Att vara någon annan : Teater som estetisk läroprocess vid tre 6–9-skolor

Sammanfattning: The licentiate thesis focuses on young people’s dramatisation and reflections on the reception of theatre in schools as part of aesthetic learning processes. Its main objective is to describe and analyse how theatre can be used in teaching as a means to create meaning and knowledge in practice. The theatre’s relation to the Swedish subject is discussed from different aspects.The empiric survey was conducted at three 6–9 schools in the south of Sweden, referred to in the study as Österskolan, Norrskolan and Söderskolan. The survey is designed as a multiple case study. Two cases consist of individual classes with supplementary work based on the students’ reception of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the other two on stage productions that include acting. The material consists of video recordings of teaching processes, rehearsals and performances; notes from observations, interviews with teachers and pupils, a questionnaire regarding theatre habits, as well as documents such as theatre programmes and home pages. The cases are contrasted in order to extend the analysis, distinguish between mutual and contrasting patterns, and to some extent also to explain concepts used for description and analysis.The thesis aims to answer the following questions:• What is required in order for theatre to create meaning and knowledge in practice within a school’s framework?• How do form, content and use, and also production, reception and reflection cooperate in various media in the aesthetic learning processes and what didactical potential is the result of this cooperation?The result of the survey shows that a teacher’s patterns for verbal and physical interaction and his or her media specific competence strongly influence the terms for the aesthetic learning processes. The nature of the theatre culture’s meeting with the school culture at the individual school determines the possibilities for the participation in creation of meaning and knowledge in practice that are offered to pupils. Financial conditions, support from the school management, collaboration between subjects, functioning rooms, and the school’s gender practice are other important factors.The conditions for the theatre’s creation of meaning and knowledge differ significantly between the three schools included in this study. At Österskolan the theatre culture is a fairly unfamiliar element in the school culture. The teacher who supervises the supplementary work for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, however, possesses good media specific competence in the theatrical field and is able to generate possibilities for reflections on experience pedagogy based on the theatrical performance and actual participation in the theatrical practice for the pupils. For a number of years, the theatre culture at Norrskolan has been included in an integrated part of the school culture. A Midsummer Night’s Dream becomes the basis for verbal, dialogue-oriented discussions in the classroom. The pupils’ performance at the school strengthens the school culture and the pupils learn how to cooperate and take responsibility. The cultural profile at Söderskolan collaborates with professional cultural workers and regional cultural institutes in a theatrical project that invites both schools and the general public. In this case, all media is integrated in the creation of meaning and there is great didactical potential.In the intended doctoral thesis the analysis of the terms and the design of the aesthetic learning processes will be further discussed.