Important Considerations when Implementing Programmes
Using Appropriate Terminology
Dance, drama, music, and the visual arts each use particular terms to describe their concepts and practice. For example, in the arts, the term "technologies" refers not only to electronic technologies and equipment but also to the tools, materials, media, and production equipment used in making art works.
In the arts disciplines themselves, traditions, applications, or associations can result in different meanings for the same term. For example, the terms "dynamics" and "texture" have different applications in each of the four disciplines. It is important that teachers and students learn about and use the terminology of each arts discipline.
Culturally Inclusive Programmes
The arts are a source of cultural experience and a vehicle for cultural expression, shaping and shaped by our strong sense of place and identity in Aotearoa New Zealand. The Arts in the New Zealand Curriculum places emphasis on all students having opportunities to learn about the indigenous heritage of Māori and the diverse traditions of the European, Pacific, and other cultures that make up our nation. Arts education must embrace these diverse traditions and the heritage of the tangata whenua, respecting and responding to the many ways in which students experience and express their own sense of identity.
Culturally inclusive programmes in the arts will:
- recognise that te reo Māori, toi Māori, and tikanga Māori have an important place in the arts education of all students in New Zealand;
- provide students with an understanding and safe environment in which to develop and express their identity;
- use language, and teaching and learning approaches, that include all students;
- incorporate high expectations of all students;
- encourage positive attitudes towards cultural diversity;
- recognise the diversity of individual students within particular cultures;
- recognise that cultural practices are always changing and that contemporary cultures are in a continual state of development;
- recognise that knowledge bases can be culturally diverse;
- link with cultures in the local community as sources of knowledge and appropriate practice.
The Arts in the New Zealand Curriculum recognises that arts and culture are inextricably interconnected. It aims to enable teachers to respond positively and imaginatively, with innovative programmes, to the cultural diversity that will increasingly mark schools and society in the twenty-first century.
Gender Issues
Within each arts discipline, there are gender issues relating to the presence and participation of females and males as practitioners, viewers, and listeners. Students should come to understand the effect of different cultural and social attitudes on the participation of men and women in the arts, today and in the past. They should examine how gender stereotypes may be reinforced or challenged in arts practice and in art works and how histories of the arts disciplines can be selective and discriminatory in recording the contributions made by women and men.
In their classrooms, teachers should ensure that male and female students have equitable access to learning experiences and opportunities to achieve. This involves:
- using inclusive language;
- providing equal opportunities for students to gain skills and show leadership in using specialist materials and equipment, such as electronic technology;
- discouraging stereotyped attitudes towards abilities and interests in particular art forms, activities, or ways of learning;
- arranging for learning experiences with both male and female artists from outside the classroom;
- fostering an atmosphere of tolerance and respect for others' responses to art works, regardless of their gender.
Gifted and Talented Students
Programmes should extend and challenge students who are gifted or talented in the arts disciplines. Students may, for example, work towards achievement objectives at higher levels or take part in more complex and challenging learning experiences than their peers.
Gifted and talented students may demonstrate exceptional abilities in a wide range of art forms, many of which have not traditionally received recognition. Schools should seek to identify such students as early as possible in their development, provide them with supportive learning experiences and environments, and devise assessment methodologies appropriate to their learning. The Ministry of Education publication Gifted and Talented Students: Meeting Their Needs in New Zealand Schools provides information to assist in this process.
Students with Special Education Needs
Education in the arts disciplines provides all students, whatever their abilities, with opportunities for cognitive and emotional development. Dance, drama, music, and the visual arts enable ideas and emotions to be expressed in ways alternative to conventional means of communication. Through involvement in the arts disciplines, all students can develop ideas, initiate interactions, and express and share their feelings.
Students with special education needs include those with physical and intellectual disabilities, sensory impairments, communication difficulties, medical and related conditions, and learning and behavioural difficulties. Although special education needs may affect students' ability to learn in particular areas of the school curriculum, they may still achieve highly in one or more of the arts disciplines. Schools should aim to identify such students as early as possible and to consult with parents, other teachers, and specialist educators in order to ensure that planning and assessment approaches take account of their particular needs and circumstances.
Whatever their capabilities, students with special education needs should have opportunities to progress and achieve in the arts disciplines. This may require individualised programmes and specialised materials or equipment.
Health and Safety
In developing programmes in the arts, schools must provide safe physical and emotional environments for students and staff. Schools need to ensure that:
- all equipment, tools, and materials are appropriately maintained and adequately labelled and stored;
- teachers and students follow appropriate procedures and use equipment, tools, and materials safely;
- students are made aware that they are responsible for their own and others' safety during practical activities.
Schools must observe the mandatory requirements of the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992 and its corresponding regulations (1995), and they must adhere to the requirements set out in the Ministry of Education's Health and Safety Code of Practice for State Primary, Composite, and Secondary Schools (revised edition, 1998).
Copyright Law and Ethical Issues
Copyright law protects the livelihoods of the creators of materials (such as choreographers, dramatists, visual artists, and composers) and of the producers, publishers, and broadcasters of such materials. The Copyright Act 1994 has major implications for the use of copyright materials in schools. For example, it affects:
- the copying of films, static images, and sound recordings;
- dramatic, musical, artistic, or typographical arrangements of published texts;
- the performance of literary, dramatic, dance, and musical works.
All students should be expected to respect and value the integrity of the ideas and original work produced by others. This includes situations where information, text, sounds, and images are appropriated from the Internet, CD-ROM, computer applications, or clip art programmes.
When accessing or using ideas and material from particular cultures, teachers and students should ensure that they recognise and respect cultural and intellectual property rights and that programmes and activities take account of cultural practices and protocols.
Information on the requirements of the Copyright Act 1994 was published in the New Zealand Education Gazette, 1 July 1996. Further copies of this information are available from the Ministry of Education.
