Australian Journal of Education

Galleries and museums increasingly value participatory learning for its ability to foster deeper audience engagement, yet many lack clear frameworks to implement it effectively. The National Gallery of Australia and the University of Canberra undertook a 15-month collaboration to develop a participatory learning framework tailored to the National Gallery’s unique context. This research demonstrates that practice-based inquiry and participatory approaches can generate inclusive, context-specific models of education and professional learning within cultural institutions. Central to the project was a series of six full-day workshops that combined qualitative inquiry, participatory action research, and practice-based methods of co-creation. The workshops engaged the Gallery’s interdisciplinary Learning Team to build pedagogical capacity, strengthen collaboration, and articulate a shared set of teaching values. Participants were positioned as co-researchers, contributing insights through reflective practice and practice-based activities. The resulting framework outlines pedagogical principles and aligned teaching strategies to support participatory learning across the Gallery’s programs.

This study explores the sustained practices of six classroom teachers after their participation in a novel music therapy informed professional learning program, Music for Classroom Wellbeing. Amid growing concerns about student mental health and teacher attrition, effective strategies to promote classroom wellbeing are urgently needed. The program aimed to enhance teachers’ capacity to foster safe and supportive classroom environments through intentional use of musical practices. Using a critical ethnographic approach, data was collected through participant interviews 6 months after the program’s conclusion and inductively analysed to find common themes. Findings revealed that teachers sustained their intentional use of music in three ways: to strengthen relationships, support emotional regulation, and differentiate learning. The study highlights the potential of music-based interventions in promoting both student and teacher wellbeing, as well as supporting inclusive pedagogical practices. Recommendations are made for future innovative approaches to teacher professional learning and classroom wellbeing.

This study investigated the state of music education in New South Wales (NSW) government primary schools and provided essential baseline data to inform policy and program development. It focused on teachers’ experiences, training, and perceptions regarding music education. 706 teachers from 95 schools participated in the survey, representative of the sample for school location and Socio-Economic Index for Areas (SEIFA). The survey collected information in eight key areas: respondent characteristics, school facilities, initial teacher education, music teaching confidence and professional learning, music education in your school, nature of your music teaching, perceived benefits of music and student responsiveness. Understanding the state of music education in NSW government primary schools allows for the provision of informed policy and advocacy efforts to support music education. By detailing the current state of music education and its benefits, stakeholders can make informed decisions around policy and program development and ensure a high-quality and sequential music education for all students.

This study utilised Mezirow’s Transformative Learning framework to explore drama teachers’ and pre-service drama teachers’ perceptions of transformation in the drama space. The research specifically examined three core questions: 1. Who are transformed? 2. What is transformed? 3. How does transformation happen? Adopting a phenomenological qualitative approach, we analysed interview data from eight drama teachers and 22 pre-service drama teachers in Western Australia. Findings indicate that participation in school-based drama activities fosters transformations (and perceptions of transformation) in self-confidence, personal values, and willingness to take creative risks. Beyond teaching performance skills, drama cultivates deeper understandings of self and others, offering enduring benefits that reach far beyond the classroom. This research makes explicit the taken-for-granted assumptions of drama as a transformative experience.

Arts education is fundamental in enabling young people to think and express themselves creatively and critically. The Early Years Learning Framework and Australian Curriculum (F – 10) both emphasise that all young people should experience authentic arts education. However, many pre-service teachers (PSTs) encounter barriers to visualising themselves as arts educators, while initial teacher education (ITE) programs struggle to provide the depth of learning needed to overcome these barriers. Fostering confidence in developing self-efficacy in arts education is, thus, crucial. This article explores the challenges faced by PSTs in a foundational arts education course within an undergraduate initial teacher education program and the strategies tertiary arts educators employed to redesign the course. Drawing on tertiary arts educators’ experiences, the redesign highlights a dual pedagogical approach that integrates creative body-based learning (CBL) with a reimagined ethics of care, offering readers a model for reimagining arts teacher education through embodied and relational practices that are simultaneously creative, critical, and caring.

The arts and creative sectors in Australia are facing unprecedented challenges. Since 2018 there has been a consistent reduction of available creative arts courses in Australian universities and in the TAFE sector, and a decline in enrolments in many senior secondary school arts subjects. The impacts of Job-Ready Graduates policy, introduced in 2020 and implemented from 2021, which substantially increased the cost of arts and creative courses, have coincided with declining enrolments, closure of courses, reduction in subject offerings, and courses being placed under institutional review. This discussion will share national data about the extent of this decline and considers its implications for realising the ambitions outlined in Australia’s National Cultural Policy Revive: a place for every story, a story for every place (2023). It will posit that there is a profound incongruity between rhetoric about a thriving arts and cultural sector, and the explicit winding back of arts education in senior schooling and higher education.