“Accessible for all”

Chapter in Edited Volume

This co-authored book chapter in The Routledge Companion to Drama in Education, edited by Mary McAvoy and Peter O’Conner, works to fill a gap in the under-theorized area of inclusive drama-based learning design and practice. Disability scholar and educational psychologist Stephanie Cawthon and I supported administrators and teachers at an inclusive school in South Australia to adopt a whole-school Creative Body-based Learning (CBL) teaching method—a multi-arts expansion of drama-based pedagogy. Funded by South Australia’s Department for Education, our year-long research project supported teachers to develop new curriculum, and a series of measures for teachers to track shifts in their understanding of CBL as an inclusive, pedagogical practice. Our project was designed to support every member of the school community. It was the first time educators and students from the school’s disability unit (with students with one or more verified disabilities) and from the “main” school were able to partner together to improve education at the school.

Click here for a PDF of “Accessible for All”

Click here for a PDF of the “Creative Body Based Learning Strategies” poster

Click here for a PDF of the “Project Synthesis Report“

TEACHERS AND STUDENTS AT CHRISTIE DOWNS PRIMARY SCHOOL TALK ABOUT THE IMPACT OF CBL

The Routledge Companion to Drama in Education

EDITED BY MARY MACAVOY AND PETER O’CONNER

The book is a comprehensive reference guide to drama as performance discipline, focusing on its process-oriented theatrical techniques, engagement of a broad spectrum of learners, its historical roots as a field of inquiry and its transdisciplinary pedagogical practices.

The book approaches drama in education (DIE) from a wide range of perspectives, from leading scholars to teaching artists and school educators who specialise in DIE teaching. It presents the central disciplinary conversations around key issues, including best practice in DIE, aesthetics and artistry in teaching, the histories of DIE, ideologies in drama and education, and concerns around access, inclusivity and justice.