Drama Boreale - Åbo Akademi

esponsibilities, play with elements of reality and study alternative realities. The task of
the teacher is to help build drama worlds where students are able, using their available
knowledge and skills, to act as freely and naturally as possible. This action is not free,
however, but guided by the chosen genre and the limits and conditions imposed by the
drama world. In order for the activity to be aesthetically educational, it must have an
underlying tone of serious playfulness: the freedom to explore, create, observe and
experiment.
I have written (2002, 2004) about serious playfulness, which I consider to be a central
philosophical stance and the drama-pedagogical knowledge of the teacher – knowledge
and skills in the framework of drama as a learning area. Serious playfulness takes into
account the nature of drama and theatre and on that basis creates a theatrical and
educational dialogue. The content aim is to examine issues from different perspectives,
and the activity aim is to learn how to take on and throw oneself into a role, and to read
and analyse a dramatic text. The context of the time-self-place transformation is chosen
in advance, but otherwise the transformation is alive and changes according to what kind
of dialogue is formed and what choices are made. Social and aesthetic rules are
continuously negotiated – interfaces and meanings are sought even from unlikely places.
Playfulness is an important force bringing energy and joy in this process: without serious
playfulness providing energy and guiding activities, the process falls apart and the
dramatic tension disappears, along with the idea of drama as a learning area.
The value of drama education – is it about aesthetic learning or dealing with issues,
or both?
Currently, my own research work is chiefly interested in understanding, analysing and
interpreting emotional, cognitive and cultural learning experiences. In this context, I ask
myself and the readers of this article the following question: are we able to take a
sufficient mental distance without leaving ourselves too far from drama and theatre as a
phenomenon? I have aimed at finding ways of observing and studying from both
narrative research and researching my own work. One important source of drama
research I have used is O’Toole’s (2006) book “Doing Drama Research”.
As regards Nordic research of drama education, the central thesis of Nils Braanaas,
Norwegian pioneer in drama education, relates to highlighting the aesthetic significance
of drama in defining the subject. Braanaas (1985/1992) argues that art subjects should
not be made pedagogical i.e. they should not be emphasised as methods or tools in
teaching other subjects. Indeed, it is justified to say that art subjects are not primary
learning methods. According to Braanaas, the task of drama education in schools is not
to turn pupils into better thinkers or to change attitudes or deepen learning of languages
or other subjects. The aim instead is aesthetic knowledge. This idea is perhaps not in
accordance with the abovementioned ‘Drama Worlds as Learning Areas’. But what does
aesthetics mean to students?
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• The aesthetic bit is more about watching rather than doing.
• You can appreciate something: if you went to see a play you are not directly
involved in it, so you are looking at it objectively through an aesthetic
appreciation of it.