"Every child deserves Art and Craft!”

Professor Dr Anne BamfordInternational Research Agency

anne@annebamford.com

Studies conducted to date

• In Nordic countries:- Denmark- Iceland- (also study in Finland)• In other countries:- Belgium- The Netherlands- Hong Kong- Australia (EAPI)- United Kingdom (WO Music and FYT)

The Norwegian Study

• Commenced October 2010. • Field work completed April 2011.• Draft report presented June 2011.• Public release: After the summer, date to

be determined

Outputs include

• A detailed evidence-based empirical review presented as a published report including an executive summary and a clear and concise list of recommendations .

Aims

• To conduct an empirical review of existing arts and cultural education provisions in Norway

• To identify, document and analyse case studies in schools, kindergartens, municipal music and art schools and colleges, including teacher education

• To formulate a set of recommendations of strategies to strengthen arts education in schools and the community

• To advise the Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training via the Norwegian Centre for Arts and Culture in Education on Arts Education (Boda)

• To benchmark arts and cultural education within Norway against international best practice indicators, especially those within Europe and the Nordic countries

Questions

• What is being done in arts and cultural education (both in and outside schools) and how is it being done?

• What is the quality of arts education in Norway? This includes both the quality of the teaching and the quality of the learning?

• What are the possibilities and challenges currently and into the future?

• What expertise exists within education and more broadly in the arts and cultural sector?

Scope

• The scope of the study was limited to a sample of formal school provisions for young people between the ages of 3-18 years and included non-formal (outside of school) arts and cultural offerings that directly intersect with the specified target group.

Method

• Document and media analysis• Survey and data tracking of baseline data• Interviews• School visits• Focus groups• Observations • Provisions for electronic submissions

Sampling

• We have endeavoured to get a sense of the full scope of activity and have visited different school types and different levels, in different geographic and social situations.

• We have met with all sorts of people including pupils, teachers, principals, parents, artists, managers, industry, cultural sector, volunteers, professional associations, officials, local authorities, politicians and plenty of characters!

Comments on the process

• Wonderful support• Opportunity for engagement• Geographical/climatic challenges• Organizational challenges• Economic challenges• Data availability

And a feel for the project…

… and the journey!!!

The real strengths include…

• Cultural Rucksack• Community resources• Passion and commitment• Accessibility (generally)• Intrinsic value• Amateur arts• Associations• Facilities in the community

Possibilities and challenges

• The choice argument…“I don’t really remember much about the rucksack. We maybe have things twice a year. We had an author and then someone doing country music. It is always country music!”“It would be better if we had more say in the sort of thing that came to the school.”• The NO choice argument…In this Kommune we make all the schools take the rucksack. We don’t give them a choice. If we gave them a choice, a lot of principals would say they did not want it. Even making it compulsory, we battle to get two things into the school each year. The schools wouldn't take the offer. They would say they don't want it. It takes too much tie or it does not fit into their schedule. They don't want It.

It’s a bit weird…

• “When they present the arts it is always something a long way from where the kids are at. It then comes across as sort of weird and that only reinforces the view that is already in the school that the kids who do sport are normal and the kids who do the arts are kind of weird. So in that way, the Rucksack is really not helpful to teenagers."

• "If you are interested in the arts then maybe the Rucksack performances are OK, but for most of the kids It is too far out… too extreme. There need to be acts that are more reachable for young people, especially for teenagers. The performances need to meet the pupils where they are at and then take them further. Most of the performances I have seen are really only for the music nerds.”

It’s a bit weird for the teachers too…

• “It is usually only by accident that we know the Rucksack performance is in the school. No one shares the information. The performances need to be lower threshold… what I mean is that they are often quite challenging and difficult works. The gap between where the pupils are at and the performance is too big. The performances are clearly chosen by people with a lot of experiences of the arts, but for the pupils they often see the performances as just too weird, and this reinforces their belief that the arts are for weirdoes.”

Experience or education?• In some ways it is OK that teachers are happy to go into the

Rucksack performances totally unprepared. At least then they too can experience something that they have never known before. Has there been any research about the impact of the Rucksack on teachers?

• “I don’t mind that the teachers don’t prepare. The arts experience has to have value in its own right. Some groups produce material for teachers (such as the dance groups). I really don’t know if the teachers in this school even look at this stuff. We have to do research on this.” School principal.

• “The rucksack has been an amazing boost for culture, but I get the impression that sometimes It has too much of a pedagogic focus. The art form is being adapted to fit into the school. Every performance has to teach something and has to go for 45 minutes.”

• Innovative, passionate and committed arts teachers are needed if arts education is to reach a high standard

• There is a high degree of consistency about the attributes of quality arts educators

• While there were concerns about the overall quality of teachers, instances of high quality teaching were observed in Norway

• There is insufficient or no time given to art and culture within teacher education esp. dance, new technologies in the arts, and drama (hours reduced or disappeared)

• Many students are leaving teacher education without having any skills and knowledge to teach the arts and culture or to use creative and culturally-rich methods of instruction

• Knowledge and skills of evaluation, research and reflection necessary for implementing creative learning programmes and arts education are lacking in teacher education

• There is an awareness in teacher education of the limitations and shortcomings of their preparation of teachers to teach creative, arts and cultural education in the grunnskole

• It is particularly noted that creative, cultural and arts education skills and knowledge for the general teachers is an issue of vital concern

• Lack of connection with teacher education and other agencies

The results…

• The survey results for the grunnskole showed that while the satisfaction with the specialist teachers was quite high (82.62% thought specialist teachers were good or very good at teaching the arts subjects) only 47% felt than general teachers were good or very good at teaching the arts subjects. Teacher education was particularly ‘blamed’ for the lack of capacity with only 14.4% of respondents thinking teacher education gave good or very good preparation in the arts for general teachers. Even for specialist teachers, teacher education was still only seen to be good or very good by 39.4% of respondents.

Some quotes…

• Teachers need to feel confident to feel creative. You need special skills to teach art and music. There are specialist teachers for the older children, but all teachers need an awareness of the arts as a method. Interdisciplinary learning produces better outcomes. Yet, the gap between theory and practice in teacher education is getting wider.

• [Pupil’s view] We need many more teachers who know how to teach in a practical way. The curriculum has too much theory and not enough practical. All teachers need drama method. All teachers need to value creative approaches.

• [Pupil’s view] I have experienced really bad teachers. Some are better than others, but it is a lottery what you get. I really can say I never learnt anything in school music lessons. Even when I was six years old, I knew more music than most of the school music teachers I had. They were failed musicians and failed teachers.

• [Special Education School Principal] I think what has happened in teacher education in the past few years is shocking. It's shocking really shocking. Every teacher needs to understand how to make learning creative, aesthetical and culturally rich. They need to know how to get pupils to creatively express themselves. The main goal of all learning has to be social and personal. That is the positive things about the arts as a way of learning, you can take risks and you don't have fear.

• [School Principal] Ironically, older teachers are actually the most creative. It is when they had the arts in their teacher education and they had facilities in schools. Specialists can work without special facilities but you need space to do creative learning.

• [School Principal] We are very concerned about teacher education. A former education minister once said, "The arts are the most important of the least important things" I think that really says it all! But teachers need to teach the whole child. We need variety to be able to learn. We need the arts for all students in teacher education and at all levels. Teachers don't know about the arts so pupils cannot see the importance of the arts. It is seen as a 'nice' thing to do. Maybe that is why 75% of our pupils are girls!

• [Regional Official] I am deeply concerned by the lack of competence for the arts and cultural subjects within teacher education. There is no longer a place for the arts in the preparation of teachers.

• [Regional Education Official] It is an absolute disaster that a teacher can qualify without doing the aesthetic subjects. They should look at the change in teacher education and then look at the effect of these changes on the dropout rate. There is a real problem in lower secondary school as all the subjects have become too theoretical. The theoretical pressure is now even down as far as the kindergarten.

Specialist teachers• Become too theorized• Lack strategies for effective group teaching• Lack specialized technical skills• Can’t motivate disinterested pupils• Insufficient focus on pedagogy• Not connected to ‘the industry’• Conservative and out of date• Shortage of qualified teachers• Small schools• Gender and background

Professional development• General teacher confidence and expertise to teach arts

and cultural education is low • More connections are needed between the various

providers of professional development• Professional development in the value of arts and

cultural education and creative approaches to boost school achievement is needed for school principals

• Teacher education providers could become important in lifelong approaches to teachers’ professional development in arts and culture

• It is reported that initiatives in this area have been reduced, rather than increased

Professional development findings

• The survey findings suggested very low level of teachers in the grunnskole turning to either Teacher Education or universities or “experts” for professional development, with less than a 1/3 of all respondents using these at all. Experts were even less likely to be used with only 18.7% referring at all to Norwegian experts and only 9.1 referring to International experts.

A sample quote…• Teachers need to be forced to look for ways

to make good arts and crafts teaching. Teachers are quite desperate out there. They want to do a good job but don’t know how to do it. In some ways we make the problem worse. We show then good quality professional shows in the Rucksack and then in a way prove that they can't teach the arts. That is the message the teachers get, especially in the primary schools.

Professional development and teacher education• 4.1 Target on-going professional development in arts and cultural

education for mid-career teachers, especially in relation to the use of technology in these subjects.

• 4.1 Reinstate minimum levels of creative and cultural subjects/learning approaches for all teachers within teacher education

• 4.3 Specialist teachers should have minimum levels of subject specialization

• 4.4 Closer monitoring of the quality of creative, arts and cultural education within initial teacher education is required

• 4.5 Teacher education needs to include instruction about methods and approaches for working with culture, including the DKS, Culture Schools, Museums, Theatres, Cultural Houses and other community cultural resources and how to integrate these resources into learning processes to improve the quality of learning outcomes.

• Must understand children• Needs to know how I feel and what I am interested in. They should not just be about subjects. • Understand the pupils• Needs to explain the topics• Understands what things are about• Listens to the kids• Is nice• Lets us dream• Does more fun stuff in lessons• Listens • Takes some things seriously but also know how to make serious things fun.• Laughs with us• Is intelligent• Is friendly• Is not boring. I'm bored for most of the day because the lessons really are boring. We should do

more drama… more acting and more music.• Is nice• Is fun

A GOOD TEACHER… Pupils’ views….

• Is more creative• Does unexpected things• Can explain things in different ways. • Helps you learn in different ways• Is more professional• Sets our brains free• Is motivated to be creative• Is professional, they are able to show that they can do something.• Really knows the pupils• Allows time for us to really get interested in our tasks• Uses methods that help everyone understand, and don’t just focus on the smart kids who

would understand anyway.• Is creative• Can think of fun ways to learn• Tells us stories connected to what they teach us• Makes up programmes that allow us to explore things we are interested in.• The teachers I have for the arts are the best ones. They are more professional. They care

about their subjects. They care about the students. They listen to us. • Some teachers try to bring creativity into their lessons. They will say paint a poem. Some

teachers don’t consider the pupils. There are so many bad teachers. They are just there to do their job. They are not enthusiastic

A pupil made an astute observation of the situation:

• In Norway there is this old book about the Janteloven. It says you can't think well of yourself. But this idea is rubbish! How can our society be any good if pupils are taught not to ever be good at anything or to think high of themselves? We really need to get the message out that it is OK to be good and to show people you are good. If you are good in maths and science then you are recognised, but if you are good at the arts and culture then you are teased! The system looks down on the arts. You don't get any points for the arts. Every person has a special element, but if this element is the arts or creativity then you have to push it away. If you do this you become not a school leaver but a school loser. You cannot do the thing you are good at and you only learn that you are not very good at the things you are allowed to do.