Many have noted the effectiveness and power process and educational drama has had in educating children. Yet process drama methods and classes have been slow to make their way into American Schools. Its content is often seen as alien or superfluous to the existing curriculum and its methods too complex to be mastered by ordinary teachers. The purpose of this case study research is to provide people interested in using drama as a learning medium with a through description of one drama teacher's journey as she learns to master drama methods and articulate and implement the theory which underlies her current practice.
This research chronicles one teacher's past influences, training, experiences, and theoretical beliefs. It investigates how and why this drama teacher's practice has evolved since her initial studies with Winifed Ward and the creative dramatics approach to her more recent studies of the drama in education or process drama methods of Heathcote, Bolton, O'Neill, Booth and others.
The research presents five data vignettes describing the teacher's current practice in an Elementary School where the arts are integrated into the curriculum in order to impact upon student's learning. The report presents descriptive examples for planning and implementing drama in an Arts I.M.P.A.C.T. school. The analysis presents a discussion of the teacher's function as both teacher and artist. It also presents drama learning as an Aesthetic Model of Education and discusses the concepts of students' development of an aesthetic paradigm and the teacher actions, investments, and characteristics as a teacher/artist. As a way of connecting and generalizing the processes used in drama education the study connects drama teaching/learning and creating to the educational concept of scaffolding. Providing a scaffolding model for drama education that includes the stages of focus, interaction, challenge, and empowerment.