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In I Actor Training in Anglophone Countries i , actor, director and theatre scholar Peter Zazzali has considerably deepened and extended his unique performative-pedagogical research. But a more meaningful turn, Zazzali emphasizes, was RADA's efforts to adopt a policy of gender equality and racial diversity - although, as he shows, its graduates continue to criticize the school on these counts (28-29). While the Australian programs investigated are, to varying degrees, closely based on the English and North-American teaching models, Zazzali underlines Toi Whaakari - New Zealand's national drama school - as the best example of an effective postcolonial and bicultural model. [Extracted from the article]

Harassment and abuse represent a pervasive and critical problem in sport with far-reaching consequences. Survivors' testimonials underscore the profound and enduring impact of these experiences at individual, interpersonal, organizational and community level. Many of their stories reveal painful inaction from responsible adults in the sport organization, aggravating the harm. Other contributing factors to the harm inflicted include a culture of silence, lack of knowledge and understanding of what constitutes abuse, unawareness of reporting and supporting mechanisms, and fear of potential consequences. While effective bystander interventions have been developed outside the sport context, particularly targeting students in higher education, such initiatives have yet to be extensively adapted and assessed within the sport context. To address this gap, the Safe Sport Allies Erasmus+ collaborative partnership relied on the intervention mapping approach as a guiding framework to systematically develop a bystander training program (i.e., Safe Sport Allies) to train youth sport participants and youth sport coaches to act as effective bystanders. The current paper describes the comprehensive development process and provides an overview of implementation and evaluation possibilities. Throughout the paper, it is explained how each step of the Intervention Mapping approach shaped the Safe Sport Allies bystander training program. The program development, and the developed plans for implementation and evaluation are presented, shedding light on challenges encountered. The bystander training program developed in this paper and the implementation and evaluation plans can serve as an outline to build future interventions within this critical domain of safeguarding in sport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the potential of applying process drama in moral education in Chinese schools. By conducting a thematic review of the current national curriculum and policy documents from both historical and contemporary perspectives, the interconnection between the role of art and moral cultivation in China is discussed. Through an analysis of the national curriculum, the article suggests that applying process drama in school education can contribute to learning in the curriculum areas of both aesthetic and moral education. However, the existing commingling of concepts and definitions influences the actual drama practices in China. Consequently, a discussion of terminology is brought in, as well as an argument for the need to include drama as a discrete subject in schools, in addition to its function as a method for educational purposes. A process drama sample from the author's drama praxis is included. The overall aim of the article is to contribute to an extended understanding of educational drama and theatre in a Chinese context and to gain new insights into possibilities and challenges for the future implementation of drama in education in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the evolving concept of theatrical inquiry, tracing its origins, early applications, and its notable resurgence in recent years as a dynamic methodology for probing into learning spaces. Amidst the evolving landscape of arts education, theatrical inquiry endures as a lens through which the contemporary role of drama and theatre can be re-evaluated and redefined. This exploration is set against the backdrop of an ongoing debate: the demarcation between theatre-making and drama as pedagogical tools. By scrutinising the utility of theatrical inquiry in fostering aesthetic understanding and awareness amongst students, this study positions itself at the intersection of Drama in Education and Applied Theatre. It seeks to unravel the complexities of using drama and theatre not just as mediums of artistic expression but as critical instruments that can enhance cognitive, emotional, social, and creative reflection. Through a comprehensive review of literature, this paper aims to shed light on the varied ways in which theatrical inquiry can enrich arts education. It contributes to the academic discourse by providing a timeline of the evolution of the term theatrical inquiry and offers practical insights for educators looking to incorporate these approaches into their teaching practices in the arts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learning to live in a superdiverse world might be heralded as one of the great social challenges of our time. In the last decade, intercultural education has been posed as one way to foster intercultural capabilities in young people that can contribute towards learning to live well with cultural difference. As the diaspora in Australia—and elsewhere—expands, developing intercultural understanding is seen as a priority. Despite the directives of official policy and curriculum, enacting intercultural education in meaningful ways is complex and fraught. This paper reports on an Australian ethnography at a predominantly 'white' school that examined the way productions of cultural difference across school spaces complicate teachers' intercultural work. This paper considers how intercultural understanding might move beyond celebrations of multiculturalism, arguing that 'coming-to-terms with our routes' necessarily prefigures intercultural understanding and provides opportunity for an intercultural education beyond a celebration of multiculturalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we consider convolution operators, integral operators with weak singularity, Riesz potentials, in particular, those with kernels Ki (x, y) = xi−yi |x−y|n acting in special classes of Banach function spaces X (Ω) and their subspaces Xs (Ω)), and we prove some representation theorems for the functions from Banach-Sobolev spaces. We also prove the boundedness of Riesz potential in additive-invariant spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluation has been expanding as an important discipline in Latin America, yet there are significant challenges regarding capacity development through educational and training initiatives in the region. This paper first analyzes the evolution and state of the field in terms of the teaching of, and training in evaluation in Latin America, with a special focus on young and emerging evaluators. The paper then draws on published literature, interviews with evaluation experts, and the results of a survey with VOPE leaders and a survey focused on young and emerging evaluators to illustrate Latin American evaluators' challenges and needs in terms of capacity building and training in evaluation. Lastly, this paper provides some examples of innovative activities and strategies that are being put in place by different actors to address training and teaching needs of Latin American evaluators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I, as an autistic actor-trainer who was once an autistic student-actor, explore some of the access issues faced by autistic student-actors. I look at the practices commonly taught on actor-training programmes, and uncover what exclusionary 'dominant narratives' they hold, and why these create issues for autistic students. This paper focuses specifically on the example of empathy, asking how it is used within the practices of Stanislavski and Meisner, among others. This research moves away from the deficit model of autism. Instead, I look to autistic experience – my own and that of others – to investigate what acknowledging, welcoming, and maximising upon these experiences can contribute to these actor-training practices. The result is an example adaptation, where I reframe actor-training exercises to be more accessible for autistic students and consider what benefits these changes might have for all actors within the space. This paper is timely as it follows on from other research into training actors with dyslexia and dyspraxia, and moves to address the absence of writing on training autistic actors. By positioning itself within the neurodiversity paradigm it questions what contributions autistic experience could make to the field of actor-training, if disabling barriers were removed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discussion on the role of listening in actor training is limited. Compared with studies on ear training for conservatoire music students, there is a gap in the literature regarding the ways in which student actors acquire and improve listening skills. This paper investigates the musicality inherent in Meisner Technique, an approach to actor training, and points to intersections with ear training in Dalcroze Eurhythmics, an approach to music education. It analyses the common ground between these pedagogical practices, drawing on sources from a variety of domains in which listening is foregrounded. It asserts that Meisner Technique and Dalcroze Eurhythmics promote similar forms of responsive, interpretative, and collaborative listening skills. This paper is written from the author's interdisciplinary perspective as a teacher of acting and music at a university conservatoire. It offers insight into practical training through a personal, philosophical lens. Its themes are transferable to actor trainers and music educators engaged in continuing professional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relationship between additional language (L2) literacy development and drama plays based on the experiences of adult refugees from Ukraine in Iceland. This inquiry is guided by the following questions: What are the learners' experiences and perceptions of drama classes in relation to their literacy development in Icelandic as an L2? What role might engaging in drama classes have when it comes to learners' sense of well‐being? We employ a multiliteracies perspective, which has pluralised the traditional view of literacy and offered new insight into literacy teaching and learning by integrating multimodal, multi‐sensorial, and critical practices into literacy education. The findings originate from a qualitative, interview‐based study with five Ukrainian learners of a refugee background in Iceland. Findings suggest that learning Icelandic through drama afforded the learners an opportunity to learn Icelandic in creative, engaging, and meaningful ways. Furthermore, learning Icelandic through drama supported the enactment and development of essential capacities for personal and professional growth, such as open‐mindedness, tolerance, respect, and collaboration. Many of the learners felt positively challenged to try out something new. This paper concludes with a discussion on the importance of critical, experiential L2 education that acknowledges learners' diverse lived experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a collaboration between advocacy organisation, Sweltering Cities, artists and researchers who developed a multi-site research project that provided South West Sydney residents an opportunity to engage in drama and poetry workshops that gave voice to their lived experience of rising surface temperatures, as well as their desire for environmental protection and climate action. The research featured in this paper contributes to previous research that finds aesthetic modes of engagement to be powerful with regard to ecological awareness, capable of being a positive motivator of small shifts in thinking which are a precursor to climate action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Ciencias Sociales (13159518) is the property of Revista de Ciencias Sociales de la Universidad del Zulia Venezuela and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Philologist / Filolog: Journal of Language, Literary & Cultural Studies is the property of University of Banja Luka, Faculty of Philology / Univerzitet u Banjoj Luci, Filoloski Fakultet and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The main aim of the paper is to present a view of inclusive education as a tool for preventing social exclusion. Our findings were obtained through qualitative research conducted in an environment at risk of social exclusion. The results confirm the important role of education in preventing social problems. In the discussion of the results, we will point out the need for intensive involvement of special education and emphasize the need for quality training of the actors of inclusive education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the prevalence of deep learning and convolutional neural network (CNN), data augmentation is widely used for enriching training samples to gain model training improvement. Data augmentation is important when training samples are scarce. This work focuses on improving data augmentation for training an industrial steel surface defect classification network, where the performance is largely depending on the availability of high-quality training samples. It is very difficult to find a sufficiently large dataset for this application in real-world settings. When it comes to synthetic data augmentation, the performance is often degraded by incorrect class labels, and a large effort is required to generate high-quality samples. This paper introduces a novel off-line pre-augmentation network (PreAugNet) which acts as a class boundary classifier that can effectively screen the quality of the augmented samples and improve image augmentation. This PreAugNet can generate augmented samples and update decision boundaries via an independent support vector machine (SVM) classifier. New samples are automatically distributed and combined with the original data for training the target network. The experiments show that these new augmentation samples can improve classification without changing the target network architecture. The proposed method for steel surface defect inspection is evaluated on three real-world datasets: AOI steel defect dataset, MT, and NEU datasets. PreAugNet significantly increases the accuracy by 3.3% (AOI dataset), 6.25% (MT dataset) and 2.1% (NEU dataset), respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a study that explores how artists might best support very young children's engagement in integrated arts performances. It aims to contribute to a better understanding of the ways in which artists work with very young children in performing arts spaces. The study was designed to intimately examine a work with and for a very young audience. Through a combination of reflective narrative and analytic discussion, this paper will demonstrate how a collective of teaching artists supported very young children's engagement by positioning them as co-constructors of artistic experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, actor-critic architectures such as deep deterministic policy gradient (DDPG) are able to understand higher-level concepts for searching rich reward, and generate complex actions in continuous action space, and widely used in practical applications. However, when action space is limited and has dynamic hard margins, training DDPG can be problematic and inefficiency. Since real-world actuators always have margins and interferences, after initialization, the actor network is likely to be stuck at a local optimal point on action space margin: actor gradient orients to the outside of action space but actuators stop at the margin. If the hard margins are complex, dynamic and unknown to the DDPG agent, it is unable to use penalty functions to recover from local optimum. If we enlarge the random process for local exploration, the training could be in potential risk of failure. Therefore, simply relying on gradient of critic network to train the actor network is not a robust method in real environment. To solve this problem, in this paper we modify DDPG to deep comparative policy (DCP). Rather than leveraging critic-to-actor gradient, the core training process of DCP is regulated by a T-fold compare among random proposed adjacent actions. The performance of DDPG, DCP and related algorithms are tested and compared in two experiments. Our results show that, DCP is effective, efficient and qualified to perform all tasks that DDPG can perform. More importantly, DCP is less likely to be influenced by the action space margins, DCP can provide more safety in avoiding training failure and local optimum, and gain more robustness in applications with dynamic hard margins in the action space. Another advantage is that, complex penalty for margin touching detection is not required, the reward function can always be brief and short. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acting as an art has been abused and misused by some amateurs and non-professionals who see acting as an art that deserves no formal training, hence they rush into it and by implication exhibit poor role interpretation. This paper therefore presents the problem of poor role interpretation as it concerns film making in Nigeria. It made use of the content analysis approach of the qualitative research method in explicating the problem of poor acting and how it has persecuted the quality of production content of Nigerian films. It went further to stress the importance of constant and formal training towards the realization of a believable character. It suggests that there is need for all talented actors to be exposed to trainings and capacity development programs that will refine their raw talent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inspired by Valerie Curtis-Newton's keynote address at the 2023 AATE conference, this piece explores the necessity of creating failure-friendly drama classrooms. In a time when students are experiencing unprecedented rates of anxiety and other mental health challenges, I argue that explicit instruction about and opportunities for failure are necessary for the social, emotional, and academic success of students. Furthermore, I address why drama educators and theatre classrooms are uniquely positioned to facilitate healthy relationships with failure. I end the piece with suggestions for ways to incorporate more failurelearning opportunities into drama and theatre education spaces. "Prepare for the best and be secure in your ability to survive the worst," I scrawled fervently in my notebook as I watched Valerie Curtis Newton's keynote address at the 2023 AATE conference in Seattle (Curtis-Newton, 2023). Curtis Newton's career as a director, educator, and champion of African-American performance in the U.S. is prolific. While she gave us, her captive audience of educators and artists, some insight into her illustrious career, she chose to focus her talk on the anxiety epidemic with which many of our students struggle and theatre's ability to teach our students (and ourselves) to be brave. She urged us to model courage and curiosity for students. She spoke of the creative process as a balm to the wounds of self-doubt and paralyzing pessimism. She reminded us that risk and resilience are essential to the creative process. While she never explicitly said the word "failure," I found myself coming back to that word again, and again, scribbling it in my notebook, circling it, and tracing the letters to create deep grooves in the paper. Teaching young people to take risks and navigate the outcomes of those risks is one of the most important skills educators can offer, especially in a time of extreme anxiety. In this essay, I present the anxious context young people face, review the literature on how drama and theatre can support resilience, share some examples of successful and unsuccessful failure stories from a decade of teaching artistry, and offer some tools for drama and theatre educators that want to recenter failure in their classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maria Ouspenskaya's (1876-1949) classwork on acting development and Richard Boleslavsky's lectures and class demonstrations formed the pedagogical core of the American Laboratory Theatre. The training they provided paralleled very closely to their experience at the Moscow Art Theatre and laid the foundations for the systematic study of Stanislavsky's approach in the United States. Although Boleslavsky was the main inspirational force for the young students, Ouspenskaya provided with her pedagogical work stable regularity necessary at the Lab and guided her students through rigorous training techniques and exercises. After the Lab closed, she opened her own acting studios (initially in New York, later in Los Angeles). All this time, she accepted acting engagements and soon became a Hollywood celebrity, recognized as "the living theatrical legend" and one of the finest and most respected American acting teachers that played a vital role in disseminating Stanislavsky's ideas. The study analyzes Ouspenskaya's teaching techniques, using the descriptions of her work abstracted from her students' interviews or the notes they took during her class. It also investigates her on-screen appearances, providing lasting visual evidence of her performing skills and giving us a direct sense of the potential quality of early System inspired acting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper includes an analysis of legal acts concerning primary and lower secondary teacher education in Norway. The objective is to determine how multicultural education is perceived in these acts – whether it is regarded as a supplementary subject or as a mindset that underlies teacher education. The theoretical framework includes critical multiculturalism and multicultural education theory. A document content analysis approach has been applied during the analytical process, in order to reveal patterns related to culture, diversity, inclusion, multicultural education and multicultural competence. Furthermore, the findings have been placed in the Norwegian context, in order to shed light on the circumstances surrounding the documents. The main findings indicate that multicultural education is assigned a limited space and, according to the legal acts, should be included as a module integrated with the subject of pedagogy and pupil-related skills in teacher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the continuous development of multimedia technology and children's drama education as a very important part of preschool education, the combination of the two has attracted the attention of many scholars at home and abroad. Drama education for preschool children is the initial stage of children's learning and the most important part of preschool education system. At the same time, preschool children drama education is the most basic stage of children's intellectual development. The correct and reasonable preschool children drama education plays a great role in promoting their intelligence and development. The drama education for preschool children based on multimedia human-computer interaction technology not only expands new teaching methods for the traditional drama education model but also provides a good platform for teachers to choose teaching resources and injects new vitality into preschool children's music education. This paper proposes the application of multimedia human-computer interaction technology in preschool children's drama education. We analyze the current preschool children's drama education curriculum reform that has limitations. The level of teachers' drama education needs to be improved. Young children lack awareness of drama. Drama education for children lacks strong support from parents and other problems. In order to solve the above problems, we focus on voice interaction technology, image interaction technology, and somatosensory interaction technology in multimedia human-computer interaction technology, which establishes a set of teacher-multimedia-student three-dimensional crossover multidirection learning activity modes. In the multidirection learning mode, students can quickly develop their sense of rhythm. Teachers use image interaction technology to guide students to think about the relationship between content and form, so as to gradually form their own unique style of drama. At the same time, somatosensory interaction technology can cultivate teaching tasks seamlessly connected with the environment, so that students can follow the hologram through hands-on practice. Finally, this paper sets up a questionnaire on the experience of human-computer interaction mode in preschool children's drama education, mainly to conduct a questionnaire survey on front-line drama teachers, aiming at preschool children's drama learning activities and teachers' teaching methods. In numerical experiments, we show teachers' evaluation of the teaching effect of speech synthesis technology integrated into preschool children's drama education and the classroom effect evaluation of speech synthesis technology integrated into preschool children's drama education. The evaluation results show that the application effect of multimedia human-computer interaction technology in preschool children's drama education is good, which can provide better services for preschool children's drama education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with a parabolic evolution equation of the form A(ut)+B(u)=f$A(u_t) + B(u) = f$, settled in a smooth bounded domain of Rd$\mathbb {R}^d$, d≥1$d\ge 1$, and complemented with the initial conditions and with (for simplicity) homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions. Here, −B$-B$ stands for a diffusion operator, possibly nonlinear, which may range in a very wide class, including the Laplacian, the m$m$‐Laplacian for suitable m∈(1,∞)$m\in (1,\infty)$, the "variable‐exponent" m(x)$m(x)$‐Laplacian, or even some fractional order operators. The operator A$A$ is assumed to be in the form [A(v)](x,t)=α(x,v(x,t))$[A(v)](x,t)=\alpha (x,v(x,t))$ with α$\alpha$ being measurable in x$x$ and maximal monotone in v$v$. The main results are devoted to proving existence of weak solutions for a wide class of functions α$\alpha$ that extends the setting considered in previous results related to the variable exponent case where α(x,v)=|v(x)|p(x)−2v(x)$\alpha (x,v)=|v(x)|^{p(x)-2}v(x)$. To this end, a theory of subdifferential operators will be established in Musielak–Orlicz spaces satisfying structure conditions of the so‐called Δ2$\Delta _2$‐type, and a framework for approximating maximal monotone operators acting in that class of spaces will also be developed. Such a theory is then applied to provide an existence result for a specific equation, but it may have an independent interest in itself. Finally, the existence result is illustrated by presenting a number of specific equations (and, correspondingly, of operators A$A$, B$B$) to which the result can be applied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chenchen Zeng's article of 'An overview of current trends in drama education in the People's Republic of China' provided a lucid presentation of the current development of drama education in China, paying particular attention to schools and the role of private education companies. This article is intended to complement her paper by attending to the current state of research and academic publications, much of which will be unknown to readers of RiDE. The author contextualises the significance of continuing such knowledge exchange post Covid-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I miei film con Carmelo Bene/My Films with Carmelo Bene/Mes films avec Carmelo Bene. Edited by John Michael Sefel, Amanda Slamcik Lassetter, and Jill Summerville. At the Intersection of Disability and Drama: A Critical Anthology of New Plays. [Extracted from the article]

The paper attempts to reconstruct the principles of leading theatre schools of Ukraine in the 19th-20th centuries, the stages of implementation of Stanislavski's ideas, of the aesthetics of his theatre, and his method in the Ukrainian theatrical culture. Despite the myths that since the very beginning of the Soviet rule total adherence to Stanislavski's system and his method was imposed, the paper reveals no less dramatic though different theatre history and the point of no return: August 22nd, 1950, when the campaign for the advanced and the in-depth study of the System by Ukrainian theatre and Ukrainian theatre pedagogy started. Despite the vast media campaign, the study of the System and the practice of stage art differed significantly: since the 1960s the System was taught by the masters who had some other basic education than theatrical. Thus, depending from this education and being rooted in some other methodology, these mentors distinguished the elements and techniques applicable to their personal experience within the System: for instance, the disciples of Les Kurbas (Mykhailo Verkhatskyi, Marian Krushelnytskyi, Volodymyr Skliarenko, and others) and Vsevolod Meyerhold (Volodymyr Nelli) predictably accentuated the method of physical action. The repertoire policy of Soviet authorities in Ukraine in general and in Ukrainian theaters, in particular, featured a combination of dominant music drama theaters and the traditions of the theatre schools of the 19th century (with the theatre school of Ukrainian Galicia tending to a synthetic actor, while the rest of Ukraine clearly preferred "gut acting"). This produced the acting styles that go beyond both the categories of Stanislavski (theatre of imitation / theatre of feeling) and the categories of Kurbas (theatre of accentuated influence / manifestation) or other masters. Being neither synthesis nor eclecticism, these styles were determined by the traits of a particular theatre director and the traditions of his theatre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers how the longstanding liberal principle of freedom of religion in education in England was recontextualised within a marketised system of school choice. First, the potential conflict between the right to freedom of belief and to education is outlined. The notion of neoliberal legalism is explored, first in identifying and defining neoliberalism as a model of regulation by market forces, then in outlining 'neoliberal legality', as the manifestation of this approach in law. Next, the paper presents a narrative account of the development in England of the principle of religious freedom in education up to the Education Act 1944. The neoliberal turn is considered, in the 1988 Education Reform Act and subsequent legislation, showing how while the provision remains, religion is effectively one marker of school choice and strategic school selection, rather than purely a fundamental personal freedom. This is discussed in relation to neoliberal recontexualisation of existing law, and the neoliberal governance of religions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the normative approach, speech acts are governed by certain norms. Interestingly, the same is true for classes of speech acts. This paper considers the normative treatment of constatives, consisting of such classes as assertives, predictives, suggestives, and more. The classical approach is to treat these classes of illocutions as species of constatives. Recently, however, Simion (Shifty Speech and Independent Thought: Epistemic Normativity in Context, Oxford University Press, 2021) has proposed that all constatives (i) are species of assertion, and (ii) are governed by the knowledge norm. I defend the classical treatment of constatives and show that Simion's conclusion is untenable. No taxonomy of speech acts can accommodate such a view. More importantly, we can test whether a particular speech act is an assertion or not. I propose five tests of assertion, the passing of which is a necessary condition for being an assertion. Some constative speech acts fail these tests. Thus, contrary to Simion, not all constatives can be regarded as species of assertion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between political equality and quality of government. Our hypothesis is that political equality fosters access to inclusive education and ultimately promotes good governance. We empirically test this hypothesis using data for 145 countries with different levels of economic development. In order to overcome potential endogeneity problems, our identification strategy exploits the variation in political equality in geographically neighbouring countries by means of spatial econometric techniques. The results reveal a positive and statistically significant effect of political equality on the quality of government. This implies that countries where political power is more evenly distributed tend on average to have higher levels of institutional quality. In fact, this result is not affected by the inclusion in the analysis of a substantial number of controls that may be correlated with both political equality and quality of government, including the extent of democracy and the degree of economic inequality. In fact, the observed link between political equality and governance remains robust to alternative measures of quality of government, estimation techniques, and other sensitivity checks. Our estimates also show that education acts as a transmission channel linking political equality and quality of government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ongoing and regular assessment is a critical component of the Drama classroom. Australia has a state-based system of education, in which states and territories are responsible for their own assessment policies. Each Australian state and territory has a different system of assessing Drama in the senior years, accompanied by varying methods of grade verification or moderation. This paper reports on an Australian study on the ways that performances are assessed in Senior Secondary Drama in The Australian Capital Territory (ACT), New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland. During this study, significant differences in cultural aspects of Drama were noted, influenced by the state/territory syllabus and assessment requirements set out in policy. This paper examines the significant features of the state/territory Drama assessment cultures and the cultural differences to arrive at conclusions about ways policy can be improved to help bring about better assessment practice in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the professional development of primary school teachers using drama to develop creative writing across the curriculum. Sponsored by the United Kingdom Literacy Association, the two-term project involved four teachers working with theatre educators to use process drama. The collaborative approach was supported by learning conversations, which took place after each lesson, involving Higher Education academics. Data were collected by academics observing the lessons, taking notes during learning conversations and undertaking interviews with the teachers in order to capture experiences of the landscape of education as they were encouraged to cross boundaries of practice. Data were analysed using Clarke's model (2009) of teacher identity and this demonstrates how three of the four teachers resisted boundary crossing as a result of the landscape of performativity, which is seen to prohibit child-centred approaches. One teacher was able to cross boundaries and this is seen to be a result of the substance and telos of his identity. His boundary crossing emphasised the theatre educators' reluctance to change their self practices – the paper concludes by highlighting the importance of all partners being involved in practice, learning conversations and data collection in order to create the ideal conditions for boundary crossing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore a case study of a group of preservice teachers that took part in a playbuilding process as part of a drama education course at a Canadian University. The paper focusses on ten preservice teachers' creation in original theatrical production, The Teacher Diaries: a collage of stories based on the preservice teachers' lived experiences as teacher candidates. Through a discussion of the playbuilding process, the techniques used, and an analysis of three scenes, this paper addresses the question: How can playbuilding and performance help preservice teachers "become pedagogical"? Design/methodology/approach: The paper focusses on ten preservice teachers' creation in original theatrical production, The Teacher Diaries: a collage of stories based on the preservice teachers' lived experiences as teacher candidates. Through a discussion of the playbuilding process, the techniques used, and an analysis of three scenes, this paper addresses the question: How can playbuilding and performance help preservice teachers "become pedagogical"? Findings: The primary understanding that emerged from this research was how playbuilding can be used as a holistic participatory research method in which participants conduct research, analyse, thematise, implement and disseminate data throughout the creative process. Research limitations/implications: As researchers of this playbuilding process, the authors have come to realise that when using playbuilding as a method for research and arts creation there is an overlapping of understanding and analysis of the research findings that is a continual part of the research process. Rather than simply collecting data, analysing it and drawing conclusions from the previously identified data, the whole process becomes a research experience. As seen above, participants were continually coming up with insights throughout the process that informed the creation, growth and change of their scenes so that they could create a final product. Practical implications: Drawing on a case study of ten preservice teachers, and their original performance piece The Teacher Diaries, this paper set out to determine how the playbuilding process can be used to help preservice teachers develop pedagogically. Several scholars have already noted that creating collaborative theatre is a reflective, inquiry-based process (Belliveau, 2006; Cahill, 2006; Carter et al., 2011; Conrad, 2004; Goldstein, 2008), and that the creation and performance of live theatre allows participants to interact with audiences in ways that written material cannot (Norris, 2000, 2008). Social implications: Throughout the playbuilding process, the preservice teachers engaged in storytelling, improvisation, reflection and dialogue. Working collaboratively, the preservice teachers were able to identify similarities in their experiences and develop a supportive community where they could share stories and resources (see Mreiwed et al., 2017 for more discussion of community development through drama). Originality/value: Because of this, the members of Team Awesome were inspired to create a pamphlet (including tips and links to government and other online resources) to share with their peers following the performance. While this was simply one case study, the results of this study indicate that the playbuilding process has great potential for use in helping educators "become pedagogical" through collaboration, reflection, articulation of needs, community-building and the sharing of resources in preservice teacher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is growing awareness that effective emotion regulation is critical for health, adjustment and wellbeing. Emerging evidence suggests that interventions that promote flexible emotion regulation may have the potential to reduce the incidence and prevalence of mental health problems in specific at-risk populations. The challenge is how best to engage with at risk populations, who may not be actively seeking assistance, to deliver this early intervention approach. One possible solution is via digital technology and development, which has rapidly accelerated in this space. Such rapid growth has, however, occurred at the expense of developing a deep understanding of key elements of successful program design and specific mechanisms that influence health behavior change. This paper presents a detailed description of the design, development and evaluation of an emotion regulation intervention conversational agent (ERICA) who acts as a digital coach. ERICA uses interactive conversation to encourage self-reflection and to support and empower users to learn a range of cognitive emotion regulation strategies including Refocusing, Reappraisal, Planning and Putting into Perspective. A pilot evaluation of ERICA was conducted with 138 university students and confirmed that ERICA provided a feasible and highly usable method for delivering an emotion regulation intervention. The results also indicated that ERICA was able to develop a therapeutic relationship with participants and increase their intent to use a range of cognitive emotion regulation strategies. These findings suggest that ERICA holds potential to be an effective approach for delivering an early intervention to support mental health and wellbeing. ERICA's dialogue, embedded with interactivity, therapeutic alliance and empathy cues, provide the basis for the development of other psychoeducation interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In her keynote address to The Stage's Future of Theatre conference, Principal of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (Central) Josette Bushell-Mingo stated that the 'future of drama training has changed forever' (2022). Bushell- Mingo proposed that the time has come to make 'artistic decisions' in 'dialogue with the students'(ibid). This change includes safe theatre practices involving the scrutinising of embedded conscious and unconscious bias in curriculum design and pedagogical delivery. Through the development of allyship and greater staff and student awareness, all artistic behaviour can embody consent, from negotiation of touch through to power differentials. This paper shares insights from public debate and policy documentation that have led to processes of a consent-based framework for students and staff within a three-year acting program. The hope is that such processes will provide a safer space for students of acting, offering autonomy of choice of material, a safe place for all students, Indigenous approaches to creating work, practices of consent in all areas of the work, especially in intimate work, and safe approaches in the creation of a role and the stepping out of role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is to develop a simplified optimized tracking control using reinforcement learning (RL) strategy for a class of nonlinear systems. Since the nonlinear control gain function is considered in the system modeling, it is challenging to extend the existing RL‐based optimal methods to the tracking control. The main reasons are that these methods' algorithm are very complex; meanwhile, they also require to meet some strict conditions. Different with these exiting RL‐based optimal methods that derive the actor and critic training laws from the square of Bellman residual error, which is a complex function consisting of multiple nonlinear terms, the proposed optimized scheme derives the two RL training laws from negative gradient of a simple positive function, so that the algorithm can be significantly simplified. Moreover, the actor and critic in RL are constructed by employing neural network (NN) to approximate the solution of Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman (HJB) equation. Finally, the feasibility of the proposed method is demonstrated in accordance with both Lyapunov stability theory and simulation example. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Actor training pedagogy in the West is intended to provide students with the requisite skills to succeed in their future career(s). Many of the practitioners whose theories and ideas are taught in such higher education institutions (or schools), have not changed over the last century and many of those ideas include some element of understanding -- leading to the replication -- of human psychology. This paper argues for the expansion of that canon of theory and practitioners by the inclusion of the theories of the psychologist Abraham Maslow as an adjunct -- but not replacement -- of these ideas. Using his hierarchy of needs, an additional tool becomes available to training (and nascent professional) actors, directors and maybe even dramaturgs, which could lead to a deeper understanding of the psychology of characters. Extrapolation of these ideas could also see applications in other artistic and literary focussed disciplines, in further and higher educational settings, leading to deeper and fuller understanding(s) of the texts studied and therefore the stories and ideas represented in those stories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the fields of actor training and music education in order to illuminate the historical and pedagogical connections between the work of Konstantin Stanislavski and Emile Jaques-Dalcroze. It identifies historical parallels between their artistic practices, including their dedication to rhythm and polyrhythm. It illustrates the ways in which their pedagogical paths crossed. It analyses the artistic lineage that can be drawn from the work of Jaques-Dalcroze at the Hellerau Institute to the work of Stanislavski at the Moscow Art Theatre. This includes the influence of Dalcroze Eurhythmics on the development of Tempo-Rhythm. The paper considers how aspects of Stanislavskian actor training are reflected in aspects of Dalcrozian music education, including ensemble work, intention and emotion, and the evolution of psychophysical performance. It proposes that there is a correlation between the creative process undertaken by an actor on a play text, known as Active Analysis, and the creative process undertaken by a musician on a compositional score, known as Plastique Animée. Comparing the pedagogical principles of Stanislavski and Jaques-Dalcroze from the author's own perspective as an actor trainer and music educator reveals areas for further research. This paper presents themes that are transferable to artists and educators engaged in continuing professional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the dramatization of trauma and post traumatic effects in two selected plays: The Sins of the Mother (2008) and Out of Time (2009). The Sins of the Mother is an American play written by Tony Devaney Morinelli that revolves around the plight of an Irish American family struggling because of the repeated pattern of the violent alcoholic mother who suppresses her daughters. In this respect, the play shows the effect of domestic violence. More importantly, the play emphasizes the cyclic nature of traumatic experiences: the daughters eventually inherit the mothers' sins and repeat their oppressive behavior, as clear in Marie, the mother, and her daughters Ellen and Rose. Out of Time is an Iraqi play that deals with the inability of an Iraqi woman to escape her traumatic memories. Based on The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas LIosa and adapted by The Actor Studio, the play is focused on Zahra, the protagonist, who recounts her painful memories that underscore the misery of Iraqis during Saddam Hussein's regime and even after its fall. Both plays show the effect of the traumatic past on the characters who are unable to forget, escape, or even cope with painful memories. The aim of this paper is thus to explore these traumatic experiences in the two plays and their dramatization on stage in flashbacks and in scenes in which there is simultaneous existence of the past and present through the lens of Literary Trauma Studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Central to restorative justice is a commitment to sharing and listening to first voice. This is required for the work of transitioning to just relations. The Restorative Inquiry for the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children (The Home), and its Digital Oral Histories for Reconciliation (DOHR) project, offers a significant example of the power of restorative justice for transitional justice through the performance of oral histories. DOHR has created a curriculum centred on a virtual reality experience of former residents' oral histories. This paper examines how this curriculum supports restorative justice through a pedagogy of listening and relational scenography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper expands on concepts of and approaches to Land-based research through the investigation of sonic (sound) archiving strategies and how these are used as a mode of mapping meant to help preserve oral/aural forms of knowledge, experience, memory, and expressions of Land literacy (Land knowledge) through sound recording work. Building on growing fields such as sound studies, performance studies, and Indigenous studies, we look at ways to re-'map' or re-call knowledge through Land-based methods that are rooted in our interactive Land-based research project, Sonic Coordinates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The enactment of the Education Modernization Act by the government of Manitoba in early 2021 proposed several structural changes to the governance and delivery of provincial education. The related documents had a strong emphasis on improving the achievement of all students, making them future-ready and strengthening parental involvement. But through a post-structural theoretical lens, in this paper we provide a critical analysis of Bill 64 showing how despite potentially relevant claims of equity and diversity promotion the government discourse is neither modern nor necessarily better, as it claims to be. Rather, the proposed Education Modernization Act reifies mainstream worldviews and ideas that have been proclaimed since the beginning of the 20th century and which are today empowered by a global neoliberal mindset. We conclude arguing that a non-totalizing response to the Other is a necessary and yet missing disposition in any genuine social justice education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This proposal reveals the significance of Applied Theatre in Ghana, with special interest in Drama in Education (DIE) as a teaching tool for teachers and learners. As a teaching tool, Drama in Education places tremendous emphasis on Process, Performance and Skill oriented activities to achieve its teaching and learning goals. The dramatic experiences derived from the improvisations; creative dramatics, mime, role-play and other Ghanaian indigenous art forms such as games, symbols, proverbs, storytelling, etc. in the learning explorations expedite transformation in learners. In these dramatic developments, creativity helps to improve not only learners but society as a whole. This paper aims at exhibiting some of the games employed in various sessions with students in the University of Ghana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to investigate how digital tools, such as blogs, could be used by drama teachers, already qualified on a Drama teaching postgraduate study course, in teaching Theatre/Drama Education in schools in Greece, and to record the ways in which they could interact through blogging with their students and similarly ways in which their students could interact between themselves. In order to attain this, a small-scale case study was planned and developed, with an interdisciplinary approach. Drama teachers and their students were asked to build and develop their blogs concerning drama and theatre education and then use them in Theatre/Drama lessons. After applying this with their students for some time, drama teachers were asked to express their personal views and perceptions. Their responses showed in general a positive attitude towards the integration and use of blogs in teaching Theatre/Drama courses in schools, because they appear to increase the interactivity between teachers and their students and to provide them both with opportunities to further develop their dramatic and digital skills either within or outside a school environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education acts as a soul in the overall societal development, in one way or the other. Aspirants, who gain their degrees genuinely, will help society with their knowledge and skills. But, on the other side of the coin, the problem of fake certificates is alarming and worrying. It has been prevalent in different forms from paper-based dummy certificates to replicas backed with database tampering and has increased to astronomic levels in this digital era. In this regard, an overlay mechanism using blockchain technology is proposed to store the genuine certificates in digital form and verify them firmly whenever needed without delay. The proposed system makes sure that the certificates, once verified, can be present online in an immutable form for further reference and provides a tamper-proof concealment to the existing certification system. To confirm the credibility of the proposed method, a prototype of blockchain-based credential securing and verification system is developed in ethereum test network. The implementation and test results show that it is a secure and feasible solution to online credential management system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]