ABSTRACT

As a result of international neoliberal and neoconservative trends, the status of the arts has been devalued in secondary school curricula. This paper examines why the arts are not considered core educational knowledge in pedagogic discourse arising from the New Right policy agenda. In a case study analysis of Swedish educational policy debates, curriculum codes and their underlying principles of recontextualization are weighed as they bear on the arts. Discursive positionings and socio-political networking between political standpoints and stakeholders have been analysed based on official Swedish documents associated with the legislative process of curriculum revision.

Our findings show how justifications of arts education clash with coding orientations arising from a strong classification between what is presumed to be valuable and non-valuable knowledge, which in turn is due to an underlying principle of visibility. While advocates argue that artistic practices promote transversal competences and have intangible benefits, this same argument unwittingly strengthens the non-autonomous status of the arts. The illegitimacy of the arts also stems from the belief that they are only marginally related to visible market values. Taken together, the arts are not considered core knowledge because of their perceived relative unimportance for higher academic learning or vocational competence.

摘要

由于国际新自由主义和新保守主义趋势，艺术在中学课程中的地位被贬低。本文探讨了为什么在新右派政策议程中产生的教学话语中，艺术不被视为核心教育知识。在对瑞典教育政策辩论的案例研究分析中，课程代码及其重新背景化的基本原则与艺术有关。根据与课程修订立法程序相关的瑞典官方文件，分析了政治立场和利益相关者之间的话语定位和社会政治网络。

我们的研究结果表明，艺术教育的理由如何与编码方向发生冲突，编码方向是由于将假定为有价值的知识和无价值的知识强分类而产生的，而这又是由于可见性的基本原则。虽然倡导者认为艺术实践促进横向能力并具有无形的好处，但同样的论点在不知不觉中加强了艺术的非自治地位。艺术的非法性也源于这样一种信念，即它们与可见的市场价值仅略有相关。综上所述，艺术不被视为核心知识，因为它们被认为对更高的学术学习或职业能力相对不重要。