Robin Pascoe

From the mid-twentieth century in Australia there has been a remarkable growth in drama teacher education founded on emerging theory and practice. In this chapter, I explore characteristics of effective drama teacher education, based on my own drama teacher education and my experiences of setting up a greenfield drama teacher education course. In that process, focus groups were used to identify gaps and strengths in knowledge, skills and values. The drama education course designed focused on drama education as field, theory, history and practice. At this point in the twenty-first century, there are signs of shifting priorities in universities and school curriculum implementation that challenge this model of drama teacher education. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic adds complexity. “Traditional” university-based drama teacher education is being tested through innovations observed in Singapore, North America and Turkey. Dilemmas in drama teacher education are contextualised in a discussion of “abyssal thinking” and how drama teacher educators can respond through robust schema for drama teacher education.

Drama education is broad and diverse. As a term, it is differently understood and used according to place, time, culture and practitioner with a range of contrasting, even competing, ways of defining the field and practice. Circumstances, constraints and frames of reference shift what drama education is and how it is realized. In this chapter, we focus on capturing facets of the drama education crystal in the space available. Barton, Georgina, Baguley, Margaret