Our mission is to transform education by conducting and applying research in arts and design pedagogy, fostering transdisciplinary learning and teaching communities, and assessing and disseminating artistic pedagogy practices resulting in innovative curricular design, professional development, and amelioration of educational theory and policy. This center meets the University and College strategic goals of engaging communities through research, curricula, and arts presentations, demonstrating leadership in the arts, and transforming education through
broad university-to-community outreach, access, and engagement.
COMMUNITY PRACTICE
This center will work with education, business, professional, and civic organizations to foster transdisciplinary learning and teaching communities. These communities. will engage in formal and informal presentations, curricular planning, curricular materials creation, and pedagogical engagements that explore:
– arts and design teaching and learning;
– human artistic experiences;
– personal and social attributes and interactions through arts and design engagement;
– organizations and social engagements surrounding arts and design;
– public performances and exhibitions of art and art making; and
– implementation of arts and design pedagogical practice in formal and informal settings.
Furthermore, this center intends to support strong arts and design teaching and learning through the develop and implementation of arts courses, projects, and professional development for arts and design faculty and teachers.
RESEARCH
This center will solicit large scale agency, corporate, endowment, and foundation funding to support the following research endeavors:
– Conduct research on arts and
design pedagogies in varied settings (from the classroom to the stage to the
cloud), with diverse audiences (students, professionals, publics), and in various contexts (from informal to formal, from PreK-12 to higher education to corporate).
– Partner with other research universities, institutes, communities, organizations, and centers to develop national and international research projects and agendas regarding arts and design pedagogy.
– Partner with faculty, institutes, centers, and communities outside of the arts to investigate arts pedagogy implementation in a wide variety of settings and contexts.
– Develop research that specifically targets the impact of arts and design pedagogy at Penn State and beyond.
THEORY & POLICY
This center will facilitate the implementation, assessment, and evaluation of innovative arts and design pedagogical practices.
It will develop curricular theory specific to arts and design pedagogy, with an emphasis on critical pedagogy and theory, praxis, social activism, social justice, and contemporary practice.
Research findings and theory development will be used to critically examine educational policy both within and external to arts and design.
The center will serve to archive with the intention to disseminate r,esearch findings and practice, distributing them widely.
The center will form a unique partnership among school districts and educational centers, states, foundations, and university-based researchers to leverage the continuously growing amount of data that address education policy questions and improve outcomes for all students.