As an instructor in the Drama and Theatre for Youth and Communities area, faculty member Lara Dossett (M.F.A. 2014) can be found teaching graduate students and pre-service teachers throughout the academic year. As a researcher, she works to share arts-based pedagogies with K-12 educators across Texas and internationally. As a mentor, she shares a dedication to arts integration and her deep knowledge of working in school and community contexts. We spoke with Dossett about the ways her research informs her teaching and the path that led her to the Department of Theatre and Dance.
Talk a little bit about your career and what led you to teaching.
I graduated from undergrad with a degree in theatre management but quickly discovered I loved teaching theatre and working with K-12 public school teachers when I worked as a Teaching Artist for Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago. I stayed in Chicago for several years gaining practical experience and then came to The University of Texas at Austin for graduate school to earn my M.F.A. I have been here ever since!
Talk briefly about the additional work you do through UT, particularly with Drama for Schools and the DFS Summer Institute: Activating Learning Through the Arts.
As an Assistant Professor of Instruction I teach courses each semester, and I am the coordinator for a program within UT Theatre and Dance called Drama for Schools. Drama for Schools (DFS) is a professional learning model that works with educators (typically K-12) and artists locally, nationally and internationally to incorporate arts-based pedagogies into their teaching – this is called arts integration. My work in schools and communities through DFS is my inspiration and my research. I am dedicated to collaborating with teachers and students to positively change the culture of the classroom to be more creative, equity and justice-focused and student-driven.
One program we facilitate through DFS is the Summer Institute: Activating Learning through the Arts. We host between 20-60 educators through multiple workshop sessions each June to experience immersive learning in arts integration. This program has been running for 15 years! Since 2015 we have been partnering with Austin’s Creative Learning Initiative to invite Austin ISD teachers to attend this institute with the goal of moving towards more equitable creative learning opportunities for students across the district. Drama for Schools is a founding partner of the Creative Learning Initiative here in Austin. Since 2015 more than 300 Austin ISD educators have attended the Summer Institute.
How do these projects inform and coincide with your work as an Assistant Professor of Instruction?
The projects I run with various communities through Drama for Schools inform most of what and how I teach. When I am in K-12 schools facilitating DFS arts integration professional learning I share a lot and I learn a lot from the amazing teachers who are the ones actually implementing arts-integrated practices in their classroom with young people every day. There is an exchange of knowledge and expertise that helps me keep my university teaching super relevant and engaged with the current realities of education. I teach pre-service educators in my Arts Integration for Multidisciplinary Connections class, and I need to equip them with the skills I know they’ll need to facilitate arts learning in their own future classrooms. So, I need to know what is actually happening in classrooms outside of the university. I am a big believer in community-engaged work. What starts here might change the world, but the world also should inform and change us.
What is your favorite part about working on the faculty at UT?
Too hard to name just one!
- Mentorship from other faculty, especially from Katie Dawson and Megan Alrutz in my same area.
- The incredible undergraduate and graduate students that attend UT.
- I get to explore my passions in a job with amazing colleagues, students and K-12 teachers. What could be better?
Dossett’s typical courses include Arts Integration for Multidisciplinary Connections, Performance as Collaborative Practice and Teaching Artists in Schools and Communities. She has taught and mentored countless students, including graduate student Lily Odekirk, who shared that, “Lara Dossett is a thoughtful educator passionately committed to making drama-based pedagogy more accessible for pre-service educators and teachers in the AISD and surrounding areas. She adapts quickly and responsively to the needs of her students and collaborators and, through her own practice, invites us to think more critically about the ways that teaching is artistry.”
Written by Sydney Pattillo.
