But that’s not right, is it Miss? Colonization and conscientious objection through drama

Abstract

This article reports a short research project in which two primary school teachers and the researcher collaborated to design drama work to help their students navigate challenging journeys. From safe New Zealand classrooms, the two teachers used drama to look at the tyranny of colonization and at resistance by conscientious objection. Drama we know has the capacity to help students imagine another’s predicament, expand critical understanding, and support development into informed democratic citizens. The teachers let their students imagine colonization and resistance, and helped them see with new eyes. Students were challenged to question different perspectives on right and wrong and to navigate their own direction with critical thought and empathy. In the class who looked through literature at the rights of others in another age, having a rigorous lens turned on their drama work heightened their awareness and responsibility for their own work, and in turn deepened their responses to ideas. In the other class, though colonization had been the original commendable theme, the students made their own connections to their own lives and community, and revealed a degree of perception and insight that holds promise for the way those students will participate and balance responsibilities as citizens.