Australian Art Education Vol. 32, Special Edition, 2009

Editorial - Climate Change
Penelope Collet, La Trobe University, Bendigo

It has been a great honour to edit, as editor elect, this special, electronic issue of Australian Art Education. My involvement in Art Education Australia has been extremely limited over the last few years due to a more international focus in my own research and the administration responsibilities that seem to be associated with age and experience in my institution. It is exciting to re-engage with the art education community at a time when all the signs point to a climate change within our discipline. While world climate change has overwhelmingly negative connotations, for art education the changes appear all positive and promise fairer weather ahead.

The work done by the National Advocates for Arts Education group of associations has been inspirational and, most importantly, convincing in its ability to sway Federal education bureaucrat and government opinion. The resulting inclusion of the Arts in the National Curriculum provides winds of change for each of the Arts disciplines.

The National Review of Visual Education (2005-2007) was a thorough mapping of research, policy, and school visual arts curriculum as well as teacher education provision. Professor Diana Davis is to be congratulated for her excellent report, First We See. Dr Barbara Piscitelli’s role as Chair of the Steering Committee of the National Review was a heavy responsibility which she carried out admirably. The many expert contributions from the art education community should also be recognised. The research undertaken was comprehensive and rigorous. The resulting recommendations reflect this authority and subsequently carry great weight.

Singly these achievements are outstanding for art education; together they have changed the climate of art education for the 21st century. First We See puts forward four key recommendations under the headings: ‘The centrality of visuacy for all Australian students’; ‘Preparing teachers’; ‘The potential of partnerships’; and ‘A visual education research agenda’ (Piscitelli, 2008, pp. xi-xii).

The Research Symposium papers published in this special issue address these areas. Importantly, the papers also consider the challenges and possibilities of the National Curriculum. They represent new ways of thinking about future developments in visual art curricula.

Christine Nicholls’ paper foregrounds the need for Indigenous visual art content in the National Curriculum and offers teachers and their students an approach to studying contemporary Indigenous Australian art. Kerry Thomas examines concepts central to discourses of art education and traces their sources. In the light of more recent and alternative discourses she considers implications for curricular development. Several papers explore the notion of ‘visual’. Bernard Hoffert uses a history of Western ideas along with examples from diverse cultures to argue for the prioritising of the visual in art. Frances Alter asks, ‘Can images be texts?’ She explores the notion of visual literacy and the tensions and differences between approaches used in English and visual arts education. Joanna Barbousas introduces us to Foucaldian discursive analyses as a methodology for examining visual discourses in art education. Miranda Free, Glenda Nalder and Lee Fullarton write about Primary Focus. This paper reports on research that evaluated a partnership between an artist, schools, art gallery and the Primary Art Network Ipswich. Enhanced student learning and quality professional development for teachers were outcomes clearly evidenced in the results. The final paper focuses on the need for establishing research networks. Through the example of the International Creative Boys Initiative, Wes Imms argues for international collaboration to develop research agendas, to establish data bases, to pursue research funding and to influence policy and government.

A high level of scholarship and research is evident in the papers published in this issue. In the light of the National Review, the Australian art education community is well placed to accept the challenge of the fourth recommendation:
The Review recommends that a national visual education research agenda be developed along with an implementation plan and staged timeline (Piscitelli, 2008, p. xii).

References

Davis, D. (2008). First We See. The National Review of Visual Education. Canberra: Australian Government, Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.

Piscitelli, B. (2008). [Executive Summary]. In D. Davis, First We See. The National Review of Visual Education (pp. ix-xii). Canberra: Australian Government, Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.

Afterword

I would like to thank Ian Brown for the excellent job he has been doing as editor of the journal. He is leaving it in top condition and I hope I am able to continue the high standards that he has achieved. It is promising and heartening to have so many good papers submitted to this issue. I should like to call for papers for a special issue on Early Childhood Art Education for the second half of 2010. Please submit papers by the deadline of July 30, 2010. With this in mind, Early Childhood papers were not included in this issue and will be reconsidered for the special issue so they do not need to be resubmitted. Other papers not included in this issue will be considered for the first issue in 2010. New submissions are always welcome. Please ensure that your paper meets the requirements set out in the ‘Guidelines for Australian Art Education – 2010’.