Drama is often used as a tool to investigate experience and to assist people to rehearse for change. Dramatic portrayals, however, can reinforce rather than challenge limiting stereotypes, and there is the potential for a positivist approach to research through drama to contribute to a pathologising of the subject and to limit the possibility of…

This short paper considers the question: what of the future of drama in education? It suggests that perhaps, because we are artists, the future is already in play. If that is so, then we need to address those questions of value, advocacy and marginalisation more rigorously while, at the same time, addressing the impact of technology on empathic…

This paper offers a brief reading of the history of theatre education and applied theatre as a way to reflect on the principles and values that have informed their development. It argues that a critical genealogy of this history suggests that theatrical experiments in educational and community settings have always responded creatively and…

Drama research poses many challenges, due mainly to its ephemeral and spontaneous nature. Many researchers therefore turn to video to support their investigations, but these recordings are not always capable of capturing the richness of the live event itself. In response, this paper proposes that researchers need to explore ways to enhance the…

Traditionally drama in schools has been seen either as a learning medium with a wide range of curricular uses or as a subject in its own right. This paper argues that the importance of drama in schools is in the processes of social and artistic engagement and experiencing of drama rather than in its outcomes. The paper contrasts the pro-social…

My specific teaching and research interest is drama in the classroom--drama as a teaching and learning medium to fulfil a curriculum demand for student-active, creative and aesthetic learning processes. In this article I will focus on the challenges and possibilities that exist in Norwegian classroom drama. The article is based on my latest…

I propose a conceptualisation of drama in school education as improvisation within a framework that has a number of fixed but changing structures. I examine how the "drama in schooling" practice of one country, New Zealand, might be seen as a group improvisation in which, through dramatic negotiation, participants evolve their goals, narrative and…

This paper reports on a one-year project in a Singapore "neighbourhood" school where the researcher was invited to assist the teachers of two secondary English classes to incorporate drama strategies to enliven their pedagogy. Few teachers involved had any prior experience of drama in schools and none had studied drama during pre-service teacher…

This article presents a case study of Australian secondary school students as co-creators of a dramatic pre-text, using online and mobile media to develop an improvisation-based drama that introduces a textual study. Integrating recognised dramatic conventions within a digital environment provides the tension, and drives the educational…

The prevailing tendency in applied drama and theatre research and practice in African contexts has been for both critics and practitioners to apply the Freirian educational paradigm of "codification" and "decodification" in the interpretation of their work. Guarav Desai asserts that most of the theoretical premises of applied theatre workers in…

In this pilot project, drama was used to situate genetic testing in a social and cultural context--that of the family. The drama was used to stimulate discussion about social issues relating to genetic testing, such as who has the right to know the results of the test and whether participants would want to know their "genetic future". A 10-minute,…

In recent decades a number of Australian artists and teacher/artists have given serious attention to the creation of performance forms and performance engagement models that respect children's intelligence, engage with themes of relevance, avoid the cliches of children's theatre whilst connecting both sincerely and playfully with current…

The rationale for this study is that students' views on their own learning play an integral part in their educational journeys. Students' voice has been gaining recognition as a vehicle for cultivating ownership of learning, restoring classroom dialogue, and developing strategies for school improvement. These benefits echo the pedagogical purposes…

This paper examines how drama teachers' identities play a part in their teaching practices in schools. It highlights what can be learned from drama teachers' expressions of self for their classroom content and management. Much of the current research into teachers and teaching is concerned with "good practice" where students are placed at the…

This paper reports on research undertaken into what secondary school drama teachers think they need to possess in terms of subject knowledge in order to operate effectively as drama specialists. "Subject knowledge" is regarded as being multi-faceted, and the paper considers how drama teachers prioritise its different aspects. A discussion of what…