Matthew Harper

NESA – it’s murder on the dance floor and in the theatre: how educators fought back

The Arts have often been agitators in challenging systems. The NSW Educational Standards Authority (NESA – and there are no equivalent bodies in other states and territories) has stirred a hornet’s nest. How? It introduced a new draft drama syllabus for senior school and new draft music syllabuses for senior school with not enough consultation.

The CEO of NESA even recognised the unprecedented outrage reaction from drama and music educators at the emergency additional NSW Arts Education Inquiry hearing in response to the reaction. 

Teachers and academics, so often pitted against one another, have united together for insurgence against the imposed didactics from the authorities. There is the potential for this collective to have a genuine, positive impact.

Speaking out together

On the release of the draft drama syllabus, there were several immediate responses. Academics and teachers communicated through professional organisations, voicing concerns, rather than awaiting a 6 – 18 month research journal publication or relying on the consultation survey alone. Indeed, many teachers are stifled by their employment obligations to speak publicly. 

But those with freedom to speak contacted politicians across the ideological divide, wrote articles here, here and elsewhere and engaged the media. An e-petition was also set up to suspend and remove the draft syllabus from circulation and restart the review process

The community of voices grew in unprecedented ways, gaining a rally of responses from former drama students, industry professionals and celebrities, who made their stand against the proposed changes bold and resolute. 

This week was especially momentous. Drama educators numbering in the hundreds united for an expert panel discussion “Our Syllabus, Our Stories” held at the Seymour Centre in Sydney. Courageously, the CEO of NESA, Paul Martin, attended the event, spoke, and answered questions. 

One backflip

Martin has already announced one significant backflip on the proposed changes, shaking the parameters and rigour of the so-called formal consultation period that was otherwise set to end December 20 2024. Specifically, the Group Performance project will once again be externally examined. He also guaranteed that any proposed changes were not economically based. Despite the cynicism of many, if educators and the system are to work collegially with each other, there must be a belief that we are all working in ‘good faith.’  

 But there are still issues to address. The changes to the syllabus will not necessarily improve declining numbers of students choosing drama as an elective. The socially constructed lower ATAR branding is a major disincentive that needs to be addressed. The syllabus changes will not decrease teachers’ workload, though it is promising that NESA recognises that drama teachers sacrifice their personal time outside of working hours to prepare students for assessments. 

No-one said the COVID responses were an improvement

Arguing that the changes suggested are based on positive aspects of the response to the COVID lockdowns is incorrect. Teachers made changes to support students, but no one suggested these were improvements. By limiting materials that can be used in the drama curriculum, by removing methods of submission of material, or even areas to assess, not only will NESA limit the pedagogical potentials for students, but there is also a real fear that students with a disability will be impacted.

Many students with a disability choose the Arts as areas to engage with as they are taught in inclusive ways through the Arts, and offered a variety of methods to demonstrate deep understanding and success rather than solely through the skill of writing. To be a fully inclusive society, we must offer diverse means to assess the curriculum and offer a variety of means to submit assessments. We need to retain the depth in source material for students to work with. 

Educators united

The NSW drama and music syllabuses at the HSC level are highly regarded internationally for offering real world experiences and authentic assessment. Teachers and academics are united in ensuring it remains so.

The NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA)  is responsible for developing and implementing the official curriculum. NESA’s role, in part, is to provide the syllabus documents that outline the content for courses in specific subjects. 

The dismay from all involved in music education also, has resulted in a sustained campaign involving an Open letter to Education and Early Learning Minister Prue Car from renowned academics from all states of Australia, a petition signed by over 5,000 teachers and education lecturers, articles in EduResearch Matters (drama and music), the Sydney newspapers, and an extra Parliamentary Inquiry for both drama and music to present their expert opinions regarding the proposed changes. NESA was also grilled by the Select Committee and refused to make any concessions on the three music syllabuses and only a minor one on the Drama Syllabus.

By uniting across disparate groups that often are pitted against each other, teachers and academics are demonstrating their power as a collective. It also shows the wider community that quality teaching and learning in schools is greatly affected by broader factors. Agencies such as NESA play a major role in enabling or constraining the possibilities for both teaching practice and student learning experiences.

Power as a collective

The inclusive design of the original Music 1 course, for example, was the attraction for students who had previously not had the opportunity to have private music lessons, where typical students can “range from those with beginner instrumental and/or vocal skills to those with highly developed performance skills in a variety of musical styles including contemporary/popular music” (Music 1 Syllabus, 2010, p. 8). 

In 1978, the NSW Minister for Education, Eric Bedford, insisted that ‘society is not made by schools: schools reflect society’ and warned that if ‘society places demands upon schools such that all cannot be met, then the purpose of school loses definition and schools appear to become ineffective.’ Is it Time for an Educational Audit? Introductory Address, Public Seminar, Sydney). The proposed changes to the arts syllabuses suggest that in the supposedly more enlightened times of 2024, NESA has totally disregarded this line of thought and has been intent on revising our NSW syllabuses for the sake of placing their mark on syllabus history (as distinct from the Board of Studies), with disregard for the wisdom of that legacy, intent on insisting that “one size fits all” in arts education.

Highlighting NESA’s failures

Highlighting the failure of NESA to produce robust syllabuses for review and enactment – regardless of the subject – safeguards against wrongly blaming school leaders and teachers for being solely responsible for student learning. Indeed, state level systems must provide conditions for nurturing quality education in school – a view that is applicable in all subjects.  Diminishing the performative aspects of the Arts Assessment, for example, devalues the authenticity of the courses and teaching and learning opportunities in classrooms. 

NESA’s proposed changes to the drama and music syllabuses need to be withdrawn so those with expertise and experience in the teaching of the various artforms can be used to truly create a syllabus that is inclusive, reliable and fit for purpose. 

Biographies


Left to right: Jennifer Carter is a sessional academic at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music after a career as a music teacher and head teacher in NSW schools. She was Chief Examiner of HSC Music in NSW and was a Senior Registration Officer at the NSW Education Standards Authority. She has presented at music conferences both nationally and internationally. Her PhD thesis researched secondary classroom music teachers and the development of music syllabus documents.

Matthew Harper is an early career researcher in the Teachers and Teaching Research Centre at the University of Newcastle. Matt has collaborated with colleagues on a range of research exploring student aspirations, quality teaching in schools and higher education contexts, and curriculum and pedagogy theory and development. His doctoral research compared secondary mathematics and drama in the Australian schooling context.

James Humberstone is a senior lecturer in music education at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, The University of Sydney. He specialises in teaching music pedagogies, technology in music education, and musical creativities. James publishes traditional research focusing on music teacher worldview, technology and media in music education, and artistic practice as research. He is also a composer and producer whose music is performed in major venues around the world.

David Roy is a lecturer and researcher in Education and Creative Arts at the University of Newcastle (AUS); and was formerly a teacher for 17 years. He uses his research to inform inclusion and equity practices across Australia, with a particular focus on children with a disability, policy, and engagement with the Arts.

Dramatic setback: Why the newly drafted senior drama syllabus falls short of a quality creative arts education

The NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) just released new draft senior Creative Arts syllabuses for Year 11 and Year 12 students, including the drama syllabus. The announcement comes as part of raft of changes following the NSW Curriculum Review, ambitiously titled Nurturing Wonder and Igniting Passion

Among the new draft syllabuses, the subject of senior drama received its first major revamp since 2009. This means that the current opportunity for enhancing drama curriculum is momentous.

This curriculum review represented a potential step towards elevating the status of drama in schools and society. Drama is, after all, is one of the most important subjects in preparing students for the world of work.  The draft review fails drama and drama students.

Your chance to evaluate

Teachers, academics and other stakeholders now have the chance to evaluate the proposed drama syllabus in a formal consultation period that ends on 20 December 2024.

However, the interim reaction among stakeholders is mostly negative. Educators are dissatisfied and disappointed. The refined content reduces rather than strengthens the learning opportunities necessary for delivering a quality drama (and creative arts) education. This issue starts at a policy level and extends well beyond the decision-making practices of any school leaders and teachers

A dramatic cut 

The elimination of the HSC Group Performance examination is the most significant notable change. What’s in its place? An internally assessed rather than externally examined ensemble piece. This shift devalues the Group Performance as a major work that requires students to collaborate to devise an original piece of theatre. 

For many teachers and students, this component of HSC drama is the preeminent experience because of the intellectual demand and corroboration of knowledge and skills in making, performing and appreciating drama. It is also a vital means to valuing actor-audience relationships and honouring communication and storytelling through the relay of meaning in real time.

The devaluing of this core component of the existing drama syllabus is a threat to the craft of drama. It produces an overreliance on prescribed content and leaves fewer legitimate opportunities to showcase the dramatic arts as intended through style or form, role and character, and structure and action. 

It also signals cost-cutting measures. Facilitating external examinations across the state of NSW is not inexpensive. But that doesn’t mean it’s not worthwhile. 

Elimination of choice

Additionally, the proposed drama syllabus eliminates choices for the Individual Project. This component of the drama course requires students to communicate a directorial vison for a key text through deep exploration and application of specialised knowledge and skills. Current project options are Director’s Folio, Portfolio of Theatre Criticism, Costume Design, Lighting Design, Promotion and Program Design, Set Design, Scriptwriting, Video Drama, and Performance. 

However, the draft syllabus cuts Director’s Folio, Lighting Design and Video Drama. These projects are three critically important parts for sustaining any theatrical tradition and the entertainment industry more broadly. 

A reduction of choice might seem small. But we cannot underestimate the value of enabling students to choose which content to pursue to nurture their creative abilities. Giving students choice in drama specifically provides a scope and flexibility that is rare among most subjects. It provides learning benefits such as skills in time-management, self-regulation, creative autonomy, and risk-taking. In a society that looks to encourage higher order thinking and creative skills, such a move is retrograde at best.

Missing the texture

The draft syllabus now states that “All Individual projects, excluding performance, will be submitted electronically to reflect industry practice and support best practice in marking processes” (see p. 9). Now, projects are packaged and posted, then sent through the mail for external examination. This process is necessary because the projects are tactile in nature; for example, costume design projects tend to use carefully chosen and delicate fabric swatches. 

Limiting the Individual Project to digital submissions impedes creative and aesthetic possibilities available to students and is a disservice to the art form. The justification that this change aligns with “industry practice” relies on using software programs that many schools simply cannot afford to purchase. And the point about “best practice in marking processes” is debatable. 

Eroding the arts by curriculum design

Unfortunately, arts subjects are usually first on the chopping block in schools (and universities). 

Recent research also reveals a worrying decline in the proportion of NSW public secondary students participating in creative arts courses in Years 10, 11 and 12. This includes dance, drama, music, visual arts, visual design, and photographic and digital media. 

But any view that arts subjects appear less popular or that students are abandoning arts subjects overlooks that they are ranked lowly in the status spectrum of school subjects. They are deliberately positioned as optional extras – ‘peripheral’ as opposed to so-called ‘core’ learning areas. This subject hierarchy means that students are rarely equipped to make informed choices about studying arts subjects (or not) due to a lack of quality learning experiences within arts subjects. 

Indeed, this curriculum context remains devastatingly unjust given a vast majority of Australian school students still have little or no access to quality arts education. It also neglects the inherent value and human need for the arts and goes against a growing body of research about the benefits of arts education. If we learnt one thing from the recent Pandemic, it was the need for all of us to engage and consume arts content in a time of isolation.

‘Revival’ of the arts in Australia?

Ironically, the federal Labor Government (2022) initiated changes on a policy front that position the arts as an important agenda. Specifically, the national policy, Revive, outlines five pillars designed to enhance the cultural ambitions of Australia over the next five years and beyond. They are:  

  • First Nations First;  
  • A Place for Every Story;  
  • Centrality of the Artist;  
  • Strong Cultural Infrastructure; and  
  • Engaging the Audience.  

These pillars provide a timely policy framework for rethinking the role of the arts in society and education, particularly for nurturing the lives, livelihoods, and wellbeing of people across the country

A degree of scepticism

However, this policy warrants a degree of scepticism. The focus on ‘revival’ conveys a need to restore resources and strategies that are deficient given deliberate attempts to erode them

The gap between national policy aspirations and the proposed curriculum changes to creative arts subjects such as drama has severe potential consequences for what students have the opportunity to learn in school, and the future possibilities available to them outside of school, in terms of employment or otherwise. 

The hearings of 2024 NSW Inquiry into Arts Education continually demonstrated the ongoing diminishment, paucity and degradation of the Creative Arts in schools; despite the wealth of talent in both staff, pupils, and the wider community. As educators we can choose to either focus on basic skills creating industrial automatons, or recognise the Arts as a key skill to empower articulate, inventive, and engaged future citizens. When students study the Creative Arts they succeed across all aspects of their education, and beyond.

Matthew Harper is an early career researcher in the Teachers and Teaching Research Centre at the University of Newcastle. Matt has collaborated with colleagues on a range of research exploring student aspirations, quality teaching in schools and higher education contexts, and curriculum and pedagogy theory and development. His doctoral research compared secondary mathematics and drama in the Australian schooling context.

David Roy is a lecturer and researcher in Education and Creative Arts at the University of Newcastle (AUS); and was formerly a teacher for 17 years. He uses his research to inform inclusion and equity practices across Australia, with a particular focus on children with a disability, policy, and engagement with the Arts.

Want to do a PhD now? Here’s what you should know

Research in schools is messy. Things change fast and decisions need to be made on the fly. As PhD students doing research in schools, we (Kate and Matt) learned that challenges quickly arise and that tough decisions need to be made.

Our PhD research took place in vastly different contexts. Kate went to Zimbabwe to research the proliferation of philanthropic edu-tourism, and Matt explored differences in the teaching of drama and maths at a school in a regional town in NSW. Despite these “worlds-away” classrooms, we experienced similar challenges and discovered a gap in the literature on education fieldwork for postgrad students.  

That’s what our new paper explores,and from that we have four key lessons for PhD students. 

Four key lessons

We started our PhDs by ‘going with the flow’ of doctoral study. This meant we designed our research with the support of our supervisors. We presented our research plans to a panel of academics. We gained ethics approvals to conduct our studies. We undertook recruitment procedures. We went into ‘the field’ to collect data at schools. Then the flow changed. 

Our paper explains how this early ‘flow’ became more like ‘rapids’ (Lonergan & Cumming, 2017) as we undertook classroom-based research in Australia and Zimbabwe.  

In our research, we faced challenges and had to act in the moment. One such moment was when the classroom teacher left the classroom Kate was observing. What do you do? If you leave the room, where do you go? If you choose to stay, how long do you wait for them to return? If the class begins to misbehave, do you step into a teacher role or do you stay silent? If, and how, do you have a discussion with the teacher and ask them not to do this in the future?  

Someone’s missing

In another example, the teachers participating in Matt’s study were both absent from school but failed to tell him beforehand. This encounter resulted in wasted time travelling to and from the school. It also highlighted that research involves adaptive responses and planning on-the-go.  

Together, our reflections throughout the paper shed light on some of the emotional challenges during fieldwork. Even though one of us was geographically close and the other was far away from our supervisors, we were both unable to access their knowledge in the moments of shifting plans.  

Four key lessons

Here are four key lessons we wish we knew before starting fieldwork: 

  1. Communication is key. Having clear expectations and conversations about the research with the school community is integral to the success of the research. Do not assume that everyone in the school community will understand the intricacies of your study – the reality is this is an ongoing part of the process.  
  2. Developing rapport with research participants is crucial. While it is important to ‘give back’ in research and avoid disruptions to schools, it is equally important to be on the same page with participants about your role/s within the research. 
  3. Plan for a range of different scenarios, be open to how you might negotiate them as they unfold. Anticipating changes to your research plan may help you cope when these changes happen and allow you to know which components of your research plan you are willing to change or remove.  
  4. Keep a diary. Your field notes are hugely valuable when it comes to writing up and reflecting on your research. And a daily diary reminds you of all the things you’ve achieved (big and little) when the going gets tough. 

Continued conversation

We hope that others find these key lessons useful in thinking more broadly about their data collection plans. We are also mindful doctoral students have a range of resources at their fingertips when preparing for fieldwork that should not be overlooked. PhD supervisors are vital in the learning and development of doctoral students. Methods textbooks abound. And, there is a range of very insightful blogs, such as The Thesis Whisperer and Patter. Our research brings attention to these resources and the need for continued conversations about fieldwork.  

Kathleen Smithers is a lecturer in the School of Education at Charles Sturt University, Australia. Kathleen has worked across a number of projects with a focus on the sociology of education and higher education. Her doctoral thesis investigated developmentourism in schools in Zimbabwe.

Matthew Harper is a PhD candidate and research assistant across a range of projects at the Teachers and Teaching Research Centre, School of Education, University of Newcastle, Australia. His doctoral thesis compares teaching practice and the student experience in high school mathematics and drama.