Jonothan Neelands

Acting together: ensemble as a democratic process in art and life

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 emphasis in the ensemble model of drama with the pro-technical and limited range of learning in subject-based approaches which foreground technical knowledge of periods, plays, styles and genres. The ensemble-based approach is positioned in the context of professional theatre understandings of ensemble artistry and in the context of revolutionary shifts from the pro-technical to the pro-social in educational and cultural policy making in England. Using ideas drawn from McGrath and Castoriadis, the paper claims that the ensemble approach provides young people with a model of democratic living.

Miracles are happening: beyond the rhetoric of transformation in the Western traditions of drama education

This paper seeks out the gaps between localised accounts of dramas efficacy in terms of producing transformations in students’ behaviours and sense of identities and the theoretical accounts of such transformations offered in the textual discourses of the field of Drama in Education. Drawing on a range of post-colonial and emancipatory discourses the paper tentatively suggests certain pre-conditions in the pedagogic and artistic intentions of drama practitioners that might indicate that personal and social transformations in drama could be the rule rather than exceptional ‘miracles’. These pre-conditions include a rejection of ‘domesticated’ and intra-aesthetic pedagogies of drama in favour of a socially committed pedagogy that regards students and the realities in which they dwell as ‘unfinished’ and ‘waiting to be created’.

PERSONALISED LEARNING: AMBIGUITIES IN THEORY AND PRACTICE

Abstract: This paper traces the origins of the concept of personalisation in public sector services, and applies it to school education. The original conceptualisation stressed the need for ‘deep’ rather than shallow, personalisation, if radical transformation of services were to be achieved. It is argued that as the concept has been disseminated and implemented through policy documents, notably the 2005 White Paper, it has lost its original emphasis on deep personalisation. The focus in this article is particularly upon gifted and talented students whose education provides the best case example of how the theory of personalisation might work in practice. Two examples of the lessons in a sixth form college are used to illustrate the character of personalised pedagogy in practice. The implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Taming the political: the struggle over recognition in the politics of applied theatre

The emerging sub-field of applied theatre encompasses a wide range of pro-social ‘alternative’ theatre practices, but it also refers to a discursive practice that seeks to reconcile the apparently contradictory claims of the politics of egalitarian redistribution and the politics of difference. The argument in this paper is that this emerging political position reflects a contemporary turn towards the identity politics of recognition and away from political theatres traditional concern with the ‘old left’ politics of redistribution. A critique of the discourse of applied theatre, based on the political philosophy of Nancy Fraser and James Tully, leads to a consideration of the potential of a new left politics of recognition and dialogue in which the processes of participation in social and artistic struggle are seen as the practice of civic dialogic freedom.

The English model of creativity: cultural politics of an idea

The paper presents a socio‐political analysis of New Labour’s rhetorical uses of the idea and values of creativity to shape cultural policy in England. It examines how the current idea of creativity in policy discussions has been politically reconceptualised as a means of responding to broader socio‐political and economic agendas. The paper explores the extent to which the New Labour’s social‐market political paradigm has contributed to shaping and reshaping the government’s creativity rhetoric. It is suggested that the English model of creativity in policy discourse is politically constructed rather than being based in the available literature and research associated with creativity in the fields of psychology and sociology. Drawing on these discussions, the paper suggests that there are five distinctive characteristics of the English model of creativity and offer a critical analysis about some underlying assumptions embedded in these rhetorical positions.

The UK Artist's World of Work

UK Higher Education Institutions are being required to reflect on the balance between academic and vocational aspects of their course provision and to identify more clearly how they are preparing their students for employment. This is not a simple matter. The UK arts and cultural sector is highly complex, with the characteristic features of a diversified and fragmented post-Fordist labour market. The artists world of work is under-described and the extent to which artists need to work entrepreneurially is under-appreciated. All artists, including dancers, need to understand this working context if they are to navigate it successfully. This paper draws on a participatory action research project with artists to explore the complex trading relations that artists engage in. It offers a starting contribution to what will undoubtedly be an ongoing developmental field of inquiry and debate.

The social origins of students identified as gifted and talented in England : a geo-demographic analysis

The English education system has been shown over a long period to be catering poorly for the educational needs of gifted and talented students. In the last five years, however, a national policy and an associated strategy have been established, distinctively attempting to embed core provision for gifted and talented students in the mainstream school system. A major thrust of this ‘English model’ is to identify and support students from those lower socio‐economic groups, and ethnic minorities, which historically have been under‐represented in higher education. This social inclusivity dimension to the national policy raises substantive challenges for policy research and development. This paper provides a detailed geo‐demographic analysis of over 37,000 gifted and talented students admitted to the National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth in England in 2003/2005. The analysis shows that the National Academy, whilst having a student membership skewed towards groups with high levels of cultural and economic capital, had nonetheless reached significant numbers of students in the poorest areas, something over 3000 students, and 8% of students identified as gifted and talented at this stage. Possible explanations for the profile of gifted and talented students’ social origins are raised, and an intervention project arising from the analysis is outlined.

A study of social-market interventions in the shaping of the field of cultural production.

A social analysis based on extensive evaluation of the Dance and Drama Awards programme reveals the social‐market political paradigm underpinning the formation of cultural policy in the UK underthe New Labour government. This specific intervention in the field of cultural production is placed in the context of broader government interventions in the cultural domain that seek to give respect to undervalued social and cultural groups. There is a political analysis of the characteristics of the social‐market political formation that underpin New Labour’s “affirmative” actions, and the political strategies informing the government’s “access” and “inclusion” agendas and their impact on the cultural and creative industries. The authors argue that the construction of a “social‐market” position in New Labour’s cultural policy represents an attempt to bridge or “hyphenate” the contradictory claims of social democracy, on the one hand, and economic fatalism, on the other. Despite the rhetoric of social and cultural “transformation”, the authors argue that a “faith” in the market prevents New Labour from transforming the political‐economic and cultural structures that generate economic and cultural injustices.

Disabled students in the performing arts – are we setting them up to succeed?

Professional training opportunities for students with physical and learning disabilities in the performing arts are conceived and developed in the context of government policy initiatives for inclusion and models of disability that aim to ensure that educational provision is of a kind which does not stigmatise individuals or devalue their performance. In this paper, we consider three partnership programmes linking two theatre companies and one dance company with schools that provide high-level mainstream training. The programmes were planned to offer paths to progression for disabled students, and we examine what the programmes have taught us about the characteristics of inclusive practice in drama and dance training that can set disabled students up to succeed.

Applied Theatre: Research

notions of developing citizens through theatre. The impact of theatre projects upon their facilitators is considered throughout although special attention is drawn to the reflective practitioner stance in Chapter 5. The ebbs and flows of community theatre are openly revealed through a project to revive local theatre in Ratones, South Brazil where passionate memories of theatre participation and community engagement are forced to compete with economic realities. O’Connor’s discussion of the work undertaken in response to the Canterbury earthquakes provides not only a poignant description but boldly addresses the cynicism that now surrounds applied theatre. Lloyd Williams’ project, which invited English primary school students to create and share work with a partner school in Uganda challenges assumptions about the performance of childhood and returns the conversation back to its Frierian roots. The GutemalanDutch exchange describes a space full of shared learnings despite incongruent political and economic contexts. This chapter remains appropriately unfinished and reflects the feeling of a book that draws no firm conclusions but encourages a continued conversation. Applied Theatre: Development provides a concise and aptly timed recount of the political and theoretical influences that have informed the creation and continuation of TfD. Whilst perhaps not providing enough theoretical debate for those familiar with the field, it certainly entices the reader onward and suitably contextualises the case studies. A conscious effort to reveal the breadth of TfD work undertaken globally is reflected in the diverse locations and purposes of the case studies presented. Capturing the practical complications of creating theatre in typically difficult circumstances with the internal contradictions of purpose and audience, these studies are for the most part compelling and readable. The central strength of this book is its refusal to be a promotional tool for TfD, a defense against its naysayers or a straightforward romantic trip down memory lane. While moments of the book certainly fall into these categories, they are as Prentki states ‘only part of the ever-shifting discourses swirling around the discipline’ (1). Space within the book to tackle the central contradiction of TfD as social accommodation or social transformation is unfortunately limited. Nevertheless a provocation is made. Finally, this book models its own call for TfD to lead a re-interpretation of Development, as no longer the sought after destination of the unfortunates but the never-ending journey of us all. To that end this book is a success, providing no final solutions or happy endings but instead adding to a conversation and prompting practitioners, researchers and participants alike to consider how they too may create spaces of otherness.