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2007 Events

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26 November: Colloquim, Head-Hearts-Hands: Creative subjects in Inclusive and Participatory Work with Children, Youth and Adults, Susanne Stein and Gert Oluf Hansen (Peter Sabroe Seminariet, Denmark)

Abstract
Social education is the official translation of the Danish term: Socialpædagogik. In this presentation we will use the term social pedagogy as it indicates the fact that social pedagogical care work embraces much more than what is usually conceived by the term social education.

Social pedagogy provides a unifying concept of work with people in many formal or informal institutional settings. The social pedagogical approach in Denmark is closely linked to the development of the welfare state and can be understood as a process of nurturing the development of human beings. Social pedagogy is based on the notion of the social pedagogue as an important participant in the inclusive process of people in society.

About the Speakers:
Susanne Stein is a Senior Lecturer at Peter Sabroe Seminariet in Pedagogy and Psychology. She holds a BA in Dramaturgy, BA in Psychomotor Therapy and a BA in Educational Psychology.

Gert Oluf Hansen is also a Senior Lecturer at Peter Sabroe Seminariet in Communication, Organisation, Management and Pedagogy. He holds an MA and BA in Literature and Dramaturgy.

Event Details:
Time: 6:30pm - 7:30pm
Location: Frank Tate Room, Alice Hoy Building, Faculty of Education

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26 November: PhD Confirmation Seminar, Drama, History and Autonomy, Tiina Moore (PhD candidate)

Abstract:
Year 3 and 4 students at ELTHAM, College of Education participate in an integrated educational program identified in this K-12 school as The HISTORY Centre. Students, class teachers and a drama specialist undertake story-based and historical ‘living through’ experiences which give meaning and purpose to assessable tasks. Administrative support has been critical to the success of the program which relies on a re-imagining of the ways that time, space and staffing are configured in schools.

This presentation outlined Tiina's investigation of teacher interventions and student autonomy in my PhD research and compares findings collected in a more traditional drama class setting (the pilot study) with those collected in the HISTORY Centre (the case study). Her reflective practitioner research highlighted key findings concerning power relationships, authorship and teacher roles. The paper was enhanced by photographic images that illustrated the nature of the teaching and learning processes of the HISTORY Centre.

About the Speaker:
Tiina Moore has taught drama at primary, secondary and tertiary levels in Canada, the UK and Australia. She is currently employed as a drama specialist at ELTHAM, College of Education and is the co-founder of the integrated curriculum framework known as The HISTORY Centre. She is completing her PhD with John O’Toole at the University of Melbourne.

Event Details:
Time: 6:30pm - 7:30pm
Location: Frank Tate Room, Alice Hoy Building, Faculty of Education

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16 November: PhD Confirmation Seminar, An Investigation of the Effects of CCD on Settlement Patterns of Horn of Africa Refugees: Stories drawn from verbal and non-verbal responses to the “third space”, Jill Paris (PhD candidate)

Abstract:
Some refugees from Africa find it difficult to settle in Australia because they have been tortured or traumatised in their home land and for some of them counselling has not helped. This presentation will investigate their history, their settlement issues and the psychology behind the inability of counselling to help African refugees settle in Australia. An alternative approach to helping refugees adapt to life in Australia is explored. Several stories, extracted from interviews, are used to augment the formal sources of literature.

About the Speaker:
After many years of management in the not for profit and welfare sector, Jill Parris has recently returned to her first love which is working as a psychologist with individuals and communities. The focus of her interest is supporting humanitarian entrants as they adjust to life in Australia. These people, many of whom are survivors of war and famine, may carry the scars of trauma and/or torture. Jill’s PhD will explore the use of Community Cultural Development as a healing tool. In particular, the focus will be on how containment supports refugees as they settle in Australia.

Event Details:
Time: 2:00pm - 3:30pm
Location: Level 5, Room 5.10, Doug McDonell Building, Faculty of Education

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5 November: Colloquim, Educating Buddhist ‘Nuns’ in Thailand: Practices and Possibilities, Barbara Kameniar (Faculty of Education, University of Melbourne)

Abstract:
The participation rates of girls and women in education, the curriculum made available to them, as well as their level of achievement are heavily influenced by cultural, religious, social, political and geographic factors. The example of rural and regional Buddhist “nuns” in Thailand is perhaps one of the more subtle examples of educational disadvantage because of the age of the women who choose to take up this life and the ways in which they interact with the broader community. Buddhist “nuns” in Thailand have no official religious status even though they have left lay life to live and work in “temples” and “nunneries” where they cook and clean for the monks, perform religious ceremonies, provide medical assistance and, increasingly, education to local communities – particularly young women. Recent studies have indicated that many young Thai women actively seek out the “nuns” for education in Buddhism and for broader education about what it means to be a woman in Thai society where issues related to the sex trade, the subordinate role of women in households, and the spread of AIDS in marriage are not uncommon. This move toward the “nuns” is a local response to these pressing issues.

This presentation outlined a micro-ethnographic study to be undertaken in 2008 that will examine the official education program made available for Buddhist “nuns” in regional and rural Thailand. Drawing on research from two previous studies with Thai Buddhist “nuns” the presentation provided background to current research.

About the Speaker:
Barbara Kameniar has worked outside-in religious education as a teacher and an academic. She has undertaken research and published in religious education where her focus is on the ways in which religious education represents and engages with social difference. She commenced research on the mae chi (Thai Buddhist “nuns”) in 1990. The focus of this earlier work was the ordination of women in the Thai Theravada tradition. Barbara began revisiting this work in 2006 and 2007 after receiving an invitation to speak in Hamburg at a conference examining the ordination of women in the Tibetan tradition. Barbara is a curriculum specialist who has worked at the University of South Australia (1996-1999) and Flinders University (2000-April 2007) in the areas of curriculum design and development, society & environment, Asian religions, social contexts of social justice and education, and teaching in a multi-religious world.

Event Details:
Time: 5:30pm - 8:00pm
Venue: Drama Room, Level 1, Doug McDonell Building, Faculty of Education

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5 November: Colloquim, The Syzygy Project, Dr Maurizio Toscano (Faculty of Education, University of Melbourne)

Abstract:
Syzygy is an ongoing collaboration between the celebrated artist Harry Nankin of the ICCA, Melbourne; the distinguished historian, writer, cultural theorist and artist, Professor Paul Carter from the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning (University of Melbourne) and Dr Maurizio Toscano of the Faculty of Education (University of Melbourne). The Syzygy project will literally collect the 'light of the universe' to construct a vast and exquisite, jewel-like translucent photographic film palimpsest metaphorically ‘reflecting’ Lake Tyrrell (in the Victorian Mallee) as it is, as it once was and as it might be imagined. This presentation gave an overview of the project’s aims, presented an account of work done to date and offered a vision of the form of the final artwork.

About the Speaker:
Dr Maurizio Toscano is a Lecturer in Science Education in the Faculty of Education. He comes from a background in Astrophysics research having completed a PhD in Galactic Radio Astronomy. Over the past decade he has been actively involved in science education at every level. Maurizio has coordinated Department of Education funded astronomy education programs for Victorian primary schools, has lectured in physics at tertiary level, has experience and training as a secondary science and physics teacher, and has been project co-leader on an ASISTM program designed to improve the participation of girls in senior physics. His current research interests are directly related to modes of scientific inquiry and explanation. His work looks at the philosophical and practical underpinnings of these modes and includes work on the use of Thought Experiments in science education, the use of issues in philosophy of science and the place of aesthetics in science education.

Event Details:
Time: 5:30pm - 8:00pm
Venue: Frank Tate Room, Alice Hoy Building, Faculty of Education

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26 October: Colloquim, Artistry in Teaching, Professor Jonothan Neelands (Institute of Education, University of Warwick)

Abstract:
In this presentation, Professor Jonothan Neelands outlined the work of the University of Warwick's CAPITAL centre which is a unique partnership with the Royal Shakespeare Company to develop creativity and performance in teaching and learning. The presentation focussed on the range of courses offered by the University to teachers of English and Drama as part of this partnership, including the training of RSC actors to lead workshops for young people. The work with teachers and actors is designed to democratise and energise the ways in which Shakespeare is taught in UK schools and universities.

About the Speaker:
Professor Jonothan Neelands is a National Teaching Fellow and Chair of Drama and Theatre Education in the Institute of Education, University of Warwick, where he teaches graduate and research students. He is an experienced trainer and workshop leader with a national and international reputation for delivering high quality professional training and development opportunities. He is deputy director of the CAPITAL Centre for creativity and performance in teaching and learning, which is a joint initiative between the University of Warwick and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Research interests include the politics of cultural and education policy-making, teaching in urban settings, the sociology of educational disadvantage and the articulation of a pro-social pedagogy of dramatic practice.

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3 September: Colloquim, The Cultural Aesthetics of Teaching: Current Directions in Multicultural Music Education, Professor Peter Dunbar-Hall (University of Sydney)

Abstract:
Since the 1990s a new focus has been developing in multicultural music education. This can be seen as a third wave of development in the history of this discipline. The first wave, in the 1970s, was centred on teaching content - the inclusion of examples of pieces of music as representative of specific non-Western musics. A second wave of development was that in the 1980s. At that time, in response to the need for examples of music for classroom use, there was activity in resource production (mostly in the form of textbooks, kits, and user friendly recordings and films). There was also attention paid to problems which had begun to become apparent in the multicultural enterprise: purposes; honouring cultural contexts; teacher knowledge; future directions.

The current focus of multicultural music education is that on the cultural aesthetics of teaching. This recognises that culturally specific ways of teaching exist, and that if music education is to acknowledge the cultural aspects of music, it needs to link culturally derived teaching methods to examples of music being taught. This is not purely an ideological stance (although that is a primary reason), but is based on the belief that methods for teaching music tell us as much about music as the music does by itself - that music and pedagogies that have developed for it constitute a composite object. This object has the potential to teach a broader understanding of music, its characteristics, and its cultural and social roles and meanings.

To investigate this proposition, Associate Professor Dunbar-Hall used examples of teaching and learning from his fieldwork with musicians and dancers in Bali.

About the Speaker:
Associate Professor Peter Dunbar-Hall teaches in the Music Education Unit of Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney, where he is also Associate Dean (Graduate Studies). He is widely published on the history and philosophy of music education, Australian Aboriginal music, popular music studies, classroom methodology, and Balinese music and dance. He is the author of the biography of Australian soprano, Strella Wilson, and co-author of Deadly sounds, deadly places: contemporary Aboriginal music in Australia. He performs regularly with Sydney based Balinese gamelan group, Sekaa Gong Tirta Sinar.

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14 August: Colloquim, Productive Partnerships - Powerful Pedagogies, Ms Helen Cahill (Youth Research Centre)

Abstract:
This colloquium (within a workshop format) offered a sampling and analysis of the pedagogy used to facilitate an innovative Learning Partnership in which primary and secondary students share drama and dialogue workshops with classes of pre-service teachers and doctors from Faculties of Medicine and Education at the University of Melbourne. The participatory enquiry facilitates the process of having adults learn with and from young people rather than simply about them. School students are positioned in powerful roles as ‘actors’, ‘coaches’ and ‘key informants’ and become ‘co-teachers’ of the communication and sociology curriculum for teachers and doctors. Within this Learning Partnership, all participants are invited to take a research stance as they engage in a shared enquiry involving problem-identification and problem-solving. The play and dialogue promoted a pedagogy of hope which assists participants to create and enact new possibilities that interrupt or overlay the dominant and limiting storylines of the teacher-student or doctor-patient relationship.

A recent Vice-Chancellor’s Teaching Innovation grant was awarded to support the expansion of the Learning Partnerships project.

About the Speaker:
Helen Cahill is the Deputy-director of the Youth Research Centre, University of Melbourne. Works in education and health research, specialising in the use of drama techniques as radical pedagogy and in border crossing research and learning partnerships between youth and adults. Has researched and developed a number of national and international drug education and mental health school programs and training resources including Rethinking Drinking, the SHAHRP project (School Health and Alcohol Harm Reduction Project), Get WISE: Working on Illicits in School Education and MindMatters: a Mental Health Promotion Resource for Secondary Schools. Current PhD study investigates Role and Learning in interactive learning partnerships between school students and tertiary students of education and medicine.

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12 June: Performance/Discussion, Alice Hoy is Not a Building: Performance Ethnography and the Melbourne Experience

Abstract:
This Colloquium commenced with an ethnographic performance, researched, devised and presented by four women researchers from the Faculty of Education. The performance Alice Hoy is Not a Building is a theatre-based representation of findings drawn from a collaborative research project investigating women’s experiences of education, past and present, at the University of Melbourne. Themes of resilience and commitment, multiple agendas and multiple roles, power and powerlessness, marginalisation and collaboration, the personal and the political, are considered and explored within historical and contemporary contexts of women’s experiences of education at a tertiary institution, and are framed by the question ‘how did you get here?’

The performance also seeks to highlight some of the tensions and possibilities encountered when transforming ethnographic data into an embodied, aesthetic, performative form. The performance will be followed by a facilitated forum: inviting questions, comments, responses to the issues and provocations raised by this presentation of Alice Hoy is Not a Building at its original research site, the University of Melbourne.

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7 June: Colloqium, Visual Culture in US Art Education: Politics, Theory and Practice, Professor Paul Duncum (University of Illinios)

Abstract:
This presentation attempted to introduce a visual culture approach into US art education by the presenter and many others, with the various theoretical positions different people are adopting as well as a range of practices being pursued in classrooms. This included a response to some critics of the approach. The presenter will draw from his anthology on visual culture in the art classroom and his own classroom practices.

About the Speaker:
Professor Duncum is Professor of Art Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.  His teaching has included considerable experience lecturing in tertiary institutions in Australia.  Since the early 1990s Professor Duncum has written extensively on the topic of visual culture and art education.  He has recently co-edited On knowing: Art and visual culture (Canterbury University Press).

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14 May: Panel Presentation and Forum, It’s an RQF world: Positioning Arts-based and artistic research for the Research Quality Framework

Abstract:
How do educators whose research is artistic or arts-based position their work in relation to the Research and Quality Framework as it is to be implemented at the University of Melbourne? This Colloquium canvassed three key questions for arts researchers at the University of Melbourne: 1. By what indicators 'research quality' and 'impact' will be defined in Panel 11 and Panel 13 (and the context statements)? 2. How should arts educators at the University of Melbourne (or ACE) work towards a 'grouping' or a potential grouping? 3. What possibilities exist for collaborative groupings – For example, with 'Education/Curriculum' & Panel 11; or with VCA & Panel 13?

ACE Research Presentations: The Seven Minute Overviews:
(Researchers from Artistic and Creative Education and Creative Arts provide a brief introduction to a range of research based projects recently completed or currently underway)

  1. Neryl Jeanneret: Musica Viva
  2. Chris Sinclair: Oxford University Press - Education in the Arts: Principles and Practices for Teaching
  3. Robert Brown: Mapping Engagement at ArtPlay
  4. John O’Toole: Accessing the Cultural Conversation & Sustaining Culture
  5. Julianne Moss: Keeping Connected
  6. Kate Donelan & Angela O’Brien: Risky Business & Transformative Arts Education Partnerships - Debney Project

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27 April: Colloquim,You're Not Allowed to Say That: Minefields and Political Correctness, Professor Judith Ackroyd and Dr Andrew Pilkington (University of Northampton)

Abstract:
This colloquium canvassed three issues that have emerged through the use of an arts based programme to explore equality and diversity. The first is the stronghold of notions of 'political correctness' and, arguably, the hegemonic position of an anti-PC discourse. The second is the lurking residue of 'colonial' attitudes that seep even into attempts to construct antiracist practices. The third is the pedagogic tension between intended learning outcomes which entail getting a particular message across and the desire to give free rein to different voices.

Sociologist Andrew Pilkington and Drama Educator Judity Ackroyd shared discoveries, thoughts and dilemmas regarding these three issues while providing a brief introduction to Minefields, a recent project they have been developing.

About the Speakers:
Professor Andrew Pilkington has a chair in Sociology in the School of Social Sciences, University of Northampton. He is Chair of the UK's Association for teachers of Sociology and an Associate of the national Centre for Sociology, Anthropology and Politics. His extensive publications are primarily in the field of race and ethnicity in which he has taken a particular interest in issues of race and ethnicity in education. He has also worked and published with Judith Ackroyd bringing together sociological issues and drama practices to explore particular areas.

Dr Judith Ackroyd is Associate Dean in the School of The Arts at the University of Northampton. She has published widely in the field of drama education and is a regular international workshop provider. Her publications include many texts for teachers at both primary and secondary phases. Her most recent publication is an edited text, Research methodologies for Drama education.

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19 April: Colloquim, Creative Collaborations in the Classroom Between Teachers, Artists and Young People, David Kelman(University of Melbourne) and Wendy Hill (Debney Park Secondary College)

Abstract:
In 2006 drama educator Dave Kelman and experienced teacher Wendy Hill collaborated on two related projects at Debney Park Secondary College in Melbourne’s inner west:

Broken Pieces, a series of three short plays dramatising stories of meaning to young people performed to a community audience, led by Dave Kelman

An investigation of the Holocaust presented as slide shows created by young people, led by Wendy Hill.

This Colloquium consisted of a short documentary film made by the young people exploring social meaning in their dramatised stories and slide shows on the Holocaust. A panel of CALD year 9 and 10 students from Debney Park Secondary College spoke about their work, its meanings and their experience of the two projects. Dave Kelman and Wendy Hill spoke about their collaboration; innovative pedagogy and creative partnerships between schools and community arts organizations. This work is part of a three year ARC funded research partnership exploring: Transformative arts education partnerships: a creative approach to whole school renewal and is supported by the Victorian Government Department of Education and Training.

About the Speakers:
Dave Kelman is the director of the SCRAYP program Western Edge Youth Arts Inc based at Footscray Community Arts Centre. He is a teacher, actor, director and writer working with young people and is a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne.

Event Details:
Time: 5:15pm - 7:30pm
Venue: Level 5, Doug McDonell Building, Faculty of Education

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4 April: Colloquim, Walking into Landscapes – A consideration of literary, imaginative and literal landscapes and their design for the artist, Ken Searle (The 2007 May Gibbs Children’s Literature Trust Fellow)

Abstract:
Walking into the Landscape focuses on collecting information from the environment using a variety of media. Ken will discuss how this information affected the design and illustration of the picture books

  • Papunya School Book of Country and History
  • When I Was Little Like You, by Mary Malbunka
  • Walking With The Seasons In Kakadu, with Diane Lucas
  • Going Bush, with Nadia Wheatley

About the Speaker:
Ken Searle is the 2007 May Gibbs Children’s Literature Fellow at the University of Melbourne. As an artist he has exhibited extensively in Australia and overseas. He is also a highly regarded illustrator and designer of children’s books.

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26 March: Colloquim, Curriculum Design and Creative Arts Education Reform,Sam Leong (Associate Professor of Arts Education, Hong Kong Institute)

Abstract:
A whole host of challenges confronts Creative Arts Education as it enters the Age of the Prosumer. Besides seeking ways to make Creative Arts Education relevant to prosumers, arts educators will need to address phenomena such as affluenza, infoluenza, meet expectations of the knowledge economy and consider the implications of Moore's Law and the rise of modern China. Selected key issues of education reform for Creative Arts Education will be discussed with examples from Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia.

About the Speaker:
Associate Professor Sam Leong joined the Hong Kong Institute of Education in December 2005 after completing the National Review of School Music Education (2004-5) for the Australian government as the project co-director. Over the past 30 years, Professor Leong has worked as a broadcaster, pianist, harpsichordist, organist, trombonist, bandsman, choir, band and orchestra conductor, music teacher from primary to tertiary levels, administrator, researcher and arts educator. Professor Leong is currently an Honorary Advisor to the Hong Kong Association for Music Education and has served on numerous boards and committees, including the national executive of the Australian Society for Music Education (ASME) and the Commission for Music in Schools.

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26 March: Colloquim, Talking up drama in Singapore: how drama improved oral English examination results, Madonna Stinson (Senior Lecturer in Drama, National Institute of Education, Singapore)

Abstract:
This presentation reports on two recent research projects in Singapore – ‘Drama and Oral Language,’ and ‘Speaking Out’ and the contribution that results from this research have made to the development of drama education in the Singapore context. Each of these projects investigated the impact of drama on students’ oral communication in the English language classroom and produced valuable evidence for a positive result when well-prepared teachers implemented drama as part of their pedagogy.

About the Speaker:
Madonna Stinson lectures in drama education for the Visual and Performing Arts academic group of the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University and is a researcher with the Centre for Research in Pedagogy and Practice at the same institution. Previously she worked in primary, secondary and tertiary education in Queensland and was the curriculum writer in charge of the drama strand for The Arts Years 1 - 10 Syllabus for Queensland schools.

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5 March: Colloquim, Mapping children’s engagement at ArtPlay, Robert Brown (Faculty of Education, University of Melbourne), Simon Spain (Creative Producer, ArtPlay)

Abstract:
ArtPlay is the first permanent home for children’s art and play in Australia, with a distinctive combination of artistic, developmental and cultural features housed together in a custom-designed environment where children out of school are able to engage directly with artists and art-making. This provides researchers with a unique opportunity to document, understand and analyse possible connections and interrelationships between children’s engagement in art-making and the development of cognitive abilities and cultural citizenship. This ARC sponsored project provides an opportunity not previously available in Australia to conduct sustained and in-depth ethnographic case study and action research within a space specifically designed for art and play experiences for children aged 3 -12. Within this context, the project proposes to explore what happens when children work with artists in artmaking in a dedicated art-rich non-school environment. What is the nature of their engagement? Further, how can this engagement contribute to the development of cognitive skills and cultural citizenship? The clues and answers were provided by the participants of ArtPlay, the young artists themselves, the adult professional artists who lead the activities, and the parents, teachers, carers and other observers.

About the Speakers:
Robert Brown (B. Ed. Arts and Crafts, P.Grad. Ed., M.Ed.), is an experienced visual arts lecturer and the Project Development Manager at The University of Melbourne’s Early Learning Centre. Robert has taught locally and internationally in early childhood centres, schools and tertiary institutions, has undertaken projects in countries including Singapore and China and has expertise in early childhood curriculum and arts-based teaching and learning. Simon Spain is the Creative Producer at ArtPlay, and an co-investigator in the ArtPlay Research Project.

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5 March: PhD Confirmation Seminar, Boys and Drama education in a coeducational government school: an ethnography incorporating ethnographic performance, Richard Sallis (Faculty of Education, University of Melbourne)

Abstract:
The project is a school-based educational ethnography focusing on boys’ participation in Drama at an inner-city coeducational government school. As part of the methodology for this study the researcher is writing an ‘ethnographic performance’ or ‘ethnodrama’ (Saldaña, 2005). An ethnographic performance transforms research data into a performance text. The ethnographic performance is focused on data the researcher is collecting based on boys in Drama in years seven, eight, eleven and twelve at the school. This thesis documented, evaluated and critiqued the effects, constraints and limitations of the application ethnographic performance methodology as part of a school-based educational ethnography. Saldaña, J. (2005). Ethnodrama, An Anthology of Reality Theatre. Walnut Creek, CA: Alta Mira Press.

About the Speaker:
Richard Sallis is a Lecturer in Drama education in Artistic and Creative Education at University of Melbourne. He is also the Director of Projects for Drama Australia and the Secretary of the General Meeting Council of IDEA (International Drama/theatre Education Association).

 

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