Taking Our Citizenship Seriously

Abstract

The impetus for this special issue of Studies in Art Education on policy is traceable to Laura Chapman's ongoing critique of the No Child Left Behind Act of 200 1 and its implications for public education generally, and education in the arts specifically. Another motivation for this issue of the journal is Doug Boughton and Kerry Freedman's participation at a United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) meeting in the summer of 2005 in which art education professionals were being largely ignored in developing international arts education policy. Artists in the schools programs were being favored without noting the necessity of ongoing art education curricula conceptualized and taught by professional art educators. Associated with each of these is the importance of understanding the implications of policy, the process through which such policy is implemented, and the ways in which art educators can influence policy.In response to the above, Kerry Freedman, Richard Siegesmund, and I facilitated a policy-oriented meeting on March 13, 2007 in New York City, which representatives from most of the major College and University Art Education Programs attended. Two initiatives resulted from this meeting. One is this special issue, and a second is the formation of a Higher Education Policy Committee within the NAEA Higher Education Division.This issue of Studies in Art Education includes six articles and three commentaries by authors who research, critique, review, and/or suggest policy as it relates to art education. Each contributor offers significant insights into the ways in which policy is important to the profession. However, although broadly focused on policy matters, this issue of the journal cannot be considered a comprehensive overview of policy as it relates to education in the arts. It should be read as representative of some of the policy issues that are challenging the field.In my Spring 2008 editorial, I advocated that the field embrace the systemic orientation to the arts and culture, comprising three interdependent sectors - the not-for-profit, for-profit, and volunteer or informal, posited by the American Assembly (2007). Education in the arts and culture is integral to all three sectors. Policy informs, shapes, and sustains this education through the formal and informal codification of values, attitudes, beliefs, and public preferences influencing decisions and defining courses of action around, within, and among these three sectors. Policy informs government, professions, interest groups, and associations, among many other social groups. How decisions are made, and actions taken (i.e., autocratic, consultative, democratic, consensus), impact working relationships and establish authority and credibility. Given the ubiquity of policy, and the profound influence that it exerts on education, it is essential that policy be studied critically and thoroughly as a part of education in the arts.Policy debate, formation, and implementation are a political activity. The policy environment requires people to come together in multiple ways to make decisions about how policy should be formulated, approved, and applied. …