Abstract:
Your editor approached me to write for your magazine, suggesting that we in education may have come to a time when we can look for ways to make our curriculum broader, deeper, richer. I am an arts educator, and my immediate response was “At last!” We want the arts to be more central in the school curriculum, because the Arts help children make sense of the world, communicate in different ways, value imagination and be creative. I am in Initial Teacher Education, I am actively researching, and drama is my area of expertise- and my leaning in this article is therefore in that direction. Though I confess to some caution about daring to offer comment from an academic stance to no-nonsense principals, I do know from reports of responses at your conference to a speaker who advocated for the arts that you support the arts in education. I too hold that the Arts, and drama in particular, have a powerful pedagogy that holds promise for learning opportunities and outcomes for all learners. I am pleased to have the chance to offer my thoughts, and, committed to the Arts learning area, I will propose that the Arts may be well placed to enhance and reinvigorate the curriculum in the direction suggested.