Drawing on critical whiteness studies, I examine a performance I did over 25 years ago in high school, in which I told a story at an awards program. I interpret my performance as later-day blackface minstrelsy--one without blackface, but with a black folktale and with ways of speaking and moving that my audience recognized as "black." I build up…

The present study focuses on the need for sexual assault prevention interventions among college student populations. A review of the literature indicates that theatre-based prevention interventions are effective in preventing sexual violence among student populations. Chapter 2 of this dissertation is a literature review synthesizing scholarship…

This article investigates the role of the arts in enabling prisoners to engage with learning and improve their literacy, and the impact this has on their rehabilitation and desistance from crime. It draws on data collected from prisoners who participated in arts interventions in three different Scottish prisons. It argues that participating in the…

To address arts education disparities in middle level schools, this paper explores evidence that infusing the visual and performing arts into language arts, math, science, and history/social studies courses is a pedagogical approach that meets the developmental needs of early adolescents and fosters a relevant, challenging, integrative, and…

This paper presents the first cycle of a design-based study at Mikkeli University of Applied Sciences, Finland, during which a video-supported forum-theater approach was implemented and evaluated. Students enrolled in the Drama course in the Civic Activities and Youth Work degree program produced and recorded forum-theater performances about…

The study targets children in especially difficult circumstances from 8-14 years; and explores the importance of psychosocial needs for the PTSD and displaced children in schools. Out of 235 participants, descriptive statistics indicated that 63 children are traumatized. Based on ANOVA findings, the result revealed that there is significant effect…

The post-modern curriculum, drawing on chaos and complexity theory, recognises the realities of a world in flux and posits that the teacher and the class are always teetering "in the midst" of chaos, "not linked by chains of causality but [by] layers of meaning, recursive dynamics, non-linear effects and chance" (Osberg 2008,…

This paper examines how the historical punishment of the dancing body in (post)colonial contexts has been a measure for controlling the mind and undertaking effective cultural imperialism. I bring to focus the striking global dance movement to revitalise oppressed dance forms, in an effort to do what Tuhiwai Smith calls "the recovery of…

Conflict generated in theatre productions in university theatre departments is unique to its context. Issues of role ambiguity; scarce resources; fear and response to the unknown or unfamiliar; and power relations, among others, influence both the generation and the management of conflict. Examining such conflict and the behaviors used to engage…

Traditionally drama in schools has been seen either as a learning medium with a wide range of curricular uses or as a subject in its own right. This paper argues that the importance of drama in schools is in the processes of social and artistic engagement and experiencing of drama rather than in its outcomes. The paper contrasts the pro-social…

In autumn 2006 the Arts Council England set up the "Into the Scene" project in order to increase the number of disabled and deaf theatre practitioners graduating from accredited training courses and to increase the quality of their experience. A team from Graeae, the disabled-led theatre company that profiles the skills of actors,…

While music is as old as humanity, conducting as a profession is relatively new. Although a nineteenth-century model has served as the template for the training of conductors, many undergraduate conducting students will spend their teaching careers working with inexperienced and/or amateur musicians. Additionally, the size of many ensembles in…

The aims of this investigation were (1) to measure the impact of arts-related activities on the perceived quality of life of a representative sample of British Columbians aged 18 years or more in the spring of 2007, and (2) to compare the findings of this study with those of a sample of 1,027 adults drawn from five B.C. communities (Comox Valley,…

Acceleration is one of the best researched interventions for gifted students. The author is an advocate of acceleration. However, advocating for the thoughtful, carefully judged employment of a procedure with well researched effectiveness does not imply approval of cases where the procedure is used without sufficient thought--especially where it…

The concept of "community" is often presented as a way of overcoming exclusion and this dominates many community cultural development projects including those drawing on the tradition of "applied theatre". Drawing on personal experience of staging an applied theatre project, "Maralinga," which details the exposure of…