online. Having the instructor engage with the same artful assignments asked of students can cultivate a sense of trust. As Lowenthal and Dunlap (2010) suggest, the distance barriers can, “dull or even nullify online instructors' humanness — their emotion, humor, sympathy, and empathy. These human qualities, established through personal sharing, help students develop a sense of trust in and connection with an instructor, which is foundational for cultivating the social presence needed” (p. 70). Their experiments with the use of digital storytelling and self-disclosure from the instructor and embedded throughout assignments in the course facilitated a deeper and more meaningful social presence and served to decrease the sense of isolation often articulated by many online learners.

Further, humor can forge bonds between classmates, deepen one’s curiosity and desire to learn, aid in the retention of information, and help students to tolerate “difficult” or emotionally contentious learning material ( Anderson, 2011 ; Bacay, 2006 ; Shatz & LoSchiavo, 2006 ; Stambo, 2006 ). Intentionally selecting some materials that include humor as part of the teaching method can be particularly effective when teaching online about potentially emotionally-loaded topics. For example, in a course that included content learning about racial microaggressions, one of the authors (CM) blended a traditional scholarly article ( Sue et al., 2009 ) with a BuzzFeedYellow video that addresses similar content through humor and role reversal ( Boldly, 2014 ). The instructor asked students to consider reflecting on the difference in their learning when reading the article versus the humorous video. Their responses indicated that both were important and that the video made it possible for them to remain focused and able to engage with each other about what many agreed was difficult material. Of course, humor and emotional expression are both culturally constructed and embedded, therefore, instructors should approach their use of humor from a critical and cross-cultural perspective in terms of difference, power, and social norms. For further reading on this topic, see Bell (2007) ; Ellingson (2018) , and Lu, Martin, Usova, and Galinsky (2019) .

Teaching presence as an improvised performance

Teaching might be best understood through the metaphor of performance, where aspects like role, affect, embodiment, voice, delivery, and play are critical in engaging the imaginations and curiosity of the “audience” of students ( Lessinger & Gillis, 1976 ; Sawyer, 2004 ; Timpson & Tobin, 1982 ). In an online setting, there is greater risk of the instructor becoming a faceless, lifeless entity, providing little in the way of performance in order to energize and enrich the learning environment. Further, because of changes to technology, there is a shift in the expectation from learners about the manner in which they will engage with their instructors and peers. Page, Hepburn, Lehtonen, Thorsteinsson, and Arunachalam (2007) noted the shift in user expectation stating, “they do not want to stay in a passive role with different media… they want active participation and emotional engagement, to manipulate the presented objects and expect a degree of emotion and interactivity” (p. 145). Indeed, we have observed an increase in the expectations of learners engaging in online and blended instruction who anticipate interacting with the instructor authentically and through a range of media. Incorporating improvisation makes it possible to avoid a deadened delivery in online settings where pre-recorded lectures, pre-scripted written materials, and rigidly scheduled online discussions and interactions are the norm. This is not to say that structured practices are not useful. Rather, as Sawyer (2003, 2004 ) observed, disciplined innovation involves an interplay between repeating routines and improvised interaction. Expected activities online provide a strong foundation from which creative improvisation and flexibility might emerge. Similarly, in improvisation forms (dramatic form, jazz, etc), a set structure (or melody in the jazz metaphor) provides the steady beat against which creative and spontaneous moments can be created.

From a practical perspective, aesthetic presence in online teaching includes a range of strategies. Having clear expectations and schedules for learners is important, but should not preclude opportunities for improvisation, which keep the energy and engagement high. For example, in one course design, the instructors (NS & CM) created a schedule where a student was designated as a weekly discussion leader on the assigned readings and was responsible for posting a question for their classmates to answer within a designated time frame. By having the students create the questions, rather than the instructor, this structure maintained a sense of “new-ness.” This approach also privileges a multiplicity of perspectives and voices, encouraging the instructor to respond in an improvised way to the flow of largely text-based discussions. In another example, students were invited to create an artistic response to the weekly readings and to use that as a common reference point for complex ideas conveyed in the assigned readings. The aesthetics of instruction involve a dance between offering framing or additional thoughts, probing questions, additional perspectives, summaries, and space for others to participate ( Mazzolini & Maddison, 2007 ). Depending on the topic of the course, instructors may incorporate additional articles, videos, art-making or news items that are related to the weekly content which also ensure that courses that are repeatedly taught each year are met with a renewed sense of purpose and content.

Live improvisation through synchronous video also heightens engagement. Using programs such as Periscope, Youtube Live, and Facebook Live make it possible for students to interact immediately with course content. Another faculty member at the same university, Angelica Pinna-Perez, held monthly gatherings to enable on-campus and low residency students to form community and interact. These ‘Create on the 8th’ sessions involved live streaming from a maker space in which on campus students were engaged in making art, writing, singing, and reading their own poetry while other students participated from their respective locations ( Beardall et al., 2016 ). We suggest that course design and instructors that experiment with ways in which the arts and multi-sensory technologies might offer new possibilities for engaging learners.

Enhancing cognitive presence through reflexive, collaborative art making and storytelling

The arts can encourage students to participate in praxis wherein personal experience is brought to into conversation with the material presented, applied, and reflected upon. In one class, filming weekly video lectures made it possible to not only frame the topic and the required readings for the week, but also modeled self-reflexivity and the use of personal experience as the beginning of learning. When teaching a module on religion and spirituality in the arts therapies, one of the assigned readings discussed the role of music and religion. As part of the introductory video for that module, the instructor (CM) included a brief story about her grandmother who had been quite ill for several months before her death, where playing hymns at her bedside resulted in an increased orientation to time and space, a brightening of affect, and less discomfort. Sharing this story with students provided a concrete example of some of the intersecting dynamics of aging, music, religion, and pain, worked to enhance the instructor’s social presence online, and encouraged students to make the material they were reading meaningful. Students were invited to share their own stories about religion and music in relation to the assigned readings, with multiple students uploading musical audio clips alongside their video or textual storytelling. In another course pertaining to trauma and recovery in the context of global mental health, the instructor (NS) asked participants, all of whom were health care providers or humanitarian aid specialists, to create a video in which they used images, music, and/or video to communicate how they contributed to a healing environment. Despite their initial hesitation, students almost unanimously proclaim this to be one of the best aspects of the course each year, commenting that the creative process of selecting and editing images, sound, and footage facilitated their reflection on this important topic.

Collaborative art making also facilitates cognitive connections in the online classroom and opportunities should be woven throughout courses. In general, small groups create the opportunity for students to commit to their colleagues and allow learners to problem-solve collectively ( Fink, 2013 ). Group work promotes positive interdependence, social skills, verbal interaction, individual accountability and group processing ( Kaufman, Sutow, & Dunn, 1997 ), all of which can be better supported in online instruction through the incorporation of aesthetic presence. Indeed, part of the work of instructional design and delivery is including opportunities for cognitive capacities to be strengthened alongside social and emotional capacities, which can be enhanced through the use of the arts and aesthetic presence.

From an implementation perspective, for team-based learning to work well, teams should be assigned early in order to anticipate and plan for working together on specific assignments. Similarly for these types of group projects, it is important to orient learners to a variety of tools that might aid their collaboration, including, but not limited to, options for their own synchronous collaboration space online (e.g., through Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Blackboard Collaborate, Adobe Connect, Google Docs). Ideally, team-based cooperative projects are scaffolded so that there are regular check-ins and adequate time in between those check-ins for groups to convene and make forward progress on their collective work ( Paulus, 2005 ) or students can be guided in strategies for collaboration on project co-creation. If the final product is an academic paper or text-based project, including a visual representation of the work as part of the final deliverables can effectively support learners in demonstrating their own use of aesthetic presence.

For example, a hybrid course (designed by NS and taught by NS and CM), included a group project focusing on cultural literacy. Groups of 2–4 participants were formed during the in-person residency and presented their final work later in the semester online. In this assignment, group members chose a film or television show addressing issues relating to identity and were asked to critically analyze their chosen media through the concepts of power, privilege, and oppression. They were then asked to represent their collaboration and their perspectives through a co-created work of art (music, imagery, video with movement, etc.) and to then present this artwork in a 15 min presentation using Voicethread. This technology made it possible to present their artwork, slides, and an oral presentation in a single platform. Other students were able to leave audio feedback which heightened the sense of interactivity in the class. For example, one group (taught by CM) focused their presentation on what is gained and potentially lost in cross-cultural communication used their art as a way to engage and demonstrate this learning. One group member created a piece of visual art and sent it to the next member electronically with no explanation of their piece. The next member witnessed this visual art piece and filmed a dance/movement video based on their own reaction to the original film and the visual art piece they were sent. The third and final member watched this dance/movement video and created their own poem in response to the original film and the film that was created by their teammate. In their Voicethread presentation, this group uploaded all three arts pieces and then discussed the intention behind their individual art-making, how they viewed their teammate’s piece, and moments of disagreement, surprise, or new learning in hearing what they others had taken from their art-making, all serving as a beautiful example of what assumptions arise about another and potential challenges and growth opportunities in cross-cultural communication. This assignment required that students not only engage with one another, but also to do so creatively and collaboratively through arts processing, in order to heighten engagement with the material and foster a community of learning. In course evaluations, students regularly highlight this project as a way to interweave new learning with aesthetic processing, as well as an opportunity to connect with other students.

What differentiates the creative arts therapies from traditional forms of psychotherapy is that this practice unfolds within an aesthetic frame. Aesthetic engagement should, therefore, be reinforced within the process of learning in both in-person and online settings. A stronger integration of the arts in classroom instruction and online may also encourage students to retain their unique aesthetic sensibilities in practice, especially in environments dominated by verbal or textual intervention. The integration of various modes of symbolic communication also increases access to learning for different kinds of learners. While two of the three authors are educators within the creative arts therapies, aesthetic presence should not be seen as limited to courses that explicitly involve the arts. Rather, aesthetic presence should be considered in design, instruction, and delivery for any subject area. In the context of remote education, conscious attention to aesthetic presence in online teaching and learning may help to mitigate disengagement and enhance existing cognitive, social, and teaching presences. Finally, we believe that aesthetic presence is something that each of us will need to cultivate in this new era marked by social distance. It is therefore critical that we continue to innovate ways of creating and sustaining holistic, multi-sensory learning environments and assess their impact in the training of creative arts therapists from the perspective of educators, practitioners, students, and those we serve.

Biographies

Nisha Sajnani , PhD, RDT/BCT is Associate Professor and Director of the Program in Drama Therapy and the Theatre & Health Lab at New York University. She is the editor of Drama Therapy Review . Corresponding author: [email protected]

Christine Mayor , PhD Candidate, MA, BCT/RDT is a drama therapist and PhD candidate at Wilfrid Laurier University where she specializes in the racialization of how trauma is defined and treated in school-based settings, and the use of the arts as a way of knowing. She is an adjunct professor at Wilfrid Laurier and in the low-residency program at Lesley University. Christine is the associate editor of Drama Therapy Review.

Heather Tillberg-Webb , PhD is the Associate Vice President of Academic Resources and Technology at Southern New Hampshire University, where she oversees the strategic implementation of technology to support teaching and learning. She teaches graduate courses in education and instructional design for Johns Hopkins University and George Mason University. She formerly served as Associate Provost of Planning and Administration and of Academic Technology and Learning at Lesley University.

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Explore a List of Career Paths and Jobs for a Master’s in Special Education

The job market is booming for passionate educators, with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicting a whopping 7% job growth for special education teachers. That means a stable and growing demand for your expertise.

More and more qualified special education teachers are needed nationwide. This affects both individuals with disabilities and the entire education system. By pursuing a Master of Arts in Special Education , you can directly address this need and open doorways to an incredible career with advancement opportunities.

This advanced degree in the field of education can serve as your toolkit and next steps in the classroom. You’ll gain essential skills to stand out in the competitive world of education. Ready to make a difference? Explore different jobs for those holding a master’s in special education.

A smiling woman poses with a laptop computer.

Why Get an MAEd in Special Education?

Today, there are millions of students with diverse learning needs not getting the quality of education they deserve. Earning a master’s with this concentration gives you the ability to meet a growing need and helps you play an important role in improving education for students with learning disabilities.

A master’s in special education isn’t just a qualification. It can equip graduates with the right types of skill sets needed in and out of the classroom. Not only does it benefit those with an interest in teaching in special education, it can also sharpen your skills for leadership positions and further advanced education.

By choosing this path, you’re making a personal commitment to inclusivity and equity in education and beyond, ensuring everyone has the opportunity to thrive.

Looking for next-level training and leadership preparation? The special education program from NMSU Global Campus is here to help you excel .

As the importance of special education grows, so does the earning potential of professionals in this field. Many high-paying leadership positions and specialized roles are available, reflecting the value placed on your expertise.

Intrigued? Let’s explore how a MAEd in Special Education can empower you to make a difference and build a fulfilling career.

Careers With a Master’s in Special Education

As an educator working with students with disabilities, you will encounter dynamic opportunities to help your students learn and develop. There are many approaches to engaging students, helping each succeed academically and socially. Here are some career options that you can explore with an master’s in special education:

Educational Diagnostician

Become a learning detective, meticulously unlocking student potential through personalized learning plans. Your average salary of $79,350 reflects your vital role in every student’s journey.

Program Director

With a background in special education and with leadership skill sets, you can step into a position as a Program Director. In this position, you will oversee special education programs for compliance and effectiveness to ensure that students receive the care and training they need. Your guidance, with an average salary of $82,520, makes a tangible difference.

Program Manager

Craft the future of learning opportunities! Develop, implement, and evaluate special education programs, often within nonprofit organizations, shaping the lives of countless students. Your program-building expertise is rewarded with an average salary of $67,170.

Special Education Classroom Teacher

Elevate your classroom impact with your master’s degree. Command higher-paying positions, leadership roles, and specialized endorsements, enriching the lives of your students even further. Your transformative journey starts with an average salary of $61,220.

Special Education Instructional Coordinator

Become a teacher’s champion! Provide resources, professional development, and data analysis, empowering them to create thriving learning environments. Your invaluable support is recognized by an average salary of $74,530.

Careers in Special Education Besides Teaching

Sure, everyone knows about the excellent special education teachers working magic in schools. But did you know your passion for supporting individuals with disabilities can unlock a spectrum of fulfilling careers beyond the classroom?

Your master’s in special education isn’t just a key to one door. It opens doors to diverse and impactful roles in several different fields to make a real difference in people’s lives. An MAEd in Special Education can help forge the way to these other career pathways, and with supplemental learning and certifications, you can qualify for a number of different positions.

Ready to discover your perfect fit? Let’s check out some exciting options:

Hospital Based Roles with an MAEd Special Education Background

As mentioned, it’s possible to qualify for other positions outside of the classroom. However, it’s important to understand the certifications and licensing requirements for each state that may fall under these job titles. An MAEd will certainly help get you established, but other areas of study and skill set training can open a world of possibilities for your next job growth opportunity.

Early Intervention Specialist: You’ll guide young children with disabilities, fostering their development in hospital settings. Collaborate with families to create nurturing environments and nurture early learning skills.
Occupational Therapist: Leverage your disability expertise to design personalized therapy plans for individuals regaining functional skills after illness or injury. Empower your patients towards independence as they navigate their recovery journey.
Speech-Language Pathologist: From children born with speech delays to adults recovering from strokes, you’ll assess and treat communication disorders across all ages. Ensure effective communication and self-expression for those who need it most.
Rehabilitation Counselor: Partner with individuals with disabilities on their medical journeys. Provide vocational counseling, social support, and valuable resources to help them seamlessly reintegrate into their communities and workplaces.

Specialized Roles with a Special Education Background

Assistive Technology Specialist: Become a tech wizard for inclusion! Evaluate and recommend cutting-edge devices and software, empowering individuals with disabilities to break through barriers and reach their full potential.
Behavior Analyst: Apply your understanding of behavior to develop and implement intervention plans for individuals with challenging behaviors, promoting positive change and enhancing quality of life.
Policy Analyst: Be a champion for change at the policy level. Influence legislation, regulations, and programs to guarantee rights and inclusion for individuals with disabilities.
Research Scientist: Join the vanguard of groundbreaking research! Contribute to exploring interventions, developing new technologies, and shaping the future of the unique education field with your expertise.

Advancing in Your Teaching Career

Looking to take your passion for special education to the next level and make an even more significant impact? A master’s degree can be your launchpad to leadership roles, continuous learning, and staying ahead of the curve in this ever-evolving field.

Here’s how it empowers you:

Leadership : Step into influential roles and contribute meaningfully to shaping and improving special education programs. Make a difference within your school or district.
Lifelong Learning : Fuel your passion for continuous learning by pursuing professional development opportunities and staying at the forefront of the latest research and methodologies.
Advanced Expertise : Gain the essential knowledge and skills to become an exceptional educator who truly makes a lasting impact on your students’ lives.

NMSU Global Campus: Master of Arts in Special Education

For those aspiring to make a meaningful impact in the field of special education, New Mexico State University (NMSU) Global Campus offers a broad Master of Arts in Special Education program. This online program is designed to provide educators with the knowledge and skills needed to excel in various education roles.

Program Highlights

Tailored paths just for you.

At NMSU Global Campus, we get that everyone’s journey is unique. That’s why our MAEd in Special Education program offers a variety of pathways. Whether you’re aiming for your first teaching license, eyeing that next career leap, or just honing your teaching skills, we’ve got you covered.

100% Online Flexibility

Say goodbye to the classroom hustle! Life is already busy enough balancing work and family, right? With our fully online coursework, you can kiss those campus commutes goodbye. Study from the comfort of your couch and create a schedule that fits your life like a glove.

Affordable Tuition

We believe in quality education that won’t break the bank. NMSU Global Campus offers competitive tuition rates and scholarship opportunities. Because pursuing your academic dreams shouldn’t mean maxing out your credit card.

Making a difference matters. Special education isn’t just a career path; it’s a commitment to shaping inclusive communities. The Master of Arts in Special Education program at NMSU Global Campus is about setting you up for success, emphasizing excellence in training, and focusing on preparing educators for leadership roles.

This program is a pathway to impact the lives of students with disabilities and advance the field of special education. Consider taking the next step in your career by pursuing a MAEd in Special Education at NMSU Global Campus and make a positive change in this vital field.

About New Mexico State University Global Campus

A group of NMSU students sitting posing for the camera

At NMSU Global Campus, our mission is to help prepare the next generation of leaders. We focus on offering high-quality education that spans a multitude of disciplines and career pathways. Whether you’re seeking a degree or certification in teaching, science, engineering, healthcare, business, or others, we provide exciting opportunities that can help shape your future.

NMSU Global Campus is regionally accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC), with specialized accreditation offered for some programs. We offer flexible, career-focused 100% online courses and degree options in New Mexico, across the nation, and around the globe. Start your journey with our accessible and affordable degree options.

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PDF Benefits of Art Education: A Review of the Literature
This review of the literature examined the role of the arts in general education and special education. The studies revealed that the arts provided benefits to students ... Benefits of Art Education: A Review of the Literature In respect to incorporating the arts into special education, there is currently a need for more research to be done on ...
Visual Literacy and Art Education: Review of the Literature
24. Visual Literacy and Art Education. present in everyday life are promoting educational institutions to finally begin to assess the. crucial role of visual literacy in society. This is because ...
The power of the arts in learning and the curriculum: a review of
This section provides a brief snapshot of the vast literature exploring Education and The Arts, with a particular focus on broad international and Australian studies that highlight both impact and outcomes. ... Martin, A., Mansour, M., Anderson, M., Gibson, R., Liem, G., & Sudmalis, D. (2013). The role of arts participation in students ...
Visual Literacy and Art Education: A Review of the Literature
16 Visual Literacy and Art Education Although Duncum does not campaign specifically for VL his examples of the important roles that visual arts and imagery play in society and our everyday lives, cross culturally and throughout history certainly support an increased focus and concentration on students awareness of embodied meaning disseminated ...
Arts in Education and Creativity: A literature review
This literature review offers an historical and theoretical overview of arts education, its place in the English curriculum, and its relationship with creative learning and creativity education. It centres on official policy discourse and attempts to outline key moments and movements in the history of arts education over the last 120 years. One ...
Art and Teacher Education
Efland's models provide theoretical background for defining the role of arts teacher education.Each model implicates different types of practices that follow articulation of different curricular discourses. Such models serve as conceptual frameworks for pedagogical action in schools and as filters for the answers to the specific questions posed above by Efland, which serve as a guide to ...
Art Education and its Impact on Creativity and Critical ...
Art education plays a crucial role in fostering creativity, critical thinking, and cultural appreciation among students. Central to the effectiveness of art education is the role of fine art ...
Studies, Findings, and Resources
The Arts in Early Childhood: Social and Emotional Benefits of Arts Participation: A Literature Review and Gap-Analysis (2000-2015) ... Reinvesting in Arts Education makes a compelling case for arts education and the essential role it will play in preparing students for success in the knowledge and innovation economy. This report shows us the ...
New evidence of the benefits of arts education
Empirical evidence supports these claims: Among adults, arts participation is related to behaviors that contribute to the health of civil society, such as increased civic engagement, greater ...
A Systems View: The Role of Art in Education
Julia Marshall. Julia Marshall is a professor in the Department of Art, College of Liberal and Creative Arts, at San Francisco State University in California. E-mail: [email protected].
Benefits of Art Education: A Review of the Literature
Though extensive studies exist regarding the use of the arts in general education settings, a comparable amount of research is still needed to support the need for the use of the arts in special education settings. This review of the literature examined the role of the arts in general education and special education. The studies revealed that the arts provided benefits to students in both the ...
Studies in Art Education
Studies in Art Education is a quarterly journal that reports quantitative, qualitative, historical, and philosophical research in art education, including explorations of theory and practice in the areas of art production, art criticism, aesthetics, art history, human development, curriculum and instruction, and assessment.Studies also publishes reports of applicable research in related fields ...
PDF Literature in Education
language and learning in the individual child, and the role of literature in developing children's imaginative and aesthetic lives. • 'Cross-curricular' view, focuses on the child's education as a whole: all teachers of English and of other subjects too, have a responsibility to help children with the
On the Concept of Youth in Art Education: A Review of the Literature
My literature review is organized around four themes: Youth as (1) transition, (2) culture, (3) difference, and (4) image. In presenting these four themes, my aim is to support art education researchers as they extend, refine, clarify, and deepen their analysis in ways that have positive concrete effects on young people through art education.
The Importance of Art Education in the Classroom
In addition, a recent study conducted in Houston public schools showed that students who participated in arts education see the following benefits: Improved writing achievement. Reduced disciplinary infractions. More student engagement. Improved college aspirations. No drop in standardized test scores.
Research Review: The History of Art Education
art education, characterized by differing goals and contrasting situations: (a) Before 1870 art instruction was considered an educational frill, a ... Schwartz's study of the roles and responsibilities of the art specialist in-volved a study of professional literature from 1940 to 1960.60 E. H. Gom-
(PDF) 3. The Role of Arts in School Education
The mean of the role of Art Education teachers in developing environmental education based on arts among elementary school students as a whole was (2.93), at an average level.
Emotional Creativity in Art Education: An Exploratory Analysis and
Abstract. The emotions that human beings experience have a key role in the environments in which they operate. In art education, creative processes are influenced by the emotions and experiences lived by the individual, enabling a more emotional and creative design to make life more pleasant. The aim was to examine the research during the ...
Community and art: creative education fostering resilience ...
First, school violence and trauma are initially investigated based on a literature review. Second, I discuss the important role of art projects to promote creativity and foster resilience. Third, community-based art education is developed and applied to elementary school students. ... The role of community-based art education is considered a ...
Art Education and Students' Perception of Fine Art Teachers
Art education plays a crucial role in fostering creativity, critical thinking, and cultural appreciation among students. Central to the effectiveness of art education is the role of fine art ...
Community‐Based Art Education in China: Practices, Issues and
In China, the community-based approach plays a significant role in the National Standards for Visual Arts, and Chinese art educators have been applying CBAE in school art education for decades. However, Western art educators are still unfamiliar with the issues, practices and challenges related to CBAE in China owing to language constraints.
Aesthetic presence: The role of the arts in the education of creative
Literature about the integral role of the arts in learning is widely available, but much less has been written about how the arts and aesthetics support education in the creative arts therapies, particularly in the online learning environment. ... We begin with a synthesis of literature on the arts in education and online learning in the CATs ...
The role of art education in developing students' thinking skills for
This paper for teaching of art education and its impact in students' design decisions and thinking skills, the study sample consists of 32 students of the third level, batch 2014 - 2015, from ...
Jobs for Master's in Special Education
Special Education Classroom Teacher. Elevate your classroom impact with your master's degree. Command higher-paying positions, leadership roles, and specialized endorsements, enriching the lives of your students even further. Your transformative journey starts with an average salary of $61,220.

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Aesthetic presence: The role of the arts in the education of creative arts therapists in the classroom and online

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Arts and aesthetics in education

Universal design for learning

Arts-based pedagogy in the training of creative arts therapists

Creative arts therapies and online learning

The community of inquiry framework: foundations and adaptations

Teaching presence

Social presence

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Teaching presence as an improvised performance

Enhancing cognitive presence through reflexive, collaborative art making and storytelling

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Explore a List of Career Paths and Jobs for a Master’s in Special Education

Why Get an MAEd in Special Education?

Careers With a Master’s in Special Education

Educational Diagnostician

Program Director

Program Manager

Special Education Classroom Teacher

Special Education Instructional Coordinator

Careers in Special Education Besides Teaching

Hospital Based Roles with an MAEd Special Education Background

Specialized Roles with a Special Education Background

Advancing in Your Teaching Career

NMSU Global Campus: Master of Arts in Special Education

Program Highlights

100% Online Flexibility

Affordable Tuition

About New Mexico State University Global Campus

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Recent Education Posts

What Can You Do With a Master’s Degree in Sociology?

Careers and Opportunities for a Degree in Communication Disorders