Working Paper No1 of UNESCO's International Bureau of Education (IBE), which has compiled a study of arts education across the world. Why are the arts expected to do so much for our learners, and for society, and yet are allocated such relatively low resources?
With the long-winded and rather obscure title 'Instructional Time and the Place of Aesthetic Education in School Curricula at the Beginning of the 21st Century', the research-in-progress offers an historical background to the teaching of arts and emerging pedagogies, current global trends, and quotes to use to support funding applications.
Starting with a brief historical overview of the institutionalization of aesthetic education, particularly in the Western countries, the paper reviews some of the major ideologies and research findings related to the value of aesthetic education. It attempts to highlight certain learning theories and approaches to arts education in school. Some main issues, debates and trends surrounding aesthetic education today and its relevance in the local and global contexts are also reviewed. Finally, the last section of this paper explores global and regional patterns concerning the prevalence of, and relative emphasis placed on, aesthetic education over the first nine years of schooling at the beginning of the twenty-first century.

http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001462/146280e.pdf