Connecting With Their Inner Beings: An International Survey of Drama/ Theatre Teachers' Perceptions of Creative Teaching and Teaching for Creative Achievement

Abstract

As the first phase of a multinational exploration of the nature of creativity and its relationship to drama/theatre education, a mixed methods survey was given to 100 classroom teachers in four countries: Canada (Ontario), the United States (Arizona), Jamaica and Norway. Teachers were both elementary generalist and secondary specialists; most had some drama education. This article documents the following: a brief review of the related literature; survey results with an emphasis on the qualitative data; and a brief overview of the next phases of the research. Survey results suggest that teachers of drama/theatre believe in the importance of teaching for both creative achievement in their students and in themselves as creative teachers—especially when solving teaching problems. Examples of their practice indicate that teachers implement a variety of student-centered drama/theatre approaches in their classrooms. However, teachers do not perceive support for their creative work from their schools or the school system, nor do they have confidence in their capacity to assess student achievement in creativity.

The authors acknowledge with thanks the financial support of the Norwegian Research Council, The University of Stavanger, and the Faculty of Education at Queen's University. We also extend thanks to our research assistant, Soodabeh Salehi, who was of great assistance with our review of the literature, and to the respondents to our surveys for sharing their insights with us.

Notes

¹The survey was piloted with a group of teachers and administrators in Arizona. Administration of the survey was approved by the appropriate institutional review boards and hosting organizations. All responses were anonymous. Survey results were tabulated by McCammon. For a copy of the survey and the technical report (Sæbø et al. 2008), e-mail: [email protected]

²Some respondents indicated more than one assignment.