[Xmca-l] Re: Response to Spoilsport: Beyond oppositional dualities indrama in education and dialogic pedagogy to promote learning possibilities

[Dr. Ana Marjanovic-Shane]

Dear Josipa,

Thanks for bringing Boal into this dialog. Boal is an extremely interesting dramatic artist. As you describe his Theater of the Oppressed, it is very different from what I have called “Drama in Education”. I think, that this is because of several important differences between his practice and traditional, even progressive education.

The first distinction that I see is in the purpose of education and the Forum theater.
While the purpose of most of the educational approaches is to teach a preset curriculum - culturally valuable skills and knowledge, and specifically such curriculum that is valued by the dominant culture, the purpose of the Forum theater is to support and foster agency of the oppressed people (cultural, social political economic, etc - minorities) who traditionally don’t have a recognized voice in the dominant culture.

This changes the vision of and the way that the participants in the two practices can relate to each other. In the traditional and progressive education the relationships between the teacher and the students are the relationships between the expert and the novice, someone who possesses “cultural capital” and someone who lacks this “cultural capital” - making the students’ agency subordinated to the power, authority and judgment of the teacher. In the Forum theater, the participants are viewed as people with equal rights of power, authority over their own lives and it is their judgment that is valued as legitimate, and legitimized as the participants’ fundamental right.

Another distinction between the two practices is in the fact that the art of drama is used in traditional and progressive education for purposes that are outside of the art and drama’s internal sphere - instrumentally to achieve educational goals. On the other hand, Forum theater is a form of art in which the participants get involved as the authors of that art themselves - while what they learn is a by-product of whatever they have created. There is no pre-set purpose or a goal, or a curriculum that is imposed on the participants by an authority above them. 

I am extremely interested to learn more about Boal from different points of view - and in particular from your work. 

Ana



 
> On Mar 1, 2016, at 3:55 AM, Josipa Lulic <josipa.lulic@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Dear all,
> 
> I have been following the discussions on the list for some time now,
> especially from the perspective of dialogic pedagogy, but remained outside
> of the dialogue, unconsciously buying into Freire's notion of 'banking
> education' - the student should be quiet and absorb the Knowledge. I hope
> that my experience in dialogical drama will add at least some value to the
> conversation. I am not a researcher, but practitioner - for the last 15
> years I''ve been using Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed in different
> educational settings. On the other hand, I teach at a university, and my
> scholarly work is in a different field, so I am very much aware of the
> theoretical depths I am missing in this one, so I will just share the
> practice part of my praxis.
> 
> Boal's theatre is firmly connected with the Paulo Freire's ideas in his
> Pedagogy of the Opressed, namely that all members of the community have
> ideas and knowledge, especially about their own worlds. The same way that
> the teacher is not the owner of the Truth, so the actors and directors (i
> there is one - through my workshops actors direct themselves) are not the
> owners of the Truth of the situation they are presenting. If there is
> someone unfamiliar with Boal's Forum Theatre, the idea is following: actors
> prepare a scene. The scene has to present (in any form - from musical to
> ballet and realism, up to 30 mins in length) a problem that came from the
> experiences of the actors and the community. There is a protagonist who
> wants to fight for his or hers right, but is ultimately defeated by the
> antagonist who's will is aided by the system of oppression. The examples of
> the plays I worked on include  a Roma child being falsely accused of
> stealing money in the classroom; a working class child being bullied
> because she doesn't own an Iphone, a girl getting hit by a boy she was
> hooking up with because she changed her mind at one point, a girl pressured
> by the society and her social group to dress "sexy" and then cyberbullied
> for being a "whore", and many dozenth more. The scene is then presented in
> the classroom to the students as audience, and the Joker (a facilitator)
> asks the students following: can this happen in your experience? do you see
> a problem? how do you define the problem? what are the roles - who is
> oppressed, who is the oppressor? do you want to see the scene end
> differently? and finally, what would you do? The audience is invited to
> stop the replay in any moment, ask questions to the characters and enter in
> the play, take place of protagonist (or tritagonist) and try to find as
> many solutions as possible. There are no prearranged scripts or rules
> (other than not using the magical solutions and avoiding violence).
> Everything is directed back to the audience - they choose to participate or
> not, they even define if there is a problem in the first place (out of
> several hundreds performances only twice the audience decided that there
> was no problem (both times because "girl deserved to be cyberbullied
> because she wore a short skirt"). In the first case the whole class agreed,
> and we didn't continue the performance - instead we had an open disussion
> in the group. Int he second, a third of the audience didn't want to
> continue - they moved to the back of the class, and allowed to return to
> the audience if they changed their minds, which some of them did).
> 
> In my experience, that form of theatre is often the most dialogic education
> the students have experienced. Unfortunately, that isn't so hard  - schools
> in my country have quite rigid infrastructure, and the teacher education
> only rarely involves any critical pedagogy. I found that the unapologetic
> dialogic nature of the Boal's theatre informed my own practice of teaching
> at the university (I've managed to teach subjects such as "Psychological
> approaches to the Theory of Art" almost entirely through dialogic form).
> Also, the feedback we get from the teachers and the students themselves,
> especially the ones who went through the workshops and preformed their
> plays to different audiences, is that they started to interact differently
> in the classrooms - they started asking questions and initiating dialogue.
> We also organize the workshops for teachers, and that experience empowers
> them to approach more openly to their teaching practice.
> 
> All in all, concerning this particular form of theatre, in my particular
> experience, in my particular part of the world, not only do I find that it
> fits in the dialogic education paradigm, but that is serves as the entry
> point for the dialogue in general, in the educational setting.
> 
> I very much look forward to the continuation of this conversation!
> 
> Josipa
> 
> On Tue, Mar 1, 2016 at 5:42 AM <lpscholar2@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> As I read Ana’s entry into this genre exploring drama and dialogue through
>> the leverage gained through the symbolic personification  of the
>> *spoilsport* I sensed  her opening  a conversation on various *structures
>> of consciousness*.  On page 51 Ana explores the question of what becomes
>> *suspended* [belief or disbelief]. In other words the thematic of the
>> relation of reality to the imaginal, the fictional, and the illusional and
>> our ways of evaluating what we take on faith to be believed.
>> 
>> If the *spoilsport* is imagined as a *structure of consciousness* in the
>> form of a symbolic personification describing the *character* of this
>> person/icon then we can ask why Ana is captured by this persona?
>> Ana values this person because s/he shatters the play-world *itself* by
>> withdrawing from this game. In the act of *withdrawing* this person REVEALS
>> the relativity and fragility of these play-worlds.The spoilsport robs play
>> of its *illusion*.
>> 
>> Ana then focuses on the this word *illusion* calling it a pregnant word.
>> Illusion means *literally*  [in-play from illusio, illudere, inludere].
>> This structure of consciousness trespasses against the rules, and threatens
>> the existence of the play community.
>> This *figure* shatters and transfigures [even annihilates] what is assumed
>> to be true [and natural]. This figure REVEALS different points of view
>> through withdrawing and in the process of withdrawing opens a space/zone of
>> new boundaries on the other side of the horizon of the taken for granted
>> limits of shared reality.
>> 
>> Now how does Ana identify the figure/person of the spoilsport? She
>> identifies this *structure of consciousness* with what are called
>> apostates, heretics, innovators, prophets, conscientious objectors, etc.
>> Then Ana makes the case that this structure of consciousness is de/valued
>> in both the world of high seriousness and the world of play. However, this
>> same structure of consciousness is highly valued in critical dialogue as
>> the *spark* that ignites or generates the dialogue which puts BOTH the
>> illusion and the real to the test.
>> 
>> 
>> Now Susan in taking her turn says that in process drama the spoilsport is
>> not devalued but is INCLUDED in the play-world and is welcomed when wanting
>> to **withdraw* from the play-world. This structure of consciousness can be
>> *incorporated* within the place/zone or horizon of the dramatic.
>> 
>> This genre exploring  faith, belief, meaning, illusion, fiction, literal,
>> metaphorical and their relations to what is considered real and *authentic*
>> traverses multiple structures of consciousness and how we include or
>> exclude the spoilsport remains an open question. There are other *figures*
>> or *characters* personifying other structures of consciousness.
>> 
>> This will take us far afield from the exploration of this  particular
>> personification but I will just mention in passing the figure of Hermes,
>> who is the trickster. He may be as significant a person in play-worlds as
>> the spoilsport.
>> 
>> Sent from Mail for Windows
>> 
>> From: Susan Davis
>> Sent: Monday, February 29, 2016 6:30 PM
>> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
>> Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Response to Spoilsport: Beyond oppositional
>> dualities indrama in education and dialogic pedagogy to promote learning
>> possibilities
>> 
>> Hi Mike,
>> Our apologies for posting
>> what appears as a formal response to Ana’s article.  I guess our main
>> concerns relate to her setting
>> up multiples fields of scholarship and practice as ‘drama in education’
>> which
>> are then critiqued in a negative and oppositional to dialogic pedagogy
>> using terms such as ‘irreconcilable’.
>> 
>> 
>> In terms of the ’spoilsport' article
>> itself we have real concerns about certain features of the scholarship of
>> it. Firstly we are
>> concerned with the use of a 1955 quote with no credence in our field being
>> used
>> to underpin the premise and inference that in drama education those who
>> don’t
>> with to participate or hold different views are labeled spoilsports and
>> cast
>> out.
>> Secondly we are concerned
>> about the evidence being used to support such claims being the comparison
>> of
>> two examples which have no common basis for comparison (a short extract
>> from a
>> highly edited commercial film of a drama with children, compared to an
>> account
>> of various events related to discussions in a teacher education course)
>> Thirdly we feel that
>> opinion has been used to make assertions about a lack of critical student
>> voice
>> and power in drama, when decades of research have now demonstrated
>> otherwise.
>> 
>> 
>> Ironically with Ana’s positioning there appears
>> to be no room for dialogue about what might be possible in conceiving of a
>> pedagogy
>> that may be described as being both dramatic and dialogic. In the dialogic
>> pedagogy paradigm Ana seems to subscribe to, it also appears there is no
>> room
>> for any positive dialogue, any shifts or resolutions, but almost that
>> dialogue must
>> begin with and maintain resistant and oppositional positions.  She also
>> seems
>> to see no possibility for dialogic pedagogy through working within
>> dramatic ‘imaginary’
>> frames if the teacher or facilitator has had anything to do with
>> determining
>> the starting point or framing.  I guess our response then to the article
>> is that it just makes us feel really quite sad, as we have seen the
>> benefits of such a pedagogy and embrace opportunities for its continual
>> re-examination and renewal.
>> 
>> However, as far as we are concerned… the door is still open...
>> 
>> 
>> Kind regards
>> Sue & Brian.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On 1/03/2016 11:28 am, "mike cole" <mcole@ucsd.edu> wrote:
>> 
>>> Susan et al.
>>> 
>>> I have not commented on this discussion because events have prevented me
>>> from watching the film and reading the relevant papers. I am very
>>> interested in drama so I hope I can catch up at some point.
>>> 
>>> I comment now only on the genre of the discussion. Susan and Brian have
>>> posted a next turn in the conversation that began after Ana posted her
>>> paper and posed what appears to be two different ideas about the role of
>>> drama in education. But it is a special kind of next turn because it is
>>> responding on xmca where Ana is Ana and not Marjanovic-Shane.
>>> 
>>> I would not want the formal tone of Marjanovic-Shane and footnotes to
>>> allow
>>> us to think we have slipped from the realm of collegial chatting into the
>>> realm of refereed journal articles!
>>> 
>>> I really appreciate all the work that went into the formal reply, and it
>>> made me wonder just what it is that Susan, Brian, and Ana appear to be
>>> disagreeing over.
>>> 
>>> Without looking, I expected the big issue to be whether or not kids
>>> entering into dramatic activity at school, whatever its venue, have the
>>> power to change the plot. But it seems much more is involved.
>>> 
>>> If I could only get myself disentangled in this darn 5th Dimension I live
>>> in, I would have a chance to catch up, but one thing keeps leading to
>>> another.......
>>> 
>>> Dialogically and Dramatically Speaking
>>> mike
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On Sun, Feb 28, 2016 at 10:09 PM, Susan Davis <s.davis@cqu.edu.au> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> As scholars and practitioners committed to the use of drama for
>>>> educational purposes we wish to
>>>> respond briefly to Ana Marjanovic-Shane¹s article: ³Spoilsport² in
>>>> drama in
>>>> education vs. dialogic pedagogy. Our intention is to provide some of our
>>>> shared
>>>> professional understanding of drama¹s use in educational contexts that
>>>> we
>>>> hope
>>>> will illuminate some of the misunderstandings we find in this article.
>>>> At
>>>> the
>>>> same time, we look forward to future productive dialogue about what we
>>>> regard
>>>> as potential overlaps between these pedagogical approaches.
>>>> 
>>>>            We need to stress from the start that there is no unified
>>>> field named Œdrama in education¹ that would extend to
>>>> those who work within playworlds, or practice psychodrama and so forth
>>>> as
>>>> claimed by Marjanovic-Shane. We confine our remarks to the field that we
>>>> are
>>>> knowledgeable about and from which Marjanovic-Shane draws her example: a
>>>> classroom use of drama described by Heathcote as Œdrama in education¹ or
>>>> Œeducational drama¹ and more recently as process drama, applied theatre,
>>>> and
>>>> dramatic inquiry, among other terms.  In fact these fields of practice
>>>> have arisen from very different communities in progressive
>>>> school education, educational psychology, early childhood, and play all
>>>> of
>>>> whom
>>>> independently discovered the power of using drama in their practice.
>>>> There
>>>> have
>>>> only recently been some nascent interactions between these groups (see
>>>> for
>>>> example the book ŒDramatic Interactions in Education¹
>>>> <
>>>> 
>>>> 
>> http://www.bloomsbury.com/au/dramatic-interactions-in-education-978147257
>>>> 6
>>>> 910/> which we published last year) to find areas of common interest and
>>>> concern.  As with
>>>> those who identify with the field of Œdialogic pedagogy¹ we look
>>>> forward to
>>>> more fruitful discussions and debates about research, practice and
>>>> approaches
>>>> which work for the benefit of students and participants in learning
>>>> processes.
>>>> 
>>>> There is no space in this response to show in detail why we resist the
>>>> dichotomy established in this article, believing such are rarely
>>>> helpful.
>>>> However, we do can not agree with Marjanovic-Shane¹s conclusion that
>>>> any dramatic pedagogy cannot be dialogic or that there are
>>>> irreconcilable
>>>> paradigmatic
>>>> differences between these pedagogical approaches.
>>>> 
>>>> In our view, she is correct in identifying that a pre-requisite for
>>>> using
>>>> drama in classrooms is an implicit, if not explicit, agreement to play
>>>> the
>>>> ³game of drama² and in effect to begin to create an ensemble and
>>>> enter into social worlds. However, rather than characterizing such
>>>> social
>>>> agreement as somehow different from real life, we argue that there is
>>>> little
>>>> difference from the tacit agreement to join in the ³social drama² of
>>>> everyday
>>>> life (Turner, 1974), as for example university students do by agreeing
>>>> to
>>>> participate in a discussion. However drama has the additional sphere of
>>>> possibility that can be physically and conceptually explored through the
>>>> activation of Œwhat if¹ in action.
>>>> 
>>>> Unlike discussion, drama is a social art that can only be created when a
>>>> group comes together willingly to collaborate in dramatizing
>>>> life events. There is indeed a consensus but only about agreeing to work
>>>> together or to focus dramatizing on a particular storyline, topic, or
>>>> concern;
>>>> there is no consensus assumed about the meaning of the work.
>>>> 
>>>> Using drama in a classroom does not assume that a student cannot choose
>>>> not to join in or cannot opt out at any point.
>>>> Participants may present or raise different views that may be addressed
>>>> dialogically. Agreeing to join in is not an experience of being
>>>> ³trapped²
>>>> by a
>>>> teacher with no exit in sight. Nor does it mean that a teacher would
>>>> label
>>>> someone a ³spoilsport² to be ³cast out.² We have conducted many
>>>> practical
>>>> sessions when not only have people chosen to sit out, some of whom have
>>>> later
>>>> chosen to join in, but we have protected young people from others in a
>>>> group
>>>> ready to ³discipline² them. Just as a person who does not join a theatre
>>>> group
>>>> cannot create a performance, or a preschool child choosing not to play
>>>> with others
>>>> may engage in other activities, not participating in drama just means
>>>> that
>>>> a
>>>> person cannot contribute at that time to the collaborative creation of
>>>> events
>>>> in an imagined world.
>>>> 
>>>> Marjanovic-Shane uses a highly selective video extract from a 1971 drama
>>>> session featuring the master teacher Dorothy Heathcote to
>>>> infer that Heathcote dragoons students into a drama within which their
>>>> choices
>>>> and alternative views are closed down. However, as O¹Neill shared in the
>>>> keynote address Power-sharing: Teacher power
>>>> and student choices, where she describes another more recent 2007 drama
>>>> conducted in the U.S., Heathcote
>>>> worked with all major offers children made, never adopting an
>>>> authoritarian
>>>> position but asking participants to consider the consequences of their
>>>> actions.
>>>> When a group of boys invented a bomb which Œblew¹ up a celebratory event
>>>> in a
>>>> drama, Heathcote said: ³There is nothing we do in this room that isn¹t
>>>> happening somewhere in the world² (Heathcote in O¹Neill 2014, p 26).
>>>> Even
>>>> though others in the room were horrified and expected her to castigate
>>>> the
>>>> boys
>>>> involved, Heathcote respected and worked with the material they offered,
>>>> drawing out
>>>> significance, considering the implications and working dialogically with
>>>> very
>>>> alternative views from her own.
>>>> 
>>>> Marjanovic-Shane assumes that a teacher¹s authority in drama is
>>>> authoritarian and that a leader of drama is in danger of becoming a
>>>> fascist dictator. Whilst it is certainly possible for a teacher to
>>>> misuse
>>>> her
>>>> authority oppressively or with very limited choice for how people might
>>>> participate (as in the Ron Jones simulation example she uses which has
>>>> never
>>>> been seen as a lighthouse model of drama in education) that is never our
>>>> intention nor would it be endorsed in the literature. It is true that at
>>>> times Heathcote
>>>> can quite rightly be described as acting in Œauthoritative¹ roles within
>>>> dramatic contexts, but she fiercely resisted pressures to take on
>>>> authoritarian
>>>> teacher positions.
>>>> 
>>>> Indeed, Heathcote (1984) herself is quite clear that as a teacher she
>>>> intends to ³bring power to my students and to draw on their
>>>> power² (p.21). Heathcote saw the teacher¹s role as one that should not
>>>> bully or take away power from
>>>> others, but rather that should enable them to develop their agency. Her
>>>> commitment to endowing power and agency to others is shared through an
>>>> interesting insight in her paper Contexts for Active Learning. Here
>>>> Heathcote revealed that her drama and teaching
>>>> strategies were all developed so she would never have to be in a
>>>> position
>>>> to
>>>> ³tell people off² (Heathcote, 2002, p.1). However, counter to many
>>>> romanticised notions of an open, free for all classroom, this version of
>>>> the
>>>> democratized classroom was not a hands-off model with students making
>>>> all
>>>> the
>>>> decisions. Rather, she envisions a classroom with episodes that were
>>>> highly
>>>> interventionist and carefully structured. These often involved
>>>> provocations and
>>>> active negotiations, with Heathcote playing multi-functional roles,
>>>> constantly
>>>> selecting and making decisions, but always working to ensure that the
>>>> students
>>>> were invested, contributing, and collaboratively developing work that
>>>> would be meaningful
>>>> in multiple ways for all participants.
>>>> H
>>>> eathcote intended not just to create dramatic experiences but also to
>>>> create spaces in which all might dialogue and reflect
>>>> to explore for multiple possible meanings in the work: ³If you cannot
>>>> increase
>>>> the reflective power in people you might as well not teach, because
>>>> reflection
>>>> is the only thing that in the long run changes anybody² (Ibid, p. 104).
>>>> Finally, Heathcote was emphatic that all participants in drama, ³be
>>>> recognized
>>>> fully as individuals with rights [including] the power to affect a
>>>> situation,
>>>> and to respond in a growing complexity of ways to that situation² (Ibid,
>>>> p. 153).
>>>> 
>>>> It is unfortunate that the Spoilsport article seeks to compare examples
>>>> of
>>>> praxis in an apples
>>>> and oranges way to draw out unwarranted generalizations about all drama
>>>> in
>>>> education. She compares examples of teaching on different topics, for
>>>> different
>>>> purposes, and with access to very different data: a short segment of a
>>>> 45
>>>> year
>>>> old videoed drama with children is compared to an extended sequence of
>>>> exchanges and events in a higher education institution taught recently
>>>> by
>>>> the
>>>> author. The drama example analyzed is a brief extract from the first few
>>>> minutes of a BBC film about Dorothy Heathcote made for commercial not
>>>> educational purposes. Missing from the film is all of Heathcote¹s
>>>> out-of-role
>>>> negotiations and reflections with these children all of whom had been
>>>> labeled
>>>> as ³delinquent² and had in effect been ³cast out² into this special
>>>> school
>>>> for
>>>> youth.
>>>> 
>>>> Marjanovic-Shane misses the point that Heathcote was playing with the
>>>> children, including through her
>>>> early use of power in role, not to force them to do what they did not
>>>> want
>>>> to
>>>> do but rather the reverse. Marjanovic-Shane further assumes that in
>>>> drama,
>>>> participants do not ³test their own ideas ­ their truths² and that
>>>> teachers do
>>>> not seek out or value ³dissensus.² Yet that was Heathcote¹s aim as it is
>>>> ours. Heathcote¹s
>>>> intention in this session was to work with the children to create
>>>> fictional experiences
>>>> in which by working together the boys were not only able to work out
>>>> ways
>>>> in
>>>> which they might outwit an authoritarian regime represented by her in
>>>> role
>>>> as a
>>>> Nazi officer but further to reflect on an issue of importance to them:
>>>> why
>>>> might
>>>> someone choose to dissent by becoming an informant and a collaborator?
>>>> 
>>>> Marjanovic-Shane assumes that the purpose of drama in education is to
>>>> ³socialize² participants whereas dialogic pedagogy seeks to
>>>> ³deepen critical examinations of any aspect of life.² Whilst
>>>> socialization
>>>> may
>>>> be a declared or implicit purpose there are drama practitioners across
>>>> decades
>>>> of work who would also share Marjanovic-Shane¹s aim and who have
>>>> extensively
>>>> documented how participants working with a teacher may engage in
>>>> extensive
>>>> critical
>>>> cultural analysis of how power operates in society (e.g. Medina &
>>>> Campano,
>>>> 2006; Enciso, 2011; O¹Connor & Anderson, 2015).
>>>> 
>>>> In summary, the explicit premise of Marjanovic-Shane¹s
>>>> argument is that drama work is non-dialogic because participants must
>>>> participate in making a fictional world, which appears to be on the
>>>> teachers¹
>>>> terms. This is an ill-informed representation of drama¹s potential in
>>>> the
>>>> classroom. Decades of documentation and analysis would show otherwise .
>>>> Marjanovic Shane seems to dismiss the imagined possibilities that can be
>>>> explored through drama and unwilling to engage in dialogue about the
>>>> different
>>>> ways that drama could in fact be dialogic. Rather than being restricted
>>>> to
>>>> dialogue in the Œreal¹ world with people sharing critical views,
>>>> participants in
>>>> drama can collaboratively test out multiple alternatives to what seems
>>>> Œreal¹ and
>>>> fixed. In drama everyone can contribute dialogically to create different
>>>> possible
>>>> versions of reality, multiple possible outcomes, alternative viewpoints,
>>>> and
>>>> new understandings. The social and cultural power of drama is that
>>>> people
>>>> may
>>>> change their views, understand more about themselves, others, and the
>>>> world we
>>>> live in. Surely that is what all good pedagogues would hope and desire.
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> Susan Davis and Brian Edmiston
>>>> Central Queensland University & The Ohio State University
>>>> s.davis@cqu.edu.au, edmiston.1@osu.edu
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> References
>>>> Enciso, P. (2011). Storytelling in critical
>>>> literacy pedagogy: Removing the walls between immigrant and
>>>> non-immigrant
>>>> youth. In H. Janks & V. Vasquez (Eds.) Special Issue: Critical Literacy
>>>> Revisited: Writing as Critique for English Teaching: Practice and
>>>> Critique, 10, 1, 21-40.
>>>> Heathcote, D. (1984). Collected writings
>>>> on education and drama. L. Johnson & C. O¹Neill (Eds.). Melbourne:
>>>> Hutchinson.
>>>> Heathcote,
>>>> D. (2002). Contexts for active learning -
>>>> Four models to forge links between schooling and society. Paper
>>>> presented
>>>> at the NATD Annual Conference, Birmingham.
>>>> 
>>>> 
>> http://www.moeplanning.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/dh-contexts-for-a
>>>> ct
>>>> ive-learning.pdf
>>>> Medina, C. & Campano, G. (2006). Performing
>>>> Identities through Drama and Teatro Practices in Multilingual
>>>> Classrooms.
>>>> Language Arts, 83 (4), 332-341.
>>>> Turner, Victor (1974). Dramas, Fields, and
>>>> Metaphors: Symbolic Action in Human Society. Ithaca/London: Cornell
>>>> University
>>>> Press.
>>>> O¹Connor, P. & Anderson, M. (2015). Applied Theatre Research: Radical
>>>> Departures.
>>>> London: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama.
>>>> O¹Neill, C.
>>>> (2014) Power-sharing: Teacher power and student choices. in P. Bowell,
>>>> P &
>>>> C.
>>>> Lawrence (Eds), Heathcote Reconsidered -
>>>> Conference Echoes (ebook), London: National Drama, 13-31
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> On 29/02/2016 7:49 am, "Dr. Ana Marjanovic-Shane" <anamshane@gmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> Dear Sue,
>>>>> 
>>>>> I am looking forward to your feedback and critique.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Ana
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>>> On Feb 28, 2016, at 4:00 PM, Susan Davis <s.davis@cqu.edu.au> wrote:
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Hi all,
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Thank you Larry, Helen and Ana for your comments.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Helen - always lovely to find out who else is out there exploring the
>>>>>> possibilities of working with the arts to bring about transformative
>>>>>> learning and Larry I really like that proposition that in drama the
>>>>>> premise begins with ŒI can¹ and then moves to ŒI think¹.  That is
>>>> very
>>>>>> much the case with drama, and sometimes children/participants are
>>>> very
>>>>>> nervous or uncertain when they begin a drama process, often because
>>>> they
>>>>>> begin from a position of ŒI can¹t¹ but through the acts of doing they
>>>>>> begin to see that they in fact can do and become.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Ana I would agree with the first part of your statement about drama
>>>> in
>>>>>> education being used to help socialise students into socially
>>>> recognised
>>>>>> valuable practices and would think that was a good thing given
>>>> research
>>>>>> that shows reductions in empathy in young people in recent times.  I
>>>>>> have
>>>>>> concerns with the rest of your proposition and the sweeping nature of
>>>>>> the
>>>>>> critique.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> A colleague and I have been preparing a short response to your
>>>> article
>>>>>> and
>>>>>> I will check with him to see if he is happy for me to post it here.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> I would of course be happy to hear other Œdialogue¹ as well.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Kind regards
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Sue
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> On 29/02/2016 2:35 am, "Ana Marjanovic-Shane" <anamshane@gmail.com
>>>>>> <mailto:anamshane@gmail.com>> wrote:
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Dear all,
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Thanks for starting this thread about drama in education. I recently
>>>>>>> published a paper that takes a critical stance toward Heathcote's
>>>>>>> drama in
>>>>>>> education approach and other approaches to education that are based
>>>> on
>>>>>>> some form of drama, play and/or improv - *"Spoilsport" in Drama in
>>>>>>> education vs dialogic pedagogy*.
>>>>>>> To play a "spoilsport" myself, in this paper, I claim that Drama in
>>>>>>> Education belongs to an educational paradigm that is mainly based on
>>>>>>> socialization of students into the socially recognized valuable
>>>>>>> practices,
>>>>>>> values and understanding of the world, which are heavily based on
>>>>>>> agreement, collaboration and following of the authority, without
>>>>>>> students
>>>>>>> having legitimate rights and a possibilities to critically disagree,
>>>>>>> provide different points of view and question the existing social
>>>>>>> practices, values and ways of understanding the world. In other
>>>> words,
>>>>>>> in
>>>>>>> this educational paradigm - students' disenssus, critical approach
>>>> to
>>>>>>> testing different ideas, views, desires, values, etc. is actively
>>>>>>> suppressed, or at best limited, curbed and restricted.
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> In the paper I provide a detailed analysis of (a part of) the same
>>>>>>> video
>>>>>>> posted here earlier - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owKiUO99qrw.
>>>>>>> Below
>>>>>>> is the abstract of my paper. If interested - you can get it at
>>>> Dialogic
>>>>>>> Pedagogy Journal website -
>>>>>>> http://dpj.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/dpj1/article/view/151
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> So, what do you think?
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Ana
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> ____ ____ ____ ____ ____
>>>>>>> "Spoilsport" in Drama in education vs dialogic pedagogy
>>>>>>> Abstract
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> In this paper two educational paradigms that both attempt to
>>>> overcome
>>>>>>> alienation often experienced by students in the conventional
>>>> education.
>>>>>>> These two educational paradigms are embodied in different
>>>> educational
>>>>>>> practices: First, Drama in Education in its widest definition, is
>>>>>>> based on
>>>>>>> the Vygotskian views that human cognitive, semantic
>>>> (meaning-making),
>>>>>>> and
>>>>>>> social-emotional development happens in or through play and/or
>>>>>>> imagination,
>>>>>>> thus within the imagined worlds. Second, Critical Ontological
>>>> Dialogic
>>>>>>> Pedagogy, is based in the Bakhtin inspired approach to critical
>>>>>>> dialogue
>>>>>>> among the ³consciousnesses of equal rights² (Bakhtin, 1999), where
>>>>>>> education is assumed to be a practice of examination of the world,
>>>> the
>>>>>>> others and the self. I reveal implicit and explicit conceptual
>>>>>>> similarities
>>>>>>> and differences between these two educational paradigms regarding
>>>> their
>>>>>>> understanding the nature of learning; social values that they
>>>> promote;
>>>>>>> the
>>>>>>> group dynamics, social relationships and the position of learners¹
>>>>>>> subjectivity. I aim to uncover the role and legitimacy of the
>>>> learners¹
>>>>>>> disagreement with the positions of others, their dissensus with the
>>>>>>> educational events and settings, and the relationships of power
>>>> within
>>>>>>> the
>>>>>>> social organization of educational communities in these two diverse
>>>>>>> educational approaches. I explore the legitimacy of dissensus in
>>>> these
>>>>>>> two
>>>>>>> educational approaches regarding both the participants¹ critical
>>>>>>> examination of the curriculum, and in regard to promoting the
>>>>>>> participants¹
>>>>>>> agency and its transformations. In spite of important similarities
>>>>>>> between
>>>>>>> the educational practices arranged by these two paradigms, the
>>>>>>> analysis of
>>>>>>> their differences points to the paradigmatically opposing views on
>>>>>>> human
>>>>>>> development, learning and education. Although both Drama in
>>>> Education
>>>>>>> and
>>>>>>> Dialogic Pedagogy claim to deeply, fully and ontologically engage
>>>> the
>>>>>>> learners in the process of education, they do it for different
>>>> purposes
>>>>>>> and
>>>>>>> with diametrically opposite ways of treating the students and their
>>>>>>> relationship to the world, each other and their own developing
>>>> selves.
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> <http://dpj.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/dpj1/article/view/151
>>>>>>> <http://dpj.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/dpj1/article/view/151>>
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> Dr Susan Davis
>>>> Senior Lecturer | School of Education & the Arts | Higher Education
>>>> Division
>>>> CQUniversity Australia, Noosa Campus |
>>>> PO Box 1128, Qld 4566
>>>> P +61 (0)7 5440 7007 | X 547007 | M +61 418 763 428
>>>> L https://www.linkedin.com/in/suedavisnoosa
>>>> RG | https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Susan_Davis7
>>>> Profile | http://profiles.cqu.edu.au/profiles/view/272
>>>> Latest
>>>> publication:
>>>> 
>>>> 
>> https://www.sensepublishers.com/catalogs/bookseries/imagination-and-praxi
>>>> s/
>>>> learning-that-matters/
>>>> <https://www.cqu.edu.au/social-media>
>>>> 
>>>> This communication may contain privileged or confidential information.
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>>>> you have received this in error,
>>>> please return to sender and delete. CRICOS: 00219C | RTO Code 40939
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> --
>>> 
>>> It is the dilemma of psychology to deal as a natural science with an
>>> object
>>> that creates history. Ernst Boesch
>> 
>> 
>>