Enriched Placement: (Arts) (EDUC90917)

This elective is an Enriched Placement for Teacher Candidates in the Master of Teaching programs. This Enriched Placement underlines the importance of Teacher Candidates gaining an understanding of broader contexts in which education takes place, aligning their pedagogy to shifting practice and policy priorities. It is specifically designed for Teacher Candidates interested in gaining arts based teaching experience and deeper understandings of educational practice in alternative, non-school and specialised cultural settings. This elective offers Teacher Candidates the opportunity for deeper immersion in an art form practice and accompanying pedagogical practices which support learning and engagement in and through arts for children and young people. This subject includes a placement component and an on-campus seminar component. Teacher candidates may have the option to work individually, in a discipline-based or multi-arts team, depending on placements available in any given year. Placements will involve placement either in a 2-week block, or in weekly sessions over a semester (approx. 14 days). Across all settings, there is an emphasis on practising skills of reflective practice and on learning to give and receive feedback, with a view to achieving autonomy and agency as a skilled arts educator.

The on-campus teaching component includes the equivalent of two days of orientation prior to the placement. This could include an introduction to context specific pedagogy, and an examination of academic literature that introduces critical issues relating to learning in and through the arts, community-building; informal learning and reflective practices for arts educators. A full day (or equivalent) for a reflection and debriefing session will be held on-campus at the conclusion of the placements (in the second half of the semester).

Sites available for placement will vary from year-to-year. This Enriched Placement is open to a limited number of Teacher Candidates. Participation is through a competitive selection process that includes a written application and an interview. Further information, including details of which sites are available in a given year, will be made available from the subject coordinator and site coordinators during an information session in Year 1 of the Master of Teaching programs.

Within the various arts disciplines, Teacher Candidates will be offered the opportunity to investigate and further develop educational applications in: Music; Visual Arts; Drama; Media; Embodied Practice.

In each arts discipline, Teacher Candidates will be placed in a non-classroom setting in which they will observe, plan and implement (or contribute to) a specific program in music, drama, visual arts or media. Opportunities to enhance existing discipline based skills, to work collaboratively with peers, artists, arts educators and young people provide the foundation of this Enriched Placement.

Music:

This theme provides Teacher Candidates access to specialist arts or music rich sites of learning, where they will build capacity to teach in and through music in diverse community contexts. Existing partnerships with organisations include: Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Musica Viva, ArtPlay, aMuse, and Musical Futures Australia. Additional partnerships will be added over time.

Visual Arts:

This theme provides Teacher Candidates access to specialist art rich sites of learning, where they will build capacity to teach in and through the visual arts beyond the classroom in diverse community contexts. Candidates will explore art-based pedagogies (such as philosophical inquiry, visual literacy, artful play) and develop professional partnerships in supported environments that enable innovative and creative teaching and learning. Existing partnerships with organisations include: ArtPlay, Museum Victoria, Ian Potter Museum of Art (University of Melbourne), National Gallery of Victoria, Early Learning Centre (University of Melbourne).

Drama:

This theme provides Teacher Candidates access to specialist arts rich sites of learning, where they will build capacity to teach in and through the drama beyond the classroom in diverse community contexts. Existing partnerships with organisations include: Malthouse Theatre, Arena Theatre, MTC, ArtPlay, Signal, Western Edge Youth Arts, Drama Victoria.

Media Studies:

This theme provides Teacher Candidates with the opportunity to explore and investigate educational applications in Media forms such as Film, Photography and Sound. Potential partners for a Media placement may include institutions such as ACMI, CCP (Centre Contemporary Photography), NFSA (National Film and Sound Archive), or ATOM (Association for the Teachers of Media).

Embodied Practice:

In this theme, Teacher Candidates from a range of teaching disciplines – Drama, English, History and Humanities have opportunities to explore kinaesthetic and aesthetic learning in classrooms and non-school contexts. Building on prior knowledge from prerequisite subjects, Teacher Candidates undertake a teaching placement in an appropriate community or cultural context in which they will plan, implement and reflect on a unit of teaching employing strategies of embodied pedagogy using complex literary, visual, historical, cultural or social texts.