NAVA Curriculum Consultation

Join us online via Zoom to find out more about the changes and have your say. We want to know: What do you like about the draft? What’s missing? What needs more work?

Time: Thursday 17 June, 2021 4:00 - 5:00 PM AEST Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney

Accessibility: An Auslan interpreter and live captions will be available for the event. Please email leya@visualarts.net.au if you have any other access needs.

As this is a short meeting, we encourage you to read the Arts curriculum documents in preparation. At a minimum, please read over the comparative information for The Arts, Foundation to Year 6 (all subjects) as well as the comparative information Visual Arts Year 7 to 10.

If you are a school teacher, NAVA can offer a letter of attendance for you to log it as Professional Development hours. If you are unable to attend this meeting, you are welcome to email your feedback to nava@visualarts.net.au. Alternatively you can provide feedback on The Australian Curriculum: The Arts through the ACARA survey. You can see a copy of the survey questions before you begin. 

Strengths:

• Emphasis on listening to the voices of First Nations artists when students learn about cultural expressions (although this could be reinforced).
• Emphasis on process, play, experimentation and impacts as central to visual arts practice.
• Classes are encouraged to visit art galleries.
• References to regional and national collections.
• Literacy explored as a way to respond to visual arts.
• Focus on artistic concepts from across times and living cultures.
• Identifying and understanding copyright and Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP) introduced.
• Activities that help students understand how to make ethical choices.
• Exploration of the various roles of professional arts worker careers.
• Students encouraged to engage in self-assessment.
• Refers to resources that are co-created with First Nations people and groups.

Opportunities:

• There are no guidelines on which artists should be taught, which means a teacher could go an entire year without referring to a single living Australian artist. NAVA will be making the recommendation to specify that teachers should teach a diverse selection of artists including living Australian artists.
• Work on unrelatable terms.
• There is minimal mention of craft practice and 3D practice under the current elaborations as a guide for teachers in relation to the content descriptions.
• NAVA will be recommending expert knowledge to help guide resources and content to support the delivery of the visual arts curriculum.
• NAVA would like to see the work of our national collecting institutions align more closely and consistently with the national curriculum. NAVA will be working with national institutions to help them release mapped curriculum documents with unique or aligned elaborations for all current and future programs, educational offerings and tours. This work will support time poor teachers to deliver visual arts learning successfully in the classroom.