New Research on Strengthening Visual Art & Design Education
Engage Scotland and Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, have published a paper on visual arts and design in Scottish secondary education.
Mapping Contemporary Visual Art and Design Education in Scotland explores their key findings and includes actions to strengthen art and design education.
There is far more detail to be found on the Engage Scotland website, in the paper and it’s summary. But here are top-line takeaways that might interest Culture Count’s members.
The research focused on:
Identifying factors that inhibit and facilitate engagement with contemporary visual art and design in the 12–18 curriculum, including the influence of the current primary provision and the transition to secondary school.
Gaining a better understanding of teachers’ confidence in engaging with and delivering contemporary visual art and design education.
Understanding where schools are engaging effectively with galleries, artists and visual arts organisations, and how that affects attainment.
Key Findings
Educators are keen to promote the benefits of studying contemporary visual art and design, especially the transferable skills that can be gained.
Young people recognise the practical skills that can be gained by studying art and design, but also emphasise the personal, mental health and pastoral benefits.
Both educators and students feel the subject is undervalued at school and within the home. They noted that local and national governments do not value the creative industries, and this leads to a wider cultural bias against the arts.
Concerns were voiced that a stereotypical idea of a low-paid artist persists among parents and senior management in schools and has influenced young people’s perceptions of the subject.
Many respondents identified the need for action to address the major attitudinal barrier felt by educators and students.
Suggested actions
The full report provides a full list of actions that could be taken to strengthen contemporary visual art and design education in Scotland. These include
Local authorities can create and support partnership and network-building opportunities for schools and cultural organisations.
Cultural organisations can collaborate with teachers by providing packs and toolkits, while also debunking the idea that there are ‘no jobs’ within the cultural sector.
Support bodies like Creative Scotland, Education Scotland and others can make a better case for the contribution that studying art and design makes to wider society, including its economic and social value.
Recommendations
The report’s recommendations for the visual arts sector, sector support bodies and funders include;
Use the learning from this study to feed into consultation over wider reforms of the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) and Education Scotland:
Advocate for better resourcing of art and design teaching in schools, specifically
Advocate for the value of art and design education
Commission further targeted research to address data gaps
Support communication and partnership working between the visual arts sector and schools
This research was commissioned by Engage Scotland and funded by Creative Scotland and the Scottish Government.
Further Reading
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