Primary school visual arts education: Teachers’ perspectives

Abstract

This research project developed from my concerns around visual arts programmes in New Zealand primary schools. Visual arts are an important expression of personal and cultural values and identity. Making art has been found to have a range of personal, social and developmental benefits for children (Efland, 2004a; Eisner, 2002; Jarvis, 2004; O'Connor & Dunmill, 2005) as well as developing valuable workplace skills for the growing sphere of creative industries. I felt there had been a reduction in time spent teaching visual arts over the last 10 years or so, and informal enquiries found many teachers agreed that they taught visual arts less than they used to or would like to. When I asked one teacher why this was so, she replied: It's too hard. The school day is so full, and everything has to be justified. (Personal contact) The effect of such pressures on visual arts education must be considered alongside a long-standing problem identified by research in New Zealand and internationally: many primary teachers lack the knowledge or confidence to teach visual arts beyond first steps. The Education Review Office found that less than half of New Zealand's primary school classroom teachers are able to provide good visual arts programmes (1995, 2004) and, although art is often children's favourite subject, the National Education Monitoring Project found that their art-making skills are generally not well developed (Flockton & Crooks, 2008). Primary teachers in Britain and the United States have reported feeling inadequately prepared for teaching visual arts (Ford, 2003; McCoubrey, 2000), but the problem does not seem to be simply one of adequate preservice preparation. A review of research literature in the area of primary visual arts education suggests that there are multiple, interrelated factors behind this problem. Teachers are at the epicentre of learning (Schwille & Dembele, 2007, p. 11) and central authorities ... depend upon teachers to implement (McGee et al., 2004). It is, therefore, vital to understand how teachers interpret the curriculum and why they make certain decisions about teaching rather than simply focusing on classroom outcomes. I began by considering the historical, political, professional and personal circumstances that may determine teachers' daily decisions around what, when and how they teach, as preparation for an inquiry into the perspectives of teachers on teaching visual arts as part of the classroom programme. The challenges for generalists teaching visual arts in primary schools A. Curriculum reform and the visual arts curriculum While art has been a core subject throughout the history of New Zealand's state education system (Collinge, 1978) the content and purpose of art curricula have changed to fit prevailing values and social and economic aims for the nation (Smith, 2007). The political impulse behind curriculum development indicates the origin of some significant challenges for teachers. Curriculum reform has been constant and substantial since the 1980s and a world-wide focus on quantitative measures of student achievement, influenced by neoliberal views, has had a major impact on what kinds of knowledge and achievement are valued (Biesta, 2010; Middleton, Codd, & Jones, 1990). When curriculum reform runs counter to teachers' beliefs as to desirable outcomes for students, and undermines what they know to be effective pedagogical practice, this creates a dissonance which reduces their effectiveness (Harker, Gibbs, Ryan, Weir, & Adams, 2003) and can produce resistance to mandated change (George, 2009; Stokrocki, 2004). As primary teachers are generalists they must accommodate change in all curriculum areas. Standen (2002) found that teachers' approach to teaching is determined by a coherent belief system which is composed of various interdependent elements including beliefs about self, relationships, knowledge, change, teaching and learning. …