Download as pdf or txt
Download as pdf or txt
You are on page 1of 69

Delivering Authentic Arts Education 4th

Edition Judith Dinham


Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://ebookmass.com/product/delivering-authentic-arts-education-4th-edition-judith-
dinham/
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...

Delivering Authentic Arts Education 5th Edition Judith


Dinham

https://ebookmass.com/product/delivering-authentic-arts-
education-5th-edition-judith-dinham/

The Path to Authentic Leadership: Dancing with the


Ouroboros 4th Edition Kets De Vries

https://ebookmass.com/product/the-path-to-authentic-leadership-
dancing-with-the-ouroboros-4th-edition-kets-de-vries/

Contemporary Music Education 4th Edition, (Ebook PDF)

https://ebookmass.com/product/contemporary-music-education-4th-
edition-ebook-pdf/

Philosophy of Education 4th Edition, (Ebook PDF)

https://ebookmass.com/product/philosophy-of-education-4th-
edition-ebook-pdf/
Access and Widening Participation in Arts Higher
Education: Practice and Research Samantha Broadhead

https://ebookmass.com/product/access-and-widening-participation-
in-arts-higher-education-practice-and-research-samantha-
broadhead/

McGraw-Hill Education Language Arts Workbook for the


GED Test Mcgraw Hill Editors

https://ebookmass.com/product/mcgraw-hill-education-language-
arts-workbook-for-the-ged-test-mcgraw-hill-editors/

THiNK Critical Thinking And Logic Skills For Everyday


Life 4th Edition Judith A. Boss

https://ebookmass.com/product/think-critical-thinking-and-logic-
skills-for-everyday-life-4th-edition-judith-a-boss/

Nutrition counseling & education skill development, 4th


ed 4th Edition Kathleen D. Bauer

https://ebookmass.com/product/nutrition-counseling-education-
skill-development-4th-ed-4th-edition-kathleen-d-bauer/

(eBook PDF) Nutrition Counseling and Education Skill


Development 4th Edition

https://ebookmass.com/product/ebook-pdf-nutrition-counseling-and-
education-skill-development-4th-edition/
Fourth edition

Delivering
Authentic Arts
Education
Judith Dinham

Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-202
Delivering
Authentic Arts
Education

Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-202
Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-202
Fourth edition

Delivering
Authentic Arts
Education
Judith Dinham

Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-202
Delivering Authentic Arts Education © 2020 Cengage Learning Australia Pty Limited
4th Edition
Judith Dinham Copyright Notice
This Work is copyright. No part of this Work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission of
Head of content management: Dorothy Chiu the Publisher. Except as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, for example any fair
Senior content manager: Fiona Hammond dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review, subject to
Content manager: Jessica Brennan certain limitations. These limitations include: Restricting the copying to a maximum of
Project editor: Sutha Surenddar one chapter or 10% of this book, whichever is greater; providing an appropriate notice
Editor: Julie Wicks and warning with the copies of the Work disseminated; taking all reasonable steps to
Proofreader: Anne Mulvaney limit access to these copies to people authorised to receive these copies; ensuring
Permissions/Photo researcher: Wendy Duncan you hold the appropriate Licences issued by the Copyright Agency Limited (“CAL”),
Cover designer: Linda Davidson supply a remuneration notice to CAL and pay any required fees. For details of CAL
Project designer: Linda Davidson licences and remuneration notices please contact CAL at Level 11, 66 Goulburn
Text designer: Lisa Howard Design Street, Sydney NSW 2000, Tel: (02) 9394 7600, Fax: (02) 9394 7601
Cover: Getty Images/Dan Kenyon; Getty Images Plus/iStock/real444; Getty Images Email: info@copyright.com.au
Plus/iStock/AlexandraPetruk; Getty Images/DigitalVision Vectors/VasjaKoman; Getty Website: www.copyright.com.au
Images Plus/iStock/ChrisGorgio; Getty Images Plus/iStock/Skarin; Getty Images
Plus/iStock/ChrisGorgio; Getty Images Plus/iStock/Nosyrevy For product information and technology assistance,
Cenveo Publisher Services in Australia call 1300 790 853;
in New Zealand call 0800 449 725
Any URLs contained in this publication were checked for currency during the
production process. Note, however, that the publisher cannot vouch for the ongoing For permission to use material from this text or product, please email
currency of URLs. aust.permissions@cengage.com

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication Data


Acknowledgements Creator: Dinham, Judith, author.
Chapter opener images Title: Delivering authentic arts education / Judith Dinham (author).
Edition: 4th edition
Chapter 1 - Alamy Stock Photo/Cristiano Fronteddu; Chapter 2 - ISBN: 9780170420594 (paperback)
iStockphoto/Wojciech Kozielczyk; Chapter 3 - iStockphoto/Highwaystarz- Notes: Includes index.
Photography; Chapter 4 - Alamy Stock Photo/Bill Bachman; Chapter 5 - Getty
Images/Caiaimage/Lukas Olek; Chapter 6 - Alamy Stock Photo/Dinendra Haria;
Chapter 7 - Getty Images/Al Seib; Chapter 8 - Alamy Stock Photo/Christina Kennedy; Cengage Learning Australia
Chapter 9 - Alamy Stock Photo/christopher jones; Chapter 10 - Alamy Stock Photo/E. Level 7, 80 Dorcas Street
D. Torial; Part 3 (Unit of Inquiry) - Getty Images/Alistair Berg South Melbourne, Victoria Australia 3205

Cengage Learning New Zealand


Unit 4B Rosedale Office Park
331 Rosedale Road, Albany, North Shore 0632, NZ

For learning solutions, visit cengage.com.au

Printed in China by 1010 Printing International Limited.


1 2 3 4 5 6 7 23 22 21 20 19

Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-202
v

Brief contents
PART 1 THE ABC OF ARTS EDUCATION
Chapter 1 Putting you in the picture – the rationale and context
for arts education............................................................... 02
Chapter 2 The features of authentic arts education......................... 29
Chapter 3 Being an effective teacher in The Arts.............................. 62
Chapter 4 Children at the centre........................................................ 92
Chapter 5 Planning, pedagogy and assessment for authentic
arts learning.......................................................................126

PART 2 TEACHING IN THE ARTS


Chapter 6 Dance.................................................................................160
Chapter 7 Drama.................................................................................199
Chapter 8 Media arts..........................................................................242
Chapter 9 Music.................................................................................. 285
Chapter 10 Visual arts...........................................................................327

PART 3 UNITS OF INQUIRY......................................................373

Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-202
Contents
Guide to the text ..................................................xii A varied picture of classroom
Guide to the online resources............................xvii practices.............................................................19
Introduction...........................................................xix Your role in creating a meaningful
Is this book for you?.............................................. xx Arts program.................................................... 20
How this text is organised................................... xx Online resources: Arts in education
Pedagogical tools................................................ xxi research and advocacy.................................... 22
Terminology.......................................................... xxi Summary................................................................ 22
References........................................................... xxii Go further.............................................................. 24
About the author................................................xxiii Learning activities................................................. 24
Acknowledgements............................................xxiii Further reading..................................................... 25
References............................................................. 25

Chapter 2 The features of authentic


PART 1 THE ABC OF ARTS arts education 29
EDUCATION The nature of authentic arts education............. 30
Arts education’s threshold concepts................. 31
Chapter 1 Putting you in the picture – The Arts are meaning-making
the rationale and context experiences....................................................... 31
for arts education 2
Arts learning is praxis-based.......................... 32
The arts are integral to human existence............ 3
Developing arts literacies facilitates
The evolution of arts education as societal
expression and communication in
needs and values shift............................................ 3
The Arts............................................................. 34
Reasons for arts education in the past............ 4
Creativity is at the heart of arts
Introduction of the Australian Curriculum
education.......................................................... 36
as part of a reform agenda............................... 5
Arts education is situated in culture.............. 39
Research and policy behind recent
developments.......................................................... 7 Classroom snapshot: Authentic engagement
with Aboriginal artistic heritage............................... 41
International research and policy
directions............................................................ 8 Arts education involves developing
aesthetic sensibilities....................................... 42
Australian research and policy
perspective........................................................11 Framing the arts education experience............. 42
Evolving understandings about Attending to arts education for all
the arts...............................................................11 vis-à-vis the artistically talented..................... 43
Developing children’s capabilities for Addressing ‘Making’ and ‘Responding’
the new era through The Arts..............................13 in the Australian Curriculum........................... 44
Visual and multimodal communication Setting open-ended challenges.................... 44
skills.....................................................................13 At a glance: Characteristics of
Navigational approaches to learning.............13 open-ended approaches................................ 45
Flexible thinking and problem solving...........14 Integrating creative thinking and design
Negotiating learning relationships.................14 processes.......................................................... 45
Collaboration and teamwork...........................15 Classroom snapshot: Stimulating
creative thinking............................................... 48
Cultural competency........................................15
Developing craftsmanship, techniques,
Developing dispositions for thinking
skills and process............................................. 49
and acting sustainably......................................15
Establishing cultural context: linking the
Instrumental and intrinsic benefits
‘inside’ world to the ‘outside’ world.............. 50
of the arts.......................................................... 16
Incorporating reflection and review.............. 50
At a glance: Ten things you should know
Programming for arts learning.............................51
about the value of the arts in children’s
education...........................................................19 Units of inquiry..................................................51
Navigating the expectations for arts Classroom snapshot: Developing a unit
education in the school context..........................19 of inquiry on bushfires..................................... 52

Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-202
Contents vii

Arts learning in an integrated curriculum..... 52 Physical safety................................................... 78


Classroom snapshot: English as a second The functional classroom................................ 79
language (ESL) taught through The Arts...... 54 An inviting physical environment................... 84
Practices best avoided......................................... 55 Why you should be confident about
Cookie-cutter approaches.............................. 55 teaching in the arts............................................... 86
Busy work.......................................................... 56 Online resources: Arts community
Handmaiden approach.................................... 56 partnership opportunities............................... 86
Smorgasbord.................................................... 56 Summary................................................................ 88
Free-for-all......................................................... 57 At a glance: What makes me a good
teacher in The Arts?......................................... 88
Classroom snapshot: Rehabilitating
the free-for-all................................................... 57 Go further.............................................................. 89
Learning activities................................................. 89
Showcase approach......................................... 58
Further reading..................................................... 90
Online resources: Learning more
References............................................................. 90
about arts education....................................... 58
Summary................................................................ 59 Chapter 4 Children at the centre 92
At a glance: The features of authentic Children’s capabilities.......................................... 93
arts learning...................................................... 59 What children bring to their
Go further.............................................................. 60 arts learning...................................................... 93
Learning activities................................................. 60 Children’s developmental growth
Further reading..................................................... 60 through The Arts................................................... 94
References..............................................................61 Physical growth................................................ 94
Cognitive growth............................................. 95
Chapter 3 Being an effective teacher
in The Arts 62 Self-regulatory behaviours.............................. 96
Developing your professional capabilities Expression and communication..................... 96
in arts education................................................... 63 Social and cultural growth.............................. 97
Examining your capabilities Wellbeing, emotional and psychological
(and baggage).................................................. 63 growth............................................................... 97
Building on your abilities and Identity formation............................................ 98
strengths........................................................... 65 Valuing individuality and diversity in
Classroom snapshot: Stepping up and the learning community....................................... 98
having a go....................................................... 66 Cultural diversity in the arts
Your learning journey as an arts classroom.......................................................... 99
educator............................................................ 67 At a glance: Exploring and validating
Working smart to be effective............................ 67 children’s cultural backgrounds................... 101
Working smart with digital resources............ 67 Diversity of ability, giftedness and
Classroom snapshot: Integrating digital disability.......................................................... 101
technology in a unit of inquiry....................... 69 Classroom snapshot: Unlocking a
Working smart with colleagues...................... 69 child’s potential.............................................. 102
Working smart with community Diversity of learning styles............................ 103
resources and partnerships............................ 70 Inclusive and exclusive language................. 105
Working smart through lifelong The nature of children’s arts learning............... 106
learning.............................................................. 73 At a glance: Your role in developing
Creating the learning context: an ethical, children’s aesthetic sensibilities................... 107
stimulating and happy place to be......................74 Children learn through commitment
The ethical arts classroom...............................74 and effort........................................................ 108
The emotionally secure classroom.................76 At a glance: Ways of improving levels of
Building relationships of trust..........................76 accomplishment............................................. 109
At a glance: Creating a climate that fosters Children learn by telling their stories
rich arts learning.............................................. 77 through the arts.............................................. 111
The physical space: a safe, functional Children learn by reflecting on their
and inviting classroom......................................... 78 own artmaking.................................................114

Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-202
viii Contents

Children learn by reviewing and Planning for cultural connection


responding to artworks of others.................116 through The Arts................................................. 138
Learning enriched by framing Locating cultural references for
discussion.........................................................116 classroom use................................................. 139
At a glance: Ways to incorporate the Pedagogical practices for arts learning........... 140
world of arts in the program..........................117 Adapting pedagogical approaches
At a glance: Selecting artworks that to suit requirements....................................... 140
engage children..............................................118 Stimulating imaginative and active
Classroom snapshot: Talking about a engagement................................................... 140
painting............................................................119 A demonstration is worth a thousand
At a glance: Encouraging children’s words................................................................142
artistic engagement – dos and don’ts.........121 Dialogues for learning....................................142
Online resources: Arts-related online At a glance: Constructive feedback............ 146
resources for disability...................................121 Assessment principles and guidelines............. 146
Summary.............................................................. 122 Achievement standards in the Australian
Go further.............................................................123 Curriculum....................................................... 146
Learning activities................................................123 Formative and summative
Further reading....................................................123 assessment.......................................................147
References............................................................124 Criteria-based learning and
assessment.......................................................147
Chapter 5 Planning, pedagogy and
Indicators of learning......................................147
assessment for authentic
arts learning 126 Acknowledging children’s learning
Planning a program of arts learning .................127 processes.........................................................149
Developing programs using units of At a glance: Authentic arts assessment...... 150
inquiry...............................................................127 The planning, teaching, assessing and
reviewing cycle.................................................... 150
Preparing teaching packs for the unit
Online resources: Sites for locating arts
of inquiry..........................................................128
cultural references......................................... 152
Beginning the planning process...................128
Online resources: Educational
Classroom snapshot: Adapting planning
resources in the arts...................................... 153
to take advantage of local opportunities... 129
Summary.............................................................. 155
Themes for units of inquiry........................... 130
Go further............................................................ 156
At a glance: Themes for units of inquiry..... 130 Learning activities............................................... 156
Completing worked examples as Further reading................................................... 156
part of planning.............................................. 130 References........................................................... 157
Using the six-pointed star template for
planning...........................................................131
Planning for the imaginative
development of ideas........................................ 133 PART 2 
TEACHING IN THE
Apply the Wallas model................................ 133 ARTS
At a glance: Working towards a
unit of inquiry plan......................................... 134 Chapter 6 Dance 160
Guiding principles for dance
Brainstorming................................................. 135
education..............................................................161
Aural and visual stimulation.......................... 135
Describing dance............................................161
Chance............................................................ 135
Dance in school education........................... 162
Planning for self-expression of
Engaging with dance.......................................... 164
ideas..................................................................... 136
Teacher participation..................................... 164
Open-ended challenges............................... 136
Planning for practical activity.............................137 Student participation..................................... 165
The preparation and cleaning-up Supporting diverse learners......................... 168
stages...............................................................137 Classroom snapshot: Inclusive dance
Planning for reflection........................................ 138 education.........................................................169

Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-202
Contents ix

Dance in the Australian Curriculum...................170 Assessment in Drama.................................... 206


Classroom snapshot: Initiating dance Foundations of drama literacy: concepts,
in the classroom..............................................171 knowledge and skills.......................................... 207
Assessment in Dance.....................................171 Elements of drama......................................... 207
Foundations of dance literacy: concepts, Principles of story .......................................... 209
knowledge and skills...........................................172 Drama participation skills.............................. 210
Elements of dance..........................................172 Drama praxis: making..........................................212
The body as instrument.................................173 Initiating drama engagement........................212
Exploring and performing with others.........175 Dramatic play...................................................214
Dance praxis: making..........................................175 Process drama.................................................215
Developing a movement vocabulary............176 Story drama.....................................................215
Choreographing dances............................... 180 Classroom snapshot: Drama using a
At a glance: Strategies for supporting text as a stimulus.............................................216
children’s creation of dances.........................181 Improvisation...................................................217
Learning social dances.................................. 183 Role-playing.....................................................219
Performing dances......................................... 183 Mantle of the expert...................................... 221
Dance appreciation: responding...................... 185 Mime................................................................ 222
Viewing dance performances....................... 185 Puppetry.......................................................... 224
Understanding dance context and Cyberdrama.................................................... 225
motivation....................................................... 186 Vocally orientated drama.............................. 225
Leading guided dance appreciation........... 188 At a glance: Presenting vocally orientated
Cultivating interest in dance......................... 189 drama forms.................................................... 225
Linking dance to other subjects........................ 190 At a glance: Steps for developing stories
Drama.............................................................. 190 for storytelling................................................ 228
Media arts....................................................... 190 Playbuilding and devising theatre............... 230
Music................................................................ 190 Drama appreciation: responding...................... 232
Visual arts.........................................................191 Viewing drama performances...................... 233
Cross-curriculum.............................................191 Understanding drama contexts and
Safe dance practice and practicalities..............191 motivations..................................................... 234
Establishing sensible and safe Guided drama appreciation......................... 234
behaviour.........................................................191 Linking drama to other subjects....................... 235
Let’s start dancing......................................... 192 Dance............................................................... 235
Props and resources...................................... 193 Media arts....................................................... 235
Online resources: Dance education.............195 Music................................................................ 235
Summary...............................................................196 Visual arts........................................................ 235
Go further............................................................ 197 Cross-curriculum............................................ 236
Learning activities............................................... 197 Safe drama practice and practicalities............. 236
Further reading................................................... 197 Safe practices................................................. 236
References........................................................... 198
Space to work................................................. 236
Chapter 7 Drama 199 Working in groups......................................... 236
Guiding principles for drama education.......... 200 Masks............................................................... 237
Describing drama........................................... 200 Costumes, props and play boxes................. 237
Drama in school education........................... 201 Online resources: Drama education............ 238
Engaging with drama......................................... 202 Summary.............................................................. 239
Teacher participation..................................... 202 Go further............................................................ 240
Student participation..................................... 203 Learning activities............................................... 240
Supporting diverse learners......................... 204 Further reading................................................... 240
Drama in the Australian Curriculum................. 205 References............................................................241

Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-202
x Contents

Chapter 8 Media arts 242 Managing with limited equipment.............. 279


Guiding principles for media arts Storage............................................................ 280
education............................................................. 243 Online resources: Media arts education..... 280
Describing media arts................................... 243 Summary.............................................................. 281
Media arts in school education.................... 244 Go further............................................................ 283
Engaging with media arts.................................. 245 Learning activities............................................... 283
Teacher participation..................................... 245 Further reading................................................... 283
Student participation..................................... 246 References........................................................... 284
Supporting diverse learners......................... 247
Chapter 9 Music 285
Media arts in the Australian Curriculum.......... 248
Guiding principles for music education........... 286
Assessment in Media arts............................. 249
Describing music............................................ 286
Foundations of media arts literacy:
concepts, knowledge and skills........................ 249 Music in school education............................ 287
Engaging with music.......................................... 289
Key media arts concepts............................... 250
Teacher participation..................................... 289
Elements of media arts................................. 253
Student participation..................................... 290
Story principles............................................... 255
Supporting diverse learners......................... 290
Genre............................................................... 256
Media arts praxis: making.................................. 258 Classroom snapshot: Music
and communication....................................... 291
Developing proficiency with digital
Music in the Australian Curriculum................... 291
technology...................................................... 258
Assessment in Music..................................... 292
Creating media stories.................................. 259
Foundations of music literacy: concepts,
Pictorial stories............................................... 259
knowledge and skills.......................................... 293
Stories using audio media............................ 262
Elements of music.......................................... 293
Classroom snapshot: Comic strips to
Music notation................................................ 294
create visual narratives.................................. 264
Music praxis: making.......................................... 296
Stories in audio-visual formats..................... 265
Exploring sound and silence........................ 296
At a glance: Guidelines for a claymation
Singing............................................................. 297
(or video) project............................................ 267
Percussion....................................................... 301
At a glance: Storyboard terminology when
Classroom snapshot: Creating a rainstorm
filming a video................................................ 270
using body percussion.................................. 302
Stories in graphic, print and web
Classroom snapshot: Percussive
media............................................................... 271
accompaniment to Pachelbel’s Canon........ 304
At a glance: Layout basics............................ 272
Creating or composing music...................... 305
Stories in multimedia, interactive and
At a glance: Composing a song................... 307
convergent communication formats............ 275
Media arts appreciation: responding................276 Sharing, recording and performing............. 308
Music appreciation: responding....................... 309
Reviewing media artworks.............................276
Listening to and viewing live
Understanding media arts context and
performances................................................. 309
motivation........................................................276
At a glance: Planning a successful public
Guided media arts appreciation.................. 277
performance................................................... 310
Linking media arts to other subjects................ 278
Understanding contexts and
Dance............................................................... 278
motivations..................................................... 310
Drama.............................................................. 278
Guided listening..............................................315
Music................................................................ 278
Classroom snapshot: Guided listening:
Visual arts........................................................ 278
The Moldau (Die Moldau) by Smetana.........316
Cross-curriculum............................................ 278 Linking music to other subjects.........................318
Safe media arts practice and
Dance................................................................318
practicalities........................................................ 279
Drama...............................................................318
Safe use of equipment.................................. 279
Media arts........................................................318
Cyber citizenship............................................ 279
Visual arts.........................................................318

Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-202
Contents xi

Cross-curriculum.............................................318 Classroom snapshot: Discovering how we


Safe music practices and practicalities.............319 communicate using elements and principles
Safe practices..................................................319 of visual language.......................................... 353
Locating music................................................319 Exploring 3D form and space....................... 354
Instruments......................................................319 Sharing and displaying artworks.................. 356
Music library....................................................319 Visual arts appreciation: responding................ 356
Music centre or listening post...................... 320 Viewing visual art........................................... 356
Sharing music with children.......................... 320 Understanding visual arts contexts and
Online resources: Songs............................... 322 motivations..................................................... 357
Online resources: Music education............. 323 Guided visual arts appreciation................... 360
Summary.............................................................. 324 Linking visual arts to other subjects................. 361
Go further............................................................ 325 Dance............................................................... 361
Learning activities............................................... 325 Drama.............................................................. 361
Further reading................................................... 325 Media arts....................................................... 361
References........................................................... 326 Music................................................................ 361
Cross-curriculum............................................ 361
Chapter 10 Visual arts 327
Safe visual arts practice and
Guiding principles for visual
practicalities........................................................ 361
arts education..................................................... 328
Classroom snapshot: Discovering how the
Describing visual arts.................................... 328
composition of a painting contributes to its
Visual arts in school education..................... 330 meaning........................................................... 362
Engaging with visual arts................................... 331
Safe practices................................................. 364
Teacher participation..................................... 331
Mixing colours................................................ 364
Student participation..................................... 332
Arranging still-life and subjects for
Supporting diverse learners......................... 333 observation..................................................... 365
Visual arts in the Australian Curriculum........... 334
Using visuals................................................... 365
Assessment in Visual arts.............................. 335
Acquiring art materials.................................. 366
Foundations of visual arts literacy:
Online resources: Visual arts education...... 368
concepts, knowledge and skills........................ 336
Summary.............................................................. 369
Elements of visual arts................................... 336
Go further............................................................ 370
Design principles........................................... 337
Learning activities............................................... 370
A closer look at colour – one of the Further reading................................................... 370
elements.......................................................... 338
References........................................................... 371
Classroom snapshot: Compare two ways of
teaching about colours................................. 338
Colour mixing using the warm and
cool paint colour system............................... 342
PART 3 UNITS OF INQUIRY
At a glance: Warm and cool paint colour
system.............................................................. 343 How this section works........................................374
Varying the units of inquiry................................ 375
Conventions for representing the
Understanding the learning experiences........ 375
spatial world in 2D......................................... 344
Patterns around us...............................................376
Symbols, metaphors and different
Guide to the learning experiences for
realms.............................................................. 346
Patterns around us...............................................376
Materials also communicate......................... 346
Unit plan options for Patterns around us......... 377
Visual arts praxis: making.................................. 347
Glossary............................................................... 408
Representation............................................... 348 Index......................................................................410
At a glance: Subjects for observational
activities.......................................................... 349
Formalism........................................................ 350
Expressionism................................................. 351
Social commentary and narrative................ 352

Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-202
xii

Guide to the text


As you read this text you will find useful features in every chapter
to enhance your study of authentic arts education and help you
understand how the theory is applied in the real world.

CHAPTER OPENING FEATURES

Chapter one 66 PART 1 The ABC of arts education

PUTTING YOU IN THE PICTURE – The first thing required is some lateral thinking. Consider the way the arts penetrate
everyday life: music, gigs, festivals, interesting murals and sculptures in the park, art exhibitions,
THE RATIONALE AND CONTEXT home decor, concerts, fashions, cinema, dance shows on TV, product packaging, musicals,

FOR ARTS EDUCATION photography, jewellery designs, computer games, street artists and buskers. The list goes on.
Now map the different ways you engage in the artistic and cultural dimensions of living. You may

Identify the key concepts that the chapter will


be pleasantly surprised.
In this chapter you will discover that: Next, reflect on your artistic capacities. Some of you will have studied in arts areas throughout
1.1 the arts are part of what it means to be human your secondary school years, or taken up arts classes or completed summer school workshops
1.2 the nature of arts education changes as society’s needs and values change – so arts
education today is different from arts education in the past
cover with the objectives at the start of each
for your own interest. These are strengths that you can build on with ease. Others of you may
think you have no music background, but can you sing? Can you clap or tap your foot to music?
1.3 contemporary arts education research, policy and scholarship illuminate the nature
of arts education for the new era chapter. If so, you can recognise beat and tempo. These are concepts you will be covering in your music
1.4 arts education is in the curriculum to seriously contribute to developing children’s
(and dance) program. Do you take photographs and manipulate them on the computer? Those
capabilities to meet the challenges of the new era are media skills and they will be useful for planning a media arts lesson. Are you good at flower
1.5 implementing new educational practices and a meaningful program requires arranging or is scrap-booking one of your hobbies? While these are not part of The Arts learning
dedication and forward-thinking approaches. area, these activities still require you to use the visual arts elements of colour, shape, texture,
balance and contrast, so you will be able to transfer that understanding into a visual arts context.
Likewise, quilting, sewing, carpentry and knitting use the same arts concepts and practical skills
that apply in the visual arts classroom.
Having reflected on your interests and skills, think about the arts areas you would feel most
confident teaching. The advice to novice arts teachers is to begin with your strengths and plan
lessons in areas where you feel most confident. For example, if you play a musical instrument,
your initial Arts programs may have a strong music component and only modest opportunities
in the other areas of The Arts. While you will want to cover all the areas to allow for children’s
different predilections and abilities, it is more important that you deliver good-quality arts
learning opportunities. If that means an in-depth music program for your class, with modest
explorations in other areas, that is fine. As your confidence grows, you can branch out.
You should also remember there are lots of resources that can support your teaching. For
example, if you find it difficult to hold a tune, you will find plenty of music online to play as

FEATURES WITHIN CHAPTERS accompaniment to children’s singing. Mobile devices mean it has never been easier to bring
the arts world into the classroom. Children will appreciate the effort you make. Do not be overly
concerned if your singing is a little shaky. It may give children confidence to participate when they
see you taking creative risks in the way you are asking them to do.

CLASSROOM SNAPSHOT CLASSROOM SNAPSHOT


STEPPING UP AND HAVING A GO

Explore authentic arts education in practice through


This story was part of a post by a B Ed student on the unit’s actions. He told me, in front of the class, that it would be
Discussion Board. okay and that then some of the children could follow me.
I volunteer one day a week at our youngest child’s After the session Mr A asked me if I felt uncomfortable
the Classroom Snapshot boxes with primary school where Mr A, the principal, is very
supportive of my B Ed study.
doing it. I told him the truth. He congratulated me for not
letting the children know how uncomfortable I felt, and

real-life examples.
BK-CLA-DINHAM_4E-190029-Chp01.indd 2 09/07/19 3:43 PM
When the whole school was to learn a dance in for adapting to what I could do, as it showed the children
preparation for the school concert, I chose to sit at the that although something was hard for me (as an adult), I
back of the classroom and watch, knowing that my hands was willing to get up and give it a go.
and feet do not like to coordinate. In future sessions I got up as soon as everyone else

Authentic engagement with Aboriginal Mr A suggested to the children that I should get up
and join them. I felt really uncomfortable doing so, and
did and just did the feet actions. Most of the children
could do both, but there were some preps who positioned
artistic heritage Ch 2, p. 4 told him that I would only be doing either the hand or leg themselves behind me and copied my actions.
Suzanne Wright, 2013

Stimulating creative thinking Ch 2, p. 48


Developing a unit of inquiry on bushfires Ch 2, p. 52
English as a second language (ESL) Comic strips to create visual narratives
BK-CLA-DINHAM_4E-190029-Chp03.indd 66
Ch 8, p. 264 02/07/19 1:51 PM

taught through The Arts Ch 2, p. 54 Music and communication Ch 9, p. 291


Rehabilitating the free-for-all Ch 2, p. 57 Creating a rainstorm using body percussion Ch 9, p. 302
Stepping up and having a go Ch 3, p. 66 Percussive accompaniment to Pachelbel’s
Integrating digital technology in a Canon Ch 9, p. 304
unit of inquiry Ch 3, p. 69 Guided listening: The Moldau (Die Moldau)
Unlocking a child’s potential Ch 4, p. 102 by Smetana Ch 9, p. 316

Talking about a painting Ch 4, p. 119 Compare two ways of teaching about


colours Ch 10, p. 338
Adapting planning to take advantage of
local opportunities Ch 5, p. 129 Discovering how we communicate using
elements and principles of visual
Inclusive dance education Ch 6, p. 169 language Ch 10, p. 353
Initiating dance in the classroom Ch 6, p. 171 Discovering how the composition of a
painting contributes to its meaning Ch 10, p. 362
Drama using a text as a stimulus Ch 7, p. 216

Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-202
‘cognition’ about
Completing written reflections ‘cognition’.
Metacognition
Reflection can be integral to the work process or undertaken at the end of an activity. It can includes developing
involve children reviewing their own work, a display of everyone’s work or the performance of the capacityGuide
to to the text xiii
another group in the class. Verbal reflections promote a conversational approach but there are select workable
strategies for
several reasons why written reflections also should be completed: learning or problem
• All children participate rather than the more vocal ones. For young children, oral responses solving.
FEATURES WITHIN CHAPTERS
can be recorded by the teacher.
• It is another way of responding that allows for different expressive preferences.
STARTER IDEAS
• It encourages the use of arts vocabulary and the organisation of thoughts into complete
sentences and statements.
• Children can revisit their written responses at a later stage. For example, the next time they
Developwrite
youra own
scriptactivities to introduce
and perform it, they can children to thoughts
review their the relevant artsprevious
from the principles, elements
session and and skills with the
learn
activities from them.
suggested in the Starter ideas boxes.
• The teacher can review children’s responses and make assessments about children’s arts learning.

STARTER IDEAS
DIFFERENT WAYS OF ENCOURAGING REFLECTION
• Children pair up and share their thoughts with their the artworks produced; e.g. the main figure is
partner. prominently positioned; the colours are delicate
• Children complete worksheets, make journal entries in and subtle. Children stick the notes to the
their ideas journal or use a digital equivalent like a blog. artwork and no artwork can have more than three
• Hold a ‘spotlight on budding artist/s’ event where sticky notes on it.
each child (or group) answers questions from • When the class is presenting small group
other children about their artistic creation or performances, have each group also be ‘a panel of
performance, what they learned, what they would do judges’ that reviews one of the other performances.
differently and what they like about their creation. Constructive feedback is the aim.
• Display visual artworks from the whole class. • Have children take on the role of a newspaper
Children use sticky notes to write observations columnist and write a review of the class display
about two of these. Their comments could relate or a group performance with reference to the
to the objectives of the lesson and qualities in process and the outcomes.

The 5Rs reflective writing scale


WaysThe
to inform parentswriting
5Rs reflective to gainscale
greater Starting
(see Figure 4.2) is adapted from points
the Bain et for PowerPoint
al. model (2002)stories
and Ch 8, p. 265
support
canfor
beyour authentic
modified program
to suit differentofage
art groups. It is a framework that addresses metacognition by
learning Ch 1, p. 21 Topics for video activities Ch 8, p. 268
asking children to reflect on the learning process: to identify what they did, how it went, what
Wayswere
to encourage children’s
the contributing listening
factors Some ideas for
to the outcome and what understandings poster
about projects
learning or work Ch 8, p. 274
and observation skills Ch 4, p. 110 Ideaslearning
strategies can be carried forward and usefully employed in future for exploring sound and
experiences. silence
A sample Ch 9, p. 296
Types5Rs worksheet
of entries is included
in an in your Go Further
ideas journal Chresource.
4, p. 111 Ideas for using untuned percussion
instruments in the classroom Ch 9, p. 303
Finding equivalences Ch 4, p. 112
Ideas for creating music Ch 9, p. 305
Ideas for using metaphors and
symbolism Ch 4, p. 114 Exploring Aboriginal and Torres Strait
islander music Ch 9, p. 313
Different ways of encouraging
reflection
BK-CLA-DINHAM_4E-190029-Chp04.indd 115 Ch 4, p. 115 Classical music on movie soundtracks Ch 9, p. 7:56
28/06/19 313PM
Working collaboratively Ch 6, p. 175 Ideas for combining music and movement Ch 9, p. 318
Building physical skill Ch 6, p. 179 Instructions for making your own
percussion instruments Ch 9, p. 321
Conceptual challenges as starting points
for dances Ch 6, p. 181 Exploring the hues of colour Ch 10, p. 342
Steps into storytelling Ch 7, p. 210 Ideas for exploring linear perspective Ch 10, p. 345
Using drama games purposefully Ch 7, p. 213 Ideas for exploring atmospheric
perspective Ch 10, p. 345
Verbal improvisation Ch 7, p. 218
Ideas for exploring form Ch 10, p. 346
Scene improvisation Ch 7, p. 219
Ideas for exploring design elements
Preparing for role-playing Ch 7, p. 221 and principles Ch 10, p. 349
Ideas for mime activities Ch 7, p. 223 Ideas for exploring Expressionism Ch 10, p. 352
Initiating stories Ch 7, p. 227 Ways of exploring issues and ideas Ch 10, p. 354
Photographic stories Ch 8, p. 260 Ideas for exploring 3D form Ch 10, p. 355
Stories, topics and characters for comic A guided listening lesson you can use
strips Ch 8, p. 263 with a class Online, p. 1

Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-202
Encouraging children to participate in their community by taking more responsibility for their
own behaviour and learning can be facilitated very easily by involving children in decision making.
For example, class codes of behaviour can be established by involving all class members. Since
learning needs to be relevant to children, they can be involved in deciding the topics of their arts
projects. Engaging children in constructing the direction of their own learning can be done at all
xiv Guide to the text levels of the primary school to good effect.
Children not only need to feel part of the classroom community to learn, they also learn
through their relationships. Cooperation and collaboration is promoted by arts learning and this,
more than competition, facilitates children’s learning, as well as the development of their self-
esteem and identity (Devaney et al., 2006). Sharing materials, working in pairs and performing
in groups are all ways in which children learn through their relationships with each other. They

FEATURES WITHIN CHAPTERS learn to take turns, listen to other points of view, build consensus and negotiate the contributions
each can make to the betterment of the group. For children to successfully develop productive
classroom relationships, as well as participate in creative activities that involve the exploration of
relationships, they need to feel emotionally secure.

AT A GLANCE AT A GLANCE
CREATING A CLIMATE THAT FOSTERS RICH ARTS LEARNING
To foster rich arts engagement, the emotional and physical • facilities or systems are in place for children to keep
climate should be considered in conjunction with open-ended working on projects in their own time
For more effective learning, the At a glance boxes educational activities that exercise children’s imagination,
interpretation and invention. In such an environment:
• materials and resources conducive to artistic
explorations, such as dress-up clothing and visual

provide quick overviews of key concepts, practical • children feel encouraged to take intellectual risks,
explore, experiment and trial things as part of
stimulation displays (collections of shells, seedpods,
mechanical pieces), are on hand

tips and useful resources. learning – their efforts in this regard are praised,
even if the end result is not particularly successful
• materials and resources for independent explorations –
such as a music centre that has CDs, headphones,
• children feel valued for who they are: their thoughts, music challenges and instruments – are provided
ideas and needs are considered and treated seriously, • stimulating examples of art, a music library or books
and differences of opinion are negotiated respectfully with stories of inventors, explorers, architecture and
• opportunities for children to work independently, such as artists are part of the learning environment.
a regular one hour of ‘project time’, are provided so that
children can work on their personal project interests

BK-CLA-DINHAM_4E-190029-Chp03.indd 77 02/07/19 1:51 PM

Working towards a unit of inquiry plan Ch 5, p. 134


Ten things you should know about the value
of the arts in children’s education Ch 1, p. 19 Constructive feedback Ch 5, p. 146
Characteristics of open-ended approaches Ch 2, p. 45 Authentic arts assessment Ch 5, p. 150
The features of authentic Arts learning Ch 2, p. 59 Strategies for supporting children’s
creation of dances Ch 6, p. 181
Creating a climate that fosters rich arts
learning Ch 3, p. 77 Presenting vocally orientated drama
forms Ch 7, p. 225
What makes me a good teacher in The Arts? Ch 3, p. 88
Steps for developing stories for
Exploring and validating children’s storytelling Ch 7, p. 228
cultural backgrounds Ch 4, p. 101
Guidelines for a claymation (or video)
Your role in developing children’s aesthetic 58 PART 1 The ABC of arts education
project Ch 8, p. 267
sensibilities Ch 4, p. 107
Storyboard Showcase
terminology when filming a
approach
Ways of improving levels of video Festivals, exhibitions, drama productions and school performancesCh 8,important
are an p. 270 part of
accomplishment Ch 4, p. 109 The Arts. The arts-as-entertainment is well established in our society, and events of this order
can bring colour and light to the school program. Often, children’s engagement in a large-scale
Layout basics Ch
production is remembered as a highlight of their school days. These 8, displays
public p. 272 can also
Ways to incorporate the world of arts in galvanise a school community and put The Arts in the spotlight. Taking on such challenges

the program Ch 4, p. 117 Composing requires


a song Ch 9, p. 307
commitment from the teacher and usually involves a lot of extra, out-of-class work, so
their efforts are to be applauded.
While such events contribute to children’s artistic education and make a positive impact in
Selecting artworks that engage children Ch 4, p. 118 Planning a successful public
the school, they do not, in themselves, represent a program of sequential learning in The Arts.

Ch –9, p. 310
With increasingly more opportunities for teachers to engage artists-in-residence to lead group
performance
projects, there is the temptation to assume that arranging such an activity wonderful though it
Encouraging children’s artistic is – represents your commitment to arts education. It would be the same as thinking a visit to a
engagement – dos and don’ts Ch 4, p. 121 Warm and cool paint colour system
museum represents your science program for the year.
Ch 10, p. 343
The other factor to consider is that performance-based activities such as a music concert,
drama production or dance performance tend towards:
Themes for units of inquiry Ch 5, p. 130 Subjects for• observational activities
being strongly teacher directed Ch 10, p. 349
• being an exercise in convergent thinking: lots of rehearsing to meet the performance
requirements – to get it right
• often being focused on a few talented children with others being given fill-in roles
• becoming more about the performance and entertainment than about the value of the
experience for the students themselves
• creating a situation where the quality of the performance and of individual children’s efforts
are judged more by their appeal to the audience than by any educational criteria.
Once again, there are benefits in engaging in such activities. The important thing is to be clear
ONLINE RESOURCES: LEARNING MORE about their weaknesses from an educational perspective and to remember that such activities
alone do not constitute an Arts program. Instead, they should be integrated into a sound and

ABOUT ARTS EDUCATION consistent program of arts learning.

ONLINE RESOURCES: LEARNING MORE


ABOUT ARTS EDUCATION
Discover high quality online educational resources to
support your teaching and learning in the annotated
• Aboriginal Educational Contexts. Hosted by the • Get Smart through Art. A USA site that is a useful
NSW Government Board of Studies, this site provides portal to arts integration approaches adopted at a
teachers with a breadth of information related to range of schools. http://www.aacpsartsintegration.
lists of Online resources. Aboriginal educational contexts and includes a
section on Aboriginal art where you can download •
org/ai-model/getting-started/
International Society for Education through Art. A
the Affirmations of identity teachers handbook. http:// non-government research and advocacy organisation
ab-ed.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/ of repute. It is membership-based and an official
• Creative Arts K–6. Hosted by the NSW Department of partner of UNESCO. http://www.insea.org/
Education and Training, this site provides resources to • Project Zero. An internationally recognised
support teaching The Arts in primary schools. https:// educational research group that has a sustained
educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/portal/nesa/k-10/ research history in the area of creativity in the
learning-areas/creative-arts/creative-arts-k-6-syllabus arts. This website is a place to start when looking
• Creative Innovation. An Australian site for an for publications in the area. Studio thinking and The
interactive community of innovators, futurists and qualities of quality: Understanding excellence in arts
thinkers interested in creativity and innovation. education are listed among the group’s publications.
http://www.creativeinnovationglobal.com.au/ http://www.pz.harvard.edu

BK-CLA-DINHAM_4E-190029-Chp02.indd 58 09/07/19 4:19 PM

Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-202
Guide to the text xv

FEATURES WITHIN CHAPTERS


374

Learn how to plan quality primary arts programs


using the frameworks in Part 3 of the text for UNIT OF INQUIRY
developing units of inquiry. This section includes
sample lessons and other resources that
HOW THIS SECTION
demonstrate authentic arts education. Further How this section works 377 WORKS
samples are available online. In the following pages you will find a range of learning activities that relate to the theme
LEARNING LEARNING ARTS AGE PAGE ADDITIONAL INFORMATION IN THE TEXT Patterns around us. By selecting several of the learning activities and organising them into
ACTIVITY NUMBER ACTIVITY TOPIC SUBJECT GUIDE
a meaningful sequence you can create your own unit of inquiry or module of work based
Digital storybook – 8+ 378 Chapter 8 on exploring the concept of pattern (a visual art design principle). To help you achieve
LA4 A day in pattern Elements of media arts success, cross-references to information in the text have been provided with each learning
world activity.
Stories in audio-visual formats
Stories in graphic, print and web media In the book’s Go Further resource, available through your instructor, you’ll find more
Chapter 10 learning activities clustered into units of inquiry based on different themes, concepts,
Classroom snapshot: Discovering how we communicate ideas or scenarios, along with additional support material, including links to relevant
using elements and principles of visual language websites and online videos.
Go Further resource
Planning worksheet for a PowerPoint template picture
book
Ostinatos All 382 Chapter 9
LA5 Elements of music
Body percussion
Classroom snapshot: Creating a rainstorm using body
percussion
Hero’s journey 8+ 385 Chapter 7
LA6 Elements of drama
Improvisation
The artwork of 389 Chapter 4
LA7 Bronwyn Bancroft Children learn by reviewing and responding to
artworks
Chapter 10
How this section works 385
Visual arts appreciation: Responding

UNIT PLAN OPTIONS FOR PATTERNS AROUND US LAND ART LA2

UNIT PLAN OPTIONS ARTS SUBJECTS COVERED LEARNING ACTIVITIES SEQUENCE


of materials. This means it doesn’t represent
anything, such as a picture of a fish, but works in
Option 1 LA1 LA5 LA6 an abstract way through the organisation of the art
elements (lines, shapes, textures, colours) using
Option 2 LA3 LA2 LA4 design principles (balance, rhythm [pattern], scale,
etc.).
Andy Goldsworthy is the most notable land
Option 3 LA7 LA4 LA6 artist and an online search will reveal a wealth of
photographs of his work.
Land art is an excellent way to show children
Option 4 LA5 LA1 LA2
how artmaking can involve using any materials.
They can also see how the visual arts elements
and design principles can be applied in a range of
The Arts Unit of Inquiry (AUOI) plan for Option 2 is a guide to how to write a unit of inquiry. Most plans are not
contexts. Land art lends itself to projects with an
this detailed, but using this format helps ensure you have considered all the important dimensions underpinning BK-CLA-DINHAM_4E-190029-Chp11_Part_3.indd 374 environmental theme. 07/08/19 3:55 PM
an authentic arts learning experience.
For the teacher, land art is an excellent way of
working when your range of art supplies is limited.
For children who have a strong affinity to their
388 PART 3 Units of inquiry natural environment, this project willHow
be this
welcomed.
section works 403

Curriculum – learning outcomes –


assessment
ABSTRACT PATTERNED PAPERS LA3 GUIDED APPRECIATION – BRONWYN
EachBANCROFT
LA7
learning experience has an intended
educational purpose that is guided by the
Description curriculum. The Australian Curriculum: The Arts
BK-CLA-DINHAM_4E-190029-Chp11_Part_3.indd 377 07/08/19 6:41 PM
Create an artwork in the style of land art. Using outlines the sequence of content for Visual arts
found natural materials, children create an on its website (http://docs.acara.edu.au/resources/
‘intervention’ in an outdoor space that incorporates The_Arts_-_Sequence_of_content.pdf).
pattern types such as bilateral or radial. This is In the table below, the educational purpose of
documented by photography. the learning experience is expressed as learning
outcomes aligned to the four curriculum sub-
Teacher’s guide strands that are important dimensions of an
Land art is a form of visual arts that involves using authentic approach to arts education.
natural materials (rocks, leaves, nuts, twigs) to create The type of evidence you will use to assess the
an organised arrangement of materials (an artwork) degree to which the intended learning has taken
that functions as an intervention in the landscape. place is listed in the third column of the table.
This means the artwork is designed for a chosen When developing your program for a specific
site. The site is the context for the artwork and the age group you will have to review the specific
artistic creation is designed to be in sympathy with curriculum requirements in each of the sub-strands
the site. In its construction, land art should, as an for the age group and also specify the features of
intervention, make on
Embedded. Acrylic the viewer
Canvas. more
89.5 × 50 attuned to the
cm © Bronwyn Bancroft, 2016. Photography
a good, sound or by Sharon Hickey.
modest achievement of learning
qualities of the
Reproduced particular
with permissionlandscape/environment/
of the artist.
in each case.
site. The artwork is a non-figurative arrangement
Description as illustrations for books and a range of murals
A guided viewing of the artwork of Aboriginal and glass installations in buildings and outdoor
artist, Bronwyn Bancroft. spaces.
Of the 40 books Bancroft has illustrated and
Teacher’s guide written, two titles, Shapes of Australia and Patterns
Bronwyn Bancroft is a Bundjalung woman who was of Australia, have obvious links to the Visual arts
born in Tenterfield, NSW in 1958. Bronwyn studied curriculum and should be part of your professional
photography and design at the Canberra School library.
Description of the marks (this is spiky, this is smooth like a of Art from 1976 to 1981. Bronwyn has successfully Bancroft has seen her designs on the fashion
Children use paints and a range of applicators snake) and developing an art vocabulary (words completed two Masters degrees and her PhD with catwalks in Paris, and has been acknowledged
to create patterned papers using repetition of like hue, tone, primary colour, repetition). the University of Sydney. through awards and honours. She is an active
colours, shapes and lines. They describe the The video KS1/2 Art – Messy art at KS2 (http:// Bronwyn Bancroft’s art has developed from
BK-CLA-DINHAM_4E-190029-Chp11_Part_3.indd 385 member of the urban Indigenous arts community 07/08/19 3:56 PM
features of their artworks in aesthetic terms. www.schoolsworld.tv/node/832) is an excellent a deep love of nature and the Australian bush. and has had a significant role in a number of
guide for this learning experience even though the Bronwyn Bancroft was fascinated by the textural Indigenous artists initiatives as well as serving on
Teacher’s guide focus differs from the one here. surfaces of plants and rocks from an early age and arts boards at the National Gallery of Australia and
The exploration of art materials and marks is a key The cultural references show different this has been translated into her symbology and the Museum of Contemporary Art. She regards
part of visual arts engagement. In this context, motivations and contexts for making art. Matisse painting repertoire. Bancroft draws on her daily, her images as a constant affirmation of Aboriginal
repetition and its role in the creation of patterns began making collages (gluing down cut papers lived experiences and cultural stories in the creation culture in Australia (ABC Education, 2015).
can be explored. to create images) when his failing health made it of her artworks. The imagery of brightly coloured Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories
In this learning experience, children explore difficult to sustain his large-scale painting in the and carefully detailed patterns is distinctive and and Cultures is one of the three cross-curriculum
ways of making marks using different applicators studio. Romero Britto, a Brazilian-born artist who reflects her own artistic imagination. It has been priorities in the Australian Curriculum. In the
(brushes, sponges, combs, toothbrushes, fingers) lives in Miami, was influenced by Matisse. He creates described as ‘reminiscent of stained glass windows’ Arts Learning Area curriculum content, specific
and techniques (stamping, brushing, splattering). colourful artworks for commercial organisations (Golvan Arts, 2019). reference is made to exploring the ideas and
After these initial free explorations, children move and advertising as well as for community-based A noteworthy feature of Bancroft’s art practice practices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
on to apply their new skills to create abstract projects. Carle is an example of an artist who has and her assuredness as an artist is the way cultures and artists. Studying the artwork of
patterned papers based on repetitions of colours, had a long and distinguished career as a children’s she has pursued her artmaking in a range of Bronwyn Bancroft as part of a unit of inquiry on the
shapes and lines. book author and illustrator. different contexts and applications. She makes theme of ‘pattern’ will appeal to young children.
During the process, children’s attention should paintings, prints, fabrics and garments, as well It is also a way of introducing an artist who will
be directed to appreciating the sensory qualities

BK-CLA-DINHAM_4E-190029-Chp11_Part_3.indd 388 07/08/19BK-CLA-DINHAM_4E-190029-Chp11_Part_3.indd


3:56 PM 403 07/08/19 3:56 PM

Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-202
xvi Guide to the text

FEATURES WITHIN CHAPTERS 16 PART 1 The ABC of arts education

When you see Key terms marked in bold, study reflective


The reflective nature
Arts practice is reflective and reflexive, whereby the artist contemplates, acts and reviews
in a natural spiralling work cycle. From a sustainability perspective, this way of working allows for
of arts practice

the Definitions nearby to learn important means that the


new formations of self and other and the relationship to the natural world (Blewitt & Cullingford,
artist’s critical 2004).
contemplation of
vocabulary for your profession. See the Glossary
The arts engagement with the affective domain – the domain of feelings – means that
the artwork is a
significant part of
connections with the world, and the development of an attitude of caring and empathy, deemed
necessary for a sustainable disposition, can be cultivated (Everett et al., 2015).
at the back of the book for a full list of key terms
the work process. It
is an interrogation The active engagement and personal commitment (learning by ‘doing’ or ‘making’) that are
where judgements
hallmarks of arts learning are also required for building sustainability dispositions because it is
and CROSS
definitions.
98 PART 1 The ABC of arts education are made about how
ATSIHC well the artwork is recognised that action, as well as awareness, is important.
progressing towards
CURRICULUM
PRIORITIES
AAEA communicating the
Wonderment and curiosity about the perceived world and the world of ideas underpins
artistic endeavours, to the extent that artists often describe their creative work as journeys
SUST
Wellbeing is fostered in schools where creative engagement is highly valued (McLellan
et al., 2012). When children are actively engaged in meaningful artmaking, they experience the
artist’s intention
and then decisions into understanding. This characteristic is well aligned with the aims of developing children’s

12
are made about how sustainability dispositions.
PART 1 The ABC of arts education
feeling of rapt absorption or captivation typical of working in the arts. This generates a sense
of wellbeing and equilibrium (McCarthy et al., 2004). The grace and rhythm of music and dance
to move forward
The significance of mindfulness – paying close sensory attention to the world around us –

ICONS
towards the goal.
can be transporting and calming. ATSIHC
CROSS
The physicality of dance provides a good workout that relieves
CURRICULUM reflexive
is a feature of artistic practice. To draw an insect, children must closely observe every detail.
stress and also creates a feeling of wellbeing – a natural high – as endorphins are released. One study showed that young children who drew, as well as observed, an animal recalled
AAEA
PRIORITIES
Studies in the USA and Australia show that the ‘making’ aspect of collaborative arts projects
The reflexive nature
of arts practice is more factual details than the children in the control group who only observed (Fox, 2010). This
provides opportunities for children to negotiate with people from diverse backgrounds. This the intuitive and requirement to see and relate to the subject at a deep and focused level draws children into
experience, which develops children’s ability to manage relationships, is core to developing social reactionary response. richer understandings.
and community wellbeing (McDonald, Aprill & Mills, 2017).
CROSS
AAEA
Identify important educationalists, influential theorists and selected well-known artists
It is an ongoing
dialogue with the From the earliest times, the natural world has been a source of inspiration for artists.

Identity formation
PRIORITIES
CURRICULUM
SUST The the
using theory Key peopleof aesthetic education
icons. Explore theseproposed
key peopleby
evolving artwork –
the artist’s action is
in more philosopher detail in your Bennett Go FurtherReimer in the
Consequently, a wealth of artistic creations provide study resources for developing children’s
aesthetic appreciation of the natural world (Carr, 2004). The traditions of cultural festivals
a reaction.

1960s,
formation andfor
For children, the journey to adulthood involves separation from parents and a gradual
development of a sense of self. This is the basis for identity example, aimed to unite
online resource, available through your instructor.
is the process by the arts around their common
mindfulness and connection. engagement with the affective
celebrating the natural world and its rhythms are also entry points to a heightened sense of

which children develop Bennett


distinctivenessReimer
as discrete and separate individuals who are defined to A number of early childhood centres adopt the Reggio Emilia approach to learning.
themselves as well as to others. CROSS
1932–2013
CURRICULUM
Children’s self-concept incorporates
ATSIHC (or feelings) domain
their physical, psychological, spiritual, social and cultural
of learning. This philosophy cast a long shadow. Project Zero, which was
Developed in Italy by Loris Malaguizzi, it has an art specialist as a core member of the teaching
team and is based on understanding children as capable, inquisitive, autonomous and active
entities,SUST
PRIORITIES
selves. As children become separate
established
they develop a sense of the boundaries that make
them separate or different from others, a sense of continuity (a personal history) and a sense in 1967 at the Harvard Graduate
SUST
School
CROSS
CURRICULUM
of Education (partly as a result of Reimer’s
learners. Reggio Emilia promotes an integrated approach to learning that is well aligned to
CCP sustainability precepts. Emphasis is placed on making connections between the affective
PRIORITIES
of their uniqueness, while at the same time understanding how they are affiliated or related to
others. This is the foundation on which identity is formed. work), researches learning, thinking and creativity in the arts. It embraced new developments in
and the cognitive, and expressing ideas through arts activities like drawing and movement.
Connections are pursued in a full-circle approach to learning: children know where their art
Identity formation is a majorCROSS
task of childhood, and the arts lend themselves to this process
materials come from, they participate in acquiring them, they are encouraged to use them
by providing rich opportunities to explore: AAEA
CURRICULUM
• what it is to be themselvesPRIORITIES
cognitive psychology and brain research and has been instrumental in positioning the arts as forms
through self-referential activities such as building a personal
judiciously, they clean up and know what happens when they dispose of the materials. From the
shrine or retablo using significant images and artefacts to represent oneself
beginning, they learn the consequences of their actions.
• being part of a group through activities such as singing as of cognition
a choir, creating a group mural(ways of knowing). The widely influential work done by Howard Gardner, a past
or working as a member of a production team to create an outcome Cross-Curriculum
that is achieved by Priorities icons clearly direct
Instrumentalpre-service and intrinsic teachers benefits toofcontent
the arts relating
combined effort and skills CROSS
Howard Gardner
Director, on developing the concept of multiple
We have seenintelligences
that the attributes of artistic has thinking contributed
and engagement are regarded toas understanding
having
• their values through CURRICULUM
drama improvisations
PRIORITIES
ATSIHC to the three CCP areas of Aboriginal and Torres
about themes such as sacrifice, loyalty and
special Strait
relevance forIslander
functioning in theHistories andgiveCultures
21st century. This might the impression that The
thestorybooks
particularusing animals as nature of the arts. In due course, Reimer recast his conception of aesthetics as
honesty
• the nature of different types of(b. 1943) Arts’ role in education is mechanistic or instrumental, but it is not that simple. As we said at
characters
relationships
(ATSIHC),
by creating digital
Asia and Australia’s Engagement with Asia
the beginning, (AAEA),
the arts have been part and Sustainability
of our human (SUST).
existence since prehistoric times. They give
• personal hopes, dreams and aspirations by creating a dream
• role models they might emulate CROSS
a box form of these
that illustrates cognition (1992). Peter Abbs has inalso
by video interviewing significant people and role models in
shape and
been influential in the evolution of ideas about
dimension to our lives. So, while the arts are proving to be instrumentally
terms of contemporary society’s needs, the experience of engaging in arts education is also
beneficial

their lives. CURRICULUM


PRIORITIES
SUST intrinsically beneficial to individuals.
aesthetics and its place in contemporary arts education. Theorists including Arthur Efland and
Instrumental benefits
4.3 VALUING INDIVIDUALITY AND DIVERSITY Elliot Eisner IN are among those who have In muchcontributed
of the research and policysignificantly
outlined earlier in this chapter,towe the explanation
see that governments or of the
THE LEARNING COMMUNITY their agencies tend to examine The Arts and arts education in terms of the contribution made

arts as forms of cognition. Other works, including Project Zero’s identification of ‘studio habits
Elliot Eisner
The Australian Curriculum documents
Identify quotes from the curriculum material with the Australian Curriculum
remind us that ‘All students are entitled to rigorous,

ofacknowledges
mind’that ‘students (Hetland
(AC)in icon.et al., 2007) and the New Zealand work Like Writing Off the Paper (Holland &
relevant and engaging learning programs drawn from a challenging curriculum that addresses
(1933–2014)
their individual learning needs’ (ACARA, 2015a). This
Australian classrooms have multiple, diverse and changing needs that are shaped by individual

O’Connor,
learning histories and abilities, as well as cultural and language backgrounds and socioeconomic
factors’ (© Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) licensed under a
2004), have addressed the particular nature of learning in the arts. In Chapter 2 we
cultural pluralism explore the nature of arts learning in more depth.
(CC BY) licence). An authentic arts program thrives on diversity. It encourages children to develop BK-CLA-DINHAM_4E-190029-Chp01.indd 16 09/07/19 3:44 PM
as individuals, within a community. This means that each child’s sense of individuality necessarily

The recognition that


The growth of multiculturalism led scholars to recognise that the arts, as they occurred in
different cultures
END-OF-CHAPTER
have parallel differentFEATURES
cultures, could not be easily explained using a Western aesthetic Chapter 4 Childrenframework
at the centre 123 where
BK-CLA-DINHAM_4E-190029-Chp04.indd 98 and equally valid ‘high’ art was distinguished from ‘low’ art. As it became increasingly evident that the arts in
28/06/19 7:56 PM

frameworks
At theforend of eachdifferent
chaptercultures stemmed
you will find severalfrom
toolsalternative
to GO
helpFURTHER you traditions
to review, practise and thatand arts wereyour
extend embedded in people’s
valuing their cultural
knowledge
products.
of the area.
everyday lives, the concept of cultural pluralism,
Go Further resource or relativity,
and deepen your understanding filtered
Go Further with extra resources and study tools for this chapter. Ask your instructor for the
of the chapter content. into contemporary
Chapter 4 Children at the centre 123
arts
Go Further containsthinking.
extra The work and
resources of scholars
study such as the influential ethnomusicologist David P McAllester
supported the adoption of a social GO FURTHER
anthropological
LEARNING ACTIVITIES approach to understanding and describing
tools for each chapter. Ask your instructor for the Go Further with extra resources and study tools for this chapter. Ask your instructor for the
INDIVIDUAL ACTIVITIES GROUP ACTIVITIES
Go Further
David
the arts in education.
McAllesterresource and deepen your
Go Further resource and deepen your understanding of the chapter content.
1 Create an information pamphlet for parents 1 View Austin’s Butterfly: Building excellence
describing the nature of arts learning and in student work (https://vimeo.com/38247060).
understanding
(1913–2006) of the topic.Alperson coined the term praxial
Philip philosophy
explaining the value
this style of learning.
of children participating as in a way
Organiseof positioning
yourselves into groups of three or
four and, using this model, take turns to set a
the arts within a
LEARNING ACTIVITIES
range of different social, psychological and cultural
2 Investigate how arts and disability are being
addressed in
INDIVIDUAL
frameworks.
Australia through major projects,
ACTIVITIES completed
GROUP
This
their first drawing, re-enact the type is articulated
ACTIVITIES
philosophy
drawing task for your peers. After they have

Test
praxial your knowledge and consolidate your
by David Elliott in his book Music Matters:
1
policy and strategies. Identify five key ‘take-
Create
home’ an A new
information
messages for youpamphlet
as a philosophy
for
teacher.parents 1
of discussion seen in the video. Provide three
of Thismusic
View Austin’s
opportunities Butterfly:
for your peerseducation
Building
to draw the chosen (1995). Social
excellence
describing the natureinof arts learning and in student work (https://vimeo.com/38247060).
the Learninglike
activities.
object. activity could run over several weeks.
learning throughmovements
3 Using the information Figure 4.5 and the
philosophy feminism also strengthenedexplainingsnapshot:
Classroom
this style
general
the social framingmembers
the valueTalking
of learning.
guide,
of children
aboutparticipating
a painting as a
prepare a guided viewing experience
in
fourof
Organise
2 In
the
John Marsden’s
and, using thisarts,
yourselves picture
of a typical model, takewith
into groups of three
book, Home
Australian turns leading
or Away,
and
familytobecome
set a scholars
A term coined by 2 Investigate
for an artwork how arts and disability
in PowerPoint. This shouldare being
highlight drawing
refugees.task for your
In small peers.
groups, After they
develop and have
act out
like Griselda Pollock (1999) developing visualtheoretical
addressed in Australia
features through
and incorporate innovations
major
information projects,
that’s one and
completed
of the key new
their
scenes intellectual
first drawing,
in the re-enact
book. Basedtheontype frameworks
Professor Philip policy to
linked and strategies. for
opportunities Identify
childrenfivetokey ‘take-
arrive at their of discussion
your experience,seenplanin the video.
a unit Providefor
of inquiry three
Year

Alperson. It refers to for thinking about the arts in the context home’
theof
own conclusions.
3 list
Using feminism,
messagesFigure
for you10.22
information
of artists
as a inteacher.
gender,opportunities
Chapter 10 has a
Figure 4.5 and the
to get youinstarted.
ethnicity
object.
with theThis
for yourthe
6 students to explore
activity
intention ofcouldand
peers
run over
developing culture.
to draw
refugee the chosen
experience
several weeks.
children’s
Classroom snapshot: Talking about a painting as a 2 understanding
In John Marsden’s
andpicture book, Home and Away,
empathy.
the positioning of the Similarly, the scholarship of Kerrygeneral Freedman
guide, prepare a guidedhas contributed
viewing experience significantly to the field of
members of a typical Australian family become
for an artwork in PowerPoint. This should highlight refugees. In small groups, develop and act out
arts within a range
visual culture, which positions the visual artsforin ato arrive
social context and embraces any medium
visual features and incorporate information that’s one of the key scenes in the book. Based on
linked to opportunities children at their your experience, plan a unit of inquiry for Year
of different social, FURTHER READING
own conclusions. Figure 10.22 in Chapter 10 has a 6 students to explore the refugee experience
Extend your
psychological and understanding
that has a through
key the
visual component. This envisioning
list of artists to get you started.
of visual arts opened the
with the intention of developing children’s
understanding and empathy.
door for media arts
Copple, C (Ed.) (2003). A World of Difference: Readings on teaching Golomb, C. (2011). The Creation of Imaginary Worlds: The role of art,

cultural frameworksFurther
suggested readingsuch
as products, relevant to each
as comics and advertising, to be of Youngviewed
young children in a diverse society. Michigan: National
Association for Education Children. and critiqued as art forms (Freedman &
magic and dreams in child development. London: Jessica Kingsley
Publishers.

chapter.
Deasy, RJ (Ed.) (2002). Critical Links: Learning in the arts and Meager, N (2006). Creativity and Culture: Art projects for primary
a basis for determining Hernández, 1998; Freedman, 2003). student From Partnership. an arts criticism perspective, Edmund Feldman
academic and social development. Washington, DC: Arts schools. UK: NSEAD.

their natures and FURTHER


Education
Dinham, READING
J & Chalk, B (2018). It’s Arts Play: Young children belonging,
Walker, SR (2001). Teaching Meaning in Artmaking. Worcester,
Davis Publications.
MA:

intrinsic value. (1994) highlighted the arts as forms of social practice and developed models (procedures) for being and becoming through the arts. South Melbourne: Oxford
University
Copple, C (Ed.) Press.
(2003). A World of Difference: Readings on teaching
Wright, S (Ed.) (2012). Children, Meaning-making and the Arts
(2ndC.edn).
Golomb, Sydney:
(2011). Pearson.of Imaginary Worlds: The role of art,
The Creation
young children in a diverse society. Michigan: National magic and dreams in child development. London: Jessica Kingsley

systematically
09/08/19 12:40 PM appraising artworks. Association for Education of Young Children.
Deasy, RJ (Ed.) (2002). Critical Links: Learning in the arts and
Publishers.
Meager, N (2006). Creativity and Culture: Art projects for primary
visual culture student academic and social development. Washington, DC: Arts schools. UK: NSEAD.

Embraces any Creativity is a cornerstone feature of arts practice, yet what this means and how it can be Education Partnership.
Dinham, J & Chalk, B (2018). It’s Arts Play: Young children belonging,
Walker, SR (2001). Teaching Meaning in Artmaking. Worcester, MA:
Davis Publications.
being and becoming through the arts. South Melbourne: Oxford Wright, S (Ed.) (2012). Children, Meaning-making and the Arts

medium that developed has challenged scholars for years. Profitable approaches have been to use indicative University Press. (2nd edn). Sydney: Pearson.

has a key visual descriptions of the profiles of people considered to be creative, the ‘habits of mind’ or dispositions
component. This
includes products
associated with creative activity and the nature of creative processes. Researchers including
such as comics and Lowenfeld and Brittain (1975), Sternberg (1988), Abbs (1989), Csikszentmihalyi (1990), Gardner
advertising.Copyright
The 2020 (1993), and Winner
Cengage Learning. All Rightsand Hetland
Reserved. (2001)
May not be copied,are among
scanned, thosein whole
or duplicated, who orhave
in part.contributed
WCN 02-200-202 significantly to
articulation of visual BK-CLA-DINHAM_4E-190029-Chp04.indd 123 28/06/19 7:56 PM

this work.
culture opened the
Guide to the online resources xvii

FOR THE INSTRUCTOR

Guide to the online resources


Cengage is pleased to provide you with a selection of resources that
will help you prepare your lectures and assessments. These teaching
tools are accessible via cengage.com.au/instructors for Australia
or cengage.co.nz/instructors for New Zealand.

MINDTAP
Premium online teaching and learning tools are available on the MindTap platform - the personalised
eLearning solution.
MindTap is a flexible and easy-to-use platform that helps build student confidence and gives you a clear
picture of their progress. We partner with you to ease the transition to digital – we’re with you every step of
the way.
The Cengage Mobile App puts your course directly into students’ hands with course materials available on
their smartphone or tablet. Students can read on the go, complete practice quizzes or participate in
interactive real-time activities.
MindTap for Dinham’s Delivering Authentic Arts Education 4th edition is full of innovative resources to
support critical thinking, and help your students move from memorisation to mastery! Includes:
• Dinham’s Delivering Authentic Arts Education 4th edition eBook
• Lesson plan templates
• Video Activities and more!
MindTap is a premium purchasable eLearning tool. Contact your
Cengage learning consultant to find out how MindTap can transform
your course.

INSTRUCTOR’S GUIDE
The Instructor’s guide includes: • Instructor notes on using the Units of Inquiry
• Chapter objectives • Tutorial activities.
• Key terms

POWERPOINT™ PRESENTATIONS
Use the chapter-by-chapter PowerPoint slides to enhance your lecture presentations and handouts by
reinforcing the key principles of your subject.

ARTWORK FROM THE TEXT


Add the digital files of graphs, tables, pictures and flow charts into your course management system, use
them in student handouts, or copy them into your lecture presentations.

Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-202
xviii Guide to the online resources

FOR THE STUDENT

GO FURTHER RESOURCE
Deepen your understanding of the chapter content by asking your instructor for your Go Further resource,
which includes:
• Lesson plan templates
• Worksheets
• Additional Units of Inquiry
• Key people glossary.

MINDTAP FOR DELIVERING AUTHENTIC ARTS EDUCATION 4TH EDITION


MindTap is the next-level online learning tool that helps you get better grades!
MindTap gives you the resources you need to study – all in one place and available when you need them.
In the MindTap Reader, you can make notes, highlight text and even find a definition directly from the
page.
If your instructor has chosen MindTap for your subject this semester, log in to MindTap to:
• Get better grades
• Save time and get organised
• Connect with your instructor and peers
• Study when and where you want, online and mobile
• Complete assessment tasks as set by your instructor
When your instructor creates a course using MindTap, they will let you
know your course key so you can access the content. Please purchase
MindTap only when directed by your instructor. Course length is set by
your instructor.

Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-202
Introduction xix

Introduction
A world without the arts would be a grey of negotiating the world of knowledge in the
and tuneless place. The arts are so seamlessly digital world parallel the way artists work and
woven into the fabric of our everyday lives that so researchers are increasingly interested in the
it is easy to overlook the extent to which they arts as a way of gaining insight into these types
contribute to the quality of our lives. Music of cognition (Bourriaud, 2002).
accompanies our everyday activities as we plug Similarly, the unprecedented growth of forms
into our mobile devices while taking an early of communication that rely on visual formats –
morning run or working out in the gym, or such as websites, videos, PowerPoint ®, digital
listen on the radio while driving. A night out to images and Skype™ – mean that visual literacy
a dance club, concert hall, cinema or theatre, is becoming a critical functioning skill. This is so
immerses us in the worlds of dance, music, much so that an Australian Government agency
media arts and drama. We watch TV shows observed that ‘artistic and visual literacy are
where interior stylists decorate homes with increasingly as important to success in work and
neutral shades of wall paint offset by ‘pops of life as numeracy and language skills’ (Ozco &
colour’, and we employ the same visual arts skills DEST, 2004, p. 4).
to choose the colours and textures in our own Across the world, the growth of the
homes. The retail world of fashion, jewellery, knowledge society has commentators
magazines, furniture and advertising engages remarking that success in this economy requires
our senses through the quality of visual design. creative and innovative thinkers more than the
Our urban environment is enlivened by music, workers we needed for the industrial world.
public artworks such as murals and sculptures, In the USA, research shows that 97 per cent
and interesting architecture. Our digital world of of employers surveyed believe that creativity
YouTube videos and computer games depends is increasingly important in the workplace –
on media arts skills. though 85 per cent seeking employees with such
The arts are not only part of what we see skills reported having difficulty finding them.
and hear around us, but also influence the The report concludes that ‘it is clear that the
way we think and the way we see ourselves. arts … provide skills sought by employers of the
Participating in the arts is an important third millennium’ (Lichtenberg, Woock & Wright,
dimension of children’s development because 2008, p. 17).
artmaking activates complex thinking processes Globalisation of economies and global
through the abstract nature of music, the issues like migration and climate change have
embodied materialisation of thought through blurred the boundaries of societies. Fostering
dance and drama, the externalisation and connections and relationships across and within
abstract representation of ideas by drawing, cultures has placed greater emphasis on cultural
and the multidimensional weaving of sensory understanding and building people’s sense of
experience in media arts creation. The arts identity and connection. Once again, the arts
are also integral to the way we build our personal attract attention because of their capacity to
and cultural identities through traditional meet these needs.
songs and national anthems; dance, paintings, The arts bring pleasure, joy, comfort and
drama and movies that tell our stories; and understanding into people’s lives. They allow
iconic architecture that presents us to the world. people to express who they are and to find
The arts have always been part of human meaning in their world. In the same way that
life, but in our contemporary world their role prehistoric people drew on cave walls and
is changing as the digital revolution transforms toddlers draw on bedroom walls, we know that
the way we think of and structure information, expressing ourselves artistically through dance,
knowledge, experiences and understandings. drama, media, music and visual art is a primary
The interactive, relative and navigational ways and deeply human need.

Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-202
xx Introduction

Is this book for you?


This book is for pre-service and novice primary school teachers. Experienced teachers who are
looking for a guide to contemporary arts teaching should also find it useful.
The Arts is a mandated learning area in both the Australian and New Zealand primary school
curricula. For the most part, generalist primary school teachers have the responsibility of providing
their students with good-quality arts learning opportunities that enable them to develop the
capabilities deemed necessary for success and fulfilment in our emerging world. This is a challenge,
but you have a pleasurable job to do – one that will bring you many rewards as well.
If you do not feel confident about teaching in the arts, be reassured that you have this capability
within you. It just needs to be harnessed and directed. Furthermore, opportunities such as
partnerships with arts organisations as well as access to professional networks and online resources
are providing more support than ever before. The purpose of this book is to support you in
developing your confidence, understandings and skills to initiate an authentic arts learning program
in the primary classroom. It does this by:

1 providing you with enough background information to appreciate the true nature of arts
education and its importance in the curriculum

2 encouraging you to recognise, celebrate and use your own creative and artistic capacities
(which may be dormant, but do exist) – and your pedagogical skills – to bring arts education
alive in your classroom, and for you to be the best teacher you can be

3 directing you to the range of options and support available to you through partnerships,
professional networks and online resources

4 reviewing the features of an authentic arts program and building the links between theory and
practice with sample lessons, supporting information pages, ideas for programs, suggestions
and guidelines – so that you can initiate an authentic arts education program, function
effectively in the classroom, and be confident that you will succeed.

Both the title of this book and the content refer to authentic arts education. What this means
is arts education that is genuine education – where children actually develop more sophisticated
understandings, skills and capabilities in the arts, which support satisfying self-expression and
appreciation. To be blunt, far too much of what passes for arts education is not much more than
busy work or a fun-time interlude in the ‘real’ work of education. Not that there is anything wrong
with having fun – but arts education also needs to be purposeful, stimulating and challenging
learning – and all education should be fun!

How this text is organised


The book is organised into three parts.

provides an overview of the contemporary context for arts education and then examines the
PART three interconnected elements of arts education in the primary school – the student, the
1 teacher and the curriculum.

PART looks specifically at teaching in each of the five Arts areas.


2

is a set of learning experiences on the theme of Patterns around us that can be implemented in
PART the primary school classroom. Additional themes, learning experiences and resources are located
3 on the book’s website, which you can access via http://login.cengage.com.

Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-202
Introduction xxi

Pedagogical tools
As part of being a reliable resource for learning about and teaching in the arts, a number of
pedagogical features have been provided to assist your studies. The text makes regular references
to the Australian Curriculum. Even if the state where you live has developed its own curriculum, this
text is still relevant because the state-based curricula are derived from the Australian Curriculum
and the underpinning concepts and expectations are consistent. Icons in the text draw attention
to references made to the Australian Curriculum. Icons in the margin as well as the text highlight
references to the cross-curriculum priorities.
Each chapter begins with a set of bullet points outlining the key ideas in the chapter and has a
summary of the main points at the end. Subheadings are used throughout and you will be able to go
directly to the section you need at any time. At the end of each chapter are suggested activities for
you to consolidate and check your learning.
Throughout the book are At a glance boxes that can be quickly located as ready references for
key information – or photocopied and pinned up at your workstation.
The Classroom snapshots are boxed sections that offer examples of arts education in action in
the classroom and other learning contexts. You will see how the ideas discussed in the book are
enacted and translated into real-life classroom situations.
Online resources are provided in every chapter so you have reliable resources readily at hand
for teaching and your own self-education. These annotated lists of websites extend the value of the
book because you can continue to access up-to-date information.
Starter ideas throughout the text provide lists of ideas for practical implementation that illuminate
the concepts being discussed.
Icons for significant educators are in the margins as well as explanations for terminology highlighted
in the text in bold font. A glossary at the end of the book lists all these terms alphabetically.
The book has its own website where additional learning activities and resources expand the
material provided in the text. Templates such as those for unit planning or developing visual narratives,
which are in the book for reference, are also on the website so they can be downloaded for use.
All these features are intended to support your ongoing professional development as an educator
in the arts beyond the pre-service units you complete in your degree.

Terminology
While a glossary of terminology is included in this book, several terms used throughout the text
should be clarified here. ‘The arts’ is a collective term referring to dance, drama, music, visual and
media arts and other forms of artistic expression. When capitalised, The Arts is generally referring
to The Arts learning area in the Australian Curriculum. ‘Artworks’ and ‘artists’ are usually used in this
text as collective nouns to mean all products of the different arts areas and all creators. This is in
order to avoid cumbersome specification when meaning any and all art forms or creators. Therefore,
a musical performance is an artwork and a composer is also an artist.
The term ‘pre-service teachers’ refers to those who are studying to gain a teaching qualification.
Novice teachers are qualified teachers in the first years of their teaching careers. Throughout the
text, children and students are terms used interchangeably to refer to the young people you will be
teaching.

Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-202
xxii Introduction

References
Australia Council for the Arts (Ozco) & Bourriaud, N (2002). Relational Aesthetics (rev. educators and executives aligned on the
DEST (2004). Request for tender for edn). Translated S Pleasance & F Woods. creative readiness of the US workforce?
the provision of national review of Buenos Aires: Adriana Hidalgo Editoria. New York: The Conference Board.
education in Visual Arts, Craft, Design Lichtenberg, J, Woock, C & Wright, M Retrieved from http://www.artsusa.org
and Visual Communications. FA/6416. (2008). Ready to innovate: Are

Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-202
About the author xxiii

About the author


Associate Professor Dr Judith Dinham, School of Education, Curtin University
Judith Dinham has held senior university teaching and leadership positions in arts education
and artists’ education over a number of decades. At Curtin University she is the Director of
Learning and Teaching in the School of Education, having previously held the position of
Bachelor of Education Primary Program Co-ordinator.
She is a HERDSA Fellow, has an Edith Cowan University Fellowship for Teaching Excellence
and two Curtin University Excellence and Innovation in Teaching Awards.
She was the founding director of ProArts, a professional development provider for teachers,
as well as being an International Baccalaureate examiner for 10 years and a board member
for WAAPA and ARX. Her broad curriculum experience includes writing and presenting arts
education courses in Early Childhood, Primary and Secondary Education for universities,
the Curriculum Council, Professional and Graduate Education, Open University Australia
and the Botswana Government. Her research interests relate to pre-service education in the
arts. Judith Dinham is also a practising artist and exhibition curator. The monograph Judith
Dinham: An artistic journey describes her artistic practice.

Acknowledgements
The production of this fourth edition reflects an ongoing interest in Delivering authentic arts
education and the publisher’s commitment to keeping the text up to date and relevant for
each intake of pre-service teachers. I am indebted to Cengage and, most importantly, the
university lecturers around the country who make Delivering authentic arts education the
required text for the arts units. In relation to the preparation of this new manuscript, I would
like to acknowledge and sincerely thank colleagues, teachers, students, friends and family
who offered advice and assistance and, importantly, the reviewers listed below who provided
critical review of the content.
I would also like to thank those who made generous contributions of artwork, images and
ideas for inclusion in the book including Gill Treichel, Christine Latham, Sylvia Le Min Maslin
and Elizabeth Ford, as well as Stella Attwater, Isaac Beckmann, Noah Beckmann, Theda
Morrissey and Quentin Morrissey; and also Bayswater Primary School, Hale School, Edith
Cowan University and Curtin University for inclusion of certain photographs.

Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-202
xxiv About the author

This book is intended for pre-service primary school teachers and as such I have especially
valued the contribution of past and present pre-service students. The stories of several
teaching experiences recounted by my students on their Blackboard Discussion Board bring
an immediacy to the matters being discussed and provide valuable insights.
A special thanks goes to my development editor, Jessica Brennan, who has guided me
through several editions of the book, and the whole wonderful team at Cengage who have
masterfully brought this book into being. It is always a pleasure working with such committed
and capable individuals.
Ideas float in a ferment and any number of fragments can take hold and grow into
arts creations and lessons. These in turn may suggest possibilities for interpretation by
someone else. I have willingly shared ideas with my students and colleagues and, while I have
acknowledged known sources in this text, I also want to thank all those who, with a teacher’s
instinct and collegial spirit, have generously contributed to the ferment that feeds us all.
Judith Dinham
2018

The author and publisher would like to thank the following reviewers, whose feedback shaped
this fourth edition:

Clare Britt Macquarie University


David Cleaver University of Southern Queensland
Peter Cook Southern Cross University
Helen Grimmett Monash University
Sue Harding University of South Australia
Victoria McTaggart Australian Catholic University
Robin Pascoe Murdoch University
Fiona Phillips Deakin University – Burwood
Louise Phillips University of Queensland
Beth Rankin Australian Catholic University
Helen Sandercoe La Trobe University
Jennifer Stevens-Ballenger University of Melbourne
Sara Warren Federation University

Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-202
1

PART
ONE
THE ABC OF ARTS
EDUCATION The Arts is one of the mandated learning areas in the
Australian Curriculum and includes the subjects of Dance,
Drama, Media arts, Music and Visual arts. All students
from Foundation through the primary school years are
expected to have an education in The Arts subjects.
How this is achieved will vary across state and territory
jurisdictions and from school to school. Nevertheless, all
teachers have a role to play in delivering arts education
in a contemporary curriculum – even if the school has
specialist teachers. If you are preparing to be a generalist
teacher, it is possible that you may have a modest
background in the arts, lack confidence in your ability or
feel intimidated by the challenge. However, you will find
that you can deliver a worthwhile Arts program if you are
willing to try.
Part 1 of this book is an examination of the principles
of delivering good-quality arts education. It begins
with an exploration of the context and rationale for
arts education because you need some understanding
about why arts education is in the curriculum in order to
engage with arts learning intelligently. The rest of this
section is devoted to addressing the three key players in
education: the learner, the teacher and the learning area.
Understanding essential concepts in relation to each of
these three factors represents the ABC of arts education:

A Authentic arts
education.
B Being the
best teacher
C Children at
the centre.
you can be.

Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-202
2

Chapter one
PUTTING YOU IN THE PICTURE –
THE RATIONALE AND CONTEXT
FOR ARTS EDUCATION
In this chapter you will discover that:
1.1 the arts are part of what it means to be human
1.2 the nature of arts education changes as society’s needs and values change – so arts
education today is different from arts education in the past
1.3 contemporary arts education research, policy and scholarship illuminate the nature
of arts education for the new era
1.4 arts education is in the curriculum to seriously contribute to developing children’s
capabilities to meet the challenges of the new era
1.5 implementing new educational practices and a meaningful program requires
dedication and forward-thinking approaches.

Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-202
Chapter 1 Putting you in the picture – the rationale and context for arts education 3

1.1 THE ARTS ARE INTEGRAL TO HUMAN


EXISTENCE
The arts, such as painting and dancing, are forms of expression found in every culture. They are
integral to human society, and archaeologists go so far as to say that our artistic practices, along with
rituals and new technologies, are the three key drivers in the evolution of humankind (BBC News, 2000).
The oldest known images are hand stencils found in a cave in Sulawesi, Indonesia. These are
39 900 years old (Aubert et al., 2014), although other discoveries of paint pigments and tools
suggest that between 350 000 and 400 000 years ago Stone Age people were painting their
bodies for ritualistic and ceremonial occasions (BBC News, 2000). Evidence of decoration on
utilitarian ware signifies that, at some stage, an object’s function was augmented by attention
to its appearance. By the Bronze Age (3300–1200 BCE) artisans were employed to produce
ornaments and jewellery with no utilitarian role, meaning that objects were valued for their
artistry and beauty – and imbued with personal significance.
Artistic creations such as paintings, adornments, music, storytelling, enactments and dance
are primary and persistent ways in which humans communicate information, ideas or concepts
about the world as we understand it. In this regard, the earliest forms of artistic practices and
artefacts encapsulate key qualities that still hold true today:
• Art is an expression and communication of meaning.
• Art is engagement of our aesthetic sensibilities.
• Art is an integral part of our existence as a species.
The integral role of artistic expression across cultures and throughout history serves to
reveal much about the societies within which they were created – their needs and values, and
how people understood and made sense of their world. Much of the information gained by
archaeologists and historians about the beliefs and practices of civilisations and eras of the past
comes from studying their artistic pursuits.
In the codification of knowledge, artistic pursuits such as dance, drama, music and visual arts
have been formalised into disciplines with their unique histories, philosophical and theoretical
underpinnings, practices and fields of research. Media arts has naturally been established more
recently. These disciplines are referred to collectively as The Arts or the Creative Arts. For
educators, recognising the primacy of the arts in societies helps you to understand the role and
significance of The Arts in the school curriculum, and how this role has evolved and changed as
societal needs and values have changed.

1.2 THE EVOLUTION OF ARTS EDUCATION AS


SOCIETAL NEEDS AND VALUES SHIFT
Arts subjects such as visual arts and music have been in the primary school curriculum for about
two centuries, while others, such as media arts, are obviously more recent additions. You may
wonder why arts subjects are in the curriculum at all, but there has never been one immutable
reason why these subjects (or any subjects) are taught in schools.
The prevailing circumstances of a society and its history, beliefs and values create the climate
for education. Educational theories and research evidence give form and dimension to the nature
of schooling and the curriculum, while political and economic imperatives set expectations
and demands. All these features collectively provide the drivers for education. Since the
circumstances of society are always evolving, so too the nature of a subject like arts education
changes in accordance with the needs and perceived benefits at that point in time.

Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-202
4 PART 1 The ABC of arts education

You may have thought that subjects like music or drama are included in the curriculum to
make learning in other subjects more interesting or to provide some relief from more ‘serious’
subjects, but this isn’t the case. When you consider the level of investment in arts education
through teacher education, curriculum and teaching resources, infrastructure such as performing
arts auditoriums, or art equipment and musical instruments, you can deduce that an educational
return for this investment will be expected. What we discover is that a contemporary education
in the arts is expected to return those dividends in terms of the development of children’s
capacity to live successful and fulfilled lives in the 21st century. In this text, we learn what that
means.
Since education in the arts is evolving to meet contemporary needs, we can expect that the
way we were educated in the arts is not necessarily the model for teaching in today’s classroom.
To understand the evolution of contemporary arts education imperatives and practices, we begin
by reviewing the changing rationale for arts education over past decades.

Reasons for arts education in the past


At the end of the 18th century, the Industrial Revolution began supplanting the agrarian economy
with a manufacturing-based economy. Naturally, this required a new kind of workforce for the
emerging manufacturing industries, so education for the masses became widespread. Visual arts
was introduced into the curriculum as a vehicle for developing the manual dexterity and technical
drawing skills required for factory-based production. This was the style of visual arts education
valued by this society.
The development of the field of psychology in the early part of the 20th century and the
revolutionary and influential philosophies of John Dewey spearheaded a new conception
John Dewey of education that placed child development at the centre. The awakening of creative capacities
(1859–1952) through self-expression became the impetus for arts education and the nature of the curriculum
changed accordingly.
In the 1960s President Kennedy determined that the USA would put a man on the moon
within a decade, and the ‘space race’ ensued. This ambition focused on scientific education with
its attendant emphasis on empirical knowledge and academic rigour. The school curriculum
evolved to privilege the knowledge content of each discipline. In this educational environment,
art educators looked to what formed the knowledge base of arts education. Driven by the J Paul
Getty Trust, ‘discipline-based’ arts education emerged. It included aesthetics, art criticism and
art history – along with the usual artmaking processes. This curriculum was widely adopted in
Australian secondary schools in the 1980s and its influence is still evident today.

How changing times shaped a National Curriculum


Framework in Australia
At the 1989 Australian Education Council meeting, Ministers of Education agreed that a
framework for national collaboration was required to meet emerging schooling challenges. In its
Hobart Declaration, the Council identified 10 shared national goals that led to the development
of the National Curriculum Framework, which is the precursor to today’s Australian Curriculum
(MCEETYA, 1989).
This was at a time when the paradigm of economic rationalism prevailed and, in this context,
education’s primary role was understood in terms of developing citizens who would contribute
to society through their participation in the growth of the economy as workers and consumers.
It was determined that education in a range of areas improved children’s chances of being
employed, and that this breadth of education was best achieved by organising the curriculum
into eight key learning areas – including The Arts. The growth of cognitive science – which was
changing how we conceived of the mind, learning and intelligence – provided the framework for

Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-202
Chapter 1 Putting you in the picture – the rationale and context for arts education 5

the establishment of learning areas (Efland, 2002) and the existing arts subjects were brought
together with the newly introduced Media arts under the umbrella of The Arts.
In the Australian Government’s 1994 cultural policy, Creative Nation, ‘The Arts’ were also seen
as an identifiable market commodity. Here the ‘creative industries’ were viewed as a broad division
of the economy where jobs could be found for some and others could participate as consumers.
The National Curriculum Framework had a mixed reception. While many claimed that grouping
the separate arts subjects together into The Arts learning area diminished them individually, it
also meant that, for the first time in the primary school, developing children’s capabilities and
understandings in The Arts was seen to be as relevant as developing their capabilities and
understandings in the other nominated learning areas. This represented a significantly different
conceptualisation of subjects like music, visual arts and drama, which had often been treated as
optional extras – a Friday afternoon class if children had been good.

Introduction of the Australian Curriculum as


part of a reform agenda
As we have seen, the curriculum evolves in response to prevailing circumstances, values and
emerging needs. For today’s society, these are related to global forces: the digital revolution, the
growth of a knowledge economy, shifting economic power, the changing nature of work, increasing
international mobility and displacement, increasing engagement with different cultures through
globalised economies, growing concern for disenfranchised youth and fragmenting society, as
well as environmental and sustainability concerns.

The Melbourne Declaration establishes new educational goals


In Australia, for several decades now, the incumbent ministerial council on education has guided
the curriculum response to emerging needs. In December 2008, Australia’s Ministerial Council
on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA) set out the educational goals
for the coming decade in its publication, Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young
Australians (2008). The document’s Preamble acknowledges that complex environmental, social
and economic pressures, as well as the ongoing rapid advances in information and communication
technologies, are placing new demands on Australian education (MCEETYA, 2008, pp. 4–5). The
Melbourne Declaration then declares that the aspiration of ‘a high quality of life for all’ (p. 4)
will be determined by the country’s ability to compete in the global knowledge and innovation
economy. To this end, two goals for education are identified (MCEETYA, 2008, p. 7):
1 Australian schooling promotes equity and excellence.
2 All young Australians become:
a successful learners
b confident and creative individuals
c active and informed citizens.
The Melbourne Declaration guided the development of a new national curriculum, the
Australian Curriculum, to address these goals and provide equity of opportunity for all Australians
through a common curriculum.

Designing the Australian Curriculum to meet


new educational goals
In 2009, the newly established Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority
(ACARA) embarked on developing the Australian Curriculum. Like its predecessor, the curriculum
is organised around discipline-based learning areas, with The Arts learning area maintaining
the same five arts subjects: Dance, Drama, Media arts, Music and Visual arts. Additionally, the

Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-202
6 PART 1 The ABC of arts education

Figure 1.1 The Australian Curriculum has three dimensions: learning areas, general capabilities and cross-curriculum
priorities

© Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA)


2010. CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0.

Australian Curriculum mandates that all children should be educated in all five arts areas every
year from Foundation through the primary years of schooling.
Besides nominating learning areas, the Australian Curriculum identifies ‘general capabilities’,
which are the knowledge, skills, behaviours and dispositions regarded as essential for the
21st century, along with three cross-curriculum priorities that are to be addressed in each learning
area. This three-dimensional model (as shown in Figure 1.1), comprising learning areas, general
capabilities and cross-curriculum priorities, aims to address the changing nature of our world and
to frame a coherent approach to education that will prepare children for their future.
The development of the Australian Curriculum has been a phased process, including a rewrite
after the Donnelly and Wiltshire review in 2014 (Donnelly & Wiltshire, 2014). The Curriculum was
fully implemented in 2016 and since then ACARA has turned its attention to ongoing refinements.
Responsibility for its implementation rests with states and territories, and despite the goal of a
national curriculum, local variations and hybrid models have emerged. For example, in Victoria,
Visual Communication Design is an additional Arts subject; and in Western Australia an ‘adopt
and adapt’ approach has resulted in the nomination of ‘core’ and ‘additional’ content for each Arts
subject and a reduction in the number of Arts subjects each school must offer (Chapman, Wright
& Pascoe, 2016). Nonetheless, the Australian Curriculum provides the overarching framework.
The overall structure, content, purpose and expectations about arts education remain consistent.
The ‘learning area’ curriculum model is also used in New Zealand, but there The Arts learning
area embraces dance, drama, music-sound arts and visual arts. The International Baccalaureate
is an alternative curriculum available in both Australia and New Zealand. It too has a strong arts
education component and is often adopted by international, alternative and private schools. In
all of these models, the curriculum is designed to meet current and emerging needs as they are
perceived in the different jurisdictions.

Associated educational reforms


The Australian Curriculum was one arm of a broader education reform agenda. In 2009, the Council
of Australian Governments (COAG) formalised the education of pre-schoolers by endorsing
Belonging, Being and Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF). This milestone
document, which forms part of the National Quality Framework for Early Childhood Education and

Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-202
Chapter 1 Putting you in the picture – the rationale and context for arts education 7

Figure 1.2 The policy and curriculum framework that sits around teaching

Ministerial Council for Education, Early


MCEECTYA Childhood Development and Youth
(2008) Affairs
Melbourne declaration on
educational goals for young
Australians
Sets goals for Australian education
for the following decade

Australian Children’s Australian Curriculum,


ACECQA Education and Care Assessment and
Quality Authority ACARA Reporting Authority

National quality framework for


early childhood education and care Australian Curriculum
The Early Years Learning Framework – The Arts learning area
(EYLF)

VectorStock/bspsupanut
Australian Institute of Teaching
AITSL and School Leadership

Australian professional
standards for teachers

Care (http://acecqa.gov.au), outlines the principles, practices and learning outcomes for
education in the early childhood sector.
The curriculum developments have been complemented by the creation of the Australian
Institute of Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) and its introduction of the Australian
Professional Standards for Teachers (2012), which outlines the knowledge and skills teachers are
expected to demonstrate.
This triumvirate, as shown in Figure 1.2, represents major educational reforms undertaken
to meet the future needs of contemporary Australian society, as described in the Melbourne
Declaration. The Arts are part of this future.

1.3 RESEARCH AND POLICY BEHIND RECENT


DEVELOPMENTS
Our rapidly changing world is reshaping the way we think and act, the way we gain, structure
and use information, knowledge, experience and understandings, the way we work, and the way
we envision ourselves and our place in the world. In this context, the arts and their educational
significance have been gathering momentum.

Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-202
8 PART 1 The ABC of arts education

Across knowledge-based economies, innovation is regarded as the ‘engine room’ of growth.


Qualities like creativity, flexible thinking and problem solving – which are inherent characteristics
of artistic thinking – are recognised as relevant to a post-industrial economy (Winner, Goldstein &
Vincent-Lancrin, 2013).
There is also a growing awareness of the role played by the arts in creating social cohesion
and wellbeing (Pearce, 2017). In the same vein, a rich cultural and creative life is now conceived of
as a human right for each individual (Warwick Commission, 2015).

International research and policy directions


In recent decades, as governments, researchers, think tanks, educators and professional
bodies grappled with the demands of our rapidly changing world, interest in the arts and their
educational relevance gathered momentum.
In 1999, the International appeal for the promotion of arts education and creativity at school
was launched at the 30th session of the General Conference of UNESCO. Various projects and
publications were initiated in countries around the world and these prefaced UNESCO’s first
World Conference on Arts Education: Building creative capacities for the 21st century, held in
Lisbon in 2006. The themes of this conference reflected a belief in the cultural significance
of the arts, the major role that the arts play in the development of creativity and the need
for radical rethinking about the nature of arts education. The subsequent publication Road
map for arts education (2006) aimed to develop a consensus on the importance of arts
education in the belief that ‘creative and cultural development should be a basic function of
education’ (UNESCO, 2006, p. 3). The second UNESCO World Conference, held in 2010, built
on previous work with the publication of the Seoul Agenda: Goals for the development of arts
education, with the view that ‘Arts education has an important role to play in the constructive
transformation of educational systems that are struggling to meet the needs of learners in a
rapidly changing world’ (UNESCO, 2010, p. 2). Since then, budgetary cuts at UNESCO have
seen the winding back of the organisation’s financial contribution to its arts education agenda,
but its initiatives have continued through UNESCO Chairs and Observatories in the field and
groups such as the International Network for Research in Arts Education (INRAE) (O’Farrell,
Schonmann & Wagner, 2014) and the World Alliance for Arts Education (a unification of the
International Drama/theatre and Education Association [IDEA], International Society for
Education through Art [InSEA], World Dance Alliance [WDA] and International Society for Music
Education [ISME]) (Buck, 2014).

Figure 1.3 The President of Portugal welcoming delegates to


UNESCO’s first World Conference on Arts Education, Lisbon, Creativity and flexible
Portugal, 2006 thinking skills
In the USA, the President’s Committee on
the Arts and Humanities commissioned a
major suite of research projects to examine
the impact of the arts on learning. The
results of this research are described in
Champions of Change (Fiske, 1999) and
point to the importance of the arts on
both the quality of learning generally
and the development of the flexibility,
imagination and ‘tough-minded thinking’
deemed necessary to contribute to the
‘economy of ideas’ – and the future growth

Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-202
Chapter 1 Putting you in the picture – the rationale and context for arts education 9

of American society (Fiske, 1999, p. iv). The subsequent publications Critical Links (Deasy,
2002), a compendium of 62 arts education research studies, and Critical Evidence: How the
arts benefit student achievement (Ruppert, 2006), a synthesis of 10 years of research, and
other follow-up research (Catterall, 2009; Catterall, Dumais & Hampden-Thompson, 2012)
continued the survey of the benefits of the arts in education. A growing field of neuroscientific
research is producing evidence that frames the significance of arts education in physiological
terms (Zeki, 1999; Heath, 2000; Ione, 2012; Ehrlich, 2015; National Endowment for the Arts, 2015),
as well as showing the neural underpinnings of affective responses and their relationship to
learning (Immordino-Yang, 2011).
In the UK, the National Advisory Committee on Creativity and Cultural Education reported in
All Our Futures: Creative cultural education (National Advisory Committee, 1999) that a national
strategy for creative and cultural education was essential for Britain’s economic prosperity and
social cohesion. The report led to the creation of Creativity, Culture and Education (CCE) to carry
forward the recommendations of the report. The positive difference the CCE projects made to
children’s lives and achievements was evidenced in Creative Partnerships: Changing young lives
(CCE, 2009) and a subsequent critical review of how cultural value was understood, researched
and evidenced in the CCE archive (Thomson et al., 2015).
In the USA, the National Center on Education and the Economy released Tough choices
or tough times: The report of the New Commission on the Skills of the American workforce
in 2007 and a revised version in 2008, claiming that the standard testing strategy adopted to
improve schooling outcomes was misguided because it did not promote the type of teaching
that developed the creative and critical thinking skills needed for success in the emerging
economy.
This range of research has had wide exposure and general acceptance across the Western
world. While there are differences of opinion about details, the consensus is that creative, flexible
thinkers are required for the new era. The development of creativity is consistently identified as
a cornerstone function of arts education (UNESCO, 1996; National Advisory Committee, 1999;
Robinson, 2001; National Review of Visual Education, 2006) and so learning in the arts has drawn
attention.

Culture, community and wellbeing


The publication The WOW Factor: Global research compendium on the impact of the arts in
education (Bamford, 2006) surveyed a range of research to identify the attributes of effective
arts education worldwide. One feature of this survey was the role of the community in achieving
effective arts education. The notion of cultural institutions, artists and others contributing their
resources and expertise to provide an enhanced educational experience in the arts has been
widely accepted and implemented.
The view that cultural vitality is essential for sustaining a healthy society (Hawkes, 2002)
and that the arts are significant for developing understanding and respect among cultures
represents another thread of interest in the role of the arts in education. In a rapidly changing
and fractured world, surveys show that the arts are increasingly seen as critical to social cohesion
and understanding other people and cultures. The Australia Council for the Arts’ National
Participation Survey (2017) of over 7500 people found that 64 per cent of respondents believed
this, whereas in the 2013 survey only 36 per cent felt the arts had any significant impact on
their empathy for others. A recent poll in the USA that surveyed the perceptions of over 3000
Americans found 72 per cent agreed that ‘the arts unify our community regardless of age, race
and ethnicity’ and 73 per cent agreed that the arts help them ‘understand other cultures better’.
Eighty-one per cent of respondents regarded the arts as ‘a positive experience in a troubled
world’ (Americans for the Arts, 2018).

Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-202
10 PART 1 The ABC of arts education

To promote and celebrate the arts’ unique role in progressing cultural diversity, social
cohesion and dialogue, UNESCO, at its 2011 General Conference, proclaimed the fourth week in
May as International Arts Education Week.
In recent years, ‘wellbeing’ has increasingly been regarded as a factor to be measured when
evaluating a society’s progress – and to be considered as a factor that informs public policy
decisions (Smithies & Fujiwara, 2015). In accordance with this thinking, The Cultural Value Project
(2013–15), launched in the UK by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, set out to explore
the value of arts and culture to individuals and society with the aim of establishing an effective
framework for valuing and evaluating cultural engagement, beyond economic value. The Warwick
Commission’s report Enriching Britain: Culture, creativity and growth (2015) characterises the
UK’s vibrant cultural and creative industries as an ecosystem that plays a major role in societal
wellbeing, economic success, national identity and general influence. It also notes that, as
budgets tighten, there is a declining engagement in arts education in schools and asserts that
this is misguided in economic terms and in terms of societal wellbeing.
Research points to strong evidence that arts education plays a crucial role in children’s
sense of wellbeing (Winner, Goldstein & Vincent-Lancrin, 2013; Clift & Camic, 2015; Thomson
et al., 2015), and that the arts achieve positive outcomes, in particular, for marginalised
groups: disadvantaged students, students at risk, students from refugee backgrounds and
Indigenous students (Fiske, 1999; Bamford, 2006; CCE, 2009; Catterall, Dumais & Hampden-
Thompson, 2012).
The growing field of brain research has provided physiological explanations for many of the
reported values of the arts. For example, researchers have been able to show that the arts have
‘cognitive and emotional effects which are closely related to human psychobiological health
and wellbeing’ to the extent they are now proposing a ‘biopsychological science of the arts’
(Christensen & Gomila, 2018, p. xxvii).

Arts education for sustainability


In 1987, the United Nations’ World Commission on Environment and Development published
CROSS
SUST CURRICULUM
PRIORITIES
the report Our common future that, for the first time, linked CCP sustainable development to
education. Further research, reports and policy followed. In 2002, the United Nations proclaimed
2005–14 as the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. The subsequent report,
Shaping the Education of Tomorrow: 2012 report on the UN decade of education for sustainable
development, specifically examined the kind of learning processes that emerged over the
decade (UNESCO, 2012).
As the discourse in this field developed, the earlier focus on ‘environmental education’ evolved
into ‘education for sustainability’. This reflects a clearer appreciation of the human dimension
and the interplay between the four pillars of social, ecological, economic and political systems
in the achievement of sustainable ways of living (Taylor, Quinn & Eames, 2015). The concept of
sustainability has also embraced the understanding that culture sustains societies through social
cohesion (Hawkes, 2002), and that human rights, social justice, Indigenous knowledge and ethical
action are factors in the achievement of sustainable outcomes.
General observations about pedagogical approaches that develop the knowledge, attitudes
and behaviours underpinning sustainable living practices have highlighted the special relevance
of arts education (Blewitt & Cullingford, 2004; Carr, 2004; UNESCO, 2012; Everett et al., 2015).
This is an emerging field of research within arts education (Strauch-Nelson, 2012; Tereso, 2012;
O‘Gorman, 2015), and was the theme for a special issue of the International Journal of Art &
Design Education in 2016 and for the sixth World Alliance for Arts Education Summit held in
Hangzhou, China, in the same year.

Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-202
Chapter 1 Putting you in the picture – the rationale and context for arts education 11

Australian research and policy perspective


In Australia, as the demands and influence of globalisation, the knowledge economy, sustainability
and the impact of technology have been unfolding, research and policy development has echoed
overseas themes.
In 1995, the Senate report Arts Education reviewed the level and status of arts education in
schools (SERCARC, 1995). The Australia Council for the Arts (Ozco), the Australian Government’s
arts funding and advisory body, has played an ongoing role in gathering data and promoting
research about the arts in Australia. By developing Education and the Arts Strategy in 2004, it
reflected a growing sense that the whole community had an investment in arts education. Ozco
then commissioned a suite of research projects to create an Australian evidence base for the
impact of arts participation on students’ learning and development. These research projects,
summarised in Education and the Arts Research Overview (Hunter, 2005), show that generally arts
participation can have a positive effect on students’ development. The 2005 policy statement,
Imagine Australia: The role of creativity in the innovation economy (Prime Minister’s Science
Engineering and Innovation Council, PMSEIC), linked economic development with a shift towards
the creative industries. This report also noted that ‘to be globally competitive, Australia needs
to formulate a comprehensive approach to fostering creativity’ (PMSEIC, 2005, p. 5). In Building a
Creative Innovative Economy: Opportunities for the Australian and New Zealand creative sectors
in the digital environment (2009), the Cultural Ministers Council proposed an intergovernmental
approach to identifying opportunities in the digital context for the creative sectors.
Fostering a culture of creativity and innovation in schools is also reinforced in the National
education and the arts statement issued by MCEECTYA. In this statement, it was observed that
(MCEECTYA, 2007, p. 3):
Schools that value creativity lead the way in cultivating the well-informed
and active citizens our future demands: where individuals are able to
generate fresh ideas, communicate effectively, take calculated risks and
imaginative leaps, adapt easily to change and work cooperatively.

The Australian Council of Educational Research’s Evaluation of School-based Arts Programmes


in Australian Schools (Bryce et al., 2004), the National Review of School Music Education (DEST,
2005) and the National Review of Visual Education’s From behind the mask: Revealing visual
education (2006) – along with other research, reviews, reports and policy statements – show a
clear pattern of interest in arts education and its role in contemporary society.
CROSS
With regard to CCP sustainability education, The Adelaide Declaration on National Goals CURRICULUM
PRIORITIES
SUST
for Schooling in the Twenty-first Century (MCEETYA, 1999) listed environmental education as
one of the goals and, the following year, the government outlined a national action plan for
environmental education (Department of Environment and Heritage, 2000). A later document,
Educating for a Sustainable Future: A national environmental education statement for schools
(Department of Environment and Heritage, 2005), responded in part to the United Nations’
Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005–14) initiative and outlined a nationally
agreed framework for sustainability education across the curriculum. In the development of the
Australian Curriculum, sustainability was listed as one of the three cross-curriculum priorities.
Research and commentary about the arts’ role in this has been pursued in the Australian context
(Tarr, 2008; Littledyke, Taylor & Eames, 2009; Taylor, Quinn & Eames, 2015).

Evolving understandings about the arts


The way that the arts function and the way that their role in our lives – and therefore in education –
continues to shift and change is the basis for much contemporary scholarship and research.

Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-202
12 PART 1 The ABC of arts education

The theory of aesthetic education proposed by philosopher Bennett Reimer in the


1960s, for example, aimed to unite the arts around their common engagement with the affective
Bennett Reimer
1932–2013 (or feelings) domain of learning. This philosophy cast a long shadow. Project Zero, which was
established in 1967 at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (partly as a result of Reimer’s
work), researches learning, thinking and creativity in the arts. It embraced new developments in
cognitive psychology and brain research and has been instrumental in positioning the arts as forms
of cognition (ways of knowing). The widely influential work done by Howard Gardner, a past
Howard Gardner
Director, on developing the concept of multiple intelligences has contributed to understanding
(b. 1943) the particular nature of the arts. In due course, Reimer recast his conception of aesthetics as
a form of cognition (1992). Peter Abbs has also been influential in the evolution of ideas about
aesthetics and its place in contemporary arts education. Theorists including Arthur Efland and
Elliot Eisner are among those who have contributed significantly to the explanation of the
Elliot Eisner
arts as forms of cognition. Other works, including Project Zero’s identification of ‘studio habits
(1933–2014) of mind’ (Hetland et al., 2007) and the New Zealand work Like Writing Off the Paper (Holland &
O’Connor, 2004), have addressed the particular nature of learning in the arts. In Chapter 2 we
cultural pluralism explore the nature of arts learning in more depth.
The recognition that
The growth of multiculturalism led scholars to recognise that the arts, as they occurred in
different cultures
have parallel different cultures, could not be easily explained using a Western aesthetic framework where
and equally valid ‘high’ art was distinguished from ‘low’ art. As it became increasingly evident that the arts in
frameworks for different cultures stemmed from alternative traditions and that arts were embedded in people’s
valuing their cultural
products. everyday lives, the concept of cultural pluralism, or relativity, filtered into contemporary arts
thinking. The work of scholars such as the influential ethnomusicologist David P McAllester
supported the adoption of a social anthropological approach to understanding and describing
David McAllester
the arts in education.
(1913–2006) Philip Alperson coined the term praxial philosophy as a way of positioning the arts within a
range of different social, psychological and cultural frameworks. This philosophy is articulated
praxial by David Elliott in his book Music Matters: A new philosophy of music education (1995). Social
philosophy movements like feminism also strengthened the social framing of the arts, with leading scholars
A term coined by
like Griselda Pollock (1999) developing theoretical innovations and new intellectual frameworks
Professor Philip
Alperson. It refers to for thinking about the arts in the context of feminism, gender, ethnicity and culture.
the positioning of the Similarly, the scholarship of Kerry Freedman has contributed significantly to the field of
arts within a range
visual culture, which positions the visual arts in a social context and embraces any medium
of different social,
psychological and that has a key visual component. This envisioning of visual arts opened the door for media arts
cultural frameworks as products, such as comics and advertising, to be viewed and critiqued as art forms (Freedman &
a basis for determining Hernández, 1998; Freedman, 2003). From an arts criticism perspective, Edmund Feldman
their natures and
intrinsic value. (1994) highlighted the arts as forms of social practice and developed models (procedures) for
systematically appraising artworks.
visual culture
Embraces any Creativity is a cornerstone feature of arts practice, yet what this means and how it can be
medium that developed has challenged scholars for years. Profitable approaches have been to use indicative
has a key visual descriptions of the profiles of people considered to be creative, the ‘habits of mind’ or dispositions
component. This
includes products
associated with creative activity and the nature of creative processes. Researchers including
such as comics and Lowenfeld and Brittain (1975), Sternberg (1988), Abbs (1989), Csikszentmihalyi (1990), Gardner
advertising. The (1993), and Winner and Hetland (2001) are among those who have contributed significantly to
articulation of visual
this work.
culture opened the
door for media arts On the international stage, Australian scholars and researchers have made valuable
products to be seen contributions to understanding, theorising and conceptualising arts education. Examples of
as art forms and
collective efforts can be seen in compilations of research and thinking around different ideas such
for visual arts to be
understood in this as Children, Meaning-making and the Arts (Wright, 2003) and Literacy in the Arts: Retheorising
context too. learning and teaching (Barton, 2014).

Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-202
Chapter 1 Putting you in the picture – the rationale and context for arts education 13

Complementing this range of scholarship and research are the contributions of educationalists
like Dorothy Heathcote (Heathcote & Bolton, 1995), who brought new understandings about
pedagogy to drama education through practice-led research. Similarly, Rudolf Laban transformed
dance education and scholarship while Carl Orff, Kodály Zoltán, Shinichi Suzuki and Émile Jaques-
Dalcroze have been highly influential figures in the development of music education for children.
Other luminaries include Allen P Britton, Jane Bonbright, Elliot Eisner and Al Hurwitz, who have
contributed much to the international advancement of arts education through their publications
for teachers, along with their research, advocacy and professional leadership. Institutes such as
the Getty Center, Ford Foundation, Hewlett Foundation and Project Zero also play a significant
role internationally through their funding and promotion of the arts.

1.4 DEVELOPING CHILDREN’S CAPABILITIES FOR


THE NEW ERA THROUGH THE ARTS
So far in this chapter, we have reviewed how the nature and purpose of arts education evolves
in accordance with society’s circumstances, values and perceived needs. We have traced this
loosely from the emergence of the industrial era through to now – the globalised digital era –
and seen how research and policy have been part of this process. Now we can consider some of
the dispositions and capabilities that our educational system aims to develop in today’s children
so they can be successful in the globalised, digital society – and observe how arts practices
contribute to this development.

Visual and multimodal communication skills


The exponential growth in visual forms of communication and their deep penetration into every
sphere of life prompts the observation that ‘the world as a text has been replaced by the world
as a picture’ (Mirzoeff, 2002, p. 7). The title of the National Art Education Association’s (USA)
publication Learning in a Visual Age: The critical importance of visual arts education (2009) echoes
this sentiment. In the Discussion Paper for the Australian Government’s 2006 National Review of
Education in Visual Arts, Craft, Design and Visual Communications (NRVE), it was observed that
the new graphics-based environment required not only technical skill but also ethical, aesthetic
and communicative judgement (Stankiewicz, 2004, pp. 88– 91, cited in NRVE, 2006), and that well-
designed art programs develop these types of skills.
Representing ideas in different formats (modes) has been shown to develop conceptual
understandings and influence knowledge production (Reid et al., 2016). Multimodal multimodal
communication, which draws on various combinations of text, image, sound, space and communication
Forms of
movement, is increasingly prevalent in today’s society, with web 2.0 technologies, software communication
for infographics, editing and lecture presentations and social media applications like Flickr that use different
and Snapchat playing a major role in the expansion and sophistication of these forms. As with combinations of text,
images, sound and
any form of communication, the development of the relevant literacy skills is critical to good
movement to convey
quality and effective communication. Since the arts involve communicating with images, sound, information.
movement, gesture and so on – and in various multimodal combinations such as those seen in
a film, dance or drama performance – they offer engaging and significant ways for children to
develop these skills. For example, by learning the conventions and codes of film-making, children
develop media arts literacy for communicating in a range of multimodal forms.

Navigational approaches to learning


Interactive systems, the hallmark of network technology, have a notable influence on the
way knowledge is constructed, presented and accessed by individuals today. In the digital

Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-202
14 PART 1 The ABC of arts education

environment, we are more inclined to adopt a navigational way of relating to knowledge. This
involves seeking out and assembling information around particular purposes – and is seen as
akin to the way artists work (Bourriaud, 2006). In The Arts, the curriculum is not characterised
as a series of topics to be learned but as a ‘web of activities’ (Orr & Shreeve, 2018) through
which children forge a way to explore the world and convey their ideas. David Perkins from
Project Zero explains artistic (or studio) learning as an ‘import’ paradigm where knowledge
is used ‘right now in a serious way for a complex and significant endeavour’ (Hetland et al.,
2007, p. v). This he distinguishes from an ‘export’ paradigm traditionally associated with other
subjects, whereby information is learned so it can be applied at some later stage. Since the
navigational or ‘import’ feature of arts learning is aligned to the cognitive processes of the
digital world, arts education is regarded as offering a way of understanding and developing
such capabilities.
Similarly, the way artworks merge with, or counterpoint, the environment and contribute to the
experience of places is well aligned to the fluid nature of network contexts. Musical jam sessions
and other context-driven behaviours exemplify navigational engagement with knowledge and
experience.

Flexible thinking and problem solving


Arts learning is recognised as qualitatively different from other areas of learning. Efland (1995) and
Short (1995) argue that subjects such as maths and physics are ‘well-structured’ learning domains,
based on laws and theorems that can be applied to a variety of situations with predictability.
Conversely, The Arts are ‘ill-structured’ domains. In such domains, concepts vary in meaning from
one context to another and prescriptive solutions are not the norm.
In The Arts, open-ended explorations represent a key pedagogical method. By their
nature, open-ended tasks invite interpretation and innovative ways of working with the material
presented: design a Mad Hatter’s hat to express what you’re mad about. There is not one
solution to an open-ended challenge, but many solutions. This is not to suggest that anything
goes. Solutions are still subject to being critically scrutinised in the context of their intention
and execution within set criteria. This type of learning demands application of creative and
flexible thinking – skills that are increasingly valued in our rapidly changing world. An authentic
arts education program can provide children with opportunities to develop their dispositions as
flexible thinkers and problem solvers.

Negotiating learning relationships


There are other features of arts education that are seen as desirable in today’s world. The
dominance of the scientific and empirical approach to knowledge and learning in recent decades
has sidelined the emotional, social and cultural aspects of being in the world and of knowing
our world. The emergent networked and global world, with its emphasis on relationships, is
changing that.
Holland and O’Connor (2004) observe that the pedagogy, learning environments and
routines in the non-linear ‘structured chaos’ of authentic arts lessons allow for critical reflection
and deeper personal understanding to occur, and for more human and negotiated relationships
to exist. They also observe that the co-constructed nature of an arts learning environment, in
which teachers and children are inclined to experiment and learn from each other, promotes
mutually respectful and negotiated learning relationships that develop confident and creative
behaviours.

Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-202
Chapter 1 Putting you in the picture – the rationale and context for arts education 15

Collaboration and teamwork


In the digital, networked, globalised world, projects and product developments invariably
involve teams of people where each brings their specialised expertise to the enterprise. Today
there is a growing awareness that solutions to big problems and challenges are more likely to
come from insights that arise in transdisciplinary collaborations where individuals from different
disciplines, with different perspectives and ways of conceiving things, work together. In a recent
example, an Antarctic research project investigating the role of tiny ice crystals in climate brought
together scientists and artists. The scientists found the artists’ curiosity, the types of questions
they asked and their capacity to visualise concepts contributed significantly to the scientific
project’s outcomes. Likewise, Arthur I Miller’s book Colliding Worlds: How cutting-edge science
is redefining contemporary art (2014) discusses how new frontiers in art are being forged by
bringing together artists, scientists and ‘technologists’. This highlights the way traditional work
relationships are being redefined and how new understandings and art forms emerge from
transdisciplinary collaborations.
Working collaboratively requires certain skills, such as being open to ideas, flexible, able to
negotiate a position and able to remain goal focused. The evidence shows that having a project
focus is an effective way to promote meaningful collaboration (Morris & Miller-Stevens, 2016).
Learning practices in The Arts provide many engaging ways for children to do this as they work
together to devise scripts for plays, produce videos and choreograph dances. Similarly, many
art forms require teamwork. As children sing in choirs, play in orchestras and perform plays and
dances, they experience the benefits of being part of something that is greater than the sum of
its parts. In these activities they have concrete opportunities to learn the skills and develop the
dispositions of collaboration and teamwork needed for the emerging era.

Cultural competency
In a globalised world, establishing respectful and reciprocal relationships with people from
different cultural backgrounds is an important competency. Respect for diversity underpins
interacting, communicating, empathising and working with people whose worldviews and
cultural practices are different from our own.
In The Arts curriculum, children are exposed to the complexity, diversity and motivations
of people from different times and places when learning about the artists, cultural artefacts
and artistic traditions of different societies. Through their studies of arts practices, children
gain insights into the values, beliefs and customs of different cultures. When these studies are
pursued around themes such as ceremonies or domestic life, children have the opportunity to
compare and contrast different cultural contexts in concrete ways. When children’s own artistic
explorations in mosaics, for example, are prefaced by learning about Antoni Gaudí’s mosaics
in Parc Güell, Barcelona, Spain, or the Jãmeh Mosque of Yazd in Iran, or the Great Pavement of
Westminster Abbey in London, their endeavours are connected to the wider world of artistic
expression. In these experiences, children see how they belong, how others belong, what
unites us, what distinguishes us and what is possible when people passionately strive to create
something that speaks to our humanity.

Developing dispositions for thinking and acting


sustainably
The sustainable living imperative requires children to build capacities for thinking, valuing and
acting in ways that will achieve a sustainable future. The arts are especially relevant because of
the particular nature of creating and learning in the arts.

Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-202
16 PART 1 The ABC of arts education

reflective Arts practice is reflective and reflexive, whereby the artist contemplates, acts and reviews
The reflective nature in a natural spiralling work cycle. From a sustainability perspective, this way of working allows for
of arts practice
means that the
new formations of self and other and the relationship to the natural world (Blewitt & Cullingford,
artist’s critical 2004).
contemplation of The arts engagement with the affective domain – the domain of feelings – means that
the artwork is a
significant part of
connections with the world, and the development of an attitude of caring and empathy, deemed
the work process. It necessary for a sustainable disposition, can be cultivated (Everett et al., 2015).
is an interrogation The active engagement and personal commitment (learning by ‘doing’ or ‘making’) that are
where judgements
are made about how
hallmarks of arts learning are also required for building sustainability dispositions because it is
well the artwork is recognised that action, as well as awareness, is important.
progressing towards Wonderment and curiosity about the perceived world and the world of ideas underpins
communicating the
artistic endeavours, to the extent that artists often describe their creative work as journeys
artist’s intention
and then decisions into understanding. This characteristic is well aligned with the aims of developing children’s
are made about how sustainability dispositions.
to move forward
The significance of mindfulness – paying close sensory attention to the world around us –
towards the goal.
is a feature of artistic practice. To draw an insect, children must closely observe every detail.
reflexive
One study showed that young children who drew, as well as observed, an animal recalled
The reflexive nature
of arts practice is more factual details than the children in the control group who only observed (Fox, 2010). This
the intuitive and requirement to see and relate to the subject at a deep and focused level draws children into
reactionary response. richer understandings.
It is an ongoing
dialogue with the From the earliest times, the natural world has been a source of inspiration for artists.
evolving artwork – Consequently, a wealth of artistic creations provide study resources for developing children’s
the artist’s action is aesthetic appreciation of the natural world (Carr, 2004). The traditions of cultural festivals
a reaction.
celebrating the natural world and its rhythms are also entry points to a heightened sense of
mindfulness and connection.
A number of early childhood centres adopt the Reggio Emilia approach to learning.
Developed in Italy by Loris Malaguizzi, it has an art specialist as a core member of the teaching
team and is based on understanding children as capable, inquisitive, autonomous and active
CROSS
learners. Reggio Emilia promotes an integrated approach to learning that is well aligned to
SUST CURRICULUM CCP sustainability precepts. Emphasis is placed on making connections between the affective
PRIORITIES
and the cognitive, and expressing ideas through arts activities like drawing and movement.
Connections are pursued in a full-circle approach to learning: children know where their art
materials come from, they participate in acquiring them, they are encouraged to use them
judiciously, they clean up and know what happens when they dispose of the materials. From the
beginning, they learn the consequences of their actions.

Instrumental and intrinsic benefits of the arts


We have seen that the attributes of artistic thinking and engagement are regarded as having
special relevance for functioning in the 21st century. This might give the impression that The
Arts’ role in education is mechanistic or instrumental, but it is not that simple. As we said at
the beginning, the arts have been part of our human existence since prehistoric times. They give
shape and dimension to our lives. So, while the arts are proving to be instrumentally beneficial
in terms of contemporary society’s needs, the experience of engaging in arts education is also
intrinsically beneficial to individuals.

Instrumental benefits
In much of the research and policy outlined earlier in this chapter, we see that governments or
their agencies tend to examine The Arts and arts education in terms of the contribution made

Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-202
Chapter 1 Putting you in the picture – the rationale and context for arts education 17

towards achieving broad learning, social and economic outcomes. They focus on the fact that
children’s involvement in the arts helps them learn better, socialise better and make better
contributions to society. These are instrumental benefits, in that they extend beyond the instrumental
immediate arts experience. benefits
The subject being
In the USA, attention to these instrumental values is essentially a function of the No Child studied is regarded
Left Behind policy, which measures educational outcomes using performance standards testing. as an instrument or
While the wisdom of this testing is challenged in a number of quarters, it nevertheless galvanised vehicle for achieving
benefits or outcomes
research in the USA aimed at determining the worth of arts education in this type of high-stakes in areas that don’t
testing environment. This research showed that (Fiske, 1999): relate particularly to
• students with high levels of arts participation outperformed ‘arts-poor’ students by virtually the subject itself.
every measure
• high arts participation made a more significant difference to students from low-income
backgrounds than for high-income students
• sustained involvement in particular art forms was highly correlated with success in
mathematics and reading
• learning in the arts had significant positive effects on learning in other domains.
Project Zero’s Reviewing Education and The Arts Project (REAP) contributed important
meta-analysis of the evidence about the transfer of arts learning to other areas of cognitive meta-analysis
achievement (Winner & Hetland, 2001). This work has continued with the Organisation for A statistical method
that involves
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) publication in which an extensive examination aggregating data
of the research concludes that the empirical evidence for many claims is promising but further from a range of
research is required to establish causal rather than correlational links. Instead, the meta-analysis independent research
studies to reveal
highlights the way arts learning ‘spills over’ to academic performance skills and skills in other
which claims have
areas of the curriculum. For example, the character analysis skills learned in drama spill over into a higher statistical
empathy and understanding the perspectives of others (Winner, Goldstein & Vincent-Lancrin, power.
2013).
In Australia, we regularly hear primary school arts education justified in terms of how it helps
children do well at school: integrating arts into the curriculum helps children understand maths
concepts, makes learning English more interesting, develops hand–eye coordination and allows
for different learning styles. This is all very encouraging; however, it is fundamentally misguided
to think of arts education’s primary role in this way.
Consider this: we value maths education because it develops children’s mathematical
knowledge and capacities. We want children to be maths literate and have no need to justify
maths in the curriculum on the grounds that it helps children perform better in music – even
though it does. Yet when it comes to arts education, these kinds of instrumental benefits are
regularly offered as the primary justification for its inclusion in the curriculum. Instead, it is
important to understand that, like maths (English, science and so on), learning in The Arts is
intrinsically beneficial for children’s development of an educated understanding of the world
(Hurwitz & Day, 2007; Winner, Goldstein & Vincent-Lancrin, 2013).

Intrinsic benefits
People are not usually motivated to paint or sing or dance because it will make them better at
maths or help them develop perseverance. Rather, there are other, more direct gains that come
from the very nature of being involved in the arts. These are referred to as intrinsic benefits. intrinsic benefits
We are drawn to the arts because of the aesthetic pleasure, emotional stimulation and vivid These are benefits
that relate directly
personal experience of the world they provide. The arts are a celebration of life and who we are: to the learning,
we sing and dance, go to concerts, listen to music on our mobile devices. We choose the movies experiences and
we want to see and the music we like to hear. We make choices about clothes, hairstyles and outcomes gained
in, and about,
adornments. Through these activities, we express who we are. the subject being
studied.

Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-202
18 PART 1 The ABC of arts education

When we invite children to express their ideas and perspectives through imaginative arts
engagement we are inviting them into a creative space where they are free to explore and
communicate their ideas. In this way, we help develop their sense of self and place in the world
by affirming that the way they see the world actually matters – that they actually matter. In many
ways, the arts provide an important arena for the development and support of personal identity
and a sense of belonging.
Unlike distanced, discursive, analytical ways of understanding, arts practices are embodied
somatic ways of experiences that are deeply rooted in our sensory world. They represent a somatic way of knowing
knowing and communicating (Matthews, 1991). Children learn through practical experiences and
Knowledge that is
gained from the communicate ideas through colour, movement and sound. The artist Georgia O’Keeffe
body – the senses (1887–1986) said, ‘I found I could say things with colour and shape that I couldn’t say any other
and perception. way – things I had no words for’. Similarly, the celebrated dancer Isadora Duncan (1877–1927) said,
Hence, somatic
knowing is embodied
‘If I could tell you what it meant, there would be no point in dancing it!’
and experiential in When we enter imaginative spaces to exercise our creative powers, we usually find ourselves
nature. immersed in deeply satisfying experiences that bring new insights and perspectives, which enrich
our lives and contribute to our growth as individuals. The feeling of rapt absorption or captivation
we feel when deeply absorbed in an arts experience, as either creator or audience, removes us
from the habitual world and opens us to new ways of seeing and experiencing. We have all had
experiences like this where we have been completely absorbed in the experience, losing all sense
of time and place. In these moments, we can feel profoundly connected to the world (McCarthy
et al., 2004).
We turn to the arts to find solace and comfort. We do this as individuals by selecting songs to
play that suit our mood – and culturally, for example, by using music at funerals. In 15th-century
Italy, musicians were a regular feature in hospital wards because their music helped patients to
recover. Today there are fields of therapy such as music therapy and art therapy designed to
support emotional and physical healing. More broadly, engaging in the arts as either artist or
audience contributes to our sense of wellbeing.
Many individuals suggest that music is the only thing they care about, or talk about
finding themselves through art, or that they found their way through grief by singing. Such
statements signal that the arts offer a particular kind of experience that matters profoundly
to those who embrace it. What we see is that the arts, in and of themselves, are meaningful
in people’s lives.

Gaining all the benefits of an arts education


In Gifts of the Muse: Reframing the debate about the benefits of the arts (McCarthy et al., 2004),
the researchers analyse the extensive research literature about the effects of the arts. They
conclude that all benefits of arts engagement accrue through sustained personal involvement
in satisfying arts experiences. The instrumental benefits flow from the intrinsic benefits. For this
reason they recommend early exposure through well-designed arts education programs that
focus on creativity, expression and the development of artistic capacity (so children sing better,
become more accomplished painters and so on), complemented by critical reflection and analysis
of artworks.
Arts education curricula that focus on the intrinsic benefits of arts education and deliver all
benefits – intrinsic and instrumental ones – are already in place in Australia and New Zealand. By
working within their guidelines, good-quality education can be delivered.

Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-202
Chapter 1 Putting you in the picture – the rationale and context for arts education 19

AT A GLANCE
TEN THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE VALUE OF THE ARTS IN
CHILDREN’S EDUCATION
1 Research shows that an authentic program of arts 6 Education in The Arts is quantifiably different to
education develops the sorts of capabilities needed other learning areas and provides a crucial avenue
to successfully meet the particular challenges of for self-expression and self-validation. These have a
living sustainably in a globalised digital world and positive effect on a child’s identity formation, self-
knowledge economy. esteem and wellbeing.
2 The arts transport people into the world of 7 The exponential growth in digital forms of
imaginative experience that offers intense, revealing communication and their deep penetration into every
and meaningful experiences that bring insights. This sphere of life requires not only technical skill but
experience of captivation creates the sense of being also ethical, aesthetic and communicative judgement
connected to the world. that authentic arts education develops.
3 Authentic arts education develops children’s 8 Students with high levels of arts participation have
capabilities to act creatively, think flexibly and been shown to outperform ‘arts-poor’ students by
solve problems. These are recognised as critical virtually every measure. Sustained involvement in
functioning skills for meeting the challenges facing particular art forms has a positive effect on learning
us in the 21st century. in other areas of the curriculum and is highly
4 All benefits of the arts in schools – intrinsic and correlated with success in mathematics and reading.
instrumental, personal and societal – derive from an 9 Authentic arts education has proven benefits for
authentic and comprehensive Arts program. disadvantaged and disaffected students. Students
5 Authentic arts education has a proven capacity to from low-income backgrounds gain the most benefit
develop cultural understanding, community values, from sustained arts participation.
a personal sense of connection and empathy for 10 Arts participation has demonstrated significant
others. These social capabilities are important and positive effects on children’s willingness to
for social inclusion in a culturally diverse and participate in schooling and on their interest in
transforming world. learning.

1.5 NAVIGATING THE EXPECTATIONS FOR ARTS


EDUCATION IN THE SCHOOL CONTEXT
A clear message from our survey of how education evolves to meet contemporary challenges
is that the way you and I were taught is not necessarily the way you will approach the challenge
of teaching your students. We have seen that while the core values of subjects persist, new
conceptualisations and approaches to education are required to meet contemporary challenges
and prepare children for their emerging future. The Australian Curriculum: The Arts has been
designed with this in mind.

A varied picture of classroom practices


Eighty-nine per cent of Australians believe that the arts have an important part in children’s
education and 66 per cent believe they have a major impact on children’s development (Australia
Council for the Arts, 2014). Similarly, the majority of pre-service teachers, before embarking
on their teacher education studies, also instinctively believe that arts education is important
(Dinham, 2007). However, even though the Australian Curriculum: The Arts outlines a program
of arts learning to address the educational needs of today’s children, you will nevertheless see
classrooms where the approaches to arts education reflect values and needs from a bygone era
or where almost no attention is given to The Arts at all (DEST, 2005; Klopper & Power, 2011).

Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-202
20 PART 1 The ABC of arts education

When classroom practices in relation to arts education were surveyed (National Review of
School Music Education, DEST, 2005; National Review of Visual Education, 2006), a rather patchy
picture emerged. Some schools and teachers were doing an excellent job, others were trying to
do the right thing but the activities, which may look like arts activities, were essentially not much
more than busy work (cutting and pasting, colouring in) and contributed little towards meeting
contemporary goals. Still others were doing nothing much at all. In other words, it is hard to
ascertain the value of The Arts education curriculum based on what you may see occurring – or
not occurring – in many classrooms. This may seem a little harsh, but unfortunately the history
of arts education in primary schools is characterised by an ongoing undercapitalisation on the
educational benefits.
This situation may be because some generalist teachers don’t have a clear understanding of
the role of arts in education in today’s classrooms and what authentic arts learning entails. They
may feel ill-prepared and lack confidence in their abilities. Furthermore, it takes time for new
ideas to take hold – and the dynamic, decentralised and complex nature of education means
there is never a straight line between the educational vision, policy development, curriculum and
teaching practice in every school or classroom. The degree to which the curriculum is enacted can
be influenced by macroeconomic and political forces, as well as local demographics, deployment
of resources such as staffing and professional development, the nature of school leadership and
priorities, teacher competence and confidence, pressures of a crowded curriculum, parental
expectations and the introduction of specific programs or strategies that can have unintended
consequences in terms of a balanced curriculum. We see, for example, that enthusiasm for turbo-
charging literacy, numeracy and, now increasingly, science has inadvertently led to a narrowing
of the implemented curriculum in some instances – resulting in curriculum areas such as The Arts
being sidelined.
Additionally, the uncertainties of a changing world generate countervailing views and
policies about how to prepare the next generation for success. While some wish to retreat to
old orthodoxies, new measures such as a focus on innovation can be constrained by traditional
frameworks or entrenched attitudes and practices.

Your role in creating a meaningful Arts program


As novice teachers going into schools, you will encounter a range of views and practices.
Hopefully you will find yourself in a school that has a positive and active Arts program based
on sound educational principles. Lucky you. Most of you are more likely to find a mixed picture.
Irrespective of where you end up, what you need to do is to work with the principles expounded
in this text and the Australian Curriculum: The Arts – or the state-based curriculum derived from
it – and focus on delivering an authentic Arts program to your students in your classroom.
The term ‘authentic’ is used in this text in the sense of meaning genuine learning in The Arts.
There is a view that, over the past decades, we have lost sight of the educational imperative
and ‘focused on making students happy, instead of challenging them with powerful, rigorous
and creative thinking’ (McWilliam cited in Lyell, 2009). In an authentic approach, the curriculum
is enacted through learning experiences that are educationally relevant, challenging and
transforming. Children will still be dancing, playing percussion instruments, making masks,
painting murals, performing dramatic pieces, singing, taking photographs, role playing and so
on. The critical factor is the way these experiences are designed and presented. We examine the
features of authentic arts education in Chapter 2.
As a new teacher, your responsibility is to look to the future: to become familiar with
contemporary thinking and understanding about the arts in education and to develop your
capabilities to deliver the program of arts education designed for today’s children. Linking up

Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-202
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
All this is as wrong-headed as it can be. While he is filling his museum
he does not seem to understand that he is denuding every necropolis in
Egypt. I will give one or two instances of the destruction wrought by western
museums. I take them at random from my memory.
In the year 1900 the then Inspector-General of Antiquities in Upper Egypt
discovered a tomb at Thebes in which there was a beautiful relief sculptured
on one of the walls, representing Queen Tiy. This he photographed, and the
tomb was once more buried. In 1908 I chanced upon this monument, and
proposed to open it up as a show place for visitors; but alas!—the relief of
the queen had disappeared, and only a gaping hole in the wall remained. It
appears that robbers had entered the tomb at about the time of the change of
inspectors; and, realising that this relief would make a valuable exhibit for
some western museum, they had cut out of the wall as much as they could
conveniently carry away—namely, the head and upper part of the figure of
Tiy. The hieroglyphic inscription which was sculptured near the head was
carefully erased, in case it should contain some reference to the name of the
tomb from which they were taking the fragment; and over the face some
false inscriptions were scribbled in Greek characters, so as to give the stone
an unrecognisable appearance. In this condition it was conveyed to a dealer’s
shop, and it now forms one of the exhibits in the Royal Museum at Brussels.
In the same museum, and in others also, there are fragments of beautiful
sculpture hacked out of the walls of the famous tomb of Khaemhet at
Thebes. In the British Museum there are large pieces of wall-paintings
broken out of Theban tombs. The famous inscription in the tomb of Anena at
Thebes, which was one of the most important texts of the early Eighteenth
Dynasty, was smashed to pieces several years ago to be sold in small
sections to museums; and a certain scholar was instrumental in purchasing
back for us eleven of the fragments, which have now been replaced in the
tomb, and with certain fragments in Europe, form the sole remnant of the
once imposing stela.
One of the most important scenes out of the famous reliefs of the
Expedition to Pount, at Dêr el Bahri, found its way into the hands of the
dealers, and was ultimately purchased by the museum in Cairo. The
beautiful and important reliefs which decorated the tomb of Horemheb at
Sakkâra, hacked out of the walls by robbers, are now exhibited in six
different museums; London, Leyden, Vienna, Bologna, Alexandria, and
Cairo. Of the two hundred tombs of the nobles now to be seen at Thebes, I
cannot, at the moment, recall a single one which had not suffered in this
manner at some time previous to the organisation of the present strict
supervision which was instituted by Mr. Carter and myself.
The curators of western museums will argue that had they not purchased
these fragments they would have fallen into the hands of less desirable
owners. This is quite true, and, indeed, it forms the nearest approach to
justification that can be discovered. Nevertheless, it has to be remembered
that this purchasing of antiquities is the best stimulus to the robber, who is
well aware that a market is always to be found for his stolen goods. It may
seem difficult to censure the purchaser, for certainly the fragments were
“stray” when the bargain was struck, and it is the business of the curator to
collect stray antiquities. But why were they stray? Why were they ever cut
from the walls of the Egyptian monuments? Assuredly because the robbers
knew that museums would purchase them. If there had been no demand
there would have been no supply.
To ask the curators to change their policy, and to purchase only those
objects which are legitimately on sale, would, of course, be as futile as to ask
the nations to disarm. The rivalry between museum and museum would
alone prevent a cessation of this indiscriminate traffic. I can see only one
way in which a more sane and moral attitude can be introduced, and that is
by the development of the habit of visiting Egypt and of working upon
archæological subjects in the shadow of the actual monuments. Only the
person who is familiar with Egypt can know the cost of supplying the stay-
at-home scholar with exhibits for his museums. Only one who has resided in
Egypt can understand the fact that Egypt itself is the real place for Egyptian
monuments. He alone can appreciate the work of the Egyptian Government
in preserving the remains of ancient days.
The resident in Egypt, interested in archæology, comes to look with a
kind of horror upon museums, and to feel extraordinary hostility to what
may be called the museum spirit. He sees with his own eyes the half-
destroyed tombs, which to the museum curator are things far off and not
visualised. While the curator is blandly saying to his visitor: “See, I will now
show you a beautiful fragment of sculpture from a distant and little-known
Theban tomb,” the white resident in Egypt, with black murder in his heart, is
saying: “See, I will show you a beautiful tomb of which the best part of one
wall is utterly destroyed that a fragment might be hacked out for a distant
and little-known European or American museum.”
To a resident in Europe, Egypt seems to be a strange and barbaric land,
far, far away beyond the hills and seas; and her monuments are thought to be
at the mercy of wild Bedouin Arabs. In the less recent travel books there is
not a published drawing of a temple in the Nile Valley but has its
complement of Arab figures grouped in picturesque attitudes. Here a fire is
being lit at the base of a column, and the black smoke curls upwards to
destroy the paintings thereon; here a group of children sport upon the lap of
a colossal statue; and here an Arab tethers his camel at the steps of the high
altar. It is felt, thus, that the objects exhibited in European museums have
been rescued from Egypt and recovered from a distant land. This is not so.
They have been snatched from Egypt and lost to the country of their origin.
He who is well acquainted with Egypt knows that hundreds of watchmen,
and a small army of inspectors, engineers, draughtsmen, surveyors, and other
officials now guard these monuments, that strong iron gates bar the
doorways against unauthorised visitors, that hourly patrols pass from
monument to monument, and that any damage done is punished by long
terms of imprisonment; he knows that the Egyptian Government spends
hundreds of thousands of pounds upon safeguarding the ancient remains; he
is aware that the organisation of the Department of Antiquities is an
extremely important branch of the Ministry of Public Works. He has seen the
temples swept and garnished, the tombs lit by electric light and the
sanctuaries carefully rebuilt. He has spun out to the Pyramids in the electric
tramcar or in a taxi-cab; has strolled in evening dress through the halls of
Karnak, after dinner at the hotel; and has rung up the Theban Necropolis on
the telephone.
A few seasons’ residence in Egypt shifts the point of view in a startling
manner. No longer is the country either distant or insecure; and, realising
this, the student becomes more balanced, and he sees both sides of the
question with equal clearness. The archæologist may complain that it is too
expensive a matter to travel to Egypt. But why, then, are not the expenses of
such a journey met by the various museums? Quite a small sum will pay for
a student’s winter in Egypt and his journey to and from that country. Such a
sum is given readily enough for the purchase of an antiquity; but surely
right-minded students are a better investment than wrongly-acquired
antiquities.
It must be now pointed out, as a third argument,
The author standing upon the cliffs between the Temple of Dêr el Bahri and the Valley of the Tombs of
the KingsThe author standing upon the cliffs between the Temple of Dêr el Bahri and the Valley of the
Tombs of the Kings

that an Egyptologist cannot study his subject properly unless he be


thoroughly familiar with Egypt and modern Egyptians.
A student who is accustomed to sit at home, working in his library or
museum, and who has never resided in Egypt, or has but travelled for a short
time in that country, may do extremely useful work in one way or another,
but that work will not be faultless. It will be, as it were, lop-sided; it will be
coloured with hues of the west, unknown to the land of the Pharaohs and
antithetical thereto. A London architect may design an apparently charming
villa for a client in Jerusalem, but unless he know by actual and prolonged
experience the exigencies of the climate of Palestine, he will be liable to
make a sad mess of his job. By bitter experience the military commanders
learnt in the late war that a plan of campaign prepared at home was of little
use to them. The cricketer may play a very good game upon the home
ground, but upon a foreign pitch the first straight ball will send his bails
flying into the clear blue sky.
An archæologist who attempts to record the material relating to the
manners and customs of the ancient Egyptians cannot complete his task, or
even assure himself of the accuracy of his statements, unless he has studied
the modern customs and made himself acquainted with the permanent
conditions of the country. The modern Egyptians are the same people as
those who bowed the knee to Pharaoh, and many of their customs still
survive. A student can no more hope to understand the story of Pharaonic
times without an acquaintance with Egypt as she now is than a modern
statesman can hope to understand his own times solely from a study of the
past.
Nothing is more paralysing to a student of archæology than continuous
book-work. A collection of hard facts is an extremely beneficial mental
exercise, but the deductions drawn from such a collection should be regarded
as an integral part of the work. The road-maker must also walk upon his road
to the land whither it leads him; the ship-builder must ride the seas in his
vessel, though they be uncharted and unfathomed. Too often the professor
will set his students to a compilation which leads them no farther than the
final fair copy. They will be asked to make for him, with infinite labour, a
list of the High Priests of Amon; but unless he has encouraged them to put
such life into those figures that each one shall seem to step from the page to
confront his recorder, unless the name of each shall call to mind the very
scenes amidst which he worshipped, then is the work uninspired and
deadening to the student.
A catalogue of ancient scarabs is required, let us suppose, and the
students are set to work upon it. They examine hundreds of specimens, they
record the variations in design, they note the differences in the glaze or
material. But can they picture the man who wore the scarab?—can they
reconstruct in their minds the scene in the workshop wherein the scarab was
made?—can they hear the song of the workmen or their laughter when the
overseer was not nigh? In a word, does the scarab mean history to them, the
history of a period, of a dynasty, of a craft? Assuredly not, unless the
students know Egypt and the Egyptians, have heard their songs and their
laughter, have watched their modern arts and crafts. Only then are they in a
position to reconstruct the picture.
The late Theodore Roosevelt, in his Romanes lecture at Oxford, gave it as
his opinion that the industrious collector of facts occupied an honourable but
not an exalted position; and he added that the merely scientific historian
must rest content with the honour, substantial, but not of the highest type,
that belongs to him who gathers material which some time some master shall
arise to use. Now every student should aim to be a master, to use the material
which he has so laboriously collected; and though at the beginning of his
career, and indeed throughout his life, the gathering of material is a most
important part of his work, he should never compile solely for the sake of
compilation, unless he be content to serve simply as a clerk of archæology.
An archæologist must be a historian. He must conjure up the past; he
must play the Witch of Endor. His lists and indices, his catalogues and note-
books, must be but the spells which he uses to invoke the dead. The spells
have no potency until they are pronounced: the lists of Kings of Egypt have
no more than an accidental value until they call before the curtain of the
mind those monarchs themselves. It is the business of the archæologist to
wake the dreaming dead: not to send the living to sleep. It is his business to
make the stones tell their tale: not to petrify the listener. It is his business to
put motion and commotion into the past that the present may see and hear:
not to pin it down, spatchcocked, like a dead thing. In a word, the
archæologist must be in command of that faculty which is known as the
historic imagination, without which Dean Stanley was of opinion that the
story of the past could not be told. “Trust Nature,” said Dryden. “Do not
labour to be dull!”
But how can that imagination be at once exerted and controlled as it
needs must be, unless the archæologist be so well acquainted with the
conditions of the country about which he writes that his pictures of it can be
said to be accurate? The student must allow himself to be saturated by the
very waters of the Nile before he can permit himself to write of Egypt. He
must know the modern Egyptians before he can construct his model of
Pharaoh and his court.
When the mummy of Akhnaton was discovered and was proved to be that
of a man of only thirty years of age, many persons doubted the identification
on the grounds that the king was known to have been married at the time
when he came to the throne, seventeen years before his death, and it was
freely stated that a marriage at the age of eleven or twelve was impossible
and out of the question. Thus it actually remained for the present writer to
point out that the fact of the king’s death occurring seventeen years after his
marriage practically fixed his age at his decease at not much above twenty-
nine years, so unlikely was it that his marriage would have been delayed
beyond his twelfth year. Those who doubted the identification on such
grounds were showing all too clearly that the manners and customs of the
Egyptians of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, so many of which have
come down intact from olden times, were unknown to them.
Here we come to the root of the trouble. The Egyptologist who has not
resided for some time in Egypt, is inclined to allow his ideas regarding the
ancient customs of the land to be influenced by his unconsciously-acquired
knowledge of the habits of the west. But is he blind that he sees not the great
gulf fixed between the ways of the east and those of his accustomed west? It
is of no value to science to record the life of Thutmosis III with Napoleon as
our model for it, nor to describe the daily life of the Pharaoh with the person
of an English king before our mind’s eye. Our western experience will not
give us material for the imagination to work upon in dealing with Egypt. The
setting for our Pharaonic pictures must be derived from Egypt alone; and no
Egyptologist’s work that is more than a simple compilation is of value unless
the sunlight and the sandy glare of Egypt have burnt into his eyes, and have
been reflected on to the pages under his pen.
The archæologist must possess the historic imagination, but it must be
confined to its proper channels. It is impossible to exert this imagination
without, as a consequence, a figure rising up before the mind partially
furnished with the details of a personality and fully endowed with the broad
character of an individual. The first lesson, thus, which we must learn is that
of allowing no incongruity to appear in our figures. In ancient history there
can seldom be sufficient data at the Egyptologist’s disposal with which to
build up a complete figure; and his puppets must come upon the stage sadly
deficient, as it were, in arms, legs, and apparel suitable to them, unless he
know from an experience of modern Egyptians how to restore them and to
clothe them in good taste. The substance upon which the imagination works
must be no less than a collective knowledge of the people of the nation in
question. Rameses must be constructed from an acquaintance with many a
Pasha of modern Egypt, and his Chief Butler must reflect the known
characteristics of a hundred Beys and Effendis. Without such “padding” the
figures will remain but names, and with names Egyptology is already over-
stocked.
It is remarkable to notice how little is known regarding the great
personalities in history. Taking three characters at random: we know
extremely little that is authentic regarding King Arthur; our knowledge of
the actual history of Boadicea is extremely meagre; and the precise historian
would have to dismiss Pontius Pilate in a few paragraphs. But let the
archæologist know so well the manners and customs of the period with
which he is dealing that he will not, like the author of the stories of the Holy
Grail, dress Arthur in the armour of the thirteenth century, nor fill the mind
of Pilate with the thoughts of a modern Colonial Governor; let him be so
well trained in scientific cautiousness that he will not give unquestioned
credence to the legends of the past; let him have sufficient knowledge of the
nation to which his hero or heroine belonged to be able to fill up the lacunæ
with a kind of collective appreciation and estimate of the national
characteristics—and I do not doubt that his interpretations will hold good till
the end of all history.
The Egyptologist to whom Egypt is not a living reality is handicapped in
his labours more unfairly than is realised by him. Avoid Egypt, and though
your brains be of vast capacity, though your eyes be never raised from your
books, you will yet remain in many ways an ignoramus, liable to be
corrected by the merest tourist in the Nile valley. But come with me to a
Theban garden that I know, where, on some still evening, the dark palms are
reflected in the placid Nile, and the acacias are mellowed by the last light of
the sunset; where, in leafy bowers, the grapes cluster overhead, and the fig-
tree is burdened with fruit. Beyond the broad sheet of the river rise those
unchanging hills which encompass the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings;
and at their foot, dimly seen in the evening haze, sit the twin colossi, as they
have sat since the days of Amenophis the Magnificent. The stars begin to be
seen through the leaves now that the daylight dies, and presently the Milky
Way becomes apparent, stretching across the vault of the night, as when it
was believed to be the Nile of the Heavens.
The owls hoot to one another through the garden; and at the edge of the
alabaster tank wherein the dusk is mirrored, a frog croaks unseen amidst the
lilies. Even so croaked he on this very ground in those days when, typifying
eternity, he seemed to utter the endless refrain, “I am the resurrection, I am
the resurrection,” into the ears of men and maidens beneath these self-same
stars.
And now a boat floats past, on its way to Karnak, silhouetted against the
last-left light of the sky. There is music and song on board. The sound of the
pipes is carried over the water and pulses to the ears, inflaming the
imagination with the sorcery of its cadences and stirring the blood by its
bold rhythm. The gentle breeze brings the scent of many flowers to the
nostrils, and with these come drifting thoughts and undefined fancies, so that
presently the busy considerations of the day are lulled and forgotten. The
twilight seems to cloak the extent of the years, and in the gathering darkness
the procession of the centuries is hidden. Yesterday and to-day are mingled
together, and there is nothing to distinguish to the eye the one age from the
other. An immortal, brought suddenly to the garden at this hour, could not
say from direct observation whether he had descended from the clouds into
the twentieth century before or the twentieth century after Christ; and the
sound of the festal pipes in the passing boat would but serve to confuse him
the more.
In such a garden as this the student will learn more Egyptology than he
could assimilate in many an hour’s study at home; for here his five senses
play the student and Egypt herself is his teacher. While he may read in his
books how this Pharaoh or that feasted o’ nights in his palace beside the
river, here, not in fallible imagination but in actual fact, he may see Nilus
and the Lybian desert to which the royal eyes were turned, may smell the
very perfume of the palace garden, and may hearken to the self-same sounds
that lulled a king to sleep in Hundred-gated Thebes.
Not in the west, but only by the waters of the Nile will he learn how best
to be an historian of ancient Egypt, and in what manner to make his studies
of interest, as well as of technical value, to his readers, for he will here
discover the great secret of his profession. Suddenly the veil will be lifted
from his understanding, and he will become aware that Past and Present are
so indissoluble as to be incapable of separate interpretation or single study.
He will learn that there is no such thing as a distinct Past or a defined
Present. “Yesterday this day’s madness did prepare,” and the affairs of
bygone times must be interpreted in the light of recent events. The Past is
alive to-day and all the deeds of man in all the ages are living at this hour in
offspring. There is no real death. The earthly grave will not hide, nor the
mountain tomb imprison, the actions of the men of old Egypt, so consequent
and fruitful are all human affairs. This is the knowledge which will make the
Egyptologist’s work of lasting value; and nowhere else save in Egypt can he
acquire it. This, indeed, for him is the secret of the Sphinx; and only at the
lips of the Sphinx itself can he learn it.
CHAPTER II

THE NECESSITY OF ARCHÆOLOGY TO THE GAIETY OF THE WORLD

When a great man puts a period to his existence upon earth by dying, he is
carefully buried in a tomb and a monument is set up to his glory in the
neighbouring church. He may then be said to begin his second life, his life in
the memory of the chronicler and historian. After the lapse of an æon or two
the works of the historian, and perhaps the tomb itself, are rediscovered; and
the great man begins his third life, now as a subject of discussion and
controversy amongst archæologists in the pages of a scientific journal. It
may be supposed that the spirit of the great man, not a little pleased with his
second life, has an extreme distaste for his third. There is a dead atmosphere
about it which sets him yawning as only his grave yawned before. The
charm has been taken from his deeds; there is no longer any spring in them.
He must feel towards the archæologist much as a young man feels towards
his cold-blooded parent by whom his love affair has just been found out. The
public, too, if by chance it comes upon this archæological journal, finds the
discussion nothing more than a mental gymnastic, which, as the reader drops
off to sleep, gives him the impression that the writer is a man of profound
brain capacity, but, like the remains of the great man of olden times, as dry
as dust.
There is one thing, however, which has been overlooked. This scientific
journal does not contain the ultimate results of the archæologist’s researches.
It contains the researches themselves. The public, so to speak, has been
listening to the pianist playing his morning scales, has been watching the
artist mixing his colours, has been examining the unshaped block of marble
and the chisels in the sculptor’s studio. It must be confessed, of course, that
the archæologist has so enjoyed his researches that often the ultimate result
has been overlooked by him. In the case of Egyptian archæology, for
example, there are only two or three Egyptologists who have ever set
themselves to write a readable history, whereas the number of books which
record the facts of the science is legion.
The archæologist not infrequently lives, for a large part of his time, in a
museum. However clean it may be, he is surrounded by rotting tapestries,
decaying bones, crumbling stones, and rusted or corroded metal objects. His
indoor work has paled his cheek, and his muscles are not like iron bands. He
stands, often, in the contiguity to an ancient broadsword most fitted to
demonstrate the fact that he could never use it. He would probably be
dismissed his curatorship were he to tell of any dreams which might run in
his head—dreams of the time when those tapestries hung upon the walls of
barons’ banquet-halls, or when those stones rose high above the streets of
Camelot.
Moreover, those who make researches independently must needs
contribute their results to scientific journals, written in the jargon of the
learned. I came across a now forgotten journal, a short time ago, in which an
English gentleman, believing that he had made a discovery in the province
of Egyptian hieroglyphs, announced it in ancient Greek. There would be no
supply of such pedantic swagger were there not a demand for it.
Small wonder, then, that the archæologist is often represented as
partaking somewhat of the quality of the dust amidst which he works. It is
not necessary here to discuss whether this estimate is just or not: I only wish
to point out its paradoxical nature.
More than any other science, archæology might be expected to supply its
exponents with stuff that, like old wine, would fire the blood and stimulate
the senses. The stirring events of the Past must often be reconstructed by the
archæologist with such precision that his prejudices are aroused, and his
sympathies are so enlisted as to set him fighting with a will under this banner
or under that. The noise of the hardy strife of young nations is not yet
silenced for him, nor have the flags and the pennants faded from sight. He
has knowledge of the state secrets of kings, and, all along the line, is an
intimate spectator of the crowded pageant of history. The caravan-masters of
the past, the admirals of the “great green sea,” the captains of archers, have
related their adventures to him; and he might repeat to you their stories.
Indeed, he has such a tale to tell that, looking at it in this light, one might
expect his listeners all to be good sturdy men and noble women. It might be
supposed that the archæologist would gather round him only men who have
pleasure in the road that leads over the hills, and women who have known
the delight of the open. One has heard so often of the “brave days of old”
that the archæologist might well be expected to have his head stuffed with
brave tales and little else.
His range, however, may be wider than this. To him, perhaps, it has been
given to listen to the voice of the ancient poet, heard as a far-off whisper; to
breathe in forgotten gardens the perfume of long dead flowers; to
contemplate the love of women whose beauty is perished in the dust; to
hearken to the sound of the harp and the sistra; to be the possessor of the
riches of historical romance. Dim armies have battled around him for the
love of Helen; shadowy captains of sea-going ships have sung to him
through the storm the song of the sweethearts left behind them; he has
feasted with sultans, and kings’ goblets have been held to his lips; he has
watched Uriah the Hittite sent to the forefront of the battle.
Thus, were he to offer a story, one might now suppose that there would
gather around him, not the men of muscle, but a throng of sallow listeners,
as improperly expectant as were those who hearkened under the moon to the
narrations of Boccaccio, or, in old Baghdad, gave ear to the tales of the
thousand and one nights. One might suppose that his audience would be
drawn from those classes most fondly addicted to pleasure, or most nearly
representative, in their land and in their time, of the light-hearted and not
unwanton races of whom he had to tell.
Who could better arrest the attention of the coxcomb than the
archæologist who has knowledge of silks and scents now lost to the living
world? To the gourmet who could more appeal than the archæologist who
has made abundant acquaintance with the forgotten dishes of the East? Who
could more surely thrill the senses of the courtesan than the archæologist
who can relate that which was whispered by Antony in the ear of Cleopatra?
To the gambler who could be more enticing than the archæologist who has
seen kings play at dice for their kingdoms? The imaginative, truly, might
well collect the most highly disreputable audience to listen to the tales of the
archæologist.
But no, these are not the people who are anxious to catch the pearls which
drop from his mouth. Do statesmen and diplomatists, then, listen to him who
can unravel for them the policies of the Past? Do business men hasten from
Threadneedle Street and Wall Street to sit at his feet, that they may have
instilled into them a little of the romance of ancient money? I fear not.
Come with me to some provincial town, where this day Professor Blank
is to deliver one of his archæological lectures at the Town Hall. We are met
at the door by the secretary of the local archæological society: a melancholy
lady in green plush, who suffers from St. Vitus’s dance. Gloomily we enter
the hall and silently accept the seats which are indicated to us by an
unfortunate gentleman with a club-foot. In front of us an elderly female with
short hair is chatting to a very plain young woman draped like a lay figure.
On the right an emaciated man with a very bad cough shuffles on his chair;
on the left two old grey-beards grumble to one another about the weather, a
subject which leads up to the familiar “Mine catches me in the small of the
back”; while behind us the inevitable curate, of whose appearance it would
be trite to speak, describes to an astonished old lady the recent discovery of
the pelvis of a mastodon.
The professor and the aged chairman step on to the platform; and, amidst
the profoundest gloom, the latter rises to pronounce the prefatory rigmarole.
“Archæology,” he says, in a voice of brass, “is a science which bars its doors
to all but the most erudite; for, to the layman who has not been vouchsafed
the opportunity of studying the dusty volumes of the learned, the bones of
the dead will not reveal their secrets, nor will the crumbling pediments of
naos and cenotaph, the obliterated tombstones, or the worm-eaten
parchments, tell us their story. To-night, however, we are privileged! for
Professor Blank will open the doors for us that we may gaze for a moment
upon that solemn charnel-house of the Past in which he has sat for so many
long hours of inductive meditation.”
And the professor by his side, whose head, perhaps, was filled with the
martial music of the long-lost hosts of the Lord, or before whose eyes there
swayed the entrancing forms of the dancing-girls of Babylon, stares horrified
from chairman to audience. He sees crabbed old men and barren old women
before him, afflicted youths and fatuous maidens; and he realises at once that
the golden keys which he possesses to the gates of the treasury of the
jewelled Past will not open the doors of that charnel-house which they desire
to be shown. The scent of the king’s roses fades from his nostrils, the
Egyptian music which throbbed in his ears is hushed, the glorious
illumination of the Palace of a Thousand Columns is extinguished; and in the
gathering gloom we leave him fumbling with a rusty key at the mildewed
door of the Place of Bones.
Why is it, one asks, that archæology is a thing so misunderstood? Can it
be that both lecturer and audience have crushed down that which was in
reality uppermost in their minds: that a shy search for romance has led these
people to the Town Hall? Or perchance archæology has become to them
something not unlike a vice, and to listen to an archæological lecture is their
remaining chance of being naughty. It may be that, having one foot in the
grave, they take pleasure in kicking the moss from the surrounding
tombstones with the other; or that, being denied, for one reason or another,
the jovial society of the living, like Robert Southey’s “Scholar” their hopes
are with the dead.
Be the explanation what it may, the fact is indisputable that archæology is
patronised by those who know not its real meaning. A man has no more right
to think of the people of old as dust and dead bones than he has to think of
his contemporaries as lumps of meat. The true archæologist does not take
pleasure in skeletons as skeletons, for his whole effort is to cover them
decently with flesh and skin once more and to put some thoughts back into
the empty skulls. Nor does he delight in ruined buildings: rather he deplores
that they are ruined. Coleridge wrote like the true archaeologist when he
composed that most magical poem “Khubla Khan”——

“In Xanadu did Khubla Khan


A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.”

And those who would have the pleasure-domes of the gorgeous Past
reconstructed for them must turn to the archæologist; those who would see
the damsel with the dulcimer in the gardens of Xanadu must ask of him the
secret, and of none other. It is true that, before he can refashion the dome or
the damsel, he will have to grub his way through old refuse heaps till he
shall lay bare the ruins of the walls and expose the bones of the lady. But this
is the “dirty work”; and the mistake which is made lies here: that this
preliminary dirty work is confused with the final clean result. An artist will
sometimes build up his picture of Venus from a skeleton bought from an old
Jew round the corner; and the smooth white paper which he uses will have
been made from putrid rags and bones. Amongst painters themselves these
facts are not hidden, but by the public they are most carefully obscured. In
the case of archæology, however, the tedious details of construction are so
placed in the foreground that the final picture is hardly noticed at all. As well
might one go to an aerodrome to see men fly, and be shown nothing else but
screws and nuts, steel rods and woodwork. Originally the fault, perhaps, lay
with the archæologist; now it lies both with him and with the public. The
public has learnt to ask to be shown the works, and the archæologist is often
so proud of them that he forgets to mention the purpose of the machine.
A Roman statue of bronze, let us suppose, is discovered in the Thames
valley. It is so corroded and eaten away that only an expert could recognise
that it represents a reclining goddess. In this condition it is placed in the
museum, and a photograph of it is published in the daily paper. Those who
come to look at it in its glass case think it is a bunch of grapes, or possibly a
monkey; those who see its photograph say that it is more probably an
irregular catapult-stone or a fish in convulsions.
The archæologist alone holds its secret, and only he can see it as it was.
He alone can know the mind of the artist who made it, or interpret the full
meaning of the conception. It might have been expected, then, that the public
would demand, and the archæologist delightedly furnish, a model of the
figure as near to the original as possible; or, failing that, a restoration in
drawing, or even a worded description of its original beauty. But no: the
public, if it wants anything, wants to see the shapeless object in all its
corrosion; and the archæologist forgets that it is blind to aught else but that
corrosion. One of the main duties of the archæologist is thus lost sight of: his
duty as Interpreter and Remembrancer of the Past.
All the riches of olden times, all the majesty, all the power, are the
inheritance of the present day; and the archæologist is the recorder of this
fortune. He must deal in dead bones only so far as the keeper of a financial
fortune must deal in dry documents. Behind those documents glitters the
gold, and behind those bones shines the wonder of the things that were. And
when an object once beautiful has by age become unsightly one might
suppose that he would wish to show it to none save his colleagues or the
reasonably curious layman. When a man makes a statement that his
grandmother, now in her ninety-ninth year, was once a beautiful woman, he
does not go and find her to prove his words and bring her tottering into the
room: he shows a picture of her as she was; or, if he cannot find one, he
describes what good evidence tells him was her probable appearance. In
allowing his controlled and sober imagination thus to perform its natural
functions, though it would never do to tell his grandmother so, he becomes
an archæologist, a Remembrancer of the Past.
In the case of archæology, however, the public does not permit itself to be
convinced. In the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford excellent facsimile
electrotypes of early Greek weapons are exhibited; and these have far more
value in bringing the Past before us than the actual weapons of that period,
corroded and broken, would have. But the visitor says “These are shams,”
and passes on.
It will be seen, then, that the business of archæology is often
misunderstood both by archæologists and by the public; and that there is
really no reason to believe, with Thomas Earle, that the real antiquarian
loves a thing the better for that it is rotten and stinketh. That the impression
has gone about is his own fault, for he has exposed too much to view the
mechanism of his work; but it is also the fault of the public for not asking of
him a picture of things as they were.
Man is by nature a creature of the present. It is only by an effort that he
can consider the future, and it is often quite impossible for him to give any
heed at all to the past. The days of old are so blurred and remote that it
seems right to him that any relic from them should, by the maltreatment of
Time, be unrecognisable. The finding of an old sword, half-eaten by rust,
will only please him in so far as it shows him once more by its sad condition
the great gap between those days and these, and convinces him again of the
sole importance of the present. The archæologist, he will tell you, is a fool if
he expects him to be interested in a wretched old bit of scrapiron. He is right.
It would be as rash to suppose that he would find interest in an ancient sword
in its rusted condition as it would be to expect the spectator at the aerodrome
to find fascination in the nuts and screws. The true archæologist would hide
that corroded weapon in his work-shop, where his fellow-workers alone
could see it. For he recognises that it is only the sword which is as good as
new that impresses the public; it is only the Present that counts. That is the
real reason why he is an archæologist. He has turned to the Past because he
is in love with the Present. He, more than any man, worships at the altar of
the goddess of To-day; and he is so desirous of extending her dominion that
he has adventured, like a crusader, into the lands of the Past, in order to
subject them to her. Adoring the Now, he would resent the publicity of
anything which so obviously suggested the Then as a rust-eaten old blade.
His whole business is to hide the gap between Yesterday and To-day; and,
unless a man be initiate, he would have him either see the perfect sword as it
was when it sought the foeman’s bowels, or see nothing. The Present is too
small for him; and it is therefore that he calls so insistently to the Past to
come forth from the darkness to augment it. The ordinary man lives in the
Present, and he will tell one that the archæologist lives in the Past. This is
not so. The layman, in the manner of the little Nationalist, lives in a small
and confined Present; but the archæologist, like a true Imperialist, ranges
through all time, and calls it not the Past but the Greater Present.
The archæologist is not, or ought not to be, lacking in vivacity. One might
say that he is so sensible to the charms of society that, finding his
companions too few in number, he has drawn the olden times to him to
search them for jovial men and agreeable women. It might be added that he
has so laughed at jest and joke that, fearing lest the funds of humour run dry,
he has gathered the laughter of all the years to his enrichment. Certainly he
has so delighted in noble adventure and stirring action that he finds his
newspaper insufficient to his needs, and fetches to his aid the tales of old
heroes. In fact, the archæologist is so enamoured of life that he would raise
all the dead from their graves. He will not have it that the men of old are
dust: he would bring them forth to share with him the sunlight which he
finds so precious. He is so much an enemy of Death and Decay that he
would rob them of their harvest; and, for every life that the foe has claimed,
he would raise up, if he could, a memory that would continue to live.
The meaning of the heading which has been given to this chapter is now
becoming clear, and the direction of the argument is already apparent. So far
it has been my purpose to show that the archæologist is not a rag-and-bone
man, though the public generally thinks he is, and he often thinks he is
himself. The attempt has been made to suggest that archæology ought not to
consist in sitting in a charnel-house amongst the dead, but rather in ignoring
that place and taking the bones into the light of day, decently clad in flesh
and finery. It has now to be shown in what manner this parading of the Past
is needful to the gaiety of the Present.
Amongst cultured people whose social position makes it difficult for
them to dance in circles on the grass in order to express or to stimulate their
gaiety, and whose school of deportment will not permit them to sing a merry
song of sixpence as they trip down the streets, there is some danger of the
fire of merriment dying for want of fuel. Vivacity in printed books, therefore,
has been encouraged, so that the mind at least, if not the body, may skip
about and clap its hands. A portly gentleman with a solemn face, reading his
“Punch” or his “Life” in the club, is, after all, giving play to precisely those
same humours which in ancient days might have led him, like Georgy Porgy,
to kiss the girls or to perform any other merry joke. It is necessary, therefore,
ever to enlarge the stock of things humorous, vivacious, or rousing, if the
thoughts are to be kept young and eyes bright in this age of restraint. What
would Yuletide be without the olden times to bolster it up? What would the
Christmas numbers do without the pictures of our great-grand-parents’
coaches snowbound, of huntsmen of the eighteenth century, of jesters at the
courts of the barons? What should we do without the “Vicar of Wakefield,”
the “Compleat Angler,” “Pepys’ Diary,” and all the rest of the ancient
books? And, going back a few centuries, what an amount we should miss
had we not “Æsop’s Fables,” the “Odyssey,” the tales of the Trojan War, and
so on. It is from the archæologist that one must expect the augmentation of
this supply; and just in that degree in which the existing supply is really a
necessary part of our equipment, so archæology, which looks for more, is
necessary to our gaiety.
In order to keep his intellect undulled by the routine of his dreary work,
Matthew Arnold was wont to write a few lines of poetry each day. Poetry,
like music and song, is an effective dispeller of care; and those who find
Omar Khayyam or “In Memoriam” incapable of removing the burden of
their woes, will no doubt appreciate the “Owl and the Pussy-cat,” or the Bab
Ballads. In some form or other verse and song are closely linked with
happiness; and a ditty from any age has its interest and its charm.

“She gazes at the stars above:


I would I were the skies,
That I might gaze upon my love
With such a thousand eyes!”

That is from the Greek of a writer who is not much read by the public at
large, and whose works are the legitimate property of the antiquarian. It
suffices to show that it is not only to the moderns that we have to look for
dainty verse that is conducive to a light heart. The following lines are from
the ancient Egyptian:—

“While in my room I lie all day


In pain that will not pass away,
The neighbours come and go.
Ah, if with them my darling came
The doctors would be put to shame:
She understands my woe.”

Such examples might be multiplied indefinitely; and the reader will admit
that there is as much of a lilt about those which are here quoted as there is
about the majority of the ditties which he has hummed to himself in his hour
of contentment. Here is Philodemus’ description of his mistress’s charms:—

“My lady-love is small and brown;


My lady’s skin is soft as down;
Her hair like parsley twists and turns;
Her voice with magic passion burns....”

And here is an ancient Egyptian’s description of not very dissimilar


phenomena:—

“A damsel sweet unto the sight,


A maid of whom no like there is;
Black are her tresses as the night,
And blacker than the blackberries.”

Does not the archæologist perform a service to his contemporaries by


searching out such rhymes and delving for more? They bring with them,
moreover, so subtle a suggestion of bygone romance, they are backed by so
fair a scene of Athenian luxury or Theban splendour, that they possess a
charm not often felt in modern verse. If it is argued that there is no need to
increase the present supply of such ditties, since they are really quite
unessential to our gaiety, the answer may be given that no nation and no
period has ever found them unessential; and a light heart has been expressed
in this manner since man came down from the trees.
Let us turn now to another consideration. For a man to be light of heart he
must have confidence in humanity. He cannot greet the morn with a smiling
countenance if he believe that he and his fellows are slipping down the broad
path which leads to destruction. The archæologist never despairs of
mankind; for he has seen nations rise and fall till he is almost giddy, but he
knows that there has never been a general deterioration. He realises that
though a great nation may suffer defeat and annihilation, it is possible for it
to go down in such a thunder that the talk of it stimulates other nations for all
time. He sees, if any man can, that all things work together for happiness. He
has observed the cycle of events, the good years and the bad; and in an evil
time he is comforted by the knowledge that the good will presently roll
round again. Thus the lesson which he can teach is a very real necessity to
that contentment of mind which lies at the root of all gaiety.
Again, a man cannot be permanently happy unless he has a just sense of
proportion. He who is too big for his boots must needs limp; and he who has
a swollen head is in perpetual discomfort. The history of the lives of men,
the history of the nations, gives one a fairer sense of proportion than does
almost any other study. In the great company of the men of old he cannot fail
to assess his true value: if he has any conceit there is a greater than he to
snub him; if he has a poor opinion of his powers there is many a fool with
whom to contrast himself favourably. If he would risk his fortune on the
spinning of a coin, being aware of the prevalence of his good-luck,
archæology will tell him that the best luck will change; or if, when in sore
straits, he ask whether ever a man was so unlucky, archæology will answer
him that many millions of men have been more unfavoured than he.
Archæology provides a precedent for almost every event or occurrence
where modern inventions are not involved; and, in this manner, one may
reckon their value and determine their trend. Thus many of the small worries
which cause so leaden a weight to lie upon the heart and mind are by the
archæologist ignored; and many of the larger calamities by him are met with
serenity.
But not only does the archæologist learn to estimate himself and his
actions; he learns also to see the relationship in which his life stands to the
course of Time. Without archæology a man may be disturbed lest the world
be about to come to an end: after a study of history he knows that it has only
just begun; and that gaiety which is said to have obtained “when the world
was young” is to him, therefore, a present condition. By studying the ages
the archæologist learns to reckon in units of a thousand years; and it is only
then that that little unit of threescore-and-ten falls into its proper proportion.
“A thousand ages in Thy sight are like an evening gone,” says the hymn, but
it is only the archæologist who knows the meaning of the words; and it is
only he who can explain that great discrepancy in the Christian faith between
the statement “Behold, I come quickly” and the actual fact. A man who
knows where he is in regard to his fellows, and realises where he stands in
regard to Time, has learnt a lesson of archæology which is as necessary to
his peace of mind as his peace of mind is necessary to his gaiety.
It is not needful, however, to continue to point out the many ways in
which archæology may be shown to be necessary to happiness. The reader
will have comprehended the trend of the argument, and, if he be in sympathy
with it, he will not be unwilling to develop the theme for himself. Only one

You might also like