Drama Tuesday - Are there only 25 C’s of Drama Education?

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Friend and drama education colleague, John Foreman, sent me a link entitled the 25 C’s of Drama Education. Before I opened the link I started my own list.

Creativity. Courage. Character. Collaboration. Community., Communication. Commedia.

With the help of Drama and Theatre Key Terms and Concepts 3rd Edition, I added: 

cabaret, Cap and Bells, Carnivale, cast, catharsis, cause and effect, censorship, ceremony, chamber theatre, characterisation, character journey, Chekhov, children’s theatre, choral speaking, chorus, Chronicle play, circus, Classical Greek drama (that’s cheating a bit!), climax, comedy, conflict, copyright, corpsing, costume, cue, curtain, cyclorama.

Now, to turn to the words offered by Justin Cash (https://thedramateacher.com/the-20-cs-of-drama-education/) 

What are the key words/concepts on your list?

Other ideas can be found at 


Drama Tuesday - Drama teaches life. Drama teaches employability skills.

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 Professional Associations are wonderful advocates for drama education. Drama Victoria, a member of Drama Australia, has just published a notable series of videos and posters that promote reasons for studying drama.  

It is therefore a pleasure to share the link and recommend this work.

There is a series of short videos covering each of these topics. 

These resources are for use by careers guidance counsellors, teachers, parents, guardians and students. The resources consist of a Careers Night compilation video, A3 downloadable posters, core competency case study videos and Drama Teaches Employability Skills Booklet & Course Guide, These resources were produced by Drama Victoria in association with the Australian Centre for Career Education and with funding provided by the Victorian Government Department of Education and Training.

Although pitched for Victorian contexts, this resources is highly recommended for all drama educators. 

It is important to acknowledge that the skills noted for drama are also applicable beyond employment fields. They are important for life. It is perhaps a comment on the functionally-focused approach to education taken by some governments. Drama is important because it connects us with our social aesthetic our  sensitivity to the nuances in human relationships and adds greatly to the richness of social experience.

Music Monday - What will we do next? How do you decide the next musical?

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The curtain has just descended on your successful production. Your students (and their parents and even the Principal) are clamouring: “what will we do next?" You’ve done a run of successful shows and you want the next one to be as successful. How do you rise to this challenge?

This can be a delicious dilemma.

But there are questions that need answers.

  • How do you choose the next musical or play to produce in your school?

  • Who decides?

  • What is the process? Is there a process?

  • What are the principles on which choices are made?

Is the choice of your school’s next production whim? What’s trending? Debate? Consultation?

Who and how you decide is a measure of your underlying values. 

Who decides makes a difference.

How often are drama teachers portrayed in films as loopy, self aggrandising megalomaniacs (for comic purposes of course)! But can this sort of decision making ever be truly democratic? There is a question that needs to be always asked: whose production is this?

A process establishes clear guiding principles, timelines and is transparent and consultative

Some questions to developing guiding principles

Choosing a production in an education setting

  • How does this choice of production meet the learning needs of your students?

  • Is the production designed to meet a mandated curriculum or syllabus requirement? 

    For example, if the syllabus requires students to explore examples of historical music theatre using book structures and fully integrated songs and dances then the choices are different if what was required was a jukebox musical.

  • what is the overall purpose of the production?

    Is it to satisfy syllabus standards? Or is it to bring together the school as a community working collaboratively on a shared project? Is it about “school spirit”? Or perhaps, what is the balance between these purposes?

  • Is this chosen production appropriate for the level of skills development and learning progression of your students?

    – Vocal range?

    – Level of dance? 

    – Specialised dance such as tap?

    – Emotional demands of roles?

    In other words can your students manage the song ranges, dance requirements, acting challenges? It is OK for younger students to work on Junior Versions with adjusted scores.

  • Is it age appropriate in terms of content, and acting? 

    There is nothing quite as off-putting as a Year 9 playing (trying to play) Bloody Mary in South Pacific.

  • Are the themes and subject appropriate for your school setting?

  • Will the community support it?

  • Will your Principal and colleagues go on the journey with you?

Practical issues

  • Can you get the rights?

  • What is the size of the cast?

  • What is the gender balance of roles?

  • What is the gender balance of your students available for the production?

  • What are the staging requirements?

    For example, Does it require Peter Pan flying? Or are there multiple sets? costumes? Props?

  • Is the title recognisable and marketable for your community?

  • Do you have to have a well-known production?

    Some productions, particularly musicals are known properties. Parents as audiences know the difference between Mama Mia and all the nearly-made it shows in the catalogue. 


There is one final question: do you want to spend countless hours of your life and a river of sweat and tears on a show that you don’t believe in?

It’s not as simple as pulling up the MTI Catalogue and sticking a pin in the title list. 

The Educational Theatre Association’s (EdTA) https://schooltheatre.org/play-survey/ annual play survey for the 2021-2022 year.



Drama Tuesday - This is my IDEA DREAM from the IDEA 2022 Congress.

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With 30 years of IDEA there is still one unresolved issue of drama/theatre education… (well, to be honest, probably more than one, but let’s focus on just one!)

The issue is captured in the awkward English naming of IDEA – the International Drama/Theatre and Education Association. It’s a mouthful in English. And it is avoided in other versions of the association name.

What is the name of the field?

Is the term “drama”?

Or, is it “theatre”?

Does it matter!

Is it just an issue of language and terminology? Or are there underlying cultural, social, pedagogical and even political issues and tensions that are fundamentally significant.

IDEA seeks always to be inclusive. And strives to be careful in the use of language. Hence the difficult wording in the English naming of IDEA. But my tongue stumbles over it every time. It has been a long discussed project but now, I suggest, a necessary one.

IDEA could be the point where there is a bringing together a commonly shared and understood language about our field. One starting point, I suggest, is to collect from all places and points of view the ways that drama education is named and explained. Putting it all in one place would be a starting point.

What sorts of questions would be the starting point?

  • What do you call your work: drama education? Or theatre education? Or, something else?

  • List (and briefly explain) 5 key terms that you use that are central to your practice.

  • Identify (and briefly say why) up to 5 significant practitioners in your field that shape your work.

What other questions would we ask ourselves as a community?

This is above all not about trying to homogenise the language. Not to normalise or make practice common. It is rather, the need to recognise and celebrate our differences and recognise our shared connections while making our dialogues even easier and creating community.

Drama Tuesday - Are We There Yet?

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 Research is a journey and it is useful to reflect on our journey’s into drama education research. Like the restless child in the back seat of the car on the road trip, we ask again and again the question: Are we there yet!

I came to academic research as a classroom-based researcher. The confluence of the stars meant that I began teaching at a time that gave attention to research in place. The mantra of the times was that every teacher was necessarily a researcher in their own classroom. I initiated action research projects in the spirit of But My Biro Won’t Work (Coggan and Foster undated)  that supported school-based curriculum. When I moved to curriculum leadership positions within the Department of Education, this approach led the development of progression maps in Drama and Arts (1998) that drew on the lived experiences of drama teachers in their classrooms. I reported this work in progress at the 1997 International Drama in Education Institute, IDEIRI, conference convened by Juliana Saxton and Carole Miller at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. 

Yet, even amongst a sympathetic clan I always had the feeling that I was not seen as a “real researcher”.

This was annoyingly and frustratingly confirmed when in 2002 I started working at Murdoch University. The sniffs of “academic dismissal” might be disguised until certain rites of passage took place, but this “blooding” only strengthened a commitment to valuing portraits of authentic experience qualitatively told. Built into the assessment design of my drama teacher education courses was a focus on reflective and reflexive practice. Building on models such as those provided by Norris, McCammon and Miller (2000), I asked students to build and share case stories of their drama teaching learning. Every teacher must be a researcher about their own practice.

This is not to downplay the case for academic rigour in research nor undervalue the quest for trustworthiness. Nor should we ignore necessary training in the protocols and rituals of apprenticeships in research. We need to reassure the wider community – and ourselves – that we have a legitimate place in the research arc. But we also have to find the courage to affirm our own research confidence. I hasten to assure you that I did serve my time and built an academic research profile (for example, https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Robin-Pascoe). But I have to add that I learn so much from working with research students as their research lives unfolded and this reinforces the idea that research is a journey .

You ask two questions:

  1. What is ONE important development in Drama/Theatre and Education research in the last 30 years?

  2. What is IDEA's role in furthering Drama/Theatre and Education research in the future?

In answer:

  1. One important development in Drama/Theatre and Education research has been a recognition of seeing ourselves as teacher researchers.

  2. IDEA’s role is to create communities where we empower and share the voices of teachers as researchers.

There is a third question:

Are we there yet?

Of course, we are not there yet. 

It’s the journey that matters.

Taking a moment to reflect on IDEA and Research as a quest

The role of IDEA in supporting research since its founding in 1992 has been significant. Not only is this a reflection of the role of drama educators in the Academy, it is an endorsement of the founding principles of IDEA. As noted in Article 3 of the IDEA Constitution, the aims of IDEA are: 

  • to provide an international forum for communicating about, promoting and advocating for drama/theatre and education in schools, communities and all fields of endeavour;

  • to support development of drama/theatre practice and theory as part of a full human education.

Research lies at the heart of the IDEA mission. 

As a community, IDEA must recognise and celebrate the role of Research in its ongoing story.

It is interesting to read overviews of drama education research (see, for example, Jones 2021, reviewing Drama research methods: provocations of practice: edited by Peter Duffy, Christine Hatton and Richard Sallis, all IDEA figures). In acknowledging the rich inheritances of research in the field, it is important to recognise that participants in IDEA have been drawn together into a shared international space. Belonging to community has contributed to and fired debates and differences, resonances and refractions. IDEA is not about creating an homogenised view about research in drama/theatre and education. It is about creating a space for sharing. 

Research is ultimately about questioning practice and IDEA’s role is to help us ask better questions. Morgan and Saxton (1994) reminded us there is a compelling role for questions in creating powerful learning environments. Active learners ask and answer questions. In a different religious context, George Herbert, poet coined the phrase repining restlessness, to describe a state of always, ever striving forward. Research should always leave us asking the next question, not merely giving us a warm afterglow of satisfaction. 

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

TS Eliot, Little Gidding.

Bibliography

Coggan, J. and V. Foster (undated). "But My Biro Won't Work" Literacy and learning in the secondary classroom - an action research study. Camden Park, South Australia, Australian Association for the Teaching of English AATE: 96.

Curriculum Council of Western Australia (1998). Curriculum Framework, Curriculum Council of Western Australia.

Eliot, T. S. (1969). Complete poems and plays of T.S. Eliot. London, Faber and Faber.

Jones, J. P. (2021). "Drama research methods: provocations of practice." Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance 26(2): 379-384.

Morgan, N. and J. Saxton (1994). Asking Better Questions Models, techniques and classroom activities for engaging students in learning. Markham, Ontario, Pembroke Publishers Limited.

Norris, J., L. A. McCammon and C. S. Miller (2000). Learning To Teach Drama: A Case Narrative Approach. Portsmouth, Heinemann Drama.


Music Monday - Music Theatre Overload

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It’s a music theatre overload. Straight from Mac and Mabel at The Maj (WAAPA) to John Curtin for 42nd Street ( with a detour for fish and chips at The Groper and His Wife!)

42nd Street is amazing. 

Yes there were some sloppy mike cues. And a bit of fluffiness first night nerves. But truly amazing. Not just the usual disclaimer that they’re just school kids. The actors danced their taps off. They sang with attack and gusto. A complete package. The orchestra was fierce (sometimes a bit too so!). And tunefully on point for style and oomph. 

Yes, there are some severely overworked males filling too many roles. Take nothing away from them. But the drought of boys and flood of girl talent needs attention. But when you think where the music theatre program has travelled to get to this point it’s a theatre mystery. To quote the classics. 

And by contrast with this arvo, I could understand every word (when the mike cues worked!). Why do you think that is? 

Some talented younger performers too. Year 10. Great tapping – amazing tapping. Staging.  

Increasingly we see more use of projections. Jury is out still about the effectiveness of their use. Challenging to get right.  But as I noted to Liz, the whole MTI packaging of music theatre  productions for schools is phenomenal (https://www.mtishows.com/production-resources). It’s not just that they have a range of productions available (Senior and Junior versions), it’s the breadth of the resources: not just music and recordings but also choreography. The scripts are well produced and informative for students. There’s a range of resources. Talking of projections there are also packages of them for shows that can be licensed (https://www.mtishows.com/marketplace/resource/performance/scenic-projectionstm). Of course, you also need the equipment to project them – and the sophistication of this virtual scenography is increasing.  

The WAAPA production of Mac and Mabel was also highly entertaining. And used lots of projections. Those students are also amazing. But I do have a couple of  questions unanswered.

There’s good reason why some music theatre shows are revived often and have enduring popularity (though that can change over time!).

But there’s also shows that fade away. 

Mac and Mabel is Structurally problematic. Two Mack Sennets. And, my, how the 1927 Sennet grew 12 inches in the intervening years. Despite disparity of heights though they were well matched performances. 

But, you know there’s a problem with the show when there’s a full five minutes of explanatory slideshow to address the gaps in the audience’s understanding of the people in the story. 

The person beside me asked before the overture if this was about the Mabel from the wireless days (Mabel was a character in Dad and Dave from Snake Gully an Australian radio drama series 1937 – 1953). 

For me, it was minute 37 before there was a popularly recognisable tune.

And issues of clarity with spoken lines from leading lady - not from singing. Go figure!

Makes you wonder why this show was the Big Ticket WAAPA showcase in The Maj. Something to offer in terms of challenge and learning for students but why this  rather forgettable piece which would fit more easily into another slot in the WAAPA calendar. 

As I said, though, a music theatre overload for one day and I haven’t even talked about seeing the Black Swan production of Once at the Regal. 



Arts Education – is it being lost in the thunder of the current election

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 Arts and drama educators mostly get on with their day to day teaching. This week ACARA, the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority launched The Australian Curriculum Version 9. On the whole, the focus of this major revision, politically driven, has been on strengthening Phonics in English and on headline grabbing issues amongst some such as “strengthening and making explicit teaching about the origins and Christian and Western heritage of Australia's democracy” (once again reinforcing the deep seated suspicion of dark motives in curriculum writers, sensed by some conservative Australians.

There are changes for the Australian Curriculum: The Arts – I will write about them in a later post. 

For now I focus on the relative quiet amongst the media and public about the changes in Version 9. Where is the uproar. Where is even the ripple of recognition that a change has been made that has consequences to teaching and learning?

Put simply, there is nothing showing on the Richter Scales of Education. 

The new version, despite the consultation that happened in 2021, is sinking like a stone unnoticed. 

In fact, Arts Education is not on many people’s radar this election. 

Not surprising given the focus on cost of living (petrol prices rising; inflation figures burgeoning) and the bickering and scrapping tone of the election and going for the jugular gotcha moments that dominate the media feeds.

But is anyone noticing that Arts Education is floundering in the quicksand of Australian education. Passionate few struggle to lift it up. But generally, as an education community, our focus is elsewhere. Not waving, but drowning.  

I share the media release from the National Advocates for Arts Education NAAE in full. 

Is anyone listening?

Certainly, this call falls on deaf ears of my rusted-on local representative.

ACARa advises. Version 9 will be implemented by states and territories according to their own timelines. ACARA will maintain the current Australian Curriculum website with Version 8.4 curriculum and both websites will remain live until such time as there is no need for schools to access Version 8.4 of the Australian Curriculum.NAAE statement about the 2022 federal election

Who we are

The National Advocates for Arts Education (NAAE) is a coalition of peak arts and arts education associations representing approximately 10,000 arts educators across Australia. NAAE members are Art Education Australia (AEA), Australian Dance Council – Ausdance, Australian Society for Music Education (ASME), Australian Teachers of Media (ATOM), Drama Australia and the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA). 

NAAE advocates for every Australian student in primary and secondary schools to have access to quality Arts Education across the five arts subjects: Dance, Drama, Media Arts, Music and Visual Arts.  We ask all political parties to endorse this principle.

Why arts education?

Australian and international research has continued to show the multitude of benefits that The Arts can have on student academic and non-academic outcomes. Arts Education not only fosters the development of artistic skills for art making, but it also teaches skills in collaboration, innovation, experimentation, resilience, confidence, problem-solving and communication.   Research finds that students who engage in The Arts do better academically in their non-Arts subjects than those students who do not participate in The Arts (Martin et al., 2013).

 There is ample global evidence (including Australia) that speaks to the explicit value and benefits of an Arts rich society. This enrichment begins and is contingent upon access to quality Arts Education. Arts Education plays an essential role in preparing young people and industry professionals to respond holistically, meaningfully, and purposefully to the impacts of global events. The long tail of COVID, coupled with catastrophic climate events and significant global conflict all point to the necessity of and need for Arts education in Australia. 

 It is now time to halt the erosion of support for arts and arts education that has occurred over the past decade. We ask for meaningful investment in quality Arts Education across all levels of Australian society. This means making a tangible commitment to providing increased support for rigorous and sophisticated opportunities for teaching, learning, making, producing, and creating into the future.

 What we are calling for

The National Advocates for Arts Education are calling for all political parties to consider and endorse the following policy imperatives.

  1. NAAE urges all political parties to commit to the development of a National Cultural Policy that includes Arts Education and is developed in consultation with artists, arts educators, the community, and peak arts bodies to ensure a well-supported arts and cultural sector that is serving the Australian community.

  2. NAAE calls for support for implementation of arts curriculums across the five Arts subjects in each state and territory in Australia from Foundation to Year 12 with targeted professional development, training, and education programs.

  3. Halt the erosion of arts specific education training in Initial Teacher Education (ITE) to increase curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment course allocation time for The Arts. This extends to specialisations and time for arts learning in early childhood and primary education courses to ensure teachers are well equipped to teach at least one Arts subject in depth. See NAAE’s submission to the Quality Initial Teacher Education Review here.

  4. Undo the current government’s university fee increase to Creative Arts courses. We call for an equitable tertiary education system that does not target Creative Arts degrees with increased fees on the false basis that this area of study does not lead to employment. See our August 2020 statement and September 2020 statements for more details.

  5. Increase funding to the Australia Council for The Arts to specifically include funding for teaching artists in schools for existing and future programs, as well as support for arts engagement programs with students and for teacher professional learning.

  6. The National Music Teacher Mentoring Program (established by Richard Gill and implemented through the Australian Youth Orchestra) be expanded with additional funding to ensure early childhood and primary school teachers also have professional learning support across the other four Arts subjects: Dance, Drama, Media Arts, and Visual Arts.

  7. NAAE calls for the removal of political interference in Australian Research Council (ARC) directions for Australian research. Earlier this year we raised concerns about the increased level of government interference in independent peer-review processes, and major implications for the type of research that will occur in years to come.

  8. Given the concerns raised above, NAAE calls for a federally funded Review of The Arts in Australian Schools. Within the past 15 years, two federally funded reviews have been conducted into two arts subjects; National Review of School Music Education: Augmenting the diminished (Pascoe, Leong, MacCallum, Mackinlay, Marsh, Smith, Church, and Winterton (2005) and First We See: The National Review of Visual Education (Davis, 2008). These have been significant, important, and valuable reviews that were completed before the Australian Curriculum: The Arts was endorsed in 2013.

It is now timely to recommend another review that will include the five arts subjects (Dance, Drama, Media Arts, Music, and Visual Arts) included in the Australian Curriculum and how various national, state, and territory arts curriculum is being implemented and taught in Australian schools.  NAAE has proposed a draft terms of reference for the review which include:

  • Relevant Australian and international research published in the last ten years, on national arts curricula in schools focusing on best practice delivery and resourcing models.

  • Map current curriculum provision (intended curriculum) and implementation of curriculum (enacted curriculum) across the five Arts subjects in each state and territory in Australia from Foundation to Year 12 to ascertain: which Arts subjects are implemented in primary and secondary schools; which teachers implement the five arts subjects; how schools manage the time required to provide quality Arts learning experiences for students; and, what is the ‘actual’ time provided for each Arts subject. An analysis of the differences between the intended curriculum and enacted curriculum is required to investigate the elements that nurture and hinder implementation.

  • Map current Initial Teacher Education (ITE) and Early Career Teacher support offerings nationally in education courses (across early childhood, primary education, and secondary education) and identify lecturer expertise, assessment types, number of units, and hours allocated to Arts education.

  • Examples of effective primary school programs that provide sequential foundational learning in the five arts subjects.

  • Provide recommendations for:

    • future iterations of arts curriculum and implementation at a national and state/territory level.

    • provision of Initial Teacher Education for The Arts (and any implications for AITSL to consider).

    • improving Initial Teacher Education programs in Arts curriculum and pedagogy, across early years, primary and secondary pre-service teachers. o

    • ongoing professional learning for primary generalist, primary specialist, and secondary specialist teachers. Recommendations for the Commonwealth, State and Territory Governments, Teacher Accreditation Boards and Universities to consider.

    • a range of best practice delivery models of The Arts in Australian schools.

NAAE acknowledges the extensive research and industry evidence pointing to how and why Australian society looks to Arts Education to foster individual and collective resilience in crises. We ask our policymakers to do the same.

Meaningful investment, proper resourcing, and support in the form of sustained professional learning and adequate initial teacher education for Arts teachers are essential for how we leverage the unique skills and understandings obtained by the field in recent years. This is going to be essential for how we work together to understand how change is experienced on the ground, and deliver on the ambitions of version 9.0 of the Australian Curriculum. 

For further comment contact: 

John Nicholas Saunders, Chair, NAAE at contact@naae.org.au