Conflict transformation positions individuals to become more complex as they embrace the transformative benefits that result from working through conflicts. This article explores this topic in art education, as sharing personal interpretations of visual art with others creates an opportunity for participants to experience conflict transformation.…

During the summer of 2020, in response to the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers, many people in the United States mobilized to address systems of oppression that function through power dynamics around race and its intersections with factors like class and gender. This article is a call for art educators to take this moment to…

This study focuses on art classrooms as spaces where artistic expression and visual cultural images critically reflect social justice issues, such as refugees, migration, and U.S. imperialism. The authors propose critical refugee studies (CRS; Espiritu, 2014) and difficult knowledge (Pitt & Britzman, 2003) as useful theoretical lenses to teach…

This article describes the results of the author's doctoral dissertation research in educational leadership. Her quantitative study aimed to explore the relationships between art education, leadership skills, and creativity through research and existing literature. This research is vital because, art educators, use leadership skills to teach…

This article articulates how a community-based art education (CBAE)-driven theoretical framework can inform and inspire leaders in the field who are in a position to rethink or revitalize the curriculum of an art + design education department. While this framework was specifically developed to invigorate the program the author currently oversees…

Since its inception, the phrase "Yes, And" has guided the pedagogy of The Second City, the Chicago-based improvisational theatre and training organization. "Yes, And" is a framework that asks participants to accept and expand on the offerings of their partners to maintain momentum and advance the scene. Rejecting an offering…

Amelia M. Kraehe used to think that knowing more about race and antiracism would advance racial justice. Ignorance is the primary impediment to antiracist teaching, or so she believed. What follows is a reflection on what she observe and believe may be hidden barriers to antiracist practice in art class and my ruminations on what might be done…

In this article, the authors share lessons combining visual arts, sound, technology, and science through the lens of soundscape, STEAM, and multisensory education. Focusing on teacher education, this article explores two primary issues. First, it considers how STEAM--multisensory integration fosters students' cultural understanding and expression…

Teaching is a complex collection of creative actions with ongoing consequential choices and decisions; therefore, it necessitates educators' ongoing reflection. As educators who currently serve art teacher candidates at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, a small public university in the rural Northeast, the authors constantly seek to rework…

For this issue, the authors have contemplated their entry and evolution as art education professionals and their hopes for the future of the field. They collaboratively discussed and responded to how art educators "can be best prepared for diverse, shifting priorities…and urgent attention to racial and social justice". The authors hope…

Knowing that vulnerability and risk-taking are both necessary to the educational experience (Willcox, 2017), the author became curious to know what role vulnerability plays in the self-expressive artmaking process, and what could be learned from the uncomfortable feelings that emerge when an artist feels vulnerable. The author also wondered what…

This article discusses how the authors utilized Disney animations, including "Moana" (Musker, 2016), "Zootopia" (Howard et al., 2016), "Coco" (Unkrich & Molina, 2017), "Encanto" (Howard et al., 2021), and "Raya and the Last Dragon" (Hall et al., 2021), to discuss LGBTQIA2S+ representations and…

Contemporary art educators design artmaking experiences around questions, ideas, and themes to help engage students in personally relevant meaning-making (Anderson & Milbrandt, 2005; Gude, 2004, 2013; Walker, 2001). Preservice art teachers are trained to plan lessons and curriculum to move beyond the so-called school art style (Efland, 1976;…

This article presents a preservice art teacher training project completed in the fall of 2021 as part of an elementary practicum course. The project was designed to focus on cultivating resilience in elementary school students, especially those from economically disadvantaged situations, who may have accrued increased learning loss during the…

Whether teachers claim their choice to include religious art supports teaching tolerance and critical thinking, culture, tradition, or any other goal, they only rarely choose religious art because of its specific religious content. Instead, they tend to use art that serves some other pedagogical purpose while also being religious. Religious art…