In their own voice: the role of the Shape of the Australian Curriculum: The Arts paper writers in ensuring equitable access to quality Arts education in Australia

This paper examines the personal and professional experiences of the five arts leaders who co-wrote the foundation document for Australia’s first national curriculum in the Arts. Their personal and professional backgrounds, which were explored during in depth interviews, drove the complex collaborative process that informed the first iteration of the Australian Curriculum: The Arts. Though each couched their responses in the context of their background and arts discipline, they shared an awareness of the important role of the Arts in providing the analytical tools for children and young people to identify and subsequently challenge social injustice. The findings, which are presented as a group narrative using a Narrative Inquiry approach, reveal how the five arts leaders’ individual lived experience, disciplinary experience and expertise, and commitment to collaborative leadership informed their approach. It was one driven by their shared belief that all Australian students, regardless of their background, are entitled to a quality arts education

Methods for biogeochemical studies of sea ice: The state of the art, caveats, and recommendations

Over the past two decades, with recognition that the ocean’s sea-ice cover is neither insensitive to climate change nor a barrier to light and matter, research in sea-ice biogeochemistry has accelerated significantly, bringing together a multi-disciplinary community from a variety of fields. This disciplinary diversity has contributed a wide range of methodological techniques and approaches to sea-ice studies, complicating comparisons of the results and the development of conceptual and numerical models to describe the important biogeochemical processes occurring in sea ice. Almost all chemical elements, compounds, and biogeochemical processes relevant to Earth system science are measured in sea ice, with published methods available for determining biomass, pigments, net community production, primary production, bacterial activity, macronutrients, numerous natural and anthropogenic organic compounds, trace elements, reactive and inert gases, sulfur species, the carbon dioxide system parameters, stable isotopes, and water-ice-atmosphere fluxes of gases, liquids, and solids. For most of these measurements, multiple sampling and processing techniques are available, but to date there has been little intercomparison or intercalibration between methods. In addition, researchers collect different types of ancillary data and document their samples differently, further confounding comparisons between studies. These problems are compounded by the heterogeneity of sea ice, in which even adjacent cores can have dramatically different biogeochemical compositions. We recommend that, in future investigations, researchers design their programs based on nested sampling patterns, collect a core suite of ancillary measurements, and employ a standard approach for sample identification and documentation. In addition, intercalibration exercises are most critically needed for measurements of biomass, primary production, nutrients, dissolved and particulate organic matter (including exopolymers), the CO2 system, air-ice gas fluxes, and aerosol production. We also encourage the development of in situ probes robust enough for long-term deployment in sea ice, particularly for biological parameters, the CO2 system, and other gases

The future of Arctic sea-ice biogeochemistry and ice-associated ecosystems

The Arctic sea-ice-scape is rapidly transforming. Increasing light penetration will initiate earlier seasonal primary production. This earlier growing season may be accompanied by an increase in ice algae and phytoplankton biomass, augmenting the emission of dimethylsulfide and capture of carbon dioxide. Secondary production may also increase on the shelves, although the loss of sea ice exacerbates the demise of sea-ice fauna, endemic fish and megafauna. Sea-ice loss may also deliver more methane to the atmosphere, but warmer ice may release fewer halogens, resulting in fewer ozone depletion events. The net changes in carbon drawdown are still highly uncertain. Despite large uncertainties in these assessments, we expect disruptive changes that warrant intensified long-term observations and modelling efforts

So we can dance! Towards a new inclusive Australian dance curriculum – power, contestations and settlements

This article uses autoethnographic writing in a research study that encompasses aspects of a personal and professional journey to locate dance within school cultures. Critical Discourse Analysis was utilized to investigate factors impacting on the construction and realization of a dance curriculum for all primary school students in Australia. The investigation is informed by Bourdieuian and Foucaultian approaches to reveal discourses, struggles and the effects of power in the construction of a new school dance curriculum within the context of political and micro-political interests related to dance education. In the neo-liberal context of the globalized idea of a national curriculum, dance as a learning experience in schools is usually located at the bottom of a deeply entrenched curriculum hierarchy. The article provides insight into the dance curriculum deliberation and settlement process, contributing to arts curriculum development research

Creative and Body-based Learning: Redesigning Pedagogies in Mathematics

Contemporary schooling produces unequal educational outcomes in Australia and across the globe. While mandated high-stakes tests supposedly place all students on a common scale, they can limit pedagogic practices and often fail to recognize the “abilities” or embodied knowledge of many children. In addressing these challenges, particularly as they relate to the teaching of mathematics, this article reports on a qualitative study that investigated an arts integrated professional learning model, Creative Body-based Learning (CBL), at two Australian primary schools. CBL uses active and creative strategies from a range of art forms to increase student engagement and expand pedagogic possibilities across the curriculum. In this pilot study, five teachers formed action research teams with four artists to integrate CBL into mathematics. Findings drawn from interviews with teachers include higher engagement and improvement of student dispositions in mathematics and, more significantly, a broadening of teachers’ pedagogical practices to engage students and provide them with multiple opportunities to present their learning

Creative and Body-based Learning: Redesigning Pedagogies in Mathematics

Contemporary schooling produces unequal educational outcomes in Australia and across the globe. While mandated high-stakes tests supposedly place all students on a common scale, they can limit pedagogic practices and often fail to recognize the “abilities” or embodied knowledge of many children. In addressing these challenges, particularly as they relate to the teaching of mathematics, this article reports on a qualitative study that investigated an arts integrated professional learning model, Creative Body-based Learning (CBL), at two Australian primary schools. CBL uses active and creative strategies from a range of art forms to increase student engagement and expand pedagogic possibilities across the curriculum. In this pilot study, five teachers formed action research teams with four artists to integrate CBL into mathematics. Findings drawn from interviews with teachers include higher engagement and improvement of student dispositions in mathematics and, more significantly, a broadening of teachers’ pedagogical practices to engage students and provide them with multiple opportunities to present their learning

Stage 1 Initial Findings Report for the Emerging Priorities Program: An examination of primary teacher, student and parent experiences of arts learning online during COVID-19 lockdowns

The last few years of COVID-19 lockdowns and online learning has resulted resulted in tired teachers, disengaged students, and exhausted parents and caregivers. Primary-aged students have neither had enough time at school to experience collaborative learning nor develop relationships with their peers.The lockdowns in Australia necessitated a recalibration in how arts programs could be delivered in school-based education. The arts offered “critical contributions to the healing, reflection,and political transformation of the nation” (Jacobs, Finneran & D’Acosta,2021, p. 31), and learning the arts improves both student engagement and well-being (i.e. student self-esteem,collaboration, emotional communication and development of socialization)(Ewing, 2011). Where the usual teacher /student and student / student relationships were disrupted by online learning and social distancing (Patstonet al., 2021), approaches to the arts in schools enabled connection and communication with students (Coleman & MacDonald, 2020; Joseph & Lennox,2021; Naidoo et al., 2022; O’Connor & Estellés, 2021).The “EPP Arts Learning Online”research is an examination of primary student, teacher and parent experiences of arts learning online during COVID-19 lockdowns