The Cultural Learning Alliance’s report, ImagineNation: The Case for Cultural Learning, makes clear the measurable impact of cultural learning on the lives of children and young people – from improving their academic attainment and cognitive skills to encouraging civic responsibility and promoting the value of further and higher learning.
A lifetime in teaching has taught me that giving children the chance to visit museums and galleries and other cultural organisations is invaluable, not only for the outcomes described above, but because the experience of engaging with culture and the arts helps children to appreciate human achievement and to engage with their wider world.
These benefits are immeasurable: all children should paint, photograph, build, sing, move and dance, sew and cook. We want our children to live their lives joyously.
However, the report has been published against the backdrop of significant cuts and policy change.
Factors include: a severe reduction in public sector funding; a review of the national curriculum that has a stated emphasis on “traditional” subjects; the introduction of the English Baccalaureate (which is encouraging schools to invest their resources in a narrow range of GCSE subjects that does not include the arts); increasing pressure on teachers to be driven by data and targets; and the fragmentation of our school sector and local authority services.
The constitution of our education system will never be the same again. If we are to meet these challenges then we must argue strongly against the false dichotomy between “vocational” and “academic” subjects.
The arts and culture are both practical and theoretical – they are rigorous disciplines and provide a range of opportunities for young people to increase their knowledge.
And cultural organisations – whether national institutions, small local dance companies or museums – need to find creative ways to ensure that their commitment to learning and young people can continue to grow and be integral to their mission and work.
More than 6,500 cultural organisations have come together through the Cultural Learning Alliance to share their ideas for creating the conditions for cultural learning and to advocate for the arts as an integral part of a young person’s development.
The alliance has made a number of recommendations to government for practical actions. These include a call for no children’s centre, school, youth service or other setting to be judged beyond “satisfactory” by Ofsted unless they provide evidence of their commitment to the arts and culture.
There are also recommendations for museum and gallery structures and funding; these include calls for key performance indicators that assess depth of engagement, outcome and impact, and which encourage progression and long-term engagement between children and cultural organisations; and for every publicly funded cultural organisation delivering learning to have at least one learning trustee.
The alliance spans the cultural and education domains, and provides a vehicle for us to work together to influence policy and practice, champion solutions and focus on quality of experience.
Over the next few months members will be building on the arguments set out in ImagineNation to create a national strategy for cultural learning – now is the time for us to mobilise and contribute. Our children need our commitment.
Mick Waters is a professor of education at Wolverhampton University.
www.culturallearningalliance.org.uk
A lifetime in teaching has taught me that giving children the chance to visit museums and galleries and other cultural organisations is invaluable, not only for the outcomes described above, but because the experience of engaging with culture and the arts helps children to appreciate human achievement and to engage with their wider world.
These benefits are immeasurable: all children should paint, photograph, build, sing, move and dance, sew and cook. We want our children to live their lives joyously.
However, the report has been published against the backdrop of significant cuts and policy change.
Factors include: a severe reduction in public sector funding; a review of the national curriculum that has a stated emphasis on “traditional” subjects; the introduction of the English Baccalaureate (which is encouraging schools to invest their resources in a narrow range of GCSE subjects that does not include the arts); increasing pressure on teachers to be driven by data and targets; and the fragmentation of our school sector and local authority services.
The constitution of our education system will never be the same again. If we are to meet these challenges then we must argue strongly against the false dichotomy between “vocational” and “academic” subjects.
The arts and culture are both practical and theoretical – they are rigorous disciplines and provide a range of opportunities for young people to increase their knowledge.
And cultural organisations – whether national institutions, small local dance companies or museums – need to find creative ways to ensure that their commitment to learning and young people can continue to grow and be integral to their mission and work.
More than 6,500 cultural organisations have come together through the Cultural Learning Alliance to share their ideas for creating the conditions for cultural learning and to advocate for the arts as an integral part of a young person’s development.
The alliance has made a number of recommendations to government for practical actions. These include a call for no children’s centre, school, youth service or other setting to be judged beyond “satisfactory” by Ofsted unless they provide evidence of their commitment to the arts and culture.
There are also recommendations for museum and gallery structures and funding; these include calls for key performance indicators that assess depth of engagement, outcome and impact, and which encourage progression and long-term engagement between children and cultural organisations; and for every publicly funded cultural organisation delivering learning to have at least one learning trustee.
The alliance spans the cultural and education domains, and provides a vehicle for us to work together to influence policy and practice, champion solutions and focus on quality of experience.
Over the next few months members will be building on the arguments set out in ImagineNation to create a national strategy for cultural learning – now is the time for us to mobilise and contribute. Our children need our commitment.
Mick Waters is a professor of education at Wolverhampton University.
www.culturallearningalliance.org.uk
