The teacher as leader of democratic processes in the drama classroom

Abstract

Abstract This is a follow-up study to a previous large-scale qualitative study that explored teacher practice, in which it was suggested that the teacher’s role is best understood by considering three main categories of activities: the directing, the supportive and the distal teacher roles. These three are dynamic roles or positions among which the pedagogue continuously alternates to achieve the aims that foster learning and socialization in students. Based on new data from primary school classrooms, where the teaching method is process drama, we analyse how the teacher can stimulate democratic bildung in the drama classroom through alternation between the directing, the supportive and the distal teacher roles. A dramaturgical and educational analysis of the participants’ actions and communication in the classroom shows that one important factor in democratic bildung in the classroom is the teacher’s pedagogical judgement. The alternation between teacher roles shows that the teacher has a conscious perspective of their professional role in the learning process. The analysis also shows that process drama is a teaching strategy that provides space and opportunity for the directing, the supportive and the distal teacher roles – all of which, when practised dynamically, make possible different forms of democratic student participation.