MrsKatherine Zachest

Katherine Zachest is a Lecturer in Drama Education and Early Childhood Education (Arts)  at Deakin University, a specialist drama educator and PhD research candidate. Her doctoral research, Children, Drama and Planetary Wellbeing: Connecting Children to Nature through Drama, investigates how drama pedagogy can support young children to develop relationships with the more-than-human world, while creating opportunities for children to express their ideas, concerns and possible responses to environmental challenges.

Katherine has extensive experience developing drama and arts focussed curriculum for young children. Her practice focuses on embodied, play-based and process-oriented drama, including role play, storytelling, improvisation and puppetry. She is particularly interested in children's agency and in creating pedagogies that position children as active, capable participants. 

Katherine is the author of Drama for Early Childhood which was republished as Drama Games for Young Children, which has sold nationally and internationally including in the UK, China and Estonia. She and has contributed to Australian early childhood and primary Arts Education curriculum reform, and was on the panel to reshape the primary curriculum 2.0.

She has presented at numerous national and international conferences and educational settings on the value of drama for young learners and is a saught after seaker on the benefits of drama education.

National Conference Presentations:

• Frog in a Pond: Connecting young children to the nature through drama- Early Childhood Australia 2026
• Primary Performing Arts Mini Conference - Department of Education/Drama Victoria, ASME, AusDance 2026
• Frog in a Pond: Drama and Environmental Education  - Drama Victoria 2025
• Drama, Dance and Music for F-3: Finding Magic in your classroom - Drama Victoria Jumpstart 2024
• Drama and Sustainability: new approaches for the classroom - Drama Victoria 2023
• Drama in the Early Years Classroom - Deakin University 2022
• Drama for Early Years Education -Drama Victoria 2016
• Storytelling to Performance - Drama Australia 2015
• Puppetry and Mime for Early Years - Drama Victoria 2014
• Process Drama for Early Years - Drama Victoria 2013
  
  International Conference Presentations
• Children Drama and Planetary Wellbeing- International Research in Early Childhood Education (IRECE), Jakarta, Indonesia 2025
• A Time to Act - Sustainability and Drama Education - International Drama in Education Association (IDEA) World Congress, Beijing, China 2024
• Drama for Early Years: The Magic Carpet - Hangzhou Guancheng Kindergarten, Hangzhou, China 2024
• Storytelling for Early Years Education: Drama and Dance - Education University of Hong Kong (online), Hong Kong, 2023
• Learning Through Play: Arts in Early Childhood - Integrated Psychology for Child and Family (IPCF) Shanghai (online), China 2021 & 2022
• The Value of Play Based Learning through the Arts - Qingdao Early Learning Centres, Shandong, China, 2018