Background: Developing higher-order comprehension skills of learners in primary schools is a challenge that faces many countries. South Africa is no exception. Primary school learners in South Africa have particularly low literacy and comprehension skills: many learners struggle to read for understanding. There is little published scholarship that…

This article explores the contextual factors that shape mentoring practice in Art Initial Teacher Education. Based on in-depth interviews, nonparticipant observations and stimulated recall interviews with participants, we examine how various factors related to the context of mentors' work influence their approaches to subject matter mentoring.…

This longitudinal study examines the relationship between young people's creative and performing arts participation (e.g., in dance, drama, film, music, visual arts) and their arts self-concept. Drawing on the positive youth development (PYD) framework and the reciprocal effects model (REM) of self-concept, a cross-lagged panel design is…

In the field of education, there has been an increased emphasis on evidence-based practice. Yet, traditional dissemination methods continue to be used. Using more creative and innovative strategies to disseminate research are needed. Theatre is one such method. Stemming from the research on knowledge mobilization and theatre as a method for social…

This case study tells the story of two educators at the University of Plymouth (United Kingdom) who reconsidered the fundamental purpose of their curriculum in light of the United Nations Sustainable Development agenda. This resulted in the development of a new community-engaged applied practice module during the final year of the Theatre and…

All disciplines have particular ways of knowing, common practices, and means of using language that mediate and potentially support engagement with the discipline. For multilingual learners, language demands of a discipline can be a closed door or a facilitated entryway. Drama and theater arts, the focus of our article, are often marginalized in…

Although prevalently focused on research-based outcomes (i.e. better understanding of a particular phenomenon, process or experience), arts-based researchers have widely emphasised the transformational potentialities of arts for individuals. In particular, the arts create space for thinking differently and provide opportunities to explore…

This article explores the challenges and benefits of using theatre as a research method. It questions certain claims and assumptions underlying Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed and more recent literature on theatre-based research. In particular, it investigates the notion that theatre enables participants to address issues of oppression and…

For many youth, afterschool programs positively fill the time between school and home. Quality out-of-school time (OST) programs clearly can have beneficial social and academic effects on youth (Durlak, Weissberg, & Pachan, 2010; Eccles, Barber, Stone, & Hunt, 2003; Vandell et al., 2005). However, these outcomes are not guaranteed (Chen…

Today, contemporary music emerges as an experimental phenomenon trapped in the laboratory environment rather than an element of skill. Modern music, where principles such as specialism and rationality are determinative, has become difficult to understand not only for performers who carry it on the stage but also for today's audience. One of the…

The purpose is to investigate process drama for teaching civics, mainly democracy and migration. Process drama implies students and teacher to take on roles, to explore a subject content collectively. The study is based on a secondary school educational initiative where a drama pedagogue was invited to address civics through process drama. Four…

Background: Limited evidence exists on the effectiveness of using an entertainment-education methodology to address multiple public health issues and of using participatory street theatre to improve public understanding related to public health. Objective: To assess the feasibility, acceptability and impact of the Actor-Doctor project, an…

In this article, we present a study aimed to explore the attitude, interest and perception of students learning English language beyond the classroom using a list of activities such as Readers Theatre, Storyboard, Academic Explorace, Spell it right and Melodies of Pilah. A survey was conducted involving 466 students from different faculties who…

A wide body of research has been conducted which examines the relationship between arts engagement and academic performance for the general population of students in U.S. schools. To date, few studies have been conducted that examine the effects of arts-based learning experiences on African American males' academic performance. To address this gap…

A group of Roma and non-Roma participants worked on the topic of ethnicity and its influence on individuals' lives, using the Theatre of the Oppressed method. The group process was analyzed by means of ethnographic research and was perceived by the researchers as a process of formulating the research question. Interaction between the audience and…