Rethinking curriculum: A pandemic opportunity for re-engagement with the Arts?

Abstract

Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights endorses the goal of education for all children. Inequalities of access and equity, however, are apparent in both the developed and developing world, which indicates that this goal remains aspirational. The rupture of education during the COVID-19 pandemic has amplified these existing inequalities in education systems worldwide. Throughout the pandemic, teachers have modelled a positive mindset as they pivoted from the physical classroom to online learning. This paper will suggest that the current pandemic may indeed offer education policy makers an opportunity to re-think curriculum design and, with a growth mindset, re-engage with the Arts as an equal key learning area in the curriculum. It is to the Arts that schools and communities have turned for joyful and multi-layered support during the pandemic, an underlying belief in the importance of the Arts for the wellbeing and cognitive development of the child. This belief, supported by a robust body of evidence amassed internationally over many decades, is central to the authors’ contention that a more inclusive and comprehensive engagement with the Arts would facilitate curriculum reform, such as that sought by the New South Wales (NSW) government in Australia. Furthermore, we contend that the COVID-19 pandemic may be the necessary catalyst to activate such welcome reform. We anticipate our analysis and its findings to first be relevant for the state of NSW, then beyond, to resonate nationally and internationally.