One of the important positions of the last curricular reform in Slovenia,
which included systemic issues of education (White Paper on Education,
2011) and curricula for compulsory subjects in primary school, is
the fact that Slovenia has been integrated into Europe, and thus education
should also include the development of core European competences.
One such competence is cultural awareness and expression,
which until now has been an issue more in the context of cultural policies
than school policies in Slovenia. The purpose of the present article
is to critically analyse the curricular reform of art education (i.e., visual
art education), through which, in terms of certain components of the
competence of cultural awareness and expression, it is foreseen that the
student will gain a knowledge of art, develop an ability to experience
works of art and develop a creative attitude towards art and heritage.
Because the starting point and goal of curricular change is the curriculum,
our analysis is derived from curriculum theories, and not from the
art theories and pedagogical theories that have predominantly framed
previous attempts at curriculum analysis. Critical consideration of the
curricular reform of art education in primary school in terms of certain
components of the competence of cultural awareness and expression
was undertaken by comparing curricula in the field of aesthetic education.
We compared art education with music education and literature
within the Slovenian language curriculum. Qualitative analysis showed
that, despite the reform, the curriculum for arts education does not realise
selected components of the competence of cultural awareness and
expression, largely due to the curriculum’s conceptual structure. Art
education is centred principally on art-making activities, with an obvious
neglect of appreciation. The integration of arts subjects at school, as proposed by the White Paper, is therefore not possible, due to the existing
model of art education. From a practical point of view, the analysis
also raised the question of the knowledge and competences of teachers.
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