Devised theatre in lower secondary school
A space of opportunity for democracy?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7577/ar.6460Keywords:
Aesthetic learning processes, democracy, devised theatre, community of practice, citizenship, space of possibilitiesAbstract
In this article, the authors examine how theatre work in a lower secondary school can be developed as an arena for student participation and democracy. The research was conducted as participatory action research at “Lia” lower secondary school. Tenth-grade students and five teachers took part in change processes related to an established annual theatre production. The aim of the change process was to strengthen student participation, democracy and shared ownership in the theatre project. The data material consists of observation notes from practical work at the school and interviews with the teachers. The analysis is based on the concept space of possibilities, and the findings are organised into three categories: structural conditions, the community of practice and aesthetic-pedagogic actions. The analysis shows that both internal and external structures, the teacher community and aesthetically oriented pedagogy contributed to enabling or hindering change towards enhanced pupil participation and democracy. This took place through unconventional approaches to curricula and regulations, and because of teachers’ holistic responsibility for the process, the final product, and student well-being. The changes were enabled through pedagogical framing conducted by teachers. However, the changes were limited to strengthening citizenship-related behaviour between students within frameworks developed by the teachers. The researchers envisage a next step in the process in which students are involved in planning and organizing the work processes of the theatre production.
Photo: Kari Holdhus
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