In a challenging world, the spotlight on children's wellbeing has strengthened. There is extensive research about the ways in which well-designed arts education programs positively impact children's wellbeing. Despite this, arts education continues to be marginalised in schools. When researchers with arts education and leadership experience teamed…

Latino English learners (ELs), among the largest student population in the United States K-12 school system, continue to lag behind their English-proficient peers. They also tend to attend segregated schools, have less-qualified teachers, and lack access to rigorous curriculum, including the arts. Museum education departments have increasingly…

This paper examines and evaluates some aspects of the legacy of the West Riding of Yorkshire County Council and its long serving Chief Education Officer, Sir Alec Clegg, who held the post between 1945 and 1974. Against a subsequent political discourse of markets, choice and autonomy which portrays local authorities as the cause of poor educational…

Building upon an expanding literature on world exhibitions and international conferences as vehicles for the transnational circulation of educational knowledge during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, this article discusses the participation of Luxembourg at these events. It focuses on three thematic strands: the representation of…

With the impending introduction of the Australian Curriculum in the arts, there is cause to reflect on primary pre-service teacher education courses, and how effectively they prepare graduates to facilitate the curriculum. Reflecting on pre-service teachers' experiences in the arts, at both entry and graduation of their degree, may afford insight…

There are multiple aspects that shape one's experience as a student teacher; however often as teacher educators, we focus on the intellectual rather than the emotional nature of the experience. Within this a/r/tographical inquiry, we render a story of what can happen when teacher educators intentionally engage the multidimensional nature of the…

The purpose of this inquiry is to investigate how a/r/tography is uniquely situated to enact, develop, and problematize "becoming pedagogical" in an arts-based cohort in a teacher education program. This particular study purposefully grapples with visual and performing arts, in an elementary teacher education program, as teacher…

In 1957, Ans Westra immigrated, as a young adult, from her native Holland to Aotearoa-New Zealand, where she eventually became one of the nation's foremost photographers, and perhaps the pre-eminent photographer of Maori people and events. Early in her career, before she became a famous photographer, Westra worked on contract developing classroom…

Throughout the school year I invited children in a Grade Two/Three learning strategies classroom to participate in a visual narrative inquiry. The intention was to explore children's knowledge of community in artful ways; the children photographed and wrote in what was often an iterative process, where writing/talking and photographing…

Arts education research over the years has highlighted the situation of non-specialist preservice primary arts teachers as having little confidence in their own artistic ability and their ability to teach the arts to children. Added to this, problems such a lack of resources, confidence, priority, time, knowledge and experience appear to inhibit…

What is happening in arts teaching and learning in our classrooms? Recent NEMP reports tell us that Year 4 students are not performing well but that there is an increase in scores at Year 8. This new professional development resource builds on research into teacher practice in Years 0-6 classrooms in New Zealand primary schools. It offers new…

In this paper I trace moments of spontaneous insight occurring among a group of young children in an environment where they are encouraged and supported in their efforts to collaboratively interrogate their own and one another's ideas. I argue that noticing, confronting, and responding to enigmas, surprises, and evolving meanings as they are…

Many Australian state primary schools have a policy to use generalist teachers to teach music as well as many other subjects, however research indicates that primary generalist teachers lack confidence and competence to teach music in their classrooms. Added to this, preservice teachers enter their initial teacher education course with little or…

Playfulness is important; it creates an alternative space where emotional, cognitive and social dimensions can be explored and tested. This highly practical book explores the endless possibilities of using playful, creative and interactive activities to meaningfully engage with children with multiple learning difficulties or autistic spectrum…

In this article, the author describes how artwork can be a vehicle for teaching writing. The author describes how art provides students with ready-made subjects, setting, and mood, creating a platform from which even the most timid writers are willing to dive. The author also cites several reasons why art is such a powerful catalyst for writing.