Abstract
Young people, in the age of puberty and early adolescence, are in need of images and narratives as role models to mirror their actual thoughts and feelings, and to stimulate the development of their (tradition(s)-related) life orientation. The development of a life orientation we see as a religiously or secularly founded process of identity construction—a work-in-progress; a process of ‘learning by doing’. This is described in Part I of this contribution. As Jacob Moreno, the founder of psychodrama stated: ‘Thinking is in the action’. ‘Doing’—being actively involved in a situation—is the defining characteristic of key persons and key objects in narratives. This is in line with John Dewey’s view that the activity new perspectives are created; learning by doing. In bibliodrama, making use of psychodrama techniques, connections are established between narratives from traditional (religious or secular) worldviews—but also from myths and fairy tales—and young people’s individual life experiences. Seemingly without effort and as child’s play, bibliodrama creates an encounter between the here-and-now and the once-and-then of narratives of long ago. The theoretical framework of this practice and the methods of bibliodrama are described in Part II. In Part III we present an example of bibliodrama performed with 18–20-year-old students of the Odisee Hogeschool (Odisee University of Applied Sciences) of Brussels (Belgium). We conclude our contribution with a few preliminary conclusions, a discussion and recommendations for the practice of bibliodrama in education to familiarise students with (religious and secular) life orientations traditions, in order to facilitate the construction of their own authentic life orientation.
Highlights
Young people, in the age of puberty and early adolescence, are in need of images and narratives as role models to mirror their actual thoughts and feelings, and to stimulate the development of their (tradition(s)-related) life orientation
In the example given below, the bibliodrama session starts with offering a story to the participants, followed by an invitation to open up to the narrative and letting themselves be touched by it, and to reflect on why it has that effect and what the possible relation is with their own life story
In the session described below, the narrative of ‘River and Sand’ (This specific story is part of the literary treasure of the Sufi tradition, a spiritual ‘school’ within North African Islam.) takes centre-stage, with its thematic content related to aspects that come to the fore in the identity development processes of young people
Summary
The development of a life orientation is ‘an existential positioning process pertaining to the meaning of the human being, the world and the meta-empirical, directed towards the horizon of the good life’ [1] (p. 45). Life orientation as an identity construction can be approached in different ways. In this contribution we will go deeper into the concept of ‘identity’ as a dynamic process. The telling and retelling of experiences changes the narration itself; on the other hand, it transforms the related feelings, contributing to the process of (religious) identity construction. The construction of a young person’s ‘puzzle’ becomes clearly visible in an activated (un)conscious comparison with others This comparison process consists of listening, exploring, questioning, accepting and respecting, copying, recognising, rephrasing, distinguishing, conflicting and hyphenating—aspects elaborated upon by Marcia [6] in his description of the stages of exploration and commitment in identity development. Narrativity structures life events and gives meaning to a person’s identity-under-construction (see Verhofstadt-Denève [7])
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