Arts Education Policy and Advocacy

Catalog description

Critical examination of current and emerging arts education policies in the United States in relation to federal, state, and local education and cultural policies. AED 524 Arts Education Policy and Advocacy (3) Students who are going to become leaders in arts education should understand social and political forces that shape the landscape where they work. Although art educators were identifying policy needs and submitting resolutions with policy recommendations to national agencies during the interwar years, arts education policy gained importance during the 1960s with the founding of The National Endowments for the Humanities and Arts. Arts education "as opposed to art, dance, music, or theatre education" is a political construct forged in order to successfully advocate for inclusion of visual and performing arts in National Educational Goals during the late twentieth century. In this course, students will explore what counts as policy for arts education and how policy discourse is framed; who constitutes stakeholders and policy makers; contexts where policy is advocated and created; and how advocates develop and communicate proposals for needed policies. Working in small groups, students will examine recent issues related to arts education policy, presenting those issues in class.