This paper examines the interplay of creativity, education, and the expressive arts. We begin by presenting a narrative literature review focusing on the use of artistic tools to promote creativity, self-expressiveness, and meaningful aspects of emotional and social learning. This review reveals strong connections between the different components…

Wellbeing education (WE) is increasingly offered among secondary schools internationally to promote the physical, social, emotional and mental health of young people. Current and emerging evidence proposes that scope exists for the enhancement of universal WE, and that arts-based approaches have significant potential for school programmes in…

Academic underachievement of students from disadvantaged backgrounds is an ongoing and unresolved problem. Schools serving vulnerable communities often fail to meaningfully engage their students who are often exposed to significant family and environmental adversities. However, where the educational landscape is overwhelmed with neoliberal…

This paper gives an account of a series of three Zoom zine-making workshops run between March and July 2020 that were themed "the political," "the personal" and "the practical." A micro-reading of the zines is offered as data that mirror the aims of the workshops, to queer time by slowing down and creating a pause.…

In this article, a teaching artist shares their understandings about designing a large-scale interactive intermedial arts experience for children aged five to eight years, and articulates findings about the conditions that promote quality experiences of this kind. When designing interactive arts experiences, a tension exists between providing…

This paper describes the process of engaging young people in a user centred, co-design strategy to define their perfect condom. Our aims were 1) to find a way to destigmatise discussions about sexuality and contraception and 2) to provide information about what characteristics a perfect condom might embody for adolescents. We used arts-based…

This article examines the unique intersection of knowledge that occurs in the digital arts learning context. The knowledge shared has emerged from the author's practice as a teaching artist designing and delivering an immersive and interactive intermedial arts learning experience in the field of physical theatre entitled Creature Interactions: an…

This article considers Participatory Arts and sociocultural understandings of justice and praxis through the example of Big "h"ART, an Australian multi-award winning provider where both artists and participants -- often disenfranchised and marginalised young people -- co-create the work (Matarasso, 2018). Enacting social justice…

This paper investigates the preparation of Australian undergraduate university arts students for a life challenging arts-teaching and creative experience in Timor-Leste. It explores university teaching practice and how we may achieve better student experiences in preparation for their futures as teaching artists. This narrative inquiry research…

This paper presents research undertaken in an early learning centre in Melbourne, Australia. The first of four case studies, it explores how arts practices and pedagogies can be embedded within and integrated across an early childhood centre curriculum, with a focus on the role of the teacher in achieving this. Twenty-one children aged 3to-5 years…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explicate the links between public pedagogy, ethics of care and storying as a methodology and method in Oceania. Design/methodology/approach: This paper explores the role of extended families as First Teachers in iTaukei and Indo-Fijian Early Childhood contexts in Fiji. Using storying as methodology, the…

How do we develop understanding of our teacher identities and what can aesthetic modes offer to assist reflection and learning about shifting images of identity? These questions provoked our auto-ethnographic project. As two experienced early childhood teachers, we found ourselves transitioning into new professional terrain as teacher-researcher…

Facilitating the development of employable graduates is an important part of initial teacher education (ITE) courses globally. School administrators seek to employ high quality teachers who will contribute positively to student learning and the school community. The perception of a candidate's level of employability in a job interview though, will…

Capacity to teach the arts is a problem reported by many teachers in primary (elementary) school settings in Australia. This paper reports on research which explored how to build primary school teachers' capacity in arts-based pedagogy. It outlines the design and development of a co-mentoring program between arts mentor practitioners and…

Aspiration for higher education has been a focus of significant policy intervention in Australia for some time, with numerous large-scale research studies investigating the formation of aspiration amongst high school students. However, case studies in particular schools which might provide insights into the complexities and contradictions of…