In a world that is becoming increasingly more visual, there is a greater need to educate children to better understand images. A school subject that deals directly with image understanding is visual arts. This article discusses an interdisciplinary approach to promote art understanding, within a multimodal environment that combines art and music.…

This paper discusses a cultural exchange project that is being conducted between classrooms at the Songwon Elementary School in South Korea and the Lee School in Massachusetts, USA. As its main communication tool between the students in the two countries, this project uses VoiceThread--an audiovisual discussion tool that can serve as an ideal…

Because students spontaneously exhibit aesthetic and rhythmic acts in the classroom and human beings across the world have engaged in the arts for thousands of years, this study argues that artful behavior represents an inherent and significant human proclivity. Exploring the tension between the human predisposition and the physical and mental…

Arts encounters in schools are often portrayed as encounters between art/artists and children. However, in such encounters, teachers are most often involved. The study presented discusses teachers' experiences with and space for action within The Cultural Rucksack; a national program for arts and culture in Norwegian schools. Observations and…

The aim of the research reported in this article was to determine what music first year generalist primary teachers were teaching. In particular, the study sought to determine the impact of music education coursework undertaken in teacher training on these teachers' practice as beginning teachers. The self-reported data was generated through a…

While much has been written about arts integration theory, and the various benefits of visual art in the curriculum, the literature is sparse regarding arts integration implementation, and the personal, professional, and school culture barriers to the persistence and dissemination of such interventions. Successful educational interventions are…

This article documents the current classroom practice of creative arts education of respondent classroom teachers in the New South Wales Greater Western Region, Australia. The study provides a descriptive account of classroom practice in creative arts education through the employment of a quantitative methodology. A questionnaire was designed and…

When teachers become more confident and competent in relation to singing, then they are more likely to use singing and to use it successfully. Teachers are expected to gain such skills in pre-service teacher education, to enhance their capability in teaching music, so that singing can be utilised and supported in schools. Confidence is definitely…

This paper details aspects of a research project that explored nineteen Australian primary (elementary) schoolteachers' perspectives of Creative Arts education. The study investigated the participants' personal Arts experiences and training, as well as their views of Arts pedagogy. In depth interviews with the participants highlighted the…

In a music education graduate class addressing teaching and learning strategies for learners with special needs, teachers were invited to consider the experience of the children in their music classrooms. Using narrative to enter into the learner's experience of school, teachers confronted their own perspectives and reconsidered those of their…

In this paper, we discuss our experience of facilitating the development, creation and execution of audio description for an elementary school production of "Fiddler on the Roof" by three grade eight students. The students were supervised by the production's director, their drama teacher, and assisted by the authors. An actor with experience…

Several governments throughout the world promote cultural partnership programs as a means of enriching the school curriculum. How do such programs affect teachers and artists? What meaning do they give to the presence of the cultural dimension in schools? To answer these questions, I examined the content of twelve semi-structured interviews (n=12)…

In this article I will present case study research of an elementary school art teacher who provided both verbal and visual means for students to respond to art while on a museum field trip. I will focus on how the students' drawings from memory and artwork in their sketchbooks present compelling articulations of their understandings of certain…

While there is a growing body of literature on relational pedagogy as a concept, less attention is given to the details of just how relational pedagogy manifests in classroom practice. Similarly, while issues of power, democracy and co-constructed learning feature in contemporary research, the details of how power relationships can be effectively…

In recent years the arts have been introduced into many pre-service and in-service professional development programs for general education teachers. At the same time, pressure for immediate test-score improvement and standardization of curriculum has limited the creativity and autonomy of teachers. This study, the qualitative part of a…