A case study: Issues of culture, diversity and difference in art education in New Zealand

Abstract

This paper reports on case study research conducted in five Auckland secondary school art departments in 2005. Positioned within the reality of New Zealand's increasingly multicultural society, the study was underpinned by a critique of interpretations of culture, diversity and difference, an examination of claims by cultural theorists that schooling has a responsibility to educate for an equitable democratic society, and arguments by multicultural art education theorists that art education can make a significant contribution towards a democratic society. The paper offers insights into the participants' schools and pedagogical practices. The findings are intended to inform professional judgements about the shape and role of art education in a diversified society which, in an era of economic and cultural globalisation, has a historically contingent commitmrnt to biculturalism.