Jeff Meiners

Dr Jeff Meiners

School of Education

College of Education, Behavioural and Social Sciences

Available For Media Comment.

Jeff is a lecturer at the University of South Australia's School of Education working across all age groups in dance and arts education after teaching extensively in schools, preschools and a range of programs in universities. In his early career Jeff worked as a generalist primary class teacher in London with responsibility for music, drama and dance and then at the International School, Geneva, Switzerland, before returning to London for further study. Later he led a dance education team in London and was then arts team leader in the BEd primary teaching program at the University of Central England in Birmingham. 
After moving to Australia, he managed Ausdance New South Wales Outreach Projects. He was Community Representative for the Dance Board at the Australia Council for the Arts (2002-2008) and received the 2009 Australian Dance Award for Outstanding Services to Dance Education. He is a member of the International Editorial Board for Research in Dance Education. From 2009 he worked with the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) as a member of the reference group for the Arts in the national curriculum (2009-2010), as dance writer for the Arts Shape paper (2011) and then subject expert with the Arts Advisory panel 
Current commitments include: board member with Australian Dance Theatre, representative for the National Advocates for Arts Education (NAAE), and advisory panel member for the Australian Dance Awards. Jeff's doctoral study focused on dance curriculum as policy, with three related projects connected by autoethnographic writing. 

Dance education,Dance curriculum,Arts education,Young children and the arts,Member of the International Editorial Board for Research in Dance Education: http://www.tandfonline.com/crid (direct link above)

Year Citation
2025 Meiners, J., & Rowlands, K. (2025). The (Im)possibility of primary arts teacher education. CEPS Journal, 15(2), 51-72.
DOI
2022 Rowlands, K., MacGill, B., & Meiners, J. (2022). First Nations dance in the school curriculum: perspectives from an Australian university. International Journal of Education & the Arts, 23(1), 2-23.
DOI
2021 Baguley, M., Kerby, M., O'Toole, J., Barrett, M. S., Grierson, E., Dezuanni, M., & Meiners, J. (2021). In their own voice: the role of the shape of the Australian curriculum: the arts paper writers in ensuring equitable access to quality arts education in Australia. Australian Educational Researcher, 48(5), 795-818.
DOI
2021 Meiners, J. (2021). Towards a socially just dance curriculum entitlement. Australian Educational Researcher, 48(5), 837-856.
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2019 Garrett, R., Dawson, K., Meiners, J., & Wrench, A. (2019). Creative and body-based learning: redesigning pedagogies in mathematics. Journal for learning through the arts, 14(1), 1-19.
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2019 Meiners, J., Dawson, K., Garrett, R., & Wrench, A. (2019). Creative body-based learning: Not just another story about the arts and young people. Childhood education, 95(6), 66-75.
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2014 Meiners, J. (2014). So we can dance! towards a new inclusive Australian dance curriculum - Power, contestations and settlements. International journal of education through art, 10(2), 221-234.
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2008 Meiners, J. W., & Schiller, W. E. (2008). Young children, the arts and culture. International journal of diversity in organisations, communities and nations, 81, 5-8.
2007 Schiller, W., Diamond, A. K., Meiners, J. W., & Kalms, J. (2007). Books R 4 Babies 2: The ' Lapsit Project'. Australasian journal of university community engagement.
2005 Meiners, J. W. (2005). In the beginning : young children and arts education. International journal of early childhood, 37(2), 37-44.
DOI
2004 Meiners, J. W., Schiller, W. E., & Orchard, J. (2004). Children and the arts : developing educational partnerships between pre-school, school and tertiary sectors. Journal of in-service education, 30(3), 463-476.
DOI

Year Citation
2017 Buck, R., & Meiners, J. (2017). Contextualizing dance education globally and locally. In G. Barton, & M. Baguley (Eds.), Source details - Title: The Palgrave handbook of global arts education (pp. 35-53). UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
DOI
2015 Meiners, J., & Garrett, R. (2015). An Australian dance curriculum for social justice: Potentials and possibilities. In C. Nielsen, & S. Burridge (Eds.), Source details - Title: Dance Education around the World: Perspectives on Dance, Young People and Change (pp. 11-21). US: Taylor and Francis.
2012 Meiners, J. (2012). Generations dancing. In S. Burridge, & J. Dyson (Eds.), Source details - Title: Shaping the landscape: celebrating dance in Australia (pp. 120-136). New Delhi: Routledge.
2012 Deans, J., Meiners, J. W., & Young, S. (2012). Dance: art embodied. In C. Sinclair, N. Jeanneret, & J. O'Toole (Eds.), Source details - Title: Education in the arts (2nd ed., pp. 128-144). South Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
2007 Schiller, W., & Meiners, J. W. (2007). Learning through physical activity. In J. Moyles (Ed.). Maidenhead, UK: Open University Press.
2004 Meiners, J. W. (2004). Moving into drama. In M. Mooney, & J. Nicholls (Eds.), Source details - Title: Drama journeys : inside drama learning (pp. 89-98). NSW, Australia: Currency Press.
2003 Schiller, W., & Meiners, J. (2003). Dance - moving beyond steps to ideas. In Source details - Title: Children, meaning-making and the arts (pp. 91-116). Australia: Pearson Education.

Year Citation
2022 Price, D., Meiners, J., & Kipling Brown, A. (Eds.) (2022). Proceedings of Panpapanpalya 2018: the 2nd joint congress of Dance and the Child International and World Dance Alliance Global Education and Training Network. In Panpapanpalya 2018, the 2nd Joint Congress of Dance and the Child International and World Dance Alliance Global Education and Training Network. Australia: Ausdance.
2018 Price, D., Meiners, J., & Nathie, M. (2018). Panpapanpalya 2018: dance, gathering, generations, learning: an overview. In D. Price, J. Meiners, & A. K. Brown (Eds.), Panpapanpalya 2018, the 2nd Joint Congress of Dance and the Child International and World Dance Alliance Global Education and Training Network (pp. 51-71). Australia: Ausdance.
2012 Meiners, J., & Garrett, R. (2012). Unsettling dance and "disadvantage" in the curriculum. In Dance, Young People and Change: Proceedings of the daCi and WDA Global Dance Summit (pp. 1-8). Australia: Ausdance.
2011 Meiners, J. (2011). Dance in the draft arts shape paper. In 3rd Dance Education in Australian Schools Forum. Australia: Ausdance.
2011 McDowall, J., Roppola, T., Gill, E., & Meiners, J. W. (2011). An artists-in-residence project: preservice teachers' perceptions. In J. Wright (Ed.), AARE 2011 Conference Proceedings. Australia: AARE - Australian Association for Research in Education.
2010 Meiners, J. W., & Dyson, J. (2010). The National Advocates for Arts Education : advocacy strategies for a 21st century curriculum. In UNESCO 2nd world Conference on Arts Education : Arts for society, education for creativity (pp. 1-10). Korea: UNESCO.
2009 Kipling, B. A., Vlassopoulos, K., Bond, K. E., & Meiners, J. (2009). Performance: meanings and connections in dance experiences for young people of all ages. In C. Stock (Ed.), Dance dialogues: conversations across cultures, artforms and practices (pp. 1-19). Australia: Australian Dance Council and Queensland University of Technology.
2009 Diamond, A., & Meiners, J. (2009). 'In the real world': Lapsit - an experiential learning project with early childhood education students. In Traversing the marshes: bridging theory and practice in experience based learning (pp. 1-7). Australia: Experienced-based Learning Association.
2006 Meiners, J. W., & Schiller, W. (2006). In the beginning: interactions between children and dancer in early childhood. In Colouring Senses: Dance and the Child. Netherlands.
2006 Buck, R., Chan, A., & Meiners, J. W. (2006). Listening for a Future: Shared Stories and Shared Solutions. In Imagining the Future: Dance Education in the 21st Century. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Dance Alliance.
2006 Meiners, J. W., & Forler, C. (2006). Finding the green sheep : the quest for the elusive first performance. In Backing our creativity : research policy practice : national education and the arts symposium 2005 : symposium proceedings. Australia: Australia Council.
2005 Meiners, J. W. (2005). Dance education : policies, politics and pragmatics. In Global and local dance in performance. Kuala Lumpur: University of Malaya.
2005 Mooney, M., Meiners, J. W., & Munday, J. (2005). With backs to the wall : working creatively with early years and primary student teachers studying "the arts". In Backing our creativity : research policy practice : national education and the arts symposium 2005 : symposium proceedings. Surrey Hills, N.S.W.: Australia Council.
2004 Meiners, J. W. (2004). In the beginning: young children and arts education. In Proceedings XXIV World Congress of OMEP: Innovation in Service Delivery. Melbourne, Australia.
2004 Schiller, W., Wood, D. L., & Meiners, J. W. (2004). "In the beginning" : establishing a model for a transnational, interdisciplinary, arts education program. In Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia Conference Papers: Transforming Knowledge into Wisdom - Holistic Approaches to Teaching and Learning. Milperra, NSW: Higher Education Research andf Development Society of Australasia.

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