OVERVIEW OF RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN EDUCATION THROUGH ARTS AND HERITAGE IN THE ROMANIAN EDUCATION SYSTEM

Abstract

This paper offers a brief analysis of the status of development of activities that aim to integrate arts, culture and heritage into K-12 education. The analysis is based on exploratory research and follows the evolution of these practices, having a 2009 Eurydice study as reference. The study was focused on beneficiaries (pupils and parents), teachers and school principals, as well as artists and cultural organisations. At national level, changes such as the introduction of a key competence based curriculum and the “Şcoala altfel” Programme (“A Different Kind of School”) are positive factors in the development of educational activities dedicated to the arts, culture and heritage. What we found is that the practices and experiences produced during the analysed period reveal: an increase in the number of activities, while organizing them from the perspective of equal access to all pupils; the opening towards new artistic fields, but without significant changes in the use of new technologies. The benefits of arts, culture and heritage activities are not well exploited from the point of view of integrating them as learning opportunities in regular school activities and evaluating outcomes (often limited to evaluation of the degree of satisfaction). During the past few years schools and cultural operators have been more open to collaboration / partnership, but there is no national programme that would ensure convergent and continuous activities. We have found no significant changes in the way the issue of cultural heritage is addressed.