Arts in education: Professional development integrating the arts and collaborating with schools and community

Abstract

Teachers and faculty from elementary, secondary and higher education institutions in a south eastern United States metropolitan area are in their ninth year of a collaborative investigation into the integration of the Arts into content areas via a professional development grant program known as the Arts in Education (AiE). In this paper, the authors examine AiE's goal of training teachers to more effectively integrate the Arts in the classroom by using dance, music, theater and visual arts to teach English-language arts, mathematics, science and social studies. Through extensive and intensive professional development and individual mentoring classroom teachers have the opportunity to collaborate with educators across key learning areas. The analysis of outcomes and description of this program may assist those seeking to pursue university-community collaborations through professional development and grants and thereby provide insight into the characteristics of a long-term, successful, and collaborative endeavor.