IJCAIP Advisory Board Profiles: George Belliveau

George Belliveau Ph.D., Associate Professor,
LLED, Language and Literacy Education
University of British Columbia

Areas of Research

Drama Education
Arts Education
Drama and Social Justice
Teacher Education
Canadian Drama
Ethnodrama, Performed Research
Drama and/in Second Language Learning

Current Research Projects

Exploring the Potential of Research-Based Theatre in the Field of Education: Humanities and Social Sciences Large Research Grant. Principal Investigator: George Belliveau.

Exploring the Transformational Potential of Arts-Based Research: Theory, Method and Practice: Canada Institute of Health Research. Principal Investigator: Katherine Boydell; Co-investigator: George Belliveau, Bill Leeming, Kate Tilleczek.

Arts-Based Methods in Health Research: Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies. Principal Investigator: Sue Cox; Co-investigator: George Belliveau.

Becoming Pedagogical through A/r/tography in Teacher Education: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, May, 2008-May, 2011. Principal Investigator: Rita Irwin; Co-investigators: George Belliveau, Peter Gouzouasis, Carl Leggo, Donal O'Donoghue; Stepanie Springgay.

Addressing the Role of the Bystander through Drama in Bullying Situations: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, May, 2007-May, 2010. Principal Investigator: George Belliveau; Co-investigator: Shelley Hymel.

Assessing Ethnotheatre as a Form of Educational Research: Humanities and Social Science Small Research Grant. Mar, 2007-Apr, 2008. Principal Investigator: George Belliveau.

Say Peace: Vancouver Foundation, Nov, 2006-Jun, 2007. Principal Investigator: Heather Duff: George Belliveau (collaborator).

Refereed Journal Publications

Carter, M., Beare, D., Belliveau, G. & R. Irwin. (In Press). A/r/tography as pedagogy: A promise without guarantee. The Canadian Review of Art Education 38, 1-15.

Shira, A & Belliveau, G. (In Press). Discovering the role(s) of a drama researcher: Outsider, bystander, mysterious observer. Youth Theatre Journal 26(1).

Belliveau, G. (2012). Shakespeare and Literacy: A Case Study in a Primary Classroom. Journal of Social Sciences, 8(2), 170-177.

Beck, J., G. Belliveau, A. Wager & G.W. Lea. (2011). Delineating a spectrum of research-based theatre. Qualitative Inquiry, 17(8), 687-700.

Lea, G. W., G. Belliveau, J. Beck & A. Wager. (2011). A loud silence:weaving research-based theatre and a/r/tography. International Journal of Education and the Arts, 12(16). http://www.ijea.org/v12n16

MacKenzie, D. & G. Belliveau. (2011). The playwright in research-bases theatre. Canadian Journal of Practice-based Research, 3(1) http://cjprt.uwinnipeg.ca/index.php/cjprt/article/viewFile/30/19

MacKenzie, D., G. Belliveau, J. Beck, G.W. Lea, & A. Wager. (2011). Naming the Shadows: Theatre as Research. Canadian Journal of Practice-based Research, 3(1) http://cjprt.uwinnipeg.ca/index.php/cjprt/article/viewFile/29/18

White, V., & Belliveau, G. (2011). Multiple perspectives, loyalties and identities: Exploring intrapersonal spaces through research-based theatre. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 24(2), 227-238.

White, V., & Belliveau, G. (2010). Whose story is it anyway? Exploring ethical dilemmas in performed research. Performing Ethos International Research Journal, 1(1), 85-95.

Belliveau, George and Vince White. (2010). Performer and audience responses to ethnotheatre: Exploring conflict and social justice. ArtsPraxis Research Journal, 2, 22-36. http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/music/artspraxis/2/responses_to_ethnotheatre

Wager, Amanda, George Belliveau, Graham Lea and Jaime Beck. (2009). Exploring Drama as an Additional Language through research-based theatre. International Journal for Drama and Theatre in Foreign and Second Language Education, 3(2). http://publish.ucc.ie/scenario/2009/02/wagerbelliveau/04/en

Winters, Kari and Belliveau, George. (2009). Shifting identities and literacy: An a/rt/ographic examination of an educational theatre company. Language & Literacy, 11(1). http://www.langandlit.ualberta.ca/Spring2009/Winters.htm

Belliveau, George. (2009). Elementary students and Shakespeare: Inspiring community and learning. International Journal of the Arts in Society, 4(2), 1-8.

Belliveau, George. (2008). You didn't do anything: A research play on bullying. Educational Insights 12.2. http://ccfi.educ.ubc.ca/publication/insights/v12n02/articles/belliveau/index.html

Belliveau, George. (2008). Theatre and bullying: Increasing awareness about bullying and victimization. In S.Hymel, S. Swearer & P. Gillette (Eds.), Bullying at School and Online. http://www.education.com/reference/article/Ref_Theatre_Bullying/

Belliveau, George, Carmen Medina and Gus Weltsek. (2008). Reflective practices in drama teacher preparation. Theatre Research in Canada, 28(2), 130-143.

Gouzouasis, Peter, Julia Henry and George Belliveau. (2008). Turning points: A transitional story of grade seven music students’ participation in high school band programmes. Music Education Research, 10(1), 75-89.

Belliveau, George. (2007). An alternative model for teaching and learning. Canadian Journal of Education, 30(1), 47-67.

Belliveau, George, David Beare. (2007). Theatre for Positive Youth Development: A Model for Collaborative Play-Creating.Applied Theatre Researcher Vol. 7. http://www.griffith.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/52892/04-beare-belliveau-final.pdf

Belliveau, George with Josh Weale and Graham Lea. (2007). TheaterPEI: The emergence and development of a local theatre. Theatre Research in Canada, 26(1), 64-81.

Bournot-Trites, Monique, George Belliveau, Jérémie Séror, Valia Spiliotopoulos. (2007). The role of drama on cultural sensitivity, motivation and literacy in a second language context, Learning through the Arts Research Journal, 3.1.http://repositories.cdlib.org/clta/lta/vol3/iss1/art9

Belliveau, George. (2007). Ça bouge: Le théâtre de Moncton Sable. Theatre Research in Canada, 26(2), 114-129.

Belliveau, George. (2007). Dramatizing the data: An ethnodramatic exploration of a playbuilding process. Arts & Learning Research Journal, 23(1), 31-51.

Ryan, Dan, Jan Giles, George Belliveau and Elizabeth de Freitas. (2006). The effect of teaching style on learning and retention in a quantitative course. Active Learning in Higher Education, 7(3), 213 - 225.

Belliveau, George. (2006). Using drama to achieve social justice: Anti-bullying project in elementary schools. Universal Mosaic of Drama and Theatre - IDEA Publications, 5, 325 - 336.

Belliveau, George. (2006). Collective playbuilding: Using arts-based research to understand a social justice drama process in teacher education. International Journal of Education & the Arts, 7(5). http://ijea.org/v7n5/index.html

Belliveau, George. (2006). Performed research: Exploring an anti-bullying drama project in teacher education. Creative Arts in Health, Training and Education Research Journal, June 2, 9-11.

Belliveau, George. (2005). An arts-based approach to teach social justice: Drama as a way to address bullying in schools. International Journal of Arts Education, 3, 136 - 165.

Belliveau, George. (2005). An arts-based approach to teach social justice: Drama as a way to address bullying in schools (Mandarin Translation). International Journal of Arts Education, 3, 166 - 189.

Belliveau, George. (2005). Mining and community: Using the arts as a way of knowing. English Quarterly, 37(1), 1 - 7.

Belliveau, George. (2004). Managing to keep going ... Drama Education on Prince Edward Island. Canadian Drama Mosaic, 26 - 29.

Belliveau, George. (2004). Exploring Acadian History using arts-based teaching. Port Acadie, 5, 25 - 38.

Belliveau, George. (2004). Pre-service teachers engage in Collective Drama. English Quarterly, 35(3), 1 - 6.

Belliveau, George. (2003). Daddy on trial: Sharon Pollock’s New Brunswick plays. Theatre Research in Canada, 22(2), 161 - 172.

Belliveau, George. (2003). Remembering our past: Investigating British Columbia's history in The Komagata Maru Incident and The Hope Slide. B.C. Studies, 137, 93 - 106.

Belliveau, George. (2003). Les Arts Dramatiques pour étudier la Déportation Acadienne en Immersion Française. Canadian Modern Language Review, 59(3), 441 - 453.

Belliveau, George. (2002). Glace Bay to Hollywood: A political journey. Theatre Research in Canada, 22(1), 46 - 57.

Refereed Books

Fels, Lynn and George Belliveau. (2008). Exploring curriculum: performative inquiry, role drama and learning. Vancouver, British Columbia: Pacific Education Press.

Refereed Book Chapters

Belliveau, G. (In Press). Engaging secondary students through drama. English in Middle and Secondary Classrooms: Creative and Critical Advice from Canada’s Teacher Educators. Eds. C. Leggo, K. James, T. Dobson. Pearson Educational Press.

Prendergast, M. & G. Belliveau. (In Press) Poetics and Performance. In A. Trainor & E. Graue (Eds.), Publishing qualitative research in the social science. Routledge Publishing.

Belliveau, G., & Lea, G. (2011) Research-based theatre in education. In S. Schonmann (Ed.), Key concepts in theatre drama education. Sense Publishers. (pp. 332-38)

Webber, T. (2), Belliveau, G., & Lea, G. (2). (2010). Hope and identity in the high school musical: Insights into the life of a hard of hearing student. In C. McLean & R. Kelly (Eds.), Creative arts in interdisciplinary practice, inquiries for hope and change (pp. 267-284). Temeron Books.

Belliveau, G., & Lea, G. (2). (2010). TheaterPEI: The emergence and development of a local theatre. In L. Burnett (Ed.), Theatre in Atlantic Canada: Critical perspectives on Canadian theatre in English (pp.146-159). Toronto: Playwrights Canada Press.

Belliveau, G., & Beare, D. (2008). Dialoguing scripted data. Being with A/r/tography. Ed. Stepanie Springgay, Rita Irwin, Carl Leggo and Peter Gouzouasis. Sense Publishers: 141-152.

Belliveau, G. (2002). Paul Ledoux' Anne: A journey from page to stage. Making Avonlea: L.M. Montgomery and Popular Culture. Ed. Irene Gammel. U Toronto Press: 201 - 215.

Non-Refereed Journal Publications

Belliveau, George, Vince White. (2008). It’s elementary! Learning and building community through Shakespeare. Proceedings Hawaii International Conference on Education. (2008): 806-817.

Belliveau, George and Graham Lea. (2006). PEI's Victoria Playhouse: Looking back, looking forward. Canadian Theatre Review, 128, 26 - 31.

Belliveau, George. (2006). Liveness in the Okanagan: Caravan Farm Theatre. Canadian Theatre Review, 127, 85 - 86.

Belliveau, George. (2005). Drama in the Maritimes: Tides (plays) are strong. Canadian Theatre Review, 122, 90 - 94.

Belliveau, George. (2004). Struggle to success: Collective drama on Anti-Bullying. Canadian Theatre Review, 117, 42 - 44.

IJCAIP Advisory Board Profiles: Johnny Saldaña

Johnny Saldaña, Professor of Theatre

Herberger Institute for Design and Arts’ School

of Theatre and Film, Arizona State University (ASU)

Johnny Saldaña is a Professor of Theatre in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts' School of Theatre and Film at Arizona State University (ASU) where he has taught since 1981. He has been involved in the field of theatre education as a teacher educator, drama specialist, director, and researcher.

Mr. Saldaña is the author of Drama of Color: Improvisation with Multiethnic Folklore (Heinemann, 1995), a teacher's resource text and recipient of the 1996 Distinguished Book Award from the American Alliance for Theatre & Education (AATE); Longitudinal Qualitative Research: Analyzing Change Through Time (AltaMira Press, 2003), a research methods book and recipient of the 2004 Outstanding Book Award from the National Communication Association's Ethnography Division; Ethnodrama: An Anthology of Reality Theatre (AltaMira Press, 2005), an edited collection of ethnographic-based plays; The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers (Sage Publications, 2009), a handbook on qualitative data analysis and a finalist for the American Educational Research Association's Qualitative Research Special Interest Group's 2010 Outstanding Book Award; Fundamentals of Qualitative Research (Oxford University Press, 2011), an introductory textbook; and Ethnotheatre: Research from Page to Stage (Left Coast Press, 2011), a playwriting primer for performance ethnography. He is currently preparing the second edition of The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers for publication by Sage in winter 2012.

Saldaña has published articles in such journals as Youth Theatre Journal, Stage of the Art, Teaching Theatre, Research in Drama Education, Research Studies in Music Education, Multicultural Perspectives, Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy, and Qualitative Inquiry. He has also published chapters on research methods for such titles as Arts-Based Research in Education, Handbook of the Arts in Qualitative Research, Handbook of Longitudinal Research, New Approaches to Qualitative Research, Creative Arts in Interdisciplinary Practice, and entries for The Sage Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods.

Saldaña's research methods in longitudinal qualitative inquiry, ethnodrama, and qualitative coding and data analysis have been applied and cited by researchers internationally to explore such diverse topics as:

Grades K-12 Education: mathematics education in elementary and middle school, sexuality

education, religious education, higher-order thinking in science and social studies classrooms,

English language learning (by Mexican immigrants and Korean youth), Chicago public school

teachers, high school teachers’ perceptions of occupational professionalism, school accountability results reporting, vocational education in Australia, school reform in Sweden, language policy for deaf students in Spanish-speaking homes, hegemonic masculinity in Portuguese physical education classes, urban after-school program evaluation, emotional and behavioral disability student mainstreaming in Hong Kong, children’s perceptions of climate change, disciplinary philosophies of secondary school administrators, critical praxis research and methodology, German middle school students’ perceptions of global warming, video club

teacher learning communities, Latino male perspectives on school disconnection, principal

succession planning and management, intergroup dialogue for bullying prevention in high

schools, narrative teacher evaluations of students’ moral development in Chinese schools

Higher Education: international university students, adult education in graduate school, graduate

teaching assistantship preparation, academic careers of scientists, university faculty professional

development assessment, student geologists’ visual penetrative ability skills, higher education

program branding, women faculty in Australian academia, undergraduate online education in

Australia, leadership competencies of college leaders, Latina college student perceptions of

learning communities, Black female and Latina careers in higher education, graduate student

teaching assistants’ encounters with student aggression, pre-service teacher professional

development in South Africa, university women’s dissertation advising, technical college

Hispanic student adjustments and challenges, Chinese language and theories in western research,

internal quality assurance systems in higher education, student perceptions of sexual violence

resources on campus, Generation Y occupational therapy students in Australia, educational

researcher development in Scotland, community college president termination dilemmas, the hero motif in community college leadership discourse, internationalism in Chinese higher education

institutions

Fine Arts: media education, theatre student retention and success in Canadian high schools,

elementary arts education in Canada, music education (US, Canada, and New Zealand),

community theatre in New Zealand, documentary filmmaking in Singapore, ethnodramatic theory

and ethnotheatrical practice (US and Australia), designers and engineers' thinking and decision-

making processes, research-based dance development, child audience reception to theatre, BBC

New Media public participation, music therapy in African prisons, adult lifelong impacts of high

school speech and theatre programming, art education for people with autism, informal music

learning through online communities, sustainable practices at music festivals in New Zealand,

management factors influencing location selection decisions for independent filmmakers, a

content analysis of music lyrics in Mexican narcocorridos,

Human Development: child empathy, gay youth and identity, transgender identity, female African American adolescents, African American biography, teenage and young mothers in the U.K.,child and family development in the U.K., adolescent masculinity in Australia, retirement dilemmas of people with intellectual disabilities in Australia, interpersonal dating and intimacy relationships among the elderly, older people’s resilience in New Zealand, preschool children’s play environments at home

Social Sciences: wives of professional athletes, abused women, domestic violence, military

reserve families during wartime, date rape prevention, civic engagement in adolescents and

young adults, stress and leisure time activities, contemporary oral communication trends, race

relations in Detroit, incarcerated youth in Canada, juvenile correctional officers as advocates,

immigrant adolescents and language brokering, Latino youth perspectives on immigration,

adolescent leisure in Australian parks, religious affiliation in Canada, qualitative research in

career development literature, environmental psychologies, introversion in sociological field

research, sociopolitical analysis of being “at risk,” African American Hurricane Katrina survivors

and disaster resilience, former intercollegiate athletes’ sport identities, Finnish migration politics,

donor relationships with faith-based organizations in New Zealand, the role of the Virgin of

Guadalupe among the Mexican community of the San Joaquin Valley, occupational stress and

alcoholism in bar workers, adolescent preferences for reality TV programming

Business: human resource development, innovation project termination, service encounter

interaction strategies, corporate social responsibility policies, multicultural group work in

management, organizational values-based change methods, souvenir shopping in Switzerland,

Canadian businesswomen, product innovation teams in the Netherlands, English language

proficiency among professionals in Indonesia and Malaysia, financial crisis analysis,

human resource practices for knowledge asset management, trial-and-error learning in

organizations in Denmark, social entrepreneurship and institutional-organizational logics in

Europe, nonprofit organization involvement with urban community forestry, organizational

change management and relocation in the UK, employment experiences of people with bipolar

disorder, young people’s perceptions and aspirations of future employment in Ghana, perceptions

of integrated testing strategies for hazard and risk assessment, participatory visual methods for

exploring organizational space, acculturation forecast models for apprentices and experts

Technology: the ethnography of technology, male resistance to women in technology, open

source software adoption, consumption values of technology, European retail barcode systems,

global organization use of social networking sites, digital document design, technical integration

scenarios in global supply chains, E2.0 (Enterprise 2.0) social software platform technology in

Australian business, effects of inducement prizes on technological innovation competitions,

electronic health record chart biopsies, virtual microscopy in human anatomy courses, technology

innovation in North American libraries, text mining methods for the analysis of large-scale

consultations submitted via the Internet in the UK, thematic synthesis in software engineering,

online dating and the use of technology for surveillance and risk management, interoperable

identity management for Kenyan government technology systems, end-user preferences for 3-D

mobile interactive navigation design

Government and Social Services: rural displaced worker assistance, heritage conservation of

England's National Trust, county administration in Sweden, the Great Lakes Water Quality

Agreement between Canada and the US, NASA telescope history, national forest policy in

Finland, Yukon intergovernmental communication, sanitation technology in third world

countries, US Air Force humanitarian assistance and disaster response, the health uninsured in

California, Australian public health policy makers, the US Violence Against Women Act,

sustainable plant protection in urban West Africa, public water sector management in Indonesia,

online family dispute resolution in Australia,

Health Care: women with HIV, Alzheimer's disease, families and dementia, spinal cord

compression recovery, stroke recovery and rehabilitation, patients living with inoperable cancer,

traumatic brain injury survivors and care providers, nursing and resiliency, interprofessional

collaborative practice among nurses and stakeholders, health profession volunteer perceptions of

the disabled, self-concept and social functioning of women with breast cancer, children’s

perceptions of parental depression, rural southern African Americans with HIV, nursing home

care in Canada, renal failure patient support in the Netherlands, risk behaviors of Slovene

injection drug users, substance use treatment in Canada, professional development of general

practitioner trainers and appraisers in the U.K., adult sexual assault survivor examination, alcohol

and drug intervention in rural Australia, community-based collaborative action research in

nursing, group psychotherapy in rural Uganda, physical distress and cancer care experiences

among Chinese-American and non-Hispanic white breast cancer survivors, learning

collaboratives in public health, surrogate decision making for patients with severe traumatic brain injury, residential alternatives for in-patient psychiatric services in England, enablers and barriers

for alcohol and drug program implementation in Australia, self-management of dementia,

internet-based self-management of diabetes with primary caregivers, emergency medical services

partnership, professional dignity in nursing

[all topics generated from personal correspondence, Google Scholar citations, and Google

searches]

Mr. Saldaña's workshops and keynote addresses reflect a broad range of interests including drama in the classroom, drama with multicultural materials, ethnotheatre, theatre for social change, and qualitative research methods. Saldaña has presented for such organizations as: the Arizona Artist/Teacher Institute, the New Orleans Public Schools, the Louisiana Institute for Education in the Arts, the Southeast Institute for Education in Theatre, the Tennessee Arts Academy, Northwestern University, Western Michigan University, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, New York University, City College of New York, the University of Hartford, the University of Amsterdam, the University of Alberta, the University of Victoria, the University of Leeds; and at national conferences of: AATE, the Educational Theatre Association, Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed, the International Drama in Education Research Institute, the American Educational Research Association, the National Association for Multicultural Education, Narrative Inquiry in Music Education, the National Council of Teachers of English Assembly of Research, the International Institute for Qualitative Methodology, the European Qualitative Research Conference in Health and Social Care, and the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry.

Saldaña is an eight-time recipient of the President's Citation of Merit from AATE, the 1989 Creative Drama Award, the 1996, 2001, and 2011 Research Awards from AATE, the Burlington Resources Foundation Faculty Achievement Award in 1991, the ASU College of the Arts Distinguished Teacher of the Year Award in 1995 and 2008, and the ASU College of the Arts Research Award in 2005. In 2000, 2008, and 2009 he was recognized by the ASU Parents Association as a finalist for Professor of the Year.

Mr. Saldaña received his BFA in Drama and English Education in 1976, and MFA in Drama in 1979 from the University of Texas at Austin. Saldaña has taught at UT-Austin and Washington State University in Pullman. He was born in Austin, Texas, and currently resides in Phoenix. Professional memberships include: the International Association of Qualitative Inquiry, the International Institute for Qualitative Methodology (Member Scholar), the American Alliance for Theatre & Education, and the American Educational Research Association.

Collaborative Research: Drama Helps Explore Difficult Situations

An interesting report (excerpt) from the Vancouver Island Health Authority site
at http://www.aginghealthresearch.ca/VIHARegionalPage.html demonstrates how drama
can be applied to help foster teamwork in collaborative research projects.

Collaborative Research Teams: Using Drama to Explore Difficult Situations

On November 3rd, the third workshop in our Collaborative Research Workshop series was held in the Medical Sciences Building at UVic. This series is a collaborative effort between the University of Victoria's Centre on Aging and VIHA’s Research and Academic Development department, with the goal of increasing our combined capacity to conduct high-quality health-related research. Support for this workshop was received from UVic Office of Research Services; Victoria Palliative Research Network New Emerging Team; BC Network for Aging Research, Rural and Remote Health Research Network, and the Disability Health Research Network and involved participation from the Centre on Aging, School of Nursing, Applied Theatre Department, as well as VIHA’s Research and Academic Development Department and RP1.

Using a technique called “Forum Theatre”, events based on real-life scenarios were adapted for the stage. Audience members were given an opportunity to reflect upon the incidents/events and to become involved in the process of changing how the scenario unfolded, and then review the event from a new perspective.

The audience included researchers and students from the University of Victoria as well as health providers from VIHA who were interested in increasing their knowledge and skills in the collaborative research process as well as networking with others interested in partnering to conduct research. "


Another winning example of the creative arts practically applied in research, action and practice.
Cheryl.

Living Stories of Hope and Change, Opportunity to Witness Creative Arts in Research and Action

Cheryl McLean has presented keynote presentations in Canada and the U.S. which feature the creative arts in interdisciplinary practice and applications of story in research and action for hope and change. Her current presentation "Living Stories of Hope and Change" has been well received by academic audiences and diverse organizations across disciplines.

Cheryl McLean M.A. is CEO, Founder and Publisher of The International Journal of The Creative Arts in Interdisciplinary Practice IJCAIP, and Editor of the CAIP Research Series and groundbreaking texts , “Creative Arts in Interdisciplinary Practice, Inquiries for Hope and Change” and “Creative Arts in Research for Community and Cultural Change”, Associate Editor, Dr. Robert Kelly, University of Calgary, (publisher Detselig Temeron Press, Calgary). She graduated (Social Sciences, University of Western Ontario) and after close to twenty years as a journalist, adult educator and arts administrator attended graduate school at Concordia University, Montreal (MA, Faculty of Fine Art, Creative Arts Therapies) studying creative arts and drama methods in group therapy and interning in gerontology at Maimonides Jewish Geriatric Hospital and The Rene Cassin Institute of Social Gerontology.

She trained as an actor in projects for two years (Stanislavsky, realism) under the mentorship of Dr. Muriel Gold, formerly the Artistic Director of The Saidye Bronfman Theatre, Montreal. In research and therapeutic work with older persons (a number who were Holocaust survivors) Cheryl McLean used drama and creative arts methodologies in research and practice to help individuals express their stories and lived experiences. This research, based on true stories, became the basis for a thesis performance/ethnodrama called “Remember Me for Birds” about aging, mental health and autonomy. The work was presented as keynote performances in 2005 for The Canadian Association of Schools of Social Work Educators National Conference (CASSWE),Congress of the Humanities, University of Western Ontario, 2005; Celebrating Gerontology, Interdisciplinary Programs in Gerontology, Centre for Education and Research in Aging and Health (CERAH), Lakehead University, McGill Interdisciplinary Geriatric Seminar, McGill Medical School and NADT, National Association of Drama Therapy, Rhode Island and was produced as an educational film in 2007.

Living Stories of Hope and Change




The presentation “Living Stories of Hope and Change” (l hr. 15) is delivered in a narrative style and is a collection of “tellings” made up of illustrative and linked stories that draw on personal experiences as well as true stories of creative arts in research and action for change. The talk also features other dramatic examples of story used in research and practice by artists, researchers and professionals across disciplines featuring topical research examples drawn from the recently released research text, “Creative Arts in Interdisciplinary Practice, Inquiries for Hope and Change” (released August 2010) and upcoming


text, Creative Arts in Research for Community and Cultural Change.” (upcoming December 2010) both edited by Cheryl McLean, Associate Editor Dr. Robert Kelly,( publisher Detselig Temeron Press.) In sharing these authentic accounts and narratives through story, narrative, performed monologues, readings and original film and poetry, Cheryl McLean demonstrates compellingly how the creative arts in contemporary research and action across disciplines can lead to hope and change.


Currently booking engagements through 2010 and 2011-2012.
Information: CherylMcLean@ijcaip.com

Arts and Health Resource Listing, Death and Bereavement

Creative Responses to Death and Bereavement. A helpful resource listing.

Books

Bertman, S. L., (1999), “Grief and the Healing Arts Creativity as Therapy” Baywood Publishing, New York.

Morgan, J.D., (2000), “Meeting the Needs of our Clients Creatively”, Baywood Publishing, New York.

Neimeyer, R. A. (2006), “Rainbow in the Stone”, Selected poems by Robert A. Neimeyer, Mercury Publishers, Memphis.

Morgan, J.D., (1997), “Readings in Thanatology”, Baywood Publishing, New York.


Literary Arts

Charon R. (2006), “Narrative Medicine: Honouring the Stories of Illness” New York Oxford University Press.

Horowitz HW. (1996), “Poetry on Rounds: A Model for the Integration of Humanities into Residency Training”, Lancet, 347, pg. 447- 449.

Leggo, C., (2007), “Living Poetically A Pensées on Literacy and Health,”Canadian Creative Arts in Health, Training and Education Journal, Issue 6, Sept. pg. 3 - 12. (see http://www.cmclean.com/ Sept. 07 issue)

McNiff, S. (1992), “Art as Medicine: Creating a Therapy of the Imagination,” Shambhala Publications Inc.

Novosel, J. (2007), “The Death of My Young Husband from Cancer, A Love Story” (a personal story and autobiographical narrative), Canadian Creative Arts in Health, Training and Education Journal, Issue 6, Sept. pg. 26 - 32. (See http://www.cmclean.com/ Sept. 07 issue)

Rappaport, M. (2006), “The Poetry of Practice”, Canadian Creative Arts in Health, Training and Education Journal, Issue 3, Sept. pg. 3 (see http://www.cmclean.com/ Sept. 06 issue)

Serviss, S., Pointe, S. (2006), “The Artists-on-the Wards Program” Arts Programming Integral in Healthcare at University of Alberta Hospital, Canadian Creative Arts in Health, Training and Education Journal, Issue 3, Sept. pg. 8 - 9 (see http://www.cmclean.com/ Sept. 06 issue)

Viva Davis Halifax, Nancy (2006), “Things that matter, Stories about Living with Colorectal Cancer” Canadian Creative Arts in Health, Training and Education Journal, Issue 2, June, pg. 3 - 4. (see http://www.cmclean.com June 06 issue.)

Visual Arts

Pope R. (1991), “Illness and Healing: Images of Cancer”, Lancelot Press.

Wikstrom B. M. (2001), “Works of Art: A Complement to Theoretical Knowledge When Teaching Nursing Care” Journal of Clinical Nursing, 10, pg. 25–32.

Drama in Health/ Education and Training

Crowshoe L, Bickford J, & Decottignies M. (2005). Interactive Drama: Teaching Aboriginal Health Medical Education. Medical Education, 39, pg. 521–522.

Gold, M. (2000), “Therapy Through Drama: The Fictional Family,” Charles C. Thomas Publishers.

Lewis, P., Johnson, D.R., (2000), “Current Approaches in Drama Therapy” Charles C. Thomas, Springfield.

Lorenz K.A., Steckart M. J., & Rosenfeld KE. (2004). End-of-life Education Using the Dramatic Arts: The Wit Educational Initiative. Academic Medicine, 79, pg. 481–486.

McLean, C. L. (2006), “Performing the Field,” (drama in research and therapeutic work in aging/ health, education and training, creating an ethnodrama based on field work), Canadian Creative Arts in Health, Training and Education Journal, Issue l, March, pg. 3 - 5. (reports on this research here

McLean, C.L. (2005), “Remember Me for Birds” An Ethnodrama about Aging, Mental Health and Autonomy, script book published by Ravenquest Inc., Cochrane, Alberta/ also on DVD, inquire ccahte@cmclean.com

Mitchell, G. (2006), “I’m Still Here!” A research based performance about living with dementia, Canadian Creative Arts in Health, Training and Education Journal, Issue l, March, pg. 7 - 8. (see http://www.cmclean.com March 06 issue)

Nisker J. (2008), “Theatre as a health-policy research tool” in: Knowles JG, Cole AL. Handbook of the Arts in Qualitative Research: Perspectives, Methodologies, Examples, and Issues. Thousand Oaks, Sage Publications,

Saldana, J. (2005), “Ethnodrama an Anthology of Reality Theatre,” Alta Mira Press.

Shapiro J, & Hunt L. (2003). “All the World’s a Stage: The Use of Theatrical Performance in Medical Education” Medical Education, 37, pg. 922–927.

Music/Dance

Blasco P. G., Moreto G. & Levites M. R. (2005). “Teaching Humanities Through Opera: Leading Medical Students to Reflective Attitudes” Family Medicine, 37, Pg. 18–20.

Cantelo, B. “Carry Me Home a Choreographed Film Portrayal of the Patient Moving from Fear to Security” (a dance project based on research in palliative care) Canadian Creative Arts in Health, Training and Education Journal, Issue 3, pg. pg. 10 - 12. (see http://www.cmclean.com/ September 06 issue)

Hutcheon, M. Hutcheon, L. (2007), “Medicine in/as Culture: The Teachings of Opera” (giving voice to the drama of the suffering person) Canadian Creative Arts in Health, Training and Education Journal, Issue 5, March, pg. 4 - 7. (see http://www.cmclean.com/ March 07 issue)

McLaren, C. (2007), “The Nurse’s Foot: A Phenomenological Exploration” (the story of the dancer as nurse), Canadian Creative Arts in Health, Training and Education Journal, Issue 5, March, pg. 8 - 11.(see http://www.cmclean.com/ March 07 issue.)


Film

Shapiro J, Rucker L, & Beck J. (2006). Training the Clinical Eye and Mind: Using Films to Teach Nursing. Medical Education, 40, pg. 263–268.

WIT (2001), script by Margaret Edson / more info: http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1804849838/details

Humanities/Medicine

Levine M. (1999). “On the Humanities in Nursing” Canadian Journal of Nursing Research, 30, pg. 213–217.

Mayne P. (2005, January 20). “Medicine and Dentistry Reveals Artistic Side” Western News. Retrieved from http:// communications.uwo.ca/western_news/ story.html?listing_id=17297.

Newell G.C, & Hanes D. J. (2003). “Listening to Music: The Case for its Use in Teaching Medical Humanism” Academic Medicine 78, pg. 714–719.

Social Science/performance ethnography

Denzin, N.K. (2003), “Performance Ethnography a Critical Pedagogy and the Politics of Culture”, Sage Publications.

Organizations and websites:

Seasons of the Heart Bereavement Services Directory
http://www.licc.on.ca/season/

Bereavement Ontario Network links
http://www.bereavementontarionetwork.ca/links.html

Arts Informed Research and Education

Artography, University of British Columbia

OISE, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

Arts in Humanities in Health and Medicine Program, University of Alberta
http://www.med.ualberta.ca/education/ahhm.cfm

Dalhousie University Medical Humanities http://humanities.medicine.dal.ca/

Online accessible resources:

(Canadian)
Arts and Health Crossing Borders BLOG http://www.ccahtecrossingborders.blogspot.com
(over 200 posts on arts and health)

(U.S.)
Literature Arts and Medicine BLOG http://medhum.med.nyu.edu/blog/

Canadian Creative Arts in Health, Training and Education Journal http://www.cmclean.com

Youtube Videos Related to Arts and Health

Arts and Disability
“Shameless” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQlYt_eVmdM

Music Therapy
Oliver Sacks Musicophilia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nnLTPPDRXI&feature=related

Medicine and Literature
Vincent Lam interview, “Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures”
http://www.scotiabankgillerprize.ca/author_videos_lam.htm

Visual Arts as Creative Response
Toby Jones, “Breast Cancer the Indestructible Bust and an Artist’s Tribute to his Mother”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaZrThINhaY

Music in Medical Education
Music, Medicine and Arts, Longwood’s Symphony / http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMoyt35_wkk

Dance in Conveying Suffering
Panic! (an example of the power of dance to convey suffering)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFm8wL1yjKs

Graduate Studies, Drama, University of Toronto Applications

Graduate Centre for Study of Drama, MA & PhD Programs 2008/09‏

The Graduate Centre for Study of Drama, University of Toronto, is currently accepting applications for both the M.A. and Ph.D for 2008/2009.

Deadline for applications is February 1, 2008

The programs comprise of courses given within the Centre and drama courses offered by other graduate units. Their intent is to further the academic study of drama and theatre at an advanced level in the fields of theatre history and historiography, dramatic theory, and dramaturgy.

Within these parameters, the Centre supports research in such areas as performance theory and analysis; feminist theatre; and Canadian, American and post-colonial drama and theatre.

Theatre practice is an integral part of graduate work in the Centre and takes place, for the most part, in the context of workshops and productions at the Robert Gill and Studio Theatres.

For more information on the programs visit the website at:
http://gradrama.sa.utoronto.ca

While on the subject of theatre, drama and research I would like to inform blog visitors the deadline for proposals for papers or panels to be presented at the 2008 conference of the Canadian Association for Theatre Research (CATR), taking place at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, May 31-June 3, has been extended to December 15.

Send proposals to Jerry Wasserman, Conference Chair, at catrubc@gmail.com.

Papers may be on any subject involving theatre or performance but Canadian topics will be given some priority. Graduate students are encouraged to submit proposals.

Note that all presenters must be members of CATR (Canadian Association for Theatre Research)

Navigating Tides of Challenge and Change, Keynote Acadia University

 Sharing highlights from my recent keynote, School of Education, Acadia.

Navigating the Tides of Challenge of Change

 with the Creative arts in Research and Practice

A keynote address delivered at the Summer Institute,  School of Education

Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia   

by Cheryl L.  McLean, July 4, 2014

 

 I have been a contributor to the field of the creative arts in interdisciplinary research for over ten years,  as an educator and publisher of The International Journal of the Creative Arts in Interdisciplinary Practice IJCAIP and editor of the CAIP Research series and books, Creative Arts in Interdisciplinary Practice, Inquiries for Hope and Change (2010), Creative Arts for Community and Cultural Change (2011), Creative Arts in Humane Medicine, Brush Education, distributed by University of Toronto Press (2014).  In the journal and research books I have featured international researchers active in creative and community based  projects around  issues such as poverty and homelessness, water issues, cultural issues,  issues such as bullying, raising awareness about marginalized groups and many others.

Among my goals for my work in the creative arts in interdisciplinary practice and research  has been to broaden the way we think about the arts in research and  interdisciplinary practice as a transformational force for social change.

Today we will be navigating the tides of challenge and change and examining how the creative arts in research and action play a role meeting those challenges and  in seeking creative solutions.  We will  examine illustrative research and stories of the arts at work in  research and action for change.  We will learn how such work could be used to address the challenges of change  while also being applied in education.

There are two things that are especially important in our work as researchers and educators.  The notions of place and its people.  It strikes me that perhaps there is no better place to speak about arts research  and  change than right here in this place, Wolfville, Nova Scotia,  located  so close to the creative inspirations of the life giving ocean and The Bay of Fundy, a place that is witness daily to change and some of the highest tides on earth/these tides you know so well,  day in, day out, regular comings and goings, like human experiences of life and living, ordinary and yet so very extraordinary.   

  I came here to this place because I was looking forward to speaking with you and because over the summer session I will be teaching a course called Problems in Education, Research and Creativity.


(slide)

  

"Leaders commit many errors by not taking into account something so real as the people's view of the world...a view which contains their concerns, their doubts their hopes, their ways of seeing. "  Freire

Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other's eyes for an instant?  Thoreau

 

We know it's important in our work as educators and critical for researchers or for those active in creative arts research and  processes to try to know or understand people, who they are and how they live and what's happening in their day to day lives before we seek to work with them to  make a difference at all in their learning.    For example, before I prepared this talk I would deliver  today I gave some serious  thought to you my audience, particularly the graduate students seated before me.

I imagined that many of you were hard working educators teaching in public or high school all year,  with active careers and busy lives and in what spare time you would have you would be  runners, hikers,  environmentalists, community volunteers.  You would have finally paid for your last course or courses, you might have  left  the responsibilities of home (some of you are married with children) to find and rent a place here in Wolfville,  maybe on campus, or in an apartment sublet,  you would  set up to  read and study for just over two intensive weeks.  You've come to add to your credentials  or open up more opportunities or to advance toward your career goals, some of you will be heading toward administration.   Many will feel the stresses and anxiety of starting a new course, with a new instructor especially and after seeing the new syllabus and the assignments and projects ahead of you.  You want to know how  to get things done quickly and efficiently,  how things will be counted and  evaluated and many of you will want to get an A average upon graduation.  For a grad student all this can be quite exhausting, and then, you are asked by a new instructor, the one who handed out the syllabus, to be creative and change the world too!

 

Today the world itself  is facing incredible pressures and stresses, critical needs with increasingly complex  challenges, challenges that come home to touch us deeply and intimately every day in our homes and schools, affecting our children,  and the very food they eat.  There is  a critical need for creative professionals working collaboratively,  empathic down to earth real people for the people, educators and researchers who are problem solvers with heart.  The tides have shifted today in terms of creativity.   These new creatives are not content to stand on the shores and wait for change,  they view creativity as necessary and  fundamental and  central to the educational process. 

The new  creatives  value the flow of the  collaborative circle the dynamism of human connection,  over the rigidity, the comfort, and absoluteness of straight cut angles and predictable squares.  They have the creative confidence to join with communities to seek to know and really hear the stories, to explore, together even further, even when navigating through stresses and uncertainty, they are the planners and designers  who although they draft and carefully chart the navigational course  toward hope also work as  intuitives who feel and move with the currents of change.

Daniel Pink has said we require people today whose skill sets are different from those dominated by the left-hemisphere of the brain. According to Pink (2006) conceptual age workers must be able to “create artistic and emotional beauty, to detect patterns and opportunities, to craft a satisfying narrative, and to combine seemingly unrelated ideas into a novel invention, to empathize, to understand the subtleties of human interaction, to find joy in one’s self and elicit it in others."

Along with contemporary leaders in education and creativity practice  such as Ken Robinson and Daniel Pink, Robert Kelly at the University of Calgary, and editor of the book, "Educating for Creativity",  also believes  developing creativity should be central to the educational process. But still, as Kelly points out, the reality is  creativity suffers when many  students still spend much of their time in public education working for marks, gathering information and then compliantly restating it, giving the teacher what he or she wants. In terms of real creativity in education and active problem solving, new idea generation and collaborative development, believes Kelly, these  are  the bedrock of creative development.

 

So what do we mean by arts based research and how might  these approaches benefit you in  your work as educators?   

Arts-Based Research (ABR) uses methods and artistic processes as a means  of inquiry, creating various forms of art as a way to collect data, conduct analysis, and/or represent social science research.   Other terms that cover similar ground include arts-influenced research, arts-based inquiry,  A/R/Tography, arts informed research. 

Put simply, the arts in their many and varied creative forms: narrative; monologue; poetry; photography; painting; theatre; film; dance; music; collage ..have the unique ability to help us "see".   Here's just a few general examples:

Based on research interviews with young people who have experienced first stage psychosis, a dancer choreographs a dance which will raise awareness about mental illness and be performed in schools, for health organizations  and in the community. 

After a serious bullying incident at their school, a drama teacher interviews students who have experience with bullying, based on theatre exercises and role plays a script is created to share the stories with schools and the community.  

Responding to the need for sexuality education for youth, interviews are conducted with teens and focus groups are organized.  Drawing on this research a participatory play is created to educate audiences and raise awareness.   

If one looks back at the history of this work as it relates to education, the spawning of Arts Based Research or ABER really began  in the 70's with the father of ABER, the late  Elliot Eisner at Stanford.   Even in these early days Eisner had the wisdom to know that arts and science disciplines could work together quite compatibly often resulting in mutual benefit and greater depth and clarity of vision for both.


(slide)

"It is to the artistic to which we must turn, not as a rejection of the scientific  but because with both we can achieve binocular vision.  Looking out through one eye never did provide much depth of field."
 Elliot Eisner

 

And in time we saw evolutions and adaptations among them the turn to performance and performative social science articulated so well in writings by Dr. Norman K, Denzin in the book "Performance Ethnography:  a Critical Pedagogy and the Politics of Culture."  Here were performance narratives, performance ethnography,  ethnodrama, autobiographical poetry, the new narrative forms in qualitative research  for social change and economic justice.

In addition to teaching us about ourselves, and about places and people,  in terms of practice, arts processes can benefit the educator in many ways, these approaches  can contribute to reflection and self learning;  effective communication ; collaborating; presenting and performing, keen observation and listening; witnessing; reflecting.  

But the particular goals of this talk today are for us to explore through illustrative examples and a few stories of the work and research in action,  and to point to how the arts might potentially be used in relation to education  and in practice and  in addressing issues and social problems in the larger community.  This is where the creative challenge in this work lies drawing on educators' individual cross disciplinary specialties and skills  to navigate through the tides of challenge and change with creative solutions that can make a difference for educators, schools and the communities where you work and live.

   Some of the research I will refer to in this talk  will be drawn from the books, Creative Arts in Interdisciplinary Practice, Inquiries for Hope and Change, and Creative Arts for Community and Cultural Change.  I will also present research authored by Acadia faculty.  At the close of our talk I will refer to  an  example from my own ethnodrama research.  Among the examples I present, I will be referring to topical issues and challenges  directly  affecting communities here in Nova Scotia.  So, this presentation has been created  for/ as well as about you, my audience.   Let's begin our journey.

 

 Knowing about research as it relates to ones own place and community challenges can help us frame the problems with existing data and research and this  can be the compelling motivator to draw researchers, educators as creative professionals and others in communities together working  toward viable solutions.  Let's listen to the research.

 

 

Dr. Lesley Frank is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology here at Acadia University.   Dr. Frank is a sociologist researching in the area of family poverty, food insecurity, and health inequity. She has also worked as a community-based researcher.

She authored the report card on Child and Family Poverty in Nova Scotia.

It is a moving  report from this researcher/sociologist, who has spent ten years advocating to help address the issue of child poverty in Nova Scotia.  Listen as she appeals in these heartfelt words  to the public, to policy makers, to anyone with the heart to care...

"When you do something for ten years that was first motivated by a passion­ate concern for social justice, and no justice comes, it is hard to keep going sometimes. But then I think, I have groceries in the fridge, a job (at least for now), my kids are not hungry at school, they will have winter coats and my income allows for opportunities. So I write this report card another year for my Nova Scotia neighbors who may go without food or heat in their homes this winter in the hope that someone is listening."

The report card she issued,  unfortunately was not a good one.

The House of Commons goal in Ottawa was  to eliminate poverty among Canadian children by the year 2000, but, as Lesley Frank reports, rates for child poverty between 1989 and 2011 in Nova Scotia are virtually unchanged.  Nova Scotians have the fifth highest provincial rate of child poverty at 17.3%.

 According to another report by The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, poverty costs Nova Scotia over l billion a year.  Not to over simplify the many serious complex factors that contribute to poverty in many of our Canadian provinces but could we tap the creative talent and varied experience  of the educators and creative professionals in this room here today?  Could we tell those stories and navigate toward new solutions through with the arts?  

 

John Portelli and Ann Vibert, Director of Education here at Acadia,  in the article A Curriculum of Life described the 3 year pan Canadian study about student engagement in life and learning.    One Nova Scotia school was cited as an example, a school where many of the students had experienced the effects of poverty and yet the approach to teaching and education was hopeful, democratic and transformative, highly creative and grounded in the immediate daily worlds of students..an arts infused curriculum where students engaged with the creative arts, visual arts, performance arts, music and craft, building programming around themes of social justice and care, common courtesy and peace and extending this creativity out to the broader community, a Town Hall where once a month students, teachers, parents and community members celebrate work, raise issues of concern to the school and community, stage performances and present arts projects.

*******

 Also known as participatory photography the method called photovoice was originally developed by Caroline Wang at The University of Michigan as a way to help rural woman in China influence the policies and programs that affected them.  We have featured many photovoice projects in our research books some dealing with raising cultural awareness or documenting stories of homelessness and poverty. Here's how one school in Campbell River  applied photovoice influenced processes  in a class project for change around the theme of resilience. 

 

In  a  multi layered community based  arts research project addressing Poverty and Homelessness in Toronto Ontario, there was a pressing need to be heard and to raise awareness about the issue of poverty and homelessness and to help bring these stories to the attention of the public and change social policy.   It was  a collaboration of educators and creative researchers which included peer researchers, (people with lived experiences of poverty)  educators, community agency staff, funders, artists, academics social workers 8 research based arts projects. In my role as editor, of the book, Creative Arts in Interdisciplinary Practice, Inquiries for Hope and Change,   I talked to Nancy Viva Davis Halifax the artist researcher on the project.   I  wanted her to share  her  process meeting and working with homeless persons and recording their stories and  lived experiences  through one of the projects,  a photovoice project,  which put cameras in the hands of homeless persons to document stories of    a "day in the life" of people living on the streets of Toronto.

Nancy writes,

"My responsibility is to work towards social justice and equity and to teach about the circumstances through writing and arts informed research.  The deaths of the most vulnerable on our streets haunt me.  Every season provides new challenges.  And always there is isolation, fear, shame, loneliness."

In addition to issues around poverty  in  Nova Scotia, there have been hard fought battles to keep schools open in villages like Petite Riviere,  Maitland, River John, Wentworth, and Mill Village, people and families thrown into crisis, hundreds of rural and small town Nova Scotians have come together  to support their small rural schools trying desperately to avoid more school closures.

Here at Acadia, Michael Corbett and Dennis Mulcahy, at Memorial, in their report, Education on a Human Scale, Small Rural Schools in a Modern Context" have demonstrated in their research that smaller schools in Nova Scotia can and do work and that big isn't always better.

How might we contribute creatively with arts based solutions driving innovative project ideas that could have the potential  to navigate challenging issues such as these/ issues  that affect the very heart of a place, your students, communities, your schools?

Environmental issues affect every province across the country and Nova Scotia is no exception. Climate change, water  and the impact of sea-level rise in Atlantic Canada, /harnessing the tides for energy/    studies are underway looking at the impacts, there is a Tidal Energy Institute here at Acadia.

 Carefully charting and then navigating the currents, around tricky territory such as community water issues,  or the lack of water , can be, for any community,  a serious question of life and survival.

Navigating their way  through a critical water crisis in Texas in an arts based interdisciplinary   educational project for change,  Dr. Stephen Carpenter, a Professor of Arts Education at Penn State and Oscar Munoz, Deputy Director of The Colonias Program for the Centre for Housing and Urban Development faced a challenging question, How can we provide clean potable water for the people of the colonias?    In research across disciplines informed by the visual arts, education, civil engineering, sociology and anthropology the project explored waters role in community health .  Their solution was to create clay pots,  point of use ceramic water filters.  Educators worked with the community as well as school students, kilns were built and clay pot receptacles were fashioned at several public pedagogy events held with the community.  Researchers and interdisciplinary team members created a travelling national exhibit of ceramic water receptacles and the exhibit toured for public galleries across the United States.

**********

 

John J. Guiney Yallop is a Professor here in the School of Education.  John's work as a creative teaching professional  a researcher, writer and poet  involves  poetic inquiry, narrative inquiry, autoethnography and performative social science .   His writing has drawn on place and memory and his loving accounts touch  the emotions as he shares his personal experiences of life growing up in Newfoundland.  In other writings the work addressed these important questions:  How do we convey the experiences of four ex-prisoners attempting to find new lives outside prison?  How do we raise awareness about their health and care while educating others about the issues? With colleague and researcher Liz Day, and based on interviews with four ex prisoners, John expressed through poetry and evocative writings what happens to older persons leaving prison, both socially and from a health point of view.

These writings, this research,  gives voice to those stories,  ...stories that are not often heard. 

 Following this presentation Michael Corbett and Martin Morrison will be presenting a workshop about the importance of inclusive educational practices as well as addressing the need for  cross cultural understandings in Nova Scotia.  In an article in the book Creative Arts for Community and Cultural Change, discussing The Art of Migrant Lives, Bicultural Identities and the Arts, Wakholi and Wright discuss a project called The African Cultural Memory Youth Arts Festival which took place in Western Australia. They too asked an important question  that inspired  the idea for their project. How can we use performance to educate in Australia about Bicultural Identities? Arts based educational research  along with African centered pedagogical approaches provided the framework for new understandings. The arts were used to explore identity while sharing experiences and stories with others through singing, dancing, drumming, storytelling, script writing, painting and cooking. They reported African Australian young people, between two worlds, performed embodied knowledge about bicultural identities and educated others about their lives and cultural experiences.

 So,  navigating my own educational journey,  like many of you  I too had to shift with the tides to attend graduate school, say good-bye to my two teenage children and my husband in London, Ontario, and  set up a second residence in another city,  Montreal, Quebec,  travelling the distance between home and school,  over two years to complete my studies.

I began my graduate work at Concordia University.  My interests were in arts research and drama at the time with a focus on gerontology and mental health.  I worked for two years as a therapist with older persons in mental health in low income residential homes, and, at the same time studied Stanislavski acting methods with Dr. Muriel Gold, formerly the Artistic Director of the Saidye Bronfman Theatre.  All of my clients were Jewish and among them were Holocaust survivors.  My research too  began with a question, How could a performance about aging, autonomy and mental health educate health care providers about depression in older persons and help bring about change?  Drawing on my writing, acting and therapeutic experience with older persons I believed  the best way to  foster empathy, bring about change and educate about aging and mental health was to research, write and act in an ethnodrama (defined by Johnny Saldana, an ethnodrama is a written play script consisting of dramatized significant selections of narrative collected from interview transcripts, participant observations, field notes, journal entries, personal memories, experiences and or print and media artifacts...this is dramatizing the data.")

In my research  I sought to learn as much about my clients as possible, compiling detailed field notes, conducting one on one interviews, recording oral histories, listening to my clients' stories of struggle and survival.

 My audience was comprised of health educators, geriatricians, nurses, social workers, counselors, people highly experienced in the field.  The ethnodrama was based on the true stories of their clients.    The stories they would witness in this drama would be the same stories they experienced day in and day out with older persons in their care.

 I will now introduce you to Mary, who  shares her memories about life in the children's home and her love of her teacher and her excitement about learning how to read.

(reading from ethnodrama script monologue Birds/Mary)

 

 "There is a paternalism with regard to the elderly.  this often results in their autonomy being assumed to be less than it is or taken away against their will.  I learned I am inappropriately detached from people.  I came.  I attended because I was curious and I am glad I came.  I learned about others but it (the ethnodrama) taught me about myself." Elder abuse researcher

 

 We set out on this journey today to navigate our way together through the tides of  challenge and change with the creative arts in research and practice,  and so now we turn  toward home.       Creativity and change begins with recognizing the force that has been since the beginning,  the universal human need for love and community, to connect together around a cause bigger than ourselves,  to launch toward hope and to make a difference.  And it is in this creative force,  and in  the always returning to it, that the tides  may hold their greatest promise.

 

The late Alex Colville, former Chancellor of Acadia University,  and one of Canada's most respected and influential contemporary artists, who died nearly a year ago on July 16 of last year,  a long time resident of Wolfville, described the creative journey and how the arts bring us  back to those things we may have always known, the soul's longing for purpose, he writes, "The creative process consists of the unconscious activation of an archetypal image and in elaborating and shaping this image in the finished work.  By giving it shape, the artist translates it into the language of the present and so makes it possible to find our way back to the deepest springs of life."

It has been an honour and a  pleasure speaking to you today, thank you,

Cheryl L. McLean.