|
Dr Jill Smith is a graduate of Elam School of Fine Arts, The University of Auckland. She entered teaching in 1969 and was Head of Art at Papatoetoe High School for 11 years. In 1980 she was appointed Lecturer in Visual Arts at Secondary Teacher’s College, Auckland. She is currently a Principal Lecturer in the School of Arts, Languages and Literacies, Faculty of Education, The University of Auckland, where she has responsibility for secondary art and art history teacher education, and is involved in the post-graduate programme. In 2002 Jill was awarded an inaugural ‘Tertiary Teaching Excellence Award’ by the New Zealand Government in recognition of "sustained excellence" in teaching and received, in addition, an Auckland College of Education Tertiary Teaching Award.
In 2007 Jill graduated with a Doctor of Education from The University of Auckland. Her thesis is titled Art education in New Zealand: Issues of culture, diversity and difference. Through a fieldwork study in a sample of secondary schools Jill investigated art teachers’ understandings of ethnic diversity and cultural differences, as expressed in their pedagogical practices in year 9-10 art programmes. In 2007 Jill also held her first solo exhibition, Talking my way through culture: Art works as a re-presentation of research. Fourteen art works, presented as a sculptural installation, drew upon the literature engaged with during her doctoral research, and on the findings from the fieldwork study.
Jill’s leadership and national profile in her specialist fields has been recognised by numerous roles on behalf of the Ministry of Education and the New Zealand Qualifications Authority. For over 20 years she has been involved with national committees, advisory groups and education contracts related to the development of secondary school art and art history curricula, assessment, and moderation. She has held national examination and moderation positions in art and art history at all levels. She was Vice-President of the Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Art Educators (ANZAAE) and on the executive of the New Zealand Art History Teachers Association (NZAHTA), is a member of NZARE and the Australian Institute of Art Education (AIAE), and is an active member of the Auckland Secondary Art Teachers Association (ASATA). In 2003 Jill convened the ANZAAE Conference, ‘Nga Waka’. She has been a keynote speaker and active participant at numerous art education conferences.
Research and creative outputs
A Pākehā New Zealander, Jill’s research interests include the relationship between art, culture and curriculum. The connection between ‘bicultural’ curriculum policy and art education practice in secondary schools, mentoring non-indigenous art educators working with indigenous knowledge, and issues of multicultural education are particular foci of her investigations, publications and work in teacher education. In 2004 she was invited by the University of British Columbia to contribute a Pākehā perspective on biculturalism and multiculturalism in visual arts education in Aotearoa New Zealand at a public lecture series on ‘Indigeneity, Internationalism, Globalisation: Challenges for Multicultural Education’.
