‘Transforming Education – 21st Century resources to implement the national Arts curriculum’

To This symposium was to celebrate UNESCO International Arts Education Week, QUT Creative Industries, the Australian Association for Research in Education and QUT’s Children and Youth Research Centre present:

Discussants include Professor Brad Haseman, Dr Linda Knight and Dr Cathy Henkel.

The most significant part of this presentation for me was the acknowledgment that the value of the arts as an educational tool has been watered down since the 1970s.

This was a proactive time, when Freire and Boal made their classic call for student centred teaching. The value and the potential of the arts has been obscured over the years even though the need to kindle resilience, empathy and compassion is even greater.

It is in this transition period as subjects are tailored to the National Curriculum that so much can be done to revitalise the Arts and to reclaim their power to bring freedom and consciousness to the young as the engage with education.  This the focus of Global Citizens Creative Arts Text. (2013)

Resources synched to the National Curriculum can be created quickly and efficiently by communities of  learning, inquiry and studio practice.   Here is an American example where groups of teachers work together leading the way.

Resources:

• Murphy,J. (2009) Theatre of the Oppressed and Its Derivatives. Suite101.com
• Murphy,J. (2013) Global Citizens Creative Arts Text.
• Smith,M. (2002) Paulo Freire: dialogue, praxis and education.
• Teachers Pay Teachers  Open Marketplace for Educators.