“I’ve got no connection”: Engaging teachers through embodied, drama-based professional learning with the supercomplexities of teaching for reconciliation

This thesis explores how embodied professional learning can support teachers to engage with the supercomplexities of teaching for reconciliation. Informed by the literature, the researcher designed and facilitated a series of six embodied professional learning workshops, engaging 12 Victorian drama teachers with topics like Australia’s colonising history, overcoming racism, and recognising First Peoples’ distinctive rights and cultures. The resulting data were analysed using dramaturgical coding. Findings are presented in an ethnodrama, entitled Connections. Key findings include the importance of learning within diverse communities of praxis, and the power and potential of drama-based pedagogies and cross-cultural yarning to develop transformative relationships.