The arts and elementary education: shifting the paradigm

Abstract

Most people think of the arts in education as a way of teaching arts skills, and in times when the emphasis is on achieving literacy and numeracy (necessary, but not sufficient, educational goals) the arts can often be seen as ‘fringe.’ This article makes the case that study of artworks in the service of developing perceptive and imaginative capacities is critical to K‐12 education, and begins in the elementary grades. Arts skills can also be explored, but it is argued that this is best accomplished in the service of developing these capacities.

For over thirty years, Lincoln Center Institute has been pursuing aesthetic education as defined by the educational philosopher Maxine Greene. Recently, as the Institute began to further define and explore its work, we developed the Capacities for Imaginative Learning, which can be cultivated not only through the study of artworks, but across the curriculum. The origin of these capacities in the Institute's work at the High School for Arts, Imagination and Inquiry, their relationship to general conceptions of the imagination, and their applicability in the elementary grades are outlined. This article describes the beginnings of research on the nature and efficacy of the Capacities in fostering learning across the curriculum. Additionally, research questions are posed at the elementary level.

Keywords:

• creativity
• imagination
• elementary education
• professional development
• arts in education

Notes

1. The Institute's work has always included the professional development of teachers. Teachers cannot work with an Institute teaching artist in their classroom unless they go through professional development. There are a variety of ways in which teachers can enter into this process, from a five‐day intensive, to custom consultancies, to an online course. In addition, eight institutions of teacher education in New York City have partnered directly with LCI in order to provide experiences in aesthetic education to their undergraduate, graduate, pre‐service and in‐service teacher candidates.

2. Our work in classrooms includes students from pre‐K through Masters in Education programs.

3. In their original form, and as they were used during their first two years of existence, the Capacities for Imaginative Learning were called the Capacities for Aesthetic Learning. See Teaching and learning at Lincoln Center Institute (Lincoln Center Institute, 2005) for this original form.

4. It is important to note that empathy is not a foregone conclusion from the creation of analogies or connections. As Greene reminds us, when empathy does not occur, the imagination can be used, unfortunately, in a destructive, rather than constructive, manner.