The Arts in the Contemporary Socio-Economic Context: An Emphasis on Arts Education

This literature review was conducted to explore arts education practices in the contemporary context, including historical perspectives, current arts education practices, the importance of arts education, and modern trends such as STEAM, arts integration, and the integration of the arts. Highlighting the benefits of arts education is beyond the scope of this paper; however, the importance of arts education and the vital need for improving arts practices and education are included. Findings suggest that the arts have the potential to function as a vehicle to address global challenges, and arts education should be offered both as a discipline valued for its own sake, intrinsic values, and through integrated arts approaches, such as STEAM, thereby providing stakeholders with a range of options from which they can select the model that best aligns with their needs and preferences.