Possibilities in Community-Oriented Public Education: Building Local Partnerships Through Arts Integration

• In Event: Millennium Hotel Roundtable Session 14
  In Roundtable Session: Community Arts Education

Abstract

This qualitative collective case study examines six arts-integrated educational units.  Researchers explore how each unit engaged the schools’ local communities and taught students both content-area and arts-based standards.  Data collected included teaching-team interviews, student work, unit plans, and post-unit student evaluations.  Analysis involved open and thematic coding of individual cases and across units.  Results of the implementation of community-centered units are: students’ learning beyond the standards, including interpersonal and intrapersonal skills; students’ enhanced knowledge of local people and places; and a heightened sense of pride in students’ own communities. Recommendations for pre-service and practicing teachers highlight scaffolding students’ communication literacies and constructing collaborative relationships with school and local colleagues.    

Authors

• Ashley Summer Boyd, Washington State University - Pullman

• Hillary Parkhouse, Virginia Commonwealth University

• Summer Pennell, Truman State University

• Alison LaGarry, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill