Writer's Bios
Music and Teacher Expertise
Bill Wade is an award winning teacher with over 25 years of experience in urban and remote Canadian and Australian settings. His teaching experience has been across a range of sectors: K–12, VET in Schools, and higher education (pre-service teacher education, creative arts and humanities). Bill specialises in eLearning, online and distance education pedagogy, with a particular interest in the disciplines of creative arts, new media design and music. After six years of teaching and leadership positions with Charles Darwin University (CDU), Bill has joined the team at Teaching and Learning with ICT, and currently champions the eLearning/Moodle 2, NT Google Apps Trial, iTunes University and other innovations projects. He is currently engaged with the integration of information communication technologies, the Australian curriculum, the arts and digital learning in Northern Territory schools. Past projects, CV and research are available at: wcwade.com.au.
Formerly: Associate Dean Teaching and Learning, Head of School Creative Arts and Humanities, Faculty of Law, Education, Business and Arts, Charles Darwin University. Keynotes, presentations and publications in distance education, creative arts - work integrated learning, mobile learning, eLearning, and creative works (music and musical performances: wadefinn.com).
Currently: Senior eLearning Systems Leader, Teaching and Learning with ICT, Department of Education and Children’s Services
Arts-related associations and affiliations
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Board member, Music NT (current)
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Territory Representative, CreateEd
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Member of Creative Arts Teaching and Learning Network (CALTN)
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Member of Deans of Arts, Social Science and Humanities (DASSH) - Associate Deans Teaching and Learning Network
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Co-opted Board member – Australian Council of University Art and Design Schools (ACUADS)
Drama
John O’Toole
John O’Toole has been Lead Writer for the Arts and for Drama in the Australian Curriculum. He has taught drama to all ages from early childhood to adult seniors, and on all continents. The first 12 years of his career was spent teaching in schools and working in community theatre, then over 30 years as a lecturer, becoming Professor of Drama and Applied Theatre at Griffith University, then Foundation Chair of Arts Education at the University of Melbourne from 2005–2010.
He has written or co-written numerous books on teaching and research, including standard schools textbooks such as Dramawise and Communicate Live! (both with Brad Haseman, Director of Arts-POP) and Australian Primary Textbook of the Year Pretending to Learn, as well as scholarly books including Theatre in Education, Cooling Conflict, Drama and Curriculum (with Madonna Stinson, co-Writer of this Arts-POP) and Performing Research. Several of these have been translated into Chinese, Danish and Italian. Seven of his PhD graduates have won the annual AATE Distinguished Dissertation Award. He received the Griffith University Award for Excellence in Teaching 2005, the Drama Australia President's Award in 2003 and the American Alliance for Theatre in Education Award for Lifetime Research in 2001.
He co-designed Queensland’s first senior drama curriculum and its first three programs in drama teacher education. He was founder member of the teachers' associations: Drama Queensland, Drama Australia and IDEA (the International Drama/Theatre and Education Association. He is also still a practising playwright and director.
Dr Madonna Stinson is a passionate advocate for arts/drama education and much of her teaching and research is oriented towards creating opportunities for young people to engage in quality arts learning. After more than 18 years as a primary and secondary teacher, she moved on to the next stage of her career as a teacher educator. Currently the Deputy Head of School (Academic) in the School of Education and Professional Studies, Griffith University, she has also worked as an academic in the UK and Singapore. She was a lead writer of the Queensland Years 1 - 10 The Arts Syllabus and, in Singapore, the founding director of the UNESCO- NIE Centre for Research in Arts Education. She continues to work as a curriculum advisor for drama and applied theatre in Australia and Singapore. Now lecturing and teaching as one of the Griffith University Applied Theatre team, Madonna is also the Director of Publications for Drama Australia. Recent research and publications have focused on drama and language learning, especially oracy, and young people's engagement with live theatre. She is currently involved in a range of research projects looking at enhancing pedagogy and curriculum innovation, and university-school professional partnerships.
Dance
Janice Deans
Jan Deans is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Melbourne and Director of the Early Learning Centre, which is the research and demonstration preschool attached to the University of Melbourne. She is also the Professional Partnership Coordinator for the Master of Teaching (EC) program, offered by the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, working with Teacher Candidates and Mentor Teachers across five networks in inner-city Melbourne. She is a long time advocate for the development of innovative and exemplary early childhood pedagogy and is particularly committed to children's expressive learning through the arts, in particular young children's meaning making through dance. Jan has worked both locally and internationally in early childhood, primary, tertiary, and special education settings over a long career that has spanned 40 years. She has broadly based expertise in relation to early childhood education and service delivery and her recent research interests include learning through dance (PhD ongoing), social emotional competence, art and story as a vehicle for cross-cultural learning and children's learning through music. She has been the recipient of a number of research grants and awards and has published widely. In 1997 she established Boorai –The Children's Art Gallery that presents the voices of young children as expressed through their art and narratives.
Susan Wright
Professor Susan Wright (PhD) is Chair of Arts Education at the University of Melbourne. Previously, she was Head of Early Childhood and Special Needs Education at the National Institute of Education in Singapore (2006-2009) and Director of the Centre for Applied Studies in Early Childhood at the Queensland University of Technology (1999–2003). Her teaching and research focuses on young children's meaning-making and communication using artistic symbol systems and multi-modal forms of expression (i.e. visual, spatial, musical and bodily-kinaesthetic ways of knowing) and emphasises the significance of creative and somatic forms of learning and development. She has been an active researcher, attracting over 30 competitive research grants 20 of which have focused on the arts. Susan has published seven books, including ‘Children, Meaning-Making and the Arts’ (2nd edition 2012, Pearson Australia), ‘Understanding Creativity in Early Childhood: Meaning-Making and Children's Drawings’ (2010, SAGE, UK) and ‘The Arts, Young Children and Learning’ (2003, Allyn and Bacon, NY).
Media Arts
Dr Michael Dezuanni lectures and researches in the fields of digital media literacies and arts education. He was a secondary school media literacy educator for 13 years before starting a career as a teacher educator in the Faculty of Education at Queensland University of Technology. In 2010, Michael was appointed by the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) to work on the Australian Curriculum: The Arts as the Media Arts 'expert advisor'. He was the principle writer of the Media Arts section of the 'Shape Paper' for the arts and has advised ACARA during each stage of the development of the Australian Curriculum: The Arts. Michael is currently Deputy Director of the Children and Youth Research Centre at QUT and is involved in several research projects investigating the use of media and digital technologies at all levels of schooling, from kindergarten to senior secondary school. The aim of both his teaching and research is to explore the most effective ways for individuals to creatively use and gain knowledge and understanding of the media and technologies in their lives. He has a specific interest in the ways creative engagement with new media technologies can be used to promote students' critical thinking about the media and popular culture.
Visual Arts
Sandra Gattenhof is Associate Professor and Head of Drama in the Creative Industries Faculty, QUT. Originally trained as a primary teacher, Sandra has been an arts educator for 25 years including 15 years as a primary arts specialist for both Education Queensland and Catholic Education. Sandra has developed arts curriculum materials to assist Queensland primary syllabus implementation in the arts and to support Queensland Arts Council's School Touring Programme. Sandra was a reference group member for the development of the Australian National Curriculum - The Arts. Currently she is co-programme leader of the Children and Youth Cultures strand within the QUT Children and Youth Research Centre (CYRC) and is co-leader of the QUT Art, Design and Creative Education Research Group. From 2010–2012 she was the lead researcher on an Australia Council for the Arts/QPAC funded investigation into arts interventions for early childhood students in low socio–economic primary schools in Queensland. Her current research involves an Ian Potter funded investigation into the use of iPads for creativity and literacy development in kindergartens. Sandra is the Director of Strategic Partnerships for Drama Australia and their representative on National Advocates for Arts Education (NAAE). Sandra has been arts education consultant for Brisbane Festival, Out of the Box – Festival of Early Childhood and has served as a voice about arts education and youth arts issues on a number of arts industry boards and reference groups.
Impact and Managing Resources
Brad Haseman is Professor and Assistant Dean (Academic) for the Creative Industries Faculty at the Queensland University of Technology. He has worked as a teacher and researcher for over 35 years pursuing his fascination with the aesthetics and forms of contemporary performance and pedagogy. Formerly a drama teacher and consultant in Queensland secondary schools, Brad served for more than a decade on a number of committees concerned with the provision and delivery of the arts education in Australia and is known as a passionate advocate for the arts in Australian schools. As a workshop leader and speaker, Brad regularly presents throughout Australia, Asia and Europe and last year was keynote speaker at the London Olympic Arts Festival conference on Arts Education, sponsored by The Tate Museums and the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Brad is a member of research teams investigating creative learning. These projects include Australian Research Council funded projects Digital storytelling and co-creative media: coordinating population-wide creative practice and Developing applied performance programs for HIV and AIDS education in Papua New Guinea.
From 2007 to 2011 Brad served as a community interest representative on the Australia Council for the Arts. During this period he chaired the Community Partnerships Committee of Council which manages a range of funding programs for community cultural development activities, Arts in Education, Arts-Health and Artist in Residence programs for Australian schools and communities. In 2012 Brad received the President's award from National Drama Australia for excellence in Drama Education.
Managing Space
Professor Nan Bahr, PhD, is Assistant Dean (Teaching and Learning) in the Faculty of Education, Queensland University of Technology. Nan brings to this project a strong background as a Secondary School Music and Drama teacher. She is a graduate of the Elder Conservatorium, The University of Adelaide, and has led school music and drama programs for a significant portion of her near 30 years as an educator. In her current role as Assistant Dean she is responsible for the development of teaching quality across the Faculty and in that role leads course evaluation, design and the implementation of high quality education for accredited pre-service teacher education courses, professional development in-service courses and higher degree research programs in Education. She consults widely across the education sector and is the elected President of the Australian Teacher Education Association. She has expertise in learning research and research related to adolescence and teacher education. Nan’s research projects have been the foundation for a number of published works and conference presentations. Professor Bahr's research interests include teacher education, adolescent development and implications for teaching, and learning theory with particular emphasis on effective pedagogy to support learning including the potential uses for ICTs. Current projects investigate teaching disciplinary knowledge in senior schooling; models for ongoing professional learning for teachers; and the development of resilience in the Middle Years of Schooling.
Managing Time
Sue Fox
Sue has extensive teaching experience in the arts. She was a Head of Department, The Arts in a secondary high school for 17 years, has taught dance in Queensland Secondary schools for 25 years and drama for 17 years prior to commencing work in the Queensland Studies Authority (QSA). In 2006, under Sue's leadership and management, the Performing Arts Department at Caloundra State High School was the winner of Highly Commended in National Awards for Quality Schooling for school improvement, an award acknowledged nationally for providing quality teaching, innovative programs and outstanding contributions to student learning.
Her current role is Principal Project Officer for Queensland Studies Authority (QSA) in the K–10 Resources unit. Before this she was Acting Manager, QSA Assessment Bank for three years involved in developing and quality assuring P–10 assessments for all learning areas. Sue has been involved in curriculum and assessment writing at a state and national level. She was the key writer for The Arts Essential Learnings curriculum for Queensland and has been part of Arts advisory for the development of the Australian Curriculum: The Arts Foundation to Year 10, October 2011 to March 2013.
Sue was a State Panel Chair for Senior Secondary Dance in Queensland for a number of years providing leadership and advice regarding syllabus standards and assessment procedures. She has presented at local, national and international conferences in areas of dance curriculum and assessment.
Sue has a Master of Arts (Dance), Associate Diploma in Performing Arts (Dance) and a Bachelor of Human Movement Studies (Education) Degree.