Educando para a cidadania através do Drama-Processo

Abstract

Drama as a literary art, beyond the aesthetic pleasure it can generate, can also be a tool in the educational process of people in all age groups. In this paper, we present fragments of an experiment in which a kind of drama, called Process Drama was used, during a semester, to help a class of year seven students at a rural school in the municipality of Tefé (Amazonas State) to develop a critical awareness of the reality surrounding them. Ultimately, the goal of the study was to introduce to those students critical thinking as an essential tool for the full exercise of citizenship. The study was based especially on Freirian critical pedagogy, but it also capitalized on other critical thinking works. For data collection, written tests and questionnaires with semi-opened questions were used. The seven categories of David Carraher’s critical thinker were the parameter against which the data was analyzed. The results indicated a modest development of critical thinking of the students participating in the experiment as a result of their engagement (although in minute proportions) in reflections about issues that affect or could affect their communities. Key words: literary art, Process Drama, Education, critical thinking,citizenship.