Bridge or Barrier? Writing in Secondary Art & Design Education in the UK

What role does writing play in secondary art & design education? In the context of current debates on access and participation in the visual arts, the nature of art discourse and the value of creative subjects within the curriculum, what impact do the existing requirements have on students, teachers and the broader arena of the visual arts? This article presents the findings‐to‐date of an ongoing pilot study which set out to explore these questions. Drawing on interviews with teachers and exam board representatives, and a review of student texts and exam board documents and resources, the study found that even though writing is only a minor part of what is an essentially practice‐based subject, it was a source of significant concern and confusion. A marked disconnect was revealed between intent and practice, which in turn highlighted a series of underlying values and beliefs that seemed to further drive this disconnect. The study calls for a wider discussion of the way writing is framed, used, supported and assessed in the art & design classroom, and the need to ensure that any pedagogy and resources developed align with the values as well as curriculum of art & design. It also previews how strategies created in the context of developing more inclusive and flexible writing skills among curators and other art museum professionals may offer a useful model. The study is part of a larger investigation into the discourse/s of the visual arts, with a focus on issues of access and participation.     

On the Change of Teacher＇s Function in the Curriculum Reform of Artistic Design

面对高职高专艺术设计课程教学改革发展的迅猛趋势,最急需解决的是教师的角色定位和职能转换等问题。教师是办学的根本,是教学改革的原动力,必须持续关注和解决艺术设计专业教师队伍中存在的：专业教师的成员结构与教学状态问题;专业教师的教学能力与定向培养问题;专业教师的知识状态与智力结构问题;专业教师培训与考核机制建立问题;以及专业教师必须面对与解决的系列新要求与老问题等。     

Improving the Design of Children's Books Art and Design Applied to Books——Research in the UK

This article is mainly on the research of how to improve the design of children’s books.     

Research Subjects,Participants or Co-researchers? Extending the Involvement of Students in Art and Design Research

Art education has a range of purposes. Art is said to support students to explore, interpret, ask critical questions, communicate and realise ideas, experiment, take risks, collaborate, tell stories and/or engage in social and political actions. In this paper, we consider whether educational researchers have the same capacious view of students’ potential and capacities for involvement. We bring the results of a Rapid Evidence Review (RER) of the benefits of arts education into conversation with the literatures on student voice and participation. We outline the ways in which student voice and participation are discussed, then move to the results of the RER. We conclude with a discussion of the opportunities for art education researchers to develop research practices that are inclusive of students.     

Who Makes the Choice? Rethinking the Role of Autonomy and Relatedness in Chinese Children’s Motivation

The importance of autonomy for children's motivation in collectivistic cultures has been debated hotly. With the understanding that autonomy is not equivalent to freedom of choice, 4 studies addressed this debate by investigating how socioemotional relatedness, choice, and autonomy were related to Chinese children's motivation. Study 1 (N = 56, mean age = 10.77 years), Study 2 (N = 58, mean age = 10.59), and Study 3 (N = 48, mean age = 10.53) found consistently that freedom of choice mattered less if children were socioemotionally close to the adults who made choices for them. However, Study 4 (N = 99, mean age = 11.27) showed that autonomy mattered at every level of socioemotional relatedness. These results suggested that socioemotional relatedness might have facilitated internalization and that children who did not have choice might still feel autonomous.     

Who’s Afraid of Secularisation? Reframing the Debate Between Gearon and Jackson

This paper examines the debate between Liam Gearon and Robert Jackson concerning the politicisation of religious education. The debate concerns the extent to which secularisation frames religious education by inculcating politically motivated commitments to tolerance, respect and human rights. Gearon is critical of a supposed ‘counter-secularisation’ narrative that, he argues, underpins the REDCo project (Religion in Education. A Contribution to Dialogue or a Factor of Conflict in Transforming Societies of European Countries), suggesting that the politicising assumptions behind REDCo in fact extend rather than counter secularisation. Although Jackson’s rejoinder to Gearon is robust and largely accurate, I suggest that it misses the basic challenge that religious education serves political ends. I argue that both Gearon and Jackson are enframed at a more fundamental level by a particular view of religion. The problem of pluralism is not, as Gearon supposes, a consequence of the secular framing of religion in terms of tolerance and respect, but predicated on a propositional view of religion that places competing truth claims in opposition. Nothing less than a transformed view of religion itself is the presupposition and the aim of religious education.     

On the Symbolic Meaning of Imaginary Son in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

According to the relationship between symbol and meaning in semiotics,this paper analyzes the symbolic meaning of the imaginary son and the meaning of killing him in Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,and concludes that killing the imaginary son is the only way to escape the bondage of rigid social morality and come back to the reality.     

The Issue of “Art for Art’s Sake” in The Nightingale and the Rose

The Nightingale and the Rose is the masterpiece of Oscar Wilde’s fairy tales,he is famous in American literature as an outstanding representative of aestheticism.This paper uses the method of comparison to analyze the theme,and introduces the aesthetic ideology.The aim is to express that the main purpose of this tale is its educational role,not just "art for art’s sake".     

The Philosophy in the Theory of the Popularization of Literature and Art --Rereading Mao Zedong＇s Speech at Forum on Literature and Art in Yanan

1942年毛泽东《在延安文艺座谈会上的讲话》是文艺大众化理论的典范之作。毛泽东以马克思主义哲学作为立论基础,以“文艺与人民”的关系为逻辑起点,强调社会实践在文艺创造中的意义和价值,抓住文化、文艺的创造性特征,形成了辩证的文艺发展理论。重读《讲话》,对于我们认识和理解当代文艺发展的矛盾和问题,具有重要的理论指导意义和价值。     

‘The Art of Seeing’: Promoting Design in Education in 1930s England

We teach them the craft of word‐spinning. The damage is done, we should be teaching them the art of seeing. (Frank Pick)     

Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Box? Children and TV Advertising in four Countries

Abstract

To what extent are children influenced by television and, in particular, by advertising? The study discussed in this article was conducted in four countries with, in some cases, surprising results. Parents think that television influences their children, but children too have views on how adults are affected.     

The Alienation of Impotent Art in Cather’s Youth and the Bright Medusa

Willa Cather’s Youth and the Bright Medusa first published in 1920 is a collection of eight stories of similar themes depicting the modern artists’ futile attempts to construct their art kingdom. This essay focuses on Cather’s antipathy toward monetary wealth and aesthet ic persistence and reflects on theartists’ dilemma in a philistine industrial society.     

Challenging Sexism? Gender and Ethnicity in the Secondary School

This article discusses understandings of girls confronting sexism in a Swedish multiethnic urban school. The empirical study includes school observations, conversations and formal group interviews with 15–16‐year‐old pupils from seven classes in four schools. The article provides an analysis of one of the schools, where the fieldwork showed gender to be frequently on the agenda. In particular, girls confronted what they deemed to be sexist and derogatory remarks from male classmates. Teachers were also seen to comment on gender during lessons and to act on what they agreed to be sexism among pupils. However, gender was largely understood as important to cultural differences and dealt with as related to pupils’ family and ethnic background. This is explored in the article as well as the various, partly conflicting ideas on gender expressed by different groups of pupils.     

An ‘at‐risk’ curriculum for ‘at‐risk’ students? Special educational needs and disability in the new Australian Curriculum

The number of students who are ‘at risk’ including those with special education needs and or disabilities is increasing rapidly worldwide in all schools. This has prompted widespread debate regarding the impact of initiatives in Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting for this group of students. Teachers, parents and administrators need to have further information to enable them to contribute to the development of content, assessment and reporting processes in the curriculum that are inclusive, relevant, reliable and valid. This paper explores some of the issues and dilemmas raised by recent policy discussions regarding the inception of a first national Australian Curriculum. It draws purposively on literature relating to developments in England and Wales, where national curriculum provision has existed for over 25 years, as well as the responses of a group of stakeholders (teachers and leaders) from both England/Wales and Australian schools and settings. These data highlight both tension and opportunity in this area of work.     

Teacher Salaries and the Shortage of High-Quality Teachers in China’s Rural Primary and Secondary Schools

Abstract

Teacher salary level and structure are not only important factors affecting the supply of primary and secondary school teachers, but they are also crucial to attracting, training, and retaining high-quality teachers, thereby impacting the overall quality of education and teaching in schools. The reform of China’s basic education management system has ensured the fiscal security and steady increase of rural primary and secondary school teacher salaries and has effectively improved the supply and quality of rural teachers. The objective gap between urban and rural teacher salaries and benefits has, however, led to the one-way mobility of rural teachers, resulting in the loss of quality teachers and giving rise to a structural shortage in rural schools. To improve the supply and quality of teachers in rural areas, it is necessary to effectively and systemically increase rural teachers’ basic salaries and subsidies according to the law. There is the necessity through various channels to raise primary and secondary school teachers’ salaries and benefits, especially subsidy and allowance standards, to eliminate actual variances in teacher salaries.