1. Update on the Visual Arts in the Australian Curriculum VADEA Conference 2013 Dr Karen Maras & Dr Kerry Thomas

2. Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians (2008) World class curriculum and assessment will enable students to develop knowledge in the disciplines of English, mathematics, science, languages, humanities and the arts; to understand the spiritual, moral and aesthetic dimensions of life; open up new ways of thinking. It will also support the development of deep knowledge within a discipline, which provides the foundation for inter-disciplinary approaches to innovation and complex problem-solving. Australian Curriculum for the Arts F-10 promised The Arts (performing and visual)

3. ACARAVADEA 2009Arts Position Paper Advisory Panel appointed COFA Forum, proposals to ACARA May 2010Initial Advice Paper2 reps attend initial ‘launch’ Extensive Advice to AEA, BOS, CEC, ACARA Aug 2010Draft Shape Paper (DSP) Consultation Forum & Consultation Advice Alternate curriculum framework Aug 2011Consultation Report on DSP Shape Paper finalised Draft Curriculum developed Forum & Consultation Advice Further advice to AEA, BOS, CEC, ACARA July-Sept 2012 Draft Curriculum Consultation – no report published Ongoing meetings with AEA, BOS Revised Band descriptions written Feb 2013Validation of Achievement Standards - workshops Further advice offered AEA – no indication of position Mid 2013ACARA Board meeting Curriculum published VADEA rejects the curriculum Feb 2014ImplementationBOS: ‘Not in NSW’

4. Political rhetoric Crean, 2012: The Arts “empower the individual and underpin expression, tolerance and inclusion” Garrett, 2012: Arts education “produces other benefits, for instance contributing to improving school attendance, academic achievement and student wellbeing” supports the “development of learning skills and learning how to learn, with improved academic performance especially noted for students from disadvantaged backgrounds” can “help young people to move through difficult periods in their lives, and explore challenging personal issues in a non-confronting way”

5. ACARAs structure: The Arts Organisation Music Dance Drama Visual Arts Media Arts Content Structure Strands – Making, Responding Band descriptions Content descriptions Learning in the Arts Aesthetic knowledge Practices Artists Artworks Audiences Subject matter/world Viewpoints

6. The Overall Approach the underlying theoretical structure remains incoherent a more embellished bricolage of earlier drafts

7. Visual Arts Content Making engaging the senses, emotion, cognition, imagination Responding exploring, responding to, analysing, interpreting, critically evaluating Practices visual language representation Viewpoints contexts Skills Perception processes

8. A confusion of Viewpoints While viewpoints were an attempt to address the issue of how the visual arts is subject to different kinds of beliefs, values and understandings, there is no real sense within the content descriptions of how these actually function There seems to be no understanding on the part of writers that the imagination and experience are themselves viewpoints !

9. Viewpoints Shift according to different world encounters Students ask and answer questions to interrogate artist’s meanings Meanings and interpretations are informed by contexts of societies, cultures and histories, and an understanding of how visual arts language, practice, materials, technologies, skills and processes are used.

10. the muddled writing about design creative engagement with a set of opportunities and constraints and requires a purposeful, technical, scientific, imaginative thought process that links creativity and innovation. connects the different art forms so that they inform each …to create innovative and hybrid forms of art. Within all Arts subjects, design facilitates the creative and practical realisation of ideas and processes. In the Arts, many different words describe the design process such as composing, choreographing, narrating, devising, constructing, sculpting and visually designing.

11. Appropriate level of intellectual demand? The proposed curriculum fails the test of setting high expectations for teachers and students there are large relational gaps in how students might come to understanding both practically and in their studies of the visual arts in complex ways. atomisation of content descriptions does little to help

12. Bands: knowledge & Skills Representation Subject matter Forms Techniques Visual devices Materials Technologies Practices Spaces Skills Processes viewpoints

13. Content description organisers F-6 Exploring ideas & improving with ways to represent ideas Developing understanding of practices Sharing artworks through performance, presentation or display Responding to and interpreting artworks

14. Developing understanding of practices F-6 YRContent description F-2 Use different materials, techniques, technologies & processes when making artworks 3-4 Use materials, techniques, technologies and processes to experiment with visual language when making artworks 5-6 Develop & apply techniques & processes to predict and innovate when making artworks

15. Content description organisers 7-10 Extending ideas through combining elements/concepts Developing intentions Structuring & organising ideas into form Developing & refining understanding of practices Sharing artworks through performance, presentation or display Analysing & reflecting upon intentions Responding & interpreting artworks

16. Developing & refining understanding of practices 7-10 YrContent Description 7-8Practise & refine application of visual language, techniques & processes to enhance representation of ideas in their artmaking 9-10Develop & refine use of visual language, perceptual & practical skills & selected techniques, technologies & processes to represent ideas & subject matter

17. Coherent? underlying incoherence of the document which is dramatically exposed in learning/knowledge/skills in visual arts, the band statements, content descriptions and achievement standards.

18. Final Judgement What has been developed is far from a world class curriculum. We have no confidence that this curriculum will improve visual arts education in Australia, certainly not in NSW.

19. All is not lost… Alternative proposals developed during this process: offer teachers robust theoretical underpinnings for future curriculum revision in NSW A conceptual framework grounded in current research on conceptual development in Visual Arts A continuum of learning that is coherent and respectful of students’ developing intellectual autonomy Research-based conceptions of practical knowledge that will support teachers to structure learning in the classroom Will provide a means to address contemporary practices in art and design