“I wouldn’t have believed I could ever do anything like that!”
The meanings of theatre work experienced by 5th and 6th -grade comprehensive school pupils
Abstract
The research task was to describe the experiences of sixteen 5th and 6th grade comprehensive school pupils in a one-year theatre education process. Nine adult form teachers-to-be, specialising in drama and theatre education, were also involved in the process. To gain more insight into the matter these student teachers were also interviewed in the study. The children’s experiences in the process of theatre work were defined as the unity of experiences which they themselves had regarded as
meaningful connections in the different stages of the process.
The research questions were: a) How does a child experience the theatre work process in its different stages b) Which different aspects can be found in this experience c) What is the role-making process like with different pupils and d) What are the meaningful connections attached to their acting experiences like?
The research data was gathered by learning diaries and questionnaires during one school year and by structured interviews after the process. The themes in the interviews were derived from the replies in the initial diaries and questionnaires. The methods of analysis used were qualitative, and the data was both described and interpreted by the researcher’s terms. The data was divided into entities with the same theme, which were named by the researcher. The reliability of the researcher’s interpretation of the concepts was improved by a second discussion with the same pupils a year and a half later. This new discussion material formed the second interview data to complete the research results. The results are presented as a dialogue between the primary data, the researcher’s interpretations and the existing information.
Despite the case study nature of the research the main educational result indicates that the acting experience played a positive role in the growth of the child’s personality. The findings suggested a growth in his self-confidence, self-awareness and social skills, which could still be seen a year and a half after the process. The findings also showed that the theatre work experience was a holistic, not a hierarchic process, for the child. From the theatrical point of view, the most significant things were the children’s descriptions of the role-making process and performing the role. The pupils’ different ways to approach their roles were named performer- and role-centered. In the performer-centered approach the child seemed to be more concerned about his own self and how to express it in the different situations in the play. In the more traditional role-centered approach the child’s own personal way of reacting to different things remained in the background, and his acting in the role could be described as experimenting with reactions he was not familiar with in his own life. The results indicate, however, that no matter which approach the child was using, he did not confuse the role character with his own self.
There seemed to be two categories of optimal experiences which the children experienced while performing: the emotional and holistic experiences related to the whole acting process, and the optimal experiences which were closely related to living (in) the role.
The connection between the working method and the research results is discussed.
The study participates in the discussion about the role and importance of drama and theatre education, as well as the role of art education in a wider sense, at comprehensive school.
Key words: theatre education, drama and theatre education at school, role-making, experience, meaning