Course Description

This course, the 6th course in a changing annual series called “The Arts in Context,” will examine issues of education, the arts and creativity from various perspectives, including your own. The two instructors and students will discuss issues and current topics in these embattled fields, using guest lecturers, artists and educators from around Grounds and the nation. This course will ask you to reflect on your educational experiences as the lens through which we discuss current broad themes as well as “hot topics” in education, ranging from Policy, to teacher evaluations, to the role of the arts in Social Justice.

Learning Goals:

1. Understand the role of the arts in society and in education, real-world and potential ideas

2. Develop skills of self-reflection

3. Critically examine the role of the arts in your own educational experiences

4. Analyze and critique the factors that currently prevent the inclusion of the arts in educational policy

5. Develop an empathetic and activist stance towards issues of social justice

6. Understand educational & other types of “privilege” / roles it may have played in your life

7. Develop your own opinions and theories about the role of the arts in education and social justice

Requirements

The course grade will depend on short reflection papers as well as longer papers and other projects, not on exams.

Readings

Key texts will be augmented with web sites, TED talks, etc.