Understanding the complexity of social issues through process drama

Middle level teacher Joanne O’Mara uses process drama as a means for her students to explore multiple perspectives. In the teaching vignette she shares here, her class challenges their understanding of deforestation through dramatizing Judith Nichol’s A Poem for the Rainforest.

France and the German refugee crisis of 1993

Initially liberal in its response to refugees from Nazism in 1933, France soon closed its borders to them. Thereafter, refugees encountered a regime of exclusion and antipathy. Historians confront the problem of explaining the reasons for exclusion. Anti-Semitism is often alleged to be motive-force, but this misleadingly imposes on an earlier period our understanding of the Vichy regime and its anti-Jewish legislation. This article investigates the nature of the French responses to those in flight from persecution in Nazi Germany in 1933, and questions whether it is proper to study this period in the context of events after 1940. It argues instead that French refugee policy in the 1930s emerged from the context of anti-foreign measures implemented in response to the economic stress of the late 1920s. Its study of the crisis in 1933 identifies the pressures that shaped France's exclusionary policies and its antipathy to the plight of the refugees.

The Chihuahua sustainability practice: lots of shivering but no real action. Practical sustainability acceptance is low in German and New Zealand firms

Purpose – This paper aims to describe the extent to which corporate organizations in Germany and in New Zealand have included sustainability practices as part of their strategic planning process.

Design/methodology/approach – Current literature is reviewed to make a case for sustainability to be a driver behind corporate decision making and long-term performance. The results of surveys of several hundred firms in both Germany and New Zealand, countries with a publicly stated commitment to sustainability, are reviewed to compare the adoption rates of sustainability practices.

Findings – There is a significant difference between what firms do and what their managers think is important. Managers largely consider sustainability practices an important factor for their future careers, while firms to a large extent do not include sustainability as part of their strategic or operational planning process.

Research limitations/implications – The International Sustainability Acceptance Measurement (ISAM) collects data in several countries through local-language versions of the same online survey tool (www.worldreply.com). The findings in this report are specific only to New Zealand and Germany.

Practical implications – The paper points academics, corporate executives and sustainability fanatics to an alarming inconsistency between what is publicly reported as commitment to sustainability and what is practically achieved.

Originality/value – This paper adds value to the discussion of how sustainability practices have migrated into the operation of firms.

A blog says I am here! : Encouraging reflection on performance-making and drama practice through blogs

This chapter considers the use of social software, in particular the blog, emerging from youth web-culture as a space for groups and individuals to reflect upon performance-making processes. lt focuses on the Drama Australia VINE project, launched at the beginning of 2006 through to its conclusion at the end of2007. The VINE project brought together groups of drama students within schools, universities and the broader community to make group performances based on a common theme. Using a multi-user blogging environment, vineblogs net, groups or individuals maintained blogs of their performance-making processes. This allowed the work to l¡e shared within the VINE project community and potentially with a worldwide audience. A case study was set up involving one class of students and their teachers who were involved in the VINE project and participants were asked to reflect and comment upon the performance-making and blogging experience. The chapter considers the challenge that we face as educators to find appropriate avenues to engage young people in reflection. It considers the ways in which students engage with technology that are ofter different from their teachers. The chapter goes on to discuss how blogs can contribute to the creation of a sense of individual or group identity and recognition. It asks, 'how do blogs encourage reflection upon performance-making processes and facilitate the creating of connections and the building of community between drama students and teachers across a range of settings?' Finally the chapter describes what we've learned about blogs in drama and considers where we go from here'

They talk the talk, but do they walk the walk? sustainability acceptance is low in German and New Zealand firms

Through the International Sustainability Acceptance Measurement (ISAM), we intend to better understand the level of acceptance of sustainability as a practical management tool in business around the world (www.worldreply.com). It was observed by others that sustainability concepts often stay on a rather general level where it is hard to identify specific indicators and the potential for future development.i In an effort to contrast the level of sustainability in the ISAM countries, the participating universities analyze their respective country data and then co-operate to benchmark and compare this information around the globe. This makes the ISAM work one of the few world-spanning efforts to look at the practical implementation of sustainability.

Comparability of German and Australian disclosures in financial reports

Reports an international comparison between Australian and German company annual reports. The theoretical framework was drawn from Hofstede's analysis of national cultural value dimensions and Gray's accounting sub-cultural values. The results, using the method developed by Van der Tas, showed low levels of international harmony on accounting policies.