Place and Kids as Coteachers in Developing Diverse and Expansive Conceptions of the Arts

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 7:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Nurturing Social-Emotional Learning Through the Arts

Abstract

This paper explores educators’ conceptions of arts, as expansive conceptions have the potential to move us towards beautiful presents and futures. We found that educators who work outdoors or with young students maintain or redevelop agency to hold expansive conceptions of art partly because the nature of the world is transdisciplinary, the nature of learning is transdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary environments afford expansive conceptions of disciplines, including the arts. We build on previous work (Authors, 2025) which explored classroom educators’ conceptions of the arts and described how dominant conceptions position the arts in service of narrowly conceived academic goals. This research supports the design of professional learning resources that build with educators’ existing conceptions and honors place and children as coteachers.

Authors

• Naomi Field, Northwestern University

• Megan Bang, Northwestern University