ABSTRACT As countries moved to halt the spread of the COVID 19 pandemic in 2020 access to physical sites of learning was restricted, so teachers across diverse educational contexts were required to rapidly embrace different modes and combinations of delivery. With a desire to profile the voices of teacher experience, a number of educational researchers initiated a research project to examine the experiences

(2021). Obituary: Christine Sinclair 1957-2020. NJ. Ahead of Print.

(2021). Obituary- Philip Taylor. NJ. Ahead of Print.

(2020). Old, new, review. NJ: Vol. 44, No. 1, pp. 1-3.

ABSTRACT Drama is becoming increasingly valued in the context of additional language learning. Representing knowledge in multiple modes has been shown to support diverse students. The use of drama can enhance meaning and comprehension for language learners as it enlists the voice and body as additional semiotic tools. Sociocultural theory provides a framework for understanding this dynamic, as does

ABSTRACT With many performing arts teachers succumbing to stress and burn-out and rates of attrition growing, it is critical to understand factors which enable some teachers to remain positive, committed and enthusiastic in their teaching. Interviews with four female veteran performing arts teachers revealed ways in which key complex and profound experiences of their careers had enriched their professional

(2020). Eulogy - Beth Parsons. NJ: Vol. 44, No. 1, pp. 56-59.

ABSTRACT The early childhood sector supports the realisation of inclusive education through a range of recommendations, policy statements and resources. With such a clearly mandated movement for inclusive practice it is imperative that educators are equipped with the attitudes, knowledge, and skills necessary to ensure the full participation of all children. Despite this understanding, a discrepancy

ABSTRACT In drama classes throughout the Western world, masks are regularly engaged within a variety of contexts. However, there is negligible information available as to how masks are actually used in the classroom, and to what degree they are effective in different teaching and learning contexts. This research sought to understand how masks could potentially have further impact and to understand

ABSTRACT Arts subjects such as drama provide an effective context for developing 21st century skills, yet drama teaching in Sri Lanka is still mainly delivery through traditional, lecture-based methods. This article presents evaluation results of a drama-based intervention program that was designed specifically to develop junior secondary school students’ creative thinking capacity and adaptability

(2020). Pedagogy, empathy and praxis: using theatrical traditions to teach. NJ: Vol. 44, No. 1, pp. 60-61.

ABSTRACT How does a unique genre of itinerant Italian theatre survive five centuries and still remain vibrant and relevant today? As a practitioner (performer/teacher) of Commedia I tackle this enigma by unpacking the key components of Commedia dell’Arte – the genre. Inspired by the teachings of Antonio Fava, I have developed a three-dimensional approach (henceforth 3-DA) to performing and/or teaching

(2019). The continuum of practice and change. NJ: Vol. 43, No. 2, pp. 67-68.

ABSTRACT The article provides an index of the collection of published journal articles in NJ between 1997 and 2018 in the context of a discussion about the index form and importance to the activity of Drama Australia. The index annotates the full collection over this time period, annotating the breadth of drama practice, pedagogy, research, theatre and performance by the Drama Australia membership

ABSTRACT The main content of this article is an ethnodramatic text (J) or research-based performance text which was based on interviews recorded with 50 Victorian educators who each have had 30 or more years of drama teaching experience. The interviews were conducted by Drama Victoria as part of the Drama Australia MAMA project. Aligned with the data on which it was based, the script highlights some

(2019). Review of Drama research methods: provocations of practice. NJ: Vol. 43, No. 2, pp. 136-137.

(2019). The Risk Theatre Model of Tragedy: Gambling, Drama and the Unexpected. NJ: Vol. 43, No. 2, pp. 138-139.

ABSTRACT Teachers’ perceptions of their own professional identity affect their efficacy and professional development, as well as their ability and willingness to cope with educational change and implement innovations in their own teaching practice. Despite this, few opportunities are provided that engage teachers in developing an understanding of their professional selves. In this paper, we present

ABSTRACT This paper is interested in positing a new performance analysis concept in support of both seeking and recognising performances that include generosity as a key component. The politics of distemper allow for insults and derogatory remarks to be shared widely by anonymous online trolls and via Twitter and press conferences by the current President of the United States. These feel like dangerous

Recently, there has been a considerable amount of discussion on social media about the nature of evidence informing teacher decisions about learning. These discussions emerged as a result of a post entitled ‘The problem with using scientific evidence in education (why teachers should stop trying to be more like doctors’) (McKnight and Morgan 2019). In a previous editorial for this journal, we reflected

ABSTRACT Arts-based practices can occupy a fragile position where its interventionist character becomes both a gift and a poison. For instance, some practitioners/researchers from the Global North consider the Global South as a region to curate, perform and market interventions to solve problems. Such interventionist initiatives have also positioned those regions as sites for/of experimentation as

ABSTRACTThis article contemplates the way five early career drama teachers in NSW speak and write about what they consider, the special characteristics and attributions of drama to facilitate learn...

ABSTRACT This article discusses the way two traditional tales were adapted and modified for use as pretexts in the Connected: Adult Language Learning through Drama program (CALLD) with migrant populations, including refugees and asylum seekers, in two sites during 2017 & 2018 in Sydney, Australia. The focus of this article is to explore the way ancient stories such as folktales and myths function in

ABSTRACT In this paper, we have reflected on how drama training and drama experiences have helped us in our own journeys as educators and how the artform has invited learners into new communities and collaborative problem-solving. The very spaces of schools are isolating, with classroom doors opening and shutting in long corridors. The curriculum is often siloed and distant from other disciplines and

ABSTRACT Little is known about how secondary drama students identify or utilise teacher feedback. This article presents findings from a study exploring how drama students describe their experiences of teacher feedback and how, or if, they apply this feedback to enhance their learning. Data collection and analysis focused on students’ experiences of teacher feedback occurring in three secondary drama

It is with great sadness that I write to our members to inform them of the passing of Oliver Fiala, the first president of the New South Wales Education Drama Association (EDA) (now Drama NSW) in October 2018 at the age of 95. I only met Oliver once at the Drama Australia and Drama New Zealand Combined International Conference in 2015 when he and his wife Heather attended as special guests. He was

ABSTRACT This article reports critical reflections on the history, evolution and future of drama in education In New Zealand and Australia by two veterans of its history. Robin Pascoe and Janinka Greenwood have both been actively involved in national developments and International collaborations for over 40 years and have each played central roles in shaping international dialogues and in evolvingnational

The economically oppressive distance between Aotearoa New Zealand and most of the rest of the world was somewhat mitigated this year for those of us lucky southern hemisphere drama and theatre in education researchers, at least, with IDIERI 9 hosting delegates from 25 different countries, in Tamaki Makaurau Auckland, during the first week of July. Hosted at the University of Auckland’s Epsom campus

ABSTRACT In this article, two mid-career drama education researchers use duoethnography to reflect on Professor Dorothy Heathcote’s legacy in Australia and New Zealand. Drawing on personal artefacts and a shared metaphor, we create narratives that consider Heathcote’s influence on our particular contexts and practice, particularly our work with Mantle of the Expert and Rolling Role. We describe the

ABSTRACT Policy proposals about social change and well-being shape the implementation of applied theatre projects through technologies such as evaluation practices and funding applications. Representations of projects can, in turn, effect public discourse about who participants are and why they are or are not ‘being well’. Like public policy, applied theatre for social change has to establish a problem

The 2018 rendition of Education in the Arts is the third edition of the text, being just one year shy of encompassing a decade of change, contention and growth in the Arts education landscape across, predominantly, Australian contexts. A significant proportion of the authors are from the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, working across a diverse range of Arts and teacher education contexts. Further

ABSTRACT In theatre, hierarchies that delineate role and function often obscure the collaborative work of conceptualising a performance. Similarly, group processes may mask hidden creative hierarchies by labelling themselves ‘collaborative’. Either way, it is widely held that it’s difficult to make things in groups. Third Year BFA (Drama) students at the Queensland University Technology engage with

ABSTRACT As we prepare for the 9th IDIERI in New Zealand, this paper revisits the issues foregrounded at the 2015 Institute and offers possible prompts for considering the state of our art today. A meditation on the concept of ‘open culture’ – the Institute theme – this keynote explores Kuo Pao Kun’s injunction ‘to extend one’s self beyond one’s own culture’ and how and why our capacity for that ‘extension’

ABSTRACT Dorothy Heathcote’s perspectives concerning ‘role-shifted discourse’ within what she latterly called ‘Model 1: Drama used to explore people’ exhibits a strong alignment with the didactic purposes of ‘living history’ performances at heritage sites such as Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. Kershaw’s ‘points of process’ concerning the ‘radical in performance’ are introduced as a proposition for

For some time, I have been thinking about the concept of drama literacy and what it might mean to be drama literate. I have to admit to some discomfort about the term. Perhaps, that is because ‘literacy’ in the traditional English teaching sense is often reduced to the discrete teaching of the component parts of the field in isolation, e.g., phonics or grammar. In drama, this might equate to teaching

ABSTRACT This paper examines the evolution of Australian approaches to the production of Shakespeare’s plays during and following the New Wave period. Theatre is a barometer and instigator of social change. By mapping Australia’s evolving sense of national identity and its changing relationship with its colonial masters against changes on the stage, we can gain insight into Australia’s evolving cultural

ABSTRACT This case study explores dialogicality in teaching process drama through the narratives and practices of three experienced drama teachers of the Open University. Dialogue is understood here in the context of ‘I-Thou’ attitude and as the phenomenon of heteroglossia. The analyses of the videotaped reflective interviews with the teachers and process dramas revealed a polyphonic picture of dialogicality

Abstract The creation of scripts and performances from, as, and for sharing research has gained increasing credibility in the overlapping realms of applied theatre, performance studies, drama education and arts-based research. The resulting scripts can be used to inform learning processes, share data with research participants and be shaped into performative works for diverse audiences. While much

This bumper edition of NJ considers the role of drama and theatre in developing and/or extending our understandings of culture and identity in a world where we are talking more and more about a global culture. The following articles share a matured thinking about our work, with an increasing emphasis on dialogue and the development of our own critical reflective processes as we strive to enhance understanding

The editors are excited about this edition of NJ. Our authors consider the transdisciplinary nature of drama highlighting its potential resonance with design thinking, its enhancement of the teaching of poetry, verbatim plays and the use of performance in authentic assessment as well as the impact dramatic processes can make on vulnerable communities.

Abstract This paper provides an account of using embodied drama practices to explore two poems by Indigenous authors (Oodgeroo Noonuccal and Travis Eulo) with Year 9 Drama classes at a Victorian state secondary school. The work has been shaped by the author’s position as a non-Indigenous teacher-researcher endeavouring to fulfil both curriculum requirements and the Protocols for Koorie Education. It

Abstract Direct address is considered to be the hallmark convention of verbatim theatre. Coined by Derek Paget in 1987, verbatim theatre is a form that involves engagement with a community about a topic or event. Conversations and interviews are recorded, and this material becomes the stimulus for the creative development of performance. This article researches and analyses the broad diversity of conventions

Abstract During a study on Drama performance assessment, the many challenges of the assessment environment and assessment conditions became evident, along with the rich benefits and opportunities that performance assessment brings. This paper investigates one senior secondary performance assessment task from each of the six school sites which are aligned to one of the critical issues that emerged as

Abstract The processes and pedagogies for promoting creativity and creative thinking are often described as problem-based and inquiry learning. ‘Generic’ design processes such as ‘design thinking’ are also proposed as being somehow common to creative process. However, most of these models arose from graphic design and visual arts traditions, so do these models actually take account of the specific

Abstract This article explores the experiences of two research assistants and an assistant professor involved in teaching and research in Curriculum and Instruction in Drama Education, a course for pre-service teachers at a Canadian University. Direct observations, field notes, student journals, participant interviews and an in-depth analysis of one student group’s creation and performance led to the

Abstract In this keynote, Matt Edgerton, Artistic Director of Barking Gecko Theatre company considers the old and the new, in terms of the work of contemporary theatre-making for young people. He discusses past and future projects undertaken by Barking Gecko and explains how much inspiration is drawn from traditional texts, as well as new and exciting examples of quality literature for children and

This initial edition of NJ for 2017 foregrounds the role of drama as critical, quality pedagogy across the educational continuum. This theme is of central importance at a time when drama educators are concerned about the reductive and narrow curriculum offerings undermining all sectors of education. Each article in this issue provides evidence and strong counter-arguments for rich and creative pedagogies

Abstract This paper draws on data from a mixed method action research study investigating whether Mantle of the Expert supported or constrained science learning in a year 7/8 class. The 29 students (positioned as expert scientists) learned about buoyancy and stability through reinvestigating the sinking of the ferry Wahine in Wellington Harbour, New Zealand on 10 April 1968. The focus of this paper

Abstract The research outlined in this article uses drama as a methodology to effect levels of engagement in sociodramatic play. The study draws on research by the initiators of sociodramatic play training, and provides quantitative and qualitative results in relation to children aged three to six, in a disadvantaged setting. It is shown that children will not always learn to play by playing and that

Abstract ‘Je voudrais un café au lait’ you nervously utter to your classmate, who listens carefully while wearing his best haughty French expression. Role play has long been popular in Additional Language (AL) classes for practising and rehearsing daily conversations. Subsequently other forms of drama education have garnered interest from the Language learning community for their ability to provide

Abstract As part of the first Drama Australia Symposium in 2016 three of Australia’s best loved ‘vintage’ drama educators, who had been instrumental in the establishment of the association, were asked to contribute a keynote. Kate Donelan, Val Johnson and John O’Toole drew on their shared memories of the 40 years since the foundation of Drama Australia to highlight key moments in the association’s

Abstract In this paper, I argue that certain drama education practices pedagogically trouble didactic moral instruction and offer open and fertile ground for the exploration of morally ambiguous dilemmas. Referring primarily to the work of Joe Winston, I posit that theories of drama as moral education point to the desirability of an open moral agenda, and particularly that context and cultural specificity

Abstract The inclusion of Drama as a subject in the Australian Curriculum is largely a result of the unwavering advocacy of national associations (like Drama Australia) and alliances, in particular the National Advocates for Arts Education (NAAE). This article briefly outlines stages in national curriculum development in Australia and delineates key organisations and individuals who have contributed

Abstract This article gives an account of a drama based around an adaptation of the English folk tale Yallery Brown which was used to explore drugs related issues. The account is framed by a consideration of the problems and possibilities presented by the darker images that so often characterise traditional tales. Particular attention is paid to the moral agendas within the work in an attempt to investigate

Abstract Process drama is a highly engaging participatory form that is capable of generating rich opportunities for learning. This is especially the case when the drama experiences are built upon pretexts that are aesthetically charged and when the work itself is structured and facilitated by educators with a deep understanding of its true nature. However, in spite of a strong research base that supports

Abstract In twenty-first century schooling in Australia, the coherence of curriculum is both a blessing and a curse. Teachers now have the hard-won and delicious license to bring forth (sing forth!) the arts in a mandated place in Australian education. Yet tensions still exist for the mindful arts educator. How do we enable the arts to do what they do best in the hands of children and young people

Abstract This article examines the intersection between the senior secondary drama classroom, creativity and neoliberalism. Informed by a research project involving fifteen West Australian drama teachers and thirteen students, it considers the drama classroom as one site where tensions between the performative needs of neoliberal education and the more humanistic desires that drama teachers embody

Abstract This paper draws on the personal experience of the author who had been employed as a Youth Arts Manager in a small, desert town in the Northern Territory. In her research honours study during the project for which she was engaged, she aimed to understand the tensions she experienced managing this partnership. Now, five years later, she reconsidered the experience and, placing the concept of

Abstract The aim of this article is to provide primary teachers with effective ways of engaging in drama processes to affirm diversity and to promote inclusive education in regard to cultural and linguistic diversity. It is informed by, and a response to, the ‘cultural and linguistic’ section within the recently revised version of the Drama Australia Equity and Diversity Guidelines to which both authors

Abstract This article focuses on the Sydney case study within the 2013 international Water Reckoning Project (www.water-reckoning.net) – a project which repurposed Dorothy Heathcote’s rolling role curriculum model with digital technologies to connect students and teachers around the world in a common drama, considering the ‘what if’ context of a fictional community, called ‘Ardus Unda’, which was on