Arts education can transform the learning environment
11/22/05 -- Schools with large populations of students in economic poverty can be transformed into vibrant and successful centers of learning and community life when the arts are infused into the school’s culture and curriculum, states a report published Nov. 15 by the Arts Education Partnership.
Third Space: When Learning Matters describes the process of transformation in 10 elementary, middle, and high schools serving disadvantaged students in urban and rural areas.
The report adopts the metaphor of “third space” to describe the positive and supportive relationships that develop among students, teachers, and the school community when they are involved in creating, performing, or responding to works of art. In the arts, the term describes the transformation in individuals and ensembles when they enter the new worlds and take on the new roles demanded by an art form, such as a play, dance, song, or painting. The study explores how these experiences can shape the everyday life of a school.
According to Third Space, students are at the epicenter of school transformation. The arts, more than other school subjects, require students as individuals and groups to create something that is original, new, and personal.
Creating these works necessarily requires students to draw on experiences from their own lives, making meaningful connections between what they are learning in school and their lives outside school.
The student works also reveal their lives and abilities in new and often surprising ways to teachers, allowing the two to meet in a “third space” of new perceptions and understanding.
A strong sense of community and belonging develops within the schools as students and teachers collaborate in studying and creating artworks and schools make a conscious effort to promote understanding, empathy, and tolerance among their highly diverse student populations.
The authors call the development of supportive communities “the single most compelling message we found in the schools.” The arts create a “third space,” they assert, where young people can be creative and vital and liberated from the fear of failure. The arts can create “an open and inclusive community with a fulfilling and meaningful present and a hopeful future -- the type of community that can be the foundation of a democracy, fulfilling the primary purpose of American public schools.”
| Reproduced with permission from School Board News. Copyright © 2005, National School Boards Association. Opinions expressed in this newspaper do not necessarily reflect positions of NSBA. This article may be printed out and photocopied for individual or educational use, provided this copyright notice appears on each copy. This article may not be otherwise transmitted or reproduced in print or electronic form without the consent of the Publisher. For more information, call (703) 838-6789. |