The Edging in of Engagement: exploring the nature of engagement in drama

Abstract

ABSTRACT Teachers who utilise Drama in Education (DIE) techniques will recognise that there are different levels of student involvement in every dramatic experience. This research study examined the circumstances surrounding student engagement in drama. DIE techniques were used in a language arts classroom made up of seventh‐grade students (11‐12 years old) examining and exploring literature. Through participation observation, audio and video recordings, artifacts, journal entries, interviews and samples of student writing, the patterns of the students’ engagement were analysed to reveal the mental process that a participant undergoes in order to engage in a dramatic activity. Specific findings of this drama engagement study were: (1) four different categories of engagement strategies were observed and defined according to how students personally engage in a dramatic activity; (2) internal imagery and/or setting play an important and necessary role for students to begin their engagement strategies; and (3) a successful drama requires the presence of ‘engagers’ from all four different categories. Understanding the process of engagement in drama, when used as a methodology, has extraordinary results, so that in the future educators might recognize and enable individual students to develop meaningful learning experiences in a social classroom setting.