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Arts in Education

93-804

Units: 6

Description

Arts education is a fundamental, civil, and human right. Navigating the complex ecosystem of policies and players to cultivate the conditions for creative youth to thrive requires a specific set of skills for arts and cultural managers. In this course, students will explore the underpinning philosophical frameworks undergirding the pedagogies, public policies, and organizational practices of arts and cultural education in by examining the field’s literature, history, and contemporary practices. Examining the scholarship through the lens of real-life examples, students will grapple with the question: What is my role as an arts manager cultivate the conditions for arts education to thrive and empower youth in my community?

Grounded in the practice of professional reflection and culminating with an exploration of educational futures, each class will provide multiple opportunities for students to discuss, interrogate, expand, or develop their own connection to arts and cultural education. This course adopts an explicit anti-racist, liberatory, and intersectional feminist approach to dissect the existing norms of arts and cultural learning in the U.S. Over the semester, students will develop a concept paper proposing a new or reformed arts education program relevant to their own context.

Learning Outcomes

Through the combination of multimodal (online, in person / discussion, reading, presentation) learning experiences and both formative and cumulative assessments, student will develop the capacities to:

  • Examine the theoretical and historical underpinnings of contemporary arts in education;
  • Explore current themes in policy, pedagogy, and practice of in- and out-of-school arts learning through an anti-racist, liberatory, and intersectional feminist lens;
  • Interrogate relevant models of organizational structures, evaluation, and funding within their own context focused on eliminating power imbalances;
  • Connect with established practitioners from the field; and 
  • Question contemporary systems, policies, and players to envision the future for arts in education.

Prerequisites Description

None