Five strategies to advocate for arts education in 2019-2020

The National Advocates for Arts Education (NAAE) celebrates its 30th anniversary this year and has adopted a five-point strategy for future action.

To mark this significant milestone, NAAE met in Sydney recently to develop a new strategic plan that would provide leadership in advocating for the arts in education and continue its active support for arts educators across Australia.

Five strategies for action:

Advocacy: NAAE will continue to advise and meet with federal decision makers to improve arts curriculum at all levels of education. It also will make submissions to parliamentary inquiries and curriculum reviews.

Research: NAAE will work with research partners on issues such as creativity, curriculum policy, implementation and evaluation, PISA rankings etc.

Collaboration: NAAE will build on its strength in collaborating with other key organisations such as ACARA, Australian Primary Principals’ Association, the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership, Australian Council for Deans of Education, Australian Alliance of Associations in Education and the Australia Council to achieve positive outcomes for arts education.

Communication: NAAE’s new website will be a communication hub that will encourage sector engagement with NAAE’s actions, publications, media releases, current research, case studies of exemplary practice in arts education and its archives.

Governance: NAAE is revising its constitution to bring it up to date with current practice.

Founded in 1989 by representatives of five national peak arts organisations, it has achieved significant progress in the fields of dance, drama, music, media arts and visual arts education. In particular it secured the inclusion of the arts as a mandatory part of the current national curriculum for schools. This was an extraordinary step forward, bringing all arts subject into line with other subjects in the curriculum.

NAAE has also consulted widely with federal and state Ministers and MPs, made submissions, produced publications, position papers and arts curriculum for the Early Years Learning Framework, as well as being consultants in the ACARA processes of producing The Australian Curriculum: The Arts.

Photo: John Nicholas Saunders (Drama Australia), Roger Dunscombe & Derek Weeks (ATOM), Antony Hubmeyer (ASME), Sue Fox (Ausdance), Linda Lorenza (Music Australia), Margaret Baguley (AEA), Jeff Meiners (Ausdance), Mary Mooney (Drama Austral