Wager, Amanda
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Item Exploring drama as an additional language through research-based theatre(Department of German & Department of Theatre – University College Cork, 2009) Wager, Amanda C.; Belliveau, George; Beck, Jaime; Lea, Graham W.This article explores the social, cultural, and emotional learning that occurred when drama was used with a group of native English speakers and English Language Learners (ELL) to build community. These learners consisted of university Drama in Education students who led a group of elementary students in an after-school drama program in Vancouver, Canada. University of British Columbia (UBC) researchers investigated the potential that drama has to build community with learners from multiple backgrounds and ages. The researchers also examined the potential that theatre methods have to analyze and represent findings discovered within the research data. In reflecting upon the learning that supported the community building, three themes were identified within the data: process and product, negotiation and conflict, and the building of community. ELL Program Leaders’ journals were used as data to explore the Program Leaders’ perspectives of how the drama program influenced their language acquisition skills and cultural understanding. As the data were analyzed, the researchers transformed recurring themes and significant findings into a dramatic text. This text, created and performed by the researchers at multiple conferences, is integrated into the article. Reflections from the researchers are also shared, along with insights gained while developing and presenting their research-based theatre piece.Item Reflections on teaching process drama: A critical inquiry into our practice with/as educators(ArtsPraxis, 2021-07) Wager, Amanda C.; Schroeter, SaraThis paper explores our experiences as drama-in-education professors teaching educators how to create and facilitate process dramas (Bolton & Heathcote, 1995; Neelands & Goode, 2000; O’Neill, 1995) in their classrooms. A process drama involves multimodal embodied drama explorations covering a specific topic that the facilitator(s) would like the participants to explore. In this narrative of practice, we present an example of process drama that our university students created and facilitated that broached critical topics surrounding social justice for their students to explore. The university students ranged from teacher candidates in a Bachelor of Education program to those with many years of experience completing a Master of Education. In our experiences teaching drama-in-education courses, we have encountered ethical dilemmas in the creation and facilitation of process dramas. Specifically, in the topics our students have selected and their positionalities as facilitators. In this article, through narrating our teaching experiences and what we learned from them, our goal is to call for artists and educators, like ourselves, to be more thoughtful in approaching the creation and facilitation of process dramas, especially when teaching people with different subjectivities and positionalities.Item Addressing structural violence and systemic inequities in education: A qualitative study on Indigenous youth schooling experiences in Canada(Sage, 2022-11) Wager, Amanda C.; Ansloos, Jeffrey P.; Thorburn, RachelIn this qualitative study we demonstrate the critical ways that Indigenous youth experience structural violence and systemic inequities in the context of education. In particular, this youthengaged study explores three key themes regarding (1) the social ecologies of education, (2) curriculum, and (3) pedagogy. Considerations of how these issues factor substantially in Indigenous young peoples’ experiences of education in Canada are explained. The implications of our study point towards concrete changes needing to be addressed in the field of education to ensure that every student is reflected in the educational curriculum and supported to meet the needs of succeeding in a colonized world while still upholding Indigenous rights, traditions, identities and values.Item Literacy/Literacies(Sage, 2020) Wager, Amanda C.; Enriquez, GraceLiteracy is commonly understood as the ability to read and write. In the last century, theorists have expanded this definition of literacy. To understand these multiple perspectives of literacy, especially regarding children, the following topics are covered: the history of literacy, literacy as a human right, developments in literacy theories, language variations and bi- and multi-literacies, instruction and assessment, and further readings.Item Land as life: (Virtual) learning from Indigenous knowledge-keepers(Electronic version published by Vancouver Island University, 2021) Wager, Amanda C.; Martin, Georgina; Love, Rane; Thiessen, BeckyLand as Life is a community-led and created undergraduate course in the Faculty of Xwulmuxw/Indigenous Studies at Vancouver Island University that has been running for 18 years. Every year it is planned and created by local Indigenous Knowledge-Keepers with the course instructor. The class is structured around teaching and learning in community-engaged settings, off campus from local Elders and community members from local nations, such as the Snuneymuxw, Stz’uminus, Quw’utsun and Penelakut territories. A research Project Team was formulated to explore the impacts of the course to share with the university community about how Indigenous land-based pedagogy traditionally stems from the land and how the Indigenous community members (Elders/Knowledge Keepers) exemplify how land-based and community-centred education benefits both the student-participants and the community at large. The specific contributions of this project demonstrate the benefits of an integrated course delivery, one that is informed by Indigenous pedagogies and due to COVID-19 had to be virtual. The analysis of the data, included in the film, provides the Vancouver Island University community understanding of the transformative student impacts resulting from the course, even in a virtual ‘crisis teaching’ format.