CELEBRATING DRAMA EDUCATION IN TOUGH TIMES: AN EXTRACT FROM A DATA-DRAMA (original) (raw)
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Drama and theatre in and for schools: Referencing the nature of theatre in contemporary New Zealand
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No Drama: Making Do and Modern Learning in the Performing Arts
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Over the past decade, Aotearoa New Zealand's government has mandated that all new school buildings be designed according to an ILE approach to support student-centred teaching and encourage creativity and collaboration. For experienced drama facilitators who rely upon an environment that encourages collaboration, dialogue and flexibility this is familiar territory (Nicholls & Philip, 2012) (Nicholls and Philip, J Appl Theatre Perform 17:583-602, 2012). Often teaching in repurposed spaces, drama teachers resourcefully adapt halls, prefabs, libraries, sports fields, or empty classrooms for rehearsal, teaching, devising and performance. Drama facilitators and students have long been innovating spaces; not necessarily out of pedagogical intention, but practical necessity. This chapter discusses the reflections of an experienced drama educator who recently transitioned from the drama space she 'made do with', into a purpose-built ILE school. The ILE has presented new challenges to both her pedagogy and commitment to exploratory, collaborative and creative approaches. We examine how this purpose-built ILE facility affected her drama pedagogy, and the extent to which pedagogical innovation applies in this context. As a reflective practitioner inquiry, this case study generated data through embodied reflection (Luton, 2016) (Luton,.New Zealand J Res Perform Arts Educ 6:27-37, 2016) and journal entries. The inquiry explores the relationship between a drama teacher, her pedagogy and her teaching space. We conclude by reflecting upon the significance of the space to the teacher, its connection to pedagogy and opportunities and limitations for future praxis. We advocate for a considered review of the specific needs of Drama within future spaces to ensure practitioners are not simply making do, once more.
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The status of drama, theatre and performance in Higher Education is inevitably shaped and affected by shifts in educational policies that manage and administrate compulsory education. In this article, I draw on cultural theorist Claire Bishop’s concept of an ‘educational turn’ in contemporary social practice as starting point for unpicking some of the complexities facing the status and value of the Arts in compulsory and higher education. My arguments are underpinned by my role as a teacher in the state comprehensive system in which shifts to understanding education as comprised of ‘facilitating’ an d‘non-facilitating’ subjects risks undermining creative subjects as both key pedagogic tools and subjects in their own rights.