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ERIC Number: ED593808
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2015
Pages: 8
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Theatre as Education
Vallack, Jocene
Australian Association for Research in Education, Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) (Freemantle, Western Australia, Nov 29-Dec 3, 2015)
My privileged opportunity to work with renowned Drama theorist, Dorothy Heathcote, in Melbourne in the 1970s, set a foundation for what I now call Theatre as Education research. Formerly a teacher of Secondary Drama, I became very experienced at creating plays with my students, based on their own ideas, or inspired by the stories of the community. When working in a tiny country town in Victoria, I took my Drama class to visit the Senior Citizens in our community, and collect anecdotes of their youthful experiences. The adolescents asked, "What was it like -- here in this town -- when you were my age?" The responses were candid and sometimes less likely than fiction. We wrote a one-act play, which incorporated the many different dialogues, and we performed it for the town. Our co-researchers were the special guests, taking front row seats. They watched their lives reenacted, and an inter-generational bond was forged. This paper will present my approach to creating plays out of chaotic, narrative data. There has emerged a kind of formula, which is flexible enough to apply to groups of students or adults, with varying abilities in qualitative research data collection and in the performing arts. I have used the Theatre as Education formula to showcase research data in both schools and at academic conferences, as well as in print. This paper presents a step-by-step approach to collecting, analysing, interpreting and restructuring oral data for performance text. It will also present some examples from published plays, which were born of narrative. I believe Theatre as Education works as both an engaging pedagogy for teachers, and an innovative framework for the presentation of primary research data. I would like to share my approach with you.
Australian Association for Research in Education. AARE Secretariat, One Geils Court, Deakin ACT 2600, Australia. Tel: +61-2-6285-8388; e-mail: aare@aare.edu.au; Web site: http://www.aare.edu.au
Publication Type: Speeches/Meeting Papers; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Australia
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A