Josephine Fleming

The expanded developmental periphery: framing the institutional role of university continuing education units

This article argues that Burton Clark’s notion of the expanded developmental periphery provides a useful conceptual framework for examining the differing relationships between continuing and professional education units and the institutional core of traditional research universities. The intent is to examine how Clark’s notion offers a means to detect and analyse factors that assist in empowering some units and, conversely, those that are disempowering and lead to a perception of marginalisation in others. The article begins by examining differing perspectives in the literature on the relationship between continuing and professional education units and the university core. It then revisits Clark’s work on entrepreneurial universities before focussing on just one of the five transforming elements that Clark argues underscore the success of entrepreneurial universities—the expanded developmental periphery. The article explains how this notion was developed into a conceptual framework and was used in my own research examining the contribution that three continuing and professional education units made to their universities in Washington DC, Hong Kong and Sydney. I have used Clark’s notion as a diagnostic tool, which may have a wider application for examining relationships between the institutional core and its periphery.

Cultivating imaginative thinking: teacher strategies used in high-performing arts education classrooms

This article reports on recent case-study research that examined teacher- and student-level processes in nine Australian arts classrooms. The selected classrooms, based on the results of a connected longitudinal study, demonstrated strong positive links between arts participation and academic motivation, engagement and achievement. The focus here is on how teachers supported their students to conceive, shape and present imaginative work. Although different approaches were apparent in the dance, drama, film, music and visual arts classrooms, patterns were detected in the processes used to transform imaginative ideas into a creative work. The research indicated that important skills were being developed as the students encountered the ambiguity of the creative process. Furthermore, insights were gained into how work drawing on the imagination can be initiated and sustained through the highs and lows of development to become both a work of art and a learning experience that will augment future creative work.

Talking About Liveness: Responses of Young People in the Theatrespace Project

Abstract This paper draws on analysis of interviews with over 500 young people who attended theatre performances as part of the Australian TheatreSpace project. The paper focuses on one small but critical aspect of the larger project. Asked what they valued in a theatre experience, a significant number of young people spoke about liveness. The paper addresses the question: what are the key points/ideas about liveness that we can learn from listening to the young people? Our discussion includes a consideration of: the comfort or discomfort of presentness; performer vulnerability, risk and uncertainty; proximity to the live action; perceptions of realness; a sense of relationship with the actors; and intensity of engagement. A brief consideration of the implications for teachers and theatre providers concludes the paper.

Reimagining the Wheel: The Implications of Cultural Diversity for Mainstream Theatre Programming in Australia

Profound demographic shifts in Australias population are raising fundamental questions about how we reimagine the practices of our mainstream cultural institutions. The ability and the willingness of these institutions to reconceptualize their work in ways that encompass a diversity of traditions and tastes are critical. The paper draws on Pierre Bourdieus notions of distinctions and taste to examine the influence of cultural identification on the choices that young people make about attending live theatre. The paper includes findings from a large Australian study, TheatreSpace, which examined why young people chose to engage or not to engage with theatre. In New South Wales nearly 40 per cent of the 726 young participants spoke a language other than English at home. Most were attending with their schools, many with no history of family attendance. This paper highlights significant issues about cultural relevance, accessibility and the often unintended challenges and confrontations that theatre can present to young first-generation Australians.

The Industry Partners’ Perceptions

This chapter reflects on the research questions from the perspectives of our industry partners. Although the partners had varying policies and programs in place for young people several common findings emerged. In most cases the education programs of these companies brought in a significantly more diverse young audience than did the general public and subscriber programs. As such these programs had the potential to engage and build new audiences and this was clearly recognised by those who steered and managed them. Yet the extent to which the expertise of these staff members was used in artistic and management decision-making was uneven and in some cases was under-utilised. This is explored in the chapter. The chapter also discusses evident tensions between artistic and educational imperatives from the perspective of the theatre makers, highlighting concern that curriculum requirements intrude on the experience of young audiences in negative ways. The chapter will further explore some related contradictions, particularly about notions of preparedness, theatre etiquette and theatre literacy.

The TheatreSpace Project, Its Partners and Its Purposes

This chapter describes and discusses the TheatreSpace Project and its development from the recruitment of partners to the negotiated design process of the methodology. In the chapter we tell the story of the development of this project and in doing so provide a few of the benefits of the experience to anyone interested in trying a research project on this scale. We provide a narrative of the way the project developed and the various influences that shaped the design and the implementation of the Project. We discuss the way the study evolved from the negotiations with the partners to the development of the research team and the design of the methodology of the project. The chapter concludes with a series of reflections about the design and development of the project with some discussion about what has been learnt through the process. The chapter discusses the successes and some of the difficulties and setbacks to give a sense of the struggle that large scale research projects often entail.

Young Audiences from the Educators' Perspective

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.