Do other areas of curriculum impact on quality visual art education in your school/organisation?

NO

"the issue of STEM education is a threat in most sectors in so far as art educators unwittingly get sucked into trading away the distinctive nature and strengths of our discipline to appease yet anotehr fad. STEM would not such an issue if there were well funded pathways for jobs in those areas in Australi, yet the givt who implements such initaitives denies this at the same time, such contraduction is annoying, but menas dmaage is done to the arts"

"it is not necessarily curriculum areas impacting on the provision but rather policy and systemic constraints"

"They don't impact, however, some of our programs are cross-curricular in nature"

Maybe

"I am lucky to have admin believe in the importance of arts ed. i would like to develop ideas with class teachers to incorporate class learning into some projects, however, some teachers are willing."

"Many students enjoy art as it is not an area of high pressure and stress, as so much of their schooling is."

"Sometimes this occurs when priorities are put in place such as Maths /science bias. Interruptions to general classes"

"No."

YES

"Science / maths educators are treated with more respect and influence the tie Maths/science specialists are treated with more respect and they hijack the curriculum"

"There is pressure on all areas of the curriculum to deliver. Visual Arts is not immune."

"The Arts program integrates the whole school curriculum and supports units of study. Art Show expectations focuses on product not just process art every second year."

"Integration whether it content or considering creative processes, skills or habits can affect impact of and perhaps on other curriculum areas."

"The prioritisation of literacy/numeracy continues to constrict what we can achieve for our future visual arts educators at the pre-service level, as does online delivery to an extent. While I totally embrace online delivery, it will never be the same as the depth of learning and meaning making made with warm bodies gathered around an art table. There are OHS concerns in online delivery of complex visual art medium techniques and skills that restrict the authenticity of what can be done online."

"English and STEM subjects are always allocated funding before any consideration is given to the Arts. In the 6 years I've worked as an Educational Assistant that hasn't changed. Because of the lack of funding, this has an impact on Teacher resources and on the quality of art education taught at my school."

"Classes are often cancelled for other activities e.g. Sport, book week etc. art is called an elective from year 8. A couple of years ago the classes were changed from being a class that all year 8 students attended to now an elective. Also our curriculum was cut by a quarter going from four 50 minute periods to three in the semester. This was done without consulting the visual art department. I hate that visual art is called an elective. I insist that it is a subject! As a high achievement based school, art is often seen as a second class subject. Not by all but by enough to be affecting our subject numbers from year 8."

"I am in a highly 'academic' school that does value arts education"

"The result is significant reductions in timetable allocation, choices and funding for the Visual Arts"

"As suggested earlier, Arts education comes down very low on the KLA's due to the push in STEM, literacy and numeracy rather than weighting all KLA's equally."

"The value of VA to learning is often not understood, hence it is forgotten, left off the timetable or treated as if it is just a fun activity and no more. Other areas impact because they consume time squeezing VA out. I know this to be true at one school near by where I live, where literacy is taught 50% of the day, followed by mathematics and sciences. The school actually took VA out of their agenda all together, until the Department of Education did an audit and told them to put it back in - they did so reluctantly - what is the quality of that VA program at that school, I wonder?? No amount of highlighting the value of VA to the staff at that school convinced them as they told me they wanted their NAPLAN results to go from red to green on the MY Schools website."

"Students ability to think and analyse critically, thinking skills need to be supported in the classroom. Aspects of literacy and numeracy are needed to achieve in art, such as measuring, geometry and vocabulary"

"All of the learning areas/departments fight each other for time. Even within the arts I think we fight for time for our subject. The visual/performance breakdown within the Australian Curriculum is an example of that!"

"The arts is always poorly funded within the education department. The set up of studios is usually poorly laid out with little storage facilities for equipment and poor lighting. I find walking into art rooms very self defacing to my creativity."

"We focus on the English, maths and science areas to impove results but forget that the visual arts combine all these areas but with less stress for the student."

"Absolutely. My vision is one of deep learning whereby students make connections across subjects and begin to connect their understanding of the world around them."

"The huge impact of NAPLAN - impacts not he time devoted to the visual arts and money schools are devoting to the teaching of the visual arts."

"The Canberra Museum and Gallery [CMAG] serves a unique role as a place to experience the diverse history and contemporary culture of the Canberra region; and through this to gain a deeper understanding of Australia’s dynamic culture in its global setting. The integration of the visual arts and social history are a feature of many learning programs and community programs."

"Testing - Naplan, Pat testing etc, as classes often miss out on their specialist lessons."

"Arts curriculum is not compulsory in WA yet and so a lot of activity has to support other areas such as History"

"The increasing crowded nature of curriculum places more demands on time constrained institutions."

"As Visual Arts is also often used as an opportunity to release the classroom teacher they do take priority. Often classroom teachers will ignore Arts integration into their practice because it is the responsibility of the Specialist. Sport tends to be a priority and overrule timetables. Arts is often at the lower end of the priority list."

"Students interests and the classroom focus impacts on which areas of art I teach."

"Less time for viseal art electives in the course plan"

"We work together on some themes or use art as part of units and evaluation experiences"

"Hard to get the facilities you need because other subject are deemed more important."

"Increasingly other areas of the curriculum are impacting on visual art education in terms of time allocation and resources. However, there are other areas of the curriculum where visual arts learning could be embedded including critical and creative thinking, ethical, intercultural and personal and social curriculum areas. Curriculum planning and development can be visual arts focused incorporating a broad section of the curriculum."

"Gosh absolutely! Without a doubt the best art activities I have done are ones that have been in partnership with other curriculum areas. For instance - In years 3 and 4 students study life cycles in plans, and symmetry and pattern in nature. We cut up fruit and vegetables, did observational drawings of the interior and painted with watercolor. We linked it to paintings of fruit and vegetables by the Dutch master. We made mandalas out of found objects around the school, and linked it to prayer, meditation and Bhuddist sand mandalas. We looked at the work of Ansel Adams and did a digital photography unit focussinf only on symmetry and pattern in nature. We assessed it as a joint science and art activity. year 7's study ancient china - after all their research in their class, they designed their own terracotta warrior in art and in a whole year level half day session (100 students at once!) we all made our own terracotta warriors out of clay. Having the opportunity to creatively communicate what they been learning in another curriculum level takes their understanding to the next level. the challenge is juggling the timetable to make it work. It has really only been successful so far in the primary setting."

"My art sessions are fortnightly so school events make a big impact if a class misses a session. Usually school events are included in the art sessions. Events like the recent music performance had to be included visually, which was a challenge for students. This is what art is, so students experience a varied and hopefully, rich program."

"As previously stated the content and time given to Visual Arts has shrunk form a full year for each year level of access to the possibility that it will be combined in a very general way with media and and engineering in the future. Thus diluting the emphasis on skills and knowledge of Visual Arts"

"The current focus of the school is to improve numeracy and literacy levels."

"collaborative planning can be positive, interruptions to the flow of lessons i.e. school assemblies etc when a limited art time slot is available once a week is lost due to another event impacts on continuity"

"literacy and numeracy focus means that less time is available for The Arts. Find myself needing to push back at times to ensure that The Arts are delivered."

"If arts not valued then it is often skipped over"

"Mostly almost every other area is seen as more important than VA so it is squeezed out. also Va can be messy and take time to set up."

"Sometimes it is helpful, like how English compliments the students creative thinking skills. Other times it is detrimental as some other practical subjects mandate students to work on large projects taking lunch time and after school, while Art is also a time consuming subject and may require this."

"Sports practice is allocated two afternoons per week of timetabled time. Arts practice happens after school in our own voluntary time."

"The Arts in general are impacted by demands for Literacy and Numeracy and Science and HPE."