Generalist Pre-Service Teacher Education, Self-Efficacy and Arts Education: An Impossible Expectation?

Generalist teacher educators in Australia are struggling with an impossible expectation in the area of arts education. This is due to a cascading trio of systemic issues. Firstly generalist teachers are entering their teacher education courses with variable and often minimal personal arts training. Secondly they are ill supported to improve their arts discipline knowledge through a lack of time given to each arts discipline during their courses. Finally they are expected to deliver the arts curriculum, often without extensive professional support, to their classes at the same quality and level as a specialist arts educator. At present, the research has focused on individual arts disciplines, not the effect of these cascading systemic issues on the confidence and competency of pre-service teachers across multiple arts disciplines. This paper reports on the findings of a study that tracked the levels of self-efficacy across four arts disciplines and suggests new approaches to this impossible expectation.