Drama education and its necessary disruptions^*

Abstract

In twenty-first century schooling in Australia, the coherence of curriculum is both a blessing and a curse. Teachers now have the hard-won and delicious license to bring forth (sing forth!) the arts in a mandated place in Australian education. Yet tensions still exist for the mindful arts educator. How do we enable the arts to do what they do best in the hands of children and young people – for instance, humanise, politicise and disrupt – while at the same time ensure the learning is measurable, accountable and, dare we say, containable? This is the tension of our educational era that could actually open up new pathways to school reform and offer fresh ways to view the importance of learning in life, especially for those currently disenfranchised by school systems that seek primarily to measure and contain. Drawing inspiration from the quiet disruptions of visual artists in Tasmanian schools, this presentation invites you to question how the arts more broadly – and drama specifically – can contribute to necessary disruptions in schooling life.

Keywords:

• Drama education
• arts education
• educational reform
• teacher practice
• artists-in-residence
• educational philosophy
• disruption