Process drama is a method of teaching and learning

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

where both the students and teacher are working in and out of

role A role (also rôle or social role) is a set of connected behaviors, rights, moral obligation, obligations, beliefs, and social norm, norms as conceptualized by people in a social situation. It is an expected or free or continuously changing behavi ...

. As a teaching methodology, process drama developed primarily from the work of

Brian Way Brian Francis Way (September 12, 1923February 23, 2006), was a British theatre practitioner who established Theatre Centre in London, England, in 1953. The company originated the modern concept of theatre for children in an educational context. Bri ...

Dorothy Heathcote Dorothy Heathcote MBE (29 August 1926 – 8 October 2011) was a British drama teacher and academic who used the method of " teacher in role" as an approach to teaching across the curriculum in schools and later in other settings. She was a ...

and Gavin Bolton and through the work of other leading

practitioners.

Cecily O'Neill Cecily O’Neill is an international authority on process drama and the arts in education. She works with students, teachers, playwrights, directors, and actors throughout the world, leading drama workshops, speaking at conferences, and carrying ou ...

describes process drama being used to explore a problem, situation, theme or series of related ideas or themes through the use of the artistic medium of unscripted drama. Process drama was described by O'Mara (1999) as" a dynamic way of working that requires teachers to reflect-in-action", constantly dealing with unique situations that require novel approaches. It has its roots in dramatic play, where normally developing children in every

culture Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Tyl ...

in the world will create their own imagined worlds, often with the co-participation of an

empathetic Empathy is the capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing from within their frame of reference, that is, the capacity to place oneself in another's position. Definitions of empathy encompass a broad range of social, cog ...

adult (usually the parent) in role. Process drama in school settings usually involves the whole class working with the teacher in role in a made-up

scenario In the performing arts, a scenario (, ; ; ) is a synoptical collage of an event or series of actions and events. In the ''commedia dell'arte'', it was an outline of entrances, exits, and action describing the plot of a play, and was literally pi ...

. When they are working in process drama, the students and teachers work together to create an imaginary dramatic world within which issues are considered and problems can be solved. In this world they work together to explore problems and issues such as, "How do communities deal with change?", "How do we accept other people into our community?" or themes such as environmental

sustainability Specific definitions of sustainability are difficult to agree on and have varied in the literature and over time. The concept of sustainability can be used to guide decisions at the global, national, and individual levels (e.g. sustainable livi ...

, betrayal, truth and other

ethical Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concerns ma ...

and moral issues. Sometimes the work may begin as light-hearted, but the teacher always layers more dramatic tension and complexity into the work as the teacher is aiming for a

pedagogical Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political and Developmental psychology, psychological development of le ...

outcome. Students learn to think beyond their own points of view and consider multiple perspectives on a topic through playing different roles. For instance, if the issue being discussed is logging a forest, they may play the

loggers Lumberjacks are mostly North American workers in the logging industry who perform the initial harvesting and transport of trees for ultimate processing into forest products. The term usually refers to loggers in the era (before 1945 in the Unite ...

, people who live in the forest community and

environmentalist An environmentalist is a person who is concerned with and/or advocates for the protection of the environment. An environmentalist can be considered a supporter of the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that se ...

s. Playing a range of positions encourages them to be able to recast themselves as the "other" and to consider life from that viewpoint, thereby creating complexity and enabling us to explore multiple dimensions of the topic. Process drama does what the character

Atticus Finch Atticus Finch is a fictional character in Harper Lee's Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel of 1960, ''To Kill a Mockingbird''. A preliminary version of the character also appears in the novel '' Go Set a Watchman'', written in the mid-1950s but not pub ...

advocates: the ability to work for

social justice Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has often referred to the process of ensuring that individuals fu ...

comes from the ability to understand another perspective—to be able to try on someone else's shoes and walk around in them for a while. Process drama allows us to "try on" other people's shoes, to walk the paths they tread and to see how the world looks from their point of view. Process drama is also suggested as a tool to promote literacy development in secondary school and through opportunities for dramatic play in early childhood settings within which children speak for a range of purposes in role.Rosler, B. (2010). "Process drama in one social studies classroom." The Social Studies, 99, 265-272.

References

{{reflist Pedagogy Drama