This Yearbook is the first in what is anticipated to be an annual series of publications by the International Network for Research in Arts Education (INRAE). It is designed as a forum for information sharing and discussion of issues arising from the adoption and implementation of the Seoul Agenda, the statement of principle and action that emerged from the 2010 World Conference on Arts Education in Korea and has since been unanimously ratified by the UNESCO General Conference. The Yearbook is intended as a living contribution to the international debate about quality in arts education. This first edition emphasizes short, contextual contributions that summarize recent advances made in this field, and establishes the parameters for ongoing discussion.

"This Yearbook is the first in what is anticipated to be an annual series of publications by the International Network for Research in Arts Education (INRAE). It is designed as a forum for information sharing and discussion of issues arising from the adoption and implementation of the Seoul Agenda, the statement of principle and action that emerged from the 2010 World Conference on Arts Education in Korea and has since been unanimously ratified by the UNESCO General Conference. The Yearbook is intended as a living contribution to the international debate about quality in arts education. This first edition emphasizes short, contextual contributions that summarize recent advances made in this field, and establishes the parameters for ongoing discussion."-back cover.

The Seoul Agenda: Goals for the Development of Arts Education was unanimously endorsed by all UNESCO Member States in 2011. It is the only existent policy paper of global relevance on arts education. It provided the frame of reference for an international inquiry into arts education experts' perceptions of key issues in the field: access and participation, quality, and the benefits of arts education. Nearly 400 experts from 61 countries around the world participated in this research. The book presents findings, commentaries, and reflections contributed by 51 international scholars and expert practitioners.

This yearbook will be the third in an annual series of publications by the International Network for Research in Arts Education (INREA). It will provide a comprehensive survey of contemporary research trends in arts education and will be based on the idea of constructing knowledge in the arts with the wisdom of the many. About sixty scholars from across the world will convey the zeitgeist of the key issues in research in arts education. The volume will be designed as a basic companion for every researcher, student, teacher or artist who wants to know what the recent knowledge of scholars is and what they consider significant. The key issues will reflect the images and the observations that a large body of researchers consider to be essential.

Building on earlier discourse, the current yearbook volume continues to focus on questions of research in the field of cultural and arts education from a global perspective. This year's volume opens with a review of important contributions to the World Summit in Arts Education held in Wildbad Kreuth, Germany in 2013. It continues with the topics of evaluation, mapping and monitoring introduced in the first volume. Theoretical and practical applications of the key foundations of work in the International Network for Research in Arts Education (INRAE) are also explored at length. Most notably, new approaches aimed at linking arts education to peace education and the application of these approaches to education for sustainable development (ESD) are introduced and explored.

This peer-reviewed academic yearbook stems from the inaugural meeting of the newly formed UNESCO UNITWIN network on Arts Education Research for Cultural Diversity and Sustainable Development, held at the National Institute of Education, Singapore in April 2017. It presents international scholarly perspectives on issues related to arts education and cultural diversity in terms of: i) national and international policies; ii) terms, concepts and vocabularies; iii) current and ongoing research; and iv) best practices. The UNESCO UNITWIN is an arts education research think tank that gathers and leverages original research and critical commentaries on the arts and sustainable development from UNITWIN member states and beyond (Australia, Canada, Colombia, Germany, Hong Kong, Kenya, Korea, Israel, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan, the Netherlands and the United States of America).

This yearbook is the fourth in an annual series of publications by the International Network for Research in Arts Education (INRAE). INRAE aims to disseminate high quality international research in arts education related to the implementation of UNESCO's 'Seoul Agenda: Goals for the development of arts education'. This yearbook reflects the growing practice around the world of interchanging the terms arts education and cultural education to such an extent that they may eventually be regarded as (nearly) synonymous. We question if there are differences, and how arts and cultural education may be interwoven in different regions of the world. With this in mind we want to reconsider fundamental questions of what arts education is about. Some authors write from a general, more global, perspective, while others are concerned with challenges within one specific art subject or with particular reference to developments in their own country. Overall, the articles analyse and discuss the possibilities and challenges of arts and cultural education around the world.