• Selina Busby, The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, UK

• Amy Cordileone, New York University, USA

• Ashley Hamilton, University of Denver, USA

• Norifumi Hida, Toho Gakuen College of Drama and Music, Japan

• Kelly Freebody, The University of Sydney, Australia

• Byoung-joo Kim, Seoul National University of Education, South Korea

• David Montgomery, New York University, USA

• Ross Prior, University of Wolverhampton, UK

• Daphnie Sicre, Loyola Marymount University, USA

• Tammie Swopes, New York University, USA

• James Webb, Bronx Community College, USA

• Gustave Weltsek, Indiana University Bloomington, USA

ISSN: 1552-5236

ArtsPraxis Volume 7, Issue 2b looked to engage members of the global Educational Theatre community in dialogue around current research and practice. This call for papers was released in concert with the publication of ArtsPraxis Volume 7, Issue 1 and upon the launch of the new ArtsPraxis homepage. The submission deadline for Volume 7, Issue 2b was July 15, 2020.

Submissions fell under the category of Social Justice Practices for Educational Theatre

Social Justice Practices for Educational Theatre

As of early June, 2020, we found ourselves about ten days into international protests following the murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Protesters the world over made specific calls to action: acknowledge that black lives matter, educate yourself about social and racial injustice, and change the legal system that allows these heinous acts to go unpunished. In thinking through how we in the field of educational theatre could proactively address these needs, I reminded myself that there were many artists and educators who were already deeply engaged in this work. And while scholarship and practice around racial and social justice permeate so much of what we do, it was a good time to document current examples of best practices, organize them, and share them. As such, we prepared a companion issue of ArtsPraxis—this one, Volume 7, Issue 2b. We welcomed teachers, drama therapists, applied theatre practitioners, theatre-makers, performance artists, and scholars to offer vocabularies, ideas, strategies, practices, measures, and outcomes that responded to Social Justice Practices for Educational Theatre.

Article submissions addressed one of the following questions:

• How and why do we engage with social justice and anti-racist practices in the teaching of drama and theatre?

• How do teaching artists navigate social justice topics and liberatory pedagogy in their work?

• What is the role of drama education in social justice and anti-racist education?

• What is theatre for social justice and anti-racist pedagogy; what contribution do they make to social discourse?

• How do we prepare future theatre artists and educators to interrogate and promote social and racial justice?

• Who are the beneficiaries of theatre for social and racial justice?

• How can integrated-arts curricula facilitate teaching and learning about social justice?

• How is Theatre for Social Justice, in its diverse manifestations, reflected in our arts education research practices?

• How do we assess students' understanding of social justice in drama education and applied theatre programs?

• How can drama provide a forum to explore social justice and racism?

• What are innovative strategies for using drama to stimulate dialogue, interaction and change at this time?

• What ethical questions should the artist/educator consider when navigating social justice and anti-racist topics?

• How is theatre for young audiences actively pursuing a social justice agenda?

• Theatre for Young Audiences has always been in the forefront of theatrical innovation. So how can social justice be centered in work for young audiences?

We encouraged article submissions from interdisciplinary artists, educators, and scholars engaged in work associated with these topics. Our goals were to motivate a dialogue among a wide variety of practitioners and researchers that would enrich the development of educational theatre in the coming years.

Call for Papers:

Papers were to be no longer than 4,000 words, had to be accompanied by a 200 word abstract and 100 word biographies for the author(s), and conformed to APA style manual. For this issue, articles could include traditional academic scholarship and narratives of practice.

Reviewing Procedures:

Each article was sent to two peer reviewers. They provided advice on the following:

• Whether the article should be published with no revisions/with revisions.

• The contribution the article made to the arts community.

• Specific recommendations to the author about improving the article.

• Other publishing outlets if the article was considered unacceptable.

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