A new report from the Runnymede Trust shows the gap between the diversity teachers and students want and the reality of what is provided.
A new report from the Runnymede Trust shows the gap between the diversity teachers and students want and the reality of what is provided.
Dr. Shabna Begum
Runnymede Trust Interim CEO
March 5, 2024, 17:30
It was launched today by partners Runnymede Trust and Freelands Foundation. visualization, the first major study of race and ethnicity in GCSE art education. Our findings confirm what art educators have been saying for years: We are at a crisis point.
It is well known that the proportion of students taking up arts subjects is decreasing and there are challenges in recruiting, retaining and allocating resources to teachers. This cannot be separated from what many in education say is the devaluation of arts subjects through policies that elevate the status and value of subjects other than the arts. Although the contours of these broad problems are widely known, what has received less attention is the problem of representation of the subject.
Our research shows that the GCSE art curriculum is still overwhelmingly narrow. Only 8.4% of artists mentioned in GCSE art exams are artists of colour. Of these, only 2.3% are from a Black (1.54%) or South Asian (0.74%) background.
This is in stark contrast to the demands of both students and teachers. Two-thirds of secondary school students want to study artists from diverse ethnic backgrounds, and 90% of teachers surveyed said their teaching would benefit from supplementary material devoted to the work of ethnic minority artists.
Students from a variety of backgrounds, especially those from communities of color, told us how disconnected art classes felt from their personal experiences. As a working-class Bangladeshi person, the experiences they shared resonated with my own experiences at school over 30 years ago.
I studied art as if I had an 'access' seat at the back of the auditorium with limited visibility. But I wasn't as fully included as others I shared the same space with. I never felt comfortable or represented in ‘art’ spaces such as galleries, and visiting schools felt similar to intruding into a world that was not my own. It strikes me as strange that decades later, despite progressive efforts to develop comprehensive curricula and gallery outreach programs, students still feel excluded from these spaces.
Improving the art education journey and experience is important not just for students of color or those interested in studying art, but for all students more generally. Art education in schools represents the world and its artistic heritage. It teaches students broad transferable skills that they will carry with them throughout their lives. In the best art classes, students are taught to think creatively and innovatively, and to explore their emotional selves in ways they are not nourished by in other parts of their education.
What is clear from our research is that even when teachers have clear and good intentions to provide broad and diverse art classes, they lack the confidence and tools to address issues related to race and identity in their classrooms in a sensitive and meaningful way. .
I have been a teacher in East London for over 20 years. I fully understand the pressure teachers are under. They are overworked, under-resourced, and incredibly undervalued. Despite their best efforts to support a variety of arts activities within the classroom, their efforts are rooted in a system that is not designed to support attempts to enhance the arts education experience.
It may seem foolish to focus on art education during a political and economic crisis. But in many ways, now is the time for us to do so. The arts are not only a dynamic part of the economy, but also a space that tells powerful stories about who we are and what we value in terms of cultural identity and belonging.
When so much of our identity and values are expressed through artistic expression, we need to ensure that there is a healthy diversity of artists entering that space, energizing and encouraging young people to pursue artistic careers and contribute to their artistic imagination.