This case study describes the role of a number of core courses in the third year of a Bachelor of... more This case study describes the role of a number of core courses in the third year of a Bachelor of Creative Arts degree at the University of Southern Queensland. In a major restructure of the Bachelor of Creative Arts degree, the disciplines of Music, Creative Media, Theatre and Visual Arts are linked into a single degree program and students have the opportunity to choose courses and majors across disciplines in consultation with program staff. The core third year courses described in this case study provide opportunities for students to work with peers across disciplines and to explore pathways into the profession. A strategy for encouraging hybridity through cross disciplinary collaboration in the production of arts for public consumption is the focus of this innovative curriculum design.
Journal of Teaching and Learning for Graduate Employability, 2014
In this paper we reflect on a collaborative, process developed in an Australian university to sup... more In this paper we reflect on a collaborative, process developed in an Australian university to support whole-of-program curriculum change. The aim of the change process is to enhance employment outcomes of Creative Arts students by aligning the curriculum with disciplinary Threshold Learning Outcomes. In this qualitative, case study the author-participants evaluate an emerging four-stage process of support for curriculum change and use reflective data from three perspectives: that of the academic developer, the head of program, and the discipline leader, to assess the usefulness of each stage and reflect about what each of us has learned. We conclude that key features of our process, such as its collaborative approach, have resulted in positive outcomes for participants. These include opportunities for situated learning, genuine ownership and deep engagement with the curriculum change process, including desired program outcomes, as well as reflective practice and a greater shared und...
This paper discusses recent developments in a partnership between the Creative Arts at University... more This paper discusses recent developments in a partnership between the Creative Arts at University of Southern Queensland (USQ) and the Queensland Murray Darling Committee Inc. (QMDC) that is exploring how to develop the use of theatre and visual arts to promote natural resource management in schools and communities in the Lower Balonne. In particular, this paper investigates what constitutes imposition of a theatre-in-education performance for schools in the communities of Surat, Dirranbandi and St George, which are all towns along the Balonne River in south western Queensland. The transference of the "living data" (stories from the children about their river) into a play entitled "The doctor and Nursey-Wursey's most amazing hydrological examination" polarised school-children and adult community audiences in such a way that the research team needed to re-frame (and continues to re-frame) the relationship between data and knowledge in community cultural devel...
In elite boys’ schools there is a level of anxiety about the perceived place of the curricular su... more In elite boys’ schools there is a level of anxiety about the perceived place of the curricular subject drama and how it might interact or interfere with the ironclad essentialist and homogenous masculinity promoted by elite all-boys’ schools. The feminization of the drama and the suspicion of males who “do drama” create a duplicitous tension for boys who take the subject as they walk the gendered tightrope between the expected public display of the “muscular Christian” and the tantalizing “drama faggot.” This paper offers some reflections about observations on and interviews with boys who “do drama” inside the male-only worlds of the Great Public School (GPS) of Brisbane, Australia. In these schools I observed masculinities were constantly disrupted (perhaps uniquely) in the drama classroom and explored by male drama teachers who provided a space in which to playfully interrogate the “muscular Christian ideal” of a boys’ school.
This case study describes the role of a number of core courses in the third year of a Bachelor of... more This case study describes the role of a number of core courses in the third year of a Bachelor of Creative Arts degree at the University of Southern Queensland. In a major restructure of the Bachelor of Creative Arts degree, the disciplines of Music, Creative Media, Theatre and Visual Arts are linked into a single degree program and students have the opportunity to choose courses and majors across disciplines in consultation with program staff. The core third year courses described in this case study provide opportunities for students to work with peers across disciplines and to explore pathways into the profession. A strategy for encouraging hybridity through cross disciplinary collaboration in the production of arts for public consumption is the focus of this innovative curriculum design.
Journal of Teaching and Learning for Graduate Employability, 2014
In this paper we reflect on a collaborative, process developed in an Australian university to sup... more In this paper we reflect on a collaborative, process developed in an Australian university to support whole-of-program curriculum change. The aim of the change process is to enhance employment outcomes of Creative Arts students by aligning the curriculum with disciplinary Threshold Learning Outcomes. In this qualitative, case study the author-participants evaluate an emerging four-stage process of support for curriculum change and use reflective data from three perspectives: that of the academic developer, the head of program, and the discipline leader, to assess the usefulness of each stage and reflect about what each of us has learned. We conclude that key features of our process, such as its collaborative approach, have resulted in positive outcomes for participants. These include opportunities for situated learning, genuine ownership and deep engagement with the curriculum change process, including desired program outcomes, as well as reflective practice and a greater shared und...
This paper discusses recent developments in a partnership between the Creative Arts at University... more This paper discusses recent developments in a partnership between the Creative Arts at University of Southern Queensland (USQ) and the Queensland Murray Darling Committee Inc. (QMDC) that is exploring how to develop the use of theatre and visual arts to promote natural resource management in schools and communities in the Lower Balonne. In particular, this paper investigates what constitutes imposition of a theatre-in-education performance for schools in the communities of Surat, Dirranbandi and St George, which are all towns along the Balonne River in south western Queensland. The transference of the "living data" (stories from the children about their river) into a play entitled "The doctor and Nursey-Wursey's most amazing hydrological examination" polarised school-children and adult community audiences in such a way that the research team needed to re-frame (and continues to re-frame) the relationship between data and knowledge in community cultural devel...
In elite boys’ schools there is a level of anxiety about the perceived place of the curricular su... more In elite boys’ schools there is a level of anxiety about the perceived place of the curricular subject drama and how it might interact or interfere with the ironclad essentialist and homogenous masculinity promoted by elite all-boys’ schools. The feminization of the drama and the suspicion of males who “do drama” create a duplicitous tension for boys who take the subject as they walk the gendered tightrope between the expected public display of the “muscular Christian” and the tantalizing “drama faggot.” This paper offers some reflections about observations on and interviews with boys who “do drama” inside the male-only worlds of the Great Public School (GPS) of Brisbane, Australia. In these schools I observed masculinities were constantly disrupted (perhaps uniquely) in the drama classroom and explored by male drama teachers who provided a space in which to playfully interrogate the “muscular Christian ideal” of a boys’ school.
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