Special ALA Webinar: Adult Education and Creative Pedagogies
at 1pm (AEDT), Thursday, 26 March (time TBC)
Join us for this special webinar following the release of Adult Learning Australia’s special issue of the Australian Journal of Adult Learning (AJAL)in December 2025.
This session will delve into the diverse movements shaping creative pedagogies in adult education today. It will explore how creative arts education processes are being defined and enacted across adult learning programs, community-based initiatives, and social change movements and highlighting the transformative potential of creativity in learning and practice.
The webinar will be facilitated by the Special Issue Editors, Rob Townsend - Professor of Social Work and Academic Dean at Alliance Higher Education Institute (AHEI) and Higher education consultant with Naturally Gifted Research & Associates; and
Jeffrey Bryant Jones - Artistic Director, Drama Educator and Drama Therapist with Hobo Playhouse Australia
They will be joined by several contributing authors from the latest AJAL publication, who will share their insights into creative practice in adult learning. For further details and registration, visit:
https://ala.asn.au/special-ala-webinar-adult-education-and-creative-pedagogies/
November, 2025
Jeffrey Bryant Jones
Hobo Playhouse, Australia
Abstract
This article explores a therapeutic theatre project facilitated by an acting educator and an older woman living with mild dementia in regional Victoria, Australia. The co-created process utilised improvisation, storytelling, singing and puppetry to present a performance outcome. A qualitative Participatory Action Research methodological framework was adopted to examine the case study. The educator’s notes, video recordings of the performance and a post-performance interview were analysed. Eight themes emerged: Structures and Processes; Tools used in Therapeutic Theatre and Drama Therapy; Personal Issues; Others/Peers Involvement; The Educator/Therapist; The Performance; Contexts; and Learning. This article contributes further evidence that people living with mild dementia can continue to pursue their learning goals in short-term community education courses.
Keywords: inclusion, co-creative, performance, community, adult education, dementia, drama therapy, therapeutic theatre, acting.
Public Full Text link:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/398259872_Therapeutic_Theatre_as_a_process_for_the_inclusion_of_students_with_mild_dementia_in_Adult_Community_Education_courses[accessed Dec 18 2025].
Therapeutic Theatre as a process for the inclusion of students with mild dementia in Adult Community Education courses
Adult, community education in acting and performance as personal development: "I can look people in the eye now!"
July 2024
Rob Townsend & Jeffrey Bryant Jones
Abstract
Creative arts and performance courses at the community level for mature age individuals. Theatre and drama as education and as therapy. This article charts and reflects on several ACE arts-based courses and community theatre productions that have changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the professional experiences of the teacher. Change for individuals via education occurs intentionally and unintentionally and needs to be documented, with some examples presented here. If personal change and development were the intention of the courses described here, then participants did have the opportunity to integrate their self-discoveries into their real lives, potentially leading to transformation. The teacher being aware of, and skilled in, emotional regulation strategies can benefit students and teachers in all forms of learning, specifically adult community education. The students in the course described in this article have transformed from anxious, self-doubting individuals into empowered, self-confident people who bravely create their own acting techniques.
Public Full-Text link:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/383983584_Adult_community_education_in_acting_and_performance_as_personal_development_I_can_look_people_in_the_eye_now
