Introduction
 

This short paper discusses the educational strategy know as 'Drama in Education'. It has manifested itself in various forms, form the application of its methods in all subjects to its restriction to only drama related ones. This article reports the theory and practice of a drama, which was conducted at the Faculty of Education, University of Western Sydney - Nepean (Kingswood), Australia. To test the Drama in Education strategy we had a number of cultural and social issues readily available in 1996. We decided to chose an apparent main issue which is applicable in Australian schools: youth ethnicity. As drama allows us the freedom to experience potentially harmful situations safely, we thus explored the demands placed upon ethnic cultures by the dominate ones and how youth and parents react to these pressures. This is only one issue, out of thousands, that can be explored through Drama in Education.

The Drama Learning

 Drama learning has developed, in the Australian education system, as a unique learning experience. It is not, unlike other subjects at school, a traditional subject, where the teacher is in the authoritative power position and the student is in the passive learning role. Drama, at its very essence, demands that the student is active and learns, not only through the textbook approach, which is typical of other school subjects, but through personal experience in relation to the topic. Many topics can, therefore, be explored through drama. These, through the protection of role play, can be studied in depth without the behavioural correctness that is demanded in other school subjects. Here, the role of the teacher is essential. Hence, in the strategy of teacher-in-role, the teacher allows the students freedom to explore.

 Drama in education can be seen as many things. In its essence, however, we can describe it as a learning tool for ‘... personal development; self expression and interpersonal communication’ . Furthermore, it has been the development of these qualities, through the process of dramatic activity, which is, without doubt, educational. The process is the significant part, not the final performance. Heathcote explains further that drama in education:
 

 As we know what is the purpose and structure of drama in education, it is, therefore, important to define the teacher-in-role strategy, before we discuss its application to youth culture and the classroom in general. Accordingly, the teacher must manage the dramatic possibilities, along with the learning opportunities that are provided by the drama, from within it. This is done by adopting a suitable role . Bolton explains that:
 

This can be done through a number of ways. The teacher can excite interest, control the action, invite involvement, provoke tension, challenge thinking, create choices, and develop narrative. The teacher can, thus, create possibilities for other roles and discussion for the group to act out . As such, the teacher is not acting spontaneously but is trying to mediate the learning through the teacher's involvement from within the drama .

 Overall, the teacher-in-role produces a subtle change in the power structure of the classroom. This is essential when dealing with topics as delicate as youth culture. Youth culture can be seen as culture that is seemingly opposed to the traditional lifestyle and values of the previous generation . Yet, this vision of the opposition of youth may be over stated. Truly youth are just as a diverse group of humans as any other cultural group. There can be male youth sub-cultures, female youth sub-cultures, working class youth sub-cultures, upper class youth sub-cultures, and ethnic youth sub-cultures, just to name a few, who, although make up youth culture, are wildly diverse .

 Furthermore, youth, in a changing society, undergoing sudden change themselves, are experiencing an existence of a constrained and impersonal world. Thus, the variations of youth cultures may be considered as adjustments to, and reactions against, the dominant values in society. Youth have less clearly defined roles and are not usually allowed full legitimate expression of their individuality. The traditional role of teachers tend to illustrate a stereotypical adult view of teenagers as irresponsible .

 The strategy of teacher-in-role, as stated, changes this view: and the learning opportunities are greatly increased. Although the teacher never ceases in reality from being the teacher, by simply accepting a different role in the drama, a subtle change is allowed to occur whereby, the power structure of the class has changed: the responsibility of the class is transferred to the students . This is further enforced by the fact that by bringing the students into the drama as equal participants, a change has occurred of this same power structure within the confines of the drama. Consequently, the authoritarian position of the teacher has been negated, through a negotiation process between the teacher and student. Although this new situation may not be totally accepted by the students for the first couple of classes, it is a confidence building and necessary exercise for students, in order to start developing meaningful youth related drama, in an open environment, with a teacher who is usually considered the enemy .

 Drama, and teacher-in-role, are different strategies to educate students. They are not merely about increasing knowledge. They are about producing a fully functional social individual. The teacher is a guide and must be flexible about their role. This is essential since this is the way that the teacher deepens the learning experience, teaches new skills, improves the quality of work, and offers constructive criticism. Furthermore, the potential value of active experience in drama, is the student's controlled attempts to explore, develop, and express ideas and concepts which will help that student make sense of their subjective responses to the real world .

 The teacher, therefore, has to be clear about the kinds of learning that are to be encouraged through drama. This may be exploring the use of the process itself; understanding themes, topics, and issues through drama; participation in performance; and the interpretation and appreciation of dramas by other people. All these will substantially affect the nature of learning which takes place.
 
 

Putting Theory into Practice:

Immigrant Youth In Australia

 This drama was conducted at the Faculty of Education, University of Western Sydney - Nepean (Kingswood). The drama process started with two brainstorming meetings. The first of these was basically a `get to know you' meeting and was primarily used to ascertain the expertise and experience of the two participants. As such, it was discovered that, although one participant had limited drama experience, the knowledge and experience involved with being an immigrant could be used in order to create a drama for a youth related topic. It was decided at this meeting to develop, for the next one, a youth related drama based upon the theme of youth immigrants.

 The next meeting concentrated, again, on brainstorming youth immigrants in Australia. Here it was decided that there were three typical family developments. Although this is stereotyping, by accepting Heathcote's hypothesis of drama in education, it is somewhat required for the purpose of process and performance. It was considered that, as standard, the child was willing to accept Australian ways, while the parents, for the most part, wanted to keep to their traditional customs and national life styles.

 The three scenarios, that came out of the discussion where: (1) the parents still in control; (2) parents fully accept the child's behaviour of accepting Australian ways; and (3) parents and child in conflict over their approach to Australia, resorting to arguments and, therefore, relationship problems.

 Armed with these scenarios, we had our first improvisation session. Here a storyline developed where the notion of socialisation into Australian society was occurring for the child, while this was not taking place for the parents. Hence, the four main agencies of socialisation, family, school, peer groups, and mass media, was discussed and introduced as iconic items into the drama as friends, school, family, and music.

 The drama developed into a episodic play, which witnesses a juxtaposition between school, peer group, and family. This was considered a dramatic devise to show the different attitudes, tensions, and pressures that can occur with immigrant youth: especially when these attitudes can be complete opposites. The episodic structure is also supplemented with naturalism, mostly due to the easier application of this style by non actors. Furthermore, due to the entire structure, there was the ability to suggest character development, especially in the immigrant youth character ‘Greg’.

 The drama was basically improvised on the one day. The following meetings were used for development and rehearsal, where problems were worked on. The teacher-in-role was the most difficult section of the drama to develop. It was not finally decided upon until near the end of the drama development. Due to the conflict scene at the end of the `immigration drama', we really did not know how to `resolve' the drama until the `counselling' session was suggested. It can be seen as the resolution section of the drama and allows, what was the audience, to become participants in the drama and permits them to ask questions that have been developed in the earlier performance.

Conclusion

 In response to the process, a number of things became clear. It not only developed learning as to how to process a drama, but the knowledge gained from the immigration issues was enlightening. A lot of valuable research and insights was gained of the difficulties involved, not only of immigrant parents, but also of the problems involving the relationships between parents and their children. Furthermore, it was realised, that contrary to common belief, `rebel' children are not unique to Australia, or the Western World, but appears to be a common occurrence around the world, albeit in different manifestations. There are, however, increased pressures placed upon immigrant families. The drama tries to portray these, with both humour and sharp conflict. Considering the immigration debate that is currently occurring, with an `us against them' attitude, youth immigration is a topic well suited and one that can be further explored. The process of drama allows us to do this with limited bias inhibitions that demands the participant to view the world through someone else's eyes.
 
 
 

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