With this issue, "RiDE" begins a new occasional series of short informational pieces on archives in the field of drama and theatre education and applied theatre and performance. Each instalment will include summaries of several collections of significant material in the field. Over time this will build into a readily accessible annotated directory…

With this issue, "RiDE" continues its new occasional series of short informational pieces on archives in the field of drama and theatre education and applied theatre and performance. Each instalment includes summaries of one or more collections of significant material in the field. Over time this will build into a readily accessible directory of…

This address was given as the final-day keynote of the Sixth International Drama in Education Research Institute (IDIERI) in Sydney, 2009. Using the Institute's title as his theme, O'Toole briefly surveys the growth of drama education research of the last two decades, and the changing landscape of practice and research. He then conducts an…

Traditionally drama in schools has been seen either as a learning medium with a wide range of curricular uses or as a subject in its own right. This paper argues that the importance of drama in schools is in the processes of social and artistic engagement and experiencing of drama rather than in its outcomes. The paper contrasts the pro-social…

This paper reports on a one-year project in a Singapore "neighbourhood" school where the researcher was invited to assist the teachers of two secondary English classes to incorporate drama strategies to enliven their pedagogy. Few teachers involved had any prior experience of drama in schools and none had studied drama during pre-service teacher…

Performance theorist Herbert Blau's "The Audience" (Baltimore and London, Johns Hopkins Press, 1990) is an important yet neglected theoretical text on theatre audience. Deconstructive, dense and allusive in nature, Blau's text creates a real challenge for his reader. This paper presents a study of "The Audience" employing what I am calling…

Discusses an international research study that explores the way middle school girls manage "girl-friendly" drama processes. Argues that narrative based drama methods offer girls an enactive space to explore their lives through the art form of drama whilst offering opportunities to travel through and play with the workings of culture, gender and…

Discusses how a projective technique known as "cartoon tests" can be used by drama educators for programme evaluation and for learning-needs analysis and monitoring. Provides findings in which cartoon tests were used as one of several methods to explore student perceptions of a drama-based marketing subject at an Australian university. (SG)

Focuses on one phase of a five-year reflective study that involved a reflective play-building project. Outlines the working processes of the play-building group and discusses approaches to data collection and analysis before drawing conclusions about the key characteristics of aesthetic engagement. Concludes by drawing attention to aspects of…

Documents a pilot study of the perceptions of two L1 Xhosa acting students and their teachers about learning to act in L2 English in an L1 English university drama department in South Africa. Seeks to identify perceptions of "good acting," and the degree to which these are contingent on perceptions of "good English" in theatre performance. Finds…

Suggests Roger Deldime of the University of Brussels is one of the foremost francophone theorists of theatre sociology and has a special interest in children's theatre and education. Presents a detailed case study to examine how a strong and principled theory of theatre's role in children's lives has been successfully turned into a thriving…

Shares results from five interpretive studies that examined young children's writing in response to process drama. Focuses on composing in role and complexity of stance. Suggests that writing in response to drama can provide insights into the complexities of children's literacy processes by explicitly revealing the connections between children's…

Addresses the role that artists might have in the process of preparing teachers of drama in the United Kingdom. Suggests that initial teacher education has a role to play in this process and draws upon a small-scale research project, which proposes a conscious engagement of particular kinds of artistic practice in Initial Teacher Training. (SG)

Discusses how in the United Kingdom there is currently a lot of concern about "evidence-based practice" in education. Notes that educational researchers and teachers are being asked to demonstrate that certain educational experiences result in certain outcomes, preferably outcomes which match the given education aims, intentions and values.…

Discusses issues surrounding research questions and inquiry, motivated by keynote speakers, discussions, and reflections from the third annual International Drama in Education Research Institute, July 2000. Outlines the author's frustration on the lack of responses to important questions asked. Notes that culturally marginalized groups tend to be…