No Direction Home
A teaching unit on right-wing populist responses to refugee crises
By Peter O’Connor & Moema Gregorzewski
Year
13
Level
8
Duration
Approx. 5 weeks
Learning areas
Drama
Inquiry focus
Right-wing populist responses
to refugee crises
Description
This teaching unit engages students in theatre-making processes to explore Marsden and Ottley’s sophisticated picture book Home & Away. The book juxtaposes naturalistic and non-naturalistic drawings to depict the open-ended and fragmented story of a fictional family. The family, of presumably white European descent, must flee from their home country and seek refuge elsewhere due to the outbreak of a war. The unit invites students to reflect on refugee crises occurring around the globe and to interrogate the right-wing populist rhetoric that has emerged in many Western nations as a response to such crises.
Key understandings, knowledge & actions
Refugees and displacement
Disaster and war
Right-wing populism
Rhetoric
Power and privilege
Empathy
Social responsibility
Critical citizenship
Learning experiences
1. Creating transformations
2. An encounter with war
3. A final farewell
4. Face to face with right-wing populism
5. Practicing citizenship