Drama Research Volume 16.2

This study conducts a comparative analysis of the theatrical approaches of Brian Way and Dorothy Heathcote, two seminal figures in drama education. While both emerged from the United Kingdom, their philosophies have had enduring international impact.

This article proposes a re-reading of Heathcote’s work through the ethical philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas, often described as the philosopher of the Other. Heathcote’s praxis is more accurately aligned with Levinas’s notion of education as an encounter with alterity and exteriority, than with models of co-constructed knowledge. For both Heathcote and Levinas, the classroom can be conceived as a kind of laboratory, not for consensus or shared meaning, but for responsibility, interruption, and ethical relation.

In a recently published PhD study, forty students from grades 9, 10, and 11 at a Greek high school participated in a quasi-experiment during an Action Research intervention that used Drama in Education as the primary method for career exploration. The intervention successfully enhanced the teenagers’ agency and empowerment through personal involvement and active engagement in all processes. Over time, the students in the experimental group assumed the roles of participants, researchers, designers, facilitators, and evaluators. According to the research findings, they developed essential career skills and transferable competences at personal, social, and early professional levels. Their career self-efficacy and career decision-making skills improved to a statistically significant degree compared with the control group.

This article is the text of the Keynote delivered by Brian Edmiston at the Dorothy Heathcote Now Conference at Goldsmiths, University of London, November 2024.

This paper is written from a presentation at the Dorothy Heathcote Now! conference held at Goldsmiths November 2024. It examines a particular moment recorded within an interview which was part of my doctoral thesis: In Two Minds: What Happens when we Think in Role?

The narrative begins with the interviewee’s statement:

Drama helped me escape my reality and face it at the same time (Kiara 2019).

This paradox forms the thematic core of the study, which uses Kiara’s recollection of a drama exercise where she saw herself depicted by another student. The article uses this moment to explore how being in role can catalyse self-recognition and healing transformation.

This study explores practitioners’ reflections on dramatic co-creation with children, focusing on manifestations of agency and empowerment, the role of facilitators, and barriers to co-creation.

This article is a review of the workshop conducted at the Heathcote Now Conference, November 2024, led by Tim Taylor, alongside Richard Kieran and Lisa Hinton from Woodrow First School, Redditch. The content of the workshop was originally taught across Woodrow First School in the summer of 2024.

Pre-service primary teachers often lack confidence in teaching drama. This can be compounded by school placement experiences with in-service teachers who similarly lack confidence. Further, where there is a narrow understanding of drama as performance, the result is missed opportunity to capitalise on the powerful potential of pedagogical drama.
Findings suggest that Mantle of the Expert is an effective way to exemplify drama pedagogy and to provide a clear framework for planning, with respondents able to visualise success in their future classrooms. Findings may help inform pre-service and in-service teacher professional development. Recommendations for future research are also identified.

This article presents the activities of an inter-institutional and outreach research project carried out in partnership between teachers and children in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil.  It highlights the unique features of drama in education in Brazil, as outlined through this experience, which connects socio-environmental issues of Brazil’s threatened biomes with the country’s cultural diversity. We discuss how five basic dramatic conventions— pre-text, episodes, processes, fictional context, and role experience — are developed within a process drama entitled Mythological Onça Pintada, implemented in this context. The experience fosters a connection between children, teachers, and researchers with nature, imagination, and the wisdom of traditional Brazilian cultures, offering sensitive and creative pathways to engage with themes related to the climate crisis and socio-environmental education in Brazilian primary schools.

Even in Chinese institutions that have adopted liberal arts education, theatre education is notably absent. This paper aims to clarify the concepts of liberal arts education and theatre education and their interconnection; and to identify the gaps in their development within China’s higher education system.
Additionally, this paper analyzes the implementation of holistic education through the case study of the performance studies at ShanghaiTech University. By conducting interviews with participants, the study explores how Theatre Education, as a component of liberal arts education, can benefit higher education students. It also examines its potential applications and long-term value for participants.

In this piece, the author employs narrative analysis inspired by Russian Formalism to explore content and form of Jon Fosse’s illustrated children’s book, ‘The Fiddler Girl’ [Spelejenta] (2009). Fosse is the Nobel Prize Laureate in Literature for 2023. By drawing on the tradition of fairy tales, the analysis examines how themes of empowerment and quest enhance each other within the story. Supplemented by educational drama theory from the legacy of Dorothy Heathcote, and close reading as a main tool, the author presents a practical arts-based workshop example of how a fairy tale can inspire and be transformed into a story drama.