Humanizing Education With Dramatic Inquiry

Humanizing Education with Dramatic Inquiry provides a comprehensive rationale for why and how dramatic inquiry can be used by any teacher to humanize classroom communities and the subject areas being explored with students. Written by teacher educators Brian Edmiston and Iona Towler-Evans, the book re-evaluates the radical humanizing dramatic enquiry pedagogy of British educator Dorothy Heathcote, as developed by the authors in their own teaching using her three approaches: Process Drama, Mantle of the Expert, and the Commission Model. Through scholarly yet practical analysis of extended examples drawn from their own classroom teaching, the volume demonstrates how teachers can collaborate with students of all ages, dispositions, presumed abilities, and cultural backgrounds to transform classroom life into a richly humanizing, curious, inquiring, imaginative community. This book will appeal to educators and teacher educators not only those open to using drama pedagogies in classrooms and in therapy but also to those engaged in applied theatre. Additionally, it will interest those in literacy and education in general who are committed to inclusive, critical, antiracist, anti-oppressive, and artistic practices.

Humanizing Education with Dramatic Inquiry provides a comprehensive rationale for why and how dramatic inquiry can be used by any teacher to humanize classroom communities and the subject areas being explored with students. Written by teacher educators Brian Edmiston and Iona Towler-Evans, the book re-evaluates the radical humanizing Dramatic Inquiry pedagogy of British educator Dorothy Heathcote, as developed by the authors in their own teaching using her three approaches: Process Drama, Mantle of the Expert, and the Commission Model. Through scholarly yet practical analysis of extended examples drawn from their own classroom teaching the volume demonstrates how teachers can collaborate with students of all ages, dispositions, presumed abilities, and cultural backgrounds to transform classroom life into a richly humanizing, curious, inquiring, imaginative community. This book will appeal to educators and teacher educators not only those open to using drama pedagogies in classrooms and in therapy but also to those engaged in applied theatre. Additionally, it will interest those in literacy and education in general who are committed to inclusive, critical, antiracist, anti-oppressive, and artistic practices.

This book presents a wide range of international perspectives that explore the different ways the diverse forms of drama supports learning in science. It illustrates how learning science by adopting and adapting theatrical techniques can offer more inclusive ways for students to relate to scientific ideas and concepts. The theatrical processes by which subject matter can be introduced, thought about, discussed, transformed, enacted and disseminated are shown to be endless. The first section of the book considers different ways of theorising and applying drama in classrooms. The second section provides a range of case studies illustrating how role play, performance, embodiment and enquiry approaches can be utilised for learning in primary, secondary and tertiary education contexts. The third section demonstrates how different research methods from questionnaires, particular kinds of tests and even the theatrical conventions themselves can provide rich data that informs how drama impacts on learning science.

The Routledge Companion to Drama in Education is a comprehensive reference guide to this unique performance discipline, focusing on its process-oriented theatrical techniques, engagement of a broad spectrum of learners, its historical roots as a field of inquiry and its transdisciplinary pedagogical practices. The book approaches drama in education (DE) from a wide range of perspectives, from leading scholars to teaching artists and school educators who specialise in DE teaching. It presents the central disciplinary conversations around key issues, including best practice in DE, aesthetics and artistry in teaching, the histories of DE, ideologies in drama and education, and concerns around access, inclusivity and justice. Including reflections, lesson plans, programme designs, case studies and provocations from scholars, educators and community arts workers, this is the most robust and comprehensive resource for those interested in DE’s past, present and future.

There is a growing trend in education for educators to support students in the development of social and emotional skills. SEL mandates are now part of many state assessments and national initiatives, and there are countless curriculum from which principals and teachers may choose. However, many of these curricular materials fail to address the question of pedagogy, or what is the best method for teaching social and emotional skills? Humanizing the Classroom: Using Role Plays to Teach Social and Emotional Skills in Middle and High School answers this question by presenting the pedagogical basis for using role plays to teach social and emotional skills, creating a clear link between SEL and the need for culturally relevant teaching, and providing over 45 model lessons that can be delivered in middle and high school classrooms. A rich resource for principals seeking advisory curriculum materials, classroom teachers interested in integrating SEL into their classroom practice, and educational theater and drama teachers, Humanizing the Classroom addresses the how, why and what of teaching social and emotional skills in our diverse society.

Through critical, qualitative, creative, and arts-integrated approaches, this collection aims to explore the co-curricular capacity of lived experience to re/humanize education.