Liora Bresler
Professor, College of Education
University of IllinoisDr. Bresler's current research and recent writings focus on aesthetic education and qualitative research methodologies, both in the context of the elementary school arts curriculum. Dr. Bresler's presentation title is "Needed Research for Arts Education." In the overview she provided for her presentation, Dr. Bresler writes:
The meaning and possibilities of any art is inseparable from the conditions under which it is generated and experienced. "School art" is no exception. In this paper, I argue that improvement and effective reform is seldom born of merely goal-setting and standards-raising, but rather of intensive analysis of contexts, problems and experiences of participants, and careful delineation of areas susceptible to improvement. Hence the need to complement the philosophical and experimental arts education literature with research studies of the operational and experienced curricula, examining the micro, meso and macro contexts for arts education, and how they affect students' specific and general skills, achievements, and attitudes. The construction of a knowledge base grounded in school reality will facilitate dissemination to various interested communities and constituencies, including school practitioners, and policy makers.
James S. Catterall
Professor of Urban Schooling: Curriculum, Teaching, Leadership and Policy Studies, and Assistant Dean, Administrative Programs, UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies
Dr. Catterall is an expert in education policy. In addition to the issues of equity in education policy, his academic research interests include teachers in communities at risk and the methodlogies they employ to reach their students. Dr. Catterall's presentation is titled "The Arts and Success in Secondary School: Continued Evidence." In this presentation, Dr. Catterall expands on his recent monograph titled "Involvement in the Arts and Success in Secondary School." The extended work examines student performance through grade 12; the analysis also explores involvement in music and mathematics achievement, as well as dramatic arts and communications skills.
Richard Deasy
Director, Arts Education Partnership
Richard Deasy is the Director of the Washington, DC-based Arts Education Partnership, a group effort of more than 100 national organizations committed to promoting arts education in elementary and secondary schools throughout the country. Mr. Deasy will open the Colloquium with a presentation which will focus participants on the theme of "Enlightened Advocacy."