Structural Issues in a Public Education System - Term Paper Example

A Rationale for Integrating Arts in Education Table of Contents Table of Contents Introduction 2 Encouraging Learning Styles andMultiple Perspectives 3 Instructional Strategies based on the Principles & Practice of Integrated Arts 4 Culturally Responsive Practices, Critical Pedagogy and Issues of Diversity 5 Teaching through the Arts and Student-Centered Learning 6 Epistemology and Self Development 7 Integrated Arts and its Impact on Student Learning 8 Integrated Arts Assessment Tools and Strategies 8 Integrated Arts Instruction and State & District Standards 9 Community Discussion in Shaping of Curriculum 9 Core Curriculum for an Integrated Arts Approach 10 References 10 Introduction Structural issues in a public education system which combines the responsibility to respect the unique needs and interests of the full spectrum of individual students making use of school facilities for their own knowledge acquisition, vocational training, and self-development as human individuals may encourage the introduction of Integrated Arts approaches as the basis of a new paradigm approach to education. What makes this approach simultaneously traditional and revolutionary in nature is that it proposes a wider sense of self-development and expression of being in human nature and the conception of self than is traditionally permitted in institutions focused on discipline and social control of large and diverse masses of students who must be managed efficiently and coerced into behavioral patterns. The possibility exists that the “discipline and punish” mentality operating overtly and subtly in academic institutions publicly and privately may be more related to social hierarchies, engrained power structures, systems of status, and the needs of capitalist production facilities than a genuine valuing of the human being as a unique and free individual, as the work of the French Philosopher Michel Foucault suggested. If in recognizing this deeply engrained structural bias, educators feel the need for systemic reform in education institutions, one possible methodology to implement on a theoretical basis in managing educational institutions is an Integrated Arts approach. This methodology relates also to extensive research in Humanistic and Integral psychology, which additionally posit a fundamental paradigm change in education that represents a broader and multi-dimensional conception of the human being and the respect for the essential freedom of human life found in Natural Law and Human Rights theories. Critical to the success of the Integral Arts approach is the cultivation of creativity in all aspects of life, problem solving, learning, and self-development. Encouraging Learning Styles and Multiple Perspectives Public institutions in a democratic and egalitarian society should be tasked with protecting the interests of all of society’s members equally. In education, this should fundamentally apply to serving the needs of all students equally. It can be further argued that the ranking, grading, evaluation of students, and distribution of grades operates on a standardized model that contains both cultural biases and discrimination against students who have different learning styles or forms of self-expression. Integrated Arts methodologies in education management can theoretically eradicate these engrained structural biases by eliminating or changing the way students are tested, “valued”, promoted, etc. As Gallas (1991) wrote in “Arts as epistemology: Enabling children to know what they know,” “they [the students} will show you what they know and how they learn best, and often that is not the teachers way.” (Gallas, 1991) In forcing the students to conform on a fundamental level to the authority and rules of the class, a type of bias in education may arise that teachers and educators should address through education theory. An Integral Arts approach is designed to address this bias by de-emphasizing the authority structures that are presented in traditional models of classroom management. This can lead to students developing more critical, peaceful, moral, thoughtful, intelligent, and creative students who are more able to adapt to life’s challenges through creative response. Instructional Strategies based on the Principles & Practice of Integrated Arts Traditional standardized teaching methods may stereotype students by scheduling them together in advance, intermediate, and lower level classes or an individual teacher may slow the progress of students by presenting the content at a rate of challenge that is below the student’s threshold. In other instances, the teacher may teach only to the best students and not concern with the inattentive, disruptive, or careless students who may not relate to the teacher’s method of instruction with inspiration. Educators may fail in the most fundamental level of inspiring students to learn and to take responsibility for their own inquiry into knowledge. Because of these reasons, allowing the students themselves to learn at their own pace of development, to seek out teachers for deeper study into subject matter, and to want to learn, express themselves, and attain mastery of knowledge systems for their own beneficial self-development can be seen as being more important and realistic than simply forcing the students to learn. As Powell (1997) wrote in “The Arts and Inner Lives of Teachers,” Integral Arts theory in education management enhances the teachers’ own “abilities to work with people, to facilitate learning, to lead a group, to make connections between one subject and another, to apply concepts and to teach basic skills.” (Powell, 1997). This point is reinforced by Gallas (1991) in “Arts as epistemology: Enabling children to know what they know” when she states that, “the arts make it possible for all children, regardless of their differences, to participate fully in the process of education.” (Gallas, 1991) Therefore allowing students to freely and independently develop their own learning styles and inquiry into knowledge and human nature can be viewed as a means also to bring out the best in the individual teachers to serve the needs of the students in self development. Culturally Responsive Practices, Critical Pedagogy and Issues of Diversity Integrated Arts methodologies in education management can be viewed as in accordance with culturally responsive reforms in education and the multicultural paradigm. In this framework, the educational system contains structural biases related to legacy racism, sexism, religious discrimination, sexual identity stereotypes, etc. that are culturally specific and may represent the need for reform in institutions. Integral Arts methodology provides a means for reform that is also backed by research in Humanistic and Integral psychology, which include multicultural aspects of being into the context of representation of selfhood in individuals. As Berriz (2000) wrote in “Raising childrens cultural voices, Rethinking School,” “We use a team approach to create a consistent learning environment in which we model cross-cultural respect and cooperation for our students as we learn and teach together from different points of view”. (Berriz, 2000) One issue the American education system must consider is why the population is so regularly willing to go to war in comparison to other international populations and educators must question whether there is a structural bias in traditional educational models that encourage subservience to authority and militaristic thinking through role models that are uncritically valued. If the military model of authority is replicated in educational hierarchies, this bias could be eliminated through Integral Arts approaches, while not for example, discouraging martial arts training, historical studies, or the discussion and understanding of war. Educators must ask themselves whether they have a social responsibility to train students for a society based on world peace or perpetual war and what fundamentals in education are required to teach students to value peace over violence on both local and global levels, while also giving them the strength to resist violence in favor of social justice, such as Gandhi, MLK, and other civil rights activists have done. Integrated Arts therapy can diagnose violence as related to repression or control, but teach and encourage students to live by creating a peaceful, non-violent society based on new paradigm values. Teaching through the Arts and Student-Centered Learning Most people fundamentally doubt that a child has the personal responsibility to care about his or her own process of knowledge acquisition, life goals, priorities, or best interests in a responsible manner. This doubt may be evidence of a failure to respect and value the interests of the child, the human individual, over the need to control large masses of a diverse society in a public institution or greater social organization such as a community. This doubt may also fundamentally discourage students from believing that they have or should have the responsibility for their own destiny and future. Therefore, in considering how to empower students through Integrated Arts methodologies and Student-Centered Learning techniques, a new paradigm of thinking is required because the social restrictions of the engrained biases are present in the authoritative system of education. Because these prejudices may be inherently non-egalitarian and lead to the favoring of some student interests as opposed to the equal valuation of all student interests, Integrated Arts methodologies may be seen as supportive of Student-Centered Learning paths. Epistemology and Self Development Knowledge must be synthesized by human consciousness, and this process of integration of multiple interests, talents, proficiencies, likes, and dislikes is all related to the process of personal development in human mental and physical maturation processes in childhood. In this manner, each student will create knowledge and validate it on his or her own fundamentals, and those fundamentals are simultaneously integrated with that person’s identity, sense of truth, or understanding. In this way, the interrelationship between morality, wisdom, knowledge, and truth shows the need for an Integrated Arts methodology in education management. As Goldberg (2012) wrote in “Arts Integration: Teaching Subject Matter through the Arts in Multicultural Settings,” “The role of integrating the arts in education provides a method for children to understand subject matter in a deep and meaningful way. It gives students an opportunity to become engaged in learning and actively express their comprehension in a way that makes sense to them. It broadens their reflective, creative, and critical thinking skills and understanding of their relationship to the world.” (Goldberg, 2012) In this manner, it can be said that broadening the epistemological basis of the students, or their ability to validly assess and create knowledge through thought systems, language systems, vocabularies, mathematics, grammar, critical understanding, and awareness also creates an expanded sense of self in the student, but that Integral Arts approache provides even a basis for implementing understanding on alternative epistemological frameworks in individuals that is inherently consistent with the principles of a Student-Centered approach. Integrated Arts and its Impact on Student Learning The impact of Integral Arts methodologies on student learning is by design intended to be inspirational, and through this engaging the self-determined and self-defined interest in the student towards a personal path of knowledge acquisition, while also to support it in a manner that is required to develop the highest skills and proficiency in the student across life interests. As Goldberg (2012) wrote in “Arts Integration: Teaching Subject Matter through the Arts in Multicultural Settings,” “The role of integrating the arts in education provides a method for children to understand subject matter in a deep and meaningful way. It gives students an opportunity to become engaged in learning and actively express their comprehension in a way that makes sense to them. It broadens their reflective, creative, and critical thinking skills and understanding of their relationship to the world.” (Goldberg, 2012) The result should be the student becoming able to more freely, fully, and completely express his or her natural talents through learning in an educational context under Integral Arts methodologies of educational management than possible in traditional institutional methods. Integrated Arts Assessment Tools and Strategies Integral Arts methodologies are criticized for their failure to perpetuate the systematization, standardization, and homogenization of knowledge and diversity in mass institutions. Integral Arts methodologies are also derided for eschewing traditional testing, evaluation, and student ranking standards. Berriz (2000) wrote in “Raising childrens cultural voices, Rethinking School,” “We do not believe in tracking or ability grouping… In our collaborative learning environment, differences are good and necessary for the success.” (Berriz 2000) That educators cannot even think differently enough to be able to permit themselves to imagine an educational system not based upon authority, control, and standardized testing of results of students into hierarchies of value should be symptomatic of the greater bias engrained structurally and psychologically in the educational system and the episteme of the society that produces the system. Integrated Arts Instruction and State & District Standards Integrated Arts methodologies in educational institutions should lead to a decentralization of State and District Standards to co-managed student and teacher communities that evolve and discuss the issues related to proficiency in their sector or field of research or application. The use of force in education, including the forcing of students to produce knowledge on demand, conform their knowledge to pre-established learning styles and acceptable manners of expression, or to control the thinking and behavior of students externally rather than teaching self-control are all rejected in Integral Arts methodologies for new paradigm logics. As Goldberg (2012) wrote in “Arts Integration: Teaching Subject Matter through the Arts in Multicultural Settings,” “In education, a test of learning is the ability to translate, a notion, concept, or idea from something given to something owned and utilized.” (Goldberg, 2012, pg. 24). Community Discussion in Shaping of Curriculum Community discussion should lead the governance of public education systems in a democracy, as they are an expression of the public will and funded with the public money. The participation of the community, students, educators, and institution managers in an Integral Arts approach is supportive of democracy and self-governance in both individuals and communities. That individuals or communities may not feel that they possess enough power or authority to take on the responsibility for their own lives and paths of knowledge acquisition may be symptomatic of a greater structural problem in the existing educational management framework that requires reform in society today. Core Curriculum for an Integrated Arts Approach The core curriculum in an Integrated Arts approach is expressed in the totality of human knowledge, paths, and traditions in the multiplicity of human cultures existing across a variety of systems of time, and include metaphysical patterns of knowledge structure, human nature, and states of being that are reflective or descriptive of the diversity of human history in art, religion, science, academic, and vocational traditions. As Powell (1997) wrote in “The Arts and Inner Lives of Teachers,” “The arts can transform the tone of a classroom or a whole school, creating a peaceful and pluralistic society.” (Powell, 1997) References Berriz, B.R. (2000). Raising childrens cultural voices, Rethinking Schools. Retrieved Oct. 23, 2011, from http://www.rethinkingschools.org/special_reports/bilingual/bill44.shtml Gallas, K. (1991). Arts as epistemology: Enabling children to kow what they know. Harvard Educational, 1:1, 16-26. Retrieved Sept. 12, 2007, from ProQuest database. Goldberg, M. (2012). Arts Integration: Teaching Subject Matter through the Arts in Multicultural Settings. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc. Chpt 1 - 9. Fowler, C. (1994). Strong Arts, Strong Schools. Strategies for Success, Vol.52, No. 3, 4-9. Extracted, Chicago, March 1994. Noel, J. (2003). Creating artwork in response to issues of social justice: A critical multicultural pedagogy. Multicultural Education, v10 n4 p15-18 Sum 2003. Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=EJ672439 Powell, M.C. (1997). The Arts and Inner Lives of Teachers. Phi Delta Kappan, 78(6), pp. 450-453. Retrieved Sept. 24, 2007, from Academic Search Premier database. Read More