Where does media fit in the curriculum?

Here in Queensland we currently undergoing a review of senior curriculum offerings. The preferred new model will see the number of individual subject offerings reduced, to be replaced with "fields" of learning. This has significant ramifications for the senior subject "Film, Television and New Media" which was first introduced as "Film and Television" in 1981.

No one knows quite what the new fields will be, but the QSA will soon begin consultation with teachers and interested groups, and has invited people to specific meetings which seem to suggest a possible structure for the "fields". FTVnm teachers have been invited to attend three different meetings - the "Production and Performance" group, the "English" group and the "Design" group. This contrasts with music teachers who have been invited to just one group - Music.

This seems to suggest the Queensland Studies Authority has little sense of where FTVnm belongs in the curriculum. There is a real danger that it will be come a series of semester based electives - competing with other electives under the "fields". It is possible / likely that students will no longer study 4 semesters of FTVnm across two years. This will mean less depth of understanding, less skills development and (mostly crucially) fewer opportunities to make connections between conceptual understanding and practical production work.

This has some way to run, and is likely to become the main battlefront for passionate media educators in Queensland over the next year, as we are yet again forced to justify our existence.