Drama and Spirituality: reflective connections

This paper illustrates the powerful role that drama can play in facilitating spiritual development. The opportunities offered through the experience of improvisation are examined through a detailed examination of a single drama session. The children’s engagement in and reflection upon the drama are seen as sensitive vehicles to build a sense of community, increase self knowledge, develop empathy, search for meaning and purpose and experience a sense of the transcendent. Examples are given of children’s responses, both oral and written, to illuminate possible reflective connections between drama and spiritual growth. Introduction It is the responsibility of schools to facilitate children’s spiritual development in all subjects of the curriculum (Education Reform Act, 1989). Yet recent surveys suggest that both OFSTED and schools give inadequate attention to the promotion of children’s spiritual development through subject teaching (Wenman, 2001). Furthermore, the reification of subject knowledge and detailed specification of curriculum content found in the National Strategies, the NC and QCA documentation may well have served to separate subjects rather than integrate them. However, there are ways of creating a more learning focused agenda (Bigger and Brown, 2000). This paper represents one attempt to do so and illuminates the potential of drama as an imaginative scaffold for spiritual development. Drawing on the view that an ‘essential factor in cultivating spirituality is reflection and learning from one’s experiences’ (Copley, 2000) a powerful example of improvised drama from the primary classroom is used to explore spiritual development in action. The dual frames of engagement and reflection, core constructs in process drama are highlighted throughout (O, Neill, 1995). Exploring the Potential of Drama in Spiritual Development In classroom drama children search for meaning and purpose in fictional settings and learn more about the real world from their improvisational engagement in an imaginary one. Drama involves making and shaping new worlds and investigating issues within them, so it has considerable potential as a tool in the development of spirituality. The opportunity for ‘innerstanding’ (Heathcote & Bolton,1995) and inhabiting the lives of others, enables children to experience safe emotional engagement and take part in creative explorations of secular and faith tales. In classroom drama, children create and experience a living narrative and examine it from within. Their teacher, often in role, accompanies the learners on this journey and uses a range of conventions to investigate the themes, characters, motives and meanings in the text. Such investigations can also support the creation of community, the development of self -knowledge and may involve opportunities to engage in feelings of wonder and transcendence. Teaching and learning are more holistically encountered in the context of drama and elements of drama are recognisable in Bowness and Carter’s (1999) description of the process of spiritual learning. They suggest there should be an, “emphasis on intuition, experience, imagination, silence in the face of mystery, wondering, open exploration, being as well as doing, reflecting, giving ‘space for the spirit’, holism and making connections”. (p.226) Improvisational classroom drama can encompass all of these features as it acknowledges that teaching and learning are not merely cognitive but emotional, aesthetic and ethical acts. To explore the opportunities which drama offers spiritual development, a vignette from the classroom is recounted and interpreted. It was undertaken with year 5 children, aged 9 and 10 and was based upon the persecution of the Israelites in Egypt, as recounted in the Bible, Exodus 1 and 2. As the drama unfolds, the learning is analysed and exemplified in relation to aspects of spirituality. These include meaning and purpose, transcendence, self-knowledge and relationships (NCC, 1993). In addition to the work of others, the ‘framework for children’s spirituality’ (Hay and Nye, 1998) formed an important reference point for the analysis. In order to hear the voices of the children and appreciate the power of the drama, the analysis and reflection is quite deliberately presented separately, it generally follows each section of the dramatic action. The Context for the Drama In essence, the tale tells of how the Egyptian Pharaoh at that time developed a sense of insecurity, amounting to paranoia over the number of Israelites in his land. Concerned, lest they should join his enemies or plot against him, he made them work as slaves. The people of Israel flourished however, so he ordered that the Hebrew midwives should kill all newborn males. The midwives, not wishing to become child murderers, tricked the Pharaoh and finally his soldiers were commanded to act. The story tells of how Jochebed and Amram, an Israelite couple, placed their son in a cradle of rushes and trusted God to look after him. Although this class had undoubtedly heard the tale of Moses before, this drama session sought to explore the social and moral issues in the narrative, as well as expand the children’s knowledge and understanding of persecution. Classroom drama does not require the learner to reenact the known, but involves discovering the unknown and exploring situations, values, motives, thoughts and feelings. Although the session was not planned with the conscious aim of facilitating spiritual development, when the drama was examined the seemingly elusive nature of spirituality and the children’s learning in this domain became more evident. It is clear that improvisational drama may hold a valuable key to unlocking a range of processes, strategies and consequences for enriching children’s spiritual development. ‘It’s our land, our harvest, we should share it’: Spirituality as Community Initially, the teacher sought to build a sense of community both fictionally and for real through the drama, which as Taggart (2001) intimates, must be a core practice for all of us who desire spirituality in education. Hull (1995) insists that ‘spirituality seeks to recreate community through participation in the lives of others’ (p.132). In creating the drama context, the teacher helped the class build a sense of the place and the people involved. They discussed the kinds of jobs folk in the Egyptian farming community would do, mimed these, then worked in groups creating contrasting freeze frames to show farmers in times of plenty and of hardship. The teacher took on the role of an Egyptian foreman arriving in the fields to demand the ‘first fruits’ of the harvest as payment to the Pharaoh for the use of his land. As family groups the learners gathered together to decide what they would offer the Pharaoh. Immediately some began to grumble and complain, whispering amongst themselves about ways to avoid this tax or withhold their resources. An empty chair was used symbolically for children to give witness to the rest of the class about their motives, behaviour and attitudes at this time. Several voiced the view that the Pharaoh could not be trusted, and argued that once the pattern was established he would demand more, others felt the land belonged to all the people and its harvest should be shared. Connections were then made to contemporary life, allowing a pause outside the imaginary frame. This reflective discussion was quite lengthy, and included the existence and fairness of council taxes, as well as giving up personal material possessions ,e.g. Gameboys and Nintendos, photos of loved ones and so on. As Nathan perceptively observed ‘You could give away your photos ‘cos they’ll still be with you in your heart won’t they?’. The children’s engagement and reflection in the drama had prompted imaginative connections to emerge in the form of text to life and life to text moves (Meek, 1988) and allowed the meanings they constructed to be both relevant and real. Within this empathetically created reality, the children were apparently demonstrating many of the implicit strategies (reasoning, imagining, moralizing) that researchers such as Hay and Nye (1998) argue are vital for a maturing spirituality. ‘Why do you hate us so? We’re equal people.’: Self knowledge through