Papers by Liane Brouillette
The Palgrave Handbook of Educational Thinkers , 2023
Born in 1861, Rudolf Steiner grew up in rural areas of the Austrian Empire, where the Industrial ... more Born in 1861, Rudolf Steiner grew up in rural areas of the Austrian Empire, where the Industrial Revolution had as yet only limited impact. The son of a station manager for the Austrian Southern Railway, young Rudolf was familiar with both machinery and the majesty of the Alps. Energetic and curious, he attended the Technical University of Vienna. Best known as a philosopher, he became a scholar of Goethe's work and earned a Ph.D. from the University of Rostock. After World War I, Steiner was asked to use his talents as an educator to design the first Waldorf school in Stuttgart, Germany. He accepted this challenge in 1919, designing a school that was unique in central Europe at the time. Male and female students from working class families were able to prepare for higher education with no tuition fee. Famous for their arts-based teaching methods, Waldorf schools are now found in over 60 nations and make up the world's largest network of non-religious, independent schools.
The Arts, the Common Core, and English Language Development in the Primary Grades, 2017
Background/Context: Throughout schooling, English learners (ELs) perform well below their monolin... more Background/Context: Throughout schooling, English learners (ELs) perform well below their monolingual English-speaking peers on literacy assessments, and Hispanics make up the majority of EL students in the United States. There is a strong consensus about the importance of early English oral language skills for ELs' literacy development, yet teachers are not adequately prepared to meet the needs of these young learners. Historically, policy has not provided incentives for educators to focus on oral language development in the classroom. However, the recently adopted Common Core State Standards (CCSS) emphasize oral language skills. Purpose/Objective: This study examines a professional development program that equipped early elementary teachers in five urban schools with arts-based strategies to promote the oral English development of ELs. A second line of inquiry looked at the extent to which the creative drama and dance activities were aligned with CCSS.
Arts and Learning Research Journal, 2013
A writing-infused visual and performing arts curriculum is described, in which high school studen... more A writing-infused visual and performing arts curriculum is described, in which high school students carry out brief writing assignments as a prelude to classroom discussions. A quantitative study, in which essays written at the beginning and end of school year were blindly scored by university faculty, support hypothesis that brief weekly problem-based writing assignments and critiques enhance ability to think through problems and express ideas clearly.
Journal for Learning through the Arts: A Research Journal on Arts Integration in Schools and Communities
This article provides an overview of the first-grade art and literacy curriculum of Waldorf schoo... more This article provides an overview of the first-grade art and literacy curriculum of Waldorf schools, the world's largest, non-religious, independent educational network. The Waldorf curriculum was created by Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner, a contemporary of John Dewey and Maria Montessori, who shared their belief in the advantages of active learning and the importance of providing educational opportunities for students from working class families. Yet Steiner was unique among his contemporaries in his strong focus on artistic approaches to learning. Under the teacher's direction, young children in Waldorf classrooms paint, sing, play, listen to stories and eagerly learn to read through drawing pictures that represent the sounds made by various letters of the alphabet.
Academia Letters, 2022
Elliot Eisner (2002) noted that, among the distinctive contributions the arts make in schools, is... more Elliot Eisner (2002) noted that, among the distinctive contributions the arts make in schools, is the development of thinking skills within the context of an art form. He saw in art the potential to serve as a model of what creative educational practice could ideally become. Yet, in too many elementary school classrooms, children are given few opportunities to experiment with artistic forms. A widespread focus on technical rationality and assessment has allowed prescribed content to crowd out more artistic types of learning, along with the elements of discovery and surprise.
Art educators cannot help but wonder how thinking skills might develop if schools had environments in which children’s artistic efforts were encouraged to become more sensitive, imaginative, and skilled (Eisner, 2002). What would this look like? What might be learned? The century-old Waldorf network of independent schools provides an environment in which these questions can be investigated. The first Waldorf school was founded by Austrian philoso- pher Rudolf Steiner in Stuttgart, Germany in 1919. Steiner (2000) asserted that “Our task is to find teaching methods that continually engage the whole human being. We would not succeed in this endeavor if we failed to concentrate on developing the human sense of art” (p. 5).
This paper is based on a study of the early elementary curriculum of three independent Waldorf Schools in California. We discovered unexpected commonalties in regard to the views on art education held by Eliot Eisner and Rudolf Steiner. Across the three schools we studied, the focus Waldorf teachers put on the arts produced results that both scholars had predicted.
Current Issues in School Leadership, 2004
Debate over the nature and purpose of public education began early in United States history. Tho... more Debate over the nature and purpose of public education began early in United States history. Thomas Jefferson argued that if his countrymen were to protect their new-found liberties they had to be literate and able to learn from the lessons of history. In his “Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge” (1779), Jefferson proposed that Virginia offer three years of free schooling to every child. Although his colleagues rejected this proposal as too costly, Jefferson provided future generations with a compelling rationale for a comprehensive state system of education:
Whereas it appeareth that however certain forms of government are better calculated than others to protect individuals in the free exercise of their natural rights, and are at the same time themselves better guarded against degeneracy, yet experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms, those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny; and it is believed that the most effectual means of preventing this would be, to illuminate, as far as practicable, the minds of people at large …
Horace Mann and other nineteenth century reformers argued that public schools would help build community based on common knowledge and common values. However, in his “Twelfth Annual Report” to the Massachusetts Board of Education (1848), Mann offered a quite different rationale for public schooling than did Jefferson: “if all the children in the community, from the age of four years to that of sixteen, could be brought within the reformatory and elevating influence of schools, the dark host of private vices and public crimes, which now embitter domestic peace and stain the civilization of the age, might, in ninety-nine cases in every hundred, be banished from the world”.
Tension between the “bottom-up” view of public schools (epitomized in Jefferson’s view of education as the safeguard of individual liberty) and the “top-down” view of education (inherent in Mann’s vision of a common school that would provide moral guidance for the masses) has continued to pervade debates on public education. The charter school movement is but the latest attempt to provide a solution to this dilemma. Yet, it has been the subject of much public debate.
Academia Letters, 2022
Elliot Eisner (2002) noted that, among the distinctive contributions the arts make in schools, is... more Elliot Eisner (2002) noted that, among the distinctive contributions the arts make in schools, is the development of thinking skills within the context of an art form. He saw in art the potential to serve as a model of what creative educational practice could ideally become. Yet, in too many elementary school classrooms, children are given few opportunities to experiment with artistic forms. A widespread focus on technical rationality and assessment has allowed prescribed content to crowd out more artistic types of learning, along with the elements of discovery and surprise. Art educators cannot help but wonder how thinking skills might develop if schools had environments in which children's artistic efforts were encouraged to become more sensitive, imaginative, and skilled (Eisner, 2002). What would this look like? What might be learned? The century-old Waldorf network of independent schools provides an environment in which these questions can be investigated. The first Waldorf school was founded by Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner in Stuttgart, Germany in 1919. Steiner (2000) asserted that "Our task is to find teaching methods that continually engage the whole human being. We would not succeed in this endeavor if we failed to concentrate on developing the human sense of art" (p. 5). This paper is based on a study of the early elementary curriculum of three independent Waldorf Schools in California. We discovered unexpected commonalties in regard to the views on art education held by Eliot Eisner and Rudolf Steiner. Across the three schools we studied, the focus Waldorf teachers put on the arts produced results that both scholars had predicted.
Nurturing the Social-Emotional and Cognitive Development of K-2 Gifted Learners through Storytell... more Nurturing the Social-Emotional and Cognitive Development of K-2 Gifted Learners through Storytelling and Drama 1 A group of first graders sit in a circle, listening as their teacher reads the book Thunder Cake i (Polacco, 1997). They have been studying weather. The story tells of how a grandmother helps her granddaughter overcome a fear of thunderstorms. After the children have shared their own experiences with thunderstorms, the teacher takes the lesson a step further. Who can describe the sounds a thunderstorm makes? Bam! Boom! Children imitate the crack of thunder. The teacher nods, then explains that thunder is only part of a storm. She gives each child a sheet of newsprint, explaining that they are going use it to recreate the many sounds of a thunderstorm. First, children are encouraged to take a few moments to experiment. How many sounds can they make with the paper? They go around the circle, giggling when someone comes up with an unexpected way of producing sound with paper...
Author(s): Brouillette, Liane R. | Abstract: Reform efforts in public elementary and secondary sc... more Author(s): Brouillette, Liane R. | Abstract: Reform efforts in public elementary and secondary schools are taking either of two directions: increased state control and accountability through high-stakes tests or market-style competition through tuition vouchers and school choice. Yet many of the most influential reform efforts in the past decade have been those that recognized the larger universe to which public schools belong. For example, the University of California ArtsBridge program brings university arts students into K-12 classrooms where the arts have been eliminated as a result of budget cuts. ArtsBridge both supports university students in the arts through scholarships and provides hands-on arts instruction for K-12 students. Arts instruction is targeted to local needs and often ties to other content areas. If universities were to count outreach activities more heavily in promotion and tenure reviews, university faculty might play a strong role in re-energizing K-12 educat...
Journal for Learning through the Arts: A Research Journal on Arts Integration in Schools and Communities
Journal of Physical Education and Sport Management, May 31, 2014
This study reports on the kind of school leadership style that best suits for promoting teachers'... more This study reports on the kind of school leadership style that best suits for promoting teachers' job satisfaction in primary schools in Tanzania. The study employed cross sectional research design with samples of 200 teachers from 20 selected primary schools in Songea and Morogoro districts. Interviews, documentary analysis and questionnaires were used to collect data. The data were analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively using tables, frequencies and percentages. It was found that the democratic leadership style was the most dominant in best performing primary schools. It is therefore suggested that there is much to be learnt with democratic leadership style as a copying strategy in least performing primary schools. Moreover, level of teachers' job satisfaction was reportedly high in best performing schools compared to least performing schools. The findings commended that democratic leadership style is the one which promotes high teachers' job satisfaction among teachers in primary schools.
Reading Research Quarterly, 2014
Although English oral language proficiency in the primary grades is critical to the literacy deve... more Although English oral language proficiency in the primary grades is critical to the literacy development of English learners (ELs), we know little about how to foster these skills. This study examined a yearlong K-2 drama and creative movement intervention. A randomized experimental design (N = 5,240) was used to address two research questions: (1) Did participating ELs perform better on oral language assessments than those who did not receive the intervention? (2) Was the impact of the program moderated by students' baseline English-language skills? Student speaking and listening skills were measured using the California English Language Development Test. The treatment group (N = 902) outperformed controls (N = 4,338) on speaking assessments. ELs with the most limited English speaking abilities at baseline benefited most from the program. I n recent decades, the number of children born to immigrants in the United States has grown rapidly (Matthews & Jang, 2007), and many of these families primarily speak a language other than English. Nearly 10% of the U.S. student population now comes from non-Englishspeaking homes (U.S. Department of Education, 2013). During the 2010-2011 school year, an estimated 10% (4.7 million) of elementary and secondary students were served by language assistance programs (Aud et al., 2013). In California, English learners (ELs)-the term that the California Department of Education (CDE) uses to describe students who come from homes where a language other than English is spokenconstitute over 20% of public school enrollment (National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition, 2011). Oral language proficiency in early childhood has been shown to be critical for both monolingual (Snow, Porche, Tabors, & Harris, 2007) and bilingual literacy development (Roberts & Neal, 2004 ; Uccelli & Páez, 2007). A child ' s English oral language skills in the early elementary years are critical to his or her future English reading comprehension and academic success (August & Shanahan, 2006 ; Hoff, 2013 ; Snow & Dickinson, 1991). Yet, research shows that ELs trail their monolingual English-speaking peers in English-language competencies both at kindergarten entry and throughout schooling (Lee & Burkam, 2002 ; National Center for Education Statistics, 2012). Further, many ELs come from low-income families, adding an additional risk factor for early English-language and vocabulary development (Hart & Risley, 1995 ; Kieffer, 2010). To facilitate the transition of ELs to English-speaking classrooms, teachers need explicit research-based instructional strategies for the oral language practice necessary to help these students thrive.
Journal of Experiential Education, 1992
Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education
Background/Context Throughout schooling, English learners (ELs) perform well below their monoling... more Background/Context Throughout schooling, English learners (ELs) perform well below their monolingual English-speaking peers on literacy assessments, and Hispanics make up the majority of EL students in the United States. There is a strong consensus about the importance of early English oral language skills for ELs’ literacy development, yet teachers are not adequately prepared to meet the needs of these young learners. Historically, policy has not provided incentives for educators to focus on oral language development in the classroom. However, the recently adopted Common Core State Standards (CCSS) emphasize oral language skills. Purpose/Objective This study examines a professional development program that equipped early elementary teachers in five urban schools with arts-based strategies to promote the oral English development of ELs. A second line of inquiry looked at the extent to which the creative drama and dance activities were aligned with CCSS. Participants There were 3,792...
The current focus on high-stakes testing has pressured schools to focus on a narrow range of lite... more The current focus on high-stakes testing has pressured schools to focus on a narrow range of literacy skills at the expense of oral language, vocabulary, and background knowledge. This article argues that theatre arts lessons can be an effective way for teachers to engage in rich verbal interactions with many children at once, providing feedback and building vocabulary. A K-2 theatre arts program initiated in the San Diego Unified School District is described, with links to on-line lesson plans and streaming videos of classroom instruction. Participants comment on the effect K-2 theatre activities had on classroom culture and student learning especially the literacy skills of English language learners.
Oral language skills are essential to the future literacy of students in kindergarten and first g... more Oral language skills are essential to the future literacy of students in kindergarten and first grade, especially emergent bilinguals (EBs). Yet, U.S. teachers receive few professional development opportunities that prepare them to use effective strategies for promoting oral language development. Since teacher education is compartmentalized into curricular silos, methods for literacy instruction are taught in one course, methods for arts instruction in another, and so on. This article argues that well-designed arts integration can meet a key need of young, linguistically diverse students by providing opportunities for oral language practice across content areas. Experimental evidence that arts-based instruction benefits the speaking skills of EBs is presented; the underlying mechanisms are explored. An example of a fieldwork program that provided pre-service teachers with hands-on experience in K-1 classes is included, showing how they learned to enhance the verbal skills of EBs thr...
Current Issues in School Leadership, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2004
Arts Education Policy Review
Brouillette (2020): Did consequential accountability policies decrease the share of visual and pe... more Brouillette (2020): Did consequential accountability policies decrease the share of visual and performing arts education in U.S. public secondary schools during the No Child Left Behind era?, Arts Education Policy Review,
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Papers by Liane Brouillette
Art educators cannot help but wonder how thinking skills might develop if schools had environments in which children’s artistic efforts were encouraged to become more sensitive, imaginative, and skilled (Eisner, 2002). What would this look like? What might be learned? The century-old Waldorf network of independent schools provides an environment in which these questions can be investigated. The first Waldorf school was founded by Austrian philoso- pher Rudolf Steiner in Stuttgart, Germany in 1919. Steiner (2000) asserted that “Our task is to find teaching methods that continually engage the whole human being. We would not succeed in this endeavor if we failed to concentrate on developing the human sense of art” (p. 5).
This paper is based on a study of the early elementary curriculum of three independent Waldorf Schools in California. We discovered unexpected commonalties in regard to the views on art education held by Eliot Eisner and Rudolf Steiner. Across the three schools we studied, the focus Waldorf teachers put on the arts produced results that both scholars had predicted.
Whereas it appeareth that however certain forms of government are better calculated than others to protect individuals in the free exercise of their natural rights, and are at the same time themselves better guarded against degeneracy, yet experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms, those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny; and it is believed that the most effectual means of preventing this would be, to illuminate, as far as practicable, the minds of people at large …
Horace Mann and other nineteenth century reformers argued that public schools would help build community based on common knowledge and common values. However, in his “Twelfth Annual Report” to the Massachusetts Board of Education (1848), Mann offered a quite different rationale for public schooling than did Jefferson: “if all the children in the community, from the age of four years to that of sixteen, could be brought within the reformatory and elevating influence of schools, the dark host of private vices and public crimes, which now embitter domestic peace and stain the civilization of the age, might, in ninety-nine cases in every hundred, be banished from the world”.
Tension between the “bottom-up” view of public schools (epitomized in Jefferson’s view of education as the safeguard of individual liberty) and the “top-down” view of education (inherent in Mann’s vision of a common school that would provide moral guidance for the masses) has continued to pervade debates on public education. The charter school movement is but the latest attempt to provide a solution to this dilemma. Yet, it has been the subject of much public debate.
Art educators cannot help but wonder how thinking skills might develop if schools had environments in which children’s artistic efforts were encouraged to become more sensitive, imaginative, and skilled (Eisner, 2002). What would this look like? What might be learned? The century-old Waldorf network of independent schools provides an environment in which these questions can be investigated. The first Waldorf school was founded by Austrian philoso- pher Rudolf Steiner in Stuttgart, Germany in 1919. Steiner (2000) asserted that “Our task is to find teaching methods that continually engage the whole human being. We would not succeed in this endeavor if we failed to concentrate on developing the human sense of art” (p. 5).
This paper is based on a study of the early elementary curriculum of three independent Waldorf Schools in California. We discovered unexpected commonalties in regard to the views on art education held by Eliot Eisner and Rudolf Steiner. Across the three schools we studied, the focus Waldorf teachers put on the arts produced results that both scholars had predicted.
Whereas it appeareth that however certain forms of government are better calculated than others to protect individuals in the free exercise of their natural rights, and are at the same time themselves better guarded against degeneracy, yet experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms, those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny; and it is believed that the most effectual means of preventing this would be, to illuminate, as far as practicable, the minds of people at large …
Horace Mann and other nineteenth century reformers argued that public schools would help build community based on common knowledge and common values. However, in his “Twelfth Annual Report” to the Massachusetts Board of Education (1848), Mann offered a quite different rationale for public schooling than did Jefferson: “if all the children in the community, from the age of four years to that of sixteen, could be brought within the reformatory and elevating influence of schools, the dark host of private vices and public crimes, which now embitter domestic peace and stain the civilization of the age, might, in ninety-nine cases in every hundred, be banished from the world”.
Tension between the “bottom-up” view of public schools (epitomized in Jefferson’s view of education as the safeguard of individual liberty) and the “top-down” view of education (inherent in Mann’s vision of a common school that would provide moral guidance for the masses) has continued to pervade debates on public education. The charter school movement is but the latest attempt to provide a solution to this dilemma. Yet, it has been the subject of much public debate.