Arts Integration as a Link to the World
 According to Kathryn Grushka arts integrations helps to link the
discipline of art with other core curriculums such as history, literacy,
science, and math. This allows students to better understand and make
links to the world around them. Grushka claims that this happens as
students use visual culture and contemporary art as a way to consider
different points of view on a similar theme and to make connections
between disciplines.
 “Our problems are becoming more complex, have a faster turnover rate,
and require more information from more different sources” (Parsons,
p.775)
 “At its least ambitious, the interest is in connecting together the various
school subjects to make them more meaningful to students. At its most
ambitious, the interest is in the promotion of democratic schooling, via
student choice, self-reflection, and active inquiry; and of democratic
society, via the investigation of social problems and their solutions.”
(Parsons, p.776)
 “Our society had become increasingly complex and is in constant change,
and students should study these changes and their attendants problems,
to prepare them to participate well in society. A socially relevant
democratic education, it is argued, must engage students in this way. This
requires integrated studies, because the issues involved transcended
disciplinary boundaries.” (Parsons, p 778) **democratic education
Multiple Literacies
 “New literacy skills will depend on students developing the strategic
abilities to work effectively across many new information platforms
dominated by this paradigm from text to imaging and multi-modal
practices in learning” (Grushka, 2011).
 Art educator and researcher Patricia Lynch argues that arts integration
can allow students to making learning connections that are meaningful to
them (2007). This occurs through multiple literacies. When this occurs
students develop a greater understanding and appreciation for what they
have learned. Lynch argues that, “When challenged to demonstrate their
learning dramatically, visually, or musically, students must make
important decisions about what is essential and what is not” (Lynch, 2007).
 “Meaning is created, represented, and interpreted through the use of
different semiotic, or sign, systems, which learners naturally employ as
they make sense of the world” ( Lynch 2007, page 34 ).
Art and Other Disciplines
 “But as long ago as 1918 it was officially agreed that the disciplines are to
be regarded as tools to be used for an understanding of life and the
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solutions of life’s problems [U.S. Bureau of Education, 1918]. In other
words, they are not to be taught primarily as ends in themselves, and the
traditional organization is not self-justifying.” (Parsons, p777) **see U.S.
Bureau of Education from past but also today to see how integration and
ideas of learning are viewed today ***also for the history of arts
integration
“Integration of art with other subjects is congruent with the tenets of
postmodernism because it related ideas to form (shifting the focus of art
education away from formal concerns to meaning-making), crosses
disciplinary boundaries to reveal conceptual connections, and locates art
in context with other disciplines.” (Marshall, p.227)
Holistic Learning Approach
 “Curriculum integration also breaks down the barriers of categorization
that tend to limit understanding within a discipline” (Marshall, p
232)**Ward 1995
 See Clark, 1997 and “substantive integration”(Marshall, p.228)
 “Substantive integration is a pedagogy that goes deeper and broader than
these application; it involves making conceptual connections that underlie
art and other disciplines.” (Marshall, p 228)
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Teacher
Teaching Strategies
 “To teach authentically about art an postmodern concepts, we must
employ an approach to teaching and learning in tune with postmodern
principles that work in pedagogically sound way.” (Marshall, p.239)
 “In highlighting ideas, integration encourages art educators to include
conceptual strategies in their art lessons—to integrate ideas and
conceptual processes with techniques, materials, and visual form and to
make the vital connection between visual images and ideas.” (Marshall, p.
240)
Teacher preparedness (subcategory)
Professional development
Pre-service training etc
Impact on Schools
Administration
Programming
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Integrated Curriculum
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‘issues-based art education’ see Gaudelius & Spiers, 2002, p.3 (Marshall, p.
227)
Blueprint (subcategory)
Art 21
Etc.
Students/Cognition
 “It is about meaning and understanding. Integration occurs when
students makes sense for themselves of their learning and experiences,
when they pull these together to make one view of their world and of
their place in it…Advocates of integrated curriculum are fundamentally
concerned to make learning meaningful to students. They stress the
importance of understanding as the primary goal of education and often
contrast it with ‘lower level’ goals such as learning facts and routine
skills.” (Parsons, p.776)
 “It is worth emphasizing that an integrated curriculum is inherently
concerned with ideas. It is necessarily a curriculum that encourages
students to think about important ideas, to interpret them and relate them
to themselves, their own time and context. It is above all a thoughtful
curriculum, full of ideas rather than activities [Burnaford, Aprill, &
Weiss]” (Parsons, p.777) **look up info on Burnaford, Aprill, &Weiss
 “As we hand over this world of complex and challenging problems to our
children, we must provide them the tools to develop the creativity and
flexibility to devise strategies we cannot imagine. Students need to do
more than memorize information for recall. They must have the ability
and inclination to apply new skills and knowledge and be alert to
opportunities to apply what they know in novel situations as they
advance through grade levels. The arts are human languages, essential for
envisioning solutions and perceiving and communicating meaning,
beauty, fear, and desire, as well as tools for planning and decisionsmaking in a nuanced, ever-changing world” (Music, 2010).
 See Freedman (2003) and Efland (2002) for cognition (Marshall, p.227)
 “Efland (2002) also finds justification for curriculum integration as a way
of advancing learning: If the aim of education is to fully activate the cognitive
potential of the learner, ways have to be found to integrate knowledge from many
subjects to achieve a fuller understanding than would be provided by content
treated in isolations (p. 103) (Marshall, p.228)
 “Cross-disciplinary study promotes transfer as it involves cross-context
applications of knowledge and ideas. Transfer, usually associated with
learning, has implications for creativity. When ideas are transferred or
applied from one area to another, recoding occurs and matters are reconceptualized.” (Marshall, p. 232)
Challenges
 “They often stress teacher expertise in the disciplines and call for more
rigor in their teaching…in short, many educators want more, not less,
emphasis on teaching separate school subjects.” (Parsons, p.777)
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Contemporary Art as a model for integration
Contemporary artists
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“In contemporary, postmodern art we find clear examples of collaging as
common and effective strategy for amplifying ideas, framing reality and
revealing the workings of the mind. Artist Mark Tansey, Thomas
Grunfeld, and Mark Dion, for example, have produced many images that
embody collage. Their images are especially useful for educators because
they are noncoalescent images [Stafford, 1999]” (Marshall, p. 234)**see
Strafford
“In regard to curriculum integration, the work of these artists go beyond
interdisciplinarity (depicting subject matter in science), using collage to go
deeper to reveal underlying concepts. We see here that collage, because it
connects at the conceptual level, is truly integrative.” (Marshall, p. 235)
See artists: Mark Dion, Thomas Grunfeld, and Mark Tansey (Marshall)