Drama in Education and Self-Directed Learning for Adults

Abstract

Drama in Education (DIE), as an artistic and educational experience, is sufficiently evidenced in the literature as a dialogical, liberating practice of education. This article discusses a practitioner research project in a second chance adult education school in Greece, where the use of a DIE teaching and learning approach was explored in an environmental adult education module. Self-directed learning in this study referred to learner-control and was used to uncover how power relations are constructed through the micro-politics of the classroom. The primary aim of the study was to establish whether the use of a DIE approach could enhance learners' motivation to participate in classroom choices and decisions, and thus take greater control and responsibility for their own learning process. The results indicate that resistance occurred when the teacher delegated greater responsibility than the learners were equipped to handle. The article concludes by advocating an educational encounter of shared authority and vulnerability between teacher and learners when working in and through the arts.