The Wow Factor Global research compendium on the ... - E-cademic

Quality Education and Education for All: <strong>The</strong> role of the arts
12
Before answering the survey, I would like to share with the coordinators
the idea of Arts Education as a double dimension process - ‘Education to
the Arts’ and ‘Education by the Arts’. Thus it places the cultural coherence
of the child at the heart of any educational strategy. Moreover, this
vision increases the value of all the disciplines and processes that have
always been used by the communities – according to their own culture –
to mould children’s identity through their emotional and cognitive predispositions.
Hence the importance too of the social dimension of Arts
Education which protects poor children from being marginalized from
the educational system.
2004: Alioune Badiane, Ministry for Culture and Heritage, Senegal
A major finding of the <strong>research</strong> has been that there are well-<strong>research</strong>ed and documented
impacts of arts-rich education. As the quote from Senegal suggests, these
fall under two distinct aspects, respectively: Education in the arts and Education
through the arts.
<strong>The</strong> former can be described as being sustained and systematic learning in the
skills, ways of thinking and presentation of each of the art forms – dancing, visual
arts, music, drama – and produces impacts in terms of improved attitudes to school
and learning, enhanced cultural identity and sense of personal satisfaction and wellbeing.
Concurrently, education which uses creative and artistic pedagogies to teach
all curricula, i.e. education through the arts – enhances overall academic attainment,
reduces school disaffection and promotes positive cognitive transfer. <strong>The</strong>se
noted benefits are only accrued where there were provisions of quality programmes.
Poor quality programmes, were seen to actively inhibit the benefits
apparent in good quality programmes.
<strong>The</strong> aim of this book <strong>The</strong> <strong>Wow</strong> <strong>Factor</strong>: <strong>Global</strong> <strong>research</strong> <strong>compendium</strong> on the impact
of the arts in education is to provide a significant body of analysed <strong>research</strong> that
clearly documents the impacts of the arts within general education. By highlighting
key examples of arts-rich education from around the world, it is intended that education
and arts and cultural organisations will be able to use this book to compare
the policies and practices within their own countries. <strong>The</strong> book also provides insight
into high quality arts-rich education practices around the world that can serve
as models of practice for teachers, artists and preservice educators working in a
range of contexts.
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Wow</strong> <strong>Factor</strong>: <strong>Global</strong> <strong>research</strong> <strong>compendium</strong> on the impact of the arts in education
is the first comprehensive analysis of <strong>research</strong>-based case studies from around
the world. It makes a major contribution to scholarly inquiry into the field of arts