Dr Julie Dunn

PhD, MA (Research), B.Ed, Dip.T

Senior Lecturer, School of Education and Professional Studies (Brisbane/Logan)
     
Contact Details for Dr Julie Dunn

Research Expertise

Julie Dunn's research work focuses on play and drama in actual and virtual worlds and she is particularly interested in the point of intersection between these worlds and dramatic ones. She has published widely in the area of dramatic play, with a specific area of interest being how the dramatic qualities of play develop with experience. Within the context of early childhood and primary education, Julie has investigated connections between child-structured dramatic play and adult-structured drama education, with a major component of this work being the possibilities these approaches offer for literacy development, including oracy. Julie has also worked in partnership with Professor John O'Toole to explore the possibilities for applying drama strategies and approaches within persistent virtual worlds and is currently working in partnership with a team from Appalachian State University to research practical applications of drama based approaches within these on-line environments.

Julie was the 2005 winner of the American Alliance for Theatre and Education Distinguished Dissertation Award and her book "Pretending to Learn" (co-authored with John O'Toole) was winner of a 2003 Excellence in Educational Publishing Award.

Current Teaching Areas

At post-graduate level Julie is the Program Co-ordinator of the Master of Drama Education (Honours) Mt Gravatt offering, as well as being involved in teaching within the Hong Kong offering of this program. Julie convenes two courses wtihin the Master's Level of this degree - Psychology of Drama Education and Proposal Writing, while also looking after Drama Education and Advanced Drama Education as part of the Graduate Certificate program.

At under-graduate level Julie is responsible for all the education courses within the drama area being course convenor of Communicative Performance, Middle Years and Senior Phase Drama Curriculum and Drama Across the Curriculum. She is also part of the teaching teams for several multi-disciplinary courses that have a drama component, including early and middle Years curriculum and pedagogy courses.      

Publications

Co-Authored Books

• O’Toole, J. & Dunn, J. (2002) Pretending to Learn – Helping Children Learn through Drama, Sydney: Pearson Education Australia.
• O’Toole, J. & Dunn, J. (2004) Dramaforløb i skolen – en brugsbog for lærere  Translated by Stockholm, C., V. Clausen, C., Thrane, L., Heidemann, L., and Jorgensen, G. Drama Press: Viborg.
  

Book Chapters

• Dunn, J. (2003) “Linking Drama Education and Dramatic Play in the Early Childhood Years” in Wright, S. Children, Meaning Making and the Arts. Pearson Education: Sydney.
• Dunn, J. (2002) “Enhancing Dramatic Activities in the Early Childhood Years” in Wright, S. (Ed.) The Arts, Young Children and Learning. Allyn and Bacon: Boston.    
  

Refereed Journal Articles

• Dunn, J. (In press) Playing around with dramatic form: applying an analysis of the text creation processes used within preadolescent dramatic play, Research in Drama Education. Vol. 13:1
• Dunn, J. (In Press) “Keeping it Real: An examination of the metacommunication processes used within the play of one group of preadolescent girls”. Play and Culture Series, Vol 9, University of America Press.
• Dunn, J. (2006) “Revisiting Dramatic Worlds in Play”, Youth Theatre Journal, American Alliance for Theatre and Education, Vol 20, (pp. 42-57)
• Dunn, J. (2006) The Imagination at Work in the Play of Preadolescent Girls, Applied Theatre Researcher, No 6
  

Refereed Conference Proceedings

• Prestridge, S., Dunn, J., & Lang, W. (2006) “Building an International Collaborative Learning Community within a Virtual Space.” Learning on the Move – Mobile Learning Conference, QUT, Brisbane, September 26. .
• O’Toole, J., Dunn, J. and Turner, J. (2005) “When Worlds Collide – Exploring the relationship between the real, the dramatic and the virtual”. Playing and Learning in Virtual Environments, Selected Papers from the 2nd International Conference of the League of Worlds Association. www.leagueofworlds.com/news.php
• Dunn, J.  (2002) “Dramatic Worlds in Play – Creating and Sustaining Illusions of Realness”, in Rasmussen, B. & Ostern, A. (Eds.) Playing Betwixt and Between – The IDEA Dialogues 2001 – Selected Papers from the 4th World Congress of Drama/Theatre and Education Bergen 2001.  Bergen: IDEA Publications.
  

Government Reports

• Piscitelli, B., Renshaw, A., Dunn, J. and Hawke, D. (2004) Education, Enculturation and The Arts: Fuelling an Innovation Culture. Education and the Arts Partnership Initiative, Australia Council, Education Queensland and Queensland University of Technology: Brisbane.

Other

Journal Articles – Non-refereed contribution of a scholarly or professional nature

• Dunn, J. (2005) “Building drama worlds – Four steps to creating literacy rich dramatic play environments. Every Child. Vol.11,  No. 2.
• Dunn, J. (2004) “Becoming the surgeons in curriculum reform”, Australian Drama Education Magazine. (This is the framing article for the 2004 edition of the magazine and was contributed by invitation.)
• Dunn, J. (2002) “The Green Children – Connecting Drama, Productive Pedagogies and Multiliteracies”, Primary Matters, Brisbane: Drama Queensland. Vol 2.
• Dunn, J. (2002) “Giants and Lighthouse Keepers: Drama, dramatic play and multiliteracies”, Educating Young Children – Learning and Teaching in the Early Childhood Years, Vol 8, No.2.
  

Project Materials

• Dunn, J. and Veurman-Betts,J. (2007) Reels Rescue Support Materials, State Library of Queensland, Brisbane
• Dunn, J. and McArdle, F. (2006) Out of the Box Festival of Early Childhood Teacher and Parent Support Materials. QPAT: Brisbane
• Dunn, J. and Brennan, C. (2006) National Treasures Support Materials, State Library of Queensland, Brisbane
  

Newspaper Articles

• Dunn, J. (2003) Oracy through Dramatic Play – invited contribution to Education Views, Brisbane: Education Queensland.

Keynotes and Presentations at International Conferences

• 2007 Insider Trading or Corporate Takeover? Clarifying the relationship between drama in schools and Applied Theatre. International Symposium on Applied Theatre, University of Sydney, October 11-12
• 2007 The Playwright Function in Improvised Forms. Paper presented at IDEA the 6th World Congress of International Drama/Theatre and Education Association, Hong Kong. July 16-22. 
• 2007 Linking learners, Linking Literacies. Paper presented at the United Kingdom Literacy Association 43rd International Conference, Swansea University, Wales. July 6-8. 
• 2006 Arts Education: Reflecting on the Need for Balance.  Invited Keynote New Zealand Art Educators Association Annual Conference, Christchurch, NZ, July 10-12, 2006
• 2006 Exploring Rain: Developing Transdisciplinary Middle Years Arts Units, New Zealand Art Educators Association Annual Conference, Christchurch, NZ, July 10 - 12, 2006
• 2005 Revisiting Dramatic Worlds in Play.  Oral defence presented at the American Alliance for Theatre Education Conference, Chicago, U.S. July 28-31.