About the Checklists

The ARAEA Checklists are a tool to open up conversations and support a questioning of current art educator resources, publications and curriculums. Who is seen (practitioners), What is used (art, craft and design) How are they positioned (the advantages or disadvantages given to the work)

Our 2022 ARAEA checklists Review resulted in the following updates:

  • The redesign of the checklists that closely align with 2022 WCAG 2.2 Accessibility guidelines
  • A resource, research and reading list and submission form in order to crowdsource additional resources.
  • The design of checklist prompts and user guides
  • Downloadable and online versions of the checklist that address accessibility concerns
  • Future opportunities include an additional Pedagogy and Policy section, additional prompt cards, buy-in from other SiG Groups across NSEAD as well as early-career educator versioning across all three checklists.

The ARAEA checklists are not a ‘to-do list’ and are not linear. What the starting point is for one educator, department, publication or school will be different from another. The checklists are not conclusive. 

When actively engaged, the checklists will uncover further questions that explore the intersections of our identities, including race, sexuality, gender, ability/disability, and religion – they may also lead to deeper investigations into our unconscious bias. 

Wherever they lead, the hope is that they trigger new opportunities for learning, but also critically, unlearning. Their underlying ethos is inspired by the educational theorist bell hooks and her articulation of a ‘pedagogy of hope' (2003). The checklists acknowledge that to be actively anti-racist ‘at times we will stumble, but when we do, we will acknowledge our mistakes and we will make repair’.

Just as art, craft and design education evolves, as NSEAD evolves, and as we as practitioners evolve, so too will the checklists. They are not conclusive. They will also be under constant review by NSEAD and you will see this on the resource with the version number highlighted in the box at the top of the sheet.

  • Find out more and download the ARAEA Action Group here.
  • To view a presentation introducing the ARAEA Group and the 2021-2022 checklists click here
  • Download the ARAEA Checklist Testimony here.