In this study, a number of implications emerged from my analysis of the data. I have listed these points here in the order that they were classified in Chapter Four. It can be concluded that, as a therapeutic medium in an educational context, Drama has metaphorical significance, representing a ‘double mirror’ for educators, and offers:

l A mutually beneficial reflective learning process for teacher and student,

l Forms of spontaneous activities that provide "unintended" benefits that can only be recognized upon reflection,

l A medium for the development of social and personal values,

l A helpful impetus for students to move beyond their familiar, media-influenced perception of life,

l The empowerment of students to make morally constructive decisions and to nurture their imaginations (apart from technology in the Arts),

l Opportunities for social development,

l A new and useful vocabulary for human interaction,

l Practitioners who value holistic pedagogy, empathic and intuitive teaching,

l Creativity-training in the school system (as opposed to career-training, teaching for employability),

l The transfer of learning from Drama to other subject areas,

l The development of literacy, language and higher level thinking skills,

l The promotion of healthy thinking processes, and questioning skills,

l The positive effect of small and large Group experience,

l An atmosphere for learning that is not always available in the ordinary classroom,

l A necessary tool for developing skills that are essential to human development), in self-expression, verbal communication and self-confidence,

l A safe environment for personal growth and short-term transformation,

l A viable component of the curriculum that allows opportunities for self-revelation, release of emotions and feelings.

The identified implications of the study are organized as these categories of meaning: personal and shared, governmental and systemic, curricular, and future research.

The first category implies that Drama as a therapeutic medium in Education has important meaning for individuals and groups and especially for the participants in this study. For example, in the update of his interview, La Frenie, cautioned that the success of any Drama program is dependent on the enthusiasm and dedication of the teacher. He repeated his belief, "If you have a dynamic teacher, you have a dynamic program. It is not the curriculum. It can’t come out of the curriculum, but only out of the individual Drama teacher who is there to interpret the curriculum."

The significant effects of the Dramatic experience are based on more than the context, but on the student’s personal context. That could take into account a student’s response to the energy, personality, gender, teaching style, and other motivational attributes of a Drama teacher.

In Chapter Four, Russell recognizes the major implications for one of his students who had been the focus of a Drama structure about a clown-like character who wanted to be taken seriously. This came from reading the reflections of that student. Russell disclosed that he had purposely established an emotional distance by not making this student the protagonist in the Drama. "The basic idea was that we were going to examine how a clown (someone who couldn’t help being or looking funny) would function in the world. They would find a reason why this clown wanted to be taken seriously." Russell had been frustrated as a teacher with this student who was extremely talented but could not discipline his performances, and who was unable to share the stage with his fellow players. Therefore, his diagnosis was that this Drama structure was what the boy needed. "At the end of the structure, this boy understood the idea that there are times when a person is perceived in a particular way that they don’t want to be and it is very hard for them to get out of a role that they have built for themselves." Russell taught this student after that class experience for many years. "He took the OAC course three times. This showed that he loved the class, because he kept coming back for more. And in fact, by the end of the last semester of his last year (that would have been grade fifteen), he wasn’t attending anything else; he was just doing the OAC Drama for the third time."

What happened here? A teacher invested in a particular student, giving him more opportunity than encouragement and direction in extra-curricular Drama productions. "This student learned how to support other players onstage and to give and take in a more disciplined way to produce better audience response. He learned a great deal about the need for discipline in the Arts and therefore, in one’s life. In that sense, he became more organized in his life."

This Drama structure was similar to a cognitive-behavioral-therapeutic approach through role-playing. It was not intended that the other students in the class would identify the personal reference to the clown character. But, because he was such an extreme case, it was unavoidable. "The role-playing that we did in the class was always done with the effort not to make the Drama work too personal or too focused on any group member." But, it remains in the sub-text of the classroom. Weeks later, someone might say to the boy, ‘Get serious! I am not clowning around here!’ It was group therapy. And, it became another part of a new social vocabulary for the group to use in order to function more effectively.

The development of a new, social vocabulary for positive, productive human interactions, as well as the personal growth of the specific student through Drama-in-Education, are clear implications of the study.

What is the "meaning" of Dramatherapy? Another implication revolves around the debate and the clarification of the term, Dramatherapy, as it associates with the term, Developmental Drama-in-Education. Warren reiterated what he thought to be the major difference between the two perspectives. His philosophy is essentially a Taoist one, which espouses a type of preventative medicine. Therefore, Warren’s practice (at the University undergraduate and graduate levels) has been rooted in prevention. "My way of working is to give people, if they are sick, the tools to help them get better. And if they are not sick, or if they have been sick at an earlier time, to help them maintain their current state of wellness."

He said that that was not always the case with Dramatherapy. There is a whole notion of ‘Theatre Toxic’, which is a term that he and George Major used to refer to this condition of people they worked with. "It means that not everybody feels ‘better’ doing Drama and in some cases, people may feel ‘worse’. It happens to people who really want to perform on stage. Stage fright is just an example of the effect." He has witnessed cases where people wanted to be in Drama either because they believed or somebody had told them that it would be good for them; actually it did them no good at all and in fact made them even worse and exacerbated their depression. One way he dealt with these cases was to putting these people backstage where they began to feel better because they were still doing "Theatre" but not onstage. So, for Warren, Drama can be beneficial and therapeutic but it can never be a Therapy, or considered one in a clinical sense. " He said with reference to all the Arts, "You can’t do the kind of scientific study that has to be repeatable with control groups in a blind test, nor would you want to." Instead, he suggests that you could talk about Therapy in terms of its therapeutic benefits as long as you didn’t try to suggest that it produced cause and effect responses. He felt that to talk about the therapeutic value of Drama was reasonable but that most Dramatherapists are not qualified enough to present it as a medical or scientific technique. This statement leads to another implication of the study which focuses on the issue of the recognized need, availability, development, implementation and quality assessment of certification programs in Dramatherapy in pre-service teacher training across Canada.

What is the role and function of the Drama teacher in a therapeutic context? The implication of this query is revealed in my personal anecdote: While I was analysing Hard’s recognition of the social benefits of Drama exercises as ice-breakers in the educational context (university), a similar experience came to mind which brought a new and clear understanding of the teacher’s role in the therapeutic process. I was asked to lead an adult group in the Hora, an Israeli celebratory dance, at a gathering for a colleague’s retirement. It was intended as the icebreaker activity of the party. As I was leading the group through the steps of the dance, I was cognizant of their total engagement due to the structure of the way it was taught and not as a result of my knowledge of what I was teaching them. Everyone was teaching each other in two large groups. I had been involved in the process of demonstrating the steps, encouraged the participants and did sideline coaching until there was no need for a "teacher". The participants were collectively working to develop their dancing skills. Therapeutic? Therapy? Yes and No. In the ‘doing’ there is a fine balance.

At the end of the gathering, my friend, thanked me for making the party a success. She had achieved her goal. She had wanted the participants to be more than audience, to celebrate their own achievements and share the event with her. The ‘dance of celebration’ energized the group, starting with a simple act of holding hands, moving together, lifting my friend high up on a chair, forgetting gender, age or other physical differences. Being in the moment! There does not have to be a catharsis, or overt transformation for an experience to be a therapeutic; only a vitality, a sharing (of laughter), and a supportive, trusting, collective atmosphere in which the teacher becomes obsolete in the process.

Hard outlined some implications of her Drama "training and experiences" relating to her work as a kinesiologist/hydrotherapist in a physiotherapy clinic. One of her foci, is to make every treatment as "entertaining" as possible for the patient. "For some people, it is very easy to slip into depression as a result of the trauma and daily pain management they endure." She uses "theme days" at the pool such as Hawaiian day when everyone who comes to the pool wears a lei around his neck and Hawaiian music is played. Also, because the atmosphere in the clinic is so serious, tedious, rigorous, she uses Drama in her work with young children. "Physiotherapists call her over to deal with the little kids because she tends to be more expressive and creative in dealing with them." She said that the more "entertaining" approach works with older clients as well. And, although she doesn’t use Drama techniques consciously in her work, "techniques come into play subconsciously in certain situations and she is able to improvise ‘on the spot’."

There was another implication that emerged from the answers of the research subjects regarding their personal background. The pattern that was repeated clarified "the double mirror factor" as an element of therapeutic Drama teaching. This means that the teacher allows the student to be vulnerable by showing his own vulnerability and authenticity. Therefore, taking the risk to move beyond the limits of his societally endowed role, the teacher opens the door for the student to relate more openly, willingly, in a spontaneously created role. The student learns to "let go", to make appropriate selection of the masks in their personal repertoire of characters, and to apply their newly acquired vocabulary to their daily interactions. What this implies for the discussion of the role of Drama teachers, is that the therapeutic effect connected to their teaching is based on the achieved level and intensity of their personal reflections.

The development of spontaneity through Drama is another implication of this study. Spontaneity can be cultivated in both individuals and groups in educational settings. The researcher’s on-going classroom research has revealed that students know intuitively when they are being spontaneous and accept the moment as a positive one. Yet, they do not know exactly what it is, or how they can repeat that experience.

The current trend in education is to rely on prescriptive curriculum guidelines (The Arts, Grades 9,10, MOE,1999) emphasizing knowledge of content and skill development, standardized report cards, exemplars, and technological assessment tools. Wilkinson (1980) directs this issue to Drama-in-Education as she cautions teachers from putting an overemphasis on objectivity. In her opinion, the combined elements of spontaneity and imagination are integral to this process which permits the individual a kind of I-Thou relationship to the world (Buber, 1937). Thus, the introduction of spontaneity training, borrowing techniques from Developmental Drama, Dramatherapy, and Psychodrama should be included with educational goals in Drama education. It would be an effective means of liberating society’s spontaneous creative potential.

This study also recognizes how Drama as a medium for therapy significantly affects the whole educational system. This includes certain implications for pre-service teacher training, professional development, additional qualification certification, funding of artists-in-the classroom projects, budgetary restraints, curriculum planning and implementation, evaluation strategies and approval of new course codes for the Arts.

The following comments of the interviewed participants are relevant to the significance of the study. The result-oriented trend that has been occurring within the educational system was discussed. This movement creates a trap whereby Drama as a technique to provide specific results, overrides the open-endedness of true Dramatic process. Using Drama techniques for anger-management, time-management, or other specifically programmed outcomes could be dangerous and could affect how the assessment of students is implemented. If this trend continues, teachers would require very specialized and additional training to use Drama techniques with such goals as conflict management. More psychology courses need to be compulsory in pre-service teacher education. "It would have been advantageous just being able to identify and see behavior in a larger and more specific context."

Another trend towards a "business" model of education was discussed. In this movement students have been purposely directed towards employability and developing those skills to achieve that. "The emphasis is on employability eight hours a day. We are neglecting the rest. And if we frame the education system around employability exclusively, we are missing the boat! That is the human interactive aspect that values imagination and play." It can be said that Drama prepares students for the job world, providing employability skills in its own way: through game-playing and cooperative activities. They are also being given other meaningful ‘life’ experiences that have nothing to do with that but the Drama teacher is aware of the reality. Such skills are therapeutic and include learning how to spend time alone, learning how to be more honest, and so on.

Another implication that arose from the discussion in the Forum was the move towards "generalization" of non-specialist teachers who are recruited to teach Drama. "They lack the experience, even if they are given one section to teach in their timetable; they mostly rely on textbook lesson plans to get by. It is difficult to go beyond a structured class that would be taught in Math." This is an implication for Drama teaching as a whole as it can affect the student’s level of learning. They felt that all Drama students should be taught by Drama specialists at some point in their education. It is, in the Group’s opinion, unproductive to have untrained teachers of Drama teaching it. "Without the adaptability and flexibility (the depth of background and a big bag of tricks), a non-specialist teacher can’t deal with the students as they are and where they are." La Frenie added his argument that "unless you recognize the legitimacy of the art form, you can’t teach it as a technique in something else." He is convinced that the system should be hiring specialized teacher/artists to teach the Arts programs.

Another apparent implication is the overlapping of course content and methodology. It was noted that Drama methodology was being used by untrained Drama teachers from other subjects in the curriculum. Is it "real" Drama? If it isn’t, then how will teacher training change so that teachers are better able to implement the approach and fulfill the vision? How long will it be before major changes are evidenced in teacher education? Swartz asked, "How are teachers going to learn about teaching through Drama? How do they prioritize their curriculum initiatives with all the new documents and hundreds of expectations that they are required to address? How can they do it all?" He said that the Arts (which includes Drama) do not seem to be a priority based on Ministry Directives. Yet, he indicated that the number of people enrolling in the additional qualification courses in Drama, which he coordinates at OISE/UT, has increased. This has given him a sense of optimism.

Also, Drama educators have been watching the extinction of their subject. Drama teachers are being usurped by other subject areas, and Drama departments are shrinking as techniques are being dispersed throughout the rest of the curriculum. That has happened with the integrated grade nine Arts courses, for example. The underlying implication is that "true integration" may not be accomplished. "Half the time, the students are with the Visual Art teacher and are involved in such activities as perspective drawing; in Drama, we try to relate them to Drama things as their story, or personality. The concern for the student is that the Art teacher may only see the "Visual Art" aspects of the work and miss the Drama content of the material (e.g. the severed head in the corner, or the significance of the use of the color, black).

Dryden’s discussion of the needs of "today’s kids" presents another implication of this study. How does the system serve those needs? He promoted Drama as a method as well as a subject in its own right because, "Drama class is made for today’s kid." If Drama can reach and motivate students to learn through its "informal, unself-conscious, verbal, familiar, active, profane, and authentic methods, then how can its value as a significant component of the curriculum be so unheeded?

Tyrell suggested that mentorship programs, as a way of dealing with the students without sufficient or effective parental role models, should be implemented in all schools. She said, "Kids come in with a ton of baggage and can’t concentrate on their work. How can they function? Their families are breaking up, dying and they go to school; they’re just "not there". Teachers have so many problem kids; it’s de-streamed; it’s crazy."

The transfer of learning through Drama to other subject areas begs consideration of its implications. La Frenie said that he believed that the natural qualities that emerge from Drama flow into other areas of the student’s life and school environment. "Theatre brings out the ability to learn Math". And in a survey of primary and junior teachers and administrators conducted for the Ontario Ministry of Education and Training, it was found that Arts programs help students learn "in the general program of studies through improving perception, awareness, concentration, uniqueness of though, style, problem-solving, confidence and self-worth, and motivation." (OAC,1997). And accordingly, the growing public awareness of theories of multiple intelligences, and brain development strongly supports the case for promoting the Arts-in-Education. Arts-in-Education, therefore, is a therapeutic mode for learning in general.

Courtney (1981) asked: is there a relationship between Drama in learning as a whole and Dramatherapy? This is another important question for future research but is not of primary concern in the present study.

Would students benefit from taking a full course in Dramatherapy, focusing on self-worth, etc. where a teacher could go further with students who wanted to "do" more therapeutic work in the classroom? Russell thought so. He stipulated that it would have to be taught by a Drama teacher with an additional qualification in Dramatherapy; otherwise, there could be consequences to deal with. Russell recounted one such incident in the update of his narrative in 1999. A colleague had come to him for advice because he had been moved by an experience he had teaching a class of grade tens over a period of three days, but didn’t know how to follow–up the "emotional" experience. They had started reading stories from a book, Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul (Canfield, 1997) and began to share personal stories. The class had "this big sharing experience" in which they were hugging each other and crying and supporting each other. One girl related the story about her father and brother who had died in a highway accident in British Columbia before she had moved to Ontario. They had this big hug fest and one of the kids stood at the door and as each kid left, he pretended to sprinkle "happy dust" on them. The teacher came to Russell for some direction about how to come back to the class after this kind of experience. They looked at the idea of taking some of their stories and abstracting some of the issues into other things. "We had to talk about, maintaining some protection of role in the process."

What this illustrates is that "a teacher who is well-intentioned but without adequately specialized training could find himself at an impasse and a room full of emotionally-charged young people with nowhere to go." This is not Dramatherapy.

Funding cuts, by the new Provincial Government, have demolished important Drama Associations. For instance, the DACAO (Dramatic Arts Consultants Association of Ontario) has collapsed since the ‘cutbacks’ abolishing the role of consultants in many Boards of education. Another consequence of the funding cuts has been the elimination of headships for Drama. Without the head’s time release, virtually, there cannot be any support for colleagues teaching Drama in schools. In the new organization of secondary schools in Ontario, there is one Head per school, responsible for all the Arts. This does not mean that the appointed Head of all the Arts necessarily possesses equal expertise in each of the Arts areas. The necessity for these qualifications prevails.

Furthermore, through his active involvement with CODE, (the Council of Drama and Dance in Education) and working with the Ministry’s initiative to provide in-service of the new Drama curriculum, Russell was able to update this research with certain implications. He thought that it was made too rigorous in the attempt to make it conform to the political jargon. In doing so, he felt that the politicians had devalued the Arts (and Drama) and "shoved in a number of ridiculous expectations … the theatre history expectations for grade nine Drama students are beyond the resources of 99 per cent of the teachers in the Province to deliver." He added that the expectations would be a challenge even for the OAC level students. "Trace the development of comedy from ancient theatre to the modern day. To do that kind of research in grade nine is absurd, pointless and flies in the face of the true value of Arts-in-Education." However, he said that on the whole, the expectations for Drama have been written with enough flexibility that a teacher could do a more theatre-based curriculum or a more process-oriented kind of program using a range of methods and approaches, and still meet the expectations that have been written.

How does this affect the representation of Drama as a therapeutic medium within these expectations? Russell said that this view of Drama was not represented in the curriculum because the politicians who reviewed the expectations at various levels did not understand Drama in this way. So, teachers will have to know what they are doing beyond what is written. "They will have to put those values back in while they are delivering those expectations. If they do it right, they’ll be able to create a "therapeutic" environment for students to be involved in. It’s not overt though. It’s not in the text; it’s in the sub-text."

What are the implications for the artist in the educational system? Tyrell said that artists, like herself, would hopefully continue to be the resources for implementing and enhancing the curriculum. She was referring to the Common Curriculum Government document in 1995 that had directed that one quarter of all curriculum be taught through the Arts. Even then, she felt sorry for those teachers because they had not had any additional training and all of a sudden, it landed on their desks. She asked, "How could you go from teaching one way, and over night to teaching another way, when you do not have a clue how to do it?" And she was worried about Government cuts that could "kill" her because all her funding comes through schools and grants. So, she has felt compelled to integrate her work into the curriculum more and more.

Drama, along with other expressive arts therapies, has more than one foot in the door of education (Creadick, T.A., 1985). This is especially true considering the passage of the Government’s Bill 82, which deemed that all individuals have an equal right to educational opportunities offered by the public system of education. The introduction of this law in schools has ultimately affected the growth of Special Education programs; it has also instituted individualized programming for students with learning and behavioral disabilities and made the regular classroom teacher more responsible and aware of the need for specific methodologies which will enable them to better deal with the mainstreaming of students with special needs. The pattern of declining enrolment in the secondary school, combined with changes in credit requirements for secondary school graduation (The New Ontario Curriculum, 1999) has necessitated the concept of bi-levelling. Those affected most by this procedure in particular, have been Arts (and Drama) students.

How do the above-described educational changes relate to the significance of the research? More and more it is becoming the educator’s responsibility to aid in the early detection of problem behavior and to develop preventative and therapeutic applications. Since Drama is becoming recognized as a treatment modality in its own right (Schattner, G. Courtney, R. 1981), perhaps in the future, its value not only for special but general education will increase. Since all teachers are required to adopt special education responsibilities, mentorship, career and life counseling duties, they too will become more aware of the need for therapeutic strategies in their classrooms.

The development of specialized programs in the Arts and the rise of schools for the Arts has produced a need for educators to become better equipped to deal with the unique characteristics of Arts students in general and common traits of students in specific arts subjects (e.g. Drama). The fact that the Peel and Toronto District Boards of Education have employed psychiatrists and psychology personnel indicates on-going activity in crisis intervention throughout their systems. As Drama becomes a recognized agent for the maintenance of personal wellness, this research will have even greater implications for these populations. The classroom teacher in all Arts areas, then, will have to recognize the need to develop ‘helping strategies’.

Warren warned the researcher about defining what is meant by those things associated with Therapy, like self-esteem or body image. "If you are going to talk about Dramatherapy or Drama as Therapy, or talk about it in a clinical sense, you better be careful about how you are going to prove it happened. Most of the research that has been done has been appalling." This implies the need for further research in the area of Dramatherapy in all contexts.

This research also has implications for adult education. Enrollment of adults in High school, Community College, University Continuing Education and other programs has not decreased for a range of purposes, the foremost being career training. Drama methodology, therefore, can be a helpful medium in adult learning. "One easily forgets that human education proceeds along highly theatrical lines. In a quite theatrical manner, the child is taught how to behave, logical arguments only come later...It is no different with grown-ups. Their education never finishes. Only the dead are beyond being altered by their fellow men." (Brecht in Schattner, G.Courtney, R.,1981).

Other questions may arise as a result of this study, but primarily, it has been my task to analyse how the therapeutic benefits of Drama-in-Education are being experienced by students and implemented by Drama teachers and artist/educators. This study, will hopefully promote the recognition of "constructive acting out" (including role-playing) and the rational and reflective aspects of Drama, as useful methods for teaching Drama and other subjects in the curriculum.

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The future may see the Drama/Theatre educator as "generalist/specialist" which in fact is not a contradiction. Professional artists similarly may be compelled to acquire pedagogical skills to enable the blending of school curricula and performance repertoire. Professionals may have to work more closely with colleges, universities and school systems. Even teacher-training programs may become longer in duration becoming more apprenticeship-oriented or concurrent.

The ideal future of Drama education in Canada would see a variety of "new", therapeutic approaches integrating ideas from Gestalt, psychodrama, sociodrama, Eastern philosophy, martial arts, dance, movement awareness, cooperative physical games, and Boal’s Forum Theatre as the curriculum ideally becomes more holistic. And even more idealistically, if Drama were to become the core of the curriculum, students would see the quality and extent of how different subjects relate to one another. As a consequence, future University programs would also have to reflect this holism in a global perspective. As a result, I can see an increase in the number of graduate courses and programs related to Drama/Theatre Education and subsequently an accumulation of theorists, authors, learned journal publications, theses, and dissertations in the growing field. Drama educators would increase the number of "practitioners making theories" (Hunt, 1987). Teachers would become accepted and acceptable as action researchers focusing on the qualitative methodologies within their classrooms. The personal narrative style of the Drama researcher can gain greater acceptance, recognition, and make an even greater impact on the field of educational research.

Other concerns for future forums and research in (Drama) education were raised by the participants at the conclusion of the Group Forum of this study. The topics included: evaluating the "silent" student (who listens but doesn’t respond verbally), developing emotional intelligence, objectivity versus subjectivity in evaluation of Arts Education, the long-term effects of media and technology, survival strategies (personal coping skills) for Drama teachers in the new millennium.

For the benefit of students of all ages, the teacher must be an educator in the true sense of the word, "leading out: the potential of people for knowledge, understanding, and creative action in the world." (Koltai, J. in Schattner, G, Courtney, R., 1981). If teachers and students begin to perceive this philosophy as the most desirable goal of education today, then they will be able to "enter the healing dance together, striving for spiritual, intellectual, emotional and physical wholeness". The word, Therapy, need not be feared; the therapeutic value of Drama needs to be understood and appreciated. Eventually, Drama and Therapy may be seen as mutually supportive partners in the pursuit of this educational objective while Drama as a therapeutic medium loses its controversial status and gains recognition as a Double Mirror.

I believe that the educational pendulum's movement has transformational qualities as it gains momentum through time. It does not stop. It connects past, present and future. It has allowed me to gain a clearer vision of the struggle that I and other Drama educators continue to endure as we seek the support for and acknowledgment of Drama as a therapeutic medium in the expansive field of education.