UNESCO WORLD CONGRESS OF ARTS IN
EDUCATION
JOINT DECLARATION
OF THE
international
drama/theatre and education association
(IDEA)
international
society for education through the arts
(InSEA)
international
society for music education
(ISME)
This is an historic moment in international arts education. After
six years of preparatory meetings, IDEA, InSEA and ISME have now united to
define an integrated strategy that responds to a critical moment in human
history: social fragmentation, a dominant global culture of competition, endemic
urban and ecological violence, and the marginalization of key educational and
cultural languages of transformation.
In a visionary agenda in the aftermath of the World War II,
UNESCO recognized the unique role that arts education can play in the creation of
a culture of peace, international understanding, social cohesion and
sustainable development. However, at that time, few could have anticipated the
socio-cultural needs that would be generated by the accelerated technological
change during the intervening decades; and today few can imagine the impact and
challenges of technological convergence in the immediate future.
We believe that today’s knowledge-based, post-industrial
societies require citizens with confident flexible intelligences, creative verbal
and non-verbal communication skills, abilities to think critically and imaginatively,
intercultural understandings and an empathetic commitment to cultural
diversity.
Research increasingly shows that these personal attributes
are acquired through the process of learning and applying artistic languages. We
welcome decisions by governments throughout the world to place educational
reform and cultural development at the heart of their agendas. However, we know
that there is not always the political and professional will to integrate the
arts into an effective ‘education for all’, as vital instruments for learning
human rights, responsible citizenship and inclusive democracy.
Drawing membership from more than 90 countries, our global alliance
of arts education organisations involves leading practitioners and promotes innovative
practices in arts education internationally. Through our national affiliations and
individual memberships, we draw on the experiences of more than one million
dedicated and courageous teachers, artists/performers, researchers, scholars,
community leaders, administrators and policy makers who themselves are in touch
with formal and informal educational communities throughout the world.
Our three organisations are uniquely positioned to advance professional
practices and policies in the visual arts, music and theatre/drama education. We
provide:
effective
channels for international communication and the exchange of policy and pedagogical
resources;
national,
regional and world forums which debate and disseminate innovative
educational theories and practices;
conceptual
and professional structures to preserve tangible and intangible artistic
cultures (particularly in the developing world), that are threatened by
globalization;
models
of intercultural analysis that explore aspects of traditional and new
media and enable diverse pedagogies to be demonstrated and exchanged;
research
into pedagogies for personal and social transformation; and
critical
investigation into the educational, socio-economic and cultural impacts of
the arts.
Together, we will advocate new and appropriate paradigms of
education which both transmit and transform culture through the humanizing
languages of the arts, and which are founded on principles of cooperation, not
competition. For more than half a century, our associations have contributed
significantly to the development of curricula and teaching approaches. We are
now ready to respond proactively to the diverse social and cultural needs of our
world. In response to the urgent crises of our times, we embrace the challenge
to make our exceptional resources available to governments and educational
communities across the globe.
In the visual arts, critical and reflective pedagogies and new
means of artistic production offer students opportunities to explore their
multicultural, multi-technological visual worlds. Through the performing arts, educators
are transforming classrooms into theatres of creative dialogue, equipping young
people to enact solutions to contemporary social needs and challenges. In music
education, the new technologies provide astonishing opportunities to develop
intercultural awareness and collaborative production.
Collectively the arts offer young people unique
opportunities to understand and create their own cultural and personal
identities. They stimulate interdisciplinary study and participatory
decision-making, and motivate young people to engage in active learning and
creative questioning.
Our three organisations have formed an alliance for strategic
action based on principled and sustained dialogue. Our primary aim is to
accelerate the implementation of arts education policies internationally. We want
to collaborate with all governments, networks, educational institutions,
communities and individuals who share our vision.
We challenge UNESCO to fulfill the responsibilities of its
founding mandate by joining us to make arts education central to a world agenda
for sustainable human development and social transformation.
March 6, 2006