Report on the COFA/VODA Forum -The National Curriculum and The Arts

How will the Arts be positioned in the Australian Curriculum? It’s a question that has been nagging Australian teachers of Music, Drama, Dance and Visual Arts ever since it was announced that we would be included in Phase Two of the implementation of a National Curriculum. Recently, I attended a forum at COFA jointly organised by VADEA and COFA to get some answers to pressing concerns. The line up of speakers included, Rob Randall, ACARA General Manager of Curriculum and Brian Croke, Executive Director of the CEC and ACARA Board member. Arts domains were represented by speakers, Dr Mary Mooney, Associate Head of School of Education UWS for Drama, Jay McPherson Inspector Creative Arts, Office of the Board of Studies for Music, Deidre Wauchop, Manager Creative Arts, Curriculum k-12, NSW DEET for Dance and Brian Ladd Head of Public Programs, AGNSW for Visual Arts.

It was clear from the start of the forum that the Visual Arts teachers in particular, were seeking a commitment from ACARA that each art form be recognised as a discreet domain and that any move to conflate the Arts would be problematic and diminish the value of arts learning. The other key concerns were how minimum standards nationally would be established, how outcomes in the arts are most properly assessed, how pre-service and service training for teachers would be addressed and questions regarding flexible articulation and time allocation.

Both Rob and Brian spoke candidly and frankly asking for teachers and schools to have faith in the process that emphasises and values consultation. Despite this assurance, it struck me as slightly ironic that the forum itself was convened not by ACARA but by concerned arts teachers who were feeling in the dark about decision making. Clearly, the lines of communication between ACARA, National Arts professional associations, arts bodies and grass roots arts teachers need to be much more effective and efficient.

We were referred to two important documents: The Melbourne Declaration for Educational Goals for Young Australians (Dec, 2008)

http://www.mceetya.edu.au/mceecdya/melbourne_declaration,25979.html

and The Shape of the Australian Curriculum (May, 2009)

http://www.acara.edu.au/verve/_resources/Shape_of_the_Australian_Curriculum.pdf

These documents provide much of the language used in the development of the National Curriculum and it was conceded that the wording of the Melbourne Declaration had created some ambiguity about how the individual arts domains would be recognised as discreet areas of learning. 

Both Brian and Rob were also able to provide some clarification in relation to ACARA’s brief:

• To de-clutter the curriculum so as to encourage depth rather than breadth.
• Students will participate in core programs K-8 and then specialise in Yrs 9-12.
• Existing extension courses and other school programs in states and territories would be integrated into the National Curriculum
• Media has not yet been officially placed in the Arts group (in fact it seems it has no home at the moment!).
• Curriculum materials will be online and resources for programming will be linked to this site. The provision of this resource underpins the principle that the National Curriculum is not a fixed set of learning programs and content but will evolve and change in response to the needs of learners.
• The value of the Arts in Australian education is not in question.
• Arts teachers need to identify what is high quality in arts education in each stage (year level) and what are the expectations for achievement in these levels for each arts discipline.
• The relationships between school arts curriculum and arts companies, community cultural development must be fostered.

·      A National Forum will be held in March 2010 to seek input from arts educators and stake holders into key issues.

Brian Croke made it clear that while ACARA acknowledges and supports each art form is different, ACARA will be looking for commonalities across the arts in terms of skills, knowledge and understanding. The existing ‘tensions’ regarding coherence/separation, specialisation/generalisation, primary/secondary, general capabilities/specific skills would need to be solved through consultation. He posed other questions that would also need to be addressed by Arts National professional associations:

What is distinctively ‘National’ about curriculum in the Arts?

What is distinctively ‘Australian’ about our Arts curriculum?

How will the Arts establish benchmarks against international practice?

How will the place of Indigenous Australian culture be strengthened in the Arts?

How will parallel arts curricula (e.g. AMEB) complement the Arts in a national curriculum?

This was a very informative and interesting forum that inspired me to galvanise the collective wisdom of our brilliant Drama teachers to ensure our needs and concerns are heard and addressed. It is crucial we stay in touch, keep involved and yes, make even more sacrifices of time and effort to support the art form we feel so passionate about.

Mathew Clausen