Creative classroom constructions imbued with arts integration, a transmediational multimodal pedagogy, are examined in exploratory action research in three bilingual elementary classroom learning experiences. In each of the lessons, there was a whole-group introduction and small-group hands-on arts-based activities inclusive of peer dialoguing,…

The development of digital technology and the participatory culture it engenders presents challenges to secondary school English and drama teachers keen to expose their students to the pleasures and rewards of live theatre. Within Scardamalia's notion of the "knowledge building community" (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1994, 2006;…

Using Jane Austen's "Sense and Sensibility" as an anchor text, the authors argue for applied theatre strategies as vivid and viable tools for exploring challenging texts and applying critical lenses in an embodied way. Readers are guided through a series of theatre-based, English-classroom accessible improvisational frameworks to help…

This article explores prevailing rhetoric in published scholarship in the field of educational drama and applied theatre, responding to O'Toole's call to investigate if researchers in the field are "missing something vital by staying in our comfort zones". He noted a "serious need for more usable, broad-based, and reliable base-line…

This article describes an investigation of three Year I secondary school drama classrooms in one Ontario, Canada, school district. The study adopted a mixed-method approach, using questionnaires and audiotaped interviews to illuminate aspects of the contexts and cultures, processes and products of Year I drama. Although course offerings across…

This article discusses practical ways to incorporate theater concepts into the ESL classroom. The notion of a theater ensemble lends itself well to group work in language learning. I have used my experience auditioning, participating in theater games, and improv techniques to encourage second language learning through public speaking, group…

This paper shares the outcomes derived from research conducted with the participants of an interdisciplinary workshop entitled "The Drama in School Leadership" that employs applied drama processes and analysis in order to understand educational ethics. Participants explore high-stakes scenarios in school leadership by taking on roles in…

The extensive empirical research inspired by Piaget and Vygotsky's theories of make-believe play has been criticised for restricting data to Western, urban, middle-class children. We seek to redress this bias by researching the traditional black South African Pedi children's game Masekitlana. Our data relies on embodied memories enacted by Mapelo…

In math, students and teachers toss tennis balls. In science, students become rain, hail, sleet, and snow. In language arts, students maneuver their bodies into related positions and hold into a frieze they call "tableau." The students and teachers are part of TheatreBridge, a four-year model demonstration and dissemination program lead…

This introductory article for a themed edition on environmentalism provides a particular context for those articles that follow, each of which engages with different aspects of environmentalism and performance in community-related settings. Responding to the proposition of Bottoms that there is a lacuna in the field of applied drama and…

When VCRs became affordable, the film industry worried that people would stop going to the movies. Theaters have not gone away, but they have changed, with many now focused on delivering spectacles that can be seen only in a grand setting, with a big screen and booming sound. Traditional colleges now face a similar challenge, thanks to free or…

The increased pressure in higher education to demonstrate evidence of student learning is prompting all sectors to develop clear assessment methods. This national conversation has also sparked the greater recognition and use of assessment as a process for the improvement of teaching and learning. Given the scant literature on assessment in the…

Each of the papers in this collection offers a much-needed antidote to the forces that disconnect educators from the places in which they teach, learn, and live. Together, they provide an opportunity to reflect on the power of place in education. This issue offers an opportunity--an invitation--to embrace all that the places both in and outside…

This essay considers the performance context and aesthetics of "Journey Woman", a play devised to initiate a week-long rehabilitative groupwork programme for female prisoners. Although Geese Theatre UK are one of the country's longest-established companies specialising in drama work within the criminal justice sector, this 2006 piece is…

The authors of this article describe themselves as a lucky group of older adults, ranging in age from sixty to ninety-two, who participate in an intergenerational arts program at their local senior center in Flushing, Queens, one of New York City's most culturally diverse communities. In their living history theater program, run by Elders Share…