Bruce Victor Burton

Acting against conflict and bullying. The Brisbane DRACON project 1996–2004—emergent findings and outcomes

In 1996, the authors were invited to join an international research project, DRACON (=DRAma + CONflict), into the use of drama for assisting conflict management in schools, with a particular initial brief to investigate the cultural components. The Brisbane DRACON project has been based at Griffith University in Brisbane, and has incorporated sites throughout New South Wales and Queensland. The aim of the Brisbane project has been to use drama to assist young people in schools towards a cognitive understanding of the nature, causes and dynamics of conflict and bullying, in order to give them the tools to take control of their own conflicts and conflict agendas, personally and in the context of the school community, rather than relying on externally imposed and hierarchical conflict management programs. The project has been embedded throughout within the normal school curriculum, and the eventual goal is to change the ethos of schools by creating new networks of understanding and support. The Brisbane project has so far entailed nine annual cycles of action research centred on secondary school students in Queensland and New South Wales (NSW), and also incorporating primary school students. Fifteen high schools have taken part, with between one and five classes of students involved in each school, and from Cycle 4 onwards, a total of 16 primary schools connected with those high schools have also been included, each with between one and five classes involved. From Cycle 2 onwards, the aim has been pursued using a combination of two equal and integrated strategies: drama and whole-class peer teaching. Cycles 4–6 focussed particularly on cultural aspects of conflict, and Cycles 7–9 on bullying. This paper sets out to tell the story and emerging outcomes of the research.

Acting Against Bullying in Schools

This chapter analyses the application of the techniques developed in the earlier projects to dealing with the issue of bullying in schools. The 3 year research project Acting Against Bullying was conducted in 18 schools, and included longitudinal data-gathering and detailed analysis of the research data to determine the long-term effects of the strategies in reducing bullying in the project schools. The chapter begins with a critical review of the available literature on bullying, and sets the project within this theoretical frame. The chapter goes on to describe the project and its considerable beneficial impact, not just on individual students, but on the ethos and bullying tolerance of whole school populations. A number of innovations to the original ‘Cooling Conflict’ model are investigated, including initiating the project in primary schools, and the development of a ‘master teachers’ program. The chapter also diagnoses the limitations, constraints and unmet targets that were encountered.

Staging the Transitions to Maturity: Youth Theater and the Rites of Passage Through Adolescence

The research project reported in this article began as an investigation into the types of learning experienced by adolescents involved in recreational >-outh theater. However, the initial research soon revealed that a far more complex and fascinating process was occuning than just informal education. In both the !-outh theaters studied. the central feature of the experience for the adolescents invol\.ed was the creation of effective transition rituals assisting the passage through adolescence. The outcomes of the research provide striking evidence that youth theater has the capacity to pro\.ide essential rites of passage for young people in a contemporary society that fails to identify or celebrate crucial developmental stages in the growth to maturity. The choice of two contrasting youth theaters located in different states ivas a conscious attempt to generate complementaq studies of two groups as different as possible from each other. The Melbourne Youth Theater. based in the Diamond Valley in the north eastern suburbs of Melboume in Australia. is completely funded and managed by its own members. and in the past has concenrrated on providing acting classes and performing large-scale musicals. The membership is exclusively whte, mainly Anglo-Saxon and predominantly middle-class. The play Mille~zrziurn, which was the subject of the study. was the first groupdevised work the company has attempted. All the 19 Melbourne Youth Theater members working on Millen~zium were either employed or studying in tertiaq. institutions. and their ages ranged from 17 to 21. The observation notes and interviews strongly indicate that as a group they used the creation and performance of Miilellrzium as a rite of passage into adulthood. and the majority appeared to be deeply. co-operatively involved in the construction of this ritual. In particular. the female participants appeared to attain their sense of achievement and identity through their close relationships with each other. rather than through the assertion of a separate. independent self or the demonstration of specific. indi\.idual skills. The second company. Brisbane Youth Theater in Queensland. is an externall!funded youth theater that is professionally managed. located in the center of Brisbane City. Its membership is multi-ethnic and the youth theater includes a number of adolescents of Torres Straisht Islander as \yell as teenagers of -4sian and European origin. Brisbane Youth Theater consciously uses drama to explore both

Young audiences, theatre and the cultural conversation

The focus of this chapter is on how teachers can and do play a critical role in selecting, scaffolding and sustaining theatre attendance for young people. Both the potential for developing less experienced young people’s understanding of theatre form and the extension of the responses of more experienced young theatre goers are explored in this chapter.

Enhanced Forum Theatre : Where Boal's Theatre of the Oppresssed meets Process Drama in the Classroom

Abstract This paper examines an innovative adaptation of Augusto Boals Theatre of the Oppressed that was developed over nine years of action research into the use of drama to address conflict and bullying management in a large number of schools in two different states of Australia. The paper documents the development of Enhanced Forum Theatre and analyses its functioning and its impact in the research projects.

Drama for Learning in Professional Development Contexts: A Global Perspective

This chapter details the research carried out using drama strategies in four different cultural and professional contexts. The first was a research study which focused on trainee teachers in the U.K., the second a study using applied drama in Nursing Education in Germany, Jordan and Sweden, whilst the report of the third study explains how drama strategies drawn from DRACON work have been utilized in teacher development work in Kazakhstan, with the final research study focused on patients with dementia and their caregivers. The chapter explains that the research explored four projects in different contexts with a focus on how transformative learning is possible through applied drama practices. The chapter concludes that Drama offers the opportunity to transcend cultural and language differences to uncover and question, to foster collaboration and communication and to seek insight and understanding. Pre-service teachers, nurses, caregivers and their patients and experienced teachers all undertook a journey in transformative learning.

Keeping the stage alive: The impact of teachers on young people’s engagement with theatre

ABSTRACT School-age students rarely attend live theatre events unless they have been organized as part of a curricular, or co-curricular, excursion facilitated by teachers. This article reports on the findings of the TheatreSpace project, a three-year study of young people’s attendance at theatre performances, and concentrates on a discussion of the impact of teachers on theatregoing. The authors propose that a teachers’ influence is threefold: as model, as mentor, and as guide. The article also discusses the impact of the dedicated study of theatre within the curriculum on the experience of a live theatre event.

Developing Student Leadership Through Peer Teaching in Schools

This paper reports on the outcomes of a major, evidenced-based program that uses drama and peer teaching to empower students to deal with conflict and bullying more effectively and become leaders in their schools. The extensive research was conducted in a range of primary and secondary schools in Australia, and was part of a larger international project using conflict resolution concepts and techniques combined with drama strategies to address cultural conflict in schools. The combination of drama and formal cross-age peer teaching emerged as highly effective strategies in empowering students to manage a range of conflicts in schools, especially bullying, and in becoming positive mentors and role models within their school communities. The research particularly revealed that operating as peer teachers enabled numbers of students to assume leadership of the entire program in their schools.

Moving On from the Trauma of Childhood Abuse

This chapter explores the shift in focus of the research from schools, to the use drama and theatre performance in addressing post-traumatic stress and psychological dysfunction in the lives of adults. The subjects of the 3 year action research Moving On project were older adults who had been abused as children in orphanages and foster homes. The project is described in detail, explaining how it was conducted in partnership with professional counsellors, focusing on the extensive use of improvised drama to explore conflict and trauma issues in the past and present lives of the participants, culminating a public theatre performance created and performed by the participants. The chapter also examines the serious challenges encountered in avoiding re-traumatisation of the participants. Finally, the success of the project in enabling the participants to develop a range of effective behaviours and move on in their lives from the trauma of their childhood experiences is explored.

The DRACON Project in Brisbane

This chapter describes the first of a series of research projects in Australia which investigated the use of techniques to empower school students to manage the conflicts they encountered in their daily lives. The research team developed a set of clear concepts intended to make conflict understandable, then experimented with various drama techniques to enable students to explore these concepts. The chapter explains the addition of class-based peer teaching where older students who had learned effective conflict management then taught younger students these techniques and concepts. The effectiveness of these evolving techniques is described, including the fact that the students actually used their new knowledge in real life contexts. Finally, a project in year 3 of the research investigating the use of theatre performance is explored. A class of senior students prepared an interactive show for parents and other students, incorporating some of the drama techniques they had been learning.