The visual arts curriculum : a comparative study between Malta and England

Abstract

This volume of work encompasses a qualitative enquiry into various interconnected components that make up an integral part of the secondary level visual arts curriculum. This comparative research focuses on two historically linked European countries namely - Malta and England. The curriculum areas that have been placed under the lens include those aspects that concern the substance and the content of the curriculum, imbued as they are with social, cultural and political implications. In effect, this research is an attempt to unpack and qualitatively analyse the characteristics of the subject matter and the driving principles that steer the teaching and condition the learning of art and design at secondary school level. A notable strength of qualitative research is that it is always on the look out to unearth particular nuances that could otherwise go unheeded, however, whose significance cannot be discounted. To this effect, the volume has been sprinkled with a fair share of subtleties and other finer details that should unassumingly shed further light on present day practices both locally and in England. Although the visual arts curricula in the two countries under investigation historically and culturally speaking should be located at distant points, in actual fact there are more similarities than discrepancies at this level of education. Overall, the lacunae that are in urgent need of attention or rethinking, more often than not belong to both contexts, however, locally such shortcomings seem to be more acute. On the other hand, in Malta the picture appears to be improving very slowly compared to the more progressive stance that education policy makers in England seem to be adopting. This augurs well for art and design education in that foreign country, as various important and much needed concepts should become embedded in the official curriculum in the not so distant future. With regard to the local situation, it looks as if there are a few high-rising barriers that need to be overcome. The low status the subject enjoys within the general curriculum seems to be more accentuated here than in England and in other parts of Europe. The nationwide indifference towards the arts that has been manifesting itself during the past decades has further weakened the status of the subject and the teaching of it. The scant timeslots allocated to the teaching of the subject in Maltese schools is symptomatic of this condition. Notwithstanding the limitations, an encouraging number of stakeholders are working solidly in order to keep the promotion of the visual arts high.