Introduction
BY DAVID A. FLATLEY
Today’s educational landscape is complicated. It’s dysfunctional, backward at times,
and rife with challenges. Yet it’s also evolving at a quicker pace than in recent years,
and in new and exciting places. We need to discover and embrace the good things that
are happening in education, just as we work to mitigate some of the persistent problems that prevent us from reforming the system.
There have always been pockets of “good things” happening in education. Just as there
have always been teachers who do great work and manage to transform lives because of
the excellence of their practice (in spite of the parts of the system that remain broken).
Similarly, there are effective approaches to
teaching and learning that strong educators
have long understood. This book is as much or
more about philosophy (as it informs pedagogy) as it is about such practices. These essays
are reflections of the work of practitioners
on the front lines: teachers and teaching artists. My hope is that readers might find some
compelling boundary pushing, if you will,
with regard to how this particular approach
embraces a specific type of creativity, or art
form, as the vehicle for enriching teaching
and learning.
It’s useful, however, to take a step back…
and look at the evolution of this work within
our organization, the Center for Community
Arts Partnerships (CCAP) at Columbia College Chicago.
When the arts-integration movement
emerged in a more formal way in the early
’90s, with the formation of CAPE (the Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education), CCAP was
not yet formed. Its inception did not come
to pass for another five years. It was another
seven years after that, in 2005, when I came
on board as Executive Director. By that time,
I had gained a significant level of expertise
in the field of arts integration, as I had been
a part of those initial CAPE partnerships
when I managed a mid-sized theatre company dedicated to outreach and arts education
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programming for youth. When I entered
the scene at CCAP, I had already been a part
of conceiving, writing, and implementing a
proposal for the Arts in Education Model Development & Dissemination (AEMDD) grant
program awarded through the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) with Northeastern
Illinois University—where I was helping to
lead the charge around arts integration between my theatre days and my move to Columbia College Chicago.
The DOE’s relatively modest investment
in arts education over the past couple of decades (in terms of support offered to the public through grant competitions) has resided
in two areas: the Professional Development
for Arts Educators (PDAE) program, and the
AEMDD program. The latter is the only program for which arts organizations can directly apply, in support of innovative programming done with and in partner schools. The
focus of these grants is to build the field with
quality, effective arts-integrated practice.
Fast forward to the present: CCAP has
applied for and been awarded four, multi-year
AEMDD grants in the 10 years I have been
at the Center. We are enormously proud of
this achievement, and feel we have learned
a tremendous amount about how teacher
practice and student learning are impacted by the integration of arts across the core
curriculum. CCAP is among many national
thought leaders in this field that have been
able to maintain a focus on this work, to hone
the practice, and explore new approaches. We
entitled the third AEMDD grant awarded to
CCAP, “Transforming Education through the
Arts & Media,” or TEAM.
After two iterations of working in this exciting grant program with a wider lens of embracing multi-disciplinary art forms as the catalyst for increasing student engagement—and
thereby, ultimately, increasing achievement
as well—we decided to continue our work in
this TEAM initiative with a more focused lens,
looking at media arts as the core art form that
we’d integrate into various content areas. Columbia College Chicago is, after all, one of the
nation’s largest arts, media, and communication colleges, and we are often approached to
enter educational partnerships because of the
abundance of media and technology expertise.
It’s admittedly frustrating that those of
us in the arts and education field continue
to feel as though we are striving to get the
arts accepted as part of the core curriculum
to begin with; and that is, gratefully, starting to change. Those in the education field
who have little interface with the arts often
characterize the arts as either visual or musical, because that is what is most often, if
at all, present in school buildings. Or, per-
haps, they may recognize “the arts” as one
or more of the four traditional art forms:
visual arts, dance, theatre/drama, and
music. And yet the arts are so much more
than that. Today, more than ever, the arts
landscape is vibrant and expansive. Spoken
word, for instance, is increasingly embraced
as a powerful vehicle that many students
are drawn to; and media arts, likewise, have
emerged as a force in their own right. Media
arts, in particular, hold some additional appeal in that they are often married to technology; and increasingly, digital technology.
Few will argue the growing importance of
digital learning.
With the rise and continued evolution
of the internet and social media, along with
increased accessibility to technology in the
classroom, there emerged a need to focus
one of these four-year grants on exploring
how media arts could be utilized as a vehicle
for learning.
At a time when “21st century skills” are
deemed critical to teach to today’s 21st century students, one has to think about what that
really means. What kinds of skills are necessary, exactly, to make one’s way in today’s
increasingly connected and complex world?
Certainly they must include the ability to
navigate the digital world, to express oneself
creatively and in multiple modes, and to not
simply consume media, but to interact with
it (connect), and to create with it.
In this ever-evolving context, the idea
of media literacy has taken hold in deeper
ways. TEAM is rooted in the value of transliteracy in the 21st century. With the rising
ubiquity and accessibility of media, the definition of literacy has changed. It is no longer enough for a young person to be able to
read words on a page; he must also be able
to “read” images, systems, platforms, and
ever-expanding modes of communication.
Not only that, but in the reality of web 2.0,
young people can be contributors to a worldwide conversation with the click of a button.
With this new reality, we wanted TEAM to
empower young people to read, write, and
create fluently, critically, and meaningfully
across this dynamic landscape.
Media literacy is then, simply, literacy. The
capacity to navigate the world of media (social
and otherwise), is something that is already
expected. But we have so much catching up
to do. Large swaths of today’s teaching force—
not to mention policy makers, administrators,
and parents—are limited in their ability to embrace this new landscape. And so this work is
as much about building those capacities as it is
about delivering engaging, collaboratively-led
curriculum. In fact, we consider the residencies themselves as a form of professional development for those teachers we partner with,
or an extension thereof.
Part of the expectation with these federal grants is to disseminate what has been
learned and developed. This publication is
but one piece of that dissemination plan.
While it represents some of the valuable insights gained, along with a handful of sample lesson plans, we hope you might also
consider visiting our website (www.colum.
edu/ccap). The work is often best understood when you get an idea of what transpires in the actual classroom.
In four years’ time, through the TEAM
initiative, we have nurtured a new cadre of
teaching artists that deeply supported and
collaborated with 37 teachers in 73 classrooms in five partner schools in the Chicago public school system. The essays you will
read come from a specific lens, that of the
teaching artist and the classroom teacher,
who each have a unique perspective on this
work and are each central to bringing it alive.
Please note that the student names have
been changed in these essays to protect privacy. Further, it should be noted that the beliefs expressed by these passionate educators
do not necessarily reflect the beliefs of those
here at Columbia College Chicago. These
are opinion pieces, if you will, and there are
very strong feelings expressed at times! We
wholeheartedly believe in the value of sharing these ideas, opinions and experiences in
the hopes of animating the critical dialogue
that is necessary if we are to collectively
strengthen education in our country.
For those who are less familiar with arts
integration, which you might call a subset of
arts education, this work is not designed to
replace the teaching of art for its own sake.
We all champion the value of that. This work
is about harnessing the additive, supportive
elements that arts learning can bring to the
math, science, history and language arts classroom. We embrace the arts by themselves,
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and we also embrace the idea that they can be
used as a catalyst for learning other subject
areas; that they support the development of
executive functioning and other higher-order
thinking skills…and that they effectively address social and emotional learning needs as
well. These are important frames of reference
to keep in mind.
Finally, I believe it useful to share with
the reader that TEAM is but one program
within CCAP. While this publication is not
about CCAP at large, to know that we are a
part of a college that was established to support the rich linkages between the college
and the community helps paint the fuller
picture. Our mission is to expand learning in
multiple directions, and to leverage the expertise of the college to support the learning
laboratory we co-create with our partners in
the community. We have modeled that well
with the TEAM initiative.
Project AIM, our broader arts-integration
program within CCAP, has been a national
leader in helping to build the field. It is Project AIM that has led the charge with the other AEMDD awards given to us by the DOE.
But CCAP work extends beyond arts integration, and beyond the classroom. Our Community Schools initiative is also highly regarded,
and focuses on wraparound services and a
coordination of resources that support the
whole child. In 2010, CCAP received one of
15 National Arts and Humanities Youth Program awards in the East Room of the White
House from Michelle Obama in recognition
of our out-of-school time arts programming
for students.
Our center also facilitates connections
between college departments and their faculty, and the community-at-large. We work
closely with a network of approximately 40
partners (mainly community-based arts organizations, or CBOs) to develop experiential learning opportunities, both for our college students and the youth that are served
by those CBOs. Columbia College Chicago’s
president, Dr. Kwang-Wu Kim, strongly sup-
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ports the idea that the college be an animating force in our community; and when that
can be coupled with engaged learning that
supports the larger academic enterprise we
have built in support of our students at this
institution…then we have a formula that is a
win-win all the way around.
This larger frame, providing an understanding of what all CCAP does, is meant
to contextualize what makes us well suited
to take on this work. If we are charged with
both serving our community and building
rich learning environments for all the stakeholders involved, what better way than to
build reciprocal partnerships that support the
creation, and “pushing out,” of best practice
models? To that end, these AEMDD grants
have been a strong match for CCAP.
As we consider ourselves a professional learning community, we also strive to
build iterative learning into our work and
our programming as we continue to grow.
One project or set of learning experiences
can evolve into, and inform, the next thing
we explore. One of our most recently-developed programs is also funded through the
DOE (Investing in Innovation) and is called
Convergence Academies. There will be much
to share from what we are learning there.
What’s important to share here is that that
initiative was directly born out of TEAM.
Convergence embraces a still broader lens
around how embedded digital learning can
transform the culture and effectiveness of an
entire school. It’s a bold project, but one with
enormous promise. Project AIM seeded the
more specific work of what would become
TEAM; and likewise, TEAM seeded the vision
for Convergence.
Biography
David A. Flatley is Executive Director of the
Center for Community Arts Partnerships
(CCAP) at Columbia College Chicago, which
expands learning by connecting the college
to public schools and communities. He has
over two decades of experience in developing and implementing educational initiatives
designed to improve teacher practice and student achievement, and effectively utilizing
teaching artists in schools and community
settings. He has an M.A. in Arts Administration from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a B.S. in Business Administration
from the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign. He is a jazz pianist and writer.
We invite you to learn more.
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