A chapter by Kathryn Dawson and Stephanie W. Cawthon, Accessible for all: Drama-based pedagogy in an inclusive primary school, publishes today in the book The Routledge Companion to Drama in Education.
Inclusive teaching practices are only as effective as their capacity to provide opportunities for all students to learn. Drama-based pedagogy, an adaptation of drama-in-education (DiE) developed in the United States public schools, is a pedagogical approach that encourages educators to consider meaningful engagement for all students.
Accessible and inclusive arts in education practices fulfill their potential when both the pedagogy and the educational system that surround them are designed with the broad student population in mind.
About the chapter
This book chapter shares a case study (data, processes, and products) of an inclusive primary school in South Australia committed to a multi-year, whole-school implementation of arts in education practice across the curriculum.
Through a mixed-method analysis of their work, Dawson and Cawthon explore the opportunities for and obstacles to adapting DiE practice within special education. They also consider how DiE professional learning (models, structures, and program impact) can be designed with educators, administrators, and students in special education settings to align with the intentional, ongoing, and systemic needs of an inclusive learning environment.
About Drama For Schools
Professor Dawson is Director and Dr. Cawthon is the Director of Research and Evaluation of Drama for Schools, a collaborative professional development program model in drama-based pedagogy that has partnered with schools and communities across the country for over 15 years and recently expanded into international partnerships in Australia, Bosnia, and Taiwan.
An affiliation between the Departments of Theater and Education at The University of Texas at Austin, this nationally heralded program creates intentional partnerships with educators and administrators interested in exploring the potential of drama-based pedagogy to increase student engagement and meaning-making across the curriculum.
Far from a one-off professional development approach, Drama for Schools focuses on sustainable, whole-school change. It facilitates training for teachers, administrators, and community members interested in the application of drama-based instructional strategies (role-play, improvisation, active learning techniques), provides partnering school districts with ongoing data on projected outcomes, and shares program outcomes with community stakeholders and related state, national, and international conferences.
About the book
The Routledge Companion to Drama in Education is the most robust and comprehensive reference guide to this unique performance discipline, focusing on its process-oriented theatrical techniques, engagement of a broad spectrum of learners, its historical roots as a field of inquiry, and its transdisciplinary pedagogical practices.
DiE is approached from many perspectives — from leading scholars to teaching artists and school educators who specialize in DiE teaching. It presents the central disciplinary conversations around key issues, including best practice in DiE, aesthetics, and artistry in teaching, the histories of DE, ideologies in drama and education, and concerns around access, inclusivity, and justice. It includes reflections, lesson plans, program designs, case studies, and provocations.