Dr Rachael Jacobs

r.jacobs@westernsydney.edu.au

Methods

Qualitative research

Ethnographies

Narrative research

Arts-based research methods

Performed research

Thematic and content analysis

Research Focus

Language acquisition through the arts

Assessment in the arts

Decolonised approaches to embodied learning

Dr Rachael Jacobs (PhD) is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Arts Education at Western Sydney University and a former secondary teacher (Dance, Drama and Music). Her research interests include assessment in the arts, language acquisition through the arts and decolonised approaches to embodied learning. In 2014 she completed her PhD on assessment in the arts, which she subsequently turned into a piece of performed research presented to an audience of teachers and policy makers. She has since authored over 20 peer-reviewed research papers and academic book chapters on arts education, creativity and teacher education, and edited two textbooks on arts and creativity in schools.

Rachael’s research has attracted funding for research projects that partner with arts companies and Education departments all over Australia. In 2016 she contributed to the arts education component of the OECD report on the Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 and she is currently assisting in the analysis for UNESCO’s International Commission on Futures of Learning. She has received finding to conduct research projects from the Tasmanian Department of Education, the NSW Department of Education, Asylum Seekers Centre, ITAC (the International Teaching Artists Collaborative), and other bodies.

Rachael has delivered keynote presentations on her research to the World Alliance for Arts Education, ASME, (Australian Society of Music Educators), Drama Queensland, the Tasmanian Department of Education’s Dance and Drama conference, Brisbane Catholic Education and Adult Learning Australia. She has partnered with Western Sydney community organisation and social enterprise, Lost in Books, to develop a creative multilingual professional learning program for teachers.

Rachael has facilitated arts projects in community settings in Australia and internationally, including in refugee communities, prisons and women’s refuges. She has achieved two ATLC (Australian Teaching and Learning Council) citations for outstanding contributions to teaching and learning in higher education and has written two textbooks on arts education (Dance, Drama, Music and Visual Arts) for primary classrooms. Rachael is an Honorary Key Recipient of the Golden Key Society for services to education and community and was the University of Southern Queensland Faculty of Education’s Alumni of the Year in 2013. In 2019 Rachael received the Vice Chancellor’s Citation for teaching excellence from Western Sydney University.

Rachael’s educational and community work extends well beyond universities and schools. She is a community activist, a freelance writer, aerial artist, South Asian dancer and choreographer. She is a founding member of the community activism group Teachers for Refugees, is a board director of children’s arts organisation Wide Eyed Wonder and climate activism organisation, Sweltering Cities.  She also runs her own intercultural dance company specialising in Indian dance forms.

Recent Projects

UNESCO Futures of Education: Consultant to UNESCO’s International Commission on the Futures of Education with Claire French, analysing over 200 artworks depicting the future of education in 2050 and beyond. Report here: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000375578?posInSet=1&queryId=c83bc53e-84b9-443c-a1ad-cf464a4c7e98

Dance for Life: Expressive arts for cultural wellbeing with young people: Evaluating dance and social programs in Canberra that enhance wellbeing, led by Karin Mackay from Western Sydney University. Report here: https://researchdirect.westernsydney.edu.au/islandora/object/uws:60519/

RAW (Ready Arrive Work): NSW Department of Education evaluation of workplace learning programs for students from a refugee background. With Suzanne Gannon and Danielle Tracey from Western Sydney University. Report here: https://researchdirect.westernsydney.edu.au/islandora/object/uws:53545 Interlinked: Tasmanian Department of Education project using interdisciplinary approaches to language development for newly arrived international students, using story drama, media arts and community based-learning

Current Projects

IEC Transitions: Working with Hannah Grant of Collective Impact Arts, IEC Transitions uses drama pedagogies to assist newly arrived migrant and refugee students transition to mainstream high schools. This program develops language, social and academic skills through drama

ITAC Climate Collaborative: ITAC has newly commissioned five teaching artists from around the world to design and deliver projects in their local communities that change beliefs and behaviours in relation to climate change. Rachael will be working in West and South West Sydney facilitating arts projects that address the issue of rising surface temperatures in outer Sydney suburbs. More information here https://www.itac-collaborative.com/projects/chill-the-heat

WiS (Writing in Secondary): NSW Department of Education project working with Kay Carroll, Christina Curry, Erin Mackenzie and Suzanne Gannon from Western Sydney University. Rachael will work with Visual Arts specialists to improve writing strategies in secondary years.  

Context is Everything: Working with Dr Rachael Dwyer of University of the Sunshine Coast to produce a set of guidelines for decolonising arts education and creating anti-racist approaches to arts education.

Academic in Residence: Working with social enterprise, Lost in Books, providing pedagogical advice on professional learning for teachers and strategies to enhance multilingualism in schools.

Sorgente: Teaching-artist and researcher on Sorgente which seeks to explore the connection(s) between performative language teaching, motivation to belong and second language learning, with students from refugee and migrant backgrounds, and their teachers, attending English language classes in Dublin, Ireland. Led by Erika Piazzoli, Trinity College, Dublin. For more information: https://erikapiazzoli.com/sorgente/

Creative Justice Collective: Developing the concept of creative justice as a theory and principle that can be applied to the arts, arts education and society more broadly.

Youth in the Time of Coronavirus: Working withSusanne Gannon, Jacqueline D’warte and Loshini Naidoo of Western Sydney University, this program of research involves an ongoing examination of the feelings, thoughts and experiences of young people aged 15-19 through periods of online learning in Australian schools during 2020, and 2021. Current outputs from existing 2020 data include 2 manuscripts under review. Sociality, resilience and agency: How did young Australians experience online learning during Covid-19? And ‘But w’rry not we shall banquet again someday’: Creativity and socially distanced English

Ongoing areas of focus

Developing multilingualism through the arts: Bringing together several research projects to arrive at conclusions about ways that language development can be enhanced by the arts. Engaging in the arts, be it dance, music, drama, visual art, poetry, creative writing, design or media arts, can help with language and literacy development, either in a person’s home language or when learning an additional language. The use of the arts to assist with language development has fast become internationally recognised for its unique and transformative approach to learning. In fact, the field is experiencing a lot of growth around the world, with arts and non-arts specialists bringing language education and art making together.

There is a strong correlation between drama, language development and literacy improvement as has been well theorised by a range of researchers (O’Neill, Winston, Dunn, Bundy, Stinson, Freebody, Piazzoli and others). Drama has been found to be highly effective in developing decoding skills, fluency, vocabulary, syntactic knowledge and discourse knowledge (Reig and Parquette, 2009). Music can assist with aural discrimination and sequencing of sounds, as well as phonological and phonemic awareness, decoding and sight identification (see research by Hansen, Bernstorf, & Stuber, 2014, Singer, 2008 and others). Leonard, Hall & Herro (2015) argue that dance is literacy. It has vocabulary, uses grammar, and relies on semantics much like traditional forms of literacy. Just like written text and verbal language, bodily practice, specifically dance, is an expression of cultural practice and meaning making. Dance helps acquire embodied knowledge and provides endless possibilities in terms of meaning making, critical thinking and analysis, and expression and representation. We live in a visually rich world and art is all around us. Engaging in visual arts can help learners improve their verbal skills when they describe artworks or processes, as well as assist the brain to learn to decipher symbols, unfamiliar scripts and images.    

All of this is documented in research, but I’ve seen it with my own eyes. Through two decades of project work, at times in some very challenging situations, I’ve seen people come alive when the arts are introduced in the language classroom. I’ve seen disengaged learners drawn into the class via story and play. I’ve seen arts games that engage people’s playful sense, allowing them to relax and enjoy the learning. I’ve seen new vocabulary stick harder because it was created through a memorable experience. I’ve seen people use longer sentences and more complex vocabulary when they are in role. I’ve seen people wanting to find more words to describe pieces of music, artworks, videos or poems that have inspired strong reactions. I’ve seen disparate classes come together in an arts rich environment, even in unlikely places. I’ve seen people unwilling to leave their language classroom, or arrive early, eager to start the learning when the arts are used. I’ve seen shrieks of happiness, tears of joy, smiles and the pensive contemplation of deep, critical engagement.

Watch Can the arts help you learn a language? By Jacobs and Piazzoli (2020): https://youtu.be/ltIs_UtJQgU

I have worked on the following programs in language development and the arts, working with linguistically diverse communities:

  • PYT Fairfield: Education resource developer for linguistically diverse theatre 2021
  • IEC Transitions: Collective Impact Arts drama program in NSW IECs (Intensive English Centres) 2021
  • Creative Multilingual Schools: Academic-in-residence and professional learning advisor at multilingual bookstore and social enterprise, Lost in Books 2018-2021
  • WiS (Writing in Secondary): Visual Arts researcher for NSW Department of Education Writing Project 2021
  • Sorgente: Facilitator and researcher for a digital storytelling project in Ireland led by Dr Erika Piazzoli, Trinity College 2020
  • Interlinked: Tasmanian Department of Education language development through drama, media arts and community learning 2019-2020
  • Asylum Seekers Centre: Speakers program development 2017
  • Connected: Teaching-artist for Sydney Theatre Company’s language and literacy through drama program for migrants, refugees and people seeking asylum 2016-2019
  • Regional stories: Civic engagement through the language and the arts, Young NSW 2015-2017
  • Arts for English mentoring: Arts mentoring for migrant and refugee students, Earnshaw State High School 2012-2014
  • Win/Win Project: Arts and literacy project, Earnshaw State School and St Pius Catholic School, Banyo 2010-2014
  • Inspiration Krew: Dance and literacy engagement program, Wacol Women’s Prison 2010-11
  • Villawood Stories: Literacy and storytelling project at Villawood Detention Centre, 2004
  • ESL Arts: Improving language development through Drama, Cumberland High School 2002-2004

Write for Life: Story writing project with migrant women in South West Sydney, 2002