“I’m on a journey I never thought I’d be on”: using process drama pedagogy for the literacy programme

ABSTRACT

This paper argues that process drama is a productive pedagogy with multiple affordances for multiliteracies. We describe an exploratory study in which two teachers from a rural New Zealand primary school used process drama pedagogy in the literacy programme. Analysis of the initial and exit teacher interviews, lesson transcripts and transcripts of the teacher-researcher meetings demonstrated the power of using process drama. When the teachers used process drama, we found that students developed their text user, meaning maker and text analyst practices through greater engagement, more detailed writing and an enhanced depth of thinking. Importantly, students who often struggled to make contributions in the class were included. In order to realise the potential of process drama pedagogy for multiliteracies, we found that the teachers needed a great deal of support to build their confidence to use process drama due to their limited professional experiences of the arts. This study encourages further use and exploration of process drama pedagogy for multiliteracies.

KEYWORDS:

• Process drama
• Four Resources Model
• multiliteracies

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank the participating school and teachers for their generous contribution to this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. In New Zealand, a school year is usually comprised of four, 10-week terms.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a University of Otago Humanities Research Grant.

Notes on contributors

Trish Wells

Trish Wells’s research interests include drama in education, an applied theatre approach to pedagogy and process drama and literacy learning. She teaches across primary and secondary undergraduate and postgraduate teacher education programmes and has a keen interest in community and applied theatre projects.

Susan Sandretto

Susan Sandretto’s research interests include multiliteracies, critical literacy, gender issues in education and practitioner research. She teaches across the primary teacher education and education studies programmes and supervises at the postgraduate level.