Discusses purposes of the arts in early childhood education. Examines some of the contemporary proposals for art in early childhood programs, including discipline-based art education. Suggests a framework for selecting art activities for early childhood programs and provides examples of appropriate activities for young children. (CFR)

Reports on a three-year study of the operational and formal curricula in the visual arts, music, drama, and dance. Discusses three operational types of art education: (1) the "little intervention" model; (2) the production-oriented curriculum; and (3) the guided-exploration orientation. (CFR)

Maintains that art education in an urban environment needs to move beyond multicultural awareness. Urban art education must stress art as a way of knowing about the world, a way of making nonviolent statements about social and environmental problems, and as a way of working cooperatively with other students. (MJP)

Presents a curriculum profile of arts education in Australia. The curriculum includes generic outcome statements organized around interrelated approaches. These include creating, making, and presenting, as well as arts criticism and aesthetics, and past and present contexts. The outcome statements range across eight levels of achievement. (MJP)