Katy Walsh

Biography

Katy Walsh lectures in Contextual Studies in the School of Education. She taught secondary school Drama, English and English as an Alternative Language or Dialect (EALD), for nearly 30 years in high schools in Victoria and NSW. She completed her Bachelor of Arts (Hons), at the Flinders University of South Australia. She majored in Theatre Studies, Theatre Performance (Drama Centre) and English. Katy worked professionally in theatre as a freelance actor in S.A., Victoria, and NSW and co-founded the Red Shed Theatre Company of S.A in the late 1980s. Katy’s extensive experience in industry and in school has been highly significant to her current work in the tertiary sector with pre-service teachers.

Katy is completing her Doctor of Philosophy in ensemble theatre practice. Her PhD research employs ethnographic methods to explore the nexus between professional theatre and drama education in collaborative group-devising. Katy’s research interests include collaborative pedagogy, space and creative play, and extends into social ontology where she focuses on collective intentionality and We-Thinking.

Katy is Associate Editor of the Australian Drama Education Magazine (ADEM). Her publications include contributions to ADEM, the Journal of Drama Education (JEDA). She co-authored a book chapter for ‘The Routledge Companion to Theatre and Young People’, with Dr Christine Hatton from the University of Newcastle, NSW, titled ‘To the Syllabus and Beyond; young people learning through theatre-making in Australian schools.’  She has five grown children and lives and works on the New England Tablelands.

Qualifications

Bachelor of Arts (Hons) - Flinders

Diploma Education, English; English as a Second Language (ESL – now EALD) – Monash

PhD (in completion) Newcastle

Teaching Areas

Pre-service teaching; Classroom Management and Research; Introduction to Teaching and Learning; Teaching for cultural Inclusivity - EALD; Research Methods (Masters) for Higher degrees.

Research Interests

Ensemble Theatre Practice and devised drama

Fundamentals of Collaboration

Inclusive pedagogies – Drama Pedagogy.

Notions of Space and Creative Play

Social Ontology: Collective Intentions – We-thinking

Memberships

Drama Australia