"Does classroom drama actually teach anything?" In this book, the best studies in both the qualitative and quantitative research paradigms are presented.

‘Here’s a knocking indeed!’ says the Porter in Shakespeare’s Scottish play (Act II, Scene 3) and immediately puts himself into role in order to deal with the demands of such an early call after a late night of drinking and carousal: ‘If a man were porter of hell-gate...’. But what roles does the porter of curriculum-gate take on in order to deal with drama’s persistent demands for entry? Ah, that depends upon the temperature of the times. We, who have been knocking for what seems to be a very long time, know well that when evaluation and measurement criteriaare demanded as evidence of drama’s ef cacy, an examiner stands as gatekeeper. When the educational landscape is in danger of overcrowding, we meet a territorial governor. And how often has the courtesan turned out to be only a tease because the arts are, for a brief moment, in the spotlight for their abilities to foster out-of-the-box thinkers? In this text, we meet these ‘commissionaires’ and many more. The gatekeeping roles and what they represent are so familiar that they have become cliches ́ to us. We know them by their arguments, ripostes, dismissals, their brief encouragement and lack of follow-up. And we know that behind each one (however rmly they think they keep the keys) is a nancial and political master whose power controls the curriculum building and everything in it.

This volume examines the current major issues in research design for arts teachers. It aims to answer two key questions: how do researchers design their studies? What research methods are appropriate for specific investigative questions?

This book explores English language arts instruction from the perspective of language as "social actions" that students and teachers enact with and toward one another to create supportive, trusting relations between students and teachers, and among students as peers. Departing from a code-based view of language as a set of systems or structures, the perspective of languaging as social actions takes up language as emotive, embodied, and inseparable from the intellectual life of the classroom. Through extensive classroom examples, the book demonstrates how elementary and secondary ELA teachers can apply a languaging perspective. Beach and Beauchemin employ pedagogical cases and activities to illustrate how to enhance students’ engagement in open-ended discussions, responses to literature, writing for audiences, drama activities, and online interactions. The authors also offer methods for fostering students' self-reflection to improve their sense of agency associated with enhancing relations in face-to-face, rhetorical, and online contexts.