National Review of Education in
Visual Arts, Craft, Design and Visual Communication

Background

In August 2004, the Ministers for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts ( Senator The Hon Helen Coonan) and Education, Science and Training ( The Hon Dr Brendan Nelson MP) announced that their portfolios would provide up to $250,000 in funding towards a national review of visual communication and visual arts, craft and design in Australian educational institutions.

The Centre for Learning, Change and Development was commissioned to carry out the Review, which commenced in August 2005.

The research team members included, Dr Peter Wright, Dr Judy MacCallum , Mr Robin Pascoe and Mr Terry Church from Murdoch University, Dr Judith Dinham from ECU, Professor Neil Brown from the University of New South Wales and Mrs Kathryn Grushka from the University of Newcastle.

Scope of the Review

The Review covered the areas of Visual Arts, Craft, Design and Visual Communication, with the words ‘visual education' used as an all-embracing term. The scope of the Review is limited to Australian Schools and teacher education programs. The key areas of focus were:

•  notions of visual capability and its place in education;
•  curriculum in visual education;
•  teaching of visual education; and
•  teacher education in visual education.

In addition, the Review will make recommendations about potential good practice approaches in teaching visual education in Australia .

Research Strategy

The Review used a multi-method research strategy which included:

•  Establishment of an interactive Review web site;

•  Review of Literature, including review of relevant international and Australian studies, and available education documents related to areas of visual education;

•  Identification of sources of information from different groups and areas of visual education, followed by focus groups/interviews;

•  Collection of data from each State and Territory, and mapping of provision at the State/Territory level;

•  Selection of sample of schools and short national survey of sample of schools/teachers, followed by interviews with a selection of teachers;

•  Survey of teacher education faculties and interviews with a selection of tertiary teachers; and

•  Field visits to selected sites, including interviews with teachers and students;