An investigation of the extent of arts education and the principals' perceptions of such education in selected public elementary schools in Milwaukee County
Abstract
This study investigated the principals' perceptions of the role of the arts in education of public elementary principals and of their leadership role in arts education in their schools. The arts education offered in these schools was also explored. The subjects consisted of 40 (64.5%) of 62 principals in Milwaukee County, who responded to a survey-questionnaire during the 1999-2000 school year. Six of these principals also participated in semi-structured interviews. This study found wide disparity among the arts education offerings. Twenty-one (52.5%) of the principals indicated the arts were as important as other subjects, in contrast to four (10.0%) who viewed the arts as enrichment. None of the schools implemented a program in which the arts were at the center of the curriculum. The principals' arts backgrounds, knowledge of brain research and the arts, and their view of the arts, in addition to the value ascribed to the arts within the existing school culture, and the districts' expectations shaped by community traditions and values, were identified as factors which influenced the interviewees' perceptions of their leadership role in arts education in their schools.
This paper has been withdrawn.