Teaching social issues through drama method : A collaborative action research study from Karachi, Pakistan

Social issues are the everyday problems of our society, teaching these issues through drama method create curiosity among students for the content. The aim of this study was to work collaboratively with a social studies teacher to develop our understanding and practice of teaching social issues and drama method in the social studies classroom. To conduct this study, I worked collaboratively with one social studies teacher in a private school of Karachi, Pakistan. In this study, students of grade 7 were my secondary participants. The action research began by understanding! exploring the existing perceptions and practices of teaching of social issues and drama in the social studies classroom. Subsequently, an action research plan was prepared to facilitate our understanding and practice of teaching social issues and drama in the social studies classroom. The data was collected using classroom observations, semi-structured interviews, reflective journals and video recording. The data analysis was an ongoing process, whereby after each action, data was reflected and analyzed upon for further action. The findings of the study show that my co-teacher and I developed our understanding on teaching social issue and drama method. The process enabled us to realize the importance of peer teaching and learning and reflective practice in adult education. The findings revealed that while working on drama strategy to learn social issues students developed their investigating skills by gathering data, critical thinking skills by exploration of their respective issue and finding out appropriate ways to resolve the problem, reading and writing skills while writing scripts and social skills while working in groups. Therefore, it is recommended drama can also be used as an assessment tool in social studies education. Future researcher can study this approach to teach social issues with experimental research methodology. The study concludes by presenting key learning experience of teaching social issues through drama method as well as it will help me in conducting my future research in social studies education