Realities about role drama: the trials of one teacher’s year-long implementation

Although role drama is being regarded as a key ingredient in the recipe for children's learning, it appears to be making surprisingly little impact on the methods used by many teachers. After wading through related literature, and talking with colleagues, I realized that role drama is not growing to its fullest potential because it appears threatening to classroom teachers who are not drama specialists. In order to bring this problematic issue into clear view, I decided to document the implementation of role drama by a teacher in her classroom. Dianne, the brave grade one (year two of the primary program) teacher who volunteered for my study, had completed one Drama in Education teacher training course at The University of British Columbia. Like many of her colleagues, Dianne was hesitant about using role drama, but, since she was aware of its value as a teaching tool, she was eager to help me uncover the difficulties. Over a time span of approximately nine months, I videotaped 15 drama sessions, conducted audiotaped reviews with Dianne following each session, collected Dianne's reflective notes related to her observations of the videos (and maintained my own reflective journal, too), and audiotaped two overview discussions regarding the entire implementation and the implications for teachers in classrooms and for Drama in Education teacher training courses. The documentation is sometimes exhilarating, sometimes disheartening -- but, invariably, it is honest.Education, Faculty ofLanguage and Literacy Education (LLED), Department ofGraduat