Tracking Pegasus’ flight. ‘Culture and Schools’ (Cultuur en School) 1997-2007: Objectives, research and results
cultuur + educatie 21 (2008)

With articles addressing literature based research and field work, policy research and the monitoring of the degree to which cultural education is embedded in primary and secondary school curricula, the central theme of this publication is the ten year history of the policy ‘Culture and Schools’ (Cultuur en School).

Goals and aspirations of Cultuur en School
Written by Piet Hagenaars (Cultuurnetwerk Nederland), the first article deals with the objectives of the Cultuur en School project, the most important being the development of cultural competencies, the embedding of cultural activities as a structural part of education, improved cooperation between schools and their cultural surroundings, and the encouragement of cultural participation by pupils. Later, new goals such as teaching the value of cultural diversity and cultural expression and boosting the quality of cultural education are discussed.

Policy research for Cultuur en School
Teunis IJdens (research and consulting firm IVA – Tilburg University) examines how and to what extent research is used to formulate or evaluate policy. He maintains that over the years, the nature of policy research has shifted from being ad hoc, stock-taking and descriptive in nature to more systematic and monitoring. When the project was launched, policy research mostly revealed developments in education and in the cultural field, while research conducted later focussed mainly on whether the results were consistent with prevailing policy.

Assessment of the ‘Improvement of Cultural Education in Primary Schools Scheme’
In this publication, Karin Hoogeveen and Anne Luc van der Vegt (Sardes) discuss the impact of the 'Improvement of Cultural Education in Primary School Scheme' (Regeling Versterking Cultuureducatie in het Primair Onderwijs) on the incorporation of cultural education into primary school curricula. Based on multi-year monitoring, they describe the results of the subsidy scheme to date, as well as touch on the follow-up measures when the scheme ends after this academic year (2007-2008).

Cultural education in secondary schools
Since 2006, Oberon has been commissioned by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW) to conduct the ‘Cultural Education in Secondary Schools Monitor’ (Monitor Cultuureducatie Voortgezet Onderwijs). In this article, Michiel van der Grinten and Claudy Oomen outline the research methodology and present the key results, concluding that the incorporation of cultural education into the curricula of schools and other institutions is becoming apparent and that collaboration between schools and cultural institutions is developing favourably. The authors believe that the current policy strategy should be maintained.

Dutch overview