Drama as a therapeutic intervention with behaviourally disturbed adolescents in alternative school programs
Date
1993
Authors
Whitman, Linda Mary
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Abstract
The focus of this thesis was a consideration of the therapeutic benefits of drama as an intervention with behaviourally disturbed adolescents. The objectives of the field study were to attempt to sustain within the practica of the study, a greater number of students than had been usual in earlier interventions and to extend the study over a longer period of time.
The argument is descriptive. It reveals the attitudes, assumptions and personal history of the researcher as factors which influence the process and conclusions of the field study. Because the researcher was also the teacher/facilitator for the practica, a wide variety of recording instruments were used in order to achieve a degree of objectivity. Taylor (1990) points out that empirical research is an inappropriate structure in which to capture "the complex nature of children's encounters with dramatic activity." However, the researcher did use, as probes, two apparatus which had been applied in earlier research and the advantages and disadvantages of these are discussed within the body of the thesis.
Chapter One defines the three main areas of research: the teaching theory and practice of drama in education, the techniques and methodologies of the dramatherapist and the primary constructs of child and youth care counselling. Common objectives and crossdiscipline techniques are highlighted. Chapter Two describes the methodology used in setting up the field study: time frames, instrumentation and anticipated problem areas. It is here that the population is examined and the proposed practica are set out. What actually happened in the field study and the researcher's conclusions are the subject matter of Chapter Three and are contained within the framework of three questions: What behaviours will demonstrate students' willingness to function within the dramatic mode? How will the content and the structuring of that content be different with this population? What activities will serve to generate reflection and completion? Chapter Four deals with the implications of the study for alternative school programs and their student populations.
The results of the study generated ten new questions to be considered for future research and suggest a guide for setting up future field studies.