Promoting Equitable and Holistic Education: The Role of Arts Education and Whole Child Policy in Unleashing Potential and Advancing Progress

Inclusive arts education policy considers the arts a viable entry point to a holistic educational experience. It encourages educators to engage with students on a social and emotional level. Several studies have explored challenges with policy implementation that identify educators' interpretation of policy or assimilation to existing policy as a barrier to the full actualization of policy. Through a rigorous convergent mixed-methods study using convenience sampling, I present a thorough analysis of data that reflects internalized values, beliefs, and ideas. Seven contributors, five educational leaders, and two alumni completed interviews, and twenty-one educational leaders completed surveys utilizing Qualtrics (www.qualtrics.com/), a web-based survey tool. The results identify contextual relationships and offer a comprehensive narrative encompassing knowledge and understanding, resource availability, beliefs, and psychological factors influencing the interpretation and implementation of whole-child arts inclusive policy. The results were: Insufficient policy awareness of federal and state policy, significant knowledge of teaching and general assessment practices, and remarkable administrative support coupled with resource limitations; challenges with structural design, prioritization of arts education despite financial challenges, students’ perspective reciprocates structure; and alignment with mission and past experiences in arts education.