Contemporary art curriculum guidelines in Australia, both at national and state levels, state that study in the Arts must gives students access to the cultural diversity in their immediate community and the broader Australian and international context. As well, the principles of gender equity and equal opportunity for students from all ethnic, socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds have been incorporated. These statements appear to reflect multicultural perspectives, in promoting an equitable, harmonious, and innovative society. However, critics such as Rizvi contend that these directives are seldom reflected in the art program in most schools. In this thesis, the author has examined the potential of art education to implement these aims, and assumptions regarding the desirability of this outcome. To this end, he has investigated the ideas that underpin this kind of multicultural awareness. These theories direct their focus towards democratic teaching methods, and recommend an art curriculum and teaching practices which encourage students to become active social critics through the arts. To this end, he discusses ways in which teachers and students might explore and analyse the ways in which the arts affect attitudes and relationships of power, and the contributions to be made by a study of Australia's diversity. The author has also compared the proposals of the many educational theorists whose ideas have been explored with those in the CSF for the Arts. To assist this evaluation, he has also conducted a small field research study in a number of secondary schools in the south-eastern metropolitan area of Melbourne, to establish whether the art teachers interviewed understood and implemented the aims of multiculturalism. On the basis of this comparison, proposals have been outlined for a focus on social justice and appreciation of difference.