Aspiration for higher education has been a focus of significant policy intervention in Australia for some time, with numerous large-scale research studies investigating the formation of aspiration amongst high school students. However, case studies in particular schools which might provide insights into the complexities and contradictions of…

This study draws on student engagement factors to examine the relationship between students' non-school-based arts experiences on their intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy to participate in visual arts responding tasks. Visual arts responding in the curriculum includes learning about artists and artworks, decoding art and making critical…

This essay presents an art project as an example of two aspects of public pedagogy. The first, is that the project critically examined how history is made, and through art-making and installation it performed an alternative publishing of history. Secondly, the art project was utilised as both a process and outcome within public space, and through…

Media arts develop students? digital literacies so they can critically engage in the media-rich Australian lifeworld. However, pre-service teacher education courses often marginalise The Arts subjects, including media arts. In 2014, a pilot study was undertaken to determine first-year Bachelor of Education (Primary) pre-service teachers'…

This paper seeks to explore creative practice in an Australian country town, and in so doing, to unsettle market-orientated interpretations of creativity that privilege the urban. Instead of focusing on creative practice as a means to develop industries, we focus on how creativity is a means to establish a cooperative gallery space that helps to…

This exploratory pilot study investigates the extent to which participating in a community cultural development (CCD) initiative builds social capital among children. An independent youth arts organisation implemented two cultural activities, developing a compact disc of original music and designing mosaic artworks for a library courtyard, in two…

Australian children from an urban area near Sydney used the creative arts to promote harmony among their diverse cultures including sizable immigrant populations from the Middle East, Asia, and other traditions. The project enabled children to develop leadership and artistic skills, and examine how their backgrounds influence their view of the…

Describes a Victoria University (Australia) program that combines art history, computer graphics, and studio practice. Discusses the social applications of technology, the creation and manipulation of computer imagery, and the ways that these impact traditional concepts of art. The program has proven particularly successful with female students.…