Examining External Influences in Young Children's Explorations Within Sociodrama

Abstract

Sociodrama is a tool of dramatic exploration, which engages participants within an aesthetic, three-dimensional problem-solving process to examine, explore, and reflect upon issues of personal and collective importance. Using twelve sociodrama workshops, eleven students (six males and five females) from one senior kindergarten classroom were encouraged to create and reflect upon common social issues and concerns as a classroom community through warm-ups, sociodramatic activities, and oral group reflections. Using modified activities inspired by the works of both Moreno (1943) and Boal (1985, 1995, 1998, 2002, 2006), students discovered that they held the power to modify their own responses and behaviors in specific social situations. Although sociodrama naturally exists as a spontaneous, realistic learning activity where participants have power and control over their experiences, it appeared in this study as though influences beyond the students' control including the school environment, the classroom teacher, and the students themselves may have influenced and limited the shape and scope of the dramatic explorations.