Arts Education – is it being lost in the thunder of the current election

 Arts and drama educators mostly get on with their day to day teaching. This week ACARA, the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority launched The Australian Curriculum Version 9. On the whole, the focus of this major revision, politically driven, has been on strengthening Phonics in English and on headline grabbing issues amongst some such as “strengthening and making explicit teaching about the origins and Christian and Western heritage of Australia's democracy” (once again reinforcing the deep seated suspicion of dark motives in curriculum writers, sensed by some conservative Australians.

There are changes for the Australian Curriculum: The Arts – I will write about them in a later post. 

For now I focus on the relative quiet amongst the media and public about the changes in Version 9. Where is the uproar. Where is even the ripple of recognition that a change has been made that has consequences to teaching and learning?

Put simply, there is nothing showing on the Richter Scales of Education. 

The new version, despite the consultation that happened in 2021, is sinking like a stone unnoticed. 

In fact, Arts Education is not on many people’s radar this election. 

Not surprising given the focus on cost of living (petrol prices rising; inflation figures burgeoning) and the bickering and scrapping tone of the election and going for the jugular gotcha moments that dominate the media feeds.

But is anyone noticing that Arts Education is floundering in the quicksand of Australian education. Passionate few struggle to lift it up. But generally, as an education community, our focus is elsewhere. Not waving, but drowning.  

I share the media release from the National Advocates for Arts Education NAAE in full. 

Is anyone listening?

Certainly, this call falls on deaf ears of my rusted-on local representative.

ACARa advises. Version 9 will be implemented by states and territories according to their own timelines. ACARA will maintain the current Australian Curriculum website with Version 8.4 curriculum and both websites will remain live until such time as there is no need for schools to access Version 8.4 of the Australian Curriculum.NAAE statement about the 2022 federal election

Who we are

The National Advocates for Arts Education (NAAE) is a coalition of peak arts and arts education associations representing approximately 10,000 arts educators across Australia. NAAE members are Art Education Australia (AEA), Australian Dance Council – Ausdance, Australian Society for Music Education (ASME), Australian Teachers of Media (ATOM), Drama Australia and the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA). 

NAAE advocates for every Australian student in primary and secondary schools to have access to quality Arts Education across the five arts subjects: Dance, Drama, Media Arts, Music and Visual Arts.  We ask all political parties to endorse this principle.

Why arts education?

Australian and international research has continued to show the multitude of benefits that The Arts can have on student academic and non-academic outcomes. Arts Education not only fosters the development of artistic skills for art making, but it also teaches skills in collaboration, innovation, experimentation, resilience, confidence, problem-solving and communication.   Research finds that students who engage in The Arts do better academically in their non-Arts subjects than those students who do not participate in The Arts (Martin et al., 2013).

 There is ample global evidence (including Australia) that speaks to the explicit value and benefits of an Arts rich society. This enrichment begins and is contingent upon access to quality Arts Education. Arts Education plays an essential role in preparing young people and industry professionals to respond holistically, meaningfully, and purposefully to the impacts of global events. The long tail of COVID, coupled with catastrophic climate events and significant global conflict all point to the necessity of and need for Arts education in Australia. 

 It is now time to halt the erosion of support for arts and arts education that has occurred over the past decade. We ask for meaningful investment in quality Arts Education across all levels of Australian society. This means making a tangible commitment to providing increased support for rigorous and sophisticated opportunities for teaching, learning, making, producing, and creating into the future.

 What we are calling for

The National Advocates for Arts Education are calling for all political parties to consider and endorse the following policy imperatives.

1. NAAE urges all political parties to commit to the development of a National Cultural Policy that includes Arts Education and is developed in consultation with artists, arts educators, the community, and peak arts bodies to ensure a well-supported arts and cultural sector that is serving the Australian community.

2. NAAE calls for support for implementation of arts curriculums across the five Arts subjects in each state and territory in Australia from Foundation to Year 12 with targeted professional development, training, and education programs.

3. Halt the erosion of arts specific education training in Initial Teacher Education (ITE) to increase curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment course allocation time for The Arts. This extends to specialisations and time for arts learning in early childhood and primary education courses to ensure teachers are well equipped to teach at least one Arts subject in depth. See NAAE’s submission to the Quality Initial Teacher Education Review here.

4. Undo the current government’s university fee increase to Creative Arts courses. We call for an equitable tertiary education system that does not target Creative Arts degrees with increased fees on the false basis that this area of study does not lead to employment. See our August 2020 statement and September 2020 statements for more details.

5. Increase funding to the Australia Council for The Arts to specifically include funding for teaching artists in schools for existing and future programs, as well as support for arts engagement programs with students and for teacher professional learning.

6. The National Music Teacher Mentoring Program (established by Richard Gill and implemented through the Australian Youth Orchestra) be expanded with additional funding to ensure early childhood and primary school teachers also have professional learning support across the other four Arts subjects: Dance, Drama, Media Arts, and Visual Arts.

7. NAAE calls for the removal of political interference in Australian Research Council (ARC) directions for Australian research. Earlier this year we raised concerns about the increased level of government interference in independent peer-review processes, and major implications for the type of research that will occur in years to come.

8. Given the concerns raised above, NAAE calls for a federally funded Review of The Arts in Australian Schools. Within the past 15 years, two federally funded reviews have been conducted into two arts subjects; National Review of School Music Education: Augmenting the diminished (Pascoe, Leong, MacCallum, Mackinlay, Marsh, Smith, Church, and Winterton (2005) and First We See: The National Review of Visual Education (Davis, 2008). These have been significant, important, and valuable reviews that were completed before the Australian Curriculum: The Arts was endorsed in 2013.

It is now timely to recommend another review that will include the five arts subjects (Dance, Drama, Media Arts, Music, and Visual Arts) included in the Australian Curriculum and how various national, state, and territory arts curriculum is being implemented and taught in Australian schools.  NAAE has proposed a draft terms of reference for the review which include:

• Relevant Australian and international research published in the last ten years, on national arts curricula in schools focusing on best practice delivery and resourcing models.

• Map current curriculum provision (intended curriculum) and implementation of curriculum (enacted curriculum) across the five Arts subjects in each state and territory in Australia from Foundation to Year 12 to ascertain: which Arts subjects are implemented in primary and secondary schools; which teachers implement the five arts subjects; how schools manage the time required to provide quality Arts learning experiences for students; and, what is the ‘actual’ time provided for each Arts subject. An analysis of the differences between the intended curriculum and enacted curriculum is required to investigate the elements that nurture and hinder implementation.

• Map current Initial Teacher Education (ITE) and Early Career Teacher support offerings nationally in education courses (across early childhood, primary education, and secondary education) and identify lecturer expertise, assessment types, number of units, and hours allocated to Arts education.

• Examples of effective primary school programs that provide sequential foundational learning in the five arts subjects.

• Provide recommendations for:

  • future iterations of arts curriculum and implementation at a national and state/territory level.

  • provision of Initial Teacher Education for The Arts (and any implications for AITSL to consider).

  • improving Initial Teacher Education programs in Arts curriculum and pedagogy, across early years, primary and secondary pre-service teachers. o

  • ongoing professional learning for primary generalist, primary specialist, and secondary specialist teachers. Recommendations for the Commonwealth, State and Territory Governments, Teacher Accreditation Boards and Universities to consider.

  • a range of best practice delivery models of The Arts in Australian schools.

NAAE acknowledges the extensive research and industry evidence pointing to how and why Australian society looks to Arts Education to foster individual and collective resilience in crises. We ask our policymakers to do the same.

Meaningful investment, proper resourcing, and support in the form of sustained professional learning and adequate initial teacher education for Arts teachers are essential for how we leverage the unique skills and understandings obtained by the field in recent years. This is going to be essential for how we work together to understand how change is experienced on the ground, and deliver on the ambitions of version 9.0 of the Australian Curriculum. 

For further comment contact: 

John Nicholas Saunders, Chair, NAAE at contact@naae.org.au 

Drama Tuesday - Impact

Music Monday - More about Practice

Last week’s post about music practice generated some interesting discussion. Thank you to those who contacted me with anecdotal stories about students young and older.

I’ve been thinking and reflecting further on this essential component of successful music performance.

Our daughter, Hannah had an outstanding piano teacher. Sue’s students were typical suburban kids, but consistently achieved above - average results in their AMEB piano exams. Her own daughters all went on to become professional string players. The family are clearly extremely talented in music, but I have often wondered if a significant part of their professional success was their mother’s guidance about practice routines from an early age.

I have been searching (without success) for one of Hannah’s old practice books, but my recollections of a typical page would read something like this:

D major scale. Practise hands separately 3 times then together, slowly, 3 times

Gavotte. New. Try page one slowly, separate hands. 3 times each practice.

Revise List A and D pieces once each practice.

List C. Check bars 43-49 (wrong today) and practice slowly 3 times each practice

And so on.

Very specific.

This week with my Year 8 boys’ singing group, I quizzed them about their practice since the last lesson. Interestingly - but unsurprisingly - the boy who scored highest in a technical work assessment had the most specific practice routine. Here is what he reported as being his practice routine:

“I sang each of our (5) scales 5 times to warm up.

Then I sang the vocalise, checking the breathing and the dynamics.

I practised the song, checking the rhythms at the bars you told us to.

I recorded myself singing to make sure that I wasn’t scooping or sliding.

Then I went through my parts in Matilda (their current school musical).”

Again, very specific and ordered.

We are living in an age where technology provides so many tools for practice – warm up apps, recording devices on our phones, backing tracks with or without voice / piano / orchestra. The list goes on.

But as music educators we still need to train effective practice habits.

Music Monday - Practice

A couple of weeks ago I was shocked when a tertiary singing student confessed to me that she had never done any singing practice. Never. Not in the 15 months I have been teaching her and not at any point during her secondary schooling, which is when she started formal singing lessons. What was even more galling to me was that I hadn’t realised. This student is naturally talented and learns new song repertoire easily. She had recorded her lessons with me, including exercises to teach and reinforce new aspects of vocal technique. In my turn, I had observed that her progress with new vocal technique concepts was slow; however her strong natural instincts for ‘selling’ a song, as well as a naturally robust vocal instrument had enabled her to get away with it to a certain extent. Her confession came in response to my observation (at this particular lesson) that she was taking a long time to develop a secure head dominant mix.

In our frank discussion which followed, the student confided that she had always had a lazy attitude towards work, but more than that, no one had ever told her how to practice. That really set me thinking.

With my young beginner singers, I always make explicit instructions- “do this exercise 5 times each day”, “sing through the song then go over the problem phrases”, “check in the mirror to see that you are….”. The younger students have a journal in which to write instructions and record their practice times and at each lesson there is discussion about how they have fared since the previous lesson.

With tertiary / adult students, I have, until now, verbally suggested the recommended number of repetitions of new exercises and techniques, but I have assumed that these were practised at home. Clearly this has not always been the case. 

Since that lesson, I am now quizzing students in more detail. Instead of a generic “how has your practice gone since the last lesson?” I am asking, “How many times did you do the … exercises?” etc.

And what of the student who started this? Well, in the past week she has practised in detail twice. Not yet ideal, but baby steps towards a more effective artistic practice routine.

A Socially Critical look at the state of Arts Education

I have been teaching students about Critical Theory and Critical Incidents. It occurred to me that arts educators might need to think about making a social justice case for the arts in schools. 

Critical Incident

In 2020, the implementation of arts education is under threat. Government decisions to strengthen STEM Education and the pressure to focus on Literacy, Numeracy and Science education through NAPLAN focus and teaching to the test, is diminishing the promise of arts education that documents like the Australian Curriculum: The Arts (ACARA 2014) dangle before us. Arts teacher education is being contracted. What is even more troublesome and galling is that the voices of arts educators are not cutting through the static. Our point of view is not being heard nor respected.

As Robyn Ewing (2020) observes, while 

…there is unequivocal research evidence that quality arts processes and experiences engender a distinctive and critical set of understandings and skills that all young people need to navigate twenty-first century living.… the potential for the Arts and arts education to transform the curriculum coupled with the ongoing paucity of Australia’s arts storylines threaten the actualisation o The Australian Curriculum: The Arts. (p 75)

It distresses me, as an arts educator, that the good work of many arts educators is going unnoticed. It angers me that my life’s work in arts education seems to be evaporating. I have been teaching my students to deepen their analysis of Critical Incidents as part of professional growth.and should try that approach.

Applying a socially critical lens to the current state of arts education as I perceive it, might help us better understand what is happening and why it is causing me distress.

Here is a useful outline of Critical Theory as proposed by David Tripp

Socially critical analysis in education is informed by principles of social justice, both in terms of its own ways of working and in terms of its outcomes in and orientation to the community. It involves strategic pedagogic action on the part of classroom teachers aimed at emancipation from overt and covert forms of domination. In practical terms, it is not simply a matter of challenging the existing practices of the system, but of seeking to understand what makes the system be the way it is and challenging that, whilst remaining conscious that one’s own sense of justice and equality is itself open to question. (modified from Tripp 1990b: 161) (Tripp 1993/2012 p 114)

Using this formulation for socially critical analysis I argue that arts education is being discriminated  against, marginalised and disadvantaged.

What is happening to arts education goes against fundamental principles of social justice, against a sense of what is fair and just. Prevailing attitudes to arts education in many schools are marginalising the value and significance of the arts in education; arts educators have legitimate concerns about choices which discriminate or minimalise their contribution and place in schools. There is hegemony in the status given to forms of knowledge and subject disciplines that play out in the curriculum offerings and the teaching of the arts.

There needs to be care in making this argument. In a time when there are many examples of marginalisation and discrimination, it might seem whinging to argue a case for arts education. Disadvantage, poverty, racism, gender bias and cancel culture are all legitimate causes for social justice concern. In the wider scheme of discrimination on social justice grounds, it might seem that the case for arts education is relatively trivial and unimportant because it speaks for a narrow group of people. Rather than weakening the case, the fact that we continue to see forms of discrimination gives legitimacy to the claim. The lack of arts education in schools is an indictment of discrimination which ultimately is one measure of social justice. It is discriminatory because the benefits of arts education are  withheld from the many whose lives would benefit from an arts education.

What arts education suffers from are forms of overt and covert domination. Decisions made by politicians,  school administrators and parents reflect unspoken misconceptions, assumptions and prejudices that place other forms of knowledge, other subject areas in the curriculum ahead of arts education. Arts education needs to be freed from these hegemonic decisions.

In stating this, I am not arguing that arts education is more important than other fields rather that arts education is as important. It is as important because a successfully comprehensive education addresses the breadth of human needs. Over time in schools, students need their cognitive, social, emotional and physical needs to be addressed. The Arts are part of a whole education. The arguments of a need for efficiency and prioritising of some sections of the curriculum over others, ignore the need for a broad and comprehensive approach that addresses the overall health, well-being and sense of identity in a democratic society. 

Steven Covey in (2004) offers the principle… seek first to understand, then to be understood. It is useful to consider how we understand what makes the system be the way it is. We need to spend time analysing why attitudes and values about arts education prevail. I speculate three points here: 1) the inertia of the ways things have always been (history and precedent); 2) fear of the unknown; and, 3) lack of opportunity.

History and precedent are no defence. In former times, prevailing social values gave legitimacy to slavery, racial and religious discrimination that we now question and challenge. Consider how attitudes and forms of habit about smoking have changed broad societal values and actions. What are the factors of those campaigns that provided the psychological and physical push towards change?

Fear of the unknown is a legitimate human response. To flee from the unknown rather than to confront it, is common. Without resorting to Rumsfeld’s known unknowns , the truism about teaching must be recognised: you can’t teach what you don’t know. In what ways can there be unthreatening and enjoyable experiences of arts education?

Ignorance and lack of opportunity. Poor or ineffective arts education negate decision makers who do not see the value and purpose of arts education. But the danger of Catch 22 lurks in the proposition that we bring long term improvement by incremental change. How do we implement opportunities in arts  education that are transformative of attitudes and values?

Shouting in the face of discrimination sounds hysterical and is too easily dismissed. Making logical arguments (like this one) are too easily ignored. Taking positions of influence and power are one way of addressing these issues – but slow, glacially slow. It is easy to get into a cycle of hope followed by disappointment. Making a cosy critical analysis of the arts education problem might help me understand better what is happening but does it change anything? What brings about actual change?. 

In a socially just view of the world, there is a fair sharing of resources, opportunities, status and responsibilities, There is a balance between the reciprocal needs of individuals and the institutions in society. A more socially just view of arts education means:

• overt and covert discrimination against the arts is addressed

• balance recognition of the place and value of arts education in schools is intrinsic to our society

• Arts Education is not just an entitlement but is fully realised.

The arts have often been vehicles for social justice and change. It is time for us to use our art forms to highlight the social injustice been meted out to arts education in schools. This is a call for action beyond analysis.

Bibliography

ACARA. (2014). "The Australian Curriculum: The Arts." from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/the-arts/introduction.

Covey, S. R. (2004). The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change. New York, NY, Free Press.

Ewing, R. (2020). "The Australian Curriculum: The Arts. A critical opportunity." Curriculum Perspectives 40: 75-81.

Tripp, D. (1993/2012). Critical Incidents in Teaching: Developing Professional Judgement. Abingdon, Oxon, Routledge.

Music Monday - Rhythm and Rhyme – working creatively with young children.

Both rhyme and rhythm are patterns in sound – in spoken sound as well as sung sound.

The wonderful work done by biggerbetterbrains.com highlights the importance of these skills in early language development. I have written about this in previous Music Monday posts and it continues to fascinate me, especially now that we have a pre-schooler grandson in our lives.

Yesterday (almost) 4 year-old William came to our house for the day. As usual he was excited about what activities we had planned for his visit. The hot favourites always include cooking, picking up the dog’s poop (yes, really) and music. The last always includes a very short period of hand positions on the piano, and a longer time singing songs, accompanied by me with William playing random notes in rhythm at the top end of the keyboard. Yesterday his attention was caught by the rhyming patterns in one particular song and I wondered whether we could play further with this idea, especially after he volunteered, “The rhymes are words that sound the same, aren’t they?”

We got out William’s scrap book and started writing down rhyming words. Of course, ‘poop’ featured – loads of good rhyming words with that one! 

Next we made up short phrases, each one ending with one of our rhyming words. After 8 phrases and 4 pairs of rhymes, we tried clapping each phrase. One of William’s made-up phrases started with an upbeat so we talked about that, and although he didn’t really understand the concept, he was able to clap it with the stress on the first beat of the bar. 

We then played a game where I clapped the phrases out of sequence and William guessed which phrase I was clapping – mostly accurately. We talked briefly about the words being the rhythm – that time-honoured concept of primary music teachers. 

Finally we invented a tune for his song. William was inclined to stick to a monotone and focus on the rhythmic patterns, but I guided and coaxed him towards a simple tune contained within the doh-soh range.

All up this song-writing activity took about 30 minutes.

Later, when his parents arrived for dinner, he was keen to share his song. As before, he clearly enjoyed stressing the strong beats, clapping and singing enthusiastically. He felt ownership of both the process and end product.

So much of what we do in music classes tends towards recreating. Sometimes it is fun – and beneficial – to be creative instead.

Drama Tuesday - What will I teach today?

It’s the question we face as teachers every day of our working lives?

What will I teach today?

Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a convenient text book to open and say to students,  Look at page 53 and do what it says there.

Unlike many other school subjects, drama does not seem to have a simple answer or a single set of textbooks or set syllabus.

Many Curriculum frameworks and syllabuses are written in open-ended ways. We need to join the dots or fill in the missing gaps.

• What are the choices and decisions that drama teachers need to make in their day to day planning?

• How do know what to teach in drama? When to teach specific concepts and skills and processes?

• How do I teach so students learn in ways that match or suit their age and stage of development?

To answer these questions we need to build a map in our head about how students learn drama at different ages and stages.

Teaching drama can’t just be a jigsaw of randomly chosen activities or a haphazard collection of things that work. They have to lead students somewhere. The word educate comes from the Latin deuce I lead forward.

We must have a curriculum compass that guides us forward in the learning of our drama students. One of the principles must be that we teach drama in ways that acknowledge and understand the ways youngsters learn at different ages. We need to teach with a sense of an underlying progression in learning. 

The term learning progression refers to the purposeful sequencing of teaching and learning expectations across multiple developmental stages, ages, or grade levels. They provide concise, clearly articulated descriptions of what students should know and be able to do at a specific stage of their education.

Consider the simple yet complex notion of improvising which is the backbone of many drama teaching programs. what is or expectation  of improvisation in children who are three and four? How do we shape learning experiences as they are five or ten or fourteen. We don’t expect 5 year olds to master the concepts of Algebra that they can learn in Year 12. But they do have things to learn in Year 1 so that they can learn in Year 12. There is a chain of connection across the learning years.

This is William, our grandson, in free play. This shows the seeds of improvisation that we develop through drama programs.

Where do we go next? How do we build learning upon learning?

What are aged and developmentally appropriate drama activities towards a growing learning about improvisation?

It is useful to visit again some of the learning progressions that have been developed as curriculum. 

 It might seem obvious, but nonetheless important, to observe that as children grow, their capacity to understand and apply concepts develop and our planning should reflect the patterns of child development.

The following example of a progression is based on some of my earlier research.

The Holy Grail of Drama Curriculum writers is to write workable progressions for development of drama across school years. It is notoriously difficult to write these progressions with ironclad certainty. They are at best useful approximations to guide. They are based on observation of young people learning drama and teacher experiences. But they are better than random guesses. 

A final thought:

I have had a conversation once with a teacher who said – for efficiency – that she teaches the same lesson to all the different years across the school. One size fits all. 

Can you spot the flaw in that approach?

What is the map that guides your choices as a drama teacher?

Drama Tuesday - Responding to existential threats to arts education

What is happening to the world of Arts Education internationally?

In my role as Chair of the World Alliance for Arts Education, I received the following message in an email from Greece:

Two days ago the Ministry of Education announced the weekly program for upper secondary education for the new school year 2020-2021 and they have eliminated the arts completely !!!

The arts, namely music, theater and visual arts, were among the elective subjects for pupils in their last three years of high school. In addition pupils had the opportunity to participate in interdisciplinary projects that usually included an art form and gave the opportunity to arts' specialists to collaborate with other specialists. Now everything has disappeared! There are no elective subjects. There are no arts in any form or in any way taught in upper secondary education. There are no projects any more. All of those hours have been re-allocated to other more highly valued subjects. (17 June 2020)

If this was happening in just one country we might be alarmed but just shrug our shoulders. But similar situations are being experienced in other parts of the world. In Australian Universities, the Federal Minister for Education, Dan Tehan announced changes that will favour maths, teaching and nursing units over humanities, commerce and law (Karp, 19 June 2020). 

How do we as an arts community respond to these threats to our work?

I share the Open Letter from the WAAE 

International Drama/Theatre and Education Association (IDEA)

International Society for Education through Art (InSEA)

International Society for Music Education (ISME)

World Dance Alliance (WDA)

Advocating for arts education worldwide – https://www.waae.online 

June 25 2020

An Open Letter from the World Alliance for Arts Education WAAE representing International Arts Education Professional Associations to:

Niki Kerameus, Minister of Education and Religious Affairs, info@nikikerameus.gr 

Sofia Zaharaki, Vice-Minister, Primary and Secondary Education, szacharaki@minedu.gov.gr 

Anastasia Gika, General Secretary for Primary and Secondary Education, sgika@minedu.gov.gr

I write to add the voice of the World Alliance for Arts Education WAAE to the many students and teachers of the Arts (Music, Dance, Theatre and Visual Arts) requesting the reversal of the decision by the Ministry of Education that announced the elimination of the Arts in the weekly program for upper secondary education for the new school year 2020-2021. The WAAE supports those who protest about the removal of elective programs in the Arts for pupils in their last three years of high school. This retrograde decision impacts on the lives of many and on the future of Arts Education in Greece.

The World Alliance for Arts Education WAAE is honoured to add our voices to the Departments of Theatre, Dance, Music and Visual Arts and professional organisations that represent specialist teachers from Greece, that are writing letters and petitions of protest. The Alliance highlights the negative impacts of this directive on students, teachers and ultimately the whole country.

Robust international research on the purpose, value and importance of arts education is rich and deep. The WAAE urges you to read and heed the research. Learning in, through and with the Arts shapes personal, social and cultural identity and is an entitlement for all students (see The UNESCO Seoul Agenda For Arts Education (2010) and the Frankfurt Declaration for Arts Education https://www.insea.org/docs/waae/WAAE-Frankfurt-declaration.pdf). 

The Arts contribute to the development of values, personal and interpersonal development. Learning in the Arts fosters creativity, innovation and persistence. In these times of crisis, the Arts play a significant role in mental and emotional health and wellbeing, as the current Coronavirus COVID-19 Pandemic is showing us all. The losses to individual students and teachers are devastating. They amplify the loss to the Greek education system as a whole from this decision. 

Please reconsider and rescind this directive.

The letter was signed by the members of the WAAE Executive Committee.

What is happening with Arts and Drama Education in your parts of the world?

What actions can you take at a local level when you see or hear of threats to arts education?

Why is a healthy arts education in schools and community valuable and necessary?

Why should we take action when we see an issue with arts education?

You will remember the famous quotation from Martin Niemöller (1892–1984)

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Bibliography

Karp, P. (19 June 2020). Australian university fees to double for some arts courses, but fall for Stem subjects. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jun/19/australian-university-fees-arts-stem-science-maths-nursing-teaching-humanities

Martin Niemöller (1892–1984). Retrieved from https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/martin-niemoeller-first-they-came-for-the-socialists

Purposes of Arts and Drama Education

There is a moment in the film Boychoir (Dir. François Girard, 2014), playing on SBS Movie Chanel, when the character played by Dustin Hoffman in a discussion about the notoriously short singing life of a treble voice over sees, “we give them a life, not a vocation”.

While, some students who study drama in schools continue to have lives and careers in their art form, arts education in schools is not just pre-vocational, just as a successful comprehensive education is not just pre-vocational.

Drama draws from stories of all human experience. Through the lives of other presented in drama we can better understand our own lives and stories. Drama is a rich and powerful form of expression and communication found in some form in all societies and times.

Drama shows how people interact with each other. It is about people living together in society.

Drama passes the stories of our culture from one generation to another. Drama is part of the cultural DNA, the stories that shape our wider identities.

Another way of saying that is that through drama we learn about our personal, social and cultural identities. Drama in schools is much more than a “try out” for some future job. Yes, it does develop what are sometimes called life skills such as confidence and communication. It is more importantly about how we shape the ways we express ideas and communicate and share them with others. The particular skills of using our voices and bodies, stepping into the shows of others with empathy and understanding, and having a sense of place and time are valuable in their own right. They help us tell and share the stories of our lives.

This challenges the views held by many about the purpose of drama and arts education. It questions some of the prevalent misconceptions. Misconceptions are interesting because they tell us so much. This idea of misconceptions about Drama is developed in the next post. (And there is a need to also consider drama for students who are identified as gifted and talented and pre-vocational.

The challenge for all of us as arts educators

In Sweet Sorrow by David Nicholls (2019), there is a powerful reminder of the way that arts education is seen in popular culture (in the UK but shared by many similar Western societies like Australia). Charlie is somewhat reluctantly seduced into participating in a summer production of Romeo and Juliet being staged in his dull suburban community. Used to hanging out on the fringes of his blokey school crowd, Charlie is not a fan of the arts and like his boy mates, is quick to sardonically dismiss and deride drama (though he is secretly reading Dostoyevsky). Here is Charlie’s view about the arts in education.

If there was such a thing as a theatre bug, then I was immune. The problem wasn’t acting. I was happy to watch people pretending to be other people in films and TV that I sucked up indiscriminately. But all the elements that were supposed to make theatre unique and special – the proximity, the high emotion, the potential for disaster – made it seem mortifying to me. It was too much, too bare and artificial.

 Then there was the whiff of pretension, superiority and self-satisfaction that clung to all forms of ‘the arts’. To perform in a play or a band, to put your picture on display in the corridor, to publish your story or, God forbid, your poem in the school magazine, was to proclaim your uniqueness and self-belief and so to make yourself a target. Anything placed on a pedestal was likely to be knocked off, and it was simply common sense to stay quiet and keep any creative ambitions private.

Especially for a boy. The only acceptable talent was in sport, in which case it was fine to strut and boast, but my talents lay elsewhere, very possibly nowhere. The only thing that I was good at, drawing – doodling actually – was acceptable as long as it remained technical and free of self-expression. There was nothing of me in the still life of a peeled orange, the close-up of an eye with a window reflected in it, the planet-sized spaceship; no beauty, emotion or self-revelation, just draughtmanship. All other forms of expression – singing, dancing, writing, even reading or speaking a foreign language – were considered not just gay but also posh, and few things carried more stigma at Merton Grange than this combination. (p. 150-151)

It is useful to reflect on the explicit and underlying issues captured here. Peer pressure; deeply inculcated values of what is important; personal preference all play a part. But Charlie is no orphan in sharing these perceptions. 

Having spent a life time in drama and arts teacher education, I have often speculated about what holds back successful implementation of arts curriculum in schools.

Apart from the general levelling effect of the Tall Poppy Syndrome and the self-deprecating avoidance of ‘showing off’, we see in schools combinations of fear of failing, quests for perfectionism and misunderstandings about the purpose and nature of arts curriculum. Most telling are the misconceptions about arts education (only for talented and ’special’ people; ‘I don’t have a creative bone in my body’; not core curriculum; time filling; something for Friday afternoons after the real learning). I am reminded of our friend who asks again and again but what is there to learn about acting and singing? 

How do we change deeply-held perceptions and prejudices?

What are the misconceptions about The Arts in schools that you see?

The lack of understanding (ignorance even) from gaps in teachers’ own arts education, compound reluctance and reinforce resistance to implementing arts curriculum. What are the game changers that we need for arts education to be successfully taught and learnt by all young Australians? 

Nicholls, D. (2019). Sweet Sorrow. London, UK: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd.