Acting against conflict and bullying. The Brisbane DRACON project 1996–2004—emergent findings and outcomes

Abstract

In 1996, the authors were invited to join an international research project, DRACON (=DRAma + CONflict), into the use of drama for assisting conflict management in schools, with a particular initial brief to investigate the cultural components. The Brisbane DRACON project has been based at Griffith University in Brisbane, and has incorporated sites throughout New South Wales and Queensland. The aim of the Brisbane project has been to use drama to assist young people in schools towards a cognitive understanding of the nature, causes and dynamics of conflict and bullying, in order to give them the tools to take control of their own conflicts and conflict agendas, personally and in the context of the school community, rather than relying on externally imposed and hierarchical conflict management programs. The project has been embedded throughout within the normal school curriculum, and the eventual goal is to change the ethos of schools by creating new networks of understanding and support. The Brisbane project has so far entailed nine annual cycles of action research centred on secondary school students in Queensland and New South Wales (NSW), and also incorporating primary school students. Fifteen high schools have taken part, with between one and five classes of students involved in each school, and from Cycle 4 onwards, a total of 16 primary schools connected with those high schools have also been included, each with between one and five classes involved. From Cycle 2 onwards, the aim has been pursued using a combination of two equal and integrated strategies: drama and whole-class peer teaching. Cycles 4–6 focussed particularly on cultural aspects of conflict, and Cycles 7–9 on bullying. This paper sets out to tell the story and emerging outcomes of the research.