This video-ethnographic study explores pre-service teacher agency and creativity in the Swiss context. A small group of student teachers voluntarily attends after-hours training on possible uses of improvisation and basic drama conventions in the elementary school classroom. The session is led by an experienced drama teacher-trainer and filmed by the researcher. Individual group members then develop DiE lessons for various subjects to be tested during their teaching practicum. These test lessons are filmed. Reflection is a key part of drama work: Additional data is collected from journals and interviews.
The central questions around this study are: What does student teacher agency look like when given creative license? What are the possibilities, challenges and limitations of DiE work in the Swiss elementary school context? What (new) perspectives do the pre-service teachers encounter as they move in and out of the third space between drama-work and other teaching approaches?
Eva Göksel is a doctoral research assistant at the Centre for Oral Communication at the University of Teacher Education Zug, in Zug, Switzerland. She is also a PhD candidate at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, focusing on Drama in Education in teacher training. Her other research interests include storytelling and cultivating a culture of listening in elementary school classrooms. Eva coordinates the English Teachers Association Switzerland (ETAS) Drama and Literature Special Interest Group and she co-organises the annual Drama in Education Days in Konstanz, Germany: www.dramapaedagogik.de
