One Must Also Be an Artist: Online Delivery of Teacher Education

Overview & Synopsis

The shift in teacher education from face-to-face delivery to Distance Education mode means that the current landscape for the preparation of specialist and generalist Arts teachers is both complex and challenging, particularly since there is almost no guiding literature in the field of teacher education that attends specifically to this curriculum area. This paper takes as its case, one regional Australian School of Education that has translated face-to-face delivery into distance education modes in both secondary and primary arts education, through a suite of interactive programs and pedagogical engagements. Some of the approaches include re-designing curriculum, the provision of rich resources and relevant formative assessment, and perhaps most importantly, the establishment of caring, attentive relationships. The construction of communities of inquiry and in the case of the Arts, a community of practice, is essential to the success of these approaches.