Arts-based education is a reflective activity undertaken to discover special features and relationships in our environment through the exploration of the terrain of our inner landscape. It is an act of inquiry beyond scientific forms. Teachers who inquire reflectively into their daily teaching practices and who, in the process, explore new pedagogical possibilities in depth are engaged in lifelong learning which enhances the profession. They advance their own artistry as their pedagogical work becomes increasingly abstract and imaginative, as with the nature of the reflective brain. This process is continual and evolving. Ultimately, teaching becomes what it is when accomplished in the highest - an art form.

The arts call attention to universal themes. As a mountain may symbolize strength and steadfastness, an ocean may symbolize the endless flow of blessings or challenges to maintain those blessings. Artists "see" what they are able to "paint," but they can't paint what they already see. In Dewey's words, the organization of quality to engender meaning is reflective of an intelligent act. Thus, central to arts-based education is the nurturing of intelligence through artistic endeavors.

Using the arts to "transform" students - to open their minds - cannot be overestimated. The arts generate a multiplicity of doors to learning, incorporating feelings into an aesthetic form. Different from propaganda which is persuasive until one acknowledges some action, art lingers on and deepens in meaning. Bruner taught us the value of reflective thinking, an aesthetic activity in itself. Aesthetics goes beyond the surface. When Aristotle wrote the theory of the practical, he also realized that the practical is not a theory. What, therefore, is an arts-based curriculum? Does it exist only in theory, or does it have analytical utility as well?

Eisner (1994) identifies qualitative studies or arts-based inquiry as having six features:

1. The first is field focus, the study of something as it is rather than through manipulation. Qualitative researchers observe, interview, record, describe, interpret and appraise settings as they are.

2. The second feature is the creation of virtual reality. Objects of art are virtual entities where actual physical realities such as place, gravity and muscular control in a dance performance disappear as the viewer apprehends elements such as "the moving forces of the dance, the apparent centers of power and their emanations, their conflicts and resolutions, lift and recline, their rhythmic life" (Langer, 1967). These are the virtual realities of the semblance, the composed apparition that is the dance. They are elements of a dynamic image that is not physically given but created by the dancer.

3. A third feature that defines a qualitative study is interpretation, both in the sense of explanation and in the sense of finding meaning. The presence of an ambiguous quality invites the audience into the reconstruction of the virtual world, such as in text, by carefully positioned blanks and gaps. Novelness, such as that found in literature, is a characteristic of writing that encourages a multiplicity of reading and a variety of interpretaion.

4. A fourth feature is the use of expressive language and the presence of voice in text. Art is connotive rather than denotative, expressive rather than direct. It is designed to enhance meaning in a roundabout way. As Dewey (1934) put it, "Whereas scientists aim to state meaning, artists aim to express meaning." Empathy, injecting the feeling of a situation into its description, brings observers to vicariously experience events from a different perspective.

5. A fifth feature is attention to particulars, the details that provide a context for the study. Artistic language is contextualized by nature. Thick literary description grounds an artwork in a particular context so that the complexities adhering to a unique event, character or setting may be adequately rendered.

6. A sixth feature of a qualitave study is coherence, insight and instrumental utility. It is the importance of seeing things in a way that satisfies or is useful for the purpose one embraces. There is no statistical tests of significance to determine if results count. In the end, what counts is a matter of judgment.

   A final characteristic is the personal signature of the artist. Each work of art embodies the unique aesthetic vision of its author. When observers recreate that vision, they may find that new meanings are constructed, and old values challenged or negated. When that occurs, the purposes of art have been served.

Good art, beyond the cathartic, carries critical utility. Its novelty appeals to different levels of awareness, even the unconscious (Jung), the very grain of truth in our psyche. An interview with secondary Brazilian students about what an ideal teacher is like yielded discussions completely different from their illustrations, clearly projecting the power of the unconscious in art. Aesthetic features of a piece of art are instrumental to the development of consciousness that bears educational importance. The art of expressing something in art reveals a lot more than the form of art itself. The arts lead us to imagine how qualities can be rendered, and how technical competency can be achieved to communicate an idea.

One important purpose of art is the laying bare of questions which have been hidden by answers (James Baldwin). This statement summarizes the power of the arts in educating our children. Art can be literary, musical, dramatic, visual, dance, or a combination thereof. Genre is no longer important if one looks at the world with different lenses that carry critical utility as opposed to trustworthiness. A pragmatist may equate truth with usefulness, but a neo-pragmatist finds a statement or idea useful only if one can raise questions and look at the world differently. An observer of art balances accuracy and imagination, fictionality and purpose, with conflicting testimony as a theme. A poem should not only exist, but have meaning. The interpretive zone nurtures the mind. As a teacher-researcher, one must ask how one can look at different things he/she constructs. The context - cultural and personal - is important so that one needs to suspend judgment for a while. As issues are raised, multiple interpretations are formulated. Symbols stand in the midst of this process. Just as a literary artist uses words to paint a vision, another artist uses vision to paint words. The perceptive process is educationally selective. The framework of concept, committment and values are rooted in sensibility.

Ethnographers, generally speaking, make mountains out of mole hills. Arts-based eductors see that what seems trivial to others may not be trivial. Experiencing at a deep level is the key. Articulating it is a product of the ingenious imagination. One has to construct and reconstruct ideas that result from analysis. A constructivist view is crucial. One must keep looking for emerging themes.

What, therefore, are implications of arts-based research and curriculum on classroom activities that enhance high order thinking and, ultimately, both sides of the brain? Arts-based curricula and teaching strategies provide more fluid types of strategies that allow teachers not only to teach specific subjects and the children entrusted in their care. Simultaneously, the depth of such activities with emerging themes naturally set the stage of growth for the teachers themselves, evaluated by the extent to which one's educational purposes are realized. A collaboration to convey deeper understanding is continually sought and encouraged, and human understanding in respect to the domains of education is advanced.

A brain that thinks also "feels." Edcucational connossieurship through the arts brings enlightenment and edification of concepts hand-in-hand. The arts articulate features that defy description, a step beyond pure scientific discovery. When Charles Dickens wrote Hard Times he "novelized" his data without any theoretical addendum.. Yet the readers, through his literary artistry and genius, gain a powerful insight into what he aspires to impart. If the audience is sensitive to Dickens' art, certainly their emotions are deeply moved by the facts. By the same token, leadership may be taught through the metaphor of Don Quixote. This is the aesthetic aspect of the educational process which demands both analysis and imagination.

The arts' capacity for deep persuasion through vicarious experiences indeed taps the whole brain, analytical and intuitive. It is important for educators to take advantage of what we know of education, practical and theoretical, to explore arts-based research, to write and create forms for imparting a curriculum that benefits and advances knowledge. Howard Gardner articulates it well - that depth of understanding is the ultimate goal of teaching. A narrative skillfully crafted, an orchestration of musical sounds to represent an idea, a dance, a sculpture, a painting, a play - these are the vehicles that nurture the "climate" of education. Like an opera libretto, let the data of arts-based education sing. Allow students to invent within conventions so that intuition becomes a source of deep satisfaction in mind and heart. Let the edification of ideas crystallize in the process. Teaching is not only a science; it is in essence art in the highest form. Idea, imagination, vision, technique - these constitute authentic teaching and learning.

References

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Bruner, J. (1987). Actual minds, possible worlds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Bruner. J. (1990). Acts of Meaning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Connelly, F.M. & Clandinin, D.J. (1990). Stories of experience and narrative inquiry. Educational Researcher 19 (5), 2-14.

Eisner, E. W. (1991). The enlightened eye: Qualitative inquiry and the enhancement of educational practice. New York: Macmillan.

Eisner, E.W. & Flinders, D. (1994). Educational criticism as a form of qualitative inquiry. Research in the Teaching of English, 28 (4), 341-357.

Kochendorfer, L. (1994). Becoming a reflective teacher.Washington D.C.: National Education Association.

Langer, S.K. (1967). Problems of art. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.

Maykut, P. & Morehouse, R. (1994). Beginning qualitative research: A philosophic and practical guide. Bristol: PA: The Falmer Press.

McLaughlin, D. and Tierney, W.G. (Eds.) (1993). Naming silenced lives:Personal narratives and the process of educational change. New York: Routledge.

Miller, J. (1990). Creating spaces and finding voices: Teachers collaborating for empowerment. Albany: State University of New York Press.