Understanding drama teaching in compulsory education in Iceland: A micro-ethnographic study of the practices of two drama teachers

• Main Author: Thorkelsdóttir, Rannveig
• Other Authors: Anna-Lena Øster, Svanborg Rannveig Jónsdóttir, Uppeldis- og menntunarfræðideild (HÍ), Faculty of Education Studies (UI), Menntavísindasvið (HÍ), School of Education (UI), Háskóli Íslands, University of Iceland
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Norwegian University of Science and Technology Faculty of Social Sciences and Technology Management Programme for Teacher Education 2016
• Subjects: Drama teaching practices; Practice architectures; Learning trajectories of teachers; Ethnography in education; Ecology model; Leiklistarkennsla; Grunnskólar; Starfshættir; Starfsþróun; Kennarar; Eigindlegar rannsóknir; Doktorsritgerðir; Elliot; Hillcrest; Newcomer; Iceland
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11815/186

The rationale for this study is that drama was included in the national curriculum framework in Iceland for the first time in 2013. As a result, there were considerable tensions connected with how Icelandic schools could or should embrace this newcomer to the curriculum, whether the necessary competence existed to teach the subject and what kind of status drama could achieve among the other subjects in school. The overarching research question is: How is drama as a subject implemented in Icelandic compulsory education? Within a socio-cultural framework of understanding, an ethnographic study of the culture and the context for the implementation of drama was carried out. The ethnographic account is based on thick descriptions and thematic narrative analyses summed up as a cultural portrait of the drama teaching practices in Hillcrest (grade 5) and Mountain-line (grade 6) schools, respectively. The teaching practices of the drama teachers are described and interpreted from four perspectives, representing different curricular levels according to John Goodlad. The theory of practice architectures by Stephen Kemmis and Peter Grootenboer is used to interpret the findings. In this practice theory, practice is defined as a nexus of sayings, doings and relatings, dependent on the arrangements in the practice architectures. Enabling and constraining arrangements in the practice architectures connected to the implementation of drama as a subject in compulsory education are identified and discussed. An ecology model is suggested as a theoretical contribution and as an interpretive tool when analyzing how the classroom arena inhabited by teachers and students interacts with the different curriculum levels and the societal arena and culture. A dialectical tension is illustrated by a response loop influencing what can be achieved from the learning, including the influence of what Elliot Eisner calls an invisible curriculum. The study calls for changes in opportunities for the professional development of drama teachers. ...