What Drives You to Use Drama in Your Lesson?

Four of the eleven drama teachers decided to introduce drama to their lessons as a result of becoming sceptical of conventional teaching (or learning) methods or environments. In principle, all of them assumed that drama has the potential to improve teaching. In Fukuda’s case, he doubted the cramming style of teaching:

[The first school I worked at] stressed academic studies. What to teach was defined in advance, and there was an atmosphere in which the teacher must teach as if he is a robot... I did not like it very much. (MPI, 30/08/2010)

In contrast, Takayama felt frustrated at the fact that his students in his Japanese Language class did not apply the formal written language that he taught to their everyday lives:

Those words I introduced in my class were not used effectively in life. So, I adopted role-playing in order to combine the words I teach in the class with the words the students use in their [everyday] lives… (MPI, 11/08/2011).

Jun differed from others, in that he used drama as part of his ‘acquisition-oriented education’, which we will see later. He answered my question by explaining why acquisition-oriented education is necessary:

If the aim [of education] is the acquisition of knowledge, the students will not need to go to school once they understand how to acquire it. What is left finally as the function of the school is learning through face-to-face communication, discussions or interactions. I believe that training for independent study and participatory-and-expressive forms of learning [i.e.

the two basic premises of acquisition-oriented education] are essential to learning in school education. (MPI, 21/08/2010)

In his visit to schools, Takahiro repeatedly had the feeling that teachers could make their lessons better:

When I became a second-year postgraduate student and started to visit schools, I came across many scenes that I felt sorry for. For example, in a Japanese Language class, I felt, ‘We can take another approach. If she [the teacher] does so, then the children will be able to enjoy the class. The teacher can enjoy the class, too’. …this teacher lost such an opportunity because she had the [specific] concept that the Japanese Language class must be like this or that. (MPI, 23/08/2011)

In a sense, these four teachers decided to introduce drama to their lessons as a reaction to what Basil Bernstein (1975) define as ‘collection codes’ (see Chapter 4.2.3.). Fukuda, Takayama, Jun and Takahiro assumed that integrated codes were more important than collection codes and that drama had the potential to shift from the existing collection code to an integrated code. Importantly, as Bernstein points out, this suggests that they questioned existing social and educational systems: a shift from the collection code to integrated code ‘symbolizes that there is a crisis in society’s basic classifications and frames, and therefore a crisis in its structure of power and principle of control’ (ibid, p.111). In the words, the four teachers consider that the existing social structure that is hierarchical has reached its limit.

Two teachers decided to do drama because their bosses recommended it:

Dazai (a recommendation from Akira Okada):

and the field of expression education which apply theatre to education?’ I thought that even theatre could contribute to society... This got me and gave me a feeling that something very amazing would begin. (Dazai, et al., 2010, p.20-21)

Takao (a recommendation from Jun Watanabe):

Jun says to me, ‘Perhaps, drama education will be more popular in the near future, but there are fewer researchers. You can be a pioneer of the field. (MPI, 12/08/2011)

There has been a history of drama in schools in Japan. However, it remains invisible in the field of education. In my interview, Takayama mentions that ‘[t]he term “drama” has not acquired citizenship yet in Japan’ (MPI, 11/08/2011). Paradoxically, that was why drama was so attractive for both Dazai and Takao. They decided to be a specialist of drama education because it was undeveloped.

Another two decided to do drama because they wanted to change themselves:

Kobayashi:

In my first teaching practice at a kindergarten, I realised that I could not play fully with children. I thought I must remove such a distance [between children and me]. (Kobayashi, 2011, p.31)

Yamamoto:

…one of the reasons why I was interested in drama was that I wanted to be different… The other reason is concerned with my relationship with other people… I could connect myself to my classmates in various ways, when working with them in the drama class… That was my starting point, after all… (MPI, 24/08/2010)

Interestingly, both seemed to have a problem with human relations and they sought to improve their relationships with other people through drama. In other words,

people may feel that drama is attractive and they want to know more about drama when they have problems with human relations.

Another two decided to do drama education, since the third person asked him to do it. We have already seen the following quotation from Hirata:

Hirata:

In 1998 or 1999, Sanseido Publishing invited me [to the development of a new Japanese Language textbook]. (Hirata, 2010)

Hirata (2010) explained that there were three main reasons why he accepted this offer. Firstly, in Japan, no professional artist of theatre has attempted to develop official drama teaching material. Secondly, plays in existing authorized textbooks are boring. Thirdly, Japanese teachers are busy, so that no drama teaching material can be completed within two and three hours.

Kumagai:

After my graduate study, I worked at the National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics. In this place, I was a member of staff in the Centre for Teaching of Japanese as a Foreign Language. The Centre was radical at the time.... Instead of functionalist approaches, the Centre was looking for alternative approaches to the Japanese language education. And the Centre got an interest in drama as one of them. Because I was a man of theatre, they said, ‘Let’s try it together’... (MPI, 13/08/2011)

Unlike Hirata’s case, in Kumagai’s case, his workplace led him to drama education. One teacher decided on drama because there was less opportunity for students to do drama:

Tadashi:

…only a limited number of children [who belong to the school drama clubs] received drama. I felt sorry for this. (MPI, 2/9/2010).

This is more about access to alternative curriculum, not about the teaching methods or environment. However, Tadashi is analogous to Fukuda, Takayama, Jun and Takahiro, in that he advocates integrated codes.

In this way, some drama teachers in my survey decided to enter the world of drama education for ‘external’ reasons – because of their frustration at collection-code types of teaching or curriculum, or because of their bosses or employers. Others decided it for internal or ‘personal’ reasons – because they wanted to change themselves.