Form and governance: considering the drama as a ‘technology of the self’

Abstract

Foucault's ‘technologies of the self’ provides a frame through which to review the way in which different drama conventions work to govern the knowledge of the self that can be represented through the drama. The ‘Learning Partnerships’ workshops provide the field site for the study. These workshops position high school drama students as coaches and key informants contributing to the education of pre-service teachers. Teachers and students participate in drama workshops in which they explore issues relating to equity and inclusion in schooling. A range of drama conventions is used to assist participants to work beyond the stereotypical image of an opposition between teacher and students and to identify the more complex hopes and anxieties that can direct school-based behaviour. Post-structuralist theory is used to posit the way in which the selection of form might place a governance on the meaning that is created in the drama. Reflective practitioner case stories are used to examine the relationship between the conventions used and the construction of knowledge. Interview data gathered from teachers and students identifies the importance of a methodology which permits them to work together in a space of equals and to cross the divides associated with their institutionalised roles. Conclusions are drawn about the way in which different conventions can be understood as ‘technologies of the self’ which in turn assist participants to detect and re-work dominant stories.