Generating Cultural Capital? Impacts of Artists-in-Residence on Teacher Professional Learning

Abstract

The introduction of the Australian Arts Curriculum and the rise of a twenty-first century creativity agenda in education signal an opportunity for teacher educators to re-examine the outcomes and potential of arts-based initiatives on teacher professional learning. This study re-visits the outcomes of the Australian Artist-in-Residence program in this context and analyses a subset of data collected for its evaluation. The study reveals that while teachers perceive an improvement in creative capital, it is important to consider questions about the capacity for such programs to generate long term changes in practice. The study illustrates how some States and Territories embedded opportunities for collective reflective activity to facilitate such change and suggests there is potential for AIR models to support pre-service and in-service professional learning in creative and critical thinking as well as the arts curriculum. With the Professional Engagement domain of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (Graduate teachers), in particular Standards 6 and 7, this is timely research.