Working as a teacher

A subject teacher will teach diverse groups. They are expected to have developed a variety of pedagogical skills and the job comes with a wide range of other responsibilities. Examples of this include the ability to improvise, spotting relevant social developments and identifying developments in the field of education in the arts. If you want to work in primary or secondary education, your teaching qualification is also important.

• Knowledge of the target group
  You need to have knowledge of the target group, their social environment and developmental psychology. You need to be able to empathise with your target group in such a way that you know precisely which methods and which programme is best suited to children or young people. And you need to relish the challenge of teaching arts to children in a school environment and to convey to them what drives you personally. Pupils’ motivations at schools depends, among other things, on whether the programme is compulsory.
  
  Safety in the lessons is important, because you will sometimes ask pupils to step outside their comfort zone. In some cases, therefore, you will first have to invest in the class atmosphere and the group feeling before you actually get around to course content. In addition, you have to keep an eye on developments in the field of arts education and innovative projects, which will help to ensure your lessons remain up to date and meaningful. Attention span, group dynamics and applying theories about multiple intelligence, for example, are important factors in this regard.
   
• Knowledge of the learning environment
  You have to take into account the attainment targets (SLO) and courses in the curriculum, and ensure what you do ties in with that; you need to able to consider what the role of the teacher and, where applicable, the parents may be; you have to know which themes are relevant at schools and tailor your lesson content to that. You should also keep a close eye on the latest developments in education, such as the proposals of Curriculum.nu.
   
• Organisational skills
  Depending on the types of lessons that you teach, you must be able to organise and plan properly, especially if you go on outings with children.

Numerous people and institutions are active in extracurricular arts education. Examples include youth centres, community centres, adult education centres, amateur arts associations and artists’ organisations with educational activities. There are also organisations that offer holiday courses and there is an enormous range of community schools and out-of-school care (buitenschoolse opvang, BSO). If you would like a job as teacher or artist educator, you need to look at what already exists and choose your own line of approach. When appointing new teachers and artist educators, the factors below are taken into account:

• Specific skills
  Examples of specific skills include being able to teach beginners or advanced students, as the case may be, being able to work towards an end result or being better at supporting an ongoing learning process, being able to work with children and/or young people, people with a disability, students, adults or elderly people. You must be able to organise properly and be able to work in a multidisciplinary way sometimes too.
   
• Place in the team
  Many arts educational institutions have teams of experts who collaborate on a project basis. Therefore, you have to fit in the group, be a team player and be able to work well together. In addition, your specialisation is taken into consideration and whether you add something to the existing team. That may be a style, your experience, degree programme, age, the methods that you apply, your availability or degree of flexibility.

Working as a self-employed professional?
You can also start working as a self-employed professional in extracurricular arts education, of course, by setting up a teaching practice. You will find more information about this in the ‘Step-by-step plan setting up a teaching practice’.

You may also want to offer your arts lessons in project form. If you have a good idea for an arts educational project, but you don’t have an employer, you can present your project to different schools or arts centres. You may also be able to receive a subsidy for this. You will find more information about this in the ‘FAQ how do I implement my arts educational project?'.