Education Commons^™

Call And Response : Experiments In Storytelling, Deanne Fernandes

Masters Theses

Being part of RISD's inaugural Masters of Illustration cohort has been an immense honor. This journey has been nothing short of transformative and healing, as it has allowed me to unearth layers of self-discovery through my creative practice.

In my thesis, I introduce a fresh research methodology rooted in the principles of call and response, with adaptability, creativity, and storytelling as its foundational pillars. Through the lenses of visual storytelling, experimental animation, graphic journalism, and fictional world-building, I demonstrate how these techniques can effectively bridge the gap between theory and practice. This dynamic approach fosters meaningful connections among diverse perspectives …

Dance Drama Fusion: A Reflection On Community Pedagogy, Practice, And Arts Education, Caroline Ruth Frederick, Lily Kirn Mcmahon

Senior Theses and Projects

For our senior thesis project, we conducted five theater and dance workshops for youth that centered around emotional identification and movement-based storytelling at three community sites within the Hartford region. We did two workshops with the YWCA KidsLink at two of their after-school programs, two workshops at the Montessori Magnet School, and one workshop with the Boys and Girls Club. We chose this project with the intention of growing as educators and building relationships with community partner organizations. A community partner organization is “an existing organization within the community who already serves the target population in some way” (Community Access …

The Value Of Mentorship For Black Ballerinas, Anna Dunn

Dissertations

Much research has been done in other fields about the relationship of gender and race to the success of mentors to increase student confidence to pursue additional training or a career in certain fields. The purpose of this study was to articulate formally the importance of the relationship between Black ballet students and a mentor who has lived a similar life experience, having navigated the ballet industry as a Black ballerina. This research sought to answer the questions of what value do Black ballet students perceive in having a Black ballerina as a mentor and how white ballet teachers can …

Bedeviled Beauty: My Journey Through White American Theater Institutions, J'Aila C. Price

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Game console: Oculus Quest

World: American Theater Institutions

Player: Minority

Place: United States

Level: “Ain’t no way.”

This thesis explores the contrast between the Westernized philosophies ingrained in my education and my identity as a Black female artist. It sheds light on the difficulties of pursuing higher education in the arts and the gaps that arise from limited exposure to culturally diverse Black resources, revealing the systemic issues in Western performance education. The paper also discusses the insights gained from my journey as a Black female artist, focusing on my thesis performance of Blood at the Root, which is …

Arts Integration In The Middle School Mathematics Classroom, Cameron Willis

Honors Projects

In this project, we explore the question "How can arts integration techniques be used in the middle school mathematics classroom to heighten student engagement and interest while also developing deeper conceptual understanding?" Through completing a lesson study over incorporating structured improvisation into a simple probability unit, seventh grade students were able to share their thoughts and feelings about using theatre to teach mathematics.

Understanding The Effects Of Hormone Treatments On The Transgender Singer: A Pedagogical Study And Voice Studio Guide, Erin M. Hannon

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Transitioning from one gender to another can be an arduous and emotionally charged experience, accompanied by many physical and mental transformations. The journey of self-discovery and vocal explorations is both unique and deeply personal. Modifications that emerge in an individual's vocal characteristics have a profound influence on their capacity to communicate and express themselves.

Transgender vocal students and professional singers must navigate the delicate balance between their vocal and gender identities while considering the possible risks of Gender Affirming Hormone Therapy. Though these therapies may significantly alter one's appearance and overall well-being, they are also capable of causing notable declines …

Confidence In The Classroom: A Guide For Teaching Dance To Exceptional Learners, Brianna Janae Denmark

Master's Theses

This study focuses on highlighting the need for proper training for dance educators faced with teaching classes that include students with exceptional needs. Few dance classes will openly welcome or properly accommodate exceptional learners, which means that these learners are presented with minimal opportunities to participate in this extracurricular activity that promotes self-expression and socialization with their peers. Wanting to create more opportunities for exceptional learners to participate in dance, the researcher sought to find a solution that could be applied to multiple programs or organizations. The researcher realized that teaching exceptional learners can be viewed as daunting or uncomfortable …

The Evaluation Of "The Wrong Answer Project" As Validity Evidence For The Social Consequences Of Testing, Darius D. Taylor

Doctoral Dissertations

The use of educational tests for making high stakes decisions has had societal consequences for decades. Parents, teachers, and administrators have been willing to pay off, lie, cheat, and steal so that their children, students, and they themselves would not fall prey to the negative consequences of subpar performance on educational assessments. Respected psychometric scholars have supported Samuel Messick’s claim over the years, but their advocacy has caught minimal traction. I founded an initiative in 2019 – The Wrong Answer Project – that shows promise as a vehicle for collecting validity evidence based on the social consequences of testing and …

Get A Grip: An Anatomical Survey Of Four-Mallet Grips For Solo Marimba, Kyle Steven Bissantz

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This document examines the three primary grips used in playing four-mallet concert marimba. It focuses on each grip’s relationship to the anatomy of the fingers, wrist, and forearm, with particular attention to the grips’ movement characteristics. The discussion aims to support professionals, students, and teachers interested in developing a greater understanding of each grip’s similarities, differences, and basic physicalities. The first section is a detailed examination of Traditional, Stevens, and Burton Grips. The primary focus is the hand’s composition around the mallets and the movement characteristics of standard stroke types. The second section provides a comparative analysis of each grip’s …

More Than Text: Examining Embodied Practice In The Classroom, Susan Nash

Honors Projects

This Honors project aims to answer the questions surrounding best practices of engaging with theatrical texts in K-12 English Language Arts (ELA) classrooms in the United States. This project uses the texts of Shakespeare as a case study to analyze the benefits of embodied practice as a methodology in the classroom, paying specific attention to the ways in which embodied practice encourages student agency.

This thesis specifically argues for the incorporation of embodied practice in ELA curricula engage with playtexts and finds that embodied practice can help students better relate to a playtext, assists in humanizing its history, themes, and …

Using Drama Therapy To Foster Peer Support Among Nurse Leaders, Chyela Rowe

Expressive Therapies Dissertations

This study explored the use of drama therapy to support the social-emotional experiences of nurse leaders at a mid-sized regional hospital system in the Southeastern United States. Nurse leaders have experienced profound changes to their work environments in recent years and burnout has been at an all-time high among healthcare workers globally. Organizational supports for nurses and nurse leaders are both inadequate to meet the needs and under-resourced. The research questions explored 1) whether the drama therapy peer support initiative improved outcomes and 2) whether there was a significant relationship between measures, and 3) what nurse leaders described as facilitators …

A Qualitative Case Study Of The Role Of Reflective Practices In Pre-Service Dance Teachers' Development Of Pedagogical Content Knowledge And Critical Consciousness, Josey Marie Pickett

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This qualitative case study investigates the ways stakeholders in a senior/seminar teaching practicum construct and engage in reflection. It also explores the ways these modes of reflection intersect with pre-service dance teachersâ?? development of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and critical consciousness (CC). Specifically, the study contributes to the minimal amount of literature on the use of reflective practices in dance teacher education by using the theoretical framework of reflection-in-action and embodiment to bring greater attention to the informal, social, dialogical, and embodied dimensions of teaching and learning. Themes identified related to pre-service dance teachersâ?? development of PCK and CC in …

Shakespeare And Latinidad, Danilo Zepeda

Theatre Thesis - Written Thesis

This interview with Seres Jaime Magana, the author of the Tragic Corrido of Romeo and Lupe was conducted with several goals in mind. Such as to understand his artistic process during the time he was writing the play, the staging of the performances, and his personal relationship with the subject matter of the script. Through this written article, and interview I hope that readers can gain insight on how a Latinx artist who was born in Mexico managed to write and direct a play that was performed where the story takes place, on the borderland’s region known as the Rio …

Shakespeare And Latinidad, Danilo Zepeda

Theatre Thesis - Written Thesis

This interview with Seres Jaime Magana, the author of the Tragic Corrido of Romeo and Lupe was conducted with several goals in mind. Such as to understand his artistic process during the time he was writing the play, the staging of the performances, and his personal relationship with the subject matter of the script. Through this written article, and interview I hope that readers can gain insight on how a Latinx artist who was born in Mexico managed to write and direct a play that was performed where the story takes place, on the borderland’s region known as the Rio …

Whatever It Takes: A Literature Review Exploring The Psychological Cost Of Actor Training And How Drama Therapy Can Help, Kelsey Burke

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This review examines the literature as it relates to the psychological and emotional impact of professional training programs for student-actors. Special attention is paid to student-actors’ developmental stage, mental health and trauma history, possible exposure to sexual harassment in rehearsal or classroom settings, specific acting techniques taught, and power dynamics between student-actors and acting teachers. Also examined is data on the potential effects that the application of trauma-informed drama therapy approaches could have on this population. This is followed by a proposed outline for a supervision-style class for student-actors led by a drama therapist intended to introduce drama therapeutic principles …

Impact Of Personalized Interactive Storytelling On Suspension Of Disbelief In Clinical Simulation, Audra Renee-Smith Xenakis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The literature review found suspension of disbelief (SOD) in clinical simulation heavily weighted on educators alone within high-fidelity environments. The project examined a co-created narrative background story applied to a simulated patient’s clinical profile to determine achieving an improved connectedness toward the simulated patient leading to enhanced SOD and enhanced levels of learning and reaction. The studied population was third-semester associate degree nursing students over 18 years of age with prior clinical simulation experience who were not repeating the semester. The research methodology used a quantitative experimental design with cluster sampling, randomization, and post-Likert-scored questionnaires. The intervention group co-created personalized …

Non-Directed Time, Danial Derakhshan

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Non-Directed Time is a sixteen-minute composition for mixed septet and soundtracks. Its two movements are entitled Brainwash and Introduction. The piece aims to challenge listeners' perception of passing time through gradual transformations between timeless, non-directional musical textures to moments of textural clarity and directionality. The musical material in my composition repeats at both large-scale and micro-scale levels, developing an alternative musical time structure and a sense of familiarity. Thus, changes in repeating material affect the experience of this time structure, in which time seems to expand and contract. Because these changes are gradual and their goals are unpredictable, listeners may …

Adapting Higher Education: Revamping Curricula For The Inclusion Of Theatre Students With Disabilities, Kevin Kemler

Theses and Dissertations

Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion initiatives in higher education have been largely driven by administrators who have little to no contact with the students for whom they are working for. This top-down approach negatively impacts marginalized students and disproportionately affects the quality of experience for students with Disabilities, an often-overlooked demographic. For Disabled students enrolled in performance programs, barriers to access and inclusion don’t just exist at the institutional level, they also exist in the traditional classroom or studio as well. Through a dismantling of ableist structures inherent within higher education (i.e., American grading practices, the Western and Theatrical Canons), I …

Generational Theory As A Lens For Approaching Musical Theatre History, 1943-2023, Or A Strange Loop, Ben J. Lundy

Theses and Dissertations

In 1991, William Strauss and Neil Howe published generational theory in Generations: The History of America’s Future, 1584-2069. Though critiqued, Strauss and Howe’s generational theory suggests that American history occurs in cycles characterized by four distinct generational turnings or moods that occur approximately every eighty years, roughly the span of a human life. Though the theory has been applied to American history, usually through a political and economic lens, this thesis will focus on the most recent Millennial Cycle and apply the theory to the development of Broadway musical theatre history. Innovative musicals such as Oklahoma! (1943), Hair (1968), Rent …

Ecodrama And Sustainable Theatre: A Handbook For Creating Remarkable Change, Gigi Buddie

Pomona Senior Theses

The climate crisis is not new to us, nor are the art forms that have taken shape as vital components of the many activist movements that seek to save the planet. Yet, for the first time at Pomona College, a play about environmental devastation and our hand in it finally graced the stage of this progressive institution this past year. This mini handbook is a call-to-action (of sorts), one that stems from the idea that this should not be the last ecodrama performed at Pomona College. These chapters are structured and supported by both experience and research – formulated from …

A Mixed Method Comparison: Instruction In Undergraduate Beginning, Intermediate, And Advanced Contemporary Dance Classes, Aditi Bheda

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This study aimed to identify the nature of instructional differences between beginning, intermediate and advanced contemporary dance classes. The study involved interviewing two dance instructors and observing their classes, as well as conducting focus group discussions to gain insight from students. Despite difficulties in comparing across three levels given that no single instructor was observed teaching all three levels, the mixed method comparison yielded some common themes at each dance level. Given that students at higher levels were more aware of and comfortable with their bodies, instructors moved through the class at a quicker pace. Students at each level were …

Violin Performance Influences Of Fritz Kreisler, Walter Daniel White

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study explores elements contained or implied in the question of what can the modern performer of violin literature learn and apply from the life, creative output, and career of Fritz Kreisler, a successful performer and composer of a past era. It is now the twenty-first century, and Fritz Kreisler, who lived from the final quarter of the nineteenth century beyond the first half of the twentieth century continues as a name widely recognized and associated with excellence in violin performance. His name is legendary among violinists, and he left a lasting legacy in the compositions that he created for …

Acting Out Gender: Embodied Criticality And Performance-Based Pedagogies, Danielle K. Carr

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Using an adapted Theatre of the Oppressed workshop titled Acting Out Gender, this study explored the use of embodied, performance-based pedagogies to examine gender identity and performance with undergraduate and teacher education students. Attending to feminist and queer epistemological questions of embodiment and gender, this qualitative, arts-based study used observation and interviews to explore participants’ understanding and experience of gender and to experiment with performance-based pedagogies for exploring embodiment and embodied rituals. This study highlighted the usefulness of Acting Out Gender in supporting students’ interrogation of embodied gender subjectivity in their own lives and illuminated how performance-based pedagogies function in …

Does Participation In Extracurricular Theatre Productions Influence Emotional Wellbeing?, Francis V. Sada Gutiérrez

International Graduate Program for Educators Master's Projects

The purpose of this study was to research whether or not participating in extracurricular theatre productions had an impact on the emotional wellbeing of students in middle and high school. Students involved in extracurricular theatre productions during the 2021-2022 school year were surveyed and asked to rate their level of confidence, self-esteem, among others. They were also asked open-ended questions regarding their experience in the theatre department and the learnings or benefits they perceived to have gained as a result. The multiple-choice questions showed data ranging from students claiming they were very confident to not confident at all, but the …

Homage To Eleanora: A Musical Journey Through The Billie Holiday Songbook, Keith A. Dames

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Billie Holiday was a singer, songwriter, vocalist, bandleader and composer in the fields of music, black culture and more specifically the genre of jazz. The primary focus of this study is Billie Holiday’s discography, music, and compositions as treated in relation to the black culture of production. This study will explore a secondary content analysis of Billie Holiday’s music, musicianship, musicality and compositional skills within the American jazz mainstream, broader jazz audience and world at large. This project will take an analytical look at the structure and form of the compositions of Billie Holiday. Billie Holiday is credited with composing …

An Embodied Drama Therapy Approach To Restorative School Practices: A Method, Sarah Harmer

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Restorative School Practices offer schools a circle structure to shift the punitive mindset and power dynamics commonly found in America’s schools, to a model that focuses on relationship, connection, and mutual respect. Drama therapy interventions utilize embodied or active work that engage the entire person. The purpose of this thesis was to create a method to explore the addition of embodied drama therapy techniques to deepen the experience of the restorative school circle process. Three community-building and social emotional learning focused circles, in a second, fourth, and sixth grade class, were compared using the traditional scripts and then the same …

Student Voice And Choice: Factors Influencing Student Participation In Secondary Arts Classes In An Urban Public School District, Alan D. Lambert Ed. D.

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy ETDs

The purpose of this study was to capture the student voice regarding the value, importance, and relevance of visual and performing arts education in public schools. The host institution for the study was an urban school district in the southern central United States serving 75,000 students, with 55% students identified as Hispanic, and 52% of students experiencing poverty. Graduating seniors responded via questionnaires with forced choice and open-ended items regarding several topics, including what they do in their free time, how they perceive the value of arts classes at school, access to arts classes and the match of their interests …

Meet And Run, Gia M. Binner

Theses and Dissertations

A defense for Gia Binner’s MFA Thesis, Meet and Run, argues that accessible art, known in this paper as commercial dance, is a meaningful vehicle for social change and that it has the ability to dismantle the outdated, European concert dance dominance by modeling the interdependency of both worlds.

Self-Efficacy Development In Elementary-Aged Learners Through Dance As An Algorithmic Thinking Tool, Niva Shrestha

Honors Theses

The purpose of this research is to demonstrate the effectiveness of a transdisciplinary approach in teaching computational thinking through dance to elementary-aged learners, with primary attention to females. With limited literature available on how pre-adolescents begin to construct conceptions of computer science and other engineering domains, including potential career pathways, the incentive of this project was to leverage a day camp for about 20 rising 3rd - 5th-grade learners to assess their identity development in computer science. Modules that teach computational thinking through dance paired with Unruly splats (block-based programmable electronic gadgets) were implemented. By conducting pre-and post-surveys and a …

Diary Of Anne Frank: Analysis And Design, Leeann Carol Wheaton Mueller

Master of Theater Production Graduate Projects

The script "The Diary of Anne Frank," by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, and its historical background were studied and researched. After analyzing the play and its given circumstances, a design concept was developed, goals were set, and then the play was directed and produced in a high school setting. The project notebook contains the documented dramaturgy, a written concept statement, the visual plans and materials, the production notes and journal, and production evaluations. The project goal was to implement the aspects of theatre production learned during the course of study, and to educate high school theatre students. The results …