‘We shouldn't value arts education on the basis that it has social or economic benefits, but because it expands the mind and soul’.
Wendy Earle, August 2013, p1
Teachers, learners and artists need Arts Education as a motivation for changes in life, challenging outdated or redundant perspectives from new directions of vision as well as to offer original interpretations of familiar ideas. Stakeholders must emphasize the importance and develop means of implementation to the fullest potential of Arts Education. They have to share the value of Arts Education and understand what the necessities are. Arts Education must accompany people throughout life. Also, Arts Education has the value of connecting people throughout life. As stated by Wolfgang Schneider in his article, Arts Education as the Shared Work of Society, the goal of Arts Education is to bring people into closer contact with art and culture through the exploration of artistic forms of expression (Schneider, 2010, p.
17). It also fosters an understanding of artistic and cultural phenomena and teaches artistic techniques.
Art is a fundamental component of interrelated teaching, which is crucial for learning.
Teaching Arts in schools promote balanced growth, socialization, and development of the creative ability of a learner. It offers opportunities for participation, personal experiences and development through the context of education. It is on this subject that the process of
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unfolding, stimulating and capturing of the learner’s imagination and self-expression takes place (Paige, 2004). In a letter to the superintendent of the U.S. Department of Education, Rod Paige wrote that he believes art has a significant role in education both for children’s intrinsic value and for the ways in which they can enhance academic achievement and improve their social and emotional development. Paige further claims that possibly more than other subjects, it helps the students toward a better understanding of themselves and others, whether they lived in the past or the present. Paige articulates that the value of Arts Education:
• May incorporate such areas as the history of the Arts
• Improving critical inquiry skills
• Recreate classic as well as contemporary works of art
• Express students’ ideas and feelings through the creation of their artworks
Paige thus affirms that students should have the opportunity to respond to, perform and create in the Arts (Paige, 2004, p. 2).
The teaching of the Arts enables learners’ access to culture and the exploration of the inner selves and allows them to discover communication through the medium of the Arts. Research has shown that teaching Arts can increase the cognitive and social development of students and enable them in developing the crucial thinking skills and motivation they need throughout the school phase and adulthood (Liebau Eckart, 2010). According to the article in UNESCO Today (Liebau Eckart, 2010, p. 11), the Arts is an important part of a complete education system as it contributes to a holistic method of learning. The approach develops the following different competencies:
• Rationality and emotion
• Intellectuality and creativity
• Body and mind
• Individuality and social responsibility, since in modern times one learns the best for life through the Arts (Liebau, 2010 p. 11)
Art Therapist, Anna Reyner, emphasizes the effect of the Arts on winning children’s senses in open play to develop cognitive, social, emotional and sensorimotor skills. She describes art
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as a cooperative learning experience that provides pleasure, challenge, and a sense of mastery. Through Arts teaching, the learners can acquire sensory learning experiences which they can master at their own pace. (Reyner, 2007, p.1).
Arts Education is crucial as another way of solving problems, but as will be seen in the next chapter, there are many challenges to Arts teaching in Namibian schools. The findings of the National Arts Questionnaire, used during this research, showed that teachers reported they have challenges in teaching Arts. How can Arts Education solve the common problem of the lack of Arts teaching? Can this question lead to research in the Namibian context?
This study is aimed to help teachers solve this common challenge in the Arts classrooms: The lack of knowledge to teach Arts and more specifically bring participatory teaching approaches. The study aims that through active participation and exploration; the teachers will meet their challenges and discover new methods of teaching Arts.
Through Arts Education, learners will be able to experience the love of learning and openness to new skills and thoughts. Arts Education is a tool for learners to develop a willingness to explore new possibilities and solutions throughout their careers. It is a way to prepare learners to deal with problems in life–during and after their years in school. Arts in schools are needed since it is a disclosure to the learners of the various ways they can see and interpret the world. Teaching Arts will also support the bigger picture view of life–the beauty, challenges, love, and secrets. It is a tool, which teaches risk-taking and confidence.
Arts Education helps learners to express themselves freely-and-easily. Some learners find it difficult to express themselves in front of the class, which is mostly due to the lack of self-confidence. During this research, it was evident how such learners have “thawed”
significantly. Those who were still timid to express themselves verbally easily used art to express what they wanted to say.
According to the Namibian Educational System (Arts Syllabus Grade 5-7: NIED 2006), the Arts promote the following aims in the curriculum:
Ø Develop the learners’ social responsibility toward other individuals, family life, the community and the nation as a whole
Ø Enable the learners to contribute to the development of culture in Namibia
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Ø Promote wider inter-cultural understanding (NIED, 2006)
The Arts syllabus further states that Arts Education promotes cultural awareness and appreciation by:
Ø Stimulating the learner’s imagination and creativity
Ø Encouraging self-expression, confidence and communication with others Ø Fostering self-discipline, responsibility, and cooperation
Ø Initiating the development of using the Arts as a means of expression Ø Enhancing problem-solving skills (NIED, 2006)
The revised curriculum highlights the importance of Arts in schools. Arts should encourage personal expression, imagination, sensitivity, conceptual thinking, powers of observation, an analytical ability and practical attitudes. Arts should lead to greater understanding of the role of the Visual Arts in the history of the people and widen cultural horizons, as well as enriching the individual (NIED, 2015).
The value of Arts Education in Namibian schools will become significant when teachers incorporate Arts with other subjects. The revised syllabus refers to cross-curricular matters for Arts teachers to not isolate the Arts from primary subjects. The syllabus makes provision for cross-curricular themes, which might involve different topics across the secondary phase of teaching. Subjects such as Languages, Sciences, Social Studies, Mathematics, Physical Education and Religious Education are easy to integrate with the Arts. Cross-curricular issues such as the Education for Human Rights and Democracy, Environmental subjects, HIV and AIDS, ICT, Population Education and Road Safety are main concerns for the learners, which can easily correlate to Arts subjects. The Arts can help learners, and families, to deal with sensitive situations such as the HIV and AIDS as it can guide them to work through these to foster empathy for the victims, self-confidence and hope for themselves and to care for others. These cross-curricular activities may be done through role-playing, mime, dramatization and various Visual Arts exercises. These activities also serve as a
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centered approach in the Arts and other subjects. The Arts will help to improve learning when using it in other disciplines and will enhance learning across the curriculum. These cross-curricular issues have been introduced to the formal curriculum as each deal with particular risks and challenges in the Namibian society. All these activities and matters should be addressed across all phases of learning and in every subject where the topics overlap with the content of the respective subjects. The Arts are within the aesthetic area of learning in the curriculum, but have thematic links to other subjects across the curriculum.
Additionally, Arts put a value on the involvement of sensory, emotional and intellectual experiences, as well as creative thinking and activity. The aesthetic area also includes learning to value, to communicate through the Arts, and to apply artistic qualities in other content areas.
Although the Arts are undervalued in both the school and the community, the Namibian community is gradually beginning to see the need for learning Arts. Community involvement is growing slowly but steadily as it can be seen further on in this chapter under ‘Private Organizations and Institutes.' Artists are becoming familiar with the employment and entrepreneurial value of the Arts.
The Arts will remain a “school-challenge” if the educators do not battle for the complete implementation and acknowledgment of the Arts curricula nationwide. To add and build on the value supplemented by the community, teachers must guide the learners to see the value and not to continue ignoring the Arts. Educators must be the designers of ‘arts-attracted’
learners who will be educated with the notion that the Arts add value to learning in and outside of the formal school.
Based on a summary made by Boyd J, the Arts contribute to the education of the individual child through:
Ø Developing the full variety of human intelligence Ø Developing the talent for creative thought and action Ø The teaching of feeling and sensibility
Ø The examination of values
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Ø Improving understanding
Ø Enhancing understanding of cultural differences and changes Ø Developing physical and perceptual skills (Boyd, n.d. p. 3).