The inter-relationship between Drama and Therapy in an educational context, has been my passionate, on-going study, throughout my teaching career. This thesis is an activity-based, qualitative investigation of this inter-relationship. It is not about Drama as Therapy. It is about the therapeutic role that Drama performs as a medium in education.
My focus in this area has led to a recognition that my personal philosophy is similar to that of Slade (Schattner, G., Courtney, R., 1981, p. 77), who equates Child Drama as a form of Therapy.
As a result of this research, I define Dramatherapy within an educational context as esoteric, subtextual, personal and dependent on the specific context.
I have continuously and informally tested this philosophy in my Drama classes, extra-curricular theatre experiences, in workshops at conferences and in-service with colleagues from elementary and secondary schools. During my graduate studies (Arts and Education, Curriculum Department, OISE/UT), I researched a class of physically disabled children who were residents at Bloorview Children's Hospital in Toronto. I planned and implemented a Drama program for this class, and I was able to observe the dimension of the value in dramatic activity for this special group. I accomplished this through personal interaction, facilitation of the dramatic activities, team teaching of Drama, combined with forms of qualitative methodologies and data collection (journal-keeping, video-taping, analysis, interview, observation, teacher shadowing). From this experiential mode of research I confirmed the effectiveness of Dramatherapy as a helping medium in a special educational setting. ‘The stage was set’. From that point, I have continued to implement a variety of practical applications of Dramatherapy both overtly and covertly in the classroom setting with my own Drama students.
I was co-director of The Arts with the Handicapped Foundation of Canada (Arts Carousel) from 1975 - 1995. On behalf of this organization, I contributed research analysis on Arts with the Handicapped Organizations in Canada for the Report of the National Inquiry into the Arts and Education (1976).
Throughout my career, I have presented to groups, led workshops and in-service sessions, continuously basing these professional contributions and publications on the connectedness of the techniques and goals of Educational Drama and Therapy. I have built an on-going bibliography related to this topic, extending from the research. It is, therefore, my belief that my continued involvement and commitment to promoting the recognition of the multiple-facets of Dramatic Arts in general education validates my ability to have implemented this study.