symposium programme - drama australia · symposium programme at a glance ... melbourne research...

VENUE PARTNER:

DRAMA AUSTRALIA NATIONAL SYMPOSIUM 2017

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE CIVIC SQUARE, LONDON CIRCUIT, CANBERRA, ACT

FRIDAY 29 & SATURDAY 30 SEPTEMBER 2017

DRAMA AUSTRALIA, IN PARTNERSHIP WITH ACT DRAMA ASSOCIATION (ACTDA), PRESENTS

SYMPOSIUM PROGRAMME

WELCOME

of 18 DRAMA AUSTRALIA NATIONAL SYMPOSIUM 2017 – Programme

On behalf of the member associations of Drama Australia and the Drama Australia Board, I would like to that this opportunity to invite you to attend our 2017 Drama Australia National Symposium: Creative Capital. This year we find ourselves travelling to our nation’s capital, Canberra to gather as a national community of drama educators, researchers and practitioners as we share exciting cutting edge research and evidence-based practice.

My very special thanks are extended to the exceptional work of the 2017 Symposium Sub-Committee, spearheaded by Rachael Jacobs and Lucy Cronan, and to the Drama Australia Board and ACTDA Committee for their wonderful work.

I look forward to seeing you in Canberra for Creative Capital.

John Nicholas Saunders President Drama Australia

The ACT Drama Association (ACTDA) executive would like to warmly welcome you to our home and meeting place – Canberra.

Canberra to the outside world is casual shorthand for politicians and somewhat negative overtones, which go with the territory. But, this is not even close to the truth of who we are and what creative endeavours are currently happening in the capital.

The Creative Capital Symposium will be an opportunity to discover your artistic integrity and inspiration. We look forward to showing you the sights of our beautiful city in the spring time, the home to many national cultural centres and scenic landscapes.

Drama educators near and far come and share your creativity in the meeting place we call home – Canberra.

Lucy Cronan President ACTDA


11:30am – 12:30pm

Pre-symposium creative engagement workshop (optional)

EMBODIED PEDAGOGIES: A DRAMA WORKSHOP BASED ON SHAUN TAN’S STICK FIGURESJane Bird (The University of Melbourne)

12 noon – 1:00pm REGISTRATION

1:00 – 2:30pm SESSION ONE

WELCOME TO COUNTRY

WELCOME BY DRAMA AUSTRALIA AND ACTDA PRESIDENTS

OPENING KEYNOTES

Drama Changing Minds: How Drama in the Curriculum Transforms Teaching and Learning Peter Duffy (University of South Carolina)

Dramatic Thinking: Identifying and Owning Our Creative ProcessSusan Davis (Central Queensland University)

2:30 – 3:00pm AFTERNOON TEA

3:00 – 4:30pm SESSION TWO

TWENTY MINUTE PAPERS/PRESENTATIONS

Building Creative Capital Through School Partnerships: Implications for Drama EducationChristine Hatton (University of Newcastle) & Mary Mooney (Western Sydney University)

Working with Indigenous Plays in the Classroom: A Comparative School StudyAndrew Byrne (Braybrook College) & Lyndy Clarke (Caulfield Grammar School)

Demystifying Democracy: Dramatic Approaches to Teaching Australian Students About the Role, Function and Value of their Federal ParliamentAngela Casey (Parliamentary Education Office)

Thin Redundancy or Rich Aesthetics? Drama Education and Online Learning Design Brad Haseman (Queensland University of Technology)

4:30 – 4:45pm SHORT BREAK

4:45 – 5:45pm SESSION THREE

SIX MINUTE SNAPSHOTS

Drama and Prejudice: A Framework for Thinking About Our WorkKelly Freebody (The University of Sydney)

Artist-as-Teacher/Teacher-as-ArtistRichard Sallis (The University of Melbourne)

Puppet Partnerships: King's Christian College works with Dead Puppet SocietyChris Harm (King's Christian College)

Creative climates: Collaboration for Creativity in the Context of Individual AssessmentPaul Gardiner (The University of Sydney)

Embodied Pedagogies: An Examination of a Drama Workshop based on Shaun Tan’s Stick FiguresJane Bird (The University of Melbourne)

Performing Performance AnalysisMegan Upton (The University of Melbourne/Deakin University)

5:45 – 7:30pm WELCOME DRINKS – DRINKS, FINGER FOOD AND ENTERTAINMENT

SYMPOSIUM PROGRAMME AT A GLANCEDAY ONE – Friday 29 September 2017


9:00 – 9:30am REGISTRATION

9:30 – 10:45am SESSION FOUR

KEYNOTE IN CONVERSATION

Creative Leadership in the 21st Century Julie Dyson (NAAE) in conversation with Anita Collins (University of Canberra)

SPECIAL PRESENTATION

Y-Connect: Artists and Teachers in Partnership Madonna Stinson (Griffith University), Julie Dunn (Griffith University), Linda Hassall (Griffith University), Adrianne Jones ( Yeronga State High School) & Sanaz Hamoonpou (Yeronga State High School)

10:45 – 11:15am MORNING TEA

11:15am – 12:30pm

SESSION FIVE

TWENTY MINUTE PAPERS/PRESENTATIONS

Navigating Context in a Post-truth World: Confronting a New Challenge for ResearchersAlison O’Grady (The University of Sydney)

What Does the 'A' Mean?Dana Holden (Drama Queensland/Kedron State High School)

The Missing Ingredient in Arts and Cultural Evaluation Sandra Gattenhof (Queensland University of Technology)

12:30 – 1:30pm LUNCH

1:30 – 2:30pm SESSION SIX

STATE OF THE ARTS PANELState and Territory Leaders

2:30 – 3:00pm AFTERNOON TEA

3:00 – 3:45pm SESSION SEVEN

SIX MINUTE SNAPSHOTS

Engaging Boys in Drama: Harnessing Community Engagement to Enhance the Literacy Outcomes for Boys in Primary School Kate Halcrow (Catholic Education Canberra Goulburn/The University of Sydney)

Creative Classrooms: Living History Cate Smyth (The University of Sydney)

Using Drama as Creative, Critical and Quality Pedagogy to Improve Student Literacy and Engagement in the Primary YearsJohn Nicholas Saunders (Sydney Theatre Company/The University of Sydney)

Project O: An Arts-based Primary Prevention Program for Young Women Delivered by Big hART Led by Pip Bunning

Capitalising on Creativity to Re-imagine Schooling: Beyond STEM and STEAMMichael Anderson (The University of Sydney)

The Creative Shake Out – Led by Rachael Jacobs

3:45 – 4:30pm SESSION EIGHT

CLOSING KEYNOTE

Finding an ‘Authentic’ Young VoiceFraser Corfield (Australian Theatre for Young People)

FINAL REMARKS AND SYMPOSIUM CLOSE

SYMPOSIUM PROGRAMME AT A GLANCEDAY TWO – Saturday 30 September 2017

FRIDAY 29 SEPTEMBER 2017 – DAY ONE


PRE-SYMPOSIUM WORKSHOPEmbodied Pedagogies: A Drama Workshop based on Shaun Tan’s Stick FiguresPRESENTER: Jane Bird

This practical session explores key aspects of a drama workshop based on the short story Stick Figures by Shaun Tan that examines ideas of Australian suburban landscapes, nature, violence and otherness. The workshop will lead the participants through an imaginative, physical and emotional exploration of the text; heightened movement, dramatic storytelling, role-play, writing and music are used to explore Tan’s evocative visuals and poignant prose. This drama workshop has been used as an example of practice in a current University of Melbourne research project investigating the pedagogical and learning practices associated with an embodied approach to teaching.

JANE BIRD is a lecturer in drama education in the Melbourne Graduate School of Education at The University of Melbourne. She specialises in the artistic, embodied and collaborative qualities of teaching and learning in Drama for the secondary and primary classrooms. Jane also teaches and researches a range of applications for drama pedagogy across disciplines and contexts. Jane’s PhD investigates the applications of performance ethnography as an educational tool bringing together her expertise in drama pedagogy, adult learning and performance ethnography. She is currently investigating the conditions for using embodied pedagogies with non-drama specialist teachers.

SESSION ONE Friday 29 September 2017 – DAY ONE


OPENING KEYNOTESDrama Changing Minds: How Drama in the Curriculum Transforms Teaching and Learning PRESENTER: Peter Duffy

This presentation draws upon decades of cognitive science, creativity, drama/theatre and education research to demonstrate why enactive pedagogies such as drama should figure centrally into schooling practices. The main argument is that the brain, and eventually the mind, is a predictive machine that maps its predictive ability through the body. This twinned mapping of the brain and the body is a central concern of researchers interested in education, cognitive science and learning. Evidence shows that engaging the body not only reinforces learning multi-modally, but, in fact, triggers something much more profound; when the body is recruited in learning, the whole brain is activated. What drama provides more than other physical engagements is the creative and emotional dimensions of learning. Research is clear that when emotional centres are called upon during learning, the duration and complexity of the learning is more lasting. Peter’s research makes the case for embodied and social cognition in learning as well as look at the role that metaphor and cognitive linguistics plays in how we conceptualise and frame learning.

PETER DUFFY is an Associate Professor at the University of South Carolina where he heads the Master of Arts in Teaching program in theatre education, preparing future teachers to become drama educators. He teaches courses on drama-based pedagogies and arts integration. He is a director and is a former public school teacher, education director, and a New York City teaching artist. His research interests include ethnography, cognition and the arts, culturally responsive pedagogies and performed research. He serves as the Director of Research for the International Drama/Theatre Education Association (IDEA) and is a member of AATE. Peter’s work in arts education is nationally and internationally recognised. He is the 2013 recipient of AATE’s Win Wright Special Recognition award. His books include Youth and Theatre of the Oppressed (co-edited with Elinor Vettraino, Palgrave Press) and A Reflective Practitioner’s Guide to (mis)Adventures in Drama Education – or – What Was I Thinking (Intellect Publishing), Drama Research Methods: Provocations of Practice (co-edited with Christine Hatton and Richard Sallis, Sense Publishing, 2018) and Drama and Cognition: Staging Dramatic Improvements in Learning (Palgrave 2018).

Dramatic Thinking: Identifying and Owning Our Creative ProcessPRESENTER: Susan Davis

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’ (IDEO2011) are also proposed as being somehow common to creative processes. However most of these models arose from graphic design and visual arts traditions, so do these models actually take account of the specific strengths and opportunities for cultivating creativity through drama? What does it mean to engage in a creative process as a dramatist or a dramatic pedagogue? How does a consideration of dramatic form and process shape experience and impact on the visioning and imagining processes? This paper investigates the concerns and considerations of the creative process in drama with reference to systems theories of creativity and the notion of signature pedagogies to propose embracing the concept of ‘dramatic thinking’. If we accept that there are signature pedagogies (Shulman 2005) which are endemic to different disciplines and professions, these may also be seen to extend to thinking and creative process used by the dramatic pedagogue and dramatist. This paper will reflect upon the ‘dramatic thinking’ process with reference to examples from creative practice and scriptwriting as research.

SUSAN DAVIS is Deputy Dean Research at Central Queensland University in education and the arts with extensive experience in drama, applied theatre and education. She was previously a drama teacher and Performing Arts Head of Department and has been a member and chair of a range of drama/arts education committees and reference groups. She has led international, national and community based projects exploring innovative models for utilising digital technologies and drama processes. Her research has focused on drama, engagement, digital technologies and creativity. She is a current Co-Convenor of the Arts Education Research SIG of AARE, a Board member for Drama Australia and a life member of Drama Queensland.

SESSION TWO Friday 29 September 2017 – DAY ONE


TWENTY MINUTE PAPERS/PRESENTATIONSBuilding Creative Capital through School Partnerships: Implications for Drama Education PRESENTERS: Christine Hatton and Mary Mooney

Arts partnerships in education have long been seen as a way to enhance curriculum and students’ arts experience and provide opportunities to build creative capital beyond the scope of teachers and school systems. From an arts organisation perspective, arts partnerships provide access to education audiences and participants, which is often linked to funding opportunities and organisational development. In the climate of limited arts and education funding and school testing regimes, creative partnerships respond to increased accountability. This paper will report the NSW Fresh AIR (Artist in Residence) research study, which investigated three sustained artists-in-residence partnerships in primary and secondary schools over the period of three years from 2014 – 2016. This paper in particular, will emphasise implications for drama education including the drive towards using collaborative partnerships as leverage for building creative capital in our schools.

MARY MOONEY is an Associate Professor and Deputy Dean in the School of Education at Western Sydney University. Mary researches and teaches in the field of drama and arts education, artists in residence, teacher effectiveness and positive behaviour for learning. She is particularly interested in theoretical framings around the cultural practices of young people ranging from investigations into creative, digital and performative youth arts.

CHRISTINE HATTON is a lecturer in the School of Education at the University of Newcastle, Australia, where she researches and teaches in the field of drama and creative arts education Her research explores the workings of gender and identity in the drama classroom, teacher artistry and expertise, artists in residence programs and the uses of digital technologies in drama.

Working with Indigenous Plays in the Classroom: A Comparative School StudyPRESENTERS: Andrew Byrne and Lyndy Clarke

The Australian Curriculum Cross-Curricular Priorities states, “The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures priority provides opportunities for all students to deepen their knowledge of Australia by engaging with the world’s oldest continuous living cultures”. What does this mean for the drama/theatre classroom? We are fortunate to have a rich and diverse array of plays exploring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders stories and perspectives. The practice of casting non-indigenous actors in indigenous roles within professional productions has been widely condemned within the Australian community that it is now a mostly non-existent practice. The issue then arises as to how students can explore this work in the classroom, when the classroom may not have any Indigenous students, with respect to culture and an understanding of the need for Indigenous artists to be the ones to play Indigenous characters. Following on from the work laid-out by Kamarra Bell-Whykes of Ilbijerri Theatre Company and Dr Rachel Forgasz from Monash University, Lyndy Clarke from Caulfield Grammar and Andrew Byrne from Braybrook College and their respective Year 11 Theatre Studies classes, have collaborated to explore the issues of playing Indigenous characters, within the context of the educational setting of the classroom. Offering polarised perspectives, the students from Caulfield Grammar and Braybrook College sit on opposite ends of the socio-economic spectrum and hail from a myriad of cultural and ethnic backgrounds, none of them Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders. Both cohorts produced a production of Angela Betzien’s ‘Children of the Black Skirt’ and investigated the question “How do I play an Indigenous character and tell Indigenous stories when I’m not Indigenous” and the issues surrounding it, including: playing stereotypes, the use of accents, playing the truth of the character, and role identification.

ANDREW BYRNE completed his Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Teaching (Secondary) at Deakin University in 2012 with honours. He began teaching at Braybrook College in 2013 where he and his colleagues are developing a burgeoning drama faculty and is currently the Drama Faculty and Production Coordinator and Koorie Support Officer. Andrew has proudly served on the Drama Victoria committee since 2015 where he is currently the Treasurer and Co-Conference Convenor. He was awarded the Rob Galbraith Award for Outstanding Contribution to Drama by a Beginning teacher in 2015.

LYNDY CLARKE is a current member of the Drama Australia board and past President of Drama Victoria, and has taught for over 3 decades, in over 6 schools both in Melbourne and abroad, in advantaged and disadvantaged schools. Lyndy finds it fascinating, observing the cyclic path education takes. From AusVELS to National Curriculum, STEM to STEAM, we redefine and justify the place of our subject constantly. Like many of our association, she is a 'missionary' for the subject. How many times have we witnessed students transformed by the creative processes inherent in what we do? For Lyndy, the teaching of Drama and its capacity to offer students so much, is why she continues, very proudly, to teach in this area.... an area where we never fully see the end of our influence.

SESSION TWO Friday 29 September 2017 – DAY ONE


TWENTY MINUTE PAPERS/PRESENTATIONScontinued

Demystifying Democracy: Dramatic Approaches to Teaching Australian Students about the Role, Function and Value of their Federal ParliamentPRESENTER: Angela Casey

For many young Australians democratic and parliamentary processes seem irrelevant and removed from their lives. This trend is reflected in voter engagement in democratic elections around the globe. Drama pedagogy can be a powerful counter to youth apathy and disengagement. By incorporating these approaches into parliamentary education, the Parliamentary Education Office provides opportunities for young people to have ‘democracy demystified’: students emotionally engage and develop empathetic understandings of the roles, responsibilities and rewards of being an active citizen or politician in a liberal democracy. This paper will present case studies from the 90,000+ students who participate in our programs annually, provide tangible resources for educators interested in how drama can help create immersive, compelling and engaging learning environments across the entire curriculum and frame investigative role-based student research as a compelling entry point to verbatim theatre studies, museum theatre studies and other forms of primary source play building.

ANGELA CASEY is the Education Manager of the Parliamentary Education Office at Australian Parliament House, Australia. Angela leads a team of 13 professional educators to deliver immersive, experiential learning programs about the Australian Parliament. Using cross-curricular applications of drama pedagogy, Angela and her team create engaging, compelling learning environments for civics and citizenship education, with over 93,000 students booked to participate in PEO programs in 2017. Angela has a background in professional theatre, taught drama in NSW schools for 13 years and previously was the Head of Learning and Public Programs at the National Museum of Australia.

Thin Redundancy or Rich Aesthetics? Drama Education and Online Learning Design PRESENTER: Brad Haseman

Cognitive Load Theory dominates the world of online course design. Asserting a widely accepted set of principles, Cognitive Load Theory specifies how learning through multimedia can best be designed. One core principal is that of redundancy; the need to eliminate all unnecessary text to ensure a learner’s cognitive resources are not overloaded. This principle is at odds with notions of learning through the arts and aesthetic experience. For example the experience of the sublime is transformative precisely because the senses are overwhelmed and established mental structures cannot instantaneously make the experience cognitively sensible. This paper will report on the way drama education-led designers have rejected this version of the redundancy principal (among others) to create a learning environment informed by discoveries from our field; from digital drama and theatre, cyber dramas and other digitally mediated scenarios. The online course which serves as the case study for this research is called ‘The Fundamentals of Teaching Artistry’, a partnership between the Sydney Opera House, the Queensland Performing Arts Complex and Lincoln Center Education, New York and to be delivered on the Kadenze platform. (https://www.kadenze.com/) While the paper is immediately relevant to those working with drama and digital technology, it is also relevant to arts teachers who are having to deal with educational approaches dismissive of constructivist, problem-based and experiential education.

Last year BRAD HASEMAN completed thirty years with the Creative Industries Faculty at QUT where he was Professor in Drama Education and held a range of senior leadership posts. He has been a pioneer of drama in schools and arts education, and is known internationally as a teacher and workshop leader (Process Drama), arts researcher (Performative Research) and community engagement practitioner (teaching-artistry). He has published foundational scholarship in these fields most recently Dramawise Reimagined (with longstanding collaborator John O’Toole) and is currently the lead designer/curator on ‘The Foundations of Teaching Artistry’ an online course for Kadenze, a US based platform with global reach, due for release in late 2017.

https://www.kadenze.com/

SESSION THREE Friday 29 September 2017 – DAY ONE


SIX MINUTE SNAPSHOTSDrama and Prejudice: A Framework for Thinking About Our WorkPRESENTER: Kelly Freebody

This presentation draws on Conrad Hughes’ work understanding prejudice in education to explore the affordances of drama pedagogy for social justice. Linking to the conference theme through attention to democracy, prejudice and current world events, this presentation critically explores the role of drama education particularly, and schooling more generally, in reducing prejudice and making the world more just. Exploring Hughes’ four core principles of empathy, critical thinking, metacognition and critical understanding, the presentation uses Teaching the Truth About Refugees (Peter O’Connor, Rachael Jacobs, Kelly Freebody, John Saunders) a recent event held at the Sydney Theatre Company to highlight opportunities provided by drama pedagogy for the development of critical, embodied understanding of world events.

KELLY FREEBODY is a Senior Lecturer in Drama Education and Education Director at the Sydney School of Education and Social Work, The University of Sydney. Her research focuses on educational drama, social justice, creativity in education and school-community relationships. Her teaching interests include drama pedagogy and teacher education. Her recent volume Drama and Social Justice (Freebody & Finneran, 2016) is available through Routledge.

Artist-as-Teacher/Teacher-as-ArtistPRESENTER: Richard Sallis

The Arts Education team in the Melbourne Graduate School of Education at the University of Melbourne is host to the UNESCO Observatory on Arts Education. This six-minute snapshot will highlight one of the drama/theatre research projects from the Observatory that was developed by the Arts Education staff in conjunction with the CASS Foundation using an artist-as-teacher/teacher-as-artist professional development model. Amongst the findings of the research were that: providing models of the arts as central to learning, social and creative capital in the primary curriculum legitimises and supports teacher and student engagement with the arts; access to high quality human resources can be a catalyst for teachers to engage more confidently and actively with the arts in their school, and that when the generalist primary teacher experiences arts making as an artist it has the potential to broaden and deepen her/his engagement with the arts and with arts pedagogy.

RICHARD SALLIS is a senior lecturer in drama/theatre and research in education in the Melbourne Graduate School of Education (MGSE) at The University of Melbourne. Richard is a former President of Drama Australia, the current Director of Publications, for IDEA (the International Drama/theatre in Education Association) and co-editor of JACE, the ‘Journal of Artistic and Creative Education’ as part of the UNESCO Observatory on Arts Education. He has a particular interest in performed research and diversity and inclusion in drama education. He is currently co-editing a book on innovative drama research practices, which will be published later this year entitled: ‘Drama Research Methods, Provocations of Practice’.

Puppet Partnerships: King's Christian College works with Dead Puppet SocietyPRESENTER: Chris Harm

This Six-Minute Snapshot will explore the possibilities of the building of ‘Creative Capital’ through industry partnerships, to expand and deepen students’ experience of the Performing Arts, as exemplified by the recent collaboration between King’s Christian College and Dead Puppet Society. It will give a brief overview of how this creative process moved from a ‘crazy idea’ about a supersized Aslan puppet into something unique and groundbreaking in co-curricular drama practice. From the initial design questions of ‘what would this puppet look like’ and ‘how would he move’ through to the final stages of ‘how do we make a mane for this thing’ – every moment embraced the true nature of creative collaboration between students, staff and industry professionals, and the rewards were unpredicted but immeasurable. http://deadpuppetsociety.com.au/

Having always had a passion for self-devised work, CHRISTINE HARM has much experience in creating and staging non-naturalistic performances. In her current role as the Director of Performing Arts at King's Christian College, Christine has the privilege (and challenge) of bringing together the three main disciplines of performance: Drama, Dance and Music. Her background in Drama Education is augmented with her years prior to teaching working freelance in the theatre industry, and this often allows wider connections between students and industry professionals, to expand awareness of the possibilities of careers and collaborations in and between the Performing Arts.

http://deadpuppetsociety.com.au/



SIX MINUTE SNAPSHOTScontinued

Creative Climates: Collaboration for Creativity in the Context of Individual AssessmentPRESENTER: Paul Gardiner

Teaching for creativity is an imperative in the 21st century classroom(Jefferson and Anderson, 2017). However, strategies that encourage creative collaboration often pose challenges to teachers preparing students for individual tasks. This paper explores the findings of research into playwriting pedagogy and the associated pedagogical strategies that develop student creative capacity and creative confidence. I will explore ways to increase student collaboration (Sawyer, 2012) to encourage a climate of collective playfulness, while foregrounding individual progress and decision-making in the realisation of a creative product. It suggests ways that workshop practices can encourage risk taking and increase idea generation to access the benefits of a collaborative ‘joint venture’ (Jefferson & Anderson, 2017). It examines classroom practice through the lens of creative environments (Isaksen & Ekvall, 2010) and how collaborative practice can further foster student creativity through encouraging idea support, debate, trust and openness.

PAUL GARDINER lectures in creativity and drama education in the Sydney School of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney. He was a Ewing Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School from 2015-2016 and is currently exploring the impact of creativity theory on teaching and learning in the arts. Paul is particularly interested in the interconnected concepts of knowledge, creativity, agency and engagement. Paul is Chief Examiner for NSW HSC Drama and was Director of Research on the Drama Australia Board 2015-2016. He is an experienced Secondary Drama and English teacher, having established and led successful Drama departments in the schools in which he taught and continues to deliver professional learning workshops for teachers and creative writing workshops with students. He is currently writing on book on teaching playwriting and creativity to be published by Bloomsbury/Methuen Drama UK.

Embodied Pedagogies: An Examination of a Drama Workshop based on Shaun Tan’s Stick FiguresPRESENTER: Jane Bird

This presentation will focus on research into the pedagogical and creative learning practices associated with an embodied approach to teaching. A drama workshop based on the short story Stick Figures by Shaun Tan, which was originally designed for pre-service teachers to explore the applications of embodied pedagogies for primary and secondary teaching became a central component of the research project as an example of embodied pedagogy. Initial analyses of video capture, observational and reflective practitioner data found the workshop activities supported the participants’ physical engagement, risk taking and artistic expression. Through the physicalised risk taking and shaping of artistic responses, participants experienced memorable and visceral learning about Tan’s text.

JANE BIRD is a lecturer in drama education in the Melbourne Graduate School of Education at The University of Melbourne. She specialises in the artistic, embodied and collaborative qualities of teaching and learning in Drama for the secondary and primary classrooms. Jane also teaches and researches a range of applications for drama pedagogy across disciplines and contexts. Jane’s PhD investigates the applications of performance ethnography as an educational tool bringing together her expertise in drama pedagogy, adult learning and performance ethnography. She is currently investigating the conditions for using embodied pedagogies with non-drama specialist teachers.




Performing Performance AnalysisPRESENTER: Megan Upton

Throughout Australian, state drama curricula require senior drama students to attend live theatre performances and respond to it through written analysis, review or report. These curricula emphasise that ‘critically studying’ theatre enhances students’ capacity to be ‘an audience’ and develops their own creativity and ‘intercultural understanding’ (VCAA, 2010; BOS, 2009; QCAA, 2013; SACE, 2015; WACE, 2013). While scholars such as Reason (2010) state that theatre’s uniqueness is in part because, “we are unable to control the speed at which we watch a live performance, cannot re-play, re-read or re-watch and cannot re-consult it after the event” (p. 114), it is this very event that students are required to respond to in writing. This six minute snapshot presents a window on research that examined how four Victorian drama teachers approached teaching the analysis of a live theatre performance to senior students. It highlights four key “acts” teachers engage in – pre-performance, in-theatre, post-performance, and re-remembering – in order to engage with and potentially counter the challenges that the live theatre event offers teachers and students. It highlights classroom practice and considers the key role that theatre companies can play to enhance that practice.

MEG UPTON is a drama educator, researcher, teaching artist, lecturer and curriculum writer. She managed the education program at Playbox Theatre Company/Malthouse Theatre for eight years and is an arts education consultant with the Melbourne Theatre Company. Meg’s PhD thesis investigated the teaching of performance analysis in senior drama curriculum, examining what may constitute effective pedagogies. Meg has a post-doctoral research role at the University of Melbourne on the ARC Linkage project, Creative Convergence: Enhancing the impact of theatre experiences in the regions. She lecturers at Deakin in Drama, and Pedagogy and Curriculum. Meg is currently on the board of Drama Victoria, the Green Room Awards and RAWCUS Theatre Company.

SESSION FOUR Saturday 30 September 2017 – DAY TWO


KEYNOTE IN CONVERSATION Creative Leadership in the 21st CenturyPRESENTERS: Julie Dyson in conversation with Anita Collins

Canberra creatives, Julie Dyson and Anita Collins open the day with a creative challenge: how can we offer creative leadership and where is the creative capital in the current educational landscape? Drawing on their extensive experience of arts advocacy and practice in Dance and Music education, they discuss the nature of creativity across art forms today and discuss ways they can reach the edges of the curriculum. This dynamic duo also discusses current issues in arts education in Australia, and offer ways we can become leaders in this creative century.

JULIE DYSON, AM is the chair of the NAAE (National Advocates for Arts Education) and works in a voluntary capacity as an arts advocate across several organisations, including Canberra’s Childers Group, Sydney Dance Company’s education advisory panel, as a global executive member of the World Dance Alliance, as an adviser for the Australian Dance Awards, and as a member of the ArtsPeak executive. Julie chairs the National Advocates for Arts Education (NAAE), and is the former national director of Ausdance, where her work included policy development, advice to funding bodies, government departments, companies and individual artists, and the initiation of innovative partnerships to promote and support contemporary dance, performers and educators. She works as a volunteer on the dance collections at the National Library of Australia and Ausdance National, and has edited many publications, including Shaping the Landscape – Celebrating Dance in Australia and Shifting Sands: Dance in Asia and the Pacific.

ANITA COLLINS is currently Assistant Professor of Music and Arts Education at the University of Canberra, has been a Visiting Lecturer at the Australian National University and continues her long association with Canberra Grammar School. Anita is an award winning Australian educator, academic and researcher in the area of music education, particularly in the impact of music education on cognitive development. In 2015 Anita was awarded the highly prestigious Barbara Matthews Churchill Fellowship to travel to the U.S. and Canada in 2016 to research ways that neuroscience researchers work with school and music programs. In 2014 Anita was involved with the TED.com network through two project; as author of a short animated film for TED Ed and as a presenter at TEDx Canberra. Anita's expertise was recognised in 2016 when she was invited to join the project team for the OECD Education 2030 Framework.

SESSION FOUR Saturday 30 September 2017 – DAY TWO


SPECIAL PRESENTATION Y-Connect: Artists and Teachers in PartnershipPRESENTERS: Madonna Stinson, Julie Dunn, Linda Hassall, Adrianne Jones and Sanaz Hamoonpou

Y-Connect is a research partnership between a Brisbane secondary school and Griffith University, funded as part of the Collaboration and Innovation Fund, the Department of Education and Training, Queensland. The 3-year project provides access to artists within curricular and co-curricular contexts, support for excursions for the students, and for the research component of the program. The research seeks to answer the questions: How has participation in this project impacted on the young people involved (including but not confined to sense of connection, self-efficacy, literacy, artistry, oral language, engagement, motivation)? and What further impacts, if any, have occurred within and beyond the school community (including but not confined to impacts on teachers, community members, artists)? This presentation reports on the progress and emerging findings of Y-Connect.

MADONNA STINSON works in the School of Education and Professional Studies, Griffith University, Australia where she is convenor of the PhD program. Madonna has been a lead Investigator on many significant research projects including DOL: Drama and Oral Language; and Speaking Out (Singapore); TheatreSpace (ARC); Age Appropriate Pedagogies (DET); and 200 Children’s Voices (Metropolitan Region). Her teaching and research interests include Drama curriculum and pedagogy, drama and language learning, innovative and creative pedagogies and curriculum. Madonna is Director of Publications for Drama Australia. She has several books relating to drama education including Drama and Curriculum: the giant at the door; Drama and second language learning; and Dramactive 1 and 2.

JULIE DUNN lectures and researches in the School of Education and Professional Studies at Griffith University. At present she is Director of the Master of Teaching (Secondary). Julie Dunn's research work focuses on play, playfulness and drama. She has published widely in these areas, with a specific area of interest being their points of intersection. With research projects involving participants as varied as young children (Age Appropriate Pedagogies and 200 Children’s voices), adult drama learners (The Arrivals Project) and people living with dementia (Playful Engagement), the contexts for Julie’s research work are highly diverse. Julie is co-author of the renowned Pretending to Learn, How Drama Activates Learning; and Applied Theatre: Resettlement, Drama, Refugees and Resilience.

ADRIANNE JONES is a teacher artist who has worked in many contexts and institutions at a variety of levels. She has been a consultant, curriculum designer, chair, and board /committee member across the arts, education and health sectors. She has worked with young people, their families, artists, tertiary students and school communities from diverse communities. In 2015 she was one of the Senior Project writers for The Arts team in C2C creating and devising drama resources and completed her Masters of Arts (Research) investigating the long-term effects of arts education programs on low socio-economic communities. In 2017 she is the YConnect Manager. Adrianne is a PhD candidate at Griffith.

SANAZ HAMOONPOU grew up with a passion for storytelling, poetry and drama and holds a BA in English Literature from Shiraz University, Iran. Sanaz travelled to Sydney to complete an MA in Children’s Literature and a Graduate Diploma in Teaching Secondary Students. Currently, she works as an EALD/English and Drama Teacher alongside pursuing a doctorate project on the role of Theatre in the dialogical construction of Collective Memories and Cultural Identity among children and young adults. Sanaz is passionate about the power of arts education and regards her opportunity to work alongside her students to create theatre as one of the peak experiences of her life.

SESSION FIVE Saturday 30 September 2017 – DAY TWO


TWENTY MINUTE PAPERS/PRESENTATIONSNavigating Context in a Post-truth World: Confronting a New Challenge for ResearchersPRESENTER: Alison O’Grady

“The lies we choose to speak will always show more about us than our facts and our truths” (Freeman, J. 2016).

As researchers how do we deal with fabrication in a world of:

• Post-truth – where facts are less influential than appeals to emotion and personal belief

• Misinformation – where data is unintentionally inaccurate. Disinformation –where data is intentionally false Conspiracies – where there is a desire to believe that somebody is in control; where there is an ultimate design

This presentation suggests ways of locating authentic research through performance. In a recent workshop, it was discovered that divergent personal truths could co-exist, while simultaneously suggesting what was believed was most likely a lie. But the real challenge lay in preserving the integrity of the interview and locating the gravity of the content. So, when meaning is reshaped by belief, can narratives remain data?

ALISON O'GRADY is the Program Director of the Combined Degrees program and Lecturer at the University of Sydney, Sydney School of Education and Social Work. She teaches across a range of subjects including Pedagogy and Practices, English Curriculum and Creativity Teacher Artistry. Alison’s PhD examined the teaching philosophies of pre-service and graduate drama teachers and how they use language to orient to theories of social justice. Alison is currently working on an interdisciplinary project that facilitates a critical consciousness of human rights in personal practice. She is also currently a member of the Human Rights Commission Teacher Reference Group.

What Does the 'A' Mean?PRESENTER: Dana Holden

This year has seen two Year 7 classes at Kedron SHS engage in a subject called STEAM. So what does it mean to have the 'A' in STEAM? Parents (and other teachers) ask this question all the time. We have aligned to both the National and incoming ATAR curriculum, developed community and industry partnerships, and will be continuing as a subject next year. After delving into Design Thinking through a Fellowship in New York in 2016, I have worked with Kedron staff to use it as pedagogy to frame the way we plan and teach, and the way students learn. We don't know what jobs our students will have in the future but we can equip them with the skills they need now. We are stronger when we work together and share our creative capital, so if you need ideas see me, if you have something that works, I would love to talk to you.

DANA HOLDEN is President of Drama Queensland and teaches at Kedron State High School in Brisbane. She completed a Master's of Creative Industries in 2014 which examined the role of education departments in arts organisations. After receiving the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum Fellowship in 2016, Dana spent three months in New York City working in design thinking. This included professional development for teachers, classes for students, traveling to schools throughout New York state and to New Orleans and Washington DC to engage with schools across the country. She has also worked on the development of the new Queensland ATAR system to be implemented in 2019.

The Missing Ingredient in Arts and Cultural EvaluationPRESENTER: Sandra Gattenhof Within the world of arts evaluation, researchers are caught in what Goldbard (2015) refers to as ‘Datastan’ or what might be an obsession with metrics. But does this reporting really tell the story of change and impact for communities? Goldbard supports the need that evaluation of arts and culture to be captured in a more fulsome picture to better communicate the impact of arts participation by individuals and communities. Goldband speaks about usurping ‘Datastan’ by allowing ‘artists and cultural policy-makers to convey value with the tools best suited for that purpose: story, image, metaphor and experience’ (Goldbard, 2015, p. 226). This paper will present a number of evaluation forms used by arts and cultural researchers to report on impact and value measures, in an effort to build creative capital with and for communities. By using reporting forms that redefine the way researchers tell stories of arts impact there could be a rethinking as Holden (2004) notes for non-textual reportage to address the missing ingredient in the value and impact debate.

SANDRA GATTENHOF is Director of Research Training in the Creative Industries Faculty, Queensland University of Technology. She has been Discipline Leader – Dance, Drama, Music and is currently co-leader of the Creative Education and Creative Workforce theme in the newly established Creative Lab at QUT. Most recently Sandra’s research engagements have established her as a national and international leader in the in the field of arts and cultural evaluation as evidenced by her growing portfolio of commercial research contracts and recently released book, Measuring Impact: Positioning Evaluation in the Australian Arts and Culture Landscape (2017 Palgrave). She is Drama Australia’s representative on National Advocates for Arts Education (NAAE). Sandra is a Drama Queensland Life Member awarded for Longstanding Contribution to the Drama Community.

SESSION SIX Saturday 30 September 2017 – DAY TWO


STATE OF THE ARTS PANELThis session invites the Drama presidents and liaison officers from around Australia to present an overview of the issues facing arts education in their state or territory. Each presenter will also discuss curriculum developments, including the implementation of the Australian Curriculum for the Arts, with some insights into the successes and challenges that have arisen in the past year.

SESSION SEVEN Saturday 30 September 2017 – DAY TWO


SIX MINUTE SNAPSHOTSEngaging Boys in Drama: Harnessing Community Engagement to Enhance the Literacy Outcomes for Boys in Primary School PRESENTER: Kate Halcrow

This presentation will explore ways to engage boys in the process of drama to build confident creative communicators in the primary school context. Drawing on a broad range of examples from the elite urban school setting to small rural schools, both single sex and coeducational, Kate Halcrow will reflect on the guiding principles of community engagement and exciting literature to build the creative self in young students, especially boys. Real examples with practical suggestions will be linked to these suggested guiding principles.

KATE HALCROW is the Leader of Learning (Literacy and the Creative Arts) for the Catholic Education Office, Canberra Goulburn Archdiocese. She is also a PhD student (Education) at The University of Sydney with Prof Robyn Ewing looking at connections between literacy and music pedagogy. Kate was nominated for 2 ACTEWAGL awards in 2015 for directing and writing an adaptation of Shaun Tan's The Arrival, a Junior School production at Canberra Grammar School. She has presented many Professional Learning sessions in Literacy for AIS ACT, for Catholic Education and for Canberra Grammar School.

Creative Classrooms: Living History PRESENTER: Cate Smyth

This snapshot of practice describes a project that brings together experts in History, Creativity and Teacher Education to develop unique curriculum experiences and resources for both pre-service and graduate alumni teachers. It utilises current innovative scholarship on how dramatic interactions in the classroom can improve student motivation and intellectual excellence. Specifically, these approaches will be used to develop historical consciousness, a capacity for empathy and critical thinking, all of which underpins the new Australian Curriculum for schools which our graduates must teach and are explicitly identified in the New University Graduate Qualities. The aim of this project is to utilise a multidisciplinary, creative and 21st century learning approach to transform ways of thinking about History, English and Drama pedagogies within the undergraduate and graduate teaching program of the university. The proposed project addresses this need for creative ways of learning by developing new and innovative curriculum for pre-service educators that will engage them in theoretical, practical and exploratory development of their creative skills and capacities. A desire for greater creativity and innovation is prolific in education sectors, industries and governments the world over (Cho & Lin 2011; Craft 2005; Flew 2012) and this innovation in learning about history combined with the University of Sydney’s Beyond 1914 digital archives will enable this.

CATE SMYTH is a lecturer in the Sydney School of Education and Social Work at The University of Sydney. Her current teaching and research interests include history, technology, epistemic fluency, teacher education and professional development. For her PhD, Catherine is investigating how primary teachers develop epistemic fluency in history. Her Masters of Education (Research) examined the sources and nature of primary teachers' historical thinking and understanding.

Using Drama as Creative, Critical and Quality Pedagogy to Improve Student Literacy and Engagement in the Primary Years PRESENTER: John Nicholas Saunders

This research paper will share the findings from Saunders’ current PhD research exploring student outcomes through a drama-based intervention in English and literacy classrooms in the School DramaTM program. The program was developed by Sydney Theatre Company and The University of Sydney’s Faculty of Education and Social Work with Professor Robyn Ewing AM. School Drama is a professional development program for primary school teachers, which demonstrates the impact of using drama-based, creative pedagogy combined with quality children’s literature to teach a range of English and literacy. The paper will illustrate how using creative pedagogy (particularly process drama-based strategies), combined with quality children’s literature, can improve student academic (English and literacy) and non-academic (engagement, motivation, confidence and empathy) outcomes in the primary years of schooling.

JOHN NICHOLAS SAUNDERS BCI (Drama), BEd (Secondary), MEd (Research), is a former secondary school teacher and the current Education Manager at Sydney Theatre Company. John’s classroom work together with his research has focused on Drama as pedagogy and its benefits for student literacy, engagement, motivation and empathy. John has extensive experience in Arts Education and has worked in primary, secondary and tertiary contexts as well as involved in state and national curriculum development. John is a former President of Drama NSW and Drama QLD and currently holds positions as: President, Drama Australia; Chair, Australian Major Performing Arts Group (AMPAG) Education Network; and Drama representative, National Advocates for Arts Education.

SESSION SEVEN Saturday 30 September 2017 – DAY TWO



Project O: An Arts-based Primary Prevention Program for Young Women Delivered by Big hART PRESENTERS: Pip Bunning and performers

Project O by Big hART, partnered with Canberra Theatre Centre. Project O is a national primary prevention program for young women ages 12–15 delivered by Big hART, Australia's leading arts and social change organisation. Big hART works with communities experiencing high levels of need, delivering transformative projects to address complex social issues Project O promotes attitudinal change towards the capabilities of young women and delivers generational change in communities where family violence is an issue. Through weekly arts workshops, Project O participants develop new skills, building their agency, confidence, resilience and leadership skills. Project O culminates in Colourathon, a high profile public art marathon event that is created and run by the Project O participants. Presenting at the National Symposium is a valuable opportunity for the Project O participants to further develop their agency, sharing their insights and experiences about this transformative project, demonstrating the power of the arts to bring about social change.

PIP BUINING is a Teaching Artist and Theatre Practitioner (Director, Dramaturg, Producer, Writer, Mentor & Event Coordinator). She is the ACT Producer for Project O, a primary prevention program for young women delivered by Big hART. Pip is also a sessional academic for Australian Catholic University, teaching Drama in Education for pre service teachers in Early Childhood and Primary. She has completed a BEd. (University of Sydney), MA in Theatre Studies (University of New South Wales), Certificate in Film Production (New York University) and Certificate in Script Editing (Australian Film Television Radio School). She is a registered TQI provider, conducting Teaching Primary Drama workshops to in-service teachers within the ACT. As an artist she creates site specific work that explores and reflects our collective narrative.

Capitalising on Creativity to Re-imagine Schooling: Beyond STEM and STEAMPRESENTER: Michael Anderson

STEM and STEAM, incorporating Innovation and entrepreneurship are the current buzzwords in political, bureaucratic and in many educational conversations. There is however a missing link between these agendas and what happens in schools currently. In this presentation I will examine these discourses and discuss how development of creativity (encompassing critical reflection, communication and collaboration-the 4CS) are crucial to develop the social and cultural capital required for young people to survive and thrive in the 21st Century. Drawing on arts and drama pedagogy this paper will argue for the centrality of arts capacities to re-imagine schooling for this brave new world. The paper will use recent research afrom the University of Sydney to argue that creativity is the foundation and engine room of innovation. It is our claim that creativity builds skills such as deep perception, ideation,iteration, emergence, ambiguity, collaboration and communication. In short; creativity is to innovation what literacy is to reading and writing and without creativity; dynamic, lateral and effective innovation is unlikely to develop. Yet the STEM agenda expects teachers and schools to produce innovation learning strategies fully formed. In this presentation I will discuss the role of creativity as a driver of innovation across all subjects and fields and explore what we are missing out on by siloing STEM from other areas of creativity and innovation in the curriculum.

MICHAEL ANDERSON is Professor (Arts and Creativity) in the Sydney School of Education and Social Work at The University of Sydney. His research and teaching concentrates the role of creativity, the arts and play have on learning. This work has evolved into a program of research and publication that engages with arts classrooms directly. His recent publications explore how aesthetic education and research is changing learning in the 21st Century.

SESSION EIGHT Saturday 30 September 2017 – DAY TWO


CLOSING KEYNOTEFinding an ‘Authentic’ Young VoicePRESENTER: Fraser Corfield

In this address, Fraser Corfield of ATYP will talk through the creative processes he uses for building collaborations between young people and established theatre makers. 51 years in operation, ATYP is Australia’s national youth theatre company. The company is pioneering professional theatre with young people for audiences of all ages. Fraser will talk through how ATYP values the stories of young people and why they are important stories to tell. He will then explain the company’s theatre making processes and the principles that guide them, giving practical examples, anecdotes and tips for empowering young people to tell their stories in your classroom every day.

FRASER CORFIELD is the Artistic Director of ATYP (Australian Theatre for Young People). He has been the Artistic Director of Backbone Youth Arts (Qld, 2005-2008) and Riverland Youth Theatre (SA, 2001-2003) and the Associate Director of La Boite Theatre (1997-2000), Queensland’s second largest professional theatre company. As an Artistic Director Fraser has been a passionate advocate for new work, commissioning and producing over twenty new plays and productions. He has directed over thirty productions for professional, independent and youth theatre companies around Australia. Fraser has sat on advisory bodies at all levels of the industry including as a peer assessor for Arts Queensland (2009 -), the Theatre Board of the Australia Council for the Arts (2008–2011), Company Associate of Queensland Theatre Company (2006–2008), a board member for Young People in the Arts Australia (2007–2009), Chair of the selection committee for the Youth Arts Mentoring Program (YAMP) (2006–2008), a board member of Metro Arts (2005–2008) and part of the selection panel for Queensland’s theatre industry awards. He was one of seven Australians selected for the ‘Next Generation’ international collaboration which ran from the 2008 to the 2011 ASSITEJ World Congress and Performing Arts Festivals.

Drama Australia respectfully acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the country on which we work and note that this land has always been a place for learning through the arts.

www.dramaaustralia.org.au [email protected]

http://www.dramaaustralia.org.au

mailto:admin%40dramaaustralia.org.au?subject=

symposium programme - drama australia · symposium programme at a glance ... melbourne research...

Documents