Drama and enacted storytelling as a tool for supporting young children's development of social imagination

The aim of this study was to investigate whether the introduction of dramatic storytelling could encourage children to engage in learning experiences that fostered ‘social imagination’. There is a substantial body of research that supports the benefits of drama and its capacity to deliver a range of outcomes identified in early childhood curriculum documents. Significant barriers for achieving such include, teacher’s general lack of confidence and experience around teaching drama, or beliefs about children’s play. The goal of this thesis was to better understand the phenomenon of teachers as co-constructors in the learning design and to reflect upon possible roles within children’s imaginative play experiences. Greene (1995) proposes that education should be the business of creating moral and compassionate humans, with the teacher’s role as the moral educator in co-constructing these experiences with the children. This presentation of children’s specific examples of empathy through the stories may provide new material for discussing the power of drama to achieve Greene’s educational goals. A qualatative case study approach was chosen for this research, presenting a dramatic storytelling experience which was trialled in a kindergarten classroom with the teacher involved as an insider/researcher, reflective practitioner. This study presents an example of practice that showcases a dramatic framework, drawing upon Dunn’s process drama and improvised text as well as Dorothy Heathcote’s ‘Mantle of the Expert’ to structure effective dramatic learning. Using a combination of both these works, five features were identified as useful to the learning design. These were then trialled and tested for their abilty to achieve learning outcomes for children linking to the Queensland Kindergarten Learning Guidelines (2010) in the particular areas of Wellbeing and Active Learning. These two key focus areas were chosen as they are most closely aligned to the focus of the study around ‘social imagination’ and empathy building. What was discovered through this research project was that the dramatic storytelling provided a frame for children’s agency and self-expression and was a powerful way to involve, engage and motivate children, also providing them with various degrees of autonomy in the process. It was also beneficial for some children who experienced social and learning issues, giving them multiple opportunities to engage in the dramtic episodes, practice empathy and cultivate ‘social imagination’