What do they think? Children's perceptions of learning drama in an Arts rich Australian primary school

Abstract

This paper discusses aspects of a focused case study that was undertaken to discover what the children in one school knew and understood about drama learning, and about the value and purpose of learning in this way. With the belief that, for conversations about education to remain relevant they must be opened up to include the perspectives of children, this study privileged children's voices above all others, placing the research focus on the critical connections between students and their teachers, as they participate together in the learning process. The children's perceptions about a wide range of drama learning experiences, both inside and outside the classroom over a number of years were collected during a series of focus group interviews, with younger children being encouraged to draw as they chatted, an approach aimed at further enriching the data.