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The Australian Curriculum: The Arts
by Karen Wighton
The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) has completed a process of curriculum shaping and extensive public consultation feedback, resulting in the release of the Paper, The Shape of the Australian Curriculum: The Arts which outlines the direction for the development of the national Arts curriculum for years K-12. Curriculum writers will begin their work in writing the Australian Curriculum from October 2011.
Further information on the development of the national Arts curriculum, including the Shape of the Australian Curriculum: The Arts paper, and a proposed timeline, can be viewed on the ACARA website. Read the official government media release HERE.
Consider the relevance of some of the texts reviewed in Book Nook Notes in this newsletter to the ideas presented in Shape of the Australian Curriculum: The Arts, August 2011.
Book Nook believes that teachers may find Namatjira and Chinese Take Away: The Stage Play DVD useful resources in helping students come to an understanding of the ‘values of cultural understanding and social harmony that the Arts can engender’ (National Education and the Arts Statement, 2007), in the interests of contributing to ‘the development of a vibrant, modern and inclusive Australian society’. These two plays each provide students with ‘evidence of the creative and cultural life’ of their wider community and that the ‘Arts exist in process as much as in finished artistic products’. They allow students to ‘encounter the art work of another era, culture or unfamiliar medium’ and to ‘experiment with innovative and hybrid forms and performance styles’. Namatjira provides students with the opportunity to ‘engage with the arts practices of contemporary and past Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists and Communities’.
The Insight publication of Romeo and Juliet provides students with access to a study and engagement with the uniqueness of Shakespeare, in helping students to understand theatre’s ‘contemporary manifestations as well as its social, historical and cultural context’. It provides students with the opportunity to appreciate the form through ‘critical and contextual study’, to ‘refine and practice for performance’ and requires them to ‘respond critically to the Arts’.
Teachers may find the play, Red Sky Morning, is a good example of how theatre ‘uses dramatic symbolism for exploring, expressing and communicating ideas and issues’. It provides opportunities for students to understand the play’s ‘artistic, social, cultural and ideological context’, as an example of the role of ‘significant Australian theatre’.
Teaching Commedia dell’Arte is a book which we believe will assist teachers to interpret and analyse ‘historical’ forms, genres and styles and to ‘experience, present and respond’ to ‘world theatre from diverse times and places’.