Demo:Dram

Our Democracy Through Drama in Education project aims to provide engaging drama workshops and support teachers across Europe.

Resources Support

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Democracy Through Drama in Education – Demo:Dram

Drama in Education (DiE) is a pedagogical process that seeks to balance both the form and content of drama. Drama in Education can engage participants with an element of living through the drama, whereby they bring themselves to the dramatic experience to learn about issues and concepts raised in the drama and through drama.

Importantly Drama in Education relies on engaging participants in fiction – fiction that they are creating themselves – and this provides a form of protection, which offers an educational, rather than a therapeutic perspective. Drama in Education in this sense creates a space for participants to understand the world in which they live.

We believe that this approach lends itself to enabling an exploration of content from other subject disciplines, such as the humanities or languages. This is particularly useful for making difficult, or controversial issues, meaningful and accessible to young people.

Want to get involved? Find out more about our 2019 Summer School in Budapest

“Being involved in an advisory capacity for the Democracy through Drama initiative was really interesting and useful to my PhD, publication and practice where I am researching identity and positioning through drama. It is wonderful to witness the inclusive drama pedagogy that is being applied in practice with a wide range of colleagues, including teachers of other subjects as well as drama practitioners and students. The work of the Demo:Dram team in the positioning of their participants empowered and engaged us, and we were able to identify features we could draw on in our particular subject areas. We were able to bring in our own expertise, and find new ways we could provide spaces for reflection on democracy for the young people we work with.”

Iona Towler Evans

National Trainer for Mantle of the Expert Drama system

"As a Drama teacher, finding new and innovative ways to improve my pedagogy practice is invaluable. Being involved in the Demo:Dram project proved very helpful and insightful - so much so that I have incorporated elements of the pedagogical strategies into my own Drama lessons and practice with much success. These strategies allow my pupils to explore many subject areas across the curriculum in an exciting and unique way, even when dealing with difficult topics and new perspectives. Not only are these strategies exciting, they are also accessible for a wide range of teachers to use."

Jordana Wilson

Drama Teacher, Smiths Wood Academy, Birmingham

Why the need for Demo:Dram?

The Demo:Dram project is important as it is seeking to explore how we might create…

Demo:Dram - Partners’ Perspectives

The Demo:Dram project sees partners from various European countries collaborating…

Demo:Dram - In Action

See the latest footage from our Summer School in Athens 2018. The aim of the summer…

What is Demo:Dram?

The Demo:Dram workshops outline and present practical exercises for teachers of humanities, languages and drama in education practitioners to use in their specific fields, and offer a detailed evidence-informed description of the drama process and content.

Video resources

What We Do

Our Drama in Education (DiE) Demo:Dram workshop ideas have been created in partnership with various experts, teachers and educationalists across Europe. Our Demo:Dram workshop ideas aim to provide teachers with inspiration, support and innovative ways to approach the creation of democratic classrooms and democratic spaces for young people.

Democratic Classrooms

We define democratic classrooms as a space for creativity and imagination where the child’s experience is acknowledged, valued, nurtured, encouraged and developed. As part of this, the child is recognised as an individual human being in their own right.

Democratic Awareness

Democratic awareness is gained in situations and experiences when children and young people recognise themselves as equal citizens in their own right. Democratic awareness stresses the importance of the democratic quality of the processes and practices in daily life that determine the shaping of democratic citizens.

Student Civic Engagement

Student civic engagement is central to the Demo:Dram project. Through our project, we aim to develop student civic engagement by tackling a commonly held view that young people can be disconnected from wider society. Student civic engagement attempts to interest young people in the values of community, motivate them politically, and heighten awareness of others.

The Role of Democracy

Democracy literally means “rule by the people”. The term is derived from the Greek words “demos’’ (people) and “kratos” (rule) and it refers to the system, where people themselves rule and they rule themselves.

Demo:Dram UK Project Leaders

Want to know more or if we can support you and your school with drama class exercises?
For more information please use the contact form below and we’ll be in contact with you.

Dr Eleni Kanira - Project lead

Senior Lecturer in Childhood Studies / Childhood courses Research Co-ordinator / Birmingham City University

BEd./PGCE in Early Childhood Education
MA (Drama Education) & PhD (Education)
PGDip. In Psychoanalytic Infant Observation
FHEA

Twitter

Christopher Bolton - Drama lead

Senior Lecturer in Drama Education / Subject Route Leader PGCE Secondary Drama / Research Co-ordinator Secondary & PCET / Birmingham City University

BA (Hons) Drama and Theatre Studies with English Literature
MA Performance Analysis
PGCE Secondary Drama
PGCert
FHEA

Twitter

View all project co-ordinators and members

Latest Blogs

Discovering Democracy

Ed Lee and Orlagh Russell are two drama teachers working in Heartlands Academy, Birmingham. Here they share a recent update on how they are addressing the notion of democracy within their practice. Heartlands Academy is an inner-city school in the Nechells area of...

Theatre in Education Methodology

Bobby Colvill & Terina Talbot are both senior lecturers at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. Here the explain some of the aims of Theatre in Education. The aim of Theatre in Education (TIE) is to raise questions concerning what it means to be human. Either by...

critical-pedagogy-democratic-awareness-01

Democratic Classrooms: Critical Pedagogy and Democratic Awareness

Andy Brogan shares some initial responses to his involvement in the project. I was first invited to join the DEMO:DRAM project on the basis of my background in political theory and critical pedagogy, so that seems a good starting point for my first blog post....

Contact us

Want to know more or if we can support you and your school with drama class exercises? For more information please use the contact form and we’ll be in contact with you.

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BCU, City South Campus
Westbourne Road
Birmingham B15 3TN UK

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+44 (0)121 331 5000

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democracy.dram@gmail.com

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Demo:Dram European Partners