The Arts Boot Camp (ABC) grew out of Dr Susan Chapman’s research where primary school arts teachers indicated that there was a strong need for arts planning days at the beginning of each year. They expressed frustration that there was limited time available for specific arts planning during pupil free days and explained that they were often the only arts teacher in the school. Another complicating factor is that many teachers may have limited experience in teaching the arts with some having only taught one arts subject and others never having taught an arts subject before. In Australia, the primary school curriculum includes the Arts as one learning area comprised of five arts subjects: dance, drama, media arts, music and visual arts. Research highlights the need to support arts education if its many benefits are going to be realised in schools and communities. With changes in staffing that can occur over the December-January holidays, some teachers may suddenly find one week before school resumes that they are teaching an arts subject they have never taught before.
To address these problems, Susan Chapman initiated the QUT ABC, a two-day face-to-face event held in the QLD pupil free week in January, where arts teachers can build professional networks and engage in peer mentoring with the support of QUT staff with arts education expertise and experience. The purpose of the ABC is to provide intensive professional learning for primary school arts teachers so that they can design and assess authentic arts learning experiences that align with the Australian Curriculum for the Arts – F-6 (Version 9). In these workshops, teachers focus on one arts subject per day and are supported by resources and strategies that are provided by QUT as well as those that are shared by other participants. Engaging with new teaching strategies helps teachers to build confidence and competence in their chosen arts subject/s.
The cumulative input shared by all those attending builds a rich collection of learning materials for participants to take with them on completion of the event. Participants in the ABC receive a certificate indicating the professional learning hours involved and the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers which have been addressed.
This is the second year that QUT has run an ABC, but the first time that this event will be offered through two different delivery modes: face-to-face, held 16-17 January, and online, which will be held 11-14 April. In the January face-to-face ABC, participants enthusiastically engaged in sharing ideas, resources and experiences through collective and creative planning. The success of the ABC was reflected in the participant-driven initiative to create and develop a Meta digital site to maintain their professional arts educator network beyond the duration of the ABC. In the ABC feedback survey, participating teachers reported that their major concerns included having inadequate time, resources, skills and content knowledge to prepare, deliver and assess arts subjects; being allocated quite small amounts of time within the school timetable to teach the arts; lacking opportunities for collaboration with other arts teachers; and feeling that arts educators and arts subjects were undervalued in schools. A frequently valued aspect of the ABC was the opportunity to share ideas and resources through collaborative planning with other arts teachers. The emerging professional discussion and networking at the ABC inspired teachers and generated ideas. Key learning take-aways for participating teachers were building capacity and confidence to teach authentic arts learning experiences, integrating the arts across the curriculum, planning units of work, using more creative approaches to teaching and assessment, incorporating cross-curricular priorities from the Australian Curriculum; implementing the new Version 9 of the Australian Curriculum, making the Arts more visible and respected in their schools and being open to new ideas.
We are looking forward to the online Arts Boot Camp in April, registrations are now open.
| Susan Chapman has taught as a primary school performing arts teacher, secondary school music teacher, conductor of children’s choirs and sessional lecturer in arts education before joining QUT in June 2019 as a lecturer in the School of Early Childhood and Inclusive Education. She has worked professionally as an actor and musician in Australia, the United Kingdom and Austria. After beginning her undergraduate study at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, she has broadened her research to include other arts disciplines (Dance, Drama, Media Arts and Visual Art), |  |
| Rhea Creado is a transdisciplinary artist, researcher and educator who is interested in the pedagogical intersections of art, intervention and social justice. She is a PhD candidate at QUT, and a sessional academic in the School of Early Childhood and Inclusive Education. Rhea has taught arts education in New York City and Brisbane, with a focus on artmaking as a tool for critical thinking, and social change. Using arts-based research methods, her research is predominantly concerned with supporting children as change-makers. |  |