I often read the online papers in the morning and found this article that might be of interest to some of you gathering literature for Module, or of interest to any of us...
Nick Serota, head of the Tate, has commented on the needs to keep arts in the school curriculum in an article by Burns (2012) for the BBC.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-19743066
These comments are in response to the new 'English Baccalaureate Certificate' (EBC) and referred to a report on arts teaching by Darren Henley on 'Cultural Education in England' from the Department for Education (2012).
This report can be downloaded form the Department for Education site https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/standard/publicationDetail/Page1/DFE-00019-2012
The report was commissioned by the Department for Culture Media and Sport, and will most likely operate to inform public education policy so may be worth a read if you are on a public teaching pathway. Just to note - following the links I have now saved this report on my desktop and also added a reference (I add comments using Adobe - but if not make not somewhere else) about the web address and the date I saved it is the (Henley, 2012, p. 23).
Another Guardian article explaining the report:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture-professionals-network/culture-professionals-blog/2012/feb/29/henley-review-cultural-education
I know people have felt the Robinson report (1999) on education has been a powerful advocate for cultural education. How does this report compare to that report?
Well I have just read the first article, and then lead me to another,
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-19812933 ,
talking about how quickly and urgently the changes are being put into place. I've got to say, from my perspective as someone hoping to break into public school teaching, it's not looking good!
By the sounds of it, the cultural subject like art, music and dance are going to be taken clean out of the curriculum, making it entirely up to the schools themselves whether they even offer these subjects! This seems like a step backwards! Like Nicolas Serota says,
"We know that there is a great body of evidence now that has been gathered over the past 20 or 30 years which demonstrates that, where you have schools which give time to cultural learning, there is benefit both in that sphere and also to the other disciplines," Sir Nicholas said.
"By making art a part of the national curriculum, we give the next generation of artists, designers, engineers, creators and cultural leaders the opportunity to develop the imagination and skills that are vital to our future."
I'm concerned that the importance of these subjects is going to be completely lost when they are longer in the curriculum.
Liam - I also read through the report with these concerns. This seems to happen every decade or so and then arts programmes are replaced as there is a real need for them in the curriculum. I know others on the course have done some work looking into public versus private access to the arts and the notion that there is the danger of depriving children who cannot afford it access to the arts. For those individuals going into the arts as a profession, there is the question of merit, but what about cultural appreciation and active citizenship through the arts for younger learners? I wonder what practitioners are saying about all this and where they are saying it... anyone in a teaching union for example?
ReplyDeleteAgain - when I am curious I starting looking for expertise...
Found http://www.nfer.ac.uk/research/arts-creative-and-cultural-education/#schools but this seems a bit dated and not sure we can get beyond abstracts - maybe some ideas though
also found looking through Summon in our library (sign in MyUniHub - Your study - Library summon)
there is a journal called arts education - key word dance , key words dance education, key words art education
Facilitating dance making from a teacher's perspective within a community integrated dance class. Full Text Available
By: Cheesman, Sue. Research in Dance Education. Apr2011, Vol. 12 Issue 1, p29-40. 12p. DOI: 10.1080/14647893.2011.554976.
Young Children and Movement: The Power of Creative Dance. Full Text Available
By: Dow, Connie Bergstein. YC: Young Children. Mar2010, Vol. 65 Issue 2, p30-35. 6p.
The Importance of Dance Education. Full Text Available
By: Clinton, Hillary Rodman. Journal of Dance Education. 2007, Vol. 7 Issue 2, p37-37. 1p.