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15 November 2010
October 21, 2010 VADEA EBULLETIN Vol. 4
Vol. 1 Issue 1
Welcome
This EBulletin is aimed at providing up to date
information and resources on the proposed changes NSW BOS Online Survey
to Visual Arts in the Australian Curriculum.
Feedback on the draft Shape of the Australian
In The News Curriculum: The Arts
This survey gives you an opportunity to have
ArtsHub, 12 November, 2010 your say on ACARA’s draft Shape of the
Envisioning the Future Australian Curriculum: The Arts for years K
The Visual Arts Consortium: Australian through to 12.
Curriculum (VAC:AC) is lobbying for the
Closing date: 17 December 2010
development of “a rigorous, world class and
future looking curriculum for the visual arts”
http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/survey
http://www.artshub.com.au/au/newsarticle/ s/artsdraftshape.html
opinions/visualarts/envisioningthefuture182842
Face to face feedback with the BOS will start in
THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, 12 November 2010 Term 4, with Primary School teachers. Term 1
School Chiefs Reject Parts of Curriculum 2011 the BOS will conduct face to face sessions
“Leaders of government, nongovernment and with Secondary Arts teachers.
Catholic education systems have jointly signed However, it is important that you complete the
the letter, which says NSW will not implement online feedback now.
parts of the Australian curriculum.”
http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/school
chiefsrejectpartsofcurriculum20101111 Consultation on
17pgg.html The Arts Draft Shape Paper closes in
THE AUSTRALIAN, 19 October 2010
Lessons In Aesthetic Appreciation Proposed For Schools
“It is this generic approach that has left some
feeling uneasy about O'Toole's vision.”
32 Days!
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/lessonsin
Visit the ACARA site. Every response counts.
aestheticappreciationproposedforschools/story
e6frg8n61225940384951?from=public_rss Make sure you add your informed comment to
each question.
MEDIA RELEASE http://www.acara.edu.au/arts.html
Garrett In Hiding As Curriculum Flounders
“Christopher Pyne, will move a motion to delay *Please follow the links
substandard curriculum until 2012.” The Arts Shape Paper is designed to inform the
http://www.pyneonline.com.au/news/article/garrettin curriculum writers on the structure and content of
hidingascurriculumflounders?id=home The Arts Curriculum.
Would you like to contribute?
If you come across anything of interest in relation to the
If it concerns you that artmaking will be reduced
Australian Curriculum and The Arts please email me
to PLAY please log on and make sure your
directly and I will add it to the bulletin.
feedback registers. Feedback can be done
nicholas.phillipson@spc.nsw.edu.au
individually and collectively. Contribute as a Teacher,
Website; http://vadea.org.au/wordpress/
Blog; http://vadea.blogspot.com/
Twitter; https://twitter.com/VADEA_NSW
Facebook; http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=121728261192109
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15 November 2010 VADEA EBULLETIN Vol. 4
Check List
ü Complete the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority’s (ACARA) online Arts
consultation survey. All responses are counted: www.acara.edu.au/arts.html.
Be aware that you cannot “return to previous screen” once you have started answering a question, and
you can only complete one reply per IP address.
ü Complete the Board of Studies’ online Arts consultation survey. All responses are counted:
http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/surveys/artsdraftshape.html.
Make sure you contribute before the survey closes 17th December 2010.
ü Join online groups and sign the petition:
o Stop the National Curriculum’s ‘dumbing down’ of Visual Arts Education:
http://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/stopnatcurrvisualart
o Facebook, Creative People Against the Standardisation of Australian Arts Education
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=135780073114878&v=app_2373072738#!/group.php?gid
=135780073114878
ü Write directly to
o Professor Barry McGaw (Chair of ACARA’s Board) barry.mcgaw@acara.edu.au
o Mr Tom Alegounarias (President NSW Board of Studies) tom.alegounarias@bos.nsw.edu.au
Outline the limitations of the proposal and what you consider as the anticipated consequences for the
Visual Arts should the proposal proceed. This could be a collective and/or individual response. In
your response you could indicate your support for the developmental curriculum model for the Visual
Arts/other Arts proposed at the consortium.
ü Write directly to State and Federal Ministers for Schools/Education about this issue:
o Minister Garrett (Federal Education Minister) peter.garrett.mp@aph.gov.au
o Minister Verity Firth (NSW Education Minister ) office@firth.minister.nsw.gov.au
o Christopher Pyne (Shadow Federal Education Minister) c.pyne.mp@aph.gov.au
o Adrian Piccoli (NSW Shadow Education Minister) murrumbidgee@parliament.nsw.gov.au
o Lee Rhiannon (Greens Senator) leerhiannon.senate@gmail.com
ü Stay up to date with how the Visual Arts and Design Educators Association (VADEA NSW) is campaigning
on this issue http://vadea.org.au/wordpress/ and become members.
ü Contact key people who will be able to influence the debate positively for Visual Arts education. These may
be people with a public/institutional/philanthropic profile who have a commitment to the Visual Arts and
Australia’s future artistic and cultural identity.
ü Brief colleagues, associates and friends in online discussion groups etc. to raise awareness of the issue
and thereby contribute to making a more constructive contribution to the future of the Visual Arts in the
Australian Curriculum. Anyone can respond to the ACARA online survey when the Shape Paper is
released, and the broader the response the better.
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15 November 2010 VADEA EBULLETIN Vol. 4
RESOLUTION TO CURRICULUM CONCERNS DECISION OF COUNCIL
Teachers of Phase 2 AC subjects Visual Arts, The Teachers Federation has a longstanding in
Music, D&T, have been active in raising concerns principle support of a national curriculum for
about the impact of the proposed national Australia. However the current process surrounding
curriculum on their teaching hours and subject the development of such a curriculum by the Federal
standards. government and ACARA has lost the confidence of
The IEU wrote to the NSW Education Minister in the teaching profession in NSW. Federation notes
August raising the alarm and pointing out the the stand to date by the Minister in rejecting the
serious staffing issues. (see Union Seeks National Curriculum. Accordingly, the union must
Curriculum Clarification: www.ieu.asn.au. The now withdraw its support for an Australia wide
Minister’s office responded saying ‘the matters curriculum until the state and federal governments
raised were noted and are presently receiving abandon the obscene haste with which it is currently
attention’). Not good enough, Minister! being developed and engage in a sustained and
educationally focussed dialogue with the profession
Meanwhile, a meeting of 155 Visual Arts and the educational community. The proposition that
teachers unanimously endorsed this motion: any national curriculum could be endorsed by
“The proposal for the visual arts curriculum in December of this year is absurd. Current curriculum
the Draft Shape Paper for The Arts should be proposals are illconceived, exceedingly ideological,
rejected as it represents a significant regressive in philosophy and approach and
diminution of the quality of what is currently in completely unfit to be used for the development of
place for visual arts education. This proposal schoolbased or system wide programs. Any
compromises the intellectual and conceptual national curriculum must be based on students’
integrity of the current NSW visual arts needs not the timetables of politicians or distant
curriculum. We reject the generic organisers of bureaucrats. The existing national curriculum
the strands and the current definitions of The
\ proposals are shoddy, incomplete, and a threat to
Arts and visual arts in particular, in the Draft NSW’s high educational standards, therefore
Shape Paper. We reject the proposal of 150 potentially threatening vital curriculum areas and
hours for visual arts education from K8 as it is subjects. As a result of the flawed process,
inadequate and will diminish quality learning in implementation in its current form is bound to cause
visual arts. We would urge ACARA and the massive turmoil in schooling. The National
writers of The Arts curriculum to work with Curriculum, as it currently stands, is hastily
NSW visual arts educators to develop an developed and lacking intellectual integrity, equity
authentic and rigorous curriculum for visual and inclusiveness.
arts students and teachers, both present and
future.”
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15 November 2010 VADEA EBULLETIN Vol. 4
On November 1, 2010, preservice teachers of the Visual Arts met to discuss the future of Visual Arts
Education in Australia and New South Wales at the Australian Catholic University.
Representatives from the College of Arts UNSW, Australian Catholic University and University of Sydney
and University of Technology discussed ACARA’s “Draft Shape of the Australian Curriculum: The Arts”. The
keynote speaker was the Dean of COFA, Professor Ian Howard who, along with other art educators, identified
significant limitations in proposals to date that would impact on the quality of Visual Arts curricula currently in place
in Australia.
Preservice teachers shared their concerns about the proposed changes to the Visual Arts curriculum. In
particular, the potential impact of these changes to the quality of Visual Arts Education and their futures as
prospective specialist Visual Arts teachers were discussed. Central to these discussions was agreement of the
Draft Shape Paper’s undeniable lowering of the quality of Visual Arts curriculum. The generic approach to “The
Arts” taken by the Draft paper is unsuccessful as it does not provide theoretical constructs to organise content. The
strands are obviously connected with process, not content, and do not provide a view of what would be taught and
learned in the different artforms that have discrete and unique content.
A motion was drafted and unanimously passed by 37 preservice Visual Arts teachers and 8
teachers and academics in attendance:
This meeting urges ACARA to extend the consultation period on the Draft Shape Paper for the Arts
in order that the proposals and the complexity of these are given sufficient consideration by all
stakeholders. The proposal for the Visual Arts Curriculum in the Draft Shape Paper for the Arts is rejected
as it represents a significant depletion of the quality of what is currently in place for Visual Arts education
within NSW. This proposal compromises the intellectual integrity of our current curriculum. We reject the
Draft Shape Paper's generic organisers of the strands and ACARA's new definitions of "Visual Arts" and
"The Arts". We reject the proposal of 150 hours for the Visual Arts education from K 8, as it is inadequate
and will diminish the quality learning already in place within the Visual Arts.
We would urge ACARA and the writers of the Arts Curriculum to work with NSW educators to develop an
authentic and rigorous Curriculum for Visual Arts students and teachers, both present and future.
Please read through the above points carefully. We understand that ACARAs mandate is to draw from best
practice curriculum to develop a worldclass Australian curriculum for the Arts. The existing NSW curriculum
provides a blueprint for achieving this goal as has been demonstrated in the K12 learning continuum currently in
place. As preservice teachers in NSW, we hope you respectfully reconsider redesigning the proposals to more
appropriately represent Visual Arts as a knowledge domain focused on conceptual and practical rigour anchored in
a coherent developmental framework.
Yours faithfully, John Phillips
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