Process Drama in Civic Education: Balancing Student Input and Learning Outcomes in a Playful Format

Abstract

The purpose is to investigate process drama for teaching civics, mainly democracy and migration. Process drama implies students and teacher to take on roles, to explore a subject content collectively. The study is based on a secondary school educational initiative where a drama pedagogue was invited to address civics through process drama. Four civic lessons were video recorded and analyzed through an activity theory framework. From this perspective, process drama can be understood as two activities with different motives/objects, the educational and the fictional, where the fictional activity should have a playful format. The results show that the dialogical approach used by the drama pedagogue created a democratic opportunity and also established the playful format. The students' engagement was notably high. However, it was obvious there were no challenging or probing questions being asked by the drama pedagogue or the civics teacher, neither in nor out of role. As a consequence, the full learning potential of process drama in civics education could not be achieved. We suggest a co-teaching approach between civic teachers and drama pedagogues, to overcome challenges in using process drama in civic education for learning objectives to be attained.

Indices of Conflict Triggers in Femi Ajewole’s Theatrical Performances in Oyo State, Southwest, Nigeria

“…Therefore, the audience gains exposure and experiences from the play and consequently applies such lessons to their personal lives. Hallgren & Osterlind (2019) explore drama as an education initiative used for teaching civics education and migration. Silvey (2014) describes performing arts as a valuable resource for children's sense of wellbeing through imaginative play.…”

Process drama as a tool for participation in explorations of ‘wicked problems’ in upper secondary chemistry education

“…What distinguishes process drama from other forms of drama and role-play is that the teachers participate and take roles in a narrative created with the students on site (Hallgren & Österlind, 2019). This enables the teacher in role, (teacher-in-role [TiR]) to act flexibly -to shift ways of positioning authority and control of the process depending on how the drama unfolds (Heggstad, 2014).…”

“…It has been suggested that process drama can be a powerful way to support students' active engagement in sustainability issues from a safe position. This is because students participating in role may be less vulnerable compared to when they are required to take a stand and/or argue for a position when participating as themselves (Hallgren & Österlind, 2019). Letting the students step into a role and experience complex environmental problems, entangled in values and attitudes, and explored from different perspectives, may, according to Berggraf Saebø, (2011), contribute to new insights and transformed understandings.…”

Youth Agency in Civic Education: Contemporary Perspectives from Cabo Verde

“…Most formal provisions of citizenship education are state-driven and delivered in schools through a national syllabus for civic education which is oftentimes embodied within the national education strategy to provide a very basic understanding of civic life [33]. Over recent decades, this has led to different outcomes, with varying degrees of success [1,[34][35][36]. One significant limitation has been the prevalence of the classical approach to civic education, whereby citizens are conceived in a narrower sense as citizens of the state [37], with the focus, in terms of content, being placed on developing procedural and institutional knowledge [3,7].…”

“…These are usually promoted by big international organisations and agencies such as UNICEF and the UNDP or by smaller groups of organised citizens working for a specific cause, such as women empowerment, peace-building and electoral education. Furthermore, they can have multiple formats, be targeted at both adults and children and delivered at several sites within society, from schools to religious institutions, families and community organisations [1,2,34,35]. Finkel et al [40] found that although in some instances donor-sponsored civic education programmes may increase individual knowledge and support for democratic values, it had a direct, negative effect on participant's levels of institutional trust.…”