Youth arts

Youth in arts and sciences learning.
Civic engagement, social responsibility, and informed citizenship find their way into the hearts and minds of young people through active exploration of issues that matter to them. Historically, youth organizations, such as the Scouts, YMCA or YWCA, and local community groups have provided leadership opportunities, role models, and service commitments for young people. In the final quarter of the 20th century, in nations around the world, leaders saw the potential for extending the depth and kinds of knowledge young people acquired in school. As schools had increasingly narrowed their goals to high-test-score performance, time for students to take part in deliberative decision-making decreased, arts classes dwindled in number and time, and challenging science problems were tackled only in academically advanced classes.

Yet responsible citizens of the future need science and art. They need both arts and sciences to understand the reasoning behind environmental architecture, ecologically sound building materials, water conservation, and the support and appreciation of the arts and sciences in public sites, such as museums. Moreover, they must have meaningful practice opportunities for deliberative discourse, democratic decision-making, and weighing of the merits of various sources of information. Making out-of-school learning environments experientially rich for young learners and beneficial for communities could also help ensure long-term civic awareness.

Community organizations fill the gaps of time in which the young are not in school, not yet able to enter the labor market, and without family members free to be at home for childcare. Community organizations, often working in association with museums, aquariums, zoos, and art galleries, step forward to make it possible for young people to explore the arts and sciences, and to do so through deliberation and decision-making. Many individuals who went on to successful professional careers later attributed to these organizations their commitment to community responsibility, dedication to the arts and sciences, and faith in young people.

Listed below are key publications by Heath that analyze effective learning environments offered in the non-school hours to young people in different settings around the world. A separate section lists several publications that examine learning through participation on sports teams.

Arts and science learning in community organizations:

United States:
2004. Risks, rules, and roles: Youth perspectives on the work of learning for community development. In Joining Society: Social interaction and learning in adolescence and youth. A. N. Perret-Clermont, C. Pontecorvo, L. B. Resnick, T. Zittoun, & B. Burge. New York: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 41-70.
2001. Three's not a crowd: Plans, roles, and focus in the arts. Educational Researcher. 30.3:1-7.
2000. Making learning work. After school matters 1.1.33-45. (PDF Available)
1999. Imaginative Actuality: Learning in the arts during the nonschool hours. In Champions of change: The impact of the arts on learning. E. Fiske, ed. Washington, DC: Arts Education Partnership. (PDF Available)
1998 (with Roach, A.) The Arts in the Nonschool Hours. Washington, DC: President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. Unpublished.
1998 (with Soep, E.) Youth Development and the Arts in Nonschool Hours. Grantmakers in the Arts 9.1:9-16, 32. (PDF Available)
1998 (with Soep, E.) Living the arts through language + learning. Americans for the Arts Monographs (November) 2.7:1-18 (PDF Available)

England:
2005. (with Shelby Wolf). Focusing creative learning: Drawing on art for language development. Literacy. Pp. 38-45.

Sweden:
2001. Working with community. In Strategic tools for social entrepreneurs. G. Dees, J. Emerson & P. Economy, eds. New York: John Wiley. Pp. 204-243. (PDF Available)

Other parts of the world:
2004. (with Ken Robinson). Making a way: Youth arts and learning in international perspective. In Putting the arts in the picture: Reframing education in the 21st century. N. Rabkin & R. Redmond. eds. Chicago: Center for Arts Policy, Columbia College. Pp. 107-126.

Sports teams and coaching:
1994 (with Juliet Langman) Shared thinking and the register of coaching. In Sociolinguistic perspectives on register. D. Biber & E. Finegan, eds. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pp. 82-105. (PDF Available)
1991. It's about winning! The language of knowledge in baseball. In Perspectives on socially shared cognition. L. Resnick, J. Levine, & S. Teasley, eds. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Pp. 101-124. (PDF Available)