Editorial
Welcome to the sixteenth issue of Drama Research!
In this issue, we have three internationally based articles which all seek to evaluate the effectiveness of drama and theatre to achieve change: social change, emotional change and academic change.
In his article, Social and Emotional Learning Through Drama, Niall Whitehead describes a research project which took place soon after the end of the period of COVID19, a very significant period in the life of his school. It engaged groups from year 10 and 12, a group of 6th Form girls, and a summer youth theatre group.
In an article in The Guardian, Amanda Spielman, then Head of Ofsted, identified that behaviour in schools is worse since the pandemic.
Poor behaviour and disruption in the classroom are contributing to anxiety and poor mental health among some pupils, which is fuelling high levels of absence in English schools (The Guardian 2023).
With this in mind, the author developed a research project to explore such issues with his students in conjunction with the Royal Shakespeare Company as part of their Time to Act programme exploring the power of using RSC rehearsal room techniques in the classroom.
Inspired by the words of Jacqui O’Hanlon, Director of Learning for the company,
If a student’s attitude to Shakespeare changed, what else could change? (O’Hanlon 2016: 2).
Whitehead set about exploring two key questions:
- How RSC rehearsal room techniques build social and emotional capabilities?
- How student voice can best evaluate the personal learning.
Key to his research was a ‘World Café’ event. World Café is a process which allows for large group dialogue in which stakeholders are engaged in collaborative enquiry and the ensuing data is recorded and subsequently analysed.
The process generally involves dividing collaborators into smaller groups seated around a table where a ‘host’ chairs discussion around a specific question and participants share the role of recording responses at the table.
In this case, the Year 12s acted as ‘hosts’ and set questions for the Year 10s:
- What are the effects of Covid and lockdown on our current world?
- What challenges do young people face today?
- How might the academy’s journey towards School of Sanctuary status enrich the lives of our students?
The structure of the world café allowed the Year 10 students to have a voice amongst their peers:
They were encouraged by the opportunity to talk amongst their peers without judgement and spoke candidly of personal challenges, school, family and social issues. Repeatedly, there were references to Drama as a balance to these challenges, providing ‘family- bonding- safe space.’
To provide structure for what was meant by ‘social and emotional learning’ the author used the framework outlined by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL):
This identifies the core competencies of
- Self-Awareness
- Self-Management
- Social Awareness
- Relationship Skills
- Responsible Decision Making
Using a volunteer focus group from the two Year 10 classes he created an initial questionnaire which raised three to four comments on personal responses to each SEL area on a scale of 1-10. It was then referred to at the end of the project for comparison.
The process of creating the questionnaire was a project itself, involving real teamwork, listening, negotiating and being prepared to cross out and start again. Because it was created by the students it was valued and ‘owned’ by all.
The research involved exploring two Shakespeare texts: The Tempest with the year 10s and 12s and As You Like It with a group of 6th Form girls; a new play, Shelf Life, written specially for the occasion by a local writer, Jessie Lockie, was the text for the youth theatre group.
Some of the observations by the participants provide heartening insights into the effectiveness of the project:
Drama gave a physical and real life feel to all Shakespeare’s stories. Drama has made me see and picture his plays. Drama has also helped me in a range of different skills I will continue to use for the rest of my life: boosted my confidence in working with other people. Really brought a creative spark to me in being able to view a picture or see a text then create something more.
The element of secrecy in the scene also allowed me to contemplate upon the experiences of young people today, particularly the fear associated with challenging authority figures from older generations. It led me to consider how the contemporary youth often grapple with the difficulty of having their voices heard and frequently yearn to escape from feelings of voicelessness.
Youth Theatre was a big help in working on my social skills. Youth Theatre has left me with a group of close friends who feel like family, and has given me useful experience in working to put on a professional show.
As the author states:
The young people I worked with in the workshops seized on ideas, made connections, extended and challenged conceptions and reflected on how this developed their own social and emotional learning.
Their comments certainly appear to point to the effectiveness of the methods used in the research.
Tyrone Grima’s article, Mothers and sons: Intergenerational dialogue between gay persons and their parents, outlines a practice-as-research journey with four distinct stages. The first stage is an exploration of a number of texts embedded in queer theory which outlined the main themes that are pertinent to intergenerational dialogue; the second stage is an outline of some workshops with Drachma, a family support group in Malta; the third stage is a description of work with actors exploring the themes so far raised and preparing for a staging of Terrence McNally’s play, Mothers and sons; and the fourth stage of this research project studied the audience engagement with these themes and dynamics.
In the first part, Grima makes a thorough examination of the issues, conflicts and contradictions manifesting in the literature relating to queer theory and intergenerational dialogue. He explores notions of shame, authenticity, respectability, language and the tensions that arise from the dominant homonormative culture:
The dearth of authenticity and the fear of sharing narratives hijacks the process of intergenerational dialogue: the gay person cannot express himself fully for fear of being excluded.
It is an excellent preparation for understanding the design and impact of the subsequent stages of the research journey.
The second stage outlines his work with Drachma, a non-governmental organisation in Malta with two parallel groups: the LGBTI branch and the Parents branch. Grima held three practical drama workshops with Drachma, exploring the issues raised by the literature, with some heartening results:
The outcome of the workshops and the discussions demonstrate that there is a correlation between the literature and the Maltese experience in most areas.
The third part of his journey describes his work with actors preparing to stage McNally’s play, Mothers and sons, a play which Grima feels expresses and explores these issues succinctly:
Mothers and sons explores intergenerational dialogue since each character represents a different generation. Katharine is an elderly conservative woman; Cal belongs to the generation of gay men who did not have the social support to come out of the closet; his husband is fifteen years younger and so benefitted from the social shifts and increased awareness on sexual orientation that has informed society; and Bud, their son, represents hope for the upcoming generation.
The work with the actors provided five key focal points: Time/The private-public dichotomy/Respectability and shame/The gaze/ Language. Grima’s article describes the way each of these focal points was developed in rehearsal and performance, providing us with a record of how queer theory, the concerns and issues raised by families, and the performance of the play itself came into conjunction to provide a story of possible redemption.
In the fourth part, the audience responses could be summed up by this comment:
[The play is] certainly effective for conveying such a message but a large part of the local theatre-going demographic would already have a fairly liberal mindframe to begin with.
Although the parameters of the questionnaire were limited in scope, Malta being such a comparatively small community, one can only admire the courage and integrity of the author’s attempt to elicit feedback on the effectiveness of this project, which aims to give an airing to issues which are notoriously difficult to discuss. As the author writes:
My main concern would be for the children of gay couples. The more that such stories are featured, the easier it will be for them…while it might be too late for some adults, we can ensure that the next generation isn’t raised with a bigoted mindframe.
I am sure that we can readily agree with this statement of the need for good, brave theatre in our lives to facilitate social change.
The effect of drama in education on students’ academic achievement and socio-affective characteristics: a meta-analysis study by Nurtaç Üstündağ-Kocakuşak and Ruken Akar-Vural is a highly unusual article to be published in a journal such as this because it does not describe research of a practical drama project, like the other two articles in this issue: it is, rather, a statistical analysis of no less than fourteen published papers on drama projects which have been conducted in different countries. Two of these studies were conducted in the USA, two in Hong Kong, one in Uganda, one in Taiwan, one in Trinidad and Tobago, and nine in Turkey. The publication interval for these studies ranged from 2009 to 2023.
In analysing these studies this research project, based in Turkey
aimed to determine the effect of using ‘drama in education’ on the academic achievement and socio-affective characteristics of students aged 6-11 years, based on the results of previous studies.. To achieve this goal, the research sought answers to the following questions:
- What impact does drama in education have on students’ socio-affective characteristics?
- How does drama in education influence students’ academic achievement?
The article describes and tracks the progress of the meta-analysis tools and methods for sifting the data generated by these studies, all of which described drama projects which used systems of ‘control groups’.
The statistical methods are designed to elicit results which can be deemed to be ‘significant’.
So what has all this meticulous analysis uncovered in the terms of the research questions?
In the study, the analysis concluded that the effect of drama in education on students’ socio-affective characteristics did not reach statistical significance, as evidenced by the confidence intervals.
This is a disappointing finding. But on the issue of its influence on students’ academic achievement, the results are more rewarding:
The overall findings from the research consistently highlight the effectiveness of drama in education in enhancing academic achievement. Findings of the meta-analysis show that drama in education as a teaching method creates meaningful effect on the academic achievement of students between 6-11.
While the style of writing or the focus of study may not immediately appeal to our drama teaching readership, yet we feel it is worth publishing a record like this. It is certainly worth knowing that drama work with 6–11-year-olds does not distract them from their academic studies. Far from it: drama in education actually enhances their academic achievement – a very powerful finding indeed.
All of these articles demonstrate the power of drama and theatre to bring about positive change in different spheres. Hopefully, they will give inspiration to others to take up the mantle of research and bring further evidence of the power of drama and theatre to enable ethical, social, emotional, and academic development.
Chris Lawrence
