Identity and Creativity : The Transformative Potential of Drama

Abstract

In this chapter we aim to bring a Vygotskian perspective on creativity to bear on one aspect of Drama in Education. In schools, children's identities are, to some extent, prescribed and often they are placed in categories of need and difficulty. Schools also differ in the extent to which they maintain relations of power and control, which are realized in 'status' relations witnessed in pedagogic practices. Children become 'pupils' or 'students' or become members of categories of attainment. Some may qualify for 'Free School Meals' (FSM), which is often taken as the prime index of poverty in the United Kingdom. Membership of this group is often, erroneously, assumed to be predictive of outcomes for a particular individual. Pedagogic responses to children who are placed in categories associated with disadvantage are often characterized by increases in teacher control over the selection and sequencing of content, the pacing of progression through curriculum content, and the criteria of evaluation (Daniels, 2008). This is exemplified in a report of a comparison of low and high socio-economic status (SES) settings in Scotland, in which Duffield (1998) reports reduced levels of opportunity for discussion and the achievement of group consensus in low SES settings. She attributes this to teachers' anxiety about control and wariness about pupil autonomy in low SES settings. These low SES students are placed in pedagogic contexts which offer little by way of opportunity for engagement in the transformation of social relations, order and identity. The case description included in this chapter is an example of the way in which pupils who are on the FSM register can experience the transformative potential of drama in relation to identities within school and beyond. This represents a challenge to the understanding that drama allows you to 'express yourself'; rather it suggests that drama provides opportunities for the exploration of identities which are fictitious but may also impact on the 'actual: As such it provides all participants with respite from the constraints of notions of'self', which arise when membership of categories are allocated and pedagogies assume a focus on a narrow conception of learning. Much has been made of the enduring poor attainment of pupils on the FSM register in comparison to their peers, whose identity of 'disadvantage in school' may shape attitudes and values towards school in general and specifically towards practices of learning ( see Dolby and Dimitriadis, 2004 and Challenge the Gap1). In many schools they are now seen as vulnerable. The irony of the nature of this vulnerability appears to be lost. One response is that they are vulnerable to inappropriate pedagogies. In contrast to the rigid pedagogic practices that may operate within the rest of the curriculum, the drama classroom may offer a temporary lull through the creation of 'negotiated' identities and mediated relations of power and control. Drama is a powerful tool for creating contexts that may provide the opportunity to renegotiate identities.