Beyond the “Beauty Full” Classroom: The Draft Arts Curriculum and teacher education in the postmodern condition

In this paper I make preliminary comments about The Arts in the New Zealand Curriculum: Draft (Ministry of Education, 1999) document, interrogating it in terms of its framing of the arts as \"disciplines\". The notion of the \"arts\", which appears to take its meaning from the generic term \"art\" that directs us to class together music, painting, visual art, dance and other diverse activities, is examined. The idea of the arts as \"literacies\" is questioned, as well as the ideological nature of representing the arts as \"essential skills\". Suggestions are made concerning the identity and role of educators in the arts areas of the curriculum. I then take strands within the Draft document (\"Communicating and Interpreting Meaning\" and \"The Arts in Context'') and examine these in terms of the possibilities for a critical interpretation of pedagogy and what I believe to be our obligations as teacher educators within a preservice programme and a university setting.