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Literature that addresses how the arts enhance student learning through creative expression is minimal. This is especially true for African-American elementary students from high-poverty backgrounds. The purpose of this study was to employ a case study design to explore how African-American elementary students in high-poverty schools experience creative expression in the art classroom. A qualitative methodology was implemented to answer two research questions: how do African-American students express themselves in the art classroom? and, how do students describe their creative process? The primary sources from which information was gathered included semi-structured open-ended interviews, field observations, a focus group, and students' artwork (hermeneutics). NVivo software was used to assist with coding, sorting, and classifying the data into patterns and emergent themes. The 12 participants for this case study were purposefully chosen based on five dimensions: age, gender, grade level, socio-economic background, and ethnicity. Results revealed imaginative processes were heightened through social connections with peers, art instructor, and artistic interactions with art media. Participants' verbal and written descriptions, analyses, and interpretations about art permitted critical and intuitive thinking to make pertinent decisions about learning and creative processes. These results may provide the educational research community, policy makers and funding sources with new knowledge about the artistic experiences of K-12 children in general and children from high-poverty schools in particular. This new knowledge holds great potential for informing the expansion of curricular offerings that incorporate the lived experiences of disadvantaged students, and for new technologies that enhance curriculum design and assessment options of art educators. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]