Legs for Change

A leadership workshop with Jim Reese inspired the BYU ARTS Partnership goals for 2023 and recommendations for leaders looking to effect change in schools and classrooms through the arts.

Furthering Arts Education in the New Year

As our New Year's resolutions for 2023, the BYU ARTS Partnership will:

• Prune the pedagogical frameworks we include in our workshops to create focus and simplify the work of teachers and optimize the effectiveness of instruction.
• Provide political and practical visionaries with professional learning experiences and resources.
• Optimize partnerships with organizations in Utah who also support whole-child education that includes the arts.
• Identify policies and support systems that sustain arts-friendly school cultures and deep learning over time. 

These goals emerged from our November workshop with Dr. Jim Reese, director of the Washington International School and longtime collaborator with Harvard Project Zero. Moving into the training, our question was, “How do we ensure the arts as a central part of every child’s education for the children of Utah?” 

Effecting Change in Public Education

The workshop, inspired by his article “When Change Has Legs,” provided direction on school initiatives and sustainable change. He and co-author David Perkins recommend four pillars for change:  

• Frameworks include “endeavors to improve teaching and learning and are always journeys toward some holy grail—an aspirational framework or philosophy that offers a vision for more effective teaching and learning.” Successful frameworks are adaptable to different teacher’s styles, circumstances, and pedagogy.
• Leadership that includes both political and practical visionaries. “The political visionary, typically the principal, shows conspicuous commitment to the innovation, advocating it, making it a priority, defending it against critics, explaining it to parents, appearing for key events, and allocating resources.” The practical visionary are the teachers, coaches and others who have time allocated to advance the selected initiative.
• Community reflects the idea that “any widespread innovation in a school involves a tapestry of interactions within the community of teachers, school leaders, and beyond...Broad institutional growth calls for a collegial culture.” Participation is flexible and commitment happens on all levels.
• Institutionalization happens when “The innovation gets written into the DNA of the school—into the mission statement, communications to students and parents, formal documents that describe the school's teaching and learning commitments, hiring practices for new teachers and even new principals, and staff positions such as the practical visionary.”

Recommendations from Experience 

Following the workshop, the BYU ARTS Partnership leadership team members reflected on our efforts to improve school culture and student learning through the arts. We used each of these four legs as a lens for our reflection. In this process we not only focused on where we want to go, but also celebrated where we have been and the work we have done. This celebratory reflection helped the team formulate these ideas for schools and districts looking to create legs for sustainable change in the arts.

Use the Arts to Support Existing Goals and Initiatives 

Include pedagogical frameworks for hands-on, student-driven learning as described in problem-based and project-based learning. Each art form applies principles from these frameworks for art making in dance, drama, music, and visual art. For every classroom, adding movement, drawing, storytelling, and music making invites problem solving and innovation in meaningful, relevant activities.

Connect with Political and Practical Leaders in the Arts 

Identify who is championing arts learning and arts integration in your school or district and partner with them to further your shared vision for the arts. Share your stories with political visionaries and invite them to your performances and exhibits. Support practical visionaries, the boots on the ground, with the planning time and the funds needed to produce deeper learning experiences for students. 

Nurture Collaboration Focused on Arts Learning

Encourage general educators to explore in their PLC discussions how drawing, movement, stories and music could improve tier one and tier two instruction. Nurture environments where teachers want to collaborate on creative projects, whether after-school visual arts lessons with the visual art teacher, or producing a school musical, band, or choir performance, etc. 

Make Your Support for Arts Learning Visible 

Update policy to support a culture for deep learning through the arts. Add the arts to your school improvement plan to show commitment and access funding targeted to improve learning and other school priorities. Make the arts visible to students and their families through school arts events and communication materials to community members. Plan time for students and families to experience collaborative art making, dancing, singing, and sharing. 

Cally Flox is the founding director of the BYU ARTS Partnership. She is a dance teaching artist and licensed administrator with a master's degree in Educational Leadership from Brigham Young University. Cally taught dance, math, and physical education in public schools and is a board member for the Utah and USA Chapter of Dance and the Child International (daCi).