Puppets and education: ideas, beliefs, and school practices of Spanish teachers

ABSTRACT

Puppets have been used in education for decades and they have become an indisputable educational tool. However, puppetry has a minimal presence in teacher training. This study uses a questionnaire to explore 453 teachers’ use, perceptions, and knowledge of puppets as an educational tool in Valencian schools between 2020/2022 to reveal the relationship between puppetry and the school system. This study reaches several conclusions, mainly about the limited knowledge of this tool and its possibilities, that will open up new dialogue in today’s schools. This study proposes some valuable reflections to achieve real change in the school–puppet relationship.

KEYWORDS:

• Puppets
• education
• school practices
• teacher training

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the teachers who have participated in the survey for their collaboration, their love of performing arts, and their commitment to build in each school a place of meeting, creativity, and development.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The Comunitat Valenciana is one of the 17 autonomous regions in Spain. It’s located in the east, next to Mediterranean Sea, it has 23000 km² and 5.000.000 inhabitants.