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The rise of online arts education content delivery has created challenges for arts educators in Initial Teacher Preparation (ITP). Consequently, educators in various arts disciplines across Australia have been regularly meeting online to share, explore and experiment with ITP arts learning practices with the aim of establishing authentic learning and assessment. However, as Eisner reminds us, one must first be an artist if we wish to develop aesthetic dispositions, creativity, and artistry within our teachers and their students. We thus considered our arts ITP teaching from an a/r/tographic perspective, interconnecting the work of each of us as artist, teacher, and researcher and their intersections. This paper shares the processes and theorizations of our two-year a/r/tographic inquiry. It reveals the potential for collective a/r/tographic inquiry as not only a valuable means of engaging in educational research for initial teacher preparation, but as bespoke online pedagogical practice for meaningful arts praxis.

Wellbeing education (WE) is increasingly offered among secondary schools internationally to promote the physical, social, emotional and mental health of young people. Current and emerging evidence proposes that scope exists for the enhancement of universal WE, and that arts-based approaches have significant potential for school programmes in enhancing the effectiveness of WE. This sits alongside a growing body of international literature that connects arts engagement with positive mental wellbeing across age groups. Existing research also shows that the evaluation of the goals, pedagogy and student engagement within WE from the perspectives of teachers is uncommon. To this end, this qualitative research investigated teacher perspectives on the potential for arts-based WE. Through an asynchronous group interview, 10 Australian secondary school arts teachers with expertise in a variety of visual and performing arts education reflected on current WE in light of their arts teaching practice, exploring possibilities for enhancement through art-based practices. Thematic analysis using a socio-ecological framework reveals strong support for arts-based WE, noting positive potential for arts engagement to facilitate increased teacher and student autonomy, relationship building, safe and inclusive environments, and enjoyable, embodied learning within WE.

This paper introduces the life and work of art educator and designer Kurt Rowland (1920-1980) who authored the first set of textbooks on visual education and played a role in the shifting world of art and design education in post-war Britian. We detail the foundational experiences of his extraordinary life in the first half of the 20th century including surviving the Spanish Civil War and "La Retirada," being a 'friendly enemy alien', and becoming one of the Dunera boys forced into Australian internment camps. He later went on to develop a new aspect of art and design education he called visual education. We explore Rowland's notion of a visual education, explicating its features, appraising its import, and situating Rowland's ideas to those of his contemporaries. We explore his motivations and how his work advanced art pedagogy. Finally, we argue that Kurt Rowland has been absent in recent literature on art and design education and that his work, which contains elements that have continued relevance today, should not be overlooked.

Capacity to teach the arts is a problem reported by many teachers in primary (elementary) school settings in Australia. This paper reports on research which explored how to build primary school teachers' capacity in arts-based pedagogy. It outlines the design and development of a co-mentoring program between arts mentor practitioners and generalist primary school teachers which used an Arts Immersion approach. The findings of this research reveal the effectiveness of co-mentoring as an approach to support professional learning in arts education, and the use of an Arts Immersion approach to improve teachers' capacity in planning, facilitating, and assessing authentic arts experiences.

The paper explores the relationship between the regulatory requirements to be registered to teach and the provisions to meet these requirements in the initial teacher education programs in Australia. This is part of a broader study of the regulatory requirements for music and art teachers in primary and secondary schools in Australia, and only the music component will be reported in the paper. The statutory regulatory authorities (often referred to as teaching institutes) in each educational jurisdiction mandate the professional and academic requirements for registration to teach. These authorities outline the amount of study required to be registered to teach in primary and secondary schools across Australia. The actual requirements differ between the various States and Territories. To teach in primary schools a graduate is required to demonstrate an ability to cover the eight key learning areas (including the Arts) and specifically in literacy and numeracy. For teaching in secondary schools a graduate must evidence of successful study in two designated teaching areas (often across two learning areas). Across Australia, over the last decade there have been moves from undergraduate degrees in Education (with specialist/major studies) to undergraduate degrees followed by two-year Master of Teaching degrees. The registration authorities recognise both initial teacher education pathways into the profession. The universities have been regularly criticised for their reduced provision (and delivery) of specific discipline content in the initial teacher education programs, and continue to respond that they are delivering what is required by the registration requirements of the regulators. This ongoing response has resulted in significantly reduced time for areas such as Music, which is included in the broader Arts key learning area, with an expectation that a student will be exposed to a range of the disciplines in the Arts and not focus on one discipline. This continues to have a significant impact on teaching and learning in Music as well as the ability, confidence and preparation of future music educators.

Pre-service teachers need to experience authentic arts activities to confidently impart the quality arts engagement that young learners deserve. Most importantly, these experiences should contribute to shaping emerging teacher identities. We sought to understand the student experience of online early childhood pre-service in their arts courses, and what they need to become competent and confident teachers of the arts. Using data from 51 responses to a 24-question qualitative survey distributed across three Australian universities, we engaged in the methodological process of qualitative bricolage to present a story constellation offering important insights for online teacher-educators in the arts.

This paper investigates the preparation of Australian undergraduate university arts students for a life challenging arts-teaching and creative experience in Timor-Leste. It explores university teaching practice and how we may achieve better student experiences in preparation for their futures as teaching artists. This narrative inquiry research hears the voices of the students through their individual, personal stories. The emerging teaching artists articulate challenges, identify shifts in beliefs and values, and confirm skills that are transferable to cultural arts teaching contexts in the future. In all, the research has resulted in 46 recommendations, some minor, and some requiring more significant structural changes that affect course delivery. For the purposes of this paper, we reflect on and discuss three of the major findings and recommendations in the pedagogical, cultural, and artistic areas of the project implementation. As such, this paper represents a reflective analysis of some of the findings regarding curriculum design within this project.

The impact of digital technologies in education has been the subject of numerous studies. The findings have produced mixed results, highlighting the high degree of complexity involved in teaching and learning and the uniqueness of school settings. Continuous and rapid technological developments present educational communities with opportunities to solve numerous academic challenges. Current trends reveal a move towards the seamless integration of digital technologies into learning spaces to complement face-to-face teaching and learning. This study used Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis to understand an Art teacher's lived experiences as her classroom was transformed into a smart teaching and learning space using a combination of technologies to increase efficiencies in the delivery of the curriculum and address individual learning needs. The case study indicates that transforming traditional classrooms into smart learning spaces using a combination of technologies: uses time more effectively by automating the distribution of a range of educational resources; enhances teaching and learning by blurring the boundaries between physical and digital spaces; increases flexibility, mobility and creates extra opportunities for learning; frees up teaching time to address individual needs; enhances time on task and students' focus on the learning intention; and, encourages students to self-regulate their learning.

The aim of this study was to determine the examination of the researches about the use of technology by fine arts teachers. The study was conducted according to the content and citation analysis model. In this context, Web of Science (WOS) Core Collection indexes were included. In the document scanning in the WOS environment, the keywords 'Fine arts', 'Teachers' and 'Technology' were searched. In total, 169 documents were examined and analysed one by one. They were analysed according to year, document type, WOS content category, country, source title, organisation and citation, authors, publication language and categories. As a result of this research, the first study was conducted in 2004, while the most studies were conducted in 2016. It was concluded that the published studies had the most Proceedings papers as the document type. The area where the studies of fine arts teachers on the use of technology are mostly carried out is Education Educational Research, according to the Web of Science content category. The most researched title in the distribution according to the Source Title field is 'International Multidisciplinary Scientific Conferences on Social Sciences and Arts.' The university with the most studies is Kazan Federal University. The 19 authors who conducted the studies have a large number of studies in this field. It was concluded that other authors had only one study in the field. Again, when we look at the distribution of the countries and documents according to the language of writing, the country with the most studies is China and the language of the documents is English. The area continues to evolve.

Expert secondary Arts teachers are highly trained specialists well versed in face-to-face individual and group teaching pedagogies. Given the highly personalised nature of Arts teaching practice, the shift to online teaching resulting from COVID-19 lockdowns presented many with challenges for which they had little or no formal training. Many teachers felt stressed, isolated and unsure about where to turn for help. As there are demonstrated links between stress and attrition, it is important to reflect upon the experiences of these teachers with the aim of developing future mitigation strategies. The research reported here synthesises the online teaching experiences of 15 expert Arts specialists in Western Australia and revealed that being a digital native was not in itself sufficient to ameliorate online teaching challenges. Rather, the study found that teachers with deep pedagogical practice knowledge and a reflexive/flexible approach fared better than those with high levels of technology familiarity. The importance of collegiality and mentoring in an online setting, along with a reappraisal of teaching priorities emerged as key findings and serve as a timely reminder of the importance of collaboration, especially in testing times.

Online learning has radically altered educational access; however, challenges emerge for learning domains relying on practical learning experiences, such as the creative arts. Research shows praxis is vital to effective arts teacher preparation. However, as Australian initial teacher educators, we noted the challenges of engaging online students in arts praxis and held concerns regarding preparing them adequately for the primary classroom. In exploring solutions, we developed an approach mandating hands-on learning through assessment, theorizing this as praxis-focused pedagogy. Through surveys and interviews, we sought to understand student perspectives regarding the assessment processes and whether this improved online engagement and self-efficacy as future arts educators. Findings confirm students supported a praxis-focused approach to assessment, and reveal beneficial attributes of this approach. The study affirms significant potential for praxis-focused assessment to enhance online arts learning; an approach that may be useful in other online education courses where hands-on experience is central to learning.

In this action research study, we investigated how art teachers demonstrate critical and creative thinking when engaging in collaborative reasoning exchanges about the meaning of contemporary Chinese artworks. The study was conducted in a professional learning program for art teachers in conjunction with a privately owned gallery housing a collection of contemporary Chinese art. The findings reveal that critical and creative thinking is a form of making and manifests in the reasoning processes critics use to formulate judgments of artwork meaning. This is dependent on how critics exploit practical and theoretical constraints on art understanding. Contributing factors to the study's outcomes included aligning the role of critical and creative thinking with reasoning, theory building, metacognitive assessment, and pedagogy in art. The article concludes with some reflections on the implications of the findings for art education.

In this article, a teaching artist shares their understandings about designing a large-scale interactive intermedial arts experience for children aged five to eight years, and articulates findings about the conditions that promote quality experiences of this kind. When designing interactive arts experiences, a tension exists between providing openness and structure that derives from motivations to inspire creativity, but this does not need to be the case. Fears of constricting and stifling participants' creativity are voiced frequently. Enabling constraints are presented here as a method of promoting openness, creativity, and acts of imagination in interactive arts experiences.

Arts teachers undertake a multitude of extracurricular activities. Yet, while these activities consume considerable time and require specific expertise, little attention is afforded to developing these skills and expertise during pre-service training. This article presents findings from a study into the value of a pre-service teacher production as a form of professional development, from both the technical and personal development perspectives. Thirty pre-service secondary Arts teachers participated in the production. Through focus-group interviews, participants indicated the benefits of building technical understanding as well as personal benefits of engaging in an ensemble experience. All spoke of the potential transferability of what they learned to their future teaching practice. Given that Arts teachers are expected to facilitate extracurricular activities as part of their professional work, this article advocates the importance of examining ways in which rich experiences such as the production examined here should be formally embedded into pre-service teacher training courses.

This case study reports on an arts-based project called "Tree-Mappa," one that sought to engage primary-school children in learning about their local environment through significant trees. Pedagogical approaches featured the use of arts-based strategies as the means for activating cognitive and affective responses and learning. The frame for analysis was that of student engagement and learning, recognising that for students to be mobilised to care about and act for the environment requires both knowledge but also emotional commitment and the means for expression and communication. Findings drawn from student reflective responses and focus group interviews identified various triggers for student engagement. These included excursions and outdoor activities framed by arts-based processes. The study signals the value of ongoing research and practice to verify the potential of different arts-based strategies for engagement, commitment, and meaningful learning about the environment.

Projects assisting Aboriginal youth to acquire attributes for effective learning require community or elder mentoring, to ensure learning about culture and history will connect with the skills of the planned project. A Koorie art class at a secondary college in north eastern Victoria, Australia, relies on the positive attributes of mentoring in guiding young students to understand themselves as well as learn skills in Aboriginal art-making. The aim of this article is to discuss the positive attributes of the Koorie artist, since these attributes are crucial to the success of the program. A qualitative study of interviews with class teachers, a deputy principal, a Koorie artist, and students was undertaken as part of a larger project. Participants articulated the essential and positive attributes needed for a Koorie artist or mentor. This article helps understand what particular interpersonal skills, specific knowledge and applied skills are necessary for such a learning project.

This paper draws from a cross-cultural study of young children's arts curricula. The initial phase of the original study consisted of a comparison of the intended arts curriculum for 5--6 year old children in China and Australia. This was followed by a survey in Beijing exploring 88 contemporary early childhood educators' beliefs about children's arts education. A case study of the enacted curriculum took place across three kindergartens in Beijing. The data was coded and analysed using grounded theory methodology. The research presented in this paper reported a diverse understanding of children's creativity among the participant EC educators; it revealed that a pedagogical dilemma of demonstration remains as a challenge to early childhood arts educators. This study provided qualitative descriptions and examples of Chinese Beijing children's arts education in this era of globalisation. Utilising Foucault's (1991. "Governmentality." In "The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality," edited by G. Burchell, C. Gordon, and P. Miller, translated by R. Braidotti, 87-104. London: Harvester Wheatsheaf) theory of governmentality as a critical lens to view the issues in this field, the study broadened perspectives regarding the education philosophy and practices of early childhood arts curriculum, in particular, for the cultivation of young children's creativity.

The creation and maintenance of inclusive learning environments is a key responsibility of all teachers working in Australian schools. Most Australian universities embed inclusion education training for pre-service teachers (PSTs) in coursework. There is an implicit assumption in these arrangements that the study of inclusion and of special needs education completed at university will translate into practice when PSTs are working in schools. This phenomenological mixed methods research design investigated how effectively inclusion education translated into practice. The results revealed that while PSTs were aware and supportive of inclusion, no clear links were made between theory and practice.

The shift in teacher education from face-to-face delivery to Distance Education mode means that the current landscape for the preparation of specialist and generalist Arts teachers is both complex and challenging, particularly since there is almost no guiding literature in the field of teacher education that attends specifically to this curriculum area. This paper takes as its case, one regional Australian School of Education that has translated face-to-face delivery into distance education modes in both secondary and primary arts education, through a suite of interactive programs and pedagogical engagements. Some of the approaches include re-designing curriculum, the provision of rich resources and relevant formative assessment, and perhaps most importantly, the establishment of caring, attentive relationships. The construction of communities of inquiry and in the case of the Arts, a community of practice, is essential to the success of these approaches.

Australia's national arts curriculum has potential to realise the following benefits: cognitive, social, affective and curricular. This curriculum is designed for generalist and special arts teachers, but its delivery may be hindered by the prioritisation of high-stakes-tested disciplines and pedagogies, and reduced government funding to arts education across school and tertiary sectors. This may lead to a lack of opportunities to build teacher capacity in arts education, and diminished support for arts education in terms of time allocation and resourcing. The notion of "silos", where the separation of teaching practices persists between teachers of different disciplines, discourages meaningful interdisciplinary collaboration and can promote less effective models of arts integration. Arts education embodies a range of intelligences and semiotic systems providing for inclusive curricula and educational equity. Arts Immersion is a proposed response to these factors, intended to be implemented through democratic generalist and arts specialist team-teaching in primary schools.

This paper reports on a study conducted into how one cohort of Master of Teaching pre-service visual art teachers perceived their learning in a fully online learning environment. Located in an Australian urban university, this qualitative study provided insights into a number of areas associated with higher education online learning, including that of assessment, the focus of this paper. Authentic assessment tasks were designed within the University's learning and teaching framework of constructive alignment and were sequenced across the three semesters of the visual art program. Analysis of data collected through a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews revealed that participants largely held very positive attitudes about the suite of online assessment tasks, particularly in light of (a) the collaborative learning that took place, (b) the nature, structure and sequence of the tasks, and (c) the ways in which the tasks contributed to their workplace readiness.

The arts are crucial in developing our multi-sensory interpretation of culture. With the introduction of the Australian National Curriculum in the arts, there is cause to reflect on teacher education courses, and pre-service teachers' ability to deliver the new curriculum. Reflection on students' experiences in the arts may provide insight into improving teacher education. A mixed methods study was conducted with first and fourth-year Bachelor of Education primary students at a Western Australian university, to determine students' arts experiences prior to and during the course. Fourth-year graduating students were also asked to reflect on their self-efficacy to teach the arts based on the course. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, and interview observations are presented to contextualise these findings. The research emphasised the importance of building self-efficacy to support ongoing personal and professional engagement with the arts.

Arts specialist teachers have a unique place in primary schools. They are often the sole teacher responsible for an entire learning area and hence commonly provide leadership and drive the curriculum implementation of the arts in and for their school. This responsibility finds us asking questions about the ability of arts specialist teachers to create professional agency in an increasingly challenging school environment. Using a narrative portraiture approach, and seven propositions for professional agency, we focus on a single teacher in order to consider how both individual and structural elements are understood from the perspective of an arts specialist. Conditions explored include relationships, time, purpose and constraints, work-related identity, experiences, and work communities. Challenges such as isolation, ongoing support and the development of community are highlighted as potential difficulties in the process of developing agency. The study contributes to an understanding of the personal cost and potential growth the development of professional agency provides.

There is extensive research that shows how the arts provide many benefits for all students yet there is evidence that arts education offerings and experiences are decreasing across both university and school sectors. It is important that we recognize the essential role of teacher educators in preparing pre-service teachers to be aware of the "bigger picture" of arts education before beginning their work with students. Drawing on interview data from eight tertiary arts educators, this paper will provide a timely national snapshot view of their perceptions. It explores their experiences as arts educators in higher education contexts in regards to the "state of the arts" at their respective institutions. Together with a narrative inquiry approach, this research investigates deeper, lived experiences of the authors in relation to their experiences as arts educators and offers suggestions for improvement to arts education in teacher education programs.

Selected ubiquitous technologies encourage collaborative participation between higher education students and educators within a virtual socially networked e-learning landscape. Multiple modes of teaching and learning, ranging from real world experiences, to text and digital images accessed within the Deakin studies online learning management system and a constructed virtual world in which the user's creative imagination transports them to the "other side" of their computer screens is discussed in this paper. These constructed environments support interaction between communities of learners and enable multiple simultaneous participants to access graphically built 3D (three dimensional) environments, interact with digital artifacts and various functional tools and represent themselves through avatars, to communicate with other participants and engage in collaborative art learning. A narrative interpretative research approach was used to profile the 21st century higher education student learner, to investigate the lived experience and multiple art learning perspectives documented in students' visual journal entries and art educator observations to ascertain if an e-technology rich-augmented learning environment resulted in the establishment of more effective e-learning communities of practice. (Contains 12 figures.)

This international study investigated the experiences and attitudes of teaching artists whose work is rooted in theatre, dance, and closely-related disciplines. Based on survey data from teaching artists working in Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia, United Kingdom, and the United States (n = 172), the paper illuminates participants' perspectives on preparation, practice and professional identity. Emergent themes include: (1) teaching artist training and preparation, (2) work contexts and populations served, and (3) work challenges and obstacles. Following discussion of key survey findings, three case studies based in higher education settings in the USA, UK and Southeast Asia are presented. Hagman's (2005) framework for multiple fields of subjectivity at work in aesthetic experience is employed to illustrate the ways in which the intrasubjective, the intersubjective, and the metasubjective fields of subjectivity inform each teaching artist's practice and professional identity. The paper concludes with an analysis of themes in light of current discussions on reflective practice and implications for teaching artist "praxis". (Contains 7 footnotes.)

This paper was delivered as a response to a presentation by Jan Kronberg MLC, Chair of the Education and Training Committee, Parliament of Victoria that published a report of the "Inquiry into the Extent, Benefits and Potential of Music Education in Victorian Schools." Her presentation and this response were part of a forum conducted by the School Music Advocacy Group at the University of Melbourne on 5 December 2013.

This paper examines and reports on beginning generalist teacher self-efficacy, which Bandura (1997) suggests plays an important part in student outcomes. In 2008, 201 beginning generalist teachers throughout the state of Queensland, Australia, participated in a study that aimed to provide a snapshot of current perceptions towards support in schools for the arts. Beginning teachers were asked to rank their school support for a number of different subjects in the school curriculum and provide written justification for these rankings. Results suggest that beginning teachers perceived a general lack of support for the teaching of the arts in their classroom, compared to English and maths. They reported that schools provided greater financial support, assistance and professional development for the teaching of literacy and numeracy with a view to increase school performance in national testing. Findings provide key insights for school administrators and policy makers for the adequate delivery of arts education in Queensland schools, particularly when this task falls to generalist teachers with little or no subject expertise in the arts. (Contains 3 figures, 2 footnotes, and 1 table.)

This article discusses how a New South Wales (NSW), Australia, visual arts educator, Diane, and her 10th-grade students used art practice as research and visual process diaries to create mini bodies of work. According to Marshall and D'Adamo (2011), art practice as research stresses conceptual and technical skills, uses artwork for interdisciplinary inquiry, is student-driven yet educator guided, and employs concepts that connect to multiple academic fields. Art practice as research acknowledges the creative process as an integral part of artmaking practice; it invites art educators to consider providing students with an ability to articulate creative practice in explicit and knowledgeable ways (Marshall, 2015). It allows students to understand their artmaking processes, how they acquire knowledge, and how to articulate their own belief systems about artmaking, as derived from the synthesis of information (intellectual, emotional, and personal) from their world. The author found that visual process diaries, bodies of work, and art practice as research can serve as exciting and viable models for U.S. art education practice. By investigating and emulating artists' practices and ideas and by metacognitively reflecting on and communicating their own through process diaries and bodies of work, students can use art practice as research to interconnect ideas, link them to their own experiences and the world, and see artmaking as a way of thinking and knowing. Art practice as research helps students to understand their experiences in new ways as they investigate, creatively interpret, and become aware of their thinking.

Many universities divide their academic workloads according to a model of 40 per cent teaching, 40 per cent research, and 20 per cent administration and service. Increasing demands on academic time, however, make this balance hard to achieve, since teaching and administration frequently impinge on research time. Moreover, regular academic activities may not fit into the workloaded time available. This paper presents evidence from a 3 month case study of a single academic in an Arts department at a research-intensive Australian university who has a 40:40:20 workload and is encouraged to publish an average of two high quality journal articles a year. Based on the study's findings, a more realistic workload model would be 40 per cent teaching, 25 per cent research and 35 per cent administration, with an adjustment in the amount of quality research outputs expected. A new model should also balance face-to-face teaching time with teaching-related activities.

This article describes a small, collaborative, arts-based research project conducted in two rural early childhood centres in regional Australia, where the children made large-scale collaborative paintings in partnership with teachers and researchers. Observation of young children's artistic practices, in order to inform the development of pre-service curriculum and pedagogy was a central aim of the project. The findings are framed with respect to pedagogy, practice and learning: the pedagogy that supports children's artmaking; the benefits of learning in and through the arts, and the notion of collective practice in early childhood settings. Findings suggest that collaborative and intergenerational artmaking in early childhood settings enable powerful learning opportunities. A combination of establishing a rich art environment, applying constraints, yet allowing for children's agency can create a rich and engaging art education, which is vital in any setting if children are to develop their aesthetic awareness, artistic skills, and critical, abstract, imaginative, collaborative and creative thinking. The role of the proactive art educator in children's development is crucial, which has implications for teacher preparation and in-service professional development. These project findings also have implications for ecologies of learning and communities of practice from early childhood to higher education.

Observation of secondary art teacher education in the United Kingdom and Australia has revealed a range of differences, including a greater role for schools in initial teacher education (ITE) in UK. The literature reporting on research into preparation of teachers in UK indicates a general satisfaction among students regarding their experiences in schools. However some issues of concern arise which need to be considered if there is a move towards greater involvement of schools in ITE in Australia.

Background: Creativity is often cited as one of the capacities that needs to be actively encouraged in all aspects of schooling. However, what creativity is and how it may be promoted through formal teaching and learning approaches remain contested. There are also differences between educators in terms of how they understand, discuss and conceptualise this complex concept. Purpose: This paper focuses on the difficulties associated with talking about creativity in education. It considers the ways in which schoolteachers who are involved in the area of arts education understand, describe and discuss the concept of creativity and how it interacts with their classroom practice. Sample: Twenty-three educators who taught Arts (either as generalist primary classroom teachers or as specialist teachers), and the leadership team from a Kindergarten to Year 9 (pupil ages 5-15) school in the suburbs of a city in the Australian state of Victoria participated in the project. Design and methods: In this phenomenological study, data were gathered from participants through questionnaires, discussion groups, email prompts and reflective journals. The material was analysed qualitatively. Findings: By examining the teachers' dialogic and discursive responses about creativity, it was possible to capture some broad ways in which the participants spoke about creativity. Data were analysed thematically and grouped into categories that represented the connected 'creative orientations': thinking orientations, action orientations, emotion orientations and skill/outcome orientations. Conclusion: There is a need for educators in and across a range of discipline areas to share, map and think about creativity. The approach adopted in this exploratory study offers a way that could be used to focus discussions and help facilitate educators' talk about creativity.

We examine in this article how the construction of a metaphor for collaborative practice can be used as a navigational tool to assist teachers in making meaningful connections between artists and teaching practices. Exploring collaboration in practice as a metaphor can help teachers expand their problem-solving capacities and allow them to cultivate authentic interaction between their artmaking and teaching practices. We also illustrate how collaborative practices, when enacted in both teaching and artmaking and conceived as a metaphorical construct can guide teachers toward identifying synergies between their artmaking and art teaching. To achieve this, we have drawn together a hybridized qualitative methodology to generate a multimodal rendering of intricately layered stories toward cultivating the inter-relationship between artist and teacher.

This article explores the beginning of a longitudinal study of a suite of programs, specifically culturally diverse Community Based Art Education (CBAE) programs, designed by and for art educators, to extend the learning pool for art education. The authors highlight specific elements within the programs that offer cultural understandings, practical art skills, and professional practice. This is followed by an analysis of both explicit and implicit learning evidenced in the results of the programs. The implications of these programs are discussed as well as the intended trajectory of these projects into the development of the further ongoing suites of interrelated programs.

Australian and international research has identified that many generalist teachers have limited confidence and experience in teaching the Arts in the early years of schooling and education. There is also a significant gap in the provision of quality professional learning programs for teachers. Research has identified that appropriate training and professional learning programs need to provide teachers with practical experiences, informed by sound pedagogical theory and some form of ongoing support and potential for collaboration and shared learning. This article reports on the development of a professional learning programme which sought to support arts-focussed professional development of early years teachers. The project, known as The Open Storybox, lead to the development of a model which could be called a "transmedia" learning model, as it utilises different media, and flows of content across digital platforms and technologies as well as the embodied and material.

The National Visual Arts Standards (NVAS) present ways for students in the United States to create, present, respond, and connect to the world of art and artmaking. This article focuses on the practices of one visual arts educator, Educator A, who taught in a state-sponsored specialist music high school, guided by the following question: "How does an experienced secondary New South Wales (NSW) visual arts educator employ the Frames and the Conceptual Framework of the NSW Visual Arts Syllabi within her art classroom?" The author found that Educator A used the Framework as a way of teaching about the world and its history, emphasizing the importance of philosophical ideas as much as artmaking. This resulted in classrooms becoming small artistic communities where students could collaborate and explore.

Creativity in teaching and leadership continues to be a topic of interest in education. This article focuses on comments made by a school's leadership team as part of a larger study in which a mixed methods case study design involving the school's leadership team and staff who taught Arts (either as specialist teachers or generalist classroom teachers) was used. The research took place in a 6-year-old Preparatory Year to Year 9 (P-9) school in a growth corridor in metropolitan Melbourne. Staff members in the school provided responses to a questionnaire, participated in focus group discussions and were invited to maintain journals during the course of the study. Comments made by members of the school's leadership team are analysed in this article using perspectives of pedagogical leadership and relational power. The article finds that the school's leadership team models and encourages experimentation with new ideas across the school as the team promotes the development of collaborative professional learning approaches in their relatively young school. The article concludes that professional learning communities (PLCs) within the school will be well-placed to pursue the collaborative approaches modelled by the school's leadership team to ensure that a school-wide focus on student learning continues.

Within the specific context of "The Australian Curriculum: The Arts", this paper explores how teachers of the Arts and teacher educators encounter and enact curriculum change. Adopting Ewing's notion that curriculum is a complex web of varying stories and storylines that are impacted on by teachers' underlying philosophy, we suggest that Arts teachers embrace the intent behind "The Australian Curriculum: The Arts". This paper unearths and explores insights gleaned from teachers looking inward and reflecting on their own personal curriculum journeys. The learning dimensions of conceptualising, experimenting and developing, reflecting, resolving and communicating are applied to investigate the implementation of the new curriculum. This article shares data from a number of Arts teachers' interviews with the authors in relation to their thoughts on the implementation of the new curriculum. Two key themes emerged from these interviews, these being navigating challenges and the implications of personal attributes in encountering and enacting change. Interestingly, a number of qualities associated with Arts practitioners such as creative and lateral thinking, resilience and flexibility emerge as significant contributing factors in regard to how teachers encounter, enact and become curriculum change.

In the course of normal classroom lessons, 103 students (median 11.10 years) were asked to spend 15 min writing "anything you can think of" about the number 50 on a blank page. The products were independently scored by 2 specialist art teachers and 2 specialist mathematics teachers on criteria relevant to their specialisations. Immediately before this task, however, half the students (depleted group) worked on difficult matching problems for 3 min, whereas controls worked on facile problems. Although volume of creative response appeared only marginally affected, depleted students were rated as lower on overall creativity (d?=?0.8) by the arts teachers. The mathematics teachers also rated the depleted students as showing less quality in their work (d?=?0.97). The depleted students cited fewer mathematical statements, but displayed more errors in statements they had written. The findings were interpreted in terms of ego depletion effects upon creativity.

Students learning English as an additional language (EAL) in Australian schools frequently struggle with the cultural and linguistic demands of the classroom while concurrently grappling with issues of identity and belonging. This article reports on an investigation of the role primary school visual arts programs, distinct programs with a specialist teacher, in a designated art room, can play in supporting EAL students' identity construction and social transition. At six Melbourne primary schools, classroom observations and teacher and student interviews revealed that the visual art programs offer clear possibilities for enhanced and empowered constructions of identity. This article focuses on four students as case studies, highlighting the powerful role visual arts programs, classrooms and teachers can play in EAL learners' identity construction. On a personal and societal level, identity construction and a positive sense of self are essential in our current era of increased linguistic and cultural pluralism, and this study offers insights into how these inclusive goals can be achieved.

Visual arts teachers engage in complex work on a daily basis. This work is informed by practical knowledge that is rarely examined or drawn on in research or in the development of policy. Focusing on the work of secondary visual arts teachers, this article reports on a research program conducted in a regional area of New South Wales, Australia. The research engages in a collaborative process of educational connoisseurship and educational criticism to examine and discuss classroom practice. The process is underpinned by a belief in research as an act of discovery and is guided by a framework that provides a language and grammar of practice. Drawing on qualitative data, discussion focuses on how the collaborative process enables the mobilization and generation of new knowledge. The article concludes by considering the relationship between teaching practice, research, and policy development and by recommending support for collaborative research-based initiatives that foreground the knowledge of teachers.

In recent times there has been a cross-disciplinary amplification of interest in the concept of practice. In this context, there is a growing body of research considering how teaching and teacher education might be viewed using the conceptual lens of practice. In this article, I explore practice theories to identify common themes and principles that constitute a conceptual framework for the investigation of the lived experience of teaching. From this foundation, a methodological framework based on collaborative inquiry and postmodern emergence is derived. Examples are offered of the way the conceptual framework and methodological approach have been activated through the first stage of a research programme that collaboratively engages the dual voices of academic researcher and classroom practitioners as co-researchers. Analysis of qualitative data reveals the potential and limitations of this practice-based foundation as a way to know, understand and represent the complexity of teaching. In conclusion, the article develops a number of propositions as the basis for further research.