Ballet is a beloved art form around the world, but issues of anti-Black racism are pervasive within ballet’s culture and repertoire. In 2023, Canada’s National Ballet School (NBS) initiated Assemblée Internationale 2023 (AI23), a series of events guided by the NOFS framework (Name, Own, Frame, Sustain) to support leading ballet schools in addressing anti-Black racism in their organizations. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of AI23 on participants’ understanding of systemic anti-Black racism in ballet’s practices. The study employed mixed-methods, including online surveys and focus groups. Results demonstrated AI23 helped participants Name issues of anti-Black racism in ballet and consider ways to Frame changes that need to be made in the sector. However, Owning individual/institutional responsibility for systemic anti-Black racism and Sustaining change over time was not realized. Future work to continue efforts initiated by AI23 and utility of the NOFS framework are considered.
The arts are anchored in human creativity, expression and interpretation. The introduction of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) challenges traditional notions of creativity, authorship, and emotional intelligence, prompting arts educators to consider its place in the classroom. In this pilot, six tertiary arts educators and three generative AI platforms (ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot), answered the question: how can AI improve arts education? Using Deleuze and Guattari’s rhizomatic analysis, we mapped convergences, divergences, and silences across human and non-human actors. The paper contributes to understanding how integrated human creativity and technological advancements can support students, reveals potential directions for practice and research, and raises concerns that must be mitigated regarding equity of access and AI literacy.
Music education scholars have increasingly advocated for critical and creative pedagogies that amplify marginalized voices and integrate lived experiences through various forms of knowledge and production. Songwriting offers a compelling opportunity to bridge artistic expression and academic inquiry. This article examines the methodological and pedagogical implications of songwriting archival songs as a creative-critical tool for music and social studies educators and researchers, highlighting its potential to activate emotional and cognitive engagement while (re)constructing historical memory through sonic imagination. Oral history interviews with Italian Resistance women were transformed into archival songs, sound collage artifacts that connected and interpreted emotions, stories, and themes, activating rememory as a mode of collective historical uncovering. Performed at a public library, these songs served as creative artifacts fostering affective engagement and critical reflection. Findings suggest that archival songs position creativity as the generative force that precedes criticality at the heart of a critical-creative pedagogy.
This qualitative study explores the pedagogical and expressive potential of puppetry as an embodied, arts-based practice in adult English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learning. Situated within sociocultural, embodied, and arts-based perspectives, the study examines how puppet-mediated interaction shapes oral expression, creativity, and identity negotiation among adult learners. Adopting a performative qualitative case study design, the research was conducted over a six-week puppetry-based program in a private language institute. Data generated through puppet performances, semi-structured interviews, reflective journals, and classroom observations suggest that puppetry can reduce affective barriers such as anxiety and self-consciousness, enabling learners to engage in risk-taking and sustained discourse. Participants’ narratives indicate that puppetry functioned as a “third space” for identity experimentation, allowing learners to project alternative voices and negotiate social positioning in the target language. The multimodal and playful nature of puppetry supported learner agency by engaging affective, social, and embodied dimensions of language use. Overall, the study contributes to arts education and applied linguistics by demonstrating how puppetry, as an artistic and material practice, can open alternative pathways for voice, identity, and participation in adult EFL learning.
This phenomenological study investigated the lived experience of rehearsing for and performing in a high school musical. Following van Manen's hermeneutic phenomenological method and using data from interviews and reflective journals with five student performers, the research explored how some students experience high school musical theater as a bounded, set-apart period of time separate from regular academic activities, a theme that emerged through phenomenological inquiry. Findings included that learning in musical theater extended beyond traditional skill acquisition, encompassing a transformative process of becoming a musical theater participant. Students’ most meaningful learning occurred in liminal spaces, suggesting musical theater offers a profound, identity-shaping encounter.
This study investigates the role of educational management in supporting drama and performance-based extracurricular activities in Nigerian secondary schools, with a focus on student perceptions. In an educational context where formal curricula often prioritize cognitive outcomes over creative expression, arts-based extracurriculars offer critical platforms for holistic development. Despite their transformative potential in fostering socio-emotional learning, identity exploration, and civic engagement, such programs are frequently marginalized due to weak institutional support and ineffective administrative practices. Grounded in Aesthetic Leadership Theory and Lived Curriculum Theory, this research explores how school leadership either enables or constrains student access to these creative outlets. Employing a quantitative methodology, the study surveyed junior secondary students from selected schools in Enugu State. Findings aim to illuminate the level of student participation, their perceptions of administrative support, and the personal benefits gained from drama involvement. The results underscore the importance of visionary and empathetic leadership in institutionalizing creative extracurriculars as essential components of inclusive, emotionally intelligent, and socially responsive education. The study contributes to broader educational discourse on integrating arts-based pedagogies within school leadership frameworks to nurture well-rounded learners.
Laura Kapalka Richerme’s Popular Music Will Not Save Us presents readers with an examination of the intersections of capitalism and music education that is both depressing and enlightening. Despite the provocative title, the question this worthy contribution asks is not whether popular music can save music education, but whether anything can save music education from capitalism. Readers benefit from Richerme’s thorough review of the origins and current state of capitalism, as well as the affective flows that are suggested as an alternative to genre as a tool that may deflect the impact of capitalism in the classroom and more equitably center the students. In the style of a “Choose Your Own Adventure” book, Richerme presents four positions that music educators can take in order to maneuver a landscape dominated by capitalism: to thrive, survive, resist, or challenge.
STEAM education has gained increasing attention as an interdisciplinary approach that integrates the arts to enrich science learning and foster creative thinking. This study examines how combining artistic creation with scientific experimentation promotes students’ creative expression, inquisitive thinking, and emotional engagement. The study utilized an art-based action research methodology, conducted over two months, with 20 first-grade students in China. Data were collected through the researcher’s observation diary, students’ artworks, oral reflections, and photographic documentation of the instructional process. Data analysis involved reflective observation and interpretation to examine how students engaged with scientific concepts through creativity. The findings suggest that integrating art and science through multisensory activities promotes creative expression, fosters inquisitive thinking, and enhances emotional engagement, engaging with scientific phenomena in exploratory ways.
This article critiques the universal application of explicit instruction mandates in Australian education, arguing they misalign with the embodied and experiential nature of arts learning. These mandates, based on a narrow evidence-base dominated by cognitive load theory (CLT), promote pedagogies that isolate the brain from the body, neglecting the integral role of the body in learning. While explicit instruction is effective in certain contexts, its universal application disregards the complexities of teaching and learning, especially in practice-based subjects such as the arts. Such approaches risk disengaging students, undermining creativity, and ignoring the aesthetic and embodied practices central to arts education. The article calls for a broader evidence base that includes embodied cognition and advocates for discipline-specific approaches that honor the embodied, aesthetic, and experiential nature of arts learning. It urges arts educators to use their expertise to influence policy and ensure meaningful, engaged learning.
This study explores how pre-service and in-service craft teachers perceive and utilize sketching as a cognitive, pedagogical, and embodied tool in craft education. Drawing on the theoretical framework of Embodied Cognition, the research positions sketching as a material and multimodal practice that bridges abstract thinking and hands-on making. Data was collected through a survey distributed to craft educators, and analyzed thematically using concepts such as cognitive offloading, material engagement, and affordances. The findings reveal that teachers view sketching as an important support for student planning, problem-solving, and reflection. However, the degree to which sketching is actively integrated into teaching varies widely. While some educators scaffold sketching through modelling and dialogue, others rely on implicit or ad-hoc approaches. The study also highlights challenges in motivating students who resist sketching or perceive it as irrelevant. These insights underscore the need for pedagogical strategies that position sketching as an inclusive, flexible, and epistemically rich practice. The study contributes to ongoing discussions in craft education by emphasizing how teachers perceive and support sketching as an embodied, multimodal, and process-oriented approach to learning and making.
Arts Education fosters personal development and cultivates opportunities for students to be creative and innovative. This research forms part of a wider study, Emerging issues and directions in Arts Education: Perceptions and capacities of Initial Teacher Education students. The authors draw on survey data (September–October 2024) (n = 60) in Australia to explore teacher education students’ perceptions of the ways in which Arts Education contributes to wellbeing. Data were coded using thematic analysis where two themes are discussed. The findings show a strong connection between on-campus study and online Arts learning. It confirmed that active participation in leisurely activities is personally fulfilling and rewarding, contributing to student wellbeing. As the small sample size is a limitation, generalisations cannot be made. This study adds to the wider body of research regarding the impact of Arts Education on wellbeing.
In response to the declining engagement of younger generations in traditional rituals and the cultural commodification of local performances, this article explores the Bejoli tradition in Kuang Dalam Village, South Sumatra, Indonesia, as a form of community-based performance art that acts as cultural resistance, reinforces local identity, and serves as a site for intergenerational nonformal pedagogy. Using performative ethnography, this study investigates how Bejoli functions as an experiential learning space, enabling embodied learning beyond formal institutions. The analysis shows that Bejoli endures not only as an aesthetic ritual but as a dynamic platform where generations interact to transmit social values, local spirituality, and cultural awareness. Despite globalization and modern shifts, the core meaning of Bejoli remains intact due to selective cultural reflection. This study highlights the significance of community arts as dynamic, participatory, and relevant educational platforms for maintaining identity amid cultural homogenization.
This study explores the issues surrounding living composers’ music, its pedagogical application in teaching, and the potential benefits and challenges it presents. Drawing on Westerlund and López-Íñiguez’s (2025) concept of practice in context, which emphasizes the interconnectedness of artistic work and its broader social, institutional, and educational environments, this research positions contemporary music not only as a musical product but as a socially embedded practice. Through an extensive qualitative case study conducted over a six-month period, the implementation of a contemporary music piece, composed by the orchestra director, within a high school arts program was examined. The findings revealed both challenges and rewards. The director’s tailored pedagogy to individual students emerged as a necessary step in promoting living art. Students initially faced difficulty engaging with the unfamiliar tonal language, complex rhythms, and notational demands of the piece, compounded by limited prior exposure to living composers’ music. However, the experience also resulted in improved technical skills, broadened musical understanding, and a deeper appreciation for the value of contemporary music. Ultimately, the study found that although living composers’ music is often mischaracterized as “high art,” it holds significant potential as a transformative force for community building and educational relevance when supported by responsive pedagogy and consistent exposure.
The understanding of maps as representations of the subjective, interpersonal, social and political realities of individuals and collectives is a valuable insight for art education. In this article, I explore cartographic practices that enable collective and individual expression of narratives and identities in relation to place. I explore the theoretical underpinnings of such approaches, provide artistic and educational examples, and describe my research on the integration of creative cartographies in high school art classrooms. In interviews with students and analysis of their collective maps, there was evidence that students learned about their everyday environments by designing and going on walks, and photographically documenting their neighborhoods. Students also learned from and about each other by sharing geo-tagged images on collective online maps. These examples provide some insights for educators and researchers on the value of integrating critical and creative cartographies for gaining spatial understandings and enabling spatial conversations.
Book Reviewed: Dako, A. (2023). Dances with sheep. On rePairing the human-nature condition in felt thinking and moving towards wellbeing. Intellect.
This article explores the role of adult creative arts education in shaping mastery, identity, and creativity. Drawing from the work of the Pitmen Painters and educational theorists such as Elliot Eisner, Jal Mehta, and John Dewey, the smallscale study investigates the practices of seven tutors working in adult community learning in Northeast England. Findings reveal that mastery involves continuous refinement through creative exploration, identity formation is deeply connected to personal and cultural narratives, and creativity thrives when learners are empowered to take risks and innovate. The article counters the dominance of standardization in education by instead exploring the immeasurable aspects of creative arts learning that are critical to fostering agency and self-expression.
The article presents a process-focused inquiry examining the development of a research project that uses a transformative mixed methods design. The research project concerns equity in elementary arts programming in an urban school district in the U.S. Currently, there is little quantitative research on equity in the arts and few resources to support researchers in adopting mixed methods. The authors focus on their methodological journey to shed light on challenges and nuances of mixed methods research in the arts. They use a script-like format to illuminate the dialogic nature of designing and navigating transformative mixed methods research. The findings advance methodological diversity in studies of arts programming and expand knowledge on equity issues in mixed methods research.
The applied nature of learning in teacher education courses suggests the value of authentic assessment that links classroom learning to "real-world" school teaching. While the features of authentic assessment have been extensively explored, the features of authentic arts assessment are less well-articulated in the literature. We use a collaborative autoethnographic approach to examine our own assessment practices to surface the features of authentic arts assessment in our Australian teacher education courses, and the principles underpinning it. Using existing approaches to authentic learning as analytical frameworks, our research developed three principles for authentic arts assessment in teacher education. Authentic arts assessment: 1) replicates real-world arts making and actual arts teaching, 2) connects theory and practice through application, and 3) engages students in reflective practices. We propose these three principles as a means for teacher educators to reframe their approaches to arts assessment in ITE.
This study explores the development of musical creativity in grade school learners using the Kod & aacute;ly Approach in two contextually distinct learning centers in Tacloban City, Philippines. Musical creativity-defined as the ability to create original and contextually appropriate musical expressions-is essential for a comprehensive music education. The Kod & aacute;ly Approach uses singing, movement, listening, and musical notation, starting with simple folk songs and traditional children's songs, to foster learning and enhance creativity. This qualitative multiple case study gathers insights from semi-structured interviews with music teachers at a university laboratory school and a peri-urban public elementary school. The study found that, despite challenges such as limited resources and varying student skill levels, music teachers effectively enhanced musical creativity by integrating local folk songs, creating a supportive learning environment, and utilizing continuous assessments.
The teachers of the Bauhaus Vorkurs used the formal elements of art to construct classroom exercises that sought to enliven creative thinking. The exercises were designed to give students hands-on experience with various materials and left ample space to experiment until an inventive solution was found. Many activities incorporated aspects of play which helped to engage the senses and summon originality. To test how relevant the Vorkurs assignments could still be today in promoting play and experimentation in adolescents, a small selection of practical Vorkurs activities were implemented in a secondary school art classroom. The results revealed that the activities challenged students' typical approaches to the creative process, nourished their subjectivity, and increased their understanding of materials and composition. The study also inspired reflection on how art activities are composed and the benefits of creating activities that offer digital-age students meaningful opportunities for tangible play and problem-solving.
