Task 6C

I want to review three pieces of literature broadly related to my inquiry. The working “short title” of the topic is “ in what ways can all the parties involved in the education of primary school-children, benefit from the contribution which live theatre can provide”.
There has been little research work done on this topic, and it has in consequence been difficult to identify suitable literature to review. I have settled on the following –
* UCL Research Ethics Committee Guidance Note 1, “Research involving children”
* “All Our Futures” A report of the National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education
* “Theatre in Education” (various publications)

1. The UCL Research Ethics Committee is a respected academic based group, set up to review and provide advice to researchers carrying out research projects, which have an ethical dimension. Guidance note 1 on “Research Involving Children” was produced a few years ago to provide a general framework within which, the committee would consider projects involving children. I felt it was important for me to know what the professional approach would be, in the light of my own intention to interview children as one of the key groups participating in my inquiry. The guidance note gives me more scope to talk to children without formal and informed parental consent than I had expected. As I understand the requirements, the nature of my project, the fact that the names of the children will not be recorded, and the classroom environment of the survey will avoid the need for a time consuming complicated approval process. I will need to explain my approach to the ethical issues in my inquiry plan.
2. “All Our Futures” is a report published in 1999 with the following terms of reference –“To make recommendations to the Secretaries of State on the creative and cultural development of young people through formal and informal education: to take stock of current provision and to make proposals for principles, policies and practice”. The prestigious committee, which produced the report was chaired by Professor Sir Ken Robinson. The key message of the report is that there needs to be a better balance in education, in setting national priorities, in the structure and organisation of the school curriculum, in methods of teaching and assessment, and in relationships between schools and other agencies. The report is full of assertions and anecdotal evidence about the need for better balance, but does not seem to draw on robust information to support its conclusions. That was disappointing, and may be the reason why many of the detailed recommendations have been ignored by governments. For me section 8 of the report is the most relevant to my interest in the role of theatre in primary education. It covers the creation of partnerships between schools and outside organisations, with the objective of implementing collaborative activities aimed at providing creative and cultural experiences for children at their school. The report makes a number of specific recommendations about how participation might be achieved. However both section 8 and section 9 (on resources and funding) are, I think, naïve about how such partnerships might be funded. In fact in my work I have found more realism and innovation about how partnerships can be funded than the report shows. My next review follows through to a few “theatre” initiatives, which have picked up on the participation theme.
3. “Theatre in Education” (TIE) has become a generic term for an initiative started in 1965 at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry, as a separate art form and educational activity. A group consisting of actors, teachers and social workers were brought together to create a community outreach team. The outreach team created a project called, “PowWow”, which took a group of children and first introduced them to an actor playing a Cowboy. Later the children were introduced to an actor playing an Indian kept in a cage as a prisoner by the Cowboy. The children were given information about both characters and their opposing views in the situation and given the choice of whether or not to free the Indian. The project had successfully merged theatre and education for the first time. TIE has progressed from this point and although it differs from its original form, its primary aim is to use theatre and drama to create a wide range of learning opportunities across the whole curriculum. TIE companies will take a particular curriculum subject or topic and build a show and/or workshop around it. There are now a number of different groups and companies offering a wide range of theatrical experiences for children. These vary from scaled down west-end musicals to participation workshops aimed at combating drug abuse or anti-social behaviour. My own company Image Musical Theatre specialises in turning a moral tale into a musical performance. These are performed at schools, with participation by some children and after a general workshop for all children. The whole event is funded on a commercial basis. I have searched in vain for reports of research based evidence that TIE can provide a significant benefit to the education of
primary schoolchildren. There is a great deal of anecdotal evidence and opinion about the benefits of TIE, but I would like to see some systematic research. Work done by the University of Durham into the impact of drama on pupils language and mathematics abilities in two primary schools is interesting but of limited scope. The Cambridge Primary Review (CPR) is detailed and claims to be evidence based, but does not research the role of theatre in education specifically. It is however a “must” for all interested in primary school education. Many of the views expressed in CPR echo those in “All Our Futures” that a better curriculum balance is needed.

In my own small and very limited way I want the results of my inquiry to make a small contribution to the body of information on how theatre can contribute to the education of primary schoolchildren.