It’s been 10 years since the last edition in this series, making it all the more welcome.  The state of the art is a powerful frame through which to make sense of the unfolding turbulent flow of drama education in the wider stream of Australian and international arts education.

As the earlier publications (Hughes 1991; Michaels 1994; Hatton & Anderson 2004) remind us, drama education is anything but ‘steady state’ where constants are maintained in cosmic suspension. Drama education is an expanding universe. It operates within a dynamic push–pull flow of ideas and practice.

Australian arts education and drama education in 2015 is poised at yet another tipping point. As Anderson and Roche comment in their introduction, there are anxieties, challenges and the need for re-balancing. The lengthy development period for the Australian curriculum: the arts (2014) – and the even more protracted and troubled implementation of this curriculum – remind us that Australian education has been here before. Our current curriculum policy is inscribed on a palimpsest of past arts curriculum development. It is the plaything of politics and competing forces. There is reason for concern about the realisation of an enduring arts curriculum with full recognition of drama. As John O’Toole sketched in his foreword to the 2004 State of our art, on the one hand, the development of drama education has arisen from ‘a community … [that]  gives and receives the gifts of good practice generously’ (v). But he also notes, tentatively, the need to ‘position drama within the dominant discourses of education’ (viii).

It is worth asking in 2015 if that caution has been turned to confidence. Has drama education found a secure place in dominant educational discourse?

A climate of uncertainty for implementing Australian arts curriculum reinforces the value of this series of books as markers of time and action in Australian drama education. The initiative of the Educational Drama Association of New South Wales (now Drama NSW) is assisting us to understand better where we are now and where we might go in the future. Bill Green (2003) reminds us of the necessity of understanding the genealogy of curriculum at a local level. The stories shared in this book resonate beyond their immediate setting and have value for the wider arts and drama community, not just in Australia.

The state of the art (2015) positions drama education in the crucible of debate about 21st-century skills: critical thinking and problem solving, collaboration, networking, creative thinking, capacity building, metaphoric thinking and cognitive playfulness (to point to a few). This publication theorises drama education practice within a vibrant research culture and asserts drama as something more than ‘curriculum tricks’ or teacher ‘time-fillers’.

Miranda Jefferson highlights the essential ‘givens’ of drama pedagogy – deep, scaffolded creative and critical thinking, and empathy (themes taken up by many of the writers in the book). These givens powerfully resonate with capacity to socialise learning through community and agency, activating oracy and language, and envisioning and rehearsing alternatives. In her chapter, and throughout the other chapters, there is strongly situated advocacy for the value and place of drama education. Underpinning the arguments made throughout the book is a commitment to sound research and scholarship grounded in rigorous understanding of practice.

Interwoven through the book are the challenges of implementing disruptive pedagogies and resistance to them. Within the broad optimism of Jefferson’s ‘dwelling in the house of possibility’ there are the reminders of difficulties and issues. This book celebrates the possible breadth of drama education: in literacy, partnerships, English as an additional language, ecological understandings, schooling the imagination, playwriting, co-intentional dialogues and technology. This book reflects the vaulting ambition and vision of drama education. Yet it does not skirt the issues. Ewing, Gibson, Campbell and Hristofski point to primary teachers’ lack of expertise and confidence. They argue for the value of opening drama beyond the conventional confines of the classroom and embracing quality partnerships and teaching artists, engaging with literature and story. David Wright envisages a role for drama in broader ecological frameworks and conflicts. David Cameron and Rebecca Wotzko share a passion for the power of increasingly ever-present technologies in drama and the challenges they bring. Margery Hertzberg takes us into the sphere of drama in English as an additional language. Hatton and Lovesy craft the case for improvisation and play building. Paul Gardiner focuses on teaching and learning of playwriting. Gerard Boland makes connections between Heathcote and Freire and models of quality teaching.

While The state of the art reminds us of the gaps, it also highlights possibilities. To focus on the state of the any art is to reflect on the highest level of development at a particular moment in time and place. This collection powerfully meets that challenge.

Another welcome strength of this book is the respectful acknowledgment of the drama education community’s pioneers and leaders: John Carroll, Dorothy Heathcote and many more. We are what are today as an arts and drama education community because we are communities of shared practice and research, critically, creatively and collaboratively engaged with each other. It is equally encouraging that there are new voices. Our drama education universe is ever expanding.

In his Making mirrors (2001) album Gotye’s song ‘State of the art’ urges us:

I urge you to read this State of the art, listening to the difference and hearing the results. Enjoy the state of the art. Make the most of the drama that’s been made but also look forward to the next time we take the pulse of Australian drama education.

 

Robin Pascoe

Perth, March 2015

Works cited