The changing face of students in New Zealand: Are visual arts teachers keeping pace?

The changing face of students in secondary schools in New Zealand is evident from the population statistics in the 2013 national census. The greatest numbers of young people under 20 years now come from ethnically diverse groups. In contrast, visual arts teachers remain predominantly European New Zealand. This article reports on research conducted in 2015 that investigated how secondary school visual arts teachers are responding to the increasing ethnic and cultural diversity of their students. It focuses on one key finding – that 16–18-year-old students who study visual arts at years 12 and 13 are being empowered by their predominantly European New Zealand teachers to express their individual identities using three pedagogical approaches. The stories of the students, articulated through the voices of their visual arts teachers, are visualized in examples of their artworks. The data illustrates how these teachers are keeping pace, albeit in differing ways.