A Narrative Tale: Ats-Intergrated Inquiry For Mentoring Teachers For Social Justice by Friend, Waddell, Poos, Caruthers, DeGraff

NATIONAL FORUM OF EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION AND SUPERVISION JOURNAL
VOLUME 35, NUMBERS 1, 2, & 3, 2017-2018
A NARRATIVE TALE:
ARTS-INTEGRATED INQUIRY
FOR MENTORING TEACHERS
FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE
Jennifer Friend, PhD

Rockhurst University
Jennifer Waddell, PhD

University of Missouri-Kansas City
Bradley Poos, PhD

Avila University
Loyce Caruthers, PhD

Tricia DeGraff, PhD

Abstract
This article explores the lived experiences and perceptions of teachers and school
leaders in an urban arts-integrated PK-6 charter school. The study used narrative
inquiry to identify themes within individual interviews and focus group sessions
conducted with 14 teachers and one school leader, which include: (a) arts-integrated
learning strategies, (b) realities of teaching in an urban charter school, and (c) school
culture. The concept of social justice emerges in connection with each of the themes.
In an era of accountability and high-stakes standardized assessments, arts-integration
and teaching through a student-led approach is often rejected in urban schools in
favor of basic skills instruction and test preparation drills. This study contributes to
10
FRIEND, WADDELL, POOS, CARUTHERS, & DEGRAFF 11
an understanding of the transformative potential of an arts-integrated approach to

educating diverse students.
Key words: arts-integrated inquiry, social justice, urban charter school, and
school culture
______________________________________________________________
Introduction
The evidence is clear that there is growing diversity of children

in our schools and the larger U.S. society (Duval-Couetil &
Mikulecky, 2011; Hussar & Bailey, 2013). These changing
demographics signal the need for collaborative leadership models that
offer new challenges for growth and development of both leaders and
teachers who can, as Apple (2006) proposes, provid[e] real answers
to real practical problems in education (p. 41). Within this increasing
diversity, a practical problem that has confronted educators for
decades is a construct of school that resists learning as a political act.
Hence, learning tends to be more fact-driven and the question of,
what knowledge is of most worth has taken on more than a few
political overtones (Apple, p. 32). School leaders must collaborate
with teachers, students, and parents to think deeply about what they do
to counter social inequities in schools; and, at the same time, provide
students with opportunities to make meaning of problems and issues
they encounter in their daily lives and to explore ways to address
them.
Our purpose is to tell the story of an urban PK-6 charter school

as administrators mentor teachers and build collaborative structures so
teachers can support one another in the use of arts-integrated inquiry
as pedagogy for social justice. Through arts-integrated inquiry, the use
of dance, theater, drama, film, collage, video, photography....when
grounded in a critical performance pedagogy ... can be used to advance
a progressive political agenda that addresses issues of social inequity
(Denzin & Lincoln, 2005, p. 642). The school is unique, which can be
attributed in part due to the fact that one of the lead administrators was
a former teacher educator in a university-based program designed to
12 NATIONAL FORUM OF EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION AND SUPERVISION JOURNAL
prepare teachers for teaching in diverse settings. Many of the teachers

in this school were once pre-service teachers in the university where
the school leader taught.
Today, the role of leader as mentor within the school is similar

to Freires (1997) notion of the teacher as mentor:
The fundamental task of the teacher is a liberatory task. It is

not to encourage the mentors goals and aspirations and dreams
to be reproduced in the mentees, the students, but to give rise
to the possibility the students become owners of their own
history. (p. 324)
Hence, we sought to understand the experiences of the administrators

and teachers as they infused arts-integrated inquiry in the curriculum.
In-depth individual interviews and focus group sessions with one of
the two school leaders and the majority of teachers, as well as
curriculum-related documents and student artifacts were used to
examine transformation of the school culture through an engaged
pedagogy (hooks, 1994). Our analysis of the dynamics of arts-
integrated inquiry within the school illuminates the possibilities of
addressing the practical problems in urban education, especially those
that exclude the knowledge of individuals whose voices have been
silenced through a dominant Eurocentric discourse.
Rationale and Significance
This study occurred in a school that enacts arts-integrated

teaching and learning strategies that are often questioned in the current
context of high-stakes standardized tests. Integrating the arts and
teaching through a student-led approach is often cast aside so that
educators can spend more time on basic skills instruction and testing
practice aimed at preparing students to perform at proficient levels on
reading and mathematics state assessments. The school selected for
this study operates from the stance that through an arts-integrated,
student-led curriculum, students will not only learn and retain more,
but also be positioned to become agents of change. Current practices
in many schools are contributing to talented, creative children being
defined as deficient in a system that does not recognize their strengths.
As demonstrated in this study, it is critical that researchers and
practitioners collaborate to conduct research that examines a more
robust, arts-integrated and transformative approach to education.
Literature Review
Arts-Integrated Education
High-stakes accountability has been the dominant movement in

education for over two decades. Beginning with the 1983 government
document, A Nation at Risk, the arts were relegated to a position of
insignificance (Berube, 1999). With legislation such as the No Child
Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB, 2002), the arts and other untested
subject areas were de-emphasized in favor of tested areas such as
mathematics and reading. Yet recent research has become more
focused around the notion that the arts are and should be integral to
education (Rabkin & Redmond, 2006). The levels of arts integration
found in schools vary greatly, especially considering the fact that the
test-saturated environment of contemporary schooling does not foster
arts-integrated practices.
The arts in education is not a new concept, despite the most

recent trend of moving away from the arts and offering only limited or
sporadic opportunities for children to receive the arts in public schools
(Friske, 1999). As early as the 19th century, Horace Mann, the so-
called father of public education, called for the inclusion of visual arts
and music in the curriculum of the early common schools of
Massachusetts (Gullatt, 2008). Dewey and Vygotsky also noted the
importance of integration of the arts in education (Bresler, 1995).
Several United States Presidents, including John F. Kennedy, Lyndon
B. Johnson, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama, advocated for a more
prominent role of the arts in education. Kennedy asserted the

importance recognizing art in 1963, and President Lyndon B. Johnson
carried forward Kennedys vision through the National Foundation for
the Arts and Humanities Act, which created new funding sources to
support arts in education research (Gray & Purnell, 2004). The Clinton
administration, in their 1994 release of Goals 2000: Educate America,
listed the arts as a core subject (Riley, 1994). Under Obamas
leadership, The Presidents Committee on the Arts and the Humanities
(PCAH) published a federal report, Reinvesting in Arts Education:
Winning Americas Future through Creative Schools. This report
summarized over ten years of research and makes a strong case for arts
integration in schools (PCAH, 2011).
Arts integration, Mishook and Kornhaber (2006) suggest, is a

confusing term. Bresler (1995), after conducting a three-year
ethnographic study, concluded that there were four different
integration styles: subservient integration, co-equal cognitive
integration, affective integration, and social integration. It is the co-
equal cognition approach that integrates the arts with all areas of the
core curriculum (Robinson, 2013). Arts integration is described by
Burnaford, Brown, Doherty, and McLaughlin (2007), as learning
through and with the arts (p. 12). For the purpose of this study, the
term arts integration will be described using the definition from the
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, [a]rts integration is
an approach to teaching in which students construct and demonstrate
understanding through an art form. Students engage in a creative
process which connects an art form and another subject area and meets
evolving objectives of both (Silverstein & Layne, 2010, p. 1).
Regardless of how arts integration is defined, there is growing

evidence that arts education can have important and powerful effects
on student learning and achievement. Researchers who dissected the
National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 database found a
meaningful correlation between arts participation and academic
performance (Catterall, Chapleau, & Iwanaga, 1999). Vaughn and
Winner (2000) conducted a meta-analysis with a sample of over ten
million American high school students and found that Scholastic

Aptitude Test (SAT) scores increased linearly with the addition of
more years of arts classes, with the strongest correlation occurring for
students who had taken four or more years of art classes. Moreover,
Winner and Cooper (2000) found meaningful associations between
arts study and academic outcomes in their three correlational meta-
analyses involving over three million students. Rabkin and Redmond
(2006) found that arts-integrated programs were associated with gains
in academic performance across the curriculum as well as standardized
test scores, and the effects appeared most transformational for low-
achieving students. Stevenson and Deasy (2005) documented the
transformation of ten elementary, middle and high schools serving
economically disadvantaged students in rural and urban regions of the
country and found that the arts contributed to students self-efficacy
and self-esteem, improved student behavior and attendance, and
improved reading and math scores on standardized tests.
Yet despite the research to support arts integration, availability

of arts integration in the United States has decreased, especially for
low income students of color. As was suggested, in the 2009
Government Accountability Office Report (U.S. Government
Accountability Office), schools with higher percentages of students
identified as low income or students of color had greater reductions in
time spent in the arts when compared to more affluent, majority white
schools. This is not the trend worldwide, however, as Bamford (2009)
discovered in his survey of 38 UNESCO member countries. Finland,
for example, a country that is often recognized as one of the highest
performing and progressive educational systems in the world,
dedicates nearly 80% of their teaching time to the arts (Bamford).
Such discrepancies in both the international and domestic education
around the integration of the arts leaves many questioning why more is
not done to ensure access to the arts for U.S. PK-12 students. Rabkin
and Redmond (2006) assert that [i]ntegrated arts education should be
the target of a healthy proportion of state and local education
budgets. Why? Because these programs work (p. 64). We found
in our work that an arts-integrated curriculum provides a unique
opportunity to emphasize social justice issues in contemporary life.
Social Justice Education
The work of social justice in education is about developing the

conscious classroom (Doster, 2008), and it begins with the conscious
teacher, a teacher awakened to her or his own identity within broader
systems of oppression, power, and privilege. Thus, social justice
education ultimately begins with a process of self-awareness whereby
teachers look to grow in their own understanding as they seek to create
anti-oppressive systems, structures, and communities (Stewart, 2012)
within their classrooms and schools. McIntosh and Style (1999)
suggest that the process of being schooled delivers social and
emotional messagesthat is, students receive certain messages about
their value and worth in all aspects of schooling from the route of the
school bus to the assigned textbook and homework.
Ultimately, social justice in schooling seeks to create anti-

oppressive systems, structures, and communities that are culturally
responsive and pluralistic (Stewart, 2012). Nieto and Bode (2012)
outline certain tenets of social justice education, which include
challenging, confronting, and disrupting structural inequality and
discrimination, providing all students with the necessary resources to
learn and fulfill their potential, drawing on the talents and strengths of
students, and creating a learning environment that promotes critical
thinking and social change. Schools and classrooms that are culturally
responsive recognize that a students race, ethnicity and culture are
salient features of their identity and thus deserve to be respected and
reflected in classroom discourse. It is validating a students culture in
both how and what she or he is taught. Ladson-Billings (1997)
describes this mode of teaching as evident in the way that teachers see
themselves and others, structure social interactions, and view
knowledge in their classroom. It is what Nieto (2004) articulates as
affirming diversity, explaining that, multicultural education is a
transformative process that goes far beyond cultural and linguistic
maintenance. In the final analysis, multicultural education needs to
confront not just issues of difference but also issues of power and
privilege in society (p. xxvii).
The arts represent a unique opportunity to involve students in

active social engagement. Greene (1991) suggested that the arts have
the power to engage the imagination to resist the forces that press
people into passivity and bland acquiescence and to become aware
of the ways in which certain dominant social practices enclosed us in
molds or frames (p. 2). Art provides students with opportunities to
explore the world through multiple and critical lenses and to use their
voices to become active members in the school community as a form
of social justice. Cook-Sather (2006) asserted that listening to
students voices recognizes their having the power to influence
analyses of, decisions about, and practices in schools (p. 363). This
stance resonates with Beyerbach and Davis (2011) who argue that the
arts prompt us into pedagogical action with a social justice focus.
Quinn, Ploof, and Hochtritt (2012) also position art in a similar vein,
as they too suggest the arts are linked to a concern for social justice.
The arts, as suggested by Purnell, Ali, Begum, and Carter (2007), are
a valuable educational tool.[and] can create new and meaningful
connections to lesson content, expand students understanding of other
cultures, and help to promote the development of healthy cultural
identities (p. 424). Yet, in many urban high poverty schools, social
justice can be difficult to obtain.
Many of the problems surrounding the social context of urban

schools are linked to the ways in which institutional racism presents
barriers to equal educational opportunities for African American
students and other students of color who attend increasingly
segregated schools (Lewis, Diamond, & Forman, 2015; Pollock,
2006). In these school contexts, the value of student voice as a social
justice construct can be difficult to achieve due to deficit thinking that
manifests as remedial and low-skills teaching as approaches for
educating low income students and students of color. Deficit thinking
involves misconceptions of cultural differences that cause teachers to
view diverse students as incapable of learning; thus, teachers may
lower their academic expectations for them (Delpit, 2012; Thompson,

2004; Valencia, 1997). Federal legislation such as the No Child Left
Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB, 2002) reinforces deficit thinking and
stereotyping certain students as in need of interventions before they
ever have an opportunity to demonstrate their strengths and unique
talents. Because of the high stakes involved in raising achievement
scores each year, administrators and teachers in urban schools and
districts must take actions to avoid becoming labeled as a failing
school or district. Hence, urban school reform can be enacted as a
tool of oppression that cites quantitative evidence, commonly
referred to as achievement gaps, to shape and control equity, voice
and representation and to silence and marginalize some groups
(Cross, 2011, p. 44).
Narratives of failing schools and at-risk students abound

absent a comprehensive understanding of the nature of the
achievement gap currently conceptualized by some researchers as
opportunity gaps. Irvine (2010) writes:
Gaps include the teacher-quality gap, the teacher-training gap,

the challenging-curriculum gap, the school-funding gap, the
digital-divide gap, the affordable-housing gap, the health care
gap, the employment-opportunity gap, the school-integration
gap, and the quality child-care gap. (p. xii)
Opportunity gaps are connected to the socio-political contexts of urban

schools where race continues to matter in our society (West, 2004).
Negative connotations of race may shape institutional processes and
interpersonal interactions within schools. These are tied to a
sociohistorical process of domination and subordination and ultimately
undermine the opportunities for true integration (Lewis et al., 2015,
p. 25). Arts-integrated pedagogies can promote opportunities for all
students to examine social justice issues and the ways in which race
may color their lives. According to Gay (2010), arts-integrated and
culturally responsive teaching practice teaches to and through
personal and cultural strengths, their intellectual capabilities, and their
prior accomplishments (p. 26).
Method
Research Design
The purpose of this project was to capture stories through

narrative of the experiences of educators and administrators as they
infused arts-based inquiry in the curriculum. Clandinin and Connelly
(2000) describe narrative and story as meaning making elements
filled with narrative fragments, enacted in storied moments of time
and space and reflected upon and understood in terms of narrative
unities and discontinuities (p. 17). Apprehending their stories through
interviews and focus groups was an opportunity to examine meanings
of their experiences as they worked to integrate arts with social justice
themes.
Site and Participant Selection
The site selected for this study is an arts-integrated charter

school located in the urban core of a Midwestern city. The school
serves 172 low income students from pre-kindergarten to sixth grade
with 93% of the students qualifying for free or reduced lunch. The
majority of the students (77%) are African American, 8% White, 7%
Multi-Race, 3% Latina/o, and 5% Native American, based on October
2016 Core Data submissions to the state department of education. At
the time of the study, there were a total of eight classroom teachers and
one special education teacher in the school. Additionally, two teacher
candidates were engaged in internships. There were four support staff
that included art and music teachers, a resilience coordinator, and a
family liaison. There were two administrators in the school. Sixty
percent of the administrators, teachers, and support staff were White
and 35% were African American. All teachers, administrators, and
support staff were female with the exception of one male teaching
candidate. This is a highly prepared staff to teach in an urban school.
Five of the classroom teachers had at least one undergraduate degree
from the same local university with three of the five being graduates of
a specialized program for preparing candidates to emphasize social
justice in their teaching. Nine (69%) of the teachers and support staff
had master's degrees. One of the administrators had a doctoral degree,
and the other school leader had a masters degree.
The school is in its fifth year of operation, and there are three
years of test data available for the school due to the school starting as a
kindergarten through second-grade school. While the schools
standardized test scores are low relative to the state average, the
proficiency rates are increasing over time. For example, in English
Language Arts (ELA) the gap between the charter school and the state
began at 48% in 2014 and has narrowed to 31% in 2016. The school
leadership and staff is intentional about staying true to the mission and
vision of the school, while working to accelerate the achievement of
all students through learning that promotes critical thinking in an
authentic context.
All of the teachers, support staff, and administrators were

invited to participate in the study through an email communication
from the principal investigator. Seven teachers, one student teacher,
and one administrator (N = 9) signed consent forms and agreed to
participate in an individual interview. Fifteen of the invited teachers,
support staff, and administrators signed consent forms and participated
in the two focus group sessions with seven or eight members per
group.
Qualitative Design
Data were collected in the form of individual interviews and

focus group sessions held over a two-month period. To elicit their
stories, we used semi-structured questions that supported the
contextualization of the interviews. Semi-structured interviews began
with general questions or topics and allowed for more focused,
conversational, two-way communication between the researcher and
informants (Merriam, 1998).The individual interviews were conducted
in a private room at the school site or at the university in the case of

one student teacher and ranged from approximately 45 to 60 minutes.
Sample interview questions were: (1)What have you learned about
arts-integrated instructional planning to address social inequalities in
urban schools? (2) Are there any significant changes in your teaching
in recent years associated with using an arts-integrated curriculum? If
so, what are some of the changes and how would you describe their
impact on academic achievement and social justice? Similar questions
were posed again in focus group sessions that provided an opportunity
for a deeper group discussion related to arts-based inquiry. Focus
groups are forms of interviews allowing participants to hear each other
responses and make comments about what others say, which
contributes to more in-depth quality data within a social context
(Patton, 2015). Each of the two focus group sessions lasted
approximately 60-minutes. Both the individual interviews and focus
group sessions were video recorded, and the videos were transcribed
for the purposes of data analysis.
Data Analysis
Participants stories about the integration of arts-based inquiry

provided thick descriptions for analyses and theorizing. Two of the
five researchers used content analysis as directed by Miles, Huberman,
and Saldaas (2013). This process focused on an in-depth analysis of
interviews and focus group interviews which involved retriev[ing]
and categoriz[ing] similar data chunks so the researcher can quickly
find, pull out, and cluster the segments relating to a particular research
questionor theme (p. 72). The analysis procedures supported
reflexivity and validity of findings through writing memos about the
data and obtaining outside peer review of themes from the other three
researchers, looking for discrepant information or things that do not
fit or are still puzzling (Miles et al., 2013, p. 309).
Findings
Three major themes were identified during the analyses of the

nine teacher and administrator interviews and the two focus group
sessions that included a total of 15 participants. These themes
included: (a) arts-integrated learning strategies, (b) realities of
teaching in an urban charter school, and (c) school culture. Several
sub-themes emerged within each of the overarching themes (see Table
1).
Table 1
Themes and Emerging Sub-Themes

Theme 1: Theme 2: Theme 3:
Arts-Integrated Realities of Teaching School Culture
Learning Strategies in an Urban Charter
School
Project Approach Curricular Challenges Social Justice
Rigor Meeting Students Collaboration and

Needs Professional
Development
Differentiation Autonomy Student Voice

Empowerment
The teachers expressed enthusiasm and commitment to an arts-

integrated approach. One of the focus group participants described the
overall experience with integration of the arts:
The excitement of the children is amazing. And, they have no

idea how much theyre learning. They just think that they are
playing and acting or painting. And, they have no idea how
many different standards are tied to it. And so, its so fun to see
how fun learning can be, and how engaged students can be
without sitting them at a desk with a textbook and being in

front of the white board.
Many of the themes explored during instructional units were carried

across grade levels and intersected with contemporary and historical
social justice issues. Teachers described their experiences with
brainstorming ideas for units of study that become differentiated in
each classroom based on students interests. One example was a
teacher who suggested, at the beginning of the school year, developing
a unit related to the 15th anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks
on September 11, 2001. A constructivist approach to planning
instruction involved students voices, resulting in different classrooms
studying immigration, voting rights, slavery, school integration, the
election, and 9/11. As one teacher described:
Her class is doing debate, were doing immigration, [this] class

is doing voting, and [this] class is still doing 9/11 but theyve
actually started looking at airplanes and the navigation. So, I
think when we have the time just to talk just share our ideas,
its like Oh, yes! Different light bulbs are going off and you
know, all the many ways that we can integrate the arts, what
our students are interested in and what weve already noticed
The following narrative will provide examples of each of the themes

and sub-themes identified through this study with authentic voices of
the educators and school leader who shared their experiences with
arts-integrated inquiry in an urban charter school setting.
Arts-Integrated Learning Strategies
Project Approach
The teachers spoke of the schools emphasis on the Project

Approach (Helm & Katz, 2016; Katz, Chard, & Kogan, 2014) that
allows student interest to guide the curriculum and allows further
differentiation within classroom teaching. By allowing the students

questions to guide the learning, the teachers believe they are able to
provide deeper learning experiences within the classrooms, with the
kids taking ownership of their learningthis is an actual project where
the kids are like, this is ours, this is what we are really interested in
learning. One teacher shared how the Project Approach maintains
student interest in learning:
Allowing students to ask questions, that has helped me in

my class a lot, because students had shared what they really
wanted to learn, and it becomes then easier, because they are
the ones who are telling you, this is what we need to learn. All
I need to do as a teacher is to constantly remind them about the
questions they had.
Another teacher talked about how current events can spark

student interest in history and global events. By allowing student
interest to guide the curriculum, issues of social justice can become
paramount in students project work. The teacher shared an example
about the anniversary of 9/11 that elicited student interest in world
events and injustices that occur in our world. Project time is an
opportunity for students to ask hard questions and analyze the world
around them:
It is really just the kids creating their path to learning and

wanting to know more about social justice issues [I am] here
as a support and providing them with the tools they need so I
feel that project time is that great part of the day where we
really get our hands dirty and really have those discussions
about some things that might feel uncomfortable, but this is the
best place for us to do it because here you have a teacher [and]
I am supporting you what you guys want to know so
providing them with the tools and research to help them with
some of those questions.
Rigor and High Expectations
Teachers also attributed student voice and interest to higher

levels of learning and rigor in the classroom. Teacher expectations can
be a self-fulfilling prophecy, as the teachers naturally occurring
cognitive perceptions of students future ability to succeed may
support academic rigor instead of deficit orientations (Brault, Janosz,
& Archambault, 2014, p. 149). One teacher described her expectations
for student learning:
I believe that children learn through their experiences. So, their

academic achievement can grow at more rapid rate when they
intrinsically care about what theyre learning about and when
they really are enjoying their learning. And, so, I believe that
through arts integration when kids are able to learn whats
important to them you see a level of vocabulary increase.
Theyre being exposed to more literature.
Another teacher provided an example of how student interest

in social justice issues increases academic rigor when her students
studied the Little Rock Nine and Brown v. Board of Education. She
stated, They're growing so much because of the high-level
informationthat was really a challenging text, but they see it, listen
to it, as we get to them they're just growing as a reader. They're
learning about these social justice issues.
During the interviews and focus group sessions, the teachers

shared an expectation that their students needed to learn and achieve at
high levels. They also understood the power of expectations in
creating learning spaces for their students, as one teacher described:
Im going to have the highest of high expectations for you

because you are not going to leave my classroom unprepared.
Because you might go home at night and Im not there, I dont
know whats going to happen. But I do know whats going to
happen for the eight hours youre with me. And, youre going
to get the best of the best when youre with me.
Differentiation
As teachers in an arts-integrated urban charter school, the

teachers spoke frequently of the need and the opportunity for
differentiating their teaching to meet the needs of their students.
Several teachers connected instructional methods to a constructivist
lens:
We do need to differentiate instruction so that every scholar is

successful in the classroom. One of the things I like about
being here is that we are a constructivist school. We learn
through we the teachers do more of the learning by
watching how the students construct their understanding and
construct their knowledge. And then we build off of those and
we meet the children where theyre at.
The school leader viewed a constructivist approach as having the

potential to expand beyond academic development to include socio-
emotional growth through collaborative learning and shared decision-
making that models democratic values and critical thinking. One of the
teachers spoke of the ways in which students projects and group work
provides natural differentiation to meet student academic needs, I
think that just the group work itself allows the students who are
struggling to get help and grow from other students because they're
working together and they're learning from each other.
Realities of Teaching in an Urban Charter School
Throughout the study, teachers spoke of the realities of

teaching in an urban charter school. Some of these realities emerged as
challenges, such as curricular demands and meeting student needs, yet
a third reality was the autonomy that accompanies their work and how
that autonomy helps address some of the challenges.
Curricular Challenges
Teachers expressed the challenges that accompany working in

an arts-integrated charter school. Many of the teachers were new to
arts integration so the learning curve was high. One teacher shared the
challenge in learning to integrate the arts in meaningful ways, stating,
One the challenges that Ive faced was integrating the arts across the
whole curriculum, especially my first year. I understood how to
integrate arts into project time, but I was struggling with integrating
the arts within math and literacy. Some of the teachers came from
schools where the curriculum was prescribed and, therefore, these
teachers needed to learn to trust their own abilities to write curriculum,
follow student interest and teach the necessary content.
One teacher expressed the difficulty as well as the joy of

working in an integrated-arts urban charter school:
I'm realizing there's a lot of work to do. I don't know

sometimes I get emotional because it's powerful and it's almost
like you want everybody to do it There are days it's just
tough. But there are other days and I'm just, Yes, you guys!
Yes, you got it, and I think those moments are what makes it
so powerful.
Teachers also talked about the challenge of time. Arts-

integrated teaching, the Project Approach, and teaching in an urban
school are all tasks that take extra time and energy from teachers.
While the teachers in the school are dedicated to the schools mission,
vision, and the students, they did speak of the challenge of finding
time to continue excelling in their work, as these two educators
expressed:
I think time is a challenge. We dont have enough time and

theres so much that you want to teach. You dont want to
overwhelm the students by giving them too much, [or]
overwhelm yourself you want to provide them opportunities.
I think we overcome that by prioritizing and taking whats

important and whats our final outcome.
I would say one of our biggest challenges is just time. Feeling

like there is a lot to doacademic work.... But, also we need to
have such deep and rigorous learning with the arts. Im feeling
sometimes like Im just crunched for time, and wanting to
make all the different pieces fit really authentically.
Meeting Students Needs
Teachers at the school shared stories of their students and the

schools commitment to meeting student academic, developmental and
social-emotional needs. The teachers recognized that many of their
students arrived in their classrooms with achievement below grade
level in math and reading, and they shared their experiences with how
arts integration helped to meet students diverse needs. The resilience
room was one of the resources that was highly valued in both teacher
interviews and focus groups sessions, as one teacher explained:
When they are in the resilience room they have a project where
they create wire brains where they learn about the brain and the
different parts of itHow each controls our emotions and how
we can better control those before we rejoin the community.
And that really helps them connect to ideas. So if they are
having a hard time, Ill say, What part of the brain are we
using? They are able to reset and get right back into whatever
we were working with, refocus on the lesson and it has really
showed its meaningful.
One teacher spoke about the need for the school to meet the
students social-emotional needs as they prepare students to be
successful in school and in the world, I feel like we have a real
responsibility in these years to helpintroducing them to the calming
kits, and the wire brains because, it is a life or death urgency in my
opinion with them. One of the teachers talked about learning how to
read portraits during an integrated arts workshop, and how this

translated into students doing a study of the book, Color of Us, and
creating their own self-portraits (see Figure 1). As the teacher
described:
For example we had an egg. The egg on the outside theres

a white egg and a brown egg and on the inside its the same.
So, we talked about that and how because they knew about
so many things going on in the news. You know they hear
about it and so we talk about some of those things in
artwork.to still get that message across that its important no
matter what their skin color is, no skin color is better than the
other oneand the importance of just being proud of your own
skin color and then accepting and even being proud of other
peoples skin tones and all of that.
Figure 1. Student self-portraits from an arts-integrated urban charter

school.
Autonomy
In speaking of the challenges of teaching in an urban charter

school, the teachers also discussed the autonomy with which they are
able to address those challenges. For many of the teachers, this
autonomy makes them successful in meeting student needs. One
teacher reflected on how autonomy allowed for more teacher
effectiveness:
It allows me to think more deeply about, you know, how can I

really make this learning experience really stick? How can I
really bring out the best in them and help them to, you know,
break that mold of shyness and participate? So I think it has
really caused me to think out of the box, which caused me to
tap into my artistic side and really love teaching it is so
much more purposeful and is so much more authentic.
Another teacher shared the reality of moving from a traditional school

to one with teacher autonomy. In her previous behaviorist school,
administrators would engage in unannounced classroom visits to
verify that the teaching literally came from all this rigid, rigid
structure. The teacher shared that her colleagues would see the
principal leave the building, then change gears to teach their students
in more meaningful ways, switching back to the scripted curriculum
when they saw the principals car was back in the parking lot. I am
still struggling feeling like if someone is walking [in and] what I am
doing isnt [correct]now I have the freedom, with responsibility to
do it right. Teachers saw the benefits of teaching with autonomy in
this urban public charter school, as one teacher summarized, There is
not right or wrong so it just really opens the door for very deep
learning experiences for the children as well as for the teacher.
School Culture
A final theme that emerged from the individual and focus

group interviews was school culture. Throughout all data sets, the
perceived positive school culture was apparent.
Social Justice
Educators in this study had a professed and documented

passion for and commitment to social justice. The social justice
orientation was apparent in how the teachers described their teaching
and their identities as teachers. One teacher spoke of social justice as
the greater purpose of the school, We're trying to create change
agents through arts integration really think deeply about how
they're going to change; how what they're doing in the world is just
that. They're so powerful. Social justice emerged as the cornerstone
of the school culture, and teachers were very aware of this shared
philosophy among educators hired to work at the school:
I feel like I've never worked with a group of peoplejust

overall they kind of have the same goals, same like that's been
clearly important. And I think the process of, you know, who's
come on staff has been a very intentional process, and making
sure that you really do understand that philosophy and you're
able to show that through your teaching.
Collaboration and Professional Development
Teachers in the school engaged in informal and formal

conversations and professional development opportunities during the
summer and throughout the academic year. According to one of the
school leaders, professional development is intended to be authentic
and meaningful to everyone involved, with every person in the
building positioned as a learner. Before the school year begins, there
are two to three weeks of whole school professional development. In
addition to this, teachers often attend trainings they choose and are
paid stipends to do additional curriculum development and other work
over the summer. When teachers attend professional development
(PD) over the summer that is applicable to the whole team, they
present their learning to the staff. During the August 2016 back to
school PD, about 35% 40% of the PD was led by teachers. Several
teachers talked about the value of structured time for collaboration to
support learning in an arts-integrated school:
Were all pretty close, always talking, whether its formally or

informally. For me sometimes, its just doing walk-throughs
through peoples rooms before or after school. Walk through
someones room and see something on the wall, and that looks
really great, you know. And, I think we value each other so
highly as a group of teachers and so really take each others
suggestions.
Throughout the individual interviews, teachers credited their

teammates for their own success in the classroom and spoke of the
many ways in which the teachers learn from and with one another
through peer observations and hands-on professional development.
While the school provides targeted time for collaboration and learning
together, the teachers also shared the informal ways in which they
collaborate whether it be phone calls late at night, getting together on
the weekend for planning, or taking extra classes as part of the team,
demonstrating that collaboration is a living part of the school culture.
One teacher summed up the reasons for collaboration grounded in
doing whats needed for students:
It comes from just a relationship that we've kind of all built as

a staff and knowing that we really do want to make a
difference in kids lives. And we really do want them to walk
away the best selves that they can beeveryone here feels so
strongly about really wanting to make a difference through
what we do and we work hard to do that.
Student Voice and Empowerment
During the interviews and focus group conversations, some of

the teachers referenced the schools student demographics that
included high percentages of students of color and students from
poverty backgrounds. One teacher connected these student

demographics to the identity of an educator for social justice:
What I find to be so powerful about this [arts-integrated] model

is that it is about the students interest. Its about them bringing
their knowledge and power to the table first so they can
construct their learning. And, when I think of equity and
education, I believe that is such a powerful foundationnot
just a drill and kill [or] whether youre behind or on grade level
or above. But really giving students that power to construct
their own learning and to be creators in the arts and in the
projects.
The teachers talked about their role in helping students find

their voice not just at school but also in society. The teachers were
very intentional about the ways in which social justice teaching is
relevant to students lives outside of school. One teacher shared an
example of using students voice as a means for change agency
outside of school:
What does it look like in your community? What does it mean

for you to be a change agent when you are with your friends or
when you are at the store? Because the same goals that you
applied here they apply in so many different other areas of
your life.
In discussing the school culture and the ways in which they

plan and implement professional development, one of the
administrators expressed the value of student voice and providing
students with choices:
We work to share power with children instead of having power

over children. And I think one of the ways in which you share
power with children is you allow them to have choice. And if
you dont let them have choice, then you are taking away part
of their power.
Discussion
The educators who participated in this study mirrored the

optimism shared among arts-proponents who view new research and
funding around arts integration in schools as leading to promising
outcomes for students from diverse cultural backgrounds. As one
teacher shared during an individual interview:
For me, I think that arts integrated instructional planning is

really equal to culturally responsive teaching because what it is
really asking students to do, be student driven and express
themselves in ways that they feel really passionate about. And,
so, instead of me doing most of the talking. Instead of me
doing most of the driving of the learning they are the ones that
get to kind of lead the way. Which I think is so beautiful to
address like. I think this is really allowing students to find
themselves socially. To find themselves academically in a way
that is so empowering to them. I think that instead of asking
students to be compliant, we are asking students to really
internalize and be passionate about their learning and give
them that opportunity.
This teachers observation is reflected in the results from research

conducted in arts-integrated school settings over the past decade.
Brouillette (2012) suggests that the arts can build camaraderie and a
sense of community while also contributing to achievement, especially
for elementary limited English proficient students. Phillips, Gorton,
Pinciotti, and Sachdev (2010) found improvements in preschoolers
emergent literacy and school readiness in their study of an early
childhood education program that integrated the visual and performing
arts throughout the curriculum. Under the Obama administration, The
Presidents Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH)
launched the Turnaround Arts Initiative, which began in eight
turnaround schools across the country and has expanded to 68
schools. Similar to the urban charter school examined in this study, the
schools involved in the Turnaround Arts program use high-quality
and integrated arts education to engage their students, improve school

culture, and transform their schools (Stoelinga, Silk, Reddy, &
Rhaman, 2015, p. 9). The initial evaluation of this national program
demonstrated promising results, with increased attendance and
academic results (Stoelinga et al., 2015).
While academic achievement has demonstrated a trend of

improvement in this charter school, the design of this study did not
include a quantitative analysis of metrics such as scores on
standardized assessments and attendance rates. This study explored the
experiences of educators and school leaders, leading to the
identification of themes that included: (a) arts-integrated learning
strategies, (b) realities of teaching in an urban charter school, and (c)
school culture. The concept of social justice emerged in connection
with each of these themes. One of the teachers explained how the
school administration has set the stage for a school culture focused on
social justice:
I think that admin has been really intricate in setting up the

vision of what equality looks like for our students. What it was
going to take for our students to show that they can learn at just
as fast rates as their suburban peers in a way that is really
meaningful. I think what I really love about the admin is they
are like meet the students where theyre at, especially like,
developmentally, different places, different backgrounds, from
their experiences in school. Its like this is where the student is
and so having to really get to meet them and find them there.
And its not about telling them what to do but talking to the
whole child. Treating them as a whole child. There are all of
these things that go into it and how beautiful that is. I just think
its really powerful for students.
The teacher and school leader participants arrived at this

school from different preparatory programs and work experiences. A
significant number of the teachers in the school graduated from a
nearby urban-serving university where the school leader taught, and
these teachers had experienced open conversations around issues of

social justice. Some teachers began their teaching careers at the charter
school, while others had experience working in traditional public
schools. Several of the teachers described experiences working in
traditional schools where the curriculum was the same as when they
were students. This contrasted with their experiences in the arts-
integrated school, where learning was viewed as unique and
valuable. It is important to be mindful that social justice in education
involves a certain deconstruction of the systems of oppression, of
power and privilege, which we all have been taught not to see. In other
words, teachers must work to unlearn the messages that they have
been good stewards of receiving. McIntosh and Style (1999) explain
this process in the following way:
To do so requires that teachers pay attention to their own past

(political) schooling, within power structures that socialized
each to be this, not that; to do this, not that; to see this, not that;
to act like this, not that; to believe this, not that; to feel this, not
that. (p. 2)
Just as self-reflection helps students grow, one of the student teachers

working in the school shared the perception of changing every day as
an educator:
Learning [is] a process and you dont teach it all in one day
and then they [the students] have it. Im learning that it takes
time and being patient with that process. Also understanding
that every individual student is going to get it at different
points, and how you can expand on those that are getting it and
how you can differentiate from those that need additional
support.
Teachers with years of professional experience also shared the

experience of changing and growing as an educator working in an arts-
integrated school. One teacher described an interaction with a fourth-
grade student from a different classroom, where the student shared
learning about The Little Rock Nine and historical information

about school desegregation:
I told her, Thats so interesting, and I didnt know that, you

taught me something new today. And, I just genuinely meant
it, because she really did teach me something new and I just
thought that was great. So, not only are we learning from each
other but were learning from our students. I think that speaks
very highly of what were doing here.
Another teacher talked about the power of arts-integration and how it

can help shape our future generations:
I never had the freedom as a child to write a song in school or

to perform something that I had produced or maybe me and
some friends produced to the class. Those opportunities were
never given to me. And, I wish that I could have learned that
way when I was a kid. And, so, its really rewarding to be able
to teach that way now to this generation of children. And, I
think it just buildsit just adds so much to who they are and
also to just what our world could be.
Our concluding remarks acknowledge what is needed to sustain these

efforts in todays schools through transformative efforts that involve
constructivist teaching and the development of self-efficacy as
educators working in an arts-integrated learning environment.
Conclusion
While educators can certainly come to some agreement about

how to address the education of todays youth, each will bring their
own beliefs and assumptions about schooling, making it important for
administrators, teachers, and support staff to listen and value each
others voices as pathways to learning. The arts-integrated approach
supported this critical stance among the teaching staff which enabled
them to also value background experiences and cultural precepts

students bring to school. During one of the focus group sessions, a
student teacher who had been engaged in the school for a period of
only two months clearly embraced open discussions around issues of
equity and social justice:
Were not afraid to talk about those social justice issues that
are actually happening. A lot of teachers in other schools might
be timid or afraid to talk about those because they dont know
how sensitive it would make students. Whereas here, we accept
that it can be sensitive but we are able to respond to those
sensitivities that might come out.
Knowledge is never neutral; it is historically and socially

rooted as well as interest bound. Whereas, social constructivism
constitutes knowledge the individual brings to the learning process
through their social and psychological worlds (Boghossian, 2006;
Duffy & Jonassen, 2013), social constructionism portends that
knowledge is always shaped by history and culture (Burr, 2015;
Young & Collin, 2004) determined by an individuals positionality in
the world which dictates the act of knowing. Such positionality may
involve a more critical view of knowledge through the lens of race,
class, gender, sexual orientation, geography, and other shapers of
culture.
It was clear within this arts-integrated setting that importance

was placed on valuing such knowledge through constructivist teaching
with a social justice emphasis that seemingly contributed to the
efficacy of participants enacted through a common language. The
narratives of participants reflected a perceived self-efficacy ... defined
as peoples judgments of their capabilities to organize and execute
courses of action required to attain designated types of performance
(Bandura, 1986, p. 391). Teachers expressed the importance of
collaboration, mentoring, and opportunities to use their voices to
reflect on what they were learning about their students and ways to
deliberately insert the arts throughout the curriculum and in alignment
with the federal legislation, Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). The
legislation encourages states to not only maintain the arts in schools
but provides additional funding for integrating arts in the STEM areas:
science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (Zubrzycki, 2015).
It is questionable whether charter schools, lauded for offering

parents with school choice, are any different than traditional public
schools (Maas & Lake, 2015; Oberfield, 2016). We recognize the
efforts of the school leadership and teachers at the unique public
charter school involved in this study to offer a different kind of
education, through what Kohn (2004) suggested as reimagining
schools through incorporating new ways of teaching. The school
leaders in this charter school placed an emphasis on mentoring
teachers for social justice. However, future studies should examine the
extent to which charter schools offer parents a different kind of
education for their children. Efforts should also investigate scripts of
professionalism in charter and traditional public schools that serve to
deskill teachers. New teachers to this arts-integrated school expressed
their reasons for leaving traditional public schools were often due to
scripted curriculum that curtailed their decision making and limited
opportunities for critical and creative teaching. Additionally, more
research is needed to determine the future viewpoints about
transforming the society or community advocacy efforts of students
educated in arts-integrated environments with a social justice emphasis
or similar themes.
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Author Bios
Dr. Loyce Caruthers is a Professor and Division Chair of Educational

Leadership, Policy and Foundations (ELPF) at the University of
Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC). Her experience includes Assistant
Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction for a large urban school
district, Senior Program Associate for Mid-continent Regional
Educational Laboratory (McREL), Project Director of the McREL
Educational Equity Center, Middle School Teacher, and Coordinator
for Career Education, Gender Equity, and Effective Schools. Her
research explores issues of race, class, and gender in education, student
voice and storytelling, and the cultural context for urban education.
Dr. Tricia DeGraff, Executive Director of an arts-integrated charter

school, has 18 years of experience working in urban schools as a
classroom teacher, teacher educator and school leader. At UMKC, she
was an Assistant Teaching Professor of Literacy in the Institute for
Urban Education (IUE).
Dr. Jennifer Friend is Dean in the College of Health and Human

Services and Professor of Education at Rockhurst University. A former
middle school principal and teacher with 25 years of experience, her
research focuses on technology and urban educational leadership and
documentary film as research.
Dr. Bradley Poos, Assistant Professor of Education at Avila

University, is a former middle and high school social studies teacher
and counselor who has spent the last several years advancing a research
agenda that illuminates the narratives of people of color around issues
of school segregation, desegregation, and re-segregation.
Dr. Jennifer Waddell is Director of the Institute for Urban Education

and the Sprint Foundation Endowed Professor in Urban Education at
UMKC. Over the past 19 years, she has served as teacher, school
administrator and educational consultant in urban schools. She
currently coordinates a teacher preparation program specifically
designed to prepare teachers to work in urban schools.

A Narrative Tale: Ats-Intergrated Inquiry For Mentoring Teachers For Social Justice by Friend, Waddell, Poos, Caruthers, DeGraff

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A Narrative Tale: Ats-Intergrated Inquiry For Mentoring Teachers For Social Justice by Friend, Waddell, Poos, Caruthers, DeGraff

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NATIONAL FORUM OF EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION AND SUPERVISION JOURNAL

VOLUME 35, NUMBERS 1, 2, & 3, 2017-2018

Jennifer Friend, PhD

Jennifer Waddell, PhD

Bradley Poos, PhD

Loyce Caruthers, PhD

Tricia DeGraff, PhD

an understanding of the transformative potential of an arts-integrated approach to

The evidence is clear that there is growing diversity of children

Our purpose is to tell the story of an urban PK-6 charter school

prepare teachers for teaching in diverse settings. Many of the teachers

Today, the role of leader as mentor within the school is similar

The fundamental task of the teacher is a liberatory task. It is

Hence, we sought to understand the experiences of the administrators

Rationale and Significance

This study occurred in a school that enacts arts-integrated

High-stakes accountability has been the dominant movement in

The arts in education is not a new concept, despite the most

prominent role of the arts in education. Kennedy asserted the

Arts integration, Mishook and Kornhaber (2006) suggest, is a

Regardless of how arts integration is defined, there is growing

million American high school students and found that Scholastic

Yet despite the research to support arts integration, availability

opportunity to emphasize social justice issues in contemporary life.

Social Justice Education

The work of social justice in education is about developing the

Ultimately, social justice in schooling seeks to create anti-

The arts represent a unique opportunity to involve students in

Many of the problems surrounding the social context of urban

lower their academic expectations for them (Delpit, 2012; Thompson,

Narratives of failing schools and at-risk students abound

Gaps include the teacher-quality gap, the teacher-training gap,

Opportunity gaps are connected to the socio-political contexts of urban

prior accomplishments (p. 26).

The purpose of this project was to capture stories through

Site and Participant Selection

The site selected for this study is an arts-integrated charter

All of the teachers, support staff, and administrators were

Data were collected in the form of individual interviews and

in a private room at the school site or at the university in the case of

Participants stories about the integration of arts-based inquiry

Three major themes were identified during the analyses of the

Themes and Emerging Sub-Themes

Rigor Meeting Students Collaboration and

Differentiation Autonomy Student Voice

The teachers expressed enthusiasm and commitment to an arts-

The excitement of the children is amazing. And, they have no

without sitting them at a desk with a textbook and being in

Many of the themes explored during instructional units were carried

Her class is doing debate, were doing immigration, [this] class

The following narrative will provide examples of each of the themes

Arts-Integrated Learning Strategies

The teachers spoke of the schools emphasis on the Project

differentiation within classroom teaching. By allowing the students

Allowing students to ask questions, that has helped me in

Another teacher talked about how current events can spark

It is really just the kids creating their path to learning and

Rigor and High Expectations

Teachers also attributed student voice and interest to higher

I believe that children learn through their experiences. So, their

Another teacher provided an example of how student interest

During the interviews and focus group sessions, the teachers

Im going to have the highest of high expectations for you