Peter Bannister is Head of Drama at Backwell School, a large secondary comprehensive outside Bristol. He has delivered professional training and development opportunities in schools across the South West. He is an exponent of reflective practitioner research and particularly enjoys working with Initial Teacher Training students in supporting them to develop a critical praxis. His research interests include critical pedagogy, the semiotics of the secondary school classroom, and exploring the relationship between learning through drama and recent neuroscience research into how the adolescent brain develops.
David Booth is Professor Emeritus at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto, and Adjunct Professor at Nipissing University, Ontario, Canada. He teaches graduate courses in literacy and the arts in education, and speaks on these issues at international education conferences, including National Drama. He is the author of many books for educators and parents, including Story Drama (2nd Edition 2005) and, with his colleague, Kathleen Gallagher, How Theatre Educates (2003)and has won several awards for his picture books for children.
Kennedy Chinyowa is current Head of the Division of Dramatic Art and Senior Lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is also a the founder of the Acting Against Conflict Project, an interdisciplinary research project that has been engaging with university students on institutional culture policies associated with sexual harassment, racial prejudice and ethnic xenophobia. He has taught at various universities including the University of Zimbabwe, Griffith University (Australia), University of KwaZulu-Natal and Tshwane University of Technology (South Africa). He has won numerous research awards including two Postdoctoral Research Fellowships, Carnegie Corporation Research Grants and the American Alliance for Theatre in Education’s Distinguished Thesis Finalist Award. Apart from presenting several international conference papers, he has published extensively in books, peer reviewed and accredited journals.
Kostas Gkoufas has been a classics teacher in various mainstream schools across Greece and the UK since 2000. He holds an MPhil in Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek studies and a MEd in ICT in Education. He also studied Literature and Psychology as his first degrees. Kostas has participated in several conferences in Greece and abroad with a focus on ICT, Drama and Pedagogics. He also mentors PGCE students since 2008.
Dr Andy Kempe is Head of Initial Teacher Training at the University of Reading. He has written about many different aspects of drama teaching and continues to develop his own practice by regularly working in primary, secondary and special schools. His publications include Progression in Secondary Drama (with Marigold Ashwell), Learning to Teach Drama 11–18 (with Helen Nicholson), Speaking, Listening and Drama and the BBC Bitesize GCSE Drama Revision Guide. He is currently researching into the identity of the arts educator, and the contribution drama may make in increasing the social skills of young people on the autistic spectrum.
Panayota Kotarinou has been a mathematics teacher in high school since 1982 and she now teaches in the High school of Arts of Athens. She has a Masters Degree in Didactics, History and Methodology of Mathematics and she is doing her PhD conserning the use of Drama in Education in Mathematics instruction, in the Department of Special Education of the University of Thessaly. She has attended several seminars and workshops in innovative methods of teaching such as Education and Museums, Performing Arts in teaching Science and Mathematics, and she has also been a teacher trainer in new didactical approaches. She has participated in conferences with papers concerning the use of Literature, Theatre, Drama in Education and Debate in teaching and learning Mathematics.
Dr David Montgomerie taught in inner-city schools for twenty years as a class teacher, head teacher and advisory teacher for drama. In the latter post, he worked with the drama theorist Cecily O’Neill at the Inner London Education Authority’s (ILEA) Drama Centre. He went on to take up the position of Senior Lecturer in Education (English and Drama) at Froebel College Roehampton University. During his time there he was assistant programme convener for the PGCE (Primary) course. He taught at undergraduate and Masters level. He represented the University when teaching in Asia and Europe. He retired from the university in 2009. He is now a freelance drama consultant. His current research interests centre on language empowerment for all ages who have English as an Additional Language (EAL).
Hannah Pantin completed this research paper on group work during her PGCE teacher training at Goldsmiths College. She has a BA in English from Oxford University and an MFA in Theatre Directing from Birkbeck College, University of London. She set up the Penkhull Mystery Plays community event in Stoke-on-Trent in 2005 and Moonstruck Astronaut theatre company in 2009. She believes in the contribution drama and theatre can make to community cohesion. She currently teaches drama at Sevenoaks School in Kent.
Dr Ed de Quincey has worked in the area of online human behaviour for nine years, investigating the usability and impact of websites as well as uses of the information that they collect. He is currently a Senior Lecturer in the School of Computing & Mathematical Sciences at the University of Greenwich and the Web 2.0 Research Group Leader at the eCentre. Ed has previously been involved in a number of successful EU funded projects as a researcher at City University, London and has a PhD in Computer Science from Keele University where he is now a visiting researcher in the Knowledge Modelling Research Group.
Ása Helga Ragnarsdóttir is an assistant lecturer in drama education at the University of Iceland, School of Education. She is also a drama teacher at the University of Art in Iceland and has been involved in curriculum development, and introducing drama in schools and higher education. She has the degree of Master of Arts in Drama and Theatre Education from the University of Warwick in England, 2002. She is a vice-chair of FLÍSS, the Icelandic drama and education association, and congress director at the conference Drama Boreale in Iceland 2012. She is a professional actress as well and was a host at the children’s program in the Icelandic television for several years. Relevant publications include Drama in Education (2004 with Anna Jeppesen) and Practical Drama (2011 with Rannveig Björk Þorkelsdóttir).
Dr. Persephone Sextou is a Senior Lecturer in Drama in Newman University College Birmingham. Her research is on Applied Drama/Theatre, Health & Wellbeing and Devised theatre. She has recently completed a three year research project on the impact of Bedside Theatre on hospitalised children’s wellbeing with the NHS. She is also developing cross-disciplinary research on mental health with experts from Neuroscience/psychiatry. She founded the Community & Applied Drama Laboratory in Newman with a Hefce Enterpreurship Award in 2010. She is published in peer-reviewed journals and edited books, the author of three monographs, member of professional Associations, referee in international journals and she regularly presents at Conferences worldwide.
Dr. Charoula Stathopoulou is assistant professor of mathematics and didactics of mathematics in the Special Education Department, University of Thessaly. She achieved her Ph.D. on Ethnomathematics at the Aegean University. Her post graduate studies focus on Social Anthropology and Didactics of Mathematics and graduate studies on Mathematics.
Rannveig Thorkelsdóttir is finishing her second MA in Applied Studies in Culture and Communication from the School of Humanities at the University of Iceland. She also holds an MA in educational theory with emphasis on Curriculum theory and development. She is the chair of FLÍSS (Icelandic drama and education association) and a treasure of IDEA (International Drama/Theatre and Education Association). Rannveig has been involved in curriculum development and introducing drama in schools and higher education. She is an experienced drama teacher and educator and is currently a drama teacher in a Secondary School and a part time teacher at the University of Iceland School of Education. Her publications include: Play with Drama (to be published in 2012); Sound Theatre published by The National Centre for Educational Materials and Practical Drama, a book for teachers and a DVD (with Ása Helga Ragnarsdóttir).
