Springer International Handbook of Research in Arts Education: 16 (Springer International Handbooks of Education, 16)

Providing a distillation of knowledge in the various disciplines of arts education (dance, drama, music, literature and poetry and visual arts), this essential handbook synthesizes existing research literature, reflects on the past, and contributes to shaping the future of the respective and integrated disciplines of arts education. While research can at times seem distant from practice, the Handbook aims to maintain connection with the live practice of art and of education, capturing the vibrancy and best thinking in the field of theory and practice. The Handbook is organized into 13 sections, each focusing on a major area or issue in arts education research. Review Review in Arts and Learning Research Vol 23:1The International Handbook of Research inArts EducationBresler, L. (Ed.). (2007)Dordrecht, NL: Springer. 1627 pp.ISBN 978-1-4020-2998-1$549 HardcoverReviewed by Jessica Hoffmann DavisIndependent ScholarIf you’ve ever observed a two-year old child drawing withcolorful markers on an endless stretch of paper (the blank sideof wrapping or wallpaper will do), you may decide that it’s verydif.cult to pinpoint exactly what she is doing. For sure she ismaking marks (exploring the boundaries of media) like a visualartist, but when the rhythm of the tapping of the mark-making onpaper inspires her to jump a little as she sits or now to hop/crawlacross the paper, she seems more like a dancer exploring somehaiku-like choreography; and when the words tumble like musicalnotes in chant-like accompaniment to the motion―"Bbbbbbb,up!"― you are not sure if what you are witnessing is drawing,modern dance or music, spoken word poetry, performance or evenritual art. The International Handbook of Research in Arts Education isa lot like that. But don’t worry, it sets out to be.From the start, editor Liora Bresler points to the soft edges ofdisciplines and the boundary crossing that invites, setting the stagefor a research tome that spans the artistic disciplines of music, dance,visual arts, and writing, including voices from different academicand geographical locations that travel on their own or intertwinedwithin and across a variety of themes. But don’t be misled by theplayful tone of my opening metaphor. The International Handbook ofResearch in Arts Education marks a substantive contribution to theliterature on the arts in education and it is chock full of thoughtful,well documented reviews and discussions of past and currentresearch―research that spans scholarship in aesthetics and artsin education as well as anthropology, cultural psychology, andcurriculum theory. Beyond its reach in terms of artistic disciplinesand scholarly realms, however, the Handbook is in itself a boundarybreaker defying expectation in both content and form.In comparison with the Handbook of Research and Policy inArt Education, edited by Elliot Eisner and Michael Day in 2004, amilestone in advancing the .eld of visual art education as informedby serious research and re.ection, Bresler’s International Handbookexpands the landscape by: 1) taking a multi-arts perspective, andcounting creative writing in the mix; 2) inviting contributors toengage openly in dialogue; 3) including contributions of unexpectedformat; and 4) attempting if not overtly then at least implicitly tofunction in itself as a work of art. While Eisner and Day play bythe rules producing an impressive compendium of scholarship fora .eld that may have been thought unscholarly, Bresler breaks therules by challenging the standard constraints of such a volume.While Eisner and Day conscientiously frame the .eld of visual arteducation with the expected fences of history, policy, learning,teaching, assessment, and a view of a future in the making, Breslerand her team of 15 section editors honor these hurdles even as theycross them and brave the unexpected beyond.The thirteen sections of the book, comprised of contributionsfrom 116 authors, are organized within and across the