GREAT NEWS! From Associate Professor Sandra Gattenhof Drama Australia Director of Strategic Partnerships The Australian Curriculum: The Arts has been approved by ACARA Board on Friday 14 June. National Advocates for Arts Education (NAAE) has strongly supported the development of the arts curriculum and its central principle of the entitlement of every young Australian to an arts education, one that includes all five artforms – dance, drama, media arts, music and the visual arts. The NAAE looks forward to agreement by State and Territory Education Ministers to the curriculum’s final form in the coming weeks, and to their strong commitment to its implementation. Ministers will be well aware that arts education across all artforms is central to young people’s cultural understanding, their ability to express ideas and to problem solve. It is the essential means to build a skilful, knowledgeable, arts literate, articulate and confident generation equipped to deal with 21st Century challenges. NAAE strongly urge State and Territory Ministers to sign an agreement that will entitle every young person to learning in all arts subjects, while noting that matters of implementation remain under the jurisdiction of the states and territories. An arts curriculum that is constituted of five separate subjects is complex, and NAAE applaud the consultation process over a long period of time undertaken by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). It has consulted with the arts industry, professional associations, primary and secondary teachers and the state and territory education authorities in the development of the curriculum. Support for the Australian Curriculum is internationally recognised in this extract from International Arts Education Standards: Survey of the Arts Education Standards and Practices of Fifteen Countries and Regions, prepared by the New York-based College Board for the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards: "The Australian arts curriculum could be considered as exemplary in the breadth of its scope, the considerable attention to defining its own language, and the lengths it goes to in recognising the differences in abilities and learning opportunities at the different age/grade levels. It considers the importance of the arts in the roles they may play in other parts of the general curriculum: literacy, numeracy, critical thinking, cross-cultural and environmental awareness, social and ethical development. Uniquely among the countries studied, it provides a link for a comprehensive documentation and explanation of the research that informs the curriculum."
Posted on: Thu, 20 Jun 2013 02:16:16 +0000
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