Open Collections

Curriculum is ME: reflections on living and teaching dramatically

University of British Columbia

This thesis advances the proposition that Drama education cultivates and provides students with opportunities to analyze, reflect upon, and reconcile daily human life experiences; that Drama education opens up an effective and powerful medium for young people to create a narrative and exposition, to voice their concerns; and that Drama instruction helps students to acquire the much needed capacity to take on different roles, to explore unknown situations, to expand their intellectual capacity for creative and critical thought, insight, and empathy. I explore the role of the reflective practitioner, of teacher as researcher, and Teacher Action Research through the use of interwoven taped and transcribed personal reflections on my own Drama praxis over the course of the 1997-1998 school year; as well as opening up a diverse discourse in the field by questioning past and present assumptions about the necessity of Drama's place as an integral part of the school curriculum. I explicate the imperative for teachers to not only be sufficiently trained and well versed in Drama methodology, but to be willing participants in the cognitive apprenticeship of their students by being good teachers, pedagogues, mentors, and even role models. I advance this argument by proposing that Drama curriculum is a product of each individual teacher's abilities to credibly deliver basic elements of their own humanity to their students, and through this unique sharing, the actual language of Drama is formed.

Thesis/Dissertation

application/pdf

2009-05-28

For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/8379

Language and Literacy Education

University of British Columbia

UBCV

DSpace