DRAMA IN EDUCATION: EVALUATING ITS ROLE IN CONVEYING CULTURAL THEMES
Keywords:
Educational drama, Cultural messages, Student engagement, Pedagogical evaluation, Imaginative learningAbstract
This paper presents findings from the evaluation of a drama pedagogical project centered on the play "The Hat is Yours," performed by a professional theatre group and shown to junior high school students in the autumn term of 2002. The study gathered data from 16 students, 6 teachers, 5 performers, the play's director, and the playwright, along with classroom observations involving 60 students during post-performance sessions. The research aimed to assess the effectiveness, intensity, and depth of educational drama in conveying cultural messages. Findings indicate that both the play and the project were positively received by students, who appreciated the integration of drama into their curriculum and engaged actively in sessions, suggesting the triggering of emotional and intellectual processes. Students' unanimous support for the educational drama efforts highlights the potential of drama in fostering imaginative learning and perspective-taking. However, the study also reveals mixed opinions among actors regarding the moralization of dramatic scenes and the resolution of problems in a manner perceived as culturally biased. This paper argues for the continued and expanded use of drama in education, particularly for minority and socially disadvantaged students, to enhance aesthetic expression and interest in other subjects
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
Copyright (c) 2024 Interdisciplinary Journal of Educational Practice (IJEP)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
References
Aisha L (2001). A class apart: A segregated school raised questions about the limits of Swedish Liberalism, in Time, Feb, 19, pp. 22- 23.
Alvesson M, Deetz S (2000). Kritisk samhällsvetenskaplig method. Lund: Studentlitteratur.
Andersson R (1997). Svensk glesa bostadsområden, Invandrare och Minoriteter, no.2: 19-24. (In Swedish).
Appleby ES (2001). Dramatic Empowerment Education, Citizenship and the Earth. Examining the potential and challenges of drama as an empowering pedagogy for environmental citizenship education.
Griffith University, Nathan, Brisbane, Jan. 2001.
Atkinson P (1990). The Ethnographic Imagination. London: Routledge.
Banks James A (1999). An Introduction to Multicultural Education.
Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Barthes R (1977). Image-Music-Text. London:Fontana Press.
Bauman Z (2001). The Individualized Society. MA: Blackwell.
Beach D (1997). Symbolic control and power relay: Learning in higher professional education. Gothenburg: Acta universitatis Gothoburgenis, Gothenburg Studies in Educational Sciences 119.
Beach D (1999). Att förändra utbildning [Changing Education]. Utbildning och Demokrati, 8, 103- 128. (In Swedish).
Bengtsson J (1993): "Theory and Practice. Two Fundamental Categories in the Philosophy of Teacher Education", Edu. Rev. 45 (1993/3), s. 205-211.
Berhanu G (2001). Learning – In – Context. An Ethnographic Investigation of Mediated Learning Experiences Among Ethiopian Jews In Israel. Gothenburg: Acta Universitatis Gothonburgensis, Göteborg studies in educational sciences 166.
Berhanu G (2002). The Monroe Model in the Swedish Context. An evaluation of quadriceps school programme. Göteborg University (in press) (manus).
Bleakley A (2000). Writing with invisible ink: narrative, confessionalism and reflective practice. Reflect. Pract. 1(1): 11-24.
Boal A (1995). The rainbow of desire: The Boal method of theatre and therapy. London: Routledge.
Boal A (1979). De förtrycktas teater. Stockholm: Gidlund.
Bracht N (1990: ed.)). Health Promotion at the Community Level. Newbury: Sage.
Bruner J (1990). Acts of meaning. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Chinapah V, Fägerlind I (1986). The design and elaboration of the evaluation and monitoring techniques for the implementation of educational policies, Paper Studies, s. 123. Paris, UNESCO. Division of educational policy and planning.
Chinapah V, Miron G (1990). Evaluating Educational Programmes and projects: Holistic and practical considerations. UNESCO, Paris.
Emanuelsson I (1998). Integration and segregation – inclusion and exclusion. International Journal of Educational Research, 29, 95- 105.
Emanuelsson I (2000a). Är det normalt att vara godkänd? I KRUT, no. 99, 3/2000. (In Swedish).
Emanuelsson I (2000b). Specialpedagogen på marknaden. I Att Undervisa, 5-2000, pp. 6-9. (In Swedish).
Front Forum Theatre (2001) Ansökan om stöd till utvecklinngs projekt i samarbete med skolan /Addressed to Levande Historia…/ Internal Document. (In Swedish)
Hargreaves A (1944). Changing Teachers, Changing Times: Teachers’ work and culture in the postmodern age, Cassell, 1994, p. 77.
Gardner H (1985). Frames of mind. The theory of multiple intelligences. London: Paladin.
Gay G (2000). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research, and practice. Teachers College Press.
Genosko G (1994). Baudrillard and Signs: Signification Ablaze. London: Routledge.
Giddens A (1991). Modernity and Self identity: Self and society in the late modern age. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Grosin L (1997). Effective schools and equality. An essay. Department of Education. Stockholm University.
Grosin L (1998). Rektorer i framgångsrika skolor – om skolkulturer. Paper presenterat på konferensen om kultur som begrepp i pedago gisk forskning vid pedagogiska institutionen, Stockholms universitet, 11 Dec, 1998.
Hammarström H (1998). Skolvärlden. Nr.3; del 2; s.29-31. (In Swedish). Helmstad G (1999). Understandings of understanding: An inquiry conc- erning experiential conditions for developmental learning (Göteborg studies in educational sciences 134). Göteborg: Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis.
Henry M (2000). Drama’s ways of learning Research in Drama
Education, 5 (1) 45-62.
Holm M (1997). På jakt efter endräkt. Dagens nyheter, June 20, 1997. (In Swedish).
Lahdenperä P (1997). Invandrarbakgrund eller skolsvårigheter?: En textanalytisk studie av åtgärdsprogram för elever med invandrarbakgrund. Stockholm: HLS, 1997, Studies in Educational Sciences, 7. (In Swedish)
Lahdenperä P (2001). Interkulturell forskning om lärande och lärarroll. In G. Bredänge, C. Hedin, K. Holm and M. Tesfahuney (eds.), Utbildning i det mångkulturella samhället. Göteborgs universitet, Institutionen för pedagogik, Rapport no. 2001: 02. pp. 75- 95. (In Swedish)
Lewin E (1994). Evaluation manual for SIDA. Published by the Evaluation Unit, Planning Secretariat, SIDA.
Linde G (2001). Värdegrund och svensk etnicitet. Lund:
Studentlitteratur.
Lindqvist G (1999). Vygotskij och Skolan. Lund: Studentlitteratur.
Monroe L (1997). Nothing is impossible. Leadership lessons from outside and inside the classroom. NY: Times Books, Random Wave?
OECD (1987). Multicultural Education. OECD/CERI, Paris.
OECD (1989). One School, Many Cultures. OECD/CERI, Paris.
O’Neill C (1995). Dramaworlds. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
O’Toole J (1992). The process of drama: Negotiating art and meaning. London: Routledge.
Palmer R (1969). Hermeneutics: Interpretation Theory in Schleirmacher, Dithey, Heidegger, and Gadamer. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
Patton M (1978). Utilization – focused evaluation. Beverly Hills, California, Sage.
Patton M (1986). Utilization – focused evaluation. Beverly Hills, California, Sage.
Patton M (1980). Qualitative evaluation methods. Beverly Hills, Cal., :Sage.
Pirie PL (1990). Evaluating health promotion programs: Basic questions approaches: In N.Bracht (ed.) Health Promotion at the Community Level. Newbury: Sage.
Pred A (2000). Even in Sweden: Racism, racialised spaces and the popular Geographical margination. Cal.: University of Californian press.
Rossi P, Freeman H (1993: ed.). Evaluation– A Systematic Approach: Newbury Park, Cal.: Sage.
Sanders M G (2000). Schooling students placed at risk: Research, policy, and practice in the education of poor and minority students, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Säljö R (2000). Lärande i praktiken. Ett sociokulturellt perspektiv.
Stockholm: Prisma.
Schwandt TA (2000). Three epistemological stances for qualitative inquiry: Interpretivism, hermeneutics, and social constructionism. In N. K. Denzin and Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (2nd ed., pp. 189-214). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Serematakis N (1994): The Senses Still: Perception and Memory as Material Culture in Modernity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Siks GB (1977). Drama with children. New York: Harper and Row.
Skutnabb-Kangas T (2000). Linguistic genocide in education – Or worldwide diversity and human rights? Mahwah N J: Erlbaum Associates.
Strernudd MMF (2000). Dramapedagogik som demokratisk fostran. Fyra dramapedagogiska perspektive – dramapedagogik i fyra läroplaner. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. Uppsala Studies in Education 88.
Swartz E (1988). Using dramaturgy in educational research. In: S. Steinberg and J. Kincheloe (eds.), Students as researchers: Creating classrooms that matter. London: Falmer Press.
Tedlock B (2000). Ethnography and ethnographic representation. In N. K. Denzin and Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (2nd ed., pp. 455-486). Thousand Oaks, NJ: Sage.
Tesfahuney M (2001). Monokulturell utbildning. In G. Bredänge, C. Hedin, K. Holm, M Tesfahuney (eds.), Utbildning i det mångkulturella samhället. Göteborgs universitet, Institutionen för pedagogik, Rapport nr. 2001: 02, pp. 11- 31. (In Swedish).
Tesfahuney M (1997) 'Migrations, hybridity and transnationalism', in J. Fairhurst, I. Booysen and P.S. Hattingh, (eds.), Migration and Gender: Place, Time and People Specific, Pretoria: Department of Geography, University of Pretoria. pp: 459–480.
Touraine A (2000). Can we live together: Equality and difference. Cambridge: Polity press.
von Brömssen K (2003). Tolkningar, förhandlingar och tystnader: Elevers tal om religion i det mångkulturella och postkoloniala rummet, Acta Universitatis Gothobugensis: Göteborg.
Vedung E (1991). Utvärdering i politik och förvaltning. Student Litteratur: Lund. (In Swedish)
Wagner B (1993). Drama i undervisningen. En bok om Dorothy Heathcotes Pedagogik. Göteborg: Daidalos.
Wagne B (1995). A theoretical framework for improvisational drama. NJ, 19 (2), 61–70.
Ward W (1930). Creative dramatics. New York: Appleton Century Company.
Wilhelm B (1995). Imagining to learn, inquiry; ethics and integration through drama. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
