Nurturing Needs: Literacy Achievement for Refugee students

Yeronga State School, located 7 km from the city in Brisbane, Queensland, opened in 1871. YSS caters for a middle class inner-suburban community, however, from the mid 1990s enrolments brought new forms of socio-economic, cultural and linguistic diversity. Initially, ESL students were enrolled due to their immigrant parents enrolling in the neighbouring TAFE. Then refugee families from Bosnia and the Middle East became part of the YSS community. In recent years, refugee numbers have accounted for up to 23% of the school population. Many of these new arrivals left behind families in war-torn circumstances, were orphaned or came to live with unknown relatives. Some family members were victims of torture which may have been witnessed by the children. Trauma for some or all family members was a very real concern. Others were born in refugee camps, where food was scarce, belongings needed to be guarded and safety was never guaranteed.

Visual arts, technology and education : how can teaching and learning in high school visual arts classrooms be enriched by the use of computer technology?

Whilst a variety of studies has appeared over the last decade addressing the gap between the potential promised by computers and the reality experienced in the classroom by teachers and students, few have specifically addressed the situation as it pertains to the visual arts classroom. The aim of this study was to explore the reality of the classroom use of computers for three visual arts highschool teachers and determine how computer technology might enrich visual arts teaching and learning. An action research approach was employed to enable the researcher to understand the situation from the teachers' points of view while contributing to their professional practice. The wider social context surrounding this study is characterised by an increase in visual communications brought about by rapid advances in computer technology. The powerful combination of visual imagery and computer technology is illustrated by continuing developments in the print, film and television industries. In particular, the recent growth of interactive multimedia epitomises this combination and is significant to this study as it represents a new form of publishing of great interest to educators and artists alike. In this social context, visual arts education has a significant role to play. By cultivating a critical awareness of the implications of technology use and promoting a creative approach to the application of computer technology within the visual arts, visual arts education is in a position to provide an essential service to students who will leave high school to participate in a visual information age as both consumers and producers.