Att kunna lyssna med kroppen. En studie av gestaltande förmåga inom gymnasieskolans estetiska program, inriktning teater

To listen with your body. A study examining the capability to act within theatre education at upper secondary school level

Theatre has been a school subject in the Swedish upper secondary school’s national arts program since 1992 and has its own syllabus and grading criteria. The National Curriculum in theatre emphasises the development of performative capability, which is the focus of this dissertation. This study aims to contribute to the improvement of teachers’ subject-specific language, and concerns certain aspects of student ways of knowing.

Theatre encompasses tacit knowledge (Lagerström 2003) and as an art form belongs to a tradition of practical knowledge. Knowledge in theatre has traditionally been acquired within a master-apprentice tradition (Johansson 2012, Järleby 2003). When theatre as an art form becomes a school subject the conditions of the art form change through a didactic transposition (Chevallard 2005). The previous two curriculum reforms in Sweden have developed competency-based syllabuses. To meet the school’s requirements for planning teaching activities with colleagues as well as assessing and giving feedback to students, theatre knowledge needs to be articulated. Research is therefore needed to develop a professional language among teachers within the subject of theatre.

I have chosen to work with Learning study, which is a collaborative and iterative research approach which enables the articulation of teachers and students knowing. Data is analysed using foremost phenomenographic analyses. The results generated in this study could be useful for teachers in the process of planning lessons, giving feedback to students, for assessments and grades, for discussing the content of lessons with other teachers, and ultimately for us to begin to recognize different levels of knowing.