It’s an election year, and time to keep arts in the minds of our candidates. Advocating for dance at the governmental policy level can be intimidating if you don’t know where to start or what kinds of small steps have impact. Americans for the Arts has some resources that can help, including ones that are state-specific. Find out what’s happening in your state, who your arts representatives and supporting organizations are, and how to get involved here.

A moving body is a learning body, and a playing body is a learning body.

Play is central to how children learn—the way they form and explore friendships, the way they shape and test hypotheses, and the way they make sense of their world. Much is known about how play supports learning, yet little empirical research has explored what it might mean to put play at the center of formal schooling.

In 2015, Harvard’s Project Zero Pedagogy of Play (PoP) research project began investigating the nature of playful learning in schools. Their new publication, A Pedagogy of Play (free PDF available) shares their findings from asking three questions: Why do educators need a pedagogy of play? What does playful learning look and feel like in classrooms and schools? How do educators set up the conditions where playful learning thrives?

Read here.

California’s Prop 28 ensures more public school access to the arts, and 80% of Prop 28 funds will go towards hiring arts teachers. But because the dance credential is still new, there are not enough credentialed teachers to fill the positions that will open. How can we bridge the gap? What are the pathways to being credentialed in dance?

Check out these two new resources to understand your options, and share with your administrators:

Prop 28: What We Know (So Far) from Create CA

School Districts Need Arts Teachers from California County Superintendents Arts Initiative

TCAP’s (The California Arts Project) statewide and regional arts education network communities support TK–12 through post-secondary dance, media arts, music, theatre, and visual arts educators. Their every-other-month, free virtual network sessions provide opportunities for teachers and administrators to stay informed of statewide and regional arts education news, issues, and to engage in dialogue with others on critical arts education topics. Join to expand your advocacy network! First session is September 28, more details here.