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VADEA National Curriculum Bulletin
October 21, 2010 Vol. 1 Issue 1
Page 1
13 December 2010
VADEA E-BULLETIN
Vol. 8Feedback on the draft
Shape of the AustralianCurriculum: The Arts
This survey gives you an opportunity to haveyour say on ACARA’s draft
Shape of the Australian Curriculum: The Arts
for years Kthrough to 12.Closing date:
17 December 2010http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/surveys/arts-draft-shape.html
Face to face feedback with the BOS will start in Term4, with Primary School teachers. Term 1 2011 theBOS will conduct face to face sessions withSecondary Arts teachers.
However, it is important that you complete theonline feedback now.
NSW BOS Online Survey4 DAYS LEFT for FEEDBACK
Some helpful tips on how to complete the ACARAsurvey can be found at;
http://vadea.org.au/wordpress/?p=1709
Visit the
ACARA
site. Every response counts,add your informed comment to each question
.
The Arts Shape Paper
is designed to informthe curriculum writers on the structure andcontent of
The Arts
Curriculum.Closing date:
17 December 2010http://www.acara.edu.au/arts.html
*Please follow the links
Feedback can be done individually and collectively.Contribute as a Teacher, Art Department, Regionalgroup, Parent, Community member or Organisation.ACARA counts each entry as ONE regardless of howmany respond in a group
If it concerns you that artmaking will be reducedto
PLAY
please log on and registers your feedback.
ACARA Arts Draft Paper
The 2010 year has been an interesting,challenging and constructive year for VADEA. Alongwith our growing membership base, our voice inadvocacy and awareness of the Visual Arts hascontinued to strengthen. Positive working relationshipshave been formed with a number of educational andarts based organisations. We would like toacknowledge the
NSW Teachers Federation, NSW Independent Education Union, Art Education Australia
and the
NSW Professional TeachersCouncil
for their support and guidance throughout theyear.VADEAs membership reflects a professional andproud base of Visual Arts Teachers. The Co-Presidents, along with the VADEA Executive, wish tothank you, our members, for your ongoing involvement,activism and support.
Merry Christmas,
VADEA Co-PresidentsKaren Maras Karen Profilio Kerry Thomas
VADEA Co-President’s Message
VADEA Co-President, Karen Profilio accepts a
Certificate of Appreciation
from the Professional Teachers Council, awardedby NSW Minister for Education Verity Firth, 30 November 2010.
Radio National Breakfast, 7 December 2010
NSW Education Minister on National Curriculum
“The new Victorian government is reticent,Western Australia says it won't sign until thereis a more complete package and NSW wantsmore consultation.”
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/breakfast/stories/2010/3086418.htmTHE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
, 8 December 2010
States Ready To Block Curriculum
“The NSW Education Minister, Verity Firth, saidyesterday that she was unwilling to compromiseon quality and implement an inferior curriculum.”
http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/states-ready-to-block-curriculum-20101207-18ogd.htmlTHE HERALD SUN
, 8 December 2010
Curriculum Not Ready For Schools
By Christopher Pyne“The curriculum drafters have received 26,000submissions highlighting areas of concernwithin the draft curriculum with complaintsabout the content and the design.”
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/ipad-application/curriculum-not-ready-for-schools/story-fn6bn88w-1225967230184THE WEST AUSTRALIAN,
7 December 2010
The Australian Curriculum Must be Delayed: Union“
The national school curriculum's developmenthas been rushed and its rollout must bedelayed by a year”
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/- /national/8463466/rushed-curriculum-must-be-delayed-union/THE AUSTRALIAN,
7 December 2010
Still Problems With National School’s Curriculum SaysNSW Government
“
The NSW Government says it will refuse to rollout a substandard national school’s curriculum”
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/still-problems-with-national-schools-curriculum-says-nsw-government/story-fn3dxity-1225966854966
Page 2
The Eighth of December
13 December 2010
VADEA E-BULLETIN
Vol. 8
MEDIA RELEASE
National Curriculum another Labor Mess
“…
now final consideration has been moved toOctober 2011, meaning the curriculum itself won’t even begin implementation until January2012 at the earliest,” Mr Pyne said
http://www.scribd.com/full/45119368?access_key=key-1rprumzwvzy55w45afpdTHE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
,12 December 2010
Dog Ate Her Homework on Education
“We refuse to seek inspiration from the countriesbeating us academically and instead look tostruggling US systems.”
http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/dog-ate-her-homework-on-education-20101211-18tgx.htmlTHE AUSTRALIAN
, 9 December 2010
Syllabus Not Ready But Set To Be Taught
“Students will start learning the nationalcurriculum next year even though the first four subjects will not be finalised until October.”
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/syllabus-not-ready-but-set-to-be-taught/story-fn59niix-1225967905204THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
, 9 December 2010
Curriculum Delayed Till 2013
"The NSW Liberals and Nationals
will not allowany national curriculum to dumb down NSWeducation standards
," Opposition Leader BarryO'Farrell
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/national-curriculum-fails-test/story-fn6bmg6l-1225967915624THE AGE,
9 December 2010
National Curriculum A Step Closer
“…ministers stopped short of giving finalapproval, ordering further adjustments to becompleted by next October.”
http://www.theage.com.au/national/education/national-curriculum-a-step-closer-20101208-18prp.html
BEFORE AFTER
Response to
The Arts Draft Shape Paper
Amanda Weate
MArtEd(Hons)
The Draft Shape Paper for the Arts for the Australian Curriculum has been released for consultation. Amanda Weate, former Head of the School of Art Education, University of NSW, College of Fine Arts and an active and respected participant in curriculum development at state and national levels for over 30 years, laments the loss of the rigour and knowledge in the proposed curriculum framework for visual artsand the Arts subjects as a whole. She warns that the lessons of history have not been heeded in thisdocument and we are about to return the future to the past.
What a thoroughly depressing proposal this is. Deeply disappointing. Deeply flawed.The problems begin from the initial decision by ACARA to proceed with an amalgamated artsapproach rather than develop curriculum for each of the arts subjects. This fundamental conception of ageneric arts curriculum is unsustainable and, unbowed by the history of failure, the Draft Shape Paper blunders on to propose, a battery of supposed 'processes' in an effort to find 'common ground'. It is nigh onimpossible to find any recognisable visual arts concepts amongst this minestrone. Assertions madedefending these process terms such as apprehending and comprehending can be found in the recent arteducation literature is mischievous at best. They do not have such currency.The proposed architecture of the arts is psychologistic, that is the arts are understood by feelingsand a sensory experience. This is now a discredited approach to art education, gutting visual arts contentto be replaced by 'activity'. The values of the visual arts are not found in the 'doing' of generating, realising,responding and associated 'language': such as manipulating, arranging, extemporising, playing, directing,forming, crafting. This bank of activities is so general in character they apply to virtually all and any humanactivity. They do not assist the student or the teacher and trivialise the knowledge and practice thatcomprises an arts performance: a Sutherland aria; a Frank Gehry museum; an Emily Kam Ngwarray; aTarantino film or Olivier's
Hamlet
.In the absence of art educational research and with good intention, the 1957 Wyndham Schemecalled for the teacher to
primarily be a guide to the child in his development ... Art teaching should providefor activity and experience
(39)
1
. Little did the authors know this directive would persist, zombie like, for over 50 years. Heavily influenced by Herbert Read who had attended an art education conference inMelbourne in 1956, and Lowenfeld's ideas about creativity, this view has now been overturned by theauthoritative, research driven curriculum in NSW. The Shape proposal could have been written twenty,thirty years ago. It promotes a failed arts project and art teachers and students in NSW have moved onlong ago. At least visual arts could be recognised in its own right and separated from its twin as visual andperforming arts. It is so disappointing to think that we again have to prosecute the same case as that of theprevious attempts at National Curriculum in 1993. Ignorant of this history, the proposal currently before usseems to have reprised the worst parts of 1993.
13 December 2010
VADEA E-BULLETIN
Vol. 8
An Outstanding Article
Page 3
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