ARTiculations: Expressive Arts-Based Curriculum In The Composition Classroom

The following dissertation used practitioner action research as a method for exploring what students in collegiate rhetoric and composition courses experience when expressive arts-based curriculum is utilized throughout a semester. Qualitative data was collected from voluntary student participants in the forms of reflective journals, visual data of their art projects, and four interviews conducted throughout the semester. Once the data was analyzed through coding and mapping of thematic recurrence, it revealed that expressive arts activities fostered active learning, mindset shifts, and intrinsic motivation within students. The study also supported that expressive arts activities can serve as a method for students to engage in a currere, and, further, that currere can be used as a methodological framework for understanding students’ exploration of identity. Lastly, the study exhibited how expressive arts activities have therapeutic elements for students even when they are connected to course content.