Influence of the ‘conventions approach’ on higher education in drama

ABSTRACT

The three editions of Structuring Drama Work by Jonothan Neelands and Tony Goode have been translated into numerous languages. We have investigated the international influence of the ‘conventions approach’ through a survey focusing on those who teach in higher education. The questions raised include: who has read the book, which edition(s) and which languages? To what extent has the conventions approach dominated experts’ studies, their practice and their teaching? What conventions do they prefer to use? Although we paid particular attention to Norway, Hungary and China, we also collected responses from several other countries. The responses were analysed quantitatively. We found that while the conventions approach seems to be widely spread internationally and a dominant element in higher education in drama, a ‘core set’ of conventions – mostly those published in the first edition – are better known worldwide and more used than the more recently added items.

KEYWORDS:

• Educational drama
• conventions approach
• Structuring Drama Work
• cross-cultural research
• survey

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Ildikó Danis for her help with the statistical analysis and all our respondents worldwide.

Disclosure statement

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

Data availability statement

https://osf.io/d6hpc

Geolocation information

Bergen, Norway

Notes

1. Discussing the different adaptations of the term, such as ‘dramatic convention’, ‘theatre convention’, ‘theatrical convention’, ‘performance convention’, ‘stage convention’, ‘epic convention’ or ‘verbatim theatre convention’ (e.g., Peters, 2017), just to name a few, would require an article on its own.

2. See https://www.abdn.ac.uk/education/people/profiles/william.barlow.

3. The university’s ownership rights were transferred to a private foundation in August 2020, so the future of this course is unknown.

4. N in statistics refers to the total number of individuals in the analysed sample.

5. The Pearson Chi-square test is commonly used in inferential statistical analysis for testing the strength of relationships between two nominal variables. In this article, we present our results according to APA 7th standards. When looking at statistical results, we must always look for the p value, which indicates the level of significance. ’In statistics, a result is called statistically significant if it is unlikely to have occurred by chance. The significance level is expressed by the p value, and the less it is, the more significant the result is. The p value should be multiplied by 100 and read as a percentage, e.g., when p = 0.02 it means that the possibility of the result having occurred by chance is 2%. In social science, a p < 0.05 is considered to be significant and p < 0.01 is considered to be strongly significant’ (DICE Consortium, 2010, p. 38). ALL results indicated in this article are significant (p < 0.05 or less). When p < 0.000, one can say without exaggeration that it is an exceptionally strong significance and it means that it is very likely that there is a relationship between the variables. Please note that such a strong significance is very rare in the social sciences.

6. Laszlo Kaposi, who has led the best-known in-service teacher training in drama in Hungary semi-annually since 1992, informed us in an email which he sent after completing the questionnaire that many of the more recently published conventions in the third edition will be included in his course as of 2020 (Kaposi, personal communication, 2020).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Adam Cziboly

Adam Cziboly is an associate professor in drama and applied theatre and is currently a candidate in a professor qualification program at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL). He is a drama teacher, a psychologist and a cultural manager. He was the project leader of several dozen international projects in the field of Drama/Theatre in Education. He initiated and led the research project DICE with the participation of 12 countries, the first in-depth research into the impact of drama and theatre education methods on Lisbon key competencies. He was the lead author of two key Hungarian handbooks on Theatre in Education and Theatre Pedagogy.

Mette Bøe Lyngstad

Mette Bøe Lyngstad is a professor in drama and applied theatre at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL). She has been employed at HVL for 21 years. She has been an educator, researcher, leader of the drama department and Principal Investigator for the research group ‘Neglected Narratives’. Lyngstad has presented her own research extensively both nationally and internationally (Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Island, Turkey, United Kingdom, France, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, USA, Peru, Brazil).

Sisi Zheng

Sisi Zheng holds a master’s degree in Drama and Applied theatre and two bachelor’s degrees in drama and sociology. She is now a PhD student from Western Norway University of Applied Sciences. Her ongoing research is about process drama in Chinese education, especially regarding moral education in primary schools. Sisi has participated in various international research projects among others UTFORSK and Global Science Opera, GSO4SCHOOLS. She has worked as a drama teacher for bachelor students and in-service teachers both in Norway and in China. She also works as a freelance translator of the Nordic languages and Chinese language.