Arts Education Research Agenda For The Future PDF Download

The research agenda for arts education presented in this report is a challenge to researchers, foundation directors, and policymakers. The intellectual stimulus for this report was the publication of "Critical Links: Learning in the Arts and Student Academic and Social Development" (2002), conducted under the leadership of the Arts Education Partnership. As a compendium of the best arts education research examining student intellectual and social development in the arts, "Critical Links" demonstrates not only the strength of the field but also the need and potential for future study. Its essays point to limitations of traditional research approaches and, indirectly, to limitations in the arts research infrastructure. Most important, an essay by James Catterall calls attention to the discrepancy between new understandings of cognitive processes and traditional research in arts and education. This report provides a research agenda that begins with contemporary understandings of cognitive and personal development and offers an approach that is believed to move arts education research into the mainstream of social science research. The research agenda represented in the report is illustrative rather than imperative. The reader will find no statements or recommendations typical of reports of blue-ribbon panels (e.g., "Increase investment in research in immunology"), but will find instead justifications for additional arts education research on specific topics, commentaries about the status of existing research on those topics, and research-based suggestions for new studies. Topics recommended for additional study are organized according to four well-established areas of concern for educational research: (1) cognition and expression; (2) personal and social development; (3) community, democracy, and civil society; and (4) teaching and learning environments. The fifth and final set of agenda topics relates to data collection and analysis of the status and condition of arts education.