ABSTRACT
After hard-fought negotiations, the performing arts are now included in the core curriculum of primary and lower secondary schools in Australia. Despite this, arts subjects are often marginalised within school curriculum hierarchies (Anderson and Donalen, 2009; Ewing, 2010) as teachers too often confront inadequate resources, limited access to professional development, particularly critical for generalist teachers (Alter et al., 2009), and little recognition of the value of their achievements. Although there remains some debate (see e.g. Witziers et al., 2003), a large and influential body of research provides substantial evidence that school leadership affects the formation of school culture and academic and non-academic achievements of students (Fullan, 2001; Leithwood et al., 2004; MacNeil et al., 2009). Therefore the value and status school leaders attribute to the arts and its role within a school’s culture may influence the attitudes of teachers, students and parents and ultimately the achievements that are possible in arts classrooms. In school environments where the arts are viewed as having little or no functional role, there is little inducement for schools to invest in their arts programmes (Alter et al., 2009) or for students to choose to enrol in these programmes as elective classes in upper secondary school. However, where there is commitment from the whole school, cultural education is given the best conditions to thrive (NACCCE, 1999).
