Middle years teachers’ past experiences of the arts: Implications for teacher education

Abstract

In the middle years of schooling, spanning grades four to nine, it is common practice for generalist teachers to deliver integrated arts education. Research confirms that teacher effectiveness with the arts is influenced by their sense of efficacy, which is derived from a coalition of factors including confidence, competence, subject mastery and past experience. This paper investigates one of the factors contributing to teacher self efficacy - their past experience of arts education, at six key life stages, culminating in their current experience as an arts educator. Two hundred and one beginning teachers in the middle years completed a questionnaire with open-ended questions designed to investigate past experiences as one of the factors contributing to teacher self-efficacy. Teachers were located in Queensland, Australia. Responses were analysed and categorised with a positive or negative valence. The results reveal that the cohort of respondents reported profoundly divergent past experiences with the arts over the life stages selected, ranging from a predominance of positive valence experiences during childhood, to predominantly negative valence experiences during pre-service teacher education and in the early months of teaching. The relationship between past experiences and the formation of teacher efficacy beliefs is outlined, and implications for teacher education shared.