The best of intentions: Leading us beyond the unfulfilled promises of arts integration

The concept of integrating the visual arts with other school subjects resurfaces periodically in educational discourse, but the classroom practices that follow are often disappointing, as implementations dilute the rich possibilities envisioned by theoreticians. Leadership is needed in order to clarify the nature of truly integrated pedagogies, and to prepare teachers to collaborate with specialists in other disciplines to initiate projects that call upon multiple languages to accomplish and document learning. Structural changes in the nature of teachers’ work and the structure of the school day are needed if truly integrated project-based learning is to occur. Leadership is required, in schools and teacher preparation programmes, to accomplish these ends.