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This paper will explore the key findings identified in the five arts discipline-specific papers which comprise this special theme issue. Each of the participant researchers have situated Dance, Drama, Media Arts, Music and Visual Arts within the context of the Australian Curriculum: The Arts and what they characterise as its social justice imperatives. A narrative phenomenological approach has been adopted to enable the participant researchers to socially co-construct an analysis of their experiences working with the Australian Curriculum: The Arts including challenges, implications and the future for their respective discipline areas and the Arts overall. The three key themes from these collective voices revealed a quality arts education is an entitlement for every child and young person; the Arts provide important opportunities for children and young people from diverse backgrounds and cultures to demonstrate their learning, express themselves and participate; and arts educators and the Arts industry need to work together to strengthen community understanding about the value of the Arts in education. This process provided important insights into how exposure and engagement with the Arts shape the ways in which children and young people make meaning in their lives, enhance their overall wellbeing, increase their sense of social responsibility and contribute to a socially-just society.

Empathy is an attribute many aspire to possess in large quantities. We use the word often, usually in a positive way and assume others know and understand just what we mean. We take for granted tha...

This bumper edition of NJ considers the role of drama and theatre in developing and/or extending our understandings of culture and identity in a world where we are talking more and more about a global culture. The following articles share a matured thinking about our work, with an increasing emphasis on dialogue and the development of our own critical reflective processes as we strive to enhance understanding of our practice in diverse contexts.

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 a...

(2012). The Imperative of an Arts-Led Curriculum: Lessons from Research. NJ: Vol. 36, No. 1, pp. 7-14.

In this article, we argue that it is critical for preservice teachers to experience innovative and imaginative learning and teaching in their higher education studies if they are to feel empowered to initiate creative teaching and learning activities in their own classrooms. By designing and utilising a range of imaginative strategies in final year Creative Arts units of study, two teacher educators aim to encourage primary student teachers to reconnect with their own creative potential. Exemplars from these units of study are used alongside a range of student responses to demonstrate how the imaginative use of arts practice and pedagogy can provide spaces for preservice teachers to explore what it means to teach creatively. In doing so, we offer them an opportunity to reflect on their own beliefs about teaching and how they see themselves as they begin their professional journeys.

The editors are excited about this edition of NJ. Our authors consider the transdisciplinary nature of drama highlighting its potential resonance with design thinking, its enhancement of the teaching of poetry, verbatim plays and the use of performance in authentic assessment as well as the impact dramatic processes can make on vulnerable communities.

This initial edition of NJ for 2017 foregrounds the role of drama as critical, quality pedagogy across the educational continuum. This theme is of central importance at a time when drama educators are concerned about the reductive and narrow curriculum offerings undermining all sectors of education. Each article in this issue provides evidence and strong counter-arguments for rich and creative pedagogies that enable deep understanding, the exploration of complex ethical issues and opportunities for the development of empathy and compassion.

Arts-informed inquiry has attracted a great deal of controversy in recent times as it has gained popularity as an educational research methodology in teacher education. As with other innovative approaches and methodologies, there have been lively debates about its rigour, authenticity and appropriateness. This article suggests principles for its use in exploring relevant questions in teacher education research and examines some of the issues that have been used to challenge its integrity. Several recent teacher education research projects undertaken by staff and research higher degree graduates at the University of Sydney are discussed initially as exemplars and to provide a context for the discussion. The authors demonstrate how research using arts-informed inquiry contributes perspectives and understandings that are distinctive from other methodologies and so can offer new understandings about some of the liminal issues in teacher education.

Academic mentoring is increasingly being used by many universities as a tool to enhance the quality of research-led teaching, promote cross-faculty collaboration and encourage a mentoring culture and community. This article reports on a pilot project established to investigate the benefits of building flexibility into a structured academic mentoring program at the University of Sydney. Twenty-six academics from the Faculty of Business and Economics and the Faculty of Education and Social Work participated in the program. The mentors ranged in position from Lecturer to Professor and the mentees from Associate Lecturer to Senior Lecturer. Flexible arrangements were shown to be important in a variety of ways, from the pairing of mentor with mentee, to focussing on issues of work survival and life balance, research outcomes and career advancement. The project highlighted the lower number of male academics involved in formal mentoring, which merits further exploration. All participants reported positive outcomes, although refinement of the pairing process was recommended. A variety of unanticipated outcomes was reported by mentees.