¡BE PREBEARED! TEATRO EN EDUCACIÓN - THEATRE IN EDUCATION: A multilingual project for early learners

ABSTRACT

This article documents the creation and implementation of a multilingual (Spanish and English) Theatre in Education (TIE) play for general education and Dual Language kindergarten and first-grade classrooms. The author illustrates how enacting “role work” and dramatic play in TIE supports Lev Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development and Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligence theories in enhancing learning in the early childhood classroom. The author argues for the need to create more multilingual Theatre in Education. Through an analysis of critically engaged pedagogy by scholars Sonia Nieto and D. Pakkar-Hull, as well as the author’s implementation of a multilingual TIE play, the article highlights the positive outcomes in classroom learning when students’ languages and cultures are embraced in the learning environment while wrestling with the challenges of creating multilingual spaces in traditional monolingual theatrical and classroom structures.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ All dialogue is transcribed from video documentation unless otherwise noted.