This literature synthesis explores how arts education might support the kinds of learning required to equip young New Zealanders to contribute to New Zealand’s future prosperity (including economic, social and cultural). It addresses the following questions:
- What knowledge, skills, attitudes and values are seen as necessary for young people to be successful in New Zealand and in a global economy, and what is the theoretical and evidential basis for this advocacy?
- How does this advocacy align with the educational, social and economic outcomes of schooling specified in The New Zealand Curriculum and other high-level policy documents?
- What arguments and evidence link participation in arts education with the achievement of these desired outcomes?
This was the second stage of a two-part project carried out for the Ministry for Culture and Heritage by the New Zealand Council for Educational Research. The first part comprised a review of New Zealand and international research on the impacts and outcomes of arts learning on a range of educational, social, economic and other outcomes with a focus on school-aged learners (Bolstad, 2010). This synthesis draws and expands on Part 1 to address the questions above.
Both reports are available in full here: Contributions of learning in the arts to educational, social and economic outcomes (2010)