The visual diary, the conceptual framework, the practices, and the frames: pedagogical possibilities of the secondary visual arts curriculum in New South Wales, Australia

This chapter focuses on the pedagogical interpretations of the visual arts secondary suite of syllabi in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. In order to contextualize this discussion, it is necessary to begin with an orientation to the curriculum and to the national art education contexts in contemporary Australia that have determined the NSWcurriculum’s endurance. Government vision and policy are seldom reflected in classroom pedagogy (Ashton 2002).This is particularly the case in NSW, where the accreditation authority, the New South Wales Education Standards Authority (NESA), formerly known as the Board of Studies, Teaching and Educational Standards (BOSTES), has rehabilitated the newly minted national curriculum in all subjects implemented to date to align with state government and educational agendas and principles.This position of preeminence has been most acutely demonstrated in the abject rejection of the Australian Curriculum: The Arts by NSW, with schools being directly advised by its accreditation authority not to implement it (BOSTES 2014b). The national curriculum is therefore in partial implementation in Australia with only a few states taking up the call, since the choice of school curriculum is the purview of each individual state.Thus, the status quo in NSW remains with the existing NSWsyllabi offerings, and “national curriculum” is, in fact, a misnomer.