Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Arts and Arts Integrated Learning for Middle Level Education

Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Arts and Arts Integrated Learning for Middle Level Education brings together a diverse array of international perspectives on arts and arts integrated learning in and out of schools for young adolescent students, aged 10–15. Addressing the importance of arts learning for young adolescents and aligned with discourse in middle level education, this volume provides a much-needed resource for stakeholders interested in the future of arts education for young adolescents. Exploring arts and arts integrated learning through perspectives of creative writing, dance, media arts, music, theater, and visual arts, the book draws on theoretical and empirical research in arts learning contexts in Australia, Canada, Denmark, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Virgin Islands. This book advocates for middle level arts learning that cultivates and encourages young adolescents’ dispositions toward lifelong engagement in the arts, and the cultivation of arts learning spaces that value young adolescents’ multifaceted identities and motivate students to learn through autonomy, relatedness, and competence. The international authors come from a wide range of disciplinary communities and draw upon scholarship in arts education, culturally responsive pedagogy, self-determination and motivation theory, and adolescent development to construct their arguments and contextualize their research.