Exploring intercultural and ethical understanding through ‘Ethical Intelligence’ and drama, in Asian texts for the Australian curriculum : English

This paper focuses on Australian texts with Asian representations, which will be discussed in terms of Ethical Intelligence (Weinstein, 2011) explored through drama. This approach aligns with the architecture of the Australian Curriculum: English (AC:E, v5, 2013); in particular the general capabilities of 'ethical understanding' and 'intercultural understandings.' It also addresses one aspect of the Cross Curriculum Priorities which is to include texts about peoples from Asia. The selected texts not only show the struggles undergone by the authors and protagonists, but also the positive contributions that diverse writers from Asian and Middle Eastern countries have made to Australia.

Life Drama Papua New Guinea : contextualising practice

This article presents the Life Drama project as a case study in how theoretical and contextual factors may inform the development of an applied theatre initiative. Life Drama is a workshop-based, participatory form of applied theatre and performance being developed in Papua New Guinea. At this time, the aim of Life Drama is to address the gap between ‘awareness’and behaviour change in relation to sexual health, particularly HIV. The paper situates Life Drama within three fields of theory and practice – applied theatre, theatre for development and HIVeducation – and critically reflects on the ways in which this program is attempting to meet key challenges identified in the literatures of these fields.

Dancing Diseases : an applied theatre response to the challenge of conveying emotionally contradictory messages in HIV education

Health educators face an unusual challenge in relation to HIV: the need to convey two emotionally contradictory messages. On the one hand, there is currently no cure for HIV, which eventually leads to death (emotionally negative message). On the other hand, people with HIV can live long, healthy and productive lives (emotionally positive message). In developing countries where HIV prevalence is high, it is imperative that both messages are conveyed effectively. This article reports on a specific form, Dancing Diseases, implemented as one component of the Life Drama pilot study on Karkar Island, Papua New Guinea. Life Drama is an applied theatre and performance approach to HIV education. The article discusses Dancing Diseases as an example of applied theatre and performance practice, reflects on the participant group’s engagement with the form, and offers some ways in which the form could be refined and used in other health education contexts.

Let's eat the captain! Thinking, feeling, doing : intercultural language learning through process drama

This research investigated the sustained use of process drama in a middle school foreign language classroom. The experience led to widespread learner engagement, a deeper contextualisation of the language as a socio-cultural practice, and a willingness to use the spoken and written language, regardless of limited proficiency. The drama required that language use be context and culture specific, contingent and multi-modal, which encouraged the beginner students to "mushfake" or improvise spoken and written text. Particularly important was the way the body was used through drama to express emotion, remember language and to illustrate the sociocultural context of its use.

Critical linguistics in the early years : exploring functions of language through sophisticated picture books and process drama strategies

In this chapter we describe a critical fairytales unit taught to 4.5 to 5.5 year olds in a context of intensifying pressure to raise literacy achievement. The unit was infused with lessons on reinterpreted fairytales followed by process drama activities built around a sophisticated picture book, Beware of the Bears (MacDonald, 2004). The latter entailed a text analytic approach to critical literacy derived from systemic functional linguistics (Halliday, 1978; Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004). This approach provides a way of analysing how words and discourse are used to represent the world in a particular way and shape reader relations with the author in a particular field (Janks, 2010).

Arts education and iPads in the early years

This chapter takes as a working premise that digital culture is embedded in the every-day life experiences of most children living in post-industrial societies, both in home and, increasingly, in educational contexts. We outline how our research project investigated strategies for developing learning in the arts for young children by using the iPad as a creative device, rather than one on which they consume content in the form of games, on demand television and streaming video. We ask critical questions around creative ecologies and creative production; these grow from our observations on how young children and their families engaged with iPads through activities such as combining painting with digital photography. Analysis of work samples produced by children during the project enables interrogation of the ways in which young children can participate in arts practices and learning when digital media production is available. The chapter is structured around three themes of practice for iPad-based arts and creative education in preschool settings.

Drama, storymaking and iPads in the early years

In this chapter we consider how the iPad and selected applications such as Draw and Tell (Duck Duck Moose, 2013), Popplet (Notion Inc., 2013) and Puppet Pals (Polished Play LLC, 2013) can assist children in collaborative storying, retelling and sequencing story moments that can assist young children in their acquisition of oracy and their understanding of the world, both real and imagined, and their personal relationships. The data gathered from the project will also analysed through the lense of “critical and creative thinking” (ACARA, 2013, p.20-21) skills articulated as one of the general capabilities required in all subject areas of the Australian national curriculum, but which has particular application to The Arts subject areas. In this chapter, we consider artefacts created by preschool children using iPads and selected apps and interviews conducted with preschool children and their caregivers during our research project. We then offer examples of practice to assist preschool teachers in supporting children in their storymaking using the iPad and discuss approaches for engagement that twins the live and mediatised representation of a story.

Creating new folk opera forms of applied theatre for HIV and AIDS education in Papua New Guinea

This research investigated the potential of folk opera as a tool for HIV and AIDS education in Papua New Guinea. It began with an investigation on the indigenous performativities and theatricalities of Papua New Guineans, conducting an audit of eight selected performance traditions in Papua New Guinea. These traditions were analysed, and five cultural forms and twenty performance elements were drawn out for further exploration. These elements were fused and combined with theatre techniques from western theatre traditions, through a script development process involving Australians, Papua New Guineans and international collaborators. The resulting folk opera, entitled Kumul, demonstrates what Murphy (2010) has termed story force, picture force, and feeling force, in the service of a story designed to educate Papua New Guinean audiences about HIV and the need to adopt safer sexual practices. Kumul is the story of a young man faced with decisions on whether or not to engage in risky sexual behaviours. Kumul's narrative is carefully framed within selected Papua New Guinean beliefs drawn from the audit to deliver HIV and AIDS messages using symbolic and metaphoric communication techniques without offending people. The folk opera Kumul was trialled in two communities in Papua New Guinea: a village community and an urban settlement area. Kumul is recognisable to Papua New Guinean audiences because it reflects their lifestyle and a worldview, which connects them to their beliefs and spirituality, and the larger cosmological order. Feedback from audience members indicated that the performance facilitated HIV and AIDS communication, increased people's awareness of HIV and AIDS, and encouraged behaviour change. Tellingly, in one performance venue, forty people queued for Voluntary Testing and Counseling immediately after the performance. Twenty of these people were tested on that night and the other twenty were tested the following day. Many of the volunteers were young men – a demographic historically difficult to engage in HIV testing. This encouraging result indicates that the Kumul folk opera form of applied theatre could be useful for facilitating communication and education regarding sexual health and safer sexual behaviours in Papua New Guinea. Feedback from participants, audience members and other research stakeholders suggests that the form might also be adapted to address other social and development issues, particularly in the areas of health and social justice.

The Yonder project: Stories of impact, change, and capacity building through engagement in arts education

This thesis examined the long-term impact of the community arts education project Yonder, a collaboration between Education Queensland and Queensland Performing Arts Centre. The findings from the data reveal that the project was still having impact twelve months after its completion and that in some instances the project served as a 'circuit-breaker', especially for special needs students and struggling students. The intervention of a rich arts project proved to be an opportunity for these students to learn in a different way and to perceive themselves in a new and reinvented light. This confidence was found to transfer into other aspects of their learning.

Using children's picture books and process drama to develop students' critical literacy responses

This workshop introduces a range of process drama activities to develop students' critical literacy responses. Whilst children's picture books and process drama strategies have not traditionally been seen as sophisticated resources and strategies for developing students' critical literacy responses, this workshop shows teaching strategies that can be used in language instruction in primary classrooms with diverse student groups. The teaching activities include ‘attribute lists’, ‘sculptures’ and ‘freeze frames’.

Improvising a future in the performing arts: The benefits of reframing performing arts entrepreneurship education in familiar terms

Improvisation is a central concept in any drama, theatre or performance studies degree. It is a critical skill, which helps performers learn to ‘make it up as they go along’, apply existing skills to new situations and environments, and, of course, adapt find the most effective or creative pathway towards a their aims. As such, the fact that improvisation is rarely listed as a core career competency — even for performing arts graduates, who can struggle to engage with entrepreneurial skill sets they will need to learn to manage their unpredictable portfolio careers when they are couched in business terms — is somewhat strange. This paper examines the benefits of reframing the administrative, management and entrepreneurial skills arts graduates need to navigate a complex, uncertain, constantly changing industrial landscape in terms of improvisation, play, and playful self - performance. It suggests that adding improvisation to our career training arsenal may be worthwhile, not just because it may assist graduates in navigating their way through a portfolio career, but because it may offer a more familiar, user- friendly terminology to assist graduates in understanding the need to develop administrative, management and entrepreneurial as well as artistic skills, and, in a sense, understand the similarities between the two sets of skills.