<?page no="0"?> The Art of Foreign Language Teaching Peter Lutzker Improvisation and Drama in Teacher Development and Language Learning 2 nd Edition <?page no="1"?> The Art of Foreign Language Teaching <?page no="3"?> Peter Lutzker The Art of Foreign Language Teaching Improvisation and Drama in Teacher Development and Language Learning 2 nd updated edition <?page no="4"?> 2 nd updated edition 2022 1 st edition 2007 © 2022 · Narr Francke Attempto Verlag GmbH + Co. KG Dischingerweg 5 · D-72070 Tübingen Das Werk einschließlich aller seiner Teile ist urheberrechtlich geschützt. Jede Verwertung außerhalb der engen Grenzen des Urheberrechtsgesetzes ist ohne Zustimmung des Verlages unzulässig und strafbar. Das gilt insbesondere für Vervielfältigungen, Übersetzungen, Mikroverfilmungen und die Einspeicherung und Verarbeitung in elektronischen Systemen. Alle Informationen in diesem Buch wurden mit großer Sorgfalt erstellt. Fehler können dennoch nicht völlig ausgeschlossen werden. Weder Verlag noch Autor: innen oder Herausgeber: innen übernehmen deshalb eine Gewährleistung für die Korrektheit des Inhaltes und haften nicht für fehlerhafte Angaben und deren Folgen. Diese Publikation enthält gegebenenfalls Links zu externen Inhalten Dritter, auf die weder Verlag noch Autor: innen oder Herausgeber: innen Einfluss haben. Für die Inhalte der verlinkten Seiten sind stets die jeweiligen Anbieter oder Betreibenden der Seiten verantwortlich. Internet: www.narr.de eMail: info@narr.de CPI books GmbH, Leck ISBN 978-3-8233-8501-1 (Print) ISBN 978-3-8233-9501-0 (ePDF) ISBN 978-3-8233-0308-4 (ePub) Umschlagabbildung: Martin Fischer, shutterstock. Bibliografische Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über http: / / dnb.dnb.de abrufbar. www.fsc.org MIX Papier aus verantwortungsvollen Quellen FSC ® C083411 ® www.fsc.org MIX Papier aus verantwortungsvollen Quellen FSC ® C083411 ® <?page no="5"?> 15 17 i 18 ii 25 29 33 1 35 1.1 35 1.2 38 1.2.1 40 1.2.2 41 1.2.3 42 1.2.4 45 1.2.5 46 1.2.6 48 1.2.7 50 1.2.8 53 1.2.9 57 1.2.10 57 1.3 58 1.3.1 60 1.3.2 63 1.3.3 66 1.3.4 66 Contents Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Introduction to the 2 nd Edition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . An Overview of Relevant Developments in Foreign Language Teacher Education and Language Learning . . . Performative-Artistic Approaches within Traditional Frameworks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Introduction to the 1 st Edition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Part I: Teaching as an Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Concepts of Teaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Models of Science and Business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Model of Teaching as an Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Origins of Teaching as an Art: The Sophists . Socrates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Plato . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . European Humanism and the Art of Teaching . . . Schiller: Aesthetic Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Developments in the 19 th and 20 th Century . . . . . . The Teacher as Artist - Die Kunsterziehungsbewegung . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Teacher as Artist - Waldorf Education . . . . . Reform Movements - Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Teacher as Artist: Later Developments in Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anglo-American Traditions - William James . . . . . . . . . . . Art and Education - John Dewey . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Teacher as Researcher - Lawrence Stenhouse The Concept of Teaching as a Performing Art . . . Teaching as a Performing Art - Dillon and Travers <?page no="6"?> 1.3.5 69 1.3.6 70 1.3.7 72 1.3.8 76 1.4 78 2 81 2.1 83 2.2 85 2.3 88 2.4 90 2.5 93 2.6 95 3 99 3.1 101 3.2 104 3.3 106 4 113 4.1 113 4.2 115 4.3 115 4.4 116 4.5 117 4.6 118 4.7 120 4.8 123 4.9 123 L. Rubin - Artistry in Teaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Relevance for Teacher Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Seymour Sarason - Teaching as a Performing Art Teaching as Improvisational Performance - R. K. Sawyer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . In-Service Language Teacher Development: Goals and Concepts . . . . . In-Service Courses for Language Teachers - Rationale and Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Expectations and Realities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Goals of Language Teacher Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Affecting Teacher Change in In-Service Courses . . . . . . . . In-Service Development and Burnout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Steiner Schools’ In-Service Training for English Teachers: The English Week . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Concept of the English Week . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Forms and Principles of the Drama Workshops . . . . . . . . . Literature in Performance: A Drama Workshop at the English Week . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . An Empirical Study of Clowning Courses with Vivian Gladwell - Research Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Choice of the Clowning Courses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Research Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Description of the Courses: Observation and Participation Interviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Research Inquiry and Data Triangulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Research Inquiry - ‘Thick Description’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Internal Validity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . External Validity: The Representative Nature of the Data The Initial Hypothesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Contents <?page no="7"?> 5 125 5.1 125 5.2 126 5.3 128 5.4 131 6 135 6.1 135 6.2 135 6.2.1 135 6.2.2 138 6.2.3 138 6.2.4 139 6.3 140 6.3.1 140 6.3.2 142 6.3.3 143 6.3.4 144 6.3.5 145 6.4 145 6.4.1 147 6.4.2 147 6.4.3 149 6.4.4 150 6.4.5 151 6.5 152 7 155 7.1 155 7.1.1 155 7.1.2 155 7.1.3 156 7.2 157 7.2.1 157 7.2.2 157 Discovering the Clown Within: Background to Clowning Courses with Vivian Gladwell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Background: Vivian Gladwell and Bataclown . . . . . . . . . . . Bataclown and Carl Rogers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Clowning in the Social Professions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Clowning and Deep Ecology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Clowning Workshops for Language Teachers with Vivian Gladwell . . . . The General Structure of the Workshops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Warm-Ups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Opening Warm-Ups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Breath . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Massage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Warm-Ups as an Inner and Group Process . . Games and Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Games of Imitation and Mirroring . . . . . . . . . . . . . Games of Playful Confusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Games of Listening and Perceiving . . . . . . . . . . . . Word Games: Creating Stories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The End of the Second Phase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The First Improvisations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . An Introductory Exercise: Entering the Stage and Encountering an Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Solo-Improvisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feedback Sessions after the Improvisations . . . . . Partner Improvisations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Exercises in Groups of Three or More . . . . . . . . . . The End of the Workshops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Responses to the Research Inquiry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feedback Responses: Breakdown According to Course . . . Breakdown of Responses According to Gender . . Breakdown of Responses According to Country . Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Participants’ Responses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Expectations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Warm-Ups and Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Contents <?page no="8"?> 7.2.3 159 7.2.4 160 7.2.5 163 7.2.6 164 7.3 165 7.3.1 166 7.3.2 170 7.3.3 172 7.3.4 175 7.3.5 177 8 179 8.1 179 8.2 180 8.3 181 8.3.1 183 8.3.2 186 8.3.3 189 8.3.4 191 8.3.5 192 8.4 193 8.4.1 196 8.4.2 199 8.4.3 201 8.4.4 204 8.4.5 206 8.4.6 210 8.5 217 8.5.1 218 8.5.2 221 The Element of Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The First Improvisations: Fears and Release . . . . . “Nothing can go Wrong” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Breakthroughs: “You become more alive…” . Personal Developments and their Consequences . . . . . . . . Growth and Discovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . “Living in the Moment” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Empathy and Perception . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Embodiment of Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Breaking Routines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Discussion of the Participants’ Responses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Clowning in the Context of In-Service Teacher Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Evaluating the Initial Hypothesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Warm-Ups in Artistic Work and Clowning . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Intermediary ‘Space’ of Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Motor Attitude and Behavior: Judgements of the Muscles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Proprioception and Communication . . . . . . . . . . . Consequences for In-Service Development . . . . . Related Developments in In-Service Language Teacher Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Improvisations / Experiencing the ‘Empty Space’ . . . . Genuineness in Clowning and Teaching . . . . . . . . Genuineness and Teacher Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Art of Improvisation and the ‘Here and Now’ Developing Receptivity and Acceptance in Clowning and Teaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sympathy and Caring in Clowning and Teaching Developing Awareness in the Classroom: Perspectives in Teacher Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . Breaking Routines, Avoiding Burnout and ‘Learning to Forget’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Practical Knowledge of Teachers (Erfahrungswissen) and Affecting Teacher Change Affecting Change and Confronting Insecurities . 8 Contents <?page no="9"?> 8.6 223 8.6.1 226 8.6.2 228 8.6.3 229 8.7 231 8.7.1 236 8.7.2 239 8.8 240 8.9 244 8.9.1 245 8.9.2 249 8.10 252 9 257 9.1 257 9.2 257 9.2.1 258 9.2.2 258 9.2.3 259 9.2.4 260 9.2.5 261 9.2.6 261 263 10 265 10.1 265 10.2 267 10.3 269 10.3.1 272 10.3.2 274 In-Service Development in a Hermeneutic Context . . . . . . Parallels to the Clowning Workshops: The Role of Stillness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ‘Not Knowing’ in Clowning and Hermeneutics . . Contrasts and Distinctions between the Courses . Parker Palmer’s Courage to Teach Retreats . . . . . . . . . . . . . Parallels to the Clowning Workshops: Personal Knowledge and ‘Objective’ Knowledge . . . . . . . . . Contrasts and Parallels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Maxine Greene and The Lincoln Center Institute . . . . . . . Learning the Art of Clowning and the Art of Teaching . . Attaining Artistry in the Performing Arts . . . . . . Artistry and Effectiveness in Teaching/ Two Views of the World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Clowning, Teaching and the Hermeneutic Circle of Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Initial Hypothesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Meaning of the Clowning Courses for the Participants The Sensory-Affective Dimension of Clowning . . Play and Regeneration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Clowning and Acceptance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Attentiveness and Receptivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Personal Growth and Development . . . . . . . . . . . . The Parts and the Whole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Part II: Dramatic Processes and Foreign Language Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dramatic Processes and Language Teaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Historical Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Related Developments in the 20 th Century: Creative Dramatics and Drama in Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Drama in Modern Foreign Language Teaching . . . . . . . . . Dramatic Techniques: Maley and Duff . . . . . . . . . Towards a Pedagogy of Being: The Work of Bernard Dufeu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Contents <?page no="10"?> 10.3.3 275 10.3.4 279 10.4 282 11 285 11.1 285 11.1.1 286 11.1.2 288 11.2 289 11.3 290 11.3.1 291 11.4 293 11.5 294 11.5.1 295 11.5.2 295 11.5.3 296 11.5.4 296 11.5.5 296 11.6 296 12 299 12.1 299 12.2 300 12.3 301 12.4 303 12.5 304 12.6 304 Im Haus der Sprache wohnen: Ruth Huber’s Approach to Theatre in Language Learning . . . . . Drama in EFL School Classrooms . . . . . . . . . . . . . Research on Drama-Based Approaches to Foreign Language Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Research Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Case Studies in Educational Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Case Studies and the Teacher as Researcher . . . . . Relevant Distinctions between Practitioner Research and this Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Research Design for the Study of the Class Play/ The Conceptual Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Initial Hypothesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Research Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Relevant Methodological Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Collecting “Thick” Research Data - Research Inquiries . . Interviews with Groups of Pupils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Parent’s Perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Teacher’s Perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Field Notes - Teacher’s Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Videos of Rehearsals and Performances . . . . . . . . Data Triangulation and Method Triangulation . . . . . . . . . . The Class Play in the 10 th Grade 2004-2005: Framework and Circumstances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Class Plays in the Düsseldorf Steiner School . . . . . . . . . . . The Tenth Grade Play in the Year 2004-2005: My Relation to the Class and the Background of the Class . . . . . . . . . . . The Planning of the School Year 2004-2005 and the Choice of the Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Choosing the Roles/ Casting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Setting up the Rehearsal Timetable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Added Responsibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Contents <?page no="11"?> 13 305 13.1 305 13.1.1 305 13.1.2 306 13.1.3 307 13.1.4 307 13.1.5 308 13.2 309 13.3 311 13.3.1 312 13.3.2 314 13.3.3 317 13.3.4 317 13.4 319 13.5 319 13.5.1 320 13.5.2 321 13.5.3 323 13.5.4 324 13.5.5 325 13.5.6 326 13.6 326 13.7 327 13.7.1 329 13.7.2 330 13.7.3 331 13.8 332 13.9 333 13.9.1 333 13.9.2 334 13.10 335 13.11 335 13.11.1 336 The Pupils’ Perspectives: A Cross-Sectional Examination of the Research Inquiries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Pupils’ Expectations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Success of the Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Enjoying Work and Avoiding Stress . . . . . . . . . . . Working Together and Coming Together . . . . . . . Pupils’ Concerns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Personal Development and Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Discussion of the Initial Research Inquiry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The First Rehearsal Phase: Second Research Inquiry . . . . . Learning the Text and Exploring the Role . . . . . . Pupils’ Comments on the Rehearsals . . . . . . . . . . . The Development of Language Capabilities . . . . . Complaints and The Rehearsal Organization and Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Discussion of the Second Research Inquiry . . . . . . . . . . . . . In the Middle of the Rehearsal Process: Research Inquiry 3 The Difficulties of “Having to Imagine Everything” Advice to the Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Entering into their Roles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rehearsals with Students as Directors . . . . . . . . . . The Rehearsal Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Reflections on Their Own Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Discussion of the Third Research Inquiry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Final Phases - Fourth Research Inquiry . . . . . . . . . . . . “I particularly enjoyed the last weeks of rehearsals” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Becoming the Character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Ups and Downs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Discussion of the Final Phase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Performances: The Final Research Inquiry . . . . . . . . . Dealing with Stage Fright . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Experience of Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Final Research Inquiry: The Pupils’ Reflections on the Entire Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Effects on Language Abilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Contents <?page no="12"?> 13.11.2 338 13.11.3 339 13.11.4 340 13.11.5 341 13.11.6 343 13.12 343 13.13 344 13.14 345 13.15 350 13.16 351 14 353 14.1 354 359 14.2 363 367 14.3 372 377 14.4 381 383 14.5 388 392 15 401 15.1 402 15.2 406 15.3 408 15.4 410 15.5 411 15.6 416 15.7 419 15.8 421 15.9 424 15.10 426 15.11 429 Overcoming Doubts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Acting their Roles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Assuming Responsibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A New Sense of Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Overview of the Final Research Inquiry . . . . . . . . The Growth of Language Capabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Becoming the Character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Content of The Diary of Anne Frank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Development of Artistic Discipline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Final Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Five In-Depth Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jorinde (Mrs. van Daan in Act I) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lieselotte (Mrs. Frank in Act II) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fabian (Mr. Krahler in Act I) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Martin B (Mr. Frank in Act I) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Amelie (Anne Frank in Act I) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rehearsing and Performing a Play in a Foreign Language: Discussion . Adolescence as a ‘Critical Period’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Parallel Developments in the Critical Period . . . . . . . . . . . Adolescence as a ‘Critical Period’: Further Perspectives . . A Search for Meaning: Artistic Processes in Adolescence The Role and Significance of the Warm-Ups . . . . . . . . . . . . Rehearsing in a Foreign Language: The Sensory and Imaginative Experience of Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Entering into the Role: Finding the ‘Target’ . . . . . . . . . . . . The Atmosphere of the Rehearsals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Zone of Proximal Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Establishing a Community of Learners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rehearsals as an Intuitive Mode of Learning . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Contents <?page no="13"?> 15.12 433 15.13 435 16 439 16.1 441 16.2 443 16.3 450 16.3.1 452 16.3.2 457 16.3.3 458 16.3.4 458 16.3.5 461 16.3.6 463 16.3.7 465 16.3.8 467 16.3.9 469 16.3.10 470 16.3.11 472 16.3.12 474 16.4 475 16.4.1 476 16.4.2 478 16.4.3 480 16.4.4 480 16.5 482 17 487 17.1 487 17.2 491 17.3 493 17.4 495 Multiple Intelligences and Drama in Foreign Language Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Performance and the Externalization of Learning . . . . . . . Rehearsing and Performing the Class Play: Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . Educational Drama and Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Education of Emotions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Individualized Learning and the Development of Attentiveness (Aufmerksamkeit), Commitment, (Verbindlichkeit) and Certainty (Evidenzerfahrung) . . . . . . The Development of Attentiveness and Perception The Role of Commitment (Verbindlichkeit) in Self-Directed Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Pre-Decisional Phase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Pre-Action Phase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Phase of Direct Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Post-Action Phase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Commitment and Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Experience of Certainty [Evidenzerfahrung] . Evidenzerfahrung in Learning Processes . . . . . . . . Evidenzerfahrung in Drama . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Evidenzerfahrung and Flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Individualized Learning through Performance - Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Drama, Transformation and Personal Knowledge . . . . . . . Educational Drama and Transformation . . . . . . . . Personal and Tacit Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Drama and Tacit Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tacit Knowledge and Motor Attitude . . . . . . . . . . Art and Experience in the Critical Period of Adolescence The Art of Foreign Language Teaching and Artistic Processes in Foreign Language Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Educational Research and Educational Change . . . . . . . . . Attunement and Receptivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Knowledge in Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Intuitive Processes - Giving and Receiving . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Contents <?page no="14"?> 17.5 498 17.6 502 509 18 511 18.1 511 18.2 514 18.3 518 18.3.1 518 18.3.2 521 18.3.3 526 18.3.4 530 18.4 533 18.4.1 535 18.4.2 538 18.4.3 540 18.5 541 545 Testing Competences or Personal Experience and Growth Literature and Foreign Language Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Teaching as an Art in a Digital Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Education after the Covid-19 Pandemic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PISA: The Paradigms of Standardization, Internationalization and Economization of Education . . . New Perspectives and Alternative Paradigms . . . . . . . . . . John Hattie and the Role of the Teacher in Successful Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hartmut Rosa and Resonance in Education . . . . . Resonance, Attunement and Bodily Experience . . Max van Manen and Pedagogical Tact . . . . . . . . . Digital Learning and the Future of Education . . . . . . . . . . The Role of a Pedagogical Atmosphere . . . . . . . . The “Pedagogical Moment” and Online Learning The Effects of Covid-19 on Children, Adolescents and College Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Seeing and Being Seen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Contents <?page no="15"?> Acknowledgements I am very grateful to all those people who made it possible for me to write the first edition of this work. I would again like to thank my professor and mentor Prof. Dr. Hans Hunfeld for his willingness to take on this project and for his continual support and superb advice. I remain very much indebted to my highly dedicated and conscientious colleague Dr. Sandra Lowerre who unflinchingly took on the daunting task of editing a very long manuscript and maintained her enthusiasm and commitment to the very end. Christopher Wagner proved to be of invaluable assistance in the last phase and I am deeply grateful to him for all the suggestions he made. I am much indebted to Prof. Dr. Christoph Jaffke who was always very ready to share his expertise and experience whenever it was needed and who was tremendously helpful in the final editing phase. Dr. Martyn Rawson provided invaluable and unstinting assistance with the countless translations. I would also like to thank Vivian Gladwell for his unending willingness to generously share his knowledge. I am grateful to Robert McNeer for his support at different points. I want to thank my mother Prof. Marilyn Lutzker for her very helpful editorial advice. I would also like to thank my former colleagues at the Düsseldorf Waldorf School for their support and understanding and in particular those colleagues who were so helpful in the production of the class play - Martin Schneider, Jens Jensen, Kristina Döring, and Heinz Rzepka. I am very grateful to the Pädagogische Forschungsstelle des Bundes der Freien Waldorfschulen for their generous financial support of this project. A special thanks to all my former pupils in the 10 th grade who are now adults, many with their own children, who cheerfully put up with my research inquiries while working very intensively and constructively on their play. Another very special thanks to the 55 participants in the clowning courses who took the time despite their busy teaching schedules to respond so exten‐ sively. I want to thank Friederike Krost-Lutzker for her acceptance of the demands which this work presented. Finally, I am deeply indebted to my three children, Samuel, Milena and Tabea whose understanding and love were always a continual source of inspiration. In preparing the second edition of this book, I would like to express my deep gratitude to Imke Claussen for her invaluable help and support. <?page no="17"?> Introduction to the 2 nd Edition The first edition of this book, which appeared in 2007, has been out of print for a number of years. In considering the possible reasons for a new edition and the form it should take, a number of issues needed to be addressed. What seemed most crucial for a second edition was to consider the relevance of what had been written more than 14 years ago in the light of the world as it is in 2021. A further and related consideration was the necessity of taking into account those relevant developments and publications that have occurred in the intervening years, which led to the question to what extent new material could be incorporated. Expanding the second edition, however, contradicted my wish to somewhat shorten the original version. Clearly, reexamining the validity and topicality of teaching as an art in 2021 while attempting to integrate and discuss a broad range of recent publications and, at the same time, trying to reduce the length of the first edition would be a clear case of trying to ‘have one’s cake and eat it too’. Choices had to be made. After reviewing as much of the new material as possible, I came to the conclusion that I would try to inform the reader of recent developments and publications in the form of an overview in a new introduction, rather than attempting to integrate this material into the original text. There were different reasons for this decision. Obviously, to do justice to what has been published in the meantime would have significantly lengthened the original text. A possible alternative would have been to focus more on recent material and reduce what stood in the original. What spoke against this was that my intention had been to give a background and a lasting foundation for the development of the concept of teaching as an art. Even in the light of the very interesting developments that have occurred in the last fifteen years, I remain convinced that my original choices and sources have, in fact, stood the test of time very well, and can continue to provide an inspiring and fruitful basis for further developments. The main body of the text has been somewhat shortened at a number of points, mostly with respect to its original academic context. The first edition was a revised version of my Ph.D. thesis which meant that there was a pronounced emphasis on establishing an encompassing and well-documented academic basis for the entire work. Although the Ph.D. thesis was even longer than the book, the first edition still evinced many elements of that intention. For those readers who, for whatever reasons, are interested in having a somewhat fuller academic version, I would thus suggest trying to obtain a copy of the first edition. <?page no="18"?> While reducing some of the academic background material, I have, nevertheless, not reduced the focus on the qualitative research which was carried out in the context of in-service teacher education, nor on my practitioner-based research which was conducted in the context of an intensive 10 th grade drama project. Both the descriptions of those projects and the ensuing discussions and conclusions drawn from that research have remained largely the same. I have also kept most of the original overview of the historical development of the concept of teaching as an art in European and Anglo-American contexts, as this, to my knowledge, has not been comparably covered in other works. Finally, I have also left the first introduction which elucidates both the underlying concept of the book and its structure. What has been added will be found in what follows in this introduction to the 2 nd edition and in a new chapter which has been added as an appendix. In the appendix I consider the relevance of what I wrote in the first edition viewed from the perspective of the summer of 2021 and the concept of teaching as an art within the broader context of considering the future of teaching and learning in an age increasingly shaped by the digitalization of all aspects of life. As these changes, along with the educational paradigms which underlie them, clearly affect foreign language teaching, I consider it essential to address them in this new edition. i An Overview of Relevant Developments in Foreign Language Teacher Education and Language Learning In examining and developing the concept of foreign language teaching as an art, I attempted to integrate the two closely related but nevertheless separate fields of foreign language teacher education and foreign language learning. The premise behind this was that the development of the artistry of the teacher was a necessary prerequisite for foreign language teaching as an art to be realized in practice. This led to the book being divided into two separate parts, each with its own background material, qualitative research study and its respective discussions and conclusions. At the same time, I attempted at different points and particularly in the final chapter to elucidate the underlying relations between these two different perspectives. Accordingly, in attempting to review the relevant developments that have taken place in the last 14 years, I have been faced with the daunting challenge of reviewing large bodies of material in each of these fields, along with their own incorporation of related areas. Even after reducing these findings to those 18 Introduction to the 2 nd Edition <?page no="19"?> most directly related to the focus of each part of the book, there have been many new contributions to these fields which in the context of an extensive literature review would all deserve to be discussed in detail. However, for the above-mentioned reasons, I have chosen to focus on the work of a few leading institutions and individuals and afterwards to simply inform the reader of a number of further publications that appear to me to be the most relevant. The full bibliographical details of those publications that I have simply listed and not explicitly discussed, can be found in the bibliography at the end of the book. Moreover, I do not expect to have managed to cover all the material that could be considered. In fact, in making use of the wondrous possibilities of the internet, I also came across authors whose earlier writings I would have gladly incorporated into the original if I had known of their existence at that point. Considering the length of the book, perhaps it was just as well. It seems appropriate to begin with two principal sources which have made significant contributions to ongoing developments in these areas. The online Journal Scenario, hosted by Cork University in Ireland, and the series of articles, books, conferences and networks which they have generated, have provided a unique contribution to the fields of drama in teacher education and drama in foreign language learning and, in a wider sense, of a performative approach to teaching and learning. The founders and driving forces behind this journal are Manfred Schewe from Cork University in Ireland and Susanne Even from Indiana University in the United States. Schewe has also been the author and editor of numerous leading articles, chapters and books. In conjunction with the entire Scenario Project, and through the efforts of Schewe and his colleagues, University College Cork also offers a broad array of Bachelors, Masters and Doctoral Courses which in highly innovative ways bridge the gap between the performative arts and education. Susanne Even is responsible for the artistic focus of the foreign language teacher program in the Department of Germanic Studies at Indiana University-Bloomington. She has also published widely, making the case for performative approaches in teacher education. Since both Schewe and Even work in the field of teaching German as a Foreign Language, the Scenario journal and book publications are often available in both German and English. With their focus on drama and performative approaches they have continually succeeded in bridging gaps between the teaching of different foreign languages. The broad range of international contributors, both in their conferences and publications, attests to the global dimensions of this endeavor. Along with the ‘first generation’ of contributors who include longstanding and leading figures in these fields, a second younger generation 19 i Relevant Developments in Foreign Language Teacher Education and Language Learning <?page no="20"?> 1 Schewe 2013. has emerged as highly active both in their research and in a continuing series of publications, some of whose works will also be mentioned in this introduction. Schewe’s explanation of the intentions of a performative approach to lan‐ guage teaching gives a clear picture of the guiding impulses out of which Scenario was created: It is the intention of a Performative Foreign Language Didactics to avail of the wealth of forms found in the arts for teaching and learning purposes. It is, above and beyond the disciplines usually associated with foreign language teaching and learning (e. g., general pedagogy, first language didactics, psychology, linguistics and literature) actively seeking dialogue and exchange with the arts… (…) The goal of foreign language didactics is to create a new approach to teaching and learning whereby emphasis is placed on forms of aesthetic expression. This means that special attention is given to ‘language form’ and to the pleasure and even desire to play with words, sentences and expressions. ‘Form’ also implies the ways in which the body speaks and how sound, word, sentence and movement all interact with each other. 1 In 2018, in the context of a Scenario Conference in Germany, a ‘manifesto’ was published in which the principles underlying the entire Scenario project were formulated: • Educators and students alike do not only communicate orally, but also use additional means of expression, so that they are involved in the creative teaching and learning process with their “head, heart, hands and feet”. The focus is no longer exclusively on results, but increasingly on the concrete teaching and learning activities from which lesson content is created. • The ability to experience empathy through a change of role and perspective, for example, by being in someone else’s shoes in role, is of central importance. • The educator initiates and supports democratic and participative learning processes and becomes a facilitator of learning processes in which students take on responsibility as autonomous co-designers and co-creators. • Competency is only fully acquired through practical application, i. e. ex‐ perience. Performative methods can be used to simulate authentic contexts. • Knowledge acquisition requires space, i. e. an inspiring learning environ‐ ment in which educators and students can move freely. • Sustainable learning requires time, i. e. an adequate pacing and distribution of topics and projects. 20 Introduction to the 2 nd Edition <?page no="21"?> 2 Jogschies, Schewe & Stöver-Blahak 2018. 3 Maley 2019b. • Mistakes are seen as learning opportunities. This requires rethinking the definition of assessment, as it would then no longer focus on penalising errors. • The whole world is a stage. (…) 2 (emphases in original) Another principal source of contributions to relevant fields is the online journal Humanising Language Teaching (HLT), hosted by the Pilgrims Organization formerly based in Canterbury and now in Oxford, England. Although not as specifically focused on the central themes of my work as Scenario, the range of what they have published under the umbrella of humanism has consistently included articles which have addressed these themes in different ways. A regular contributor and arguably the pioneer in introducing drama and different forms of performative and creative approaches to foreign language teaching is Alan Maley, whose seminal contributions to the field were first published in the 1970s and who has remained highly prolific to this day. His article on the occasion of the 20 th anniversary of HLT in 2019 both elucidates the importance of this journal and his own thoughts: So why should we be celebrating the 20 th anniversary of HLT Mag? The hegemony of testing and evaluation, the temptations of easy-fix technological solutions, the creeping encroachment of academic research at the expense of teaching expertise, the flat-lining of publishing, and the blight of bureaucratisation - all have contributed to a narrowing of the opportunities for teachers to explore independently the nature of learning and teaching and their role in it. In the face of this sometimes depressing scenario, HLT Mag has kept the flame of humanistic inquiry and experi‐ mentation burning. Just out of curiosity, I checked every issue of HLT Mag since it’s foundation in 1999. There are certain recurrent themes. Among the most frequent are: Teacher Development. In the very first issue, Paul Davis’ major article ‘What is Teacher development’ (Davis, 1999) in a way set the scene. Effectively, all successive issues have been focusing, in one way or another on possible answers to that initial question. Aesthetic approaches to teaching and learning: stories and story-telling, wisdom stories, creative writing, art, music, drama, clowning, literature. There is abundant material on all these aspects of enriching learning through the arts. 3 In 2014, Maley together with Chaz Pugliese co-founded “The C Group: Creativity for Change in Education” which has in its various publications and contributions 21 i Relevant Developments in Foreign Language Teacher Education and Language Learning <?page no="22"?> 4 http: / / thecreativitygroup.weebly.com/ 5 Maley & Underhill 2012; Underhill 2014, Maley & Underhill 2019. 6 Fleming 2016, 2017. 7 Fleming 2015. 8 Almond 2005, 2013, 2019. 9 Sambanis 2013, 2016, 2018, Sambanis & Walter 2019. 10 Rawson 2020a, 2020b, 2021; Bryden & Rawson 2021 (in press). 11 Piazzoli 2018. 12 Piazzoli 2019. 13 O’Toole 2003, O’Toole & Dunn 2020. at international conferences consistently made the case for humanistic and creative approaches to foreign language teaching. 4 In addition to Maley, there are a number of other leading figures in the U.K. who have continued to pursue and further develop the concept of teaching as an art. They include Adrian Underhill, many of whose contributions are directly connected to a central focus of my own work - the role of improvisation in teaching. 5 Mike Fleming has continued to work both nationally and inter‐ nationally in further developing performative approaches to teaching foreign languages. 6 Fleming, a regular contributor to Scenario, is also one of the editors of the highly informative Routledge International Handbook of the Arts and Education. 7 . Mark Almond has long been nationally and internationally active in incorporating drama and performative approaches into foreign language teaching. 8 Michaela Sambanis has connected relevant findings in the neurological sciences with the incorporation of peformative approaches in foreign language teacher education and foreign language learning in numerous publications as well as in the practice of teacher education at the Freie Universität in Berlin. 9 Martyn Rawson has extensively addressed the themes of teacher education and language learning from the perspective of Waldorf Education in a series of recent publications which also include a study together with Catherine Bryden on the effects of theatre clowning courses in pre-service language teacher education. 10 Erika Piazzoli has published a major work, Embodying Language in Action: The Artistry of Process Drama in Second Language Education, focusing on the manifold possibilities of working with process drama in foreign language learning and the crucial role of embodiment in this context. 11 She has also written about her innovative work with students with learning disabilities; a highly welcome development in this field. 12 In drama education, John O’Toole, along with his collaborators and students, remains a central figure not only in Australia but internationally. 13 . His work 22 Introduction to the 2 nd Edition <?page no="23"?> 14 www.ideadrama.org/ 15 Sawyer 2012, 2019. 16 Blumenfeld-Jones 2012, 2016. 17 Blumenfeld-Jones 2016. 18 Ibid. 27. has continued to be relevant and inspiring for foreign language teachers, as evidenced by an online conference with him in April 2021, organized by Scenario and attended by language teachers throughout the world. Among the many developments which have grown out of his work is the International Drama/ Theater and Education Association (IDEA). 14 In teacher education, there have also been significant new contributions to the concept of educating teachers to become artists in their respective fields. Keith Sawyer, whose work I already referred to in the first edition, has remained a highly active and innovative figure, particularly in exploring the relations between creativity, improvisation and teaching. 15 Donald S. Blumenfeld-Jones has sought to bridge the gaps between creativity, aesthetics and ethics, and has made an eloquent case for the central role of aesthetics in teacher education. 16 In a chapter called “Aesthetics in Academics and Classrooms” he directly addresses those themes which are central to my approach to teaching as an art: At the outset, let us consider this simple point: our task is to help our learners discover their aesthetic knowing and their sensory perception capacities as a valuable dimension of their thinking/ knowing and thus, enhance their lives on many fronts. What we can do for our teacher preparation students, they can do for the students they will teach. In this way, aesthetic consciousness as a valued mode of knowing and being will become more commonplace within our society and culture. 17 He concludes his chapter with the following remarks: As you will have noticed, in this chapter the emphasis is on seeing/ feeling/ perceiving as an artist sees/ feels/ perceives. We emphasize the act of art-making as the location from within which aesthetic consciousness develops. We do this without requiring or expecting that our learners will become professional artists. We only require and expect that they will immerse themselves in the act of art-making as a species of aesthetic knowing. This point cannot be too strongly stressed. 18 (italics in original) In choosing to highlight the work of these prominent journals and educators, I have unfortunately had to leave out many authors whose relevant and recent contributions to those fields deserve to be considered as well. What follows is an undoubtedly incomplete selection of further relevant books, chapters and articles which have been published since 2015. The titles themselves give a clear 23 i Relevant Developments in Foreign Language Teacher Education and Language Learning <?page no="24"?> indication of how this field has both deepened and expanded in recent years. Articles and individual chapters are given with quotation marks, book titles are in italics. The complete references are given in the bibliography. Belleza, Annemaria (2020): “Developing Performative Competence and Teacher Artistry: A Pedagogical Imperative in the Multicultural Classroom.” Bernstein, Nils & Lerchner, Charlotte (eds.) (2014): Ästhetisches Lernen im DaF-/ DaZ-Un‐ terricht. Literatur - Theater - Bildende Kunst - Musik - Film. Conte, David & Thiem, Annegret (eds.) (2021): Literatur performativ: Spanische Lyrik der Gegenwart - Literatura performativa: poesía española actual. Crutchfield, John (2016): “Brief Encounters: Reflections on the Performative Integration of Creative Writing in the Foreign Language Classroom.” Elis, Franziska (2015): “Mit dramapädagogischen Methoden sprachliche und kommuni‐ kative Kompetenzen fördern” Fanselow, John (2020): Small Changes in Teaching, Big Results in Learning. Fleiner, Micha (2016): “Museum Education and Performative Teaching and Learning: Words, Bodies, Images.” Haack, Adrian (2018): Dramapädagogik, Selbstkompetenz und Professionalisierung. Per‐ formative Identitätsarbeit im Lehramtsstudium Englisch. Hallet, Wolfgang & Carola Surkamp (eds.) (2015): Dramendidaktik und Dramapädagogik im Fremdsprachenunterricht. Hensel, Alexandra (2020): Fremdsprachenunterricht als Ereignis. Zur Fundierung einer performativ-ästhetischen Praxis. Hillyard, Susan (2016): English through Drama. Jaffke, Christoph (2021): The First Four Years of English: A Hands-On Approach to the Waldorf Way. Maley, Alan (ed.) (2019): Developing Expertise through Experience. Maley, Alan & Tomas Kiss (2018): Creativity and English Language Teaching: From Inspiration to Implementation. Mages, Wendy K. (2020): “Educational Drama and Theatre Pedagogy: An Integral Part of Training English-as-a-Foreign-Language Teachers.” Mentz, Oliver & Micha Fleiner, (eds.) (2018): The Arts in Language Teaching: International Perspectives: Performative - Aesthetic - Transversal. Passon, Jenny (2015): “Auf dem Weg zur performativen Fremdsprachenkompetenz. Eine Darstellung theater-und dramapädagogischer Ansätze.” Prabhu, Neiman Stern. (2019): Perceptions of Language Pedagogy. Schmenk, Barbara (2015): “Dramapädagogik im Spiegel von Bildungsstandards, GeRS und Kompetenzdiskussionen.” Sievers, Ulrike (2017): Creative Teaching-Sustainable Learning. A Holistic Approach to Foreign Language Learning and Teaching . 24 Introduction to the 2 nd Edition <?page no="25"?> Vaßen, Florian (2016): “The Diversity of Theaterpädagogik in German Schools - Theater and theatrical training in the context of teacher education, as a method of instruction, and as an artistic/ aesthetic school subject.” ii Performative-Artistic Approaches within Traditional Frameworks The developments I have described in the previous section have occurred within broader educational contexts that are generally far removed from artistic thinking and practice. The individuals that have been mentioned work outside those mainstream educational policies that are still predominant in schools and in teacher education programs throughout the world. In following their own performative-artistic paths, they remain to a certain extent ‘outliers’ both in a larger educational landscape and in most of the daily practice of foreign language teaching. In his 2019 article celebrating the 20 th anniversary of Humanising Language Teaching, Maley looks back on those five factors which he views as having been the primary hindrances to the broader introduction of creative, humanistic and performative approaches into language teaching: • Testing The huge and rapid expansion of testing which took place in the 1990’s and continues today has exerted a huge influence on curricula, published materials and on courses offered. Following the spread of IELTS and TOEFL in particular, the teaching of English is now firmly shackled to the testing bandwagon. This leaves little room for the exercise of the individual, creative methodology which was so common in the earlier period, since all efforts are now directed to fulfilling the demands of the test. • Technology What had been no more than a flirtation with technology until the late ‘80’s became an obsessive love affair as we moved into the ‘90’s and beyond. Inevitably, teaching has come to depend on a range of technological systems and practices, partly as a reflection of the digital revolution which is a major component of most students’ daily lives and partly for their intrinsic attraction. (…) • Academicisation Increasingly, teachers have come under pressure to acquire academic qualifications. Following on from the rapid expansion of MA pro‐ 25 ii Performative-Artistic Approaches within Traditional Frameworks <?page no="26"?> 19 Maley 2019b. grammes, many teachers are now urged or tempted or obliged to pursue PhD programmes. In many cases, the prospects of promotion without a PhD are negligible. The spread of PhD fever is accompanied by a dedication to the idea that ‘more research is needed’. The research paradigm is now widely accepted as central to progress in the profession. (For a contrasting view, see Maley, 2003, 2016.) • Publishing ELT publishers were previously at the forefront of promoting creative ideas in teaching methodology. However, under the combined pressure to cater to the demands of examinations and tests, and the rising investment costs involved in publishing comprehensive, global course book packages, the major publishers have become risk-averse. One result is that most course packages are near-clones of each other. Another is that it is now far more difficult for an aspiring writer with a good idea to get published. Yet another is that teachers are increasingly expected to follow the expensive course packages their managers have purchased for them. Creative exploration has thus become more difficult. • Bureaucratisation In the late 80’s, ELT was bitten by the management bug. Many, if not most, teaching institutions were squeezed into a business model, with an emphasis on ‘the bottom line’, efficiency, delivery of learning pack‐ ages, vision statements, all run by ‘managers’ wielding spread-sheets, pocket calculators and an impressive command of jargon borrowed from business. Furthermore, especially in the public sector, the plethora of instructions, regulations and box-ticking now required tends to divert teachers’ energy from the primary task of helping learners to learn. 19 Many of these hindrances which Maley elucidated in 2019 have continued to increase their dominance over educational policies and also taken on new forms. This is particularly the case with the growing role of digital technology, which is a theme that I address extensively in the appendix to this 2 nd edition. In considering the immense political, financial and institutional dimensions of what Maley has termed the “Gang of Five”, it becomes all the more heartening to see what has nevertheless transpired in furthering artistic, humanistic and performative approaches to foreign language teaching. There have been and continue to be schools and universities throughout the world in which students are given opportunities to experience the richness and transformative possibilities of learning a foreign language through such approaches. The 26 Introduction to the 2 nd Edition <?page no="27"?> articles which regularly appear in the above-mentioned journals and the broad range of books which continue to be published provide continual proof of the ongoing development of creative, performative and artistic ways of teaching. My hope is that making this book available in a second edition will contribute to these developments. I remain convinced that the struggle to make foreign language learning more artistic and more meaningful for learners will continue to be carried on throughout the world by creative and dedicated individuals in schools and universities who are motivated by both the thankful responses of their learners and the joys of teaching. Peter Lutzker Stuttgart, July 2021 27 ii Performative-Artistic Approaches within Traditional Frameworks <?page no="29"?> Introduction to the 1 st Edition The intention of this study is to explore and develop the idea that foreign language teaching can be an art. This will encompass both considering the meaning of artistry in language teaching as well as the possibilities which artistic processes offer pupils in language learning. The first section focuses on the in-service education of language teachers in theatre and improvisation workshops; the second section examines high school pupils rehearsing and performing a full-length play in a foreign language. Thus, this work views the fields of language teacher education and foreign language learning within a common conceptual framework. This study has been deeply shaped by my experiences in teaching English to high school pupils in a Steiner School in Germany for more than two decades and in training Steiner School teachers for nearly 15 years. In both of these contexts, having experienced how meaningful artistic and particularly dramatic activities can be for pupils and teachers has led me to continually explore possibilities of working in this manner. This has contributed to significant developments in my own language teaching, as well as to a restructuring of the design/ s of teacher education programs with which I have been associated. With respect to the latter, the most far-ranging consequence has been the institution of intensive workshops with professional actors, directors, storytellers and clowns as an integral element in language teacher education. In conjunction with these developments, the annual European Steiner School language teacher conference English Week was founded in 1996, based on the central idea that concentrated artistic work with outstanding professionals could lead to decisive steps in a teacher’s personal and professional growth. The highly positive reactions to this form of in-service training, reflected in oral and written feedback as well as in the popularity of English Week which has become the largest conference of its kind in Steiner education, attest to the deep meaning which this type of work has proven to have for many language teachers. This has also led to the inclusion of such courses in the context of other in-service and pre-service programs, primarily, but not exclusively, in the framework of Steiner teacher training. At the same time, it has become increasingly clear that this approach to teacher education raises a number of crucial questions and issues. Although both feedback sessions and written evaluations can be revealing with respect to what participants directly experience in such workshops, the decisive question of what this will later come to mean for them remains unanswered. Thus, a <?page no="30"?> primary task of this study will be to assess for the first time the long-term effects and value of these courses. Moreover, while articles have been published describing different elements of the programs, there have been no previous attempts to develop a broad conceptual basis for the inclusion of these courses in teacher training. Hence, a further deficit that I will attempt to redress with my work is the absence of a detailed study exploring and discussing the arguments for incorporating this form of artistic work into in-service language teacher development. Both within the framework of Steiner Schools and with respect to establishing a constructive basis for dialogue with educators outside of Steiner education, it has become increasingly important to address these issues. Understanding the potential implications of considering teaching as an art requires a closer examination of the ways in which teaching has been viewed in the past and how it is viewed today. The first chapter will thus address this topic within an historical and a contemporary framework. The second chapter examines relevant issues concerning teacher education and focuses on different approaches which have been developed in the context of in-service language teacher education. The following chapters (3 to 6) first explore the conceptual and experiential basis of having teachers work with professional performing artists and then focus extensively on Vivian Gladwell’s clowning and improvisation courses in the framework of a qualitative research study. Workshops for language teachers which Mr. Gladwell has given in different contexts over the last decade in England, Germany, and Finland, present the empirical basis for this study. What the participants of these workshops wrote in response to my research inquiry is considered in Chapter 7, leading to a detailed discussion of these courses in Chapter 8. In this context the perspectives of a number of contemporary educators are also considered. The final chapter in the first section, Chapter 9, draws conclusions from the empirical study and addresses possible future areas of research. In the second section of this study the focus shifts from language teacher development to language learning. The concept of foreign language teaching as an art is examined with respect to its implications for pupils learning a foreign language in high school. The process of rehearsing and performing a full-length foreign language play in a 10 th grade presents the basis for empirical research within the specific framework of a case study. This research is based to a substantial degree on what pupils themselves reported, as well as on what their parents and teachers wrote. As I was the teacher of this class, this study was conducted from the standpoint of practitioner-based research. Although there now exists an impressive body of literature regarding the use of drama techniques in language learning, many of the key works in this field 30 Introduction to the 1 st Edition <?page no="31"?> 20 These works will be discussed in detail in Chapter 10. 21 Betty Jane Wagner, Educational Drama and Language Arts: What Research Shows. (Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1998) 1-4. 22 Ibid., 5-11. are more directly concerned with adult education, either in regard to teaching English as a second language or in university programs. 20 In evaluating the use of drama in the context of high school foreign language lessons, there has been a widely acknowledged lack of empirical research studies. 21 This is particularly the case with respect to performance drama. 22 The unusual dimensions which such plays have in the curriculum of the school in which I teach - involving an entire class of up to 40 pupils for six months - offers a unique opportunity to examine such processes. There has, to my knowledge, been no comparable research conducted examining the effects of such intensive, dramatic work in a foreign language. This clearly highlights the need for studies designed to evaluate its potential value. The second section is divided into eight chapters. In Chapter 10, after an historical overview of the use of drama in foreign language teaching, relevant contemporary developments are discussed, thus placing this case study within a larger contextual framework. The next two chapters (11 and 12) present an overview of the research goals and methods and give the necessary background information concerning the particular circumstances in which the work took place. In Chapter 13 the entire process of rehearsing and performing the play is examined from a cross-sectional, chronological perspective, primarily based on what the pupils wrote over the course of six months, but also including observations and comments made by their parents and teachers. Chapter 14 traces the development of five pupils in depth. In Chapter 15, the pupils’ experiences are first viewed in the light of recent neurological research and then connections to relevant educational approaches are drawn. In this context the writings of a broad range of scientists and educators are also considered. Chapter 16 elucidates conclusions which can be drawn from this study both with respect to foreign language learning as well as in considering the overriding goals of a high school education. In the final chapter, the decisive elements of a concept of foreign language teaching as an art, encompassing both teacher education and language learning are elaborated. In consulting the relevant literature, I have drawn equally on German and Anglo-American research and writings. This has meant addressing issues in teacher education and foreign language learning within both an Anglo-Amer‐ ican and a European framework. Being able to base this study on the insights of leading figures from different educational traditions has had incontrovertible 31 Introduction to the 1 st Edition <?page no="32"?> advantages. At the same time, this larger perspective precludes both a complete accessing of all the possibly relevant material within each single context, as well as an exclusive focusing on all the pertinent issues connected to a specific national situation. In conducting this study, the advantages of adopting an international view have clearly proved to outweigh the disadvantages particularly insofar as many crucial issues share a common basis in the primary acts of teaching and learning a foreign language. The multiple perspectives which have been adopted here, focusing on the fields of both teacher education and foreign language learning while drawing extensively on different educational traditions, can also be seen to have auto‐ biographical roots. As an American who has been teaching English in Germany and training English teachers in Europe for many years, I have always found the mixture and integration of these different standpoints to be a continual source of stimulation and inspiration. Thus, it seems natural and, in fact, inevitable to attempt to incorporate these different perspectives into this study. Although my own work as a foreign language teacher has occurred solely within the context of having taught English in Steiner schools in Germany, my work as a teacher trainer in Waldorf education has been conducted within a much broader European framework. Having trained foreign language teachers in seminars and courses over the last decade in Germany, Hungary, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland and England, has given me a larger and richer perspective on critical issues in European teacher education which I have attempted to integrate into this study. In considering foreign language teaching as an art, this study will examine a concept that in fundamental respects constitutes an alternative approach to most contemporary educational views. Nevertheless, it is an idea which is both deeply rooted in a long historical tradition, as well as strongly influenced by research and thinking in a number of related fields including the behavioural sciences, neurology, philosophy and the dramatic arts. Thus, a vital dimension of this work has been the incorporation of a wide range of perspectives and writings in exploring the far-ranging implications of this concept. This has necessarily led to the adoption of an interdisciplinary approach in which extensive connections to writings in a number of fields are drawn. At the same time, the particular value of this study is seen to lie in its also being based on the concrete experiences of teachers and pupils. Substantial portions of this work consist of what they said and wrote which then provides a broad empirical basis for discussion and evaluation. In the end, I remain convinced that it is through deeply considering the actual reports of pupils and teachers that educational research can make contributions of lasting value to teaching and learning. 32 Introduction to the 1 st Edition <?page no="33"?> Part I: Teaching as an Art <?page no="35"?> 1 Concepts of Teaching The metaphors and images underlying concepts of teaching often remain unspoken and unexamined. At the same time, they deeply influence the ways teaching and education are perceived and understood. It is precisely because they are seldom the subject of critical reflection that they can subtly and irrevocably shape both the framework and atmosphere in which educational questions are considered and decided. Hence, drawing attention to those latent metaphors and images which shape educational thinking can be seen as an essential task of educational research. Before exploring the concept of language teaching as an art, it will be necessary to first examine those underlying metaphors which have formed contemporary educational perspectives. 1.1 The Models of Science and Business The concept of teaching as a science became an accepted view of teaching in the course of the 20 th century. Its origins can be found in educational thinking in the second half of the 19 th century, largely due to the widespread influence of Johann Friedrich Herbart’s writings and the ensuing Herbartismus. From this point on, the practices of teaching and teacher education increasingly came to be seen as legitimate fields of scientific inquiry offering the underlying basis for educational theory and practice. This is evident, for instance, in most educational research in which the methods of the natural sciences have generally been accepted as a standard paradigm. Concurrently, it has also been the dominant perspective in the training of teachers, shaping the entire approach to pre-service and in-service training. This view of teaching is also inherent in the traditional development of educational research and theory in a university setting, generally set apart from the actual practice of teachers working in schools. The fact that teacher education occurs chiefly within this academic context can be seen as a further manifestation of this prevalent view of teaching as an educational science. In regard to both educational research and teaching this perspective has generally proved to be self-perpetuating: most researchers and teachers trained in this vein have naturally tended to think and work within these same categories. Whereas the methods of science have been seen as offering a model for objective, research-based educational theory and practice, the paradigm of <?page no="36"?> 23 Elyse Lamm Pineau, “Teaching is Performance: Reconceptualizing a Problematic Met‐ aphor,” American Educational Research Journal, Spring 1994, Vol. 31, No. 1, 3-4. 24 H.H. Marshall, “Work or Learning: Implications of Classroom Metaphor,” Educational Researcher 17(9), (1988): 9-16. 25 Elliot Eisner, The Educational Imagination: On the Design and Evaluation of School Programs 2nd ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1985) 356-7. successful business practices has often been considered to offer a model of efficiency and productivity. From a perspective based on attaining the best possible results in the most efficient manner, schools have increasingly been viewed as a form of service institution in which teachers are held accountable for productivity, generally measured on the basis of their pupils’ standardized test scores. 23 A number of studies have examined the prevalence of such business frameworks in both curriculum design and teacher education and in this context the underlying metaphor of the teacher as a technician trained to achieve optimal results has been consistently remarked upon. 24 Writing in 1977, Elliot Eisner argued that in the course of the 20 th century the dominant images which formed educational views were the factory and the assembly-line, in which productivity and efficiency were the primary goals: Consider, for example, our interest in control, in the productivity of schooling, in the creation of measurable products, in the specification of criteria against which products can be judged, in the supervision of the teaching force, in the growing breach between labor (teachers) and management (administrator), the talk about quality assurance and quality control, in contract learning, in payment by results, in the hiring of probationary teachers on the one hand and superintendents on the other. What happens is that such terms become ubiquitous, their conceptual implications are taken for granted, they become a part of our way of educational life without the benefit of critical analysis. (…) Such an image of education requires that schools be organized to prescribe, control, and predict the consequences of their actions, that those consequences be immediate and empirically manifest, and that they be measurable. 25 There can be little doubt that what Eisner wrote then is more valid than ever today. Even within the very different educational traditions and systems of the United States and Germany, a deeply held view of the necessity of achieving that degree of standardization and accountability which both science and economic production demand is clearly prevalent. This has become particularly evident in policies precipitated by recent educational developments in the United States and in a number of European countries, including Germany. The disastrous results of national and international tests in regard to the basic skills of reading 36 1 Concepts of Teaching <?page no="37"?> 26 Elliot Eisner, “Two Visions of Education,” Teachers College Record November 07, 2005. ID Nr.: 12234, available online at (last accessed on 07.07.2021), www.tcrecord.org/ cont ent.asp? contentid=12234 . and mathematics along with clear deficits in pupils’ scientific knowledge have made educational reform one of the most pressing issues on the political agenda. The catastrophic economic and political dimensions of failing schools have become so apparent that it has led to an unprecedented range of large-scale programs and initiatives, for example, the “No Child Left Behind” program in the United States, or the national Bildungsstandards in Germany. In their wide-scale attempts to establish objective and measurable standards for all pupils, these programs evidence the continued dominance of a view of teaching and learning based on the dictum of education as a ‘hard science.’ The dominance of this position can also be seen in a host of curricular decisions, ranging from the widespread propagation of ‘scripted teaching’ methods in the United States, to the clear tendency towards adapting curricula to meet the requirements of increased standardized national testing at all age levels which can be found in both Germany and the United States. What Eisner has recently described as a formalist vision of schooling based on the goal of efficiently reaching narrowly defined aims, can be considered the basis of most contemporary educational thinking and policies in both the United States and much of Europe. He writes, …a formalist vision conceives of curriculum and teaching as rule guided activities that lead to pre-specified ends capable of being achieved if the pedagogical and curricular methods employed are appropriate. The aim of educational policy is to create institutions that make the realization of those aims possible. (…) Like the management of an assembly line, predictability, control, order and specificity are prized and pursued. The administrator’s main task is to run the organizational machine so that students achieve intended outcomes. In this vision, schooling is taken “seriously.” By seriously I mean that the student’s life within the school is analogized to the world of work. Schooling is the child’s work and the teacher’s job is to supervise its development so that it is performed well. 26 It is this view of schooling and teaching, formed by the paradigms of science and business, which must be seen as the dominant contemporary perspective in shaping most educational policies. These models and their relevant metaphors can also be seen as highly influential in the framework of teacher education, shaping both pre-service and in-service training. Although it is perhaps un‐ surprising that Science and Business have been considered to best exemplify accomplishment and progress, the far-ranging implications of the adoption of 37 1.1 The Models of Science and Business <?page no="38"?> such criteria deserve to be considered more closely. One of the central aims of this study will be to critically examine these models and metaphors in the context of exploring an alternative view of teaching and teacher education based on the concept of teaching as an art. 1.2 The Model of Teaching as an Art Considering teaching as an art implies not only a different understanding, but requires adopting a different framework of knowledge as well. In the arts there are clearly ways of knowing that cannot be represented within the measurable, objective domains of traditional science and education. The musician’s sensi‐ tivity to nuances of tone, the actor’s to voice and gesture, the clown’s to the possibilities of improvisation, all represent forms of knowledge and expression which do not lend themselves easily to rational, scientific discourse. Nor do they represent that type of knowledge which most educational research and theory has propagated as essential in teacher education, or, for that matter, for pupils in their schooling. At the same time they are all, incontrovertibly, examples of highly precise and expressive ways of knowing and acting. The framework which will be examined in the following chapters is based on a view of teaching in which such forms of artistic knowledge are considered to be highly relevant in teaching and thus essential elements in teacher education. Intrinsic to this standpoint is the belief that teaching demands sensitivities and skills which are far closer to those required of artists, than those of scien‐ tists. Although this approach does not reflect most contemporary educational thinking, there have been educators who have adopted similar positions. The most prominent of these has been Elliot Eisner. In a chapter called ‘On the Art of Teaching’ in his seminal book The Educational Imagination (1985) he explains the four reasons which lead him to define teaching as an art: First, it is an art in the sense that teaching can be performed with such skill and grace that, for the student as for the teacher, the experience can be justifiably characterized as aesthetic. (…) Second, teaching, is an art in the sense that teachers, like painters, composers, actresses, and dancers, make judgments based on qualities that unfold during the course of action. (…) Third, teaching is an art in the sense that the teacher’s activity is not dominated by prescriptions or routines but is influenced by qualities and contingencies that are unpredicted. (…) 38 1 Concepts of Teaching <?page no="39"?> 27 Eisner 1985, 175-177. 28 Ibid., 184. 29 The challenges which this vision of teaching poses for teacher education and educa‐ tional research have been convincingly elucidated by Pineau 1994. Fourth, teaching is an art in the sense that the ends it achieves are often created in process. (…) It is in these four senses - teaching as a source of aesthetic experience, as dependent on the perception and control of qualities, as a heuristic, or adventitious activity, and as seeking emergent ends - that teaching can be regarded as an art. 27 In the context of this study, the last three reasons which Eisner has presented will become the focus of attention. They address different, but related aspects of the process of teaching itself, emphasizing its dynamic and indeterminate qualities. In contrast to his initial point in which he adopts the more distanced perspective of appreciating the aesthetic/ artistic qualities of excellent teaching, his last three points are focused on the internal and creative processes occurring during the act of teaching. Using terms like “flexible purposing” and “fluid intelligence,” he elucidates how artists learn to address changing elements in their mediums, drawing on a repertoire of possibilities to create and work with those dynamic qualities intrinsic to their respective art forms. 28 In establishing parallels between such processes in the arts and in teaching, a framework is created in which the paradigms of the arts become attainable for teachers through realizing possibilities within their own medium. The teacher as artist is thus seen as exhibiting comparable forms of skill and grace as the musician, dancer, or actor. Such highly individual, dynamic processes in which unique qualities of artistry become most visible, contrast most strongly with the mechanistic following of predefined recipes and routines. This vision of teaching clearly raises a host of significant issues and questions in regard to teacher education. In the context of viewing teaching as an art, an alternative to traditional pre-service and in-service education is clearly called for. However, within the settings and frameworks in which such training customarily takes place, this has, unsurprisingly, proved to be extremely difficult to institute. Hence for Eisner and others who have argued in a similar vein, the daunting challenges implied in developing new forms of teacher education have consistently emerged as a central and intransigent problem. 29 The first part of this study will focus on addressing this problem both conceptually and in the context of empirical research. In examining the concept of teaching as an art and the resulting implications for teacher education today, it will first be helpful to consider critical issues 39 1.2 The Model of Teaching as an Art <?page no="40"?> 30 Ernst Lichtenstein, Der Ursprung der Pädagogik im griechischen Denken. (Hannover: Hermann Schrödel, 1970) 47-48. Unless otherwise noted, all translations of German into English I have done together with Martyn Rawson. within a much larger historical framework. It was most notably in Classical Greece, in the period of German Idealism and later in the reform movements at the beginning of the 20 th century that the connections between teaching and the arts were viewed as a central dimension of educational thinking. Many of the questions and problems which were widely discussed in those times bear strong similarities to issues which Eisner and others have raised today. Thus, to gain a broader understanding of the origins and development of this concept, as well as to incorporate previous thinking and experiences into present considerations, it can be highly instructive to trace the historical origins of this view in both the European and Anglo-American educational traditions. Adopting an historical perspective is thus seen as a prerequisite to understanding how this concept evolved into its present form and also as potentially relevant and illuminating in a contemporary context. 1.2.1 The Origins of Teaching as an Art: The Sophists The origins of the concept of teaching as an art can be seen in the practice of the Sophists beginning in the 5 th century B. C. who were the first pedagogues to develop a broadly humanistic and ethical approach to education reflected in the concept of paideia. This implied for them forming the entire person spiritually, morally and intellectually. To achieve these goals they introduced the idea of a broad humanistic education based on the disciplined study of rhetoric, grammar and dialectics, as well as on the accumulation of an encyclopaedic knowledge of a broad range of subjects including geometry, music, poetry, ethics and politics. This approach reflected a new democratic understanding of the role of a liberal arts education in preparing more young people to take an active part in Greek political and cultural life. 30 Through their widely recognized virtuosity as teachers and speakers the Sophists quickly and dramatically transformed the entire Greek concept of education. Realizing the aims implied in their understanding of paideia meant coming to terms with the numerous pedagogical challenges inherent in carrying out such a broadly based educational approach. This required the initial development of didactical principles. Ernst Lichtenstein sees here the origins of Didactics as a relevant educational field. He writes, 40 1 Concepts of Teaching <?page no="41"?> 31 Ibid., 62. 32 Ibid., 61. 33 Plato. “Theaetetus” 150c. In Complete Works Ed. John M. Cooper. Trans. M.J. Levitt, rev. Myle Burnyeat. (Indianapolis/ Cambridge: Hackett, 1997) 167. A pedagogical consciousness also becomes aware … for the first time of the educative process, of the preconditions and conditions that are the basis for its success and of the factors that must work within it. In the course of this reflection it encounters both the problem of how individuals can be shaped and influenced with respect to their individual possibilities, as well as theoretical questions pertaining to educational leadership, the educational path and methodology. 31 In the widespread realization of their new educational concepts, Lichtenstein sees the Sophists as having created the basis for an understanding of pedagogy as an art. This new pedagogical consciousness understands education firstly as an independent cultural activity that has to be brought into the form of art. 32 1.2.2 Socrates In both his goals and methods, Socrates presents a clear contrast to the Sophists. As opposed to the wide-ranging programs of the Sophists, Socrates saw the paramount aim of all education to be the attainment of a deeper knowledge of the soul and herein a realization of the highest possibilities of Self. His methods were based on his recognition of his own lack of knowledge, thus making possible a true questioning; a dialectical conversation in which the other had to draw conclusions on his own. In this sense he considered the teacher’s role as comparable to the art of the midwife (maieutikos) - assisting in the birth of productive thinking and self-discovery. Socrates says in Theaetetus, For one thing I have in common with ordinary midwives is that I myself am barren of wisdom. The common reproach against me is that I am always asking questions of other people but never express my own ideas about anything, because there is no wisdom in me; and that is true enough. And of the reason of it is this, that God compels me to attend the travail of others, but has forbidden me to procreate. 33 This dialectical approach contrasts strongly with the Sophist approach which was closely tied to their rhetorical skills. Lichtenstein sees the essential distinc‐ tions in the ways the Sophists and Socrates each perceived education as an art as originating in the highly disparate nature of their respective educational visions: 41 1.2 The Model of Teaching as an Art <?page no="42"?> 34 Lichtenstein 1970, 78. 35 Plato. “Menon” 81d. In Complete Works Ed. John M. Cooper. Trans. G.M.A. Grude. (Indianapolis,Cambridge: Hackett 1997) 880. Socrates could be misunderstood as a Sophist, but he was far more radical in his much deeper understanding of education as an art, because he saw education as an ethical art. Art demands knowledge and ability. Art realises and moulds into a ‘work’ what had previously been an imaginative ‘draft’ and image, also clearly and objectively perceived as a ‘task’ to be accomplished. Thus, one must know what one wants. The Sophists who desired to be the arbiters of education, lacked exactly that essential concept underlying all education - ‘the knowledge of the Good’. 34 1.2.3 Plato Building on the teachings of Socrates, Plato designed the first encompassing educational philosophy and system, which was to become the foundation of his ideal Republic. His educational concepts beginning with kindergarten age addressed all stages of schooling, ending in the rigorous philosophical Academy which for a select few ended at the age of 35. In considering the historical development of the concept of teaching as an art, he can be viewed as a central figure whose thinking not only shaped his own times, but strongly influenced later periods as well. Plato’s concept of paideia can only be understood in the context of his understanding of the eternal nature of knowledge in which the process of learning is inextricably tied to the immortality of the human soul: As the soul is immortal, has been born often and has seen all things here and in the underworld, there is nothing which it has not learned; thus it is in no way surprising that it can recollect the things it knew before, both about virtue and other things. As the whole of nature is akin, and the soul has learned everything, nothing prevents a man after recalling one thing only - a process men call learning - discovering everything else for himself, if he is brave and does not tire of the search, for searching and learning are, as a whole, recollection. 35 His view of the human soul as inherently possessing an ultimate knowledge which for Plato is the equivalent of the ultimate Good, also implies that the discovery, or re-discovery, of this knowledge is an inborn and driving force in all learning. Werner Jäger writes, What is essential for Plato here is the insight that the truth of Being is ‘present’ in the soul. This insight initiates a process of seeking and methodological self-awareness. 42 1 Concepts of Teaching <?page no="43"?> 36 Werner Jäger. Paideia: Die Formung des Griechischen Menschen. 3 vols. 5th. ed. (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter 1972) 755. 37 Lichtenstein 1970, 91. 38 Jäger 1972, 713. 39 Wilhelm Flitner. Die Erziehung: Pädagogen und Philosophen über die Erziehung und ihre Probleme. (Wiesbaden: Dietrich’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung 1958) XXXII. The search for the truth is nothing other than the development of the soul and that content which naturally lies within it. This arises from a deep longing originating in the soul itself. 36 The learning process required in helping an individual to experience that eternal unity which he is capable of knowing, implies a bringing together of those separate parts which have ‘fallen out’ of this whole. In this sense the art of teaching is seen as being comparable to the art of healing. Lichtenstein writes, The Platonic educational ideal is therefore simply this - to enable the human being to become human. As he is, the human being is only on the surface a whole; in reality, he is sorely divided within. To become whole, he must be educated and formed. The art of education is thus like the art of medicine, in that it aims to bring the forces of the soul into a state in which these inner forces can rule naturally and be ruled by each other naturally. 37 Plato’s understanding of padeia contrasts with that of the Sophists in that the function of education is not seen to lie in the forming and development of different capabilities, but rather in the realization of the predestined potentials inherent in human nature. Jäger writes, Paideia is not simply a stage of transition in the development of the human being in which certain spiritual and intellectual abilities are developed, but rather its significance is broadened to encompass the completion and realization of the human being in accordance with his nature. 38 The role of the teacher as midwife is thus understood as helping the learner to give birth to and then sustain his own learning processes. The art of teaching lies in helping learning. Wilhelm Flitner writes, …it comes down to this - that one “learns to learn.” Whoever can do this therefore relates everything to the idea of the Good itself; he learns philosophically and he learns to philosophize. This learning leads to knowledge about the Good and to a love of justice and all the other virtues. 39 43 1.2 The Model of Teaching as an Art <?page no="44"?> 40 Lichtenstein 1970, 108 41 Jäger 1972, 757. Hence, in contrast to the Sophists, Plato does not construct his didactical framework from the perspective of the teacher, but from the standpoint of the learner.  40 In helping the learner to realize this goal, the dialectical method of Socrates becomes the fundamental basis of his didactical concept. Through a dialectical approach, it becomes possible for the learner to find his own way through the different stages of knowledge which necessarily precede the highest form of understanding and knowledge. Through answering the necessary questions, a latent, eternal knowledge is awakened: for Plato, the dialectical principle becomes the key to going past a material understanding of the world and ultimately perceiving reality - the Idea - behind the material world. The immense and differentiated artistry required in the teacher’s use of the dialectical method was based not only on his posing the appropriate questions, but on precise listening, and the exact nature of his responses, often given in the form of examples (Paradeigma). This was considered to be a long and difficult process, requiring an extraordinary degree of attention and presence. The paradigm of this degree of artistry was, of course, Socrates. In the end, the full realization of this process is seen not only as constituting the highest realization of artistry in teaching, but as the essence of the process of learning. Through the artistry of the teacher, the learner acquires a knowledge which is not teachable, but only learnable. Jäger writes, … truly, this new concept of knowledge offers an insight into a kind of cognition which can not be ‘externally’ taught, but which through correct guidance of thought arises within the soul of the seeker itself. The charm of Plato’s Socratic art of conversation lies in the fact that now that we have come close to grasping the idea, he does not offer us this conclusion ready-made, but allows us to find it ourselves. Indeed, the new Padeia can not be taught… 41 Plato’s entire concept of the teacher’s artistry is perhaps best explained with the term techne which is not accurately translated with its closest approximation ‘art.’ Techne shares in common with art its focus on concrete artistic expression. However, it emphasizes the practical and wide-ranging knowledge and skills which art requires and not the individual creativity commonly associated with the arts. In this sense it is closer, for instance, to the kind of artistry associated with the art of healing than with that of painting or music. A further decisive characteristic is that its expression is considered to be ultimately helpful for 44 1 Concepts of Teaching <?page no="45"?> 42 Gottfried Hausmann. Didaktik als Dramaturgie des Unterrichts. (Heidelberg: Quelle and Meyer, 1959) 18-19. 43 Ibid. 44 Wilhelm Flitner. Allgemeine Pädagogik. (Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta im Ullstein Taschenbuch, 1950/ 1980) 14. 45 Ibid. 46 Hausmann 1959, 69-70. the realization and development of the highest human potentials. This is, for example, what leads Socrates and Plato to the conclusion that Rhetoric cannot be considered techne. As will become evident in the context of later developments, Plato’s entire approach to teaching as techne can be considered as a decisive contribution to the concept of teaching as an art. 1.2.4 European Humanism and the Art of Teaching One of the consequences of the rise of Humanism in the Renaissance was the re-emergence of an approach to teaching with clear roots in Sophistic thinking. The earlier Scholastic approach to studying theological writings based on the strict dialectical approach of lectio and disputatio which had been the accepted teaching practice in all subjects throughout the Middle Ages, was gradually transformed, in part, through a new emphasis on the discipline of Rhetoric in teaching. 42 Later, in the course of the 17 th century, a new and independent field of Didactics emerged, in which the specific principles of teaching were developed and systematized. 43 Comenius’ Didactica magna (1657) can be seen as the first large scale attempt to develop a rational system of teaching principles. In his emphasis on a new way of teaching based on Anschauungsprinzipien (illustrative principles) as opposed to mechanical learning procedures, as well as in the significance which he attached to spontaneity in teaching (“sponte fluit”) Comenius offered elements of a new, humanistic vision of teaching which differed substantially from those shaped by previous medieval traditions. The writings of Locke and later Rousseau were also influential in advocating a view of teaching in which encouraging and developing young pupils’ own interest and activity in learning was seen as vital. 44 This contrasted strongly with the style of teaching still widely present in the first half of the 18 th century based on a strictly catechistical approach. Moreover, Pestalozzi’s educational principles and methods can also be clearly distinguished from the formalistic principles and authoritative style of teaching prevalent at that time. 45 Johann Georg Hammans Fünf Hirten Briefe das Schuldrama betreffend (1763) offered a new vision of teaching based on incorporating elements of drama and acting. 46 45 1.2 The Model of Teaching as an Art <?page no="46"?> 47 Ibid., 22. 48 Friedrich Schiller. Über die Ästhetische Erziehung des Menschen. (Stuttgart: Verlag Freies Geistesleben, 2004 (repr. Die Horen 1795 - Sämtliche Werke Vol. 12, Stuttgart: 1904). Fröbel’s later development of the idea of a kindergarten, based on his belief in the harmonious nature of the young child’s being, and the adult’s responsibility to appropriately assist the child in her natural development can also be seen as reflecting a broadly humanistic approach to education. Parallel to these developments, a new approach to studying the classics in universities developed in which the texts were no longer used as a basis for exercises in grammar and rhetoric, but were intensively studied with the intention of developing and educating the entire human being. 47 All of these developments can also be seen as connected to the rise of German Idealism, and reflected in the writings of Winckelmann, Herder, Lessing, Goethe, Schiller, Humboldt, Fichte and Schleiermacher. In this context, Schiller’s Über die ästhetische Erziehung des Menschen can be viewed as particularly significant in regard to the later development of the concept of teaching as an art. 48 1.2.5 Schiller: Aesthetic Education Schillers small tract Über die ästhetische Erziehung des Menschen, written in the form of twenty-seven letters, conveys his ideal of the development of an individual and a society in freedom. In contrast to Kant who saw the overcoming of feelings and instincts through a sense of moral duty and ensuing actions as the highest virtue, Schiller sought possibilities in which an individual in full acceptance of his or her sentient being would desire to cultivate the highest moral ideals as an act of free choice. He describes two contrasting instincts as generally being decisive in human behaviour: an instinct in which one is led to unreflectively follow and act on sentient experience (Stofftrieb), and an instinct through which these feelings can be subjugated in order to act according to moral principles (Formtrieb). Through the Stofftrieb, actions are dictated by sensory experience and natural instincts; through the Formtrieb one controls feelings and instincts through inner thought and logic. In this polarity, Schiller saw little possibility of realizing the potentials of human development, insofar as in both cases necessity rather than freedom is decisive in shaping behaviour. To these two instincts, he envisioned a third, the Spieltrieb, in which these two instincts are united, creating the possibility of human behaviour resulting from freedom and choice, instead of instinct, or moral imperatives: 46 1 Concepts of Teaching <?page no="47"?> 49 Ibid., 84-85. 50 Ibid., 93. 51 Ibid., 105. The sense impulse wants to be determined, to receive its object; the form impulse wants to determine for itself, to produce its object; the play impulse will endeavour to receive as it would itself have produced, and to produce as the sense aspires to receive. 49 (14 th letter) [Der sinnliche Trieb will bestimmt werden, er will sein Objekt empfangen; der Formtrieb will selbst bestimmen, er will sein Objekt hervorbringen; der Spieltrieb wird also bestrebt sein so zu empfangen, wie er selbst hervorgebracht hätte, und so hervorzubringen, wie der Sinn zu empfangen trachtet.] (italics in original) The realization of the Spieltrieb is only possible in the realm of beauty (Bereich des Schönen). It is only in and through aesthetic experience that the Spieltrieb can be fully experienced and it is only in play (Spiel) that human potentials are fully realized: … the Beautiful is not to be mere life, nor mere shape, but living shape - that is, beauty - as it dictates to mankind the twofold law of absolute formality and absolute reality. Consequently it also pronounces the saying: Man shall only play with Beauty, and he shall play only with Beauty. Thus - and to finally speak it out - the human being only plays when he is in the full sense of the word human and he is only wholly human when he plays. 50 (15 th letter) ( italics in original) […das Schöne soll nicht bloßes Leben und nicht bloße Gestalt, sondern lebende Gestalt, das ist, Schönheit sein; indem sie ja dem Menschen das doppelte Gesetz der absoluten Formalität und der absoluten Realität diktiert. Mithin tut sie auch den Ausspruch: der Mensch soll mit der Schönheit nur spielen, und er soll nur mit der Schönheit spielen. Denn, um es endlich auf einmal herauszusagen, der Mensch spielt nur, wo er in voller Bedeutung des Worts Mensch ist, und er ist nur da ganz Mensch, wo er spielt.] (italics in original) Schiller’s view of aesthetic education can only be fully understood in the context of the central role which he considered aesthetics to have in all human development. In his work it becomes evident that the role of art and beauty (Schönheit) in the further development of the Spieltrieb are seen as being decisive in all areas of education and life, resulting ideally in a harmony and unity - a Lebenskunst with implications in all areas of social life: Through Beauty the sensuous man is led to form and to thought; through Beauty the spiritual man is brought back to matter and restored to the world of sense. 51 (18 th letter) 47 1.2 The Model of Teaching as an Art <?page no="48"?> 52 Ibid., 132. 53 G. Hausmann’s illuminating discussion of Herbart’s early writings offers an interesting contrast to the way Herbart’s views are generally understood; Hausmann 1959, 34-36. [Durch die Schönheit wird der sinnliche Mensch zur Form und zum Denken geleitet; durch die Schönheit wird der geistige Mensch zur Materie zurückgeführt und der Sinnenwelt wiedergegeben.] In this educational/ aesthetic context, individual freedom coupled with an inner sense of responsibility only becomes possible through cultivating and developing one’s senses, sentient life and artistic imagination through aesthetic experience. There is no other way to make the sensuous man sensible other than to first make him aesthetic. 52 (23rd letter) [Es gibt keinen anderen Weg, den sinnlichen Menschen vernünftig zu machen, als daß man denselben zuvor ästhetisch macht] Schiller’s concept of aesthetic education in which artistic processes and activity are viewed as decisive elements in all human development evidences clear parallels to the thinking of other philosophers of that period, most notably Herder and Schleiermacher. At the same time, his Ästhetische Briefe can be seen as representing a significant step in the development of this connection between art and education, which was later to have a direct and formative influence on the thinking of later educational reformers. 1.2.6 Developments in the 19 th and 20 th Century It was only towards the end of the 19 th century that Schiller’s writings began to have a marked influence on educational views. For most of the 19 th century the decisive figure was undoubtedly Johann Friedrich Herbart (1776-1841), who is generally viewed as the founder of the science of education. Whereas Herbart himself, particularly in his early writings, also emphasized the crucial role of pedagogical creativity and pedagogical tact in teaching, his followers stressed the formal principles and system of teaching which he elucidated in his later writings. 53 The result was a highly systematic and rigid view of learning and teaching which dominated educational thinking until the last decades of the 19 th century. It was the strong reaction to the rigidity of Herbartismus and its highly for‐ malistic and scientific view of education that eventually led to the development of a range of concepts in which teaching and learning were considered in a 48 1 Concepts of Teaching <?page no="49"?> 54 Baldur Kozdon. Didaktik als “Lehrkunst”: Idee und Begründung. (Bad Heilbrunn: Klink‐ hardt, 1984) 1-36. 55 Andreas Flitner. Reform der Erziehung: Impulse des 20. Jahrhunderts. (Munich: Piper, 1992) 26. 56 Ibid., 25. broadly artistic context. These developments were strongly based on the ideas of German Idealism, as well as on the ideas of contemporary philosophers, most notably Dilthey and Nieztsche. 54 The entire educational reform movement beginning in the last decades of the 19 th century and continuing through the Weimar Republic came to include a broad range of different movements including the Kunsterziehungsbewegung, Persönlichkeitspädagogik, Gesamtun‐ terrichtsidee, Arbeitsschulidee and, after World War I, Waldorfpädagogik and the Jenaplan. Although the above-mentioned concepts all had their origins in Germany, there was also a clear international dimension to the ideas of educational reform which developed at that time. Andreas Flitner writes, Reform Pedagogy in the first third of the century was indeed very original and innovative in Germany, but it can only be understood as an international movement. The basis for these events and thoughts lies in the entire European and American Modernist Movement. Everywhere there are parallels, encounters and influences. 55 What these disparate movements shared in common were visions of an edu‐ cation based on the specific needs of children (“vom Kinde aus”). In strong contrast to the proponents of Herbartismus, they placed an emphasis on sensory and aesthetic experience, as well as on the development of the child’s inherent creative possibilities, predicated on a holistic, humanistic view of the child’s development. In looking back at the different reform movements at the beginning of the 20 th century, Flitner describes the common pedagogical credo they all shared: Children should no longer just obey, but should understand as far as possible what it is all about: one should talk to them and discuss with them instead of giving them orders, they should have their own experiences with other children without adults always intervening, they should not be hit and ordered about; one should live with them, play with them, also work with them, as with younger friends instead of gravely setting examples to which they have to look up. All this appeared to the young educators and parents as a sign of a new style and an important part of their reforms. Youth was considered by this generation as the potential source for the renewal of society. Childhood and youth were proof of the true nature of humanity… 56 49 1.2 The Model of Teaching as an Art <?page no="50"?> 57 Kozdon 1984, 36. 58 Ibid., 29. 59 Ibid., 36. In considering both the content and tenor of their ideals, it is unsurprising that despite clear differences in their educational programs, they all envisioned the arts as constituting a central aspect in their curricula and artistic principles as offering a paradigm for all teaching. 57 Although this position was most strongly propagated in the Kunsterziehungsbewegung, which can be considered the most influential of the reform movements during that period, many common elements in their views of the role of artistic processes in teaching can be found in the works of the leading reformers of that time, including Ernst Linde (Persönlichkeits-Pädagogik), Berthold Otto and Wilhelm Albert (Gesam‐ tunterrichtsidee), Georg Kerschensteiner (Arbeitsschule) and after WW I, Rudolf Steiner (Waldorfpädagogik), Peter Petersen (Jenaplan), as well as in the writings of Herman Nohl, Edward Spranger, Theodor Litt, Wilhelm Flitner and Friedrich Copei. 58 Kozdon (1982) in his later study of the various educational reform movements of this time summarizes their common basis regarding the concept of teaching as an art: In retrospect, it is evident that the different educational movements … while not exclusively born out of the concept of education as an art, nevertheless concur in their essential understanding of this idea. Leading educators understood their educational task as being closely related to an artistic activity. They believed that they would fail in their obligations to their pupils, if they carried out their daily work in a manner lacking ‘pedagogical artistry’. 59 It will be instructive to look more concretely at how the concept of teaching as an art was understood at that time. The writings of Ernst Weber and Rudolf Steiner give an indication of the range of parallels and distinctions which existed in the different reform movements in this respect. Moreover, although their language and style are clearly rooted in the period in which they wrote, their arguments can still be viewed as relevant contributions to a discussion of this concept today. 1.2.7 The Teacher as Artist - Die Kunsterziehungsbewegung The concept of teaching as an art which Weber, one of the leading proponents of the Kunsterziehungsbewegung, extensively developed in his writings can be considered perhaps the most detailed exposition of this idea until this point. He writes, 50 1 Concepts of Teaching <?page no="51"?> 60 Ernst Weber. Erziehungskunst und Kunsterziehung. (Leipzig: Klinkhardt, 1914) 32. 61 Ernst Weber. Ästhetik als pädagogische Grundwissenschaft. (Leipzig: Wunderlich, 1907) 233. 62 Ibid., 339. 63 Ibid., 129. We want to express the view that we understand teaching and education to have a deep affinity with artistic activity and artistic work. This connection does not limit itself to the production of works of art, nor to artistic subjects in which artistic techniques are learned, but rather the entire educational work should contain an artistic element … 60 (italics in original) Weber’s view of the teacher as an artist is based on his understanding of the artistic qualities inherent in the act of teaching and is irrespective of the subject matter: The teacher doesn’t use words like a writer, but like an improviser. The educator is like a creative artist, speaker, actor, or rather - a spontaneous poet who has to create both text and style of presentation in one and the same moment. 61 Artistry in teaching can only be achieved through following artistic principles: Insofar as a pedagogical-didactic act can be called a work of art, to this extent it follows aesthetic principles in its development. Insofar as the teacher follows these norms, he is an artist. 62 In examining the criteria which makes it possible to ascertain whether teaching has attained a level that can be considered artistic, Weber focuses on the inner connection of the teacher to what she is teaching. It is the nature of that highly personal relation that he considers to be decisive: If a teacher wants to bring his material to life, then he has to feel it. He has to be deeply moved by this material; only then will he be able to fully grasp it and only then will the tone of his words attain the form of expression that is necessary in order to evoke in the listener a mood of seriousness or humour, peaceful reflection or flaming enthusiasm, empathy or anger, grief or joy. Only then will his physiognomy and his gestures reflect what is natural, authentic and true and not appear affected, contrived or false. Arising from the same feeling, the meanings of words and gestures can thus be coordinated with the same idea, attaining a unity as in a poetic-mimetic improvisation. 63 A further decisive criterion in judging the artistry of a teacher is the pupil’s experience in the classroom. When a teacher has attained a high level of artistry, 51 1.2 The Model of Teaching as an Art <?page no="52"?> 64 Ibid., 66. 65 Ibid., 354. what occurs in the classroom fully parallels the aesthetic experience of a work of art. Such experiences by their very nature preclude any traditional forms of pedagogical analysis: A lesson should be truly experienced. And even if it were possible to set down and record accents and gestures it would be highly unusual to be able to delineate a pedagogical work of art. The educational artist doesn’t permit his art to be ‘caught’ - in this respect he clearly differs from experimental educators - by means such as attempting to make written notes whilst teaching a lesson or through some other technique of notation. The very thought of fixation would impair the work of art, if it didn’t totally destroy it. A lesson should be a continuous fabric of thought and feelings, a complete experience. 64 Weber develops his understanding of teaching as an art also in the context of establishing a polarity to viewing teaching as a science. This distinction is not only decisive in how teachers view themselves, but is also reflected in how they view their pupils. In the context of Weber’s times this meant contrasting the teacher’s empathetic, intuitive understanding of her pupils, with the distanced, objective views propagated by the budding science of educational psychology: This love of children, this immersion, this sinking of oneself into the nature of the child is at the same time the natural precondition for understanding the child’s soul. (…) In practice, all psychological speculation would either lead to a failure to grasp the point or through its doubts and reflections would miss the right moment to act. A healthy sense for what is necessary enables one to unhesitatingly choose what is appropriate for a given situation. Children want to be empathized with and at the same time intuitively understood - in a word, they want to be fully perceived. They don’t allow themselves to be reduced to any scientific formula. All psychological research on children fails with respect to its practical pedagogical applicability because it fails to grasp the child’s individuality which remains eternally inaccessible to conceptual analysis. 65 Baldur Kozdon (1982) summarizes the three central maxims of the Kunsterzie‐ hungsbewegung: • Young people should be led to have a comprehensible understanding of works of art and should be receptive to perceive that which is beautiful. • Artistic activities, as personal and creative acts, serve to emancipate the productive, creative forces in the human being. 52 1 Concepts of Teaching <?page no="53"?> 66 Kozdon 1984, 33. 67 Although the writings of the Kunsterziehungsbewegung did not later play a direct role either in traditional educational thinking or in later educational reform movements, it would not be accurate to say that the ideas it advanced had no significance in later educational developments. Most notably in regard to the methods through which the arts were later taught, the Kunsterziehungsbewegung can be seen as having had a formative influence on later teaching. A. Flitner’s discussion of this issue is relevant. Flitner 1992, 61. 68 W.A.. Lay, Die Tatschule als natur- und kulturgemäße Schulreform. (Leipzig: Osterwieck, 1921) 38; quoted in Kozdon 1984, 41. 69 https: / / www.freunde-waldorf.de/ fileadmin/ user_upload/ images/ Waldorf_World_List/ Waldorf_World_List.pdf . • The educational and pedagogical activities of the teacher should be imbued with artistry. 66 (Underlined in original) In a number of respects the Kunsterziehungsbewegung can be considered a largely forgotten chapter of the German educational reform movement in the first third of the 20 th century. 67 As its influence gradually diminished in the 1920’s, a rigorous and scientific approach to teaching and schooling reflected in the Experimentelle Pädagogik and the Lernschule became increasingly prevalent. A well-grounded view of teaching and learning developed from the tested methods of experimental research was contrasted with the romantic feelings and dilettantism which a Künstlerpädagogik was seen to represent. As R. Lay, one of the most influential figures in the movement to establish a scientific basis for teaching wrote, Education will only thrive in the bright light of science and not in the twilight of the romantic. 68 After the struggles of the reform movement in the 1920s and the simultaneous ascent of the Lernschule, the question of whether teaching was a science or an art gradually ceased to be a central pedagogical issue. Viewing teaching as a science became the generally accepted way of educational thinking. 1.2.8 The Teacher as Artist - Waldorf Education In stark contrast to the Kunsterziehungsbewegung, the founding of the first Waldorf School by Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) in Stuttgart in 1919, which had little visible effect on the pedagogical thinking of that time, has since grown to become a leading international educational reform movement with over 1200 schools and 2000 kindergartens all over the world. 69 Steiner’s view of education as an Erziehungskunst and the teacher as an Erziehungskünstler is one of the 53 1.2 The Model of Teaching as an Art <?page no="54"?> 70 Rudolf Steiner. “Pädagogik und Kunst” (GA 36). Texte zur Pädagogik aus dem Werk von Rudolf Steiner: Anthroposophie und Erziehungswissenschaft. Ed. Johannes Kiersch. (Dornach: Rudolf Steiner Verlag, 2004) 607. central motives going through all his educational writings. His view of teaching as an art is deeply rooted in the aesthetic concepts of German Idealism, most notably and directly in Schiller’s Ästhetische Briefe. This becomes particularly evident in the connections which Steiner draws to Schiller’s understanding of the profound significance of ‘play’ in human development and its intrinsic relation to artistic experience: Whoever can perceive, through true knowledge of the human being, the inner Self of a child on his path from play to life’s works, can perceive the nature of teaching and learning. For the seriousness of the child’s play reveals that inner drive towards activity in which the Self of the human being can be found. It is simply foolish to say the children “should learn through playing”. An educator who organised his activity accordingly would educate people for whom life was more or less only a game. It is however the ideal of education and teaching to awaken in the child a sense for learning so that he learns with the same degree of seriousness as in play, as long as play is the only content of his life. An educational approach and practice which understands this will be able to give art its rightful place and its cultivation the appropriate priority. 70 (italics in original) [Wer in echter Menschen-Erkenntnis die kindliche Wesenheit auf dem Wege von dem Spiel zur Lebensarbeit belauschen kann, der erlauscht die Natur des Lehrens und Lernens. Denn beim Kinde ist das Spiel die ernste Offenbarung des inneren Dranges zur Tätigkeit, in welcher der Mensch sein wahres Dasein hat. Es ist eine leichtsinnige Redensart, zu sagen: die Kinder sollen „spielend lernen“. Ein Pädagoge, der seine Tätigkeit darnach einrichtete, würde doch nur Menschen erziehen, denen das Leben mehr oder weniger ein Spiel ist. Es ist aber das Ideal der Erziehungs- und Unterrichtspraxis, in dem Kinde den Sinn dafür zu wecken, daß es mit demselben Ernste lernt, mit dem es spielt, so lange das Spielen der einzige seelische Inhalt des Lebens ist. Eine Erziehungs- und Unterrichtspraxis, welche dies durchschaut, wird der Kunst die rechte Stelle anweisen und ihrer Pflege die rechte Ausdehnung geben.] (italics in original) Steiner’s vision of an Erziehungskunst goes clearly beyond the central role which the arts play in the Waldorf curriculum: the development of a generally artistic attitude (Gesinnung) incorporating artistic sensitivity, flexibility and discipline is viewed as a vital educational process, for pupils, as well as for their teachers: 54 1 Concepts of Teaching <?page no="55"?> 71 Ibid., 608. 72 Ibid. 73 Rudolf Steiner, “Psychologie der Künste,” (GA 271) Kiersch, 2004, 33. And one shall see what this developing human being - the child - can experience through art. The intellect first truly awakens in the encounter with art. A sense of responsibility develops when, out of an inner motivation, material is artistically mastered in freedom. It is the artistic sense of the teachers and educators which brings those qualities of the soul into a school that allow for happiness in seriousness and for character in joy. Through intellectual understanding, nature is merely comprehended; through artistic sensibility it can be experienced. 71 [Und man wird dann sehen, was dieser werdende Mensch - das Kind - an dem Erleben der Kunst wird. Der Verstand wird an der Kunst erst zum wahren Leben erweckt. Das Pflichtgefühl reift, wenn der Tätigkeitsdrang künstlerisch in Freiheit die Materie bezwingt. Künstlerischer Sinn des Erziehenden und Lehrenden trägt Seele in die Schule hinein. Es lässt im Ernste froh sein, und in der Freude charaktervoll. Durch den Verstand wird die Natur nur begriffen; durch die künstlerische Empfindung wird sie erst erlebt.] In deeply felt artistic experience, he sees profound transformative possibilities: The child who has been led into music and poetry comes to feel the human experience of being deeply moved by an emotional Ideal. His humanity receives a further dimension of humanity. 72 [Das Kind, das in das Musikalische und Dichterische eingeführt wird, erfühlt das Ergriffensein der Menschennatur durch ein idealisch Seelisches. Es empfängt zu seiner Menschlichkeit eine zweite.] He also sees the potentials of artistic processes in freeing and educating the human spirit: Art is an ongoing process of the emancipation of the human spirit and at the same time educates humanity to act out of love. 73 The full significance of such developmental possibilities can only be realized when the artistic element and attitude become integrated into every area of teaching and learning: None of this will be achieved if art is only placed alongside the other aspects of education and teaching if it is not organically integrated into the whole approach. All teaching and education should be a whole. Knowledge, preparation for life, practicing 55 1.2 The Model of Teaching as an Art <?page no="56"?> 74 Rudolf Steiner, “Pädagogik und Kunst,”(GA 36) Kiersch, 2004, 608. 75 This is a theme which was continually addressed by Steiner throughout his pedagogical writings. Johannes Kiersch’s foreword to Steiner’s educational texts gives a clear introduction to the development and relevance of Steiner’s thinking in this respect; Kiersch 2004, 7-49. Jörgen Smit has explored the concrete meaning of a teacher’s meditation with respect to her pedagogical intuitions in his book, Der werdende Mensch: Zur Meditativen Vertiefung des Erziehens. (Stuttgart: Verlag Freies Geistesleben, 1989). 76 Kiersch 2004, 34. technical skills should all flow into a need for art; artistic experience should instil a longing to learn, to observe and the wish to acquire competence. 74 Both in the prominent role which the Arts play in the Waldorf curriculum, as well as in the role of artistic processes in all aspects of teaching and learning, there are clear parallels to many of the dominant ideas of the Kunsterziehungs‐ bewegung and, in fact, to many of the educational principles of the other reform movements of that time. A decisive parallel between Weber and Steiner’s writings on this theme is the importance both educators place on the teacher’s personal artistic development as the requisite basis for artistry in teaching. The most far-ranging differences in their understanding of teaching as an art lie in the significance of Steiner’s anthroposophically oriented anthropology (Menschenkunde) as constituting the underlying basis of Steiner’s understanding of how artistic processes help to form the developing child. A further decisive distinction can be found in his conception of the artistry of the teacher as resulting, in part, from continual meditative studies, which become a basis for her intuitive sense of what is required in a concrete pedagogical situation. 75 Johannes Kiersch in his introduction to Steiner’s educational texts writes, The living knowledge of the human being that the anthroposophically oriented anthropology [Menschenkunde] gives to him and in which he learns to meditatively immerse himself, opens up a pedagogical perspective for him through which he can see what has to be done in a concrete situation. This knowledge disappears while he is acting; it becomes transparently open to the demands of the continuously emerging present moment. 76 The spiritual dimensions which can be found in Steiner’s pedagogy reflected both in his concrete understanding of the nature of the developing child, as well as in specific requirements for teaching and a teacher’s education, can be seen as clearly separating Waldorf Education from other reform movements of both his time and our own. 56 1 Concepts of Teaching <?page no="57"?> 77 Flitner 1992, 14. 1.2.9 Reform Movements - Overview A comparison of Weber’s and Steiner’s writings makes clear that behind the general concept of viewing teaching as an art, similarities as well as distinctions exist. Although many of these aspects were unique to these particular two movements, the same phenomenon would be apparent in comparing any of the other reform movements of that period. Clearly, the concept of teaching as an art prevalent at that time was broad enough to include a range of standpoints, each with their own specific emphasis and focus. The conflicts which emerged in this period between the proponents of viewing teaching as an art and the advocates of an experimental pedagogy based on viewing teaching and learning in the context of an educational science, evidence parallels to discussions still held today. These parallels are particularly striking when one considers the vastly different societies in which these debates have taken place. In looking back at the educational reform movements at the beginning of the 20 th century, A. Flitner points out that practically all the questions which were debated and put into educational practice at that time, were still being debated at the end of the century: In the first third of the century, practically all the determinative questions of ‘modern’ education were already raised and nearly all the ideas that inform our current questions and discussions were put into practice. 77 In the midst of national and international educational crises in the first decades of the 21 st century, this appears to be no less relevant. Despite the almost inconceivable differences between the German Kaiserreich and contemporary European and/ or American societies, the underlying issues have remained constant. 1.2.10 The Teacher as Artist: Later Developments in Germany Between the years 1933-45, conflicts between the advocates of a Künsterpäda‐ gogik and the Lernschule were fully eclipsed by the dominant Nazi educational ideology which adopted only those elements which served its own purposes. After WW II elements of the ideas of the reform movements in regard to the concept of teaching as an art can be found in the writings of a number of prominent educational reformers including Wilhelm Flitner, Friedrich Copei, Heinrich Roth, Martin Wagenschein and Eduard Spranger. In his historical overview of this tradition, Didaktik als Lehrkunst published in 1982, Baldur 57 1.2 The Model of Teaching as an Art <?page no="58"?> 78 The writings of Rumpf and Hentig will be discussed in later chapters, most notably in Chapter 17. 79 The writings and work of Hunfeld will be discussed in Chapters 8 and 17, Weinrich in Chapter 17. 80 L. Anderson, ed., International Encyclopedia of Teaching and Teacher Education. (London: Pergamon Press, 1995) s.v. “Teachers as Artists,” by S. Delamont. Kozdon views Gottfried Hausmann’s Didaktik als Dramaturgie des Unterrichts (1959) as the last major work in the long tradition of viewing teaching in an artistic context; a tradition whose heyday had been reached in the reform movements at the beginning of the century. Hausmann’s wide-ranging discussion of connections between the historical development of dramaturgical principles in theatre and parallel developments in the history of didactics certainly stands as a unique contribution to this field. Moreover, his extensive discussion of the relevance of key dramaturgical principles for establishing an artistic methodology of teaching must also be seen as constituting one of the most extensive treatments of this theme. However, in the context of a period in which this approach was no longer considered relevant, his work does not appear to have had any significant effect/ s on the educational thinking or discussions of that time, or later ones. In recent decades, educators such as Horst Rumpf, Hartmut von Hentig, Christian Rittelmeyer and Gert Biesta have offered visions of teaching and learning which offer a striking contrast to the paradigm of viewing education as a ‘hard science’ and which include a number of elements relevant to the concept of teaching as an art. 78 In the area of foreign language teaching, Hans Hunfeld and Harald Weinrich stand out as the most prominent representatives of an alternative approach deeply rooted in a sceptical hermeneutic tradition, in which the experience of the richness and ambiguities of literature in a foreign language are accorded a central role. 79 1.3 Anglo-American Traditions - William James In the Anglo-American educational tradition, the concept of teaching as an art is generally considered to have a clearly defined origin. 80 In 1892, the renowned psychologist and philosopher William James (1842-1910) was asked by Harvard University to give a series of public lectures on psychology to schoolteachers in Cambridge which were later published. In his lectures James draws clear distinctions between the insights which can be gained from the science of psychology and what is required in teaching: 58 1 Concepts of Teaching <?page no="59"?> 81 William James. Talks to Teachers on Psychology and to Students on Some of Life’s Ideals. (Mineola, N.Y.: Dover, 1962) 3. 82 Ibid., 3-4. 83 Ibid., 34. 84 Ibid., 55. I say moreover that you make a great, a very great mistake, if you think that psychology, being the science of the mind’s laws, is something from which you can deduce definite programmes and schemes and methods of instruction for immediate schoolroom use. Psychology is a science and teaching is an art; and sciences never generate arts directly out of themselves. 81 He is clearly sceptical about the value of psychology in regard to the practical needs of his audience: To know psychology, therefore is absolutely no guarantee that we shall be good teachers. To advance to that result, we must have an additional endowment altogether, a happy tact and ingenuity to tell us what definite things to say and do when the pupil is before us. That ingenuity in meeting and pursuing the pupil, that tact for the concrete situation, though they are the alpha and omega of the teacher’s art, are things to which psychology cannot help us in the least. 82 Yet, despite his reservations, James goes on to give a number of suggestions derived from experimental psychology, emphasizing the importance of estab‐ lishing positive educational habits and a broad base of tacit knowledge through making the “nervous system our ally instead of our enemy.” 83 At the same time, he continually makes clear that the implementation of the principles of psychology in the classroom does not, in the end, depend on theoretical knowledge, but the teacher’s artistry in teaching: The genius of the interesting teacher consists in sympathetic divination of the sort of material with which the pupil’s mind is likely to be already spontaneously engaged, and in the ingenuity which discovers paths of connection from that material to the matters to be newly learned. The principle is easy to grasp, but the accomplishment is difficult in the extreme. And a knowledge of such psychology as this which I am recalling can no more make a good teacher than a knowledge of the laws of perspective can make a landscape painter of effective skill. 84 James’ entire view of teaching is based on a deep respect for the sovereign role of the teacher and a sceptical evaluation of the possibilities of science in advancing educational practice. His own concrete elucidation of the concept of teaching as an art is thus defined by what he considers to be the clear limits of educational 59 1.3 Anglo-American Traditions - William James <?page no="60"?> 85 Ibid., 3. 86 James must certainly be considered one of the most influential thinkers of his times, not only in his field of psychology, but in a variety of other areas in which he was also highly active, including philosophy, the study of religious experience and education. One of his students whose thinking and life he profoundly affected was John Dewey. 87 Dewey was not only one of the most prominent educators of the 20 th century in the United States, but his writings have continued to play an important role in Europe as well. A sign of his continued relevance in Germany can be found in the activities of the international Dewey Center at the University of Cologne . https: / / www.hf.uni-koeln.d e/ 30446 . psychology in assisting teachers to become better teachers. From the perspective of the leading psychologist of his day, the injunction that “inventiveness and sympathetic concrete observation” 85 and not the findings and methods of science were the basis of successful teaching, constituted an educational vision at the end of the 19 th century which was to have clear, practical ramifications in a number of reform movements at the beginning of the 20 th century in both the United States and Europe. 86 1.3.1 Art and Education - John Dewey In contrast to his contemporaries in the European reform movements in the first third of the 20 th century, the writings and work of John Dewey (1859-1952) continued to influence different aspects of educational thinking throughout the 20 th century. 87 His evaluation of the role of artistic experience in education was highly influential in shaping the ideas of those leading contemporary educators such as Elliot Eisner, Seymour Sarason, Jim Garrison and Howard Gardner who have all developed their own concepts of the nature of artistry in teaching and learning. Dewey’s influence on educational thinking in this respect has also not been limited to the United States. In his seminal work Art as Experience (1934) Dewey elucidated his under‐ standing of what constitutes the nature of artistry: An artist, in comparison with his fellows, is one who is not only especially gifted in powers of execution but in unusual sensitivity to the qualities of things. This sensitivity also directs his doings and makings. (…) In an emphatic artistic-aesthetic experience, the relation is so close that it controls simultaneously both the doing and the perception. Such vital intimacy of connection cannot be had if only hand and eye are engaged. When they do not, both of them, act as organs of the whole being, there is but a mechanical sequence of sense and movement, as in walking that is automatic. 60 1 Concepts of Teaching <?page no="61"?> 88 John Dewey, Art and Experience. (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1934/ 1980), 50. 89 Ibid., 51. 90 Ibid., 27. Hand and eye, when the experience is aesthetic, are but instruments through which the entire live creature, moved and active throughout, operates. 88 Within this holistic view of artistic-aesthetic experience, he places a particular emphasis on the role of perception within the changing and dynamic artistic process: An incredible amount of observation and of the kind of intelligence that is exercised in perception of qualitative relations characterizes creative work in art. (…) The real work of an artist is to build up an experience that is coherent in perception while moving with constant change in its development. 89 For Dewey, such artistic activities and processes were not limited to the domains of those working in the fine arts; he considered them to be central to all human experience. He thus argued that viewing artistic and aesthetic realms of experience as existing separately from the everyday realities of people’s lives pointed to a fundamental misunderstanding of their potential relations: The hostility to association of fine art with normal processes of living is a pathetic, even a tragic, commentary on life as it is ordinarily lived. Only because that life is usually so stunted, aborted, slack, or heavy laden, is the idea entertained that there is some inherent antagonism between the process of normal living and creation and enjoyment of works of aesthetic art. 90 In his foreword to the writings of the renowned art teacher Henry Schaefer Simmern, he explains what he views as the guiding principles underlying artistic processes in teaching and learning: The first of the principles to which I would call attention is the emphasis upon individuality as the creative factor in life’s experiences. (…) This creativity is the meaning of artistic activity - which is manifested not just in what are regarded as the fine arts, but in all forms of life that are not tied down to what is established by custom and convention. In re-creating them in its own way it brings refreshment, growth, and satisfying joy to one who participates. 61 1.3 Anglo-American Traditions - William James <?page no="62"?> 91 John Dewey, foreword to The Unfolding of Artistic Activity: Its Basis, Processes and Implications. by Henry Schaefer-Simmern (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1948), ix-x. 92 Jim Garrison. Dewey and Eros: Wisdom and Desire in the Art of Teaching. (New York: Teachers College Press, 1997) 86-125. 93 Dewey 1934/ 1980, 347. Accompanying this principle, or rather inseparable from it, is the evidence that artistic activity is an undivided union of factors which, when separated, are called physical, emotional, intellectual, and practical - these last in the sense of doing and making. 91 In many respects, Dewey’s understanding of the nature and significance of artistic experience can be considered the keystone of his educational writings. 92 He continually drew parallels between teaching and artistic expression. At the same time, he makes clear that this concept of teaching also requires a fully new understanding and vision of education than that which was prevalent in his times: It is by way of communication that art becomes the incomparable organ of instruction, but the way is so remote from that usually associated with the idea of education, it is a way that lifts art so far above what we are accustomed to think of as instruction, that we are repelled by any suggestion of teaching and learning in connection with art. But our revolt is in fact a reflection upon education that proceeds by methods so literal as to exclude the imagination and one not touching the desires and emotions of men. 93 Of particular relevance in regard to his view of teaching was the emphasis which he placed on the development of the imaginative faculties of pupils and teachers. Developing empathetic and imaginative capabilities through artistic experience is seen as a decisive mode of learning. This is equally true for teacher and pupil. Such experiences have their most profound effects, not in the visible results of a particular activity, but in their long-term transformative and motivational consequences. At the end of Art and Experience Dewey writes, Imagination is the chief instrument of the good. It is more or less a commonplace to say that a person’s ideas and treatment of his fellows are dependent upon his power to put himself imaginatively in their place. But the primacy of the imagination extends far beyond the scope of direct personal relations. (…) While perception of the union of the possible with the actual in a work of art is itself a great good, the good does not terminate with the immediate and particular occasion in which it is had. The union that is presented in perception persists in the remaking of impulsion and thought. The 62 1 Concepts of Teaching <?page no="63"?> 94 Ibid., 348-349. 95 Garrison 1997, 96-101. 96 Lawrence Stenhouse, “What Counts as Research,” chap. in Research as a Basis for Teaching: Readings from the Work of Lawrence Stenhouse. Eds. Jean Rudduck and David Hopkins (London: Heinemann Educational Books, 1985) 15-16. 97 Stenhouse, “The Psycho-Statistical Paradigm and its Limitations 2,” chap. in Stenhouse 1985, 28. first intimations of wide and large redirections of desire and purpose are of necessity imaginative. 94 Not only have Dewey’s ideas regarding art and experience had a significant influence on the thinking of a number of later educators, but his attempts to develop an educational science based on using scientific methods in an artistic manner also demonstrated the first pragmatic possibilities of mediating between what had been perceived as irrevocable polarities of thinking. 95 1.3.2 The Teacher as Researcher - Lawrence Stenhouse The most significant contribution to the concept of teaching as an art to come out of Great Britain is connected to the influential work and writings of Lawrence Stenhouse (1926-1982). Stenhouse’s name and work are inextricably tied to the idea of the ‘teacher as researcher’ or, ‘action research’ which he pioneered in England. His concept had a twofold basis: first, he proposed that it was through consciously monitoring and researching their own work that teachers could become conscious artists: A teacher lays the foundation of his capacity for research by developing self-moni‐ toring strategies. The effect is not unlike that of making the transition from amateur to professional actor. Through self-monitoring the teacher becomes a conscious artist. Through conscious art he is able to use himself as an instrument of his research. 96 Secondly, he argued that it was research conducted by teachers that would lead to the most significant improvements in teaching and curricula: The assertion is that the improvement of teaching rests upon the development of the art of the teacher and not through the teacher’s adoption of uniform procedures selected from competing alternatives. 97 Stenhouse’s concept of the ‘teacher as researcher’ hinges on the teacher’s adopting the attitude of the researcher, testing hypotheses in action, recognizing the provisional nature of results and continually willing to revise them. For him, this is an essential aspect of what constitutes artistry in teaching: 63 1.3 Anglo-American Traditions - William James <?page no="64"?> 98 Stenhouse, “Defining the Curriculum Problem,” chap. in Stenhouse 1985, 69. 99 Stenhouse, “Curriculum as the Medium for Learning the Art of Teaching,” chap. in Stenhouse 1985, 96-97. …for the most part neither teachers nor pupils recognize teaching as an art. Hence teachers do not see their own development as key to the situation in the same way as actors or sculptors or musicians do. And pupils do not understand - nor do teachers generally share the understanding with them - the significance of experiment in the classroom and their role in it. 98 In the development of this attitude and in learning to adopt such methods, a teacher makes crucial steps in attaining artistry. Stenhouse considers this to be vital for the teacher’s self-development. The process through which this occurs evidences significant parallels to the learning and practice of any form of art: I am claiming that the expression of educational ideas in curricular form provides a medium for the development - and if necessary the autonomous self-development - of the teacher as artist. To say that teaching is an art does not imply that teachers are born, not made. On the contrary artists learn and work extraordinarily hard at it. But they learn through the critical practice of their art. Idea and action are fused in practice. (…) Thus in art ideas are tested in form by practice. Exploration and interpretation lead to revision and adjustment of idea and of practice. If my words are inadequate, look at the sketchbook of a good artist, a play in rehearsal, a jazz quartet working together. That I am arguing, is what good teaching is like. It is not like routine engineering or routine management. 99 It is in the fundamental connection which Stenhouse sees between the teacher’s development as an artist and the further development of educational curricula, that his standpoint has its most wide-ranging implications for the entire field of education. In this context, a substantially different view of in-service training is advanced: My position is that in-service development must be the development of the teacher as artist. That means the development of understanding expressed in performance: understanding of the nature of knowledge expressed in the art form of teaching and learning. No skills unless they enhance understanding, no curriculum study unless it enhances understanding, no courses of study unless they enhance understanding, no assessment unless it enhances understanding. What I am advocating is so radical that I may not be communicating it. Let me sharpen the message in the area of curriculum: I am saying that the purpose of any curriculum change, any curriculum research, any 64 1 Concepts of Teaching <?page no="65"?> 100 Stenhouse, “Curriculum Research, Artistry and Teaching,” chap. in Stenhouse 1985, 110. 101 Ibid. 102 Stenhouse, “Research as a Basis for Teaching,” chap. in Stenhouse 1985, 123-124. curriculum development is the enhancement of the art of teaching, of understanding expressed as performance. 100 The underlying motive going through all his works is his vision of teaching conducted in the spirit of inquiry. All worthwhile developments in curriculum and theory hinge on the teacher’s willingness to engage in this process and to offer the fruits of his research to others for further testing and evaluation. In this respect, curriculum is considered as a hypothesis to be tested in the classroom. For him, the teacher’s acceptance of responsibility for curriculum development and her learning of the requisite research skills, are predicated on her own desires to institute fundamental changes: As a starting-point teachers must want change, rather than others wanting to change them. That means that the option of professional development leading towards professional satisfaction of a kind that brings an enhancement of self must be made clear and open to teachers. Teachers have been taught that teaching is instrumental but improving education is not about improving teaching as a delivery system. Crucial is the desire of the artist to improve his art. This art is what the experienced teacher brings to in-service development. Good in-service education recognizes and strengthens the power and primacy of that art. It offers curricula to teachers as music in-service offers Beethoven or Stravinsky to musicians - to further the art. In-service is linked to change because art is about change and only develops in change. 101 Specific qualities required in the art of teaching are seen in the conveying of knowledge through meaningful interaction with pupils in the classroom. This act involves the entire being of the teacher in the same way that other arts fully involve their practitioners: The character of the art of teaching is to represent to learners through social interaction with them meanings about knowledge. The succession of experiences we provide for them and within the framework of those experiences the nuances of our questions, our judgements of their work, our tutorial advice, even the very gestures and postures of our bodies, are expressive of those meanings, sometimes explicitly, sometimes as elements in what has come to be called a ‘hidden curriculum’ ( Jackson, 1968) Teaching represents knowledge to people rather as theatre represents life. 102 65 1.3 Anglo-American Traditions - William James <?page no="66"?> 103 Ibid. 104 L. Lessinger, & D.Gillis. Teaching as a Performing Art. (Dallas, TX: Crescendo Publica‐ tions, 1976) and W.M. Timpson, & D.N. Tobin. Teaching as Performing: A Guide To Energizing Your Public Presentation. (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1982). 105 These programs will be examined in Chapter 10. In the end, Stenhouse is also very concerned to stress that his vision of artistic teaching is not fully realized in the teacher’s having finally learned to convey knowledge in an artistic manner. The inner attitude of the teacher as artist is for him the key to her being able to perpetually develop her artistry. This attitude is based on an acceptance of one’s limitations and the continual desire to overcome them: Teachers must be educated to develop their art, not to master it, for the claim to mastery merely signals the abandoning of aspiration. Teaching is not to be regarded as a static accomplishment like riding a bicycle or keeping a ledger; it is, like all arts of high ambition, a strategy in the face of an impossible task. 103 1.3.3 The Concept of Teaching as a Performing Art In the 1970s and 80s there were a few educators in the United States who advanced the idea that teaching should be considered as a performing art. 104 This connection between teaching and performance which was already present in the Kunsterziehungsbewegung as well as in Eisner’s more general considerations of teaching as an art, became a central focus in the thinking of Jacqueline Dillon, Robert Travers, Louis J. Rubin, W.M. Timpson, D.N. Tobin and Elyse Lamm Pineau. Pineau’s later article Teaching is Performance: Reconceptualizing a Prob‐ lematic Metaphor (1994) offered a far-ranging perspective on the possibilities of connecting future educational research with performance research. More recently, the most prominent educator who has explored this idea is undoubtedly Seymour Sarason whose book Teaching as a Performing Art (1999) has probably become the most widely known in this regard. Since then, there has also been a further growth of interest in this idea, reflected in both published works as well as in a few university training programs based on the development of these connections. 105 1.3.4 Teaching as a Performing Art - Dillon and Travers Two years before Eisner published The Educational Imagination, J. Dillon and R. Travers in their book The Making of a Teacher: A Plan for Professional 66 1 Concepts of Teaching <?page no="67"?> 106 The best introduction to Stanislavski’s methods is offered in his classic book: Constantin Stanislavski. An Actor Prepares. Trans. Elizabeth Reynolds Hapgood (New York: Theatre Arts, 1936/ 1989). 107 Robert Travers & Jacqueline Dillon. The Making of a Teacher: A Plan for Professional Self-Development. (New York: Macmillan, 1975) 31. 108 Ibid., 27-28. Self-Development (1975) advanced a concept of teacher training based on Sta‐ nislavski’s method of acting. 106 In their evaluation of the limits and failings of traditional teacher training programs they came to the conclusion that in having trainees adopt the methods of experienced teachers as their models, the necessity of teachers finding their own, personal authentic style of teaching had been ignored. They write, All too often students, and classroom teachers too, expect the college of education to provide sanctioned rituals for classroom management, and complain that the college is detached from the real teaching situation when it cannot do this. Such a criticism shows a failure to understand that the role of the teacher has to be created by the teacher himself and that it is an intensely personal and individual role. A School of Education can do no more than help provide some of the raw material out of which a role is crated. 107 In adopting the methods through which Stanislavski helped actors to create and develop their roles, they hope to help teachers find their own personal manner of classroom teaching: The work of Stanislavski is significant for teacher education because it is an attempt to develop a theory of role acquisition that results in complete and genuine authenticity of the role to be acquired. Most teachers of teachers would agree that the performance of the teacher in the classroom should involve a high degree of authenticity. (…) The procedure suggested here for the acquisition of a teaching role… involve the five following steps: • The study of the role itself. • The search for material which becomes the medium through which the role is acted out. • The search for characteristics and attributes within the student of education that can become incorporated into the role. • The preparation of the student of education for undertaking the role in the classroom. • The endless search for material to be incorporated into the role, to keep the role alive and to prevent it from becoming routinized. 108 67 1.3 Anglo-American Traditions - William James <?page no="68"?> 109 Ibid., 41. 110 Ibid. 111 Ibid. From this perspective, they suggest having prospective teachers act in a series of dramatized classroom scenarios which the authors wrote to reflect different classroom situations. The goal is to provide the potential teacher with models, “not of what the effective teacher does, but of the kind of person an effective teacher has to be.” 109 The prospective teachers are expected to study the roles presented in each scenario as though they were parts in a play. The first step is to empathize with the teacher portrayed; to try and experience her feelings, attitudes and values: When studying a role, each one must learn how to play the role through the medium of his own personality. One teacher may show supportive behaviour toward the pupil by a smile; another, by a friendly touch of the child’s head. In the study of each scenario the student of education must think about how his modes of expression would be called into play by the particular situation. He must imagine himself incorporating the role through the medium of his own habits of living. 110 They are proposing that through this step of embodiment, the teacher’s class‐ room behaviour will become more authentic and thus more effective: The scenarios provide a medium through which a student of education can begin to prepare to be a particular kind of person in the classroom. He must realize that he is creating a particular kind of person to enter the classroom situation. He must prepare himself for that situation just as carefully as he would prepare himself to engage in one of life’s delicate encounters. His ordinary, everyday, at-home self is very unlikely to be the kind of self that will be effective in classroom interactions. 111 Dillon and Travers’ approach has the distinction of being probably the first documented attempt to advance a concept of teacher training based on connec‐ tions between learning the art of acting and the art of teaching. Their arguments for the need for further research in developing further programs based on these underlying connections are well-founded. However, it is also obvious that their own program was very much shaped by the strong behaviouristic attitudes which were still widely prevalent in the field of educational psychology at that time. There are clearly a number of contradictions raised by their attempt to help teachers develop personal authenticity through having them study and then act out someone else’s ‘play-scenarios’ based on theoretical classroom situations. In fact, the reasoning behind their approach can be seen as standing in apparent 68 1 Concepts of Teaching <?page no="69"?> 112 Louis J. Rubin. Artistry in Teaching. (New York: Random House, 1985) 5. 113 Ibid., 5-6. contradiction to their actual methods. In this respect some of the difficulties inherent in finding appropriate ways to train teachers as artists are highlighted. 1.3.5 L. Rubin - Artistry in Teaching Ten years after the publication of Dillon and Travers’ book, L. Rubin’s book Artistry in Teaching (1985), documents a much wider-ranging attempt to connect essential elements of teacher training to artistic training; this time in the context of in-service programs for teachers. In considering the empirical research on the clowning courses which will be the focus of later chapters, Rubin’s study must be seen as the most comparable and relevant long-term research project. Hence, it will be necessary to examine his work in some detail. Rubin’s approach is based on an understanding of teaching in which the essential skills which constitute artistic teaching are not seen as reflecting a particular methodology, but have to do with subtle and largely intangible factors which lead to knowing what is necessary at any given moment. This ‘feel’ for the right thing at the right time is seen as the benchmark of artistic teaching. 112 An understanding of teaching as an art based on mastering such elusive qualities clearly raises the question of whether such skills can ever be clearly defined and/ or learned. Rubin directly addresses the difficulties which his concept poses: An interesting question therefore arises: even though the characteristics of artistic teaching are subtle and elusive, not easily dissected and defined, can they nevertheless be cultivated? That is, can an intuitive “feel” for what is right and wrong in teaching be developed? Parallels do exist in other forms of human endeavour. Great cooks, for example, “season to taste.” They rely principally on finely honed palates which have been acquired through many years of practice. Still, students of cuisine who aspire to excellence are somehow guided toward this sense of taste from apprenticeship with a master chef. Similarly, we speak of the “nose” developed by a wine connoisseur, the “ear” of a fine musician, the “eye” of a skilful artist, and the “hand” of a great sculptor. Can we, then, make it possible for teachers to master the delicate and subtle nuances of their craft? Little in the research literature on teacher training seems to be of any real help. 113 In discussing the common attributes of those teachers whom he considers to be most artistic and successful, he sees an essential underlying skill in their ability to adapt effectively to a variety of situations. He is struck with their abilities 69 1.3 Anglo-American Traditions - William James <?page no="70"?> 114 Ibid.,15-16. 115 Ibid.,15. 116 Ibid.,17. 117 Ibid. to improvise creatively and to act upon inspiration as it occurs in classroom situations. 114 In this context he sees the role of intuition and imagination in responding creatively to unforeseen developments as particularly decisive. At the same time, he makes clear that his understanding of artistic teaching leaves a wide range of possibilities for both disparate, personal styles as well as for the individual manner in which such capabilities are developed: Artist teachers, consequently, differ from ordinary teachers in that they function with consummate skill. Some, blessed with natural gifts, rely principally on instinct. Others, less intuitive, cultivate equally impressive artistry through practice and effort. 115 In the end he describes four general attitudes which he considers to reflect the common basis which such teachers share: The teachers who eventually attained the highest level of artistry were character‐ ized by four primary attributes: first, they made a great many teaching decisions intuitively; second, they had a strong grasp of their subject as well as a perceptive understanding of their students; third they were secure in their competence and expected to be successful; and fourth, they were exceedingly imaginative. 116 1.3.6 Relevance for Teacher Training In discussing his experiences with traditional teacher training, Rubin explains what he sees as inherent weaknesses in such programs. He argues that such programs may, in the end, actually prevent teachers from realizing their potentials: …the usual teacher training program, both pre-service and in-service is often a liability. As the teachers tried to construct lesson staging, mood setting, and motiva‐ tional activities, it became obvious their imaginative faculties had been blunted. They repeatedly sought advice on “acceptable methods.” When these requests were politely ignored, their apprehension over the need to invent rose sharply. Not only was the demand for originality threatening, but their natural aptitude for imagery, fantasy, and whimsy had been damaged by the prescriptive formulas ingrained during their professional preparation. 117 70 1 Concepts of Teaching <?page no="71"?> 118 Ibid., 34. 119 Ibid., 41-42. 120 Susanne Langer, Mind: An Essay on Human Feelings, 2 vols. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1967), vol I, pp. 222-228 are quoted in Rubin (1985) 40. Rubin sets himself the ambitious goal of designing an in-service program for teachers wherein they would be encouraged to develop artistic qualities which would enhance and enliven their teaching. A key initial element of this program involved first identifying and observing gifted teachers and postulating a series of attributes intrinsic to artistic teaching. A further decisive aspect was his recognition that a crucial step towards being able to work on developing such characteristics lay in the development of a creative attitude and state of mind which could become internalized. This required confronting the anxieties which often accompany such changes and developments: Since creation involves a risk of failure, it sometimes generates anxiety. Can teachers acquire the psychological study safety essential to inventive behaviour? Can teachers learn to view the familiar in unfamiliar ways, to see possibilities in the seemingly impossible? In short, can the creative spirit be cultivated? 118 He maintains that the fundamental change in attitudes which this may require for some teachers must be considered an indispensable part of their entire development. At the same time, he recognizes that this is a long-term process: Since attitudes have a profound effect on teaching behaviour, it is curious that teacher training has so often ignored them. (…) First, we assume that attitudes and beliefs can be changed through mandate, exhortation, or lecture. Unfortunately, human impulse is made of firmer stuff. Beliefs run too deep to be easily swayed by words, whether printed or spoken. Usually they must be modified through the same processes by which they were formed - consistent experiences accumulated over time. (…) …the time allotted to a professional development activity is usually short, whereas the time required for authentic attitudinal change is usually long. It may take more time for teachers to develop faith in a technique than to learn its use. 119 Whether such developments actually occur hinges on how deeply they are connected to the teacher’s own sentient life. He argues that the preoccupation in teacher education with what teachers should know often eclipses the essential aspect of what they actually feel, which he considers to be the underlying basis of what they later do. In this context, he quotes the philosopher Susanne Langer: “Where nothing is felt, nothing matters.” 120 A further aspect which he sees as essential to in-service programs devoted to the development of artistry in teaching is the development of what he 71 1.3 Anglo-American Traditions - William James <?page no="72"?> 121 Rubin 1985, 78. 122 Ibid., 77. 123 Ibid., 79. 124 Seymour B. Sarason. Teaching as a Performing Art. (New York: Teachers College Press, 1999) 3-8, 164-168. calls the capability of ‘collateral teaching’. 121 By this he means the ways which outstanding teachers are able to work simultaneously towards multiple objectives, taking maximum advantage of possibilities to address primary and secondary goals at the same time, establishing links, drawing on latent resources, clarifying and reinforcing ideas in a highly expeditious manner. He contrasts the “over-simplicity” and “excessive plainness” of many lessons with the kind of intensity and “energized learning” which can occur when multiple opportunities are being used. 122 He draws a comparison to illuminate what he means: More than once, I have been struck by the parallel between master teachers, expert mechanics and those who are skilled in the kitchen. One cook washes the vegetables, then melts the butter, then seasons the roast - proceeding from task to task, a single step at a time. Another somehow does all three at once. The mediocre mechanic drains the engine oil, idly watching the liquid drip into a container. The expert one turns his attention elsewhere, lubricating one part and adjusting two others, before the draining is finished. 123 Developing these abilities thus becomes another key element of his in-service program for teachers, requiring a heightening of the teacher’s perceptual capabilities, the development of a form of “multiple vision” and a cultivation of spontaneity enabling the teacher to react intuitively at the moment when such opportunities present themselves. 1.3.7 Seymour Sarason - Teaching as a Performing Art Seymour Sarason’s contribution to the concept of teaching as an art can be considered unique in a number of respects. As one of America’s most well-known educational psychologists, the publication of his book Teaching as a Performing Art in 1999 can be considered an important recognition of the contemporary relevance of this concept. He admits at the beginning of this book that he arrived at many of these insights only late in his life, after more than forty years of university teaching. 124 As someone who had been active in training generations of teachers, his belated recognition that traditional teacher education programs were more often a part of the problems of teaching and 72 1 Concepts of Teaching <?page no="73"?> 125 Ibid., 6. 126 Ibid., 5. not a solution to them, must thus be considered a significant admission of responsibility. At the beginning of his book, he explains his overriding aims and what he sees as the fundamental parallel between teachers and performers: My main interest is less in convincing the reader that teaching is a performing art and more in indicating that the process by which a person enters and grows up in the traditional performing arts has enormous implications for improving teaching. A performing artist is one who uses him or herself to convey an emotion, or situation, or imagery intended to be meaningful and stimulating to an audience. The “message” whatever the medium, is for the purpose of evoking in others the response “I understand and believe what I am seeing and believing. You have not left me cold, you have engaged me.” (…) In the case of the teacher, engagement is a sustained one; it is not a one-night stand. 125 The response that is evoked should have meaning past the moment and continue to live in others: A teacher, like an actor, wants to have an impact during the performance but both also clearly want that impact to continue in some way to some degree afterward. You perform in the here and now in the hope that your performance has a future in the memories and actions of the audience. 126 One of the key parallels that he sees between teachers and performers is the necessity of constantly re-creating their material and avoiding routinized performances. In this respect, he believes that teachers have much to learn from the relations between actors and their audiences. In the expectations which an audience brings to every performance and the concurring responsibilities which a performer assumes, he sees a paradigm for the relation between a teacher, her material and the pupils: It makes no difference to an audience how many times an artist has performed the role. They expect that person to perform as if it was the first time the artist is performing the role. Audiences do not want to feel that they are being treated to a routinized performance devoid of the appearance of spontaneity and feeling. Audiences do not want to become aware that the artist is acting; they want to identify with the role, they want to “lose themselves,” to be caught up in the welter of thought and feeling the role requires. Audiences want to be respected, not to feel they are being taken for granted, as if they will not know the difference between a performer giving his or her 73 1.3 Anglo-American Traditions - William James <?page no="74"?> 127 Ibid., 13-14. 128 Ibid., 36. 129 Ibid., 43. 130 Ibid., 48. all and one going through the motions, one who is “capturing” the audience and one who is keeping them at arm’s length. All of this, of course, defines the obligation of the performer as well as pointing to the pressures the artist experiences, especially if the role is one the artist has performed scores or hundreds of times. (…) When you are insensitive to audiences, when you have forgotten your obligation, it is time to quit. 127 While pointing out clear differences between teaching and performing, he maintains that the underlying similarities constitute crucial dimensions of artistry which teachers can and must learn, The venue is different, the audience is different, ultimate goals are different, the scripts (the curriculum) are different, ultimate goals are different, but two things are not different; the teacher wants the audience of students to find that teacher interesting, stimulating, believable, someone who helps them see themselves and their world in a new and enlarged way, someone who satisfies their need for new experiences that take them out of their ordinary selves, someone they willingly come back to because they want to see the next act in a play about learning. 128 Drawing on Dewey’s writings, he argues that Dewey’s concepts of teaching and learning were implicitly based on the idea of “the teacher as performer, someone who took on or manifested characteristics considered necessary to affect her audience in specified ways, and, indeed, to meet their expectations of what a teacher should be like and how an audience should respond.” 129 At the same time, he points out critically that Dewey never addressed the significance of this perspective in the context of designing teacher training programs. It is the complete absence of this idea in all teacher education which Sarason considers the most glaring and unforgivable weakness in all training. In this context he also re-considers the findings of the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, which he considers to be a report, … as critically damning of the selection and preparation of teachers as has ever been written. The report was not written by “outsiders” taking dead aim on their favourite target: teachers. It was written and signed by experienced educators courageous enough to say that the emperor is naked. 130 74 1 Concepts of Teaching <?page no="75"?> 131 Ibid., 54. 132 Ibid., 165. In searching for answers to the critical questions raised by that study, he emphasizes that it is exactly the element of performance which could potentially play a decisive role. His central point is that the training of teachers which up till this point has completely ignored this dimension of teaching could immediately profit from studying examples from the other performing arts: Like it or not, and some do not like it, the teacher as performing artist is faced with a terribly complex and difficult task that all those in the conventional performing arts confront: how do you put yourself into a role and then enact it in ways that instruct and move an audience, fulfilling the expectation of the audience that they have in some way learned something about themselves and their world? They have been moved, they seek more such experiences. Teachers are not born, so to speak with such attributes. It requires a kind of training which no preparatory program I know has taken seriously, if at all, which is why these attributes play no role in the admission of candidates to these programs. And when to that you add the fact that the size, structure, and culture of schools are the opposite of conducive to the display of these attributes, it is truly a case of adding insult to injury, which means, of course, that both teachers and students are the victims. 131 He argues that the approach to teacher training which he is advocating means a radical transformation of teacher training, insofar as the one-sidedness of traditional programs up until now have reflected a strikingly limited perspective of what a teacher needs to learn. In discussing previous efforts to reform teacher education he complains that no one ever had anything new to say, except, of course, to assert that a more solid grasp of subject matter (taking more courses) would improve the quality of teaching. In some unexplained way the knowledge of teachers would stimulate the hearts and minds of students. There was absolutely no recognition that maybe teaching required more than a solid grasp of subject matter, that maybe the teacher as performer needed to be analyzed and judged in regard to the selection and preparation of teachers. In brief, teaching was a relatively simple affair devoid of artistry. 132 Although he regrets that due to his advanced age (he was 80 years old when he wrote this book), he cannot develop and implement any concrete proposals, he remains certain that the models for such future programs can be found in the other performing arts. In this context he also considers the significance of the continued professional development of teachers and the potential value of 75 1.3 Anglo-American Traditions - William James <?page no="76"?> 133 Ibid., 146-147. 134 Ibid., 166. 135 Sawyer’s more recent work has also been mentioned in the introduction to the 2 nd edition. in-service programs. In the crises which have engulfed so much of the teaching profession he sees an imperative need to begin to include this dimension of training into such programs. Towards the end of the book he reflects at length on how he gradually came to the realizations which he has expressed, I did not dream up out of whole cloth my conception of teaching as a performing art. It was forced on me after sitting scores and scores of classrooms observing teachers, most of whom seemed to view their students as empty vessels that needed to be filled, directed and controlled. It was a one-way street. (…) Teachers taught the way they were taught, their performing style and repertoire were in a very narrow range. Students performed the way they thought the teacher expected them to behave. 133 I regard what I have said in this book as glimpses of the obvious, but it took me years to truly take the obvious seriously. 134 Throughout Sarason’s highly critical examination of pre-service and in-service training, there is an element of urgency based on his heartfelt recognition that the dimension of teaching education which he has addressed is imperative for teachers and pupils. Along with this sense of urgency, there is also a sense of anticipation resulting from what he considers the far-ranging potentials in affecting change in teachers through learning from the models of the other arts. At the end of a long and distinguished career, he has elucidated a clear set of pressing and creative challenges for future educators to confront. The development and empirical study of a new approach to in-service training of English teachers which is the focus of this study can be considered as an attempt to concretely address the questions and issues which he has so strongly raised. 1.3.8 Teaching as Improvisational Performance - R. K. Sawyer In a series of articles in which he has critically evaluated the widespread propagation of scripted teaching methods, R. Keith Sawyer has offered a vision of teaching as a form of collaborative improvisation in which the teacher and pupils co-create classroom discourse. 135 Arguing that research has demonstrated that one of the defining characteristics of outstanding teaching is the ability to react flexibly to the dynamics of classroom interaction, he has criticized recent formalistic approaches to teaching in which this element of teachers and pupils improvising together in the classroom is discounted. 76 1 Concepts of Teaching <?page no="77"?> 136 Keith Sawyer, “Creative Teaching: Collaborative Discussion as Disciplined Improvisa‐ tion,” Educational Researcher. Vol. 33, no. 2, (March 2004) 13. 137 Ibid., 14. 138 Ibid. In the context of explaining his understanding of collaborative learning, he draws clear parallels with the methods of improvisational theatre work: In improvisational theatre, a group of actors creates a performance without using a script. Some groups specialize in short skits only a few minutes long, and others specialize in fully improvised oneor two-act plays of an hour or more. These performances emerge from unpredictable and unscripted dialogue, on stage and in front of an audience. In a similar way, an effective classroom discussion emerges from classroom discourse, and is not scripted by the lesson play or by the teacher’s predetermined agenda. 136 In his discussion of the potential significance of such improvised classroom discussions for learning, Sawyer draws on constructivist thinking in which learning is viewed as a creative and improvisation process, co-created by teacher and the pupil. Moreover, he establishes connections to recent socio-cultural theory in which the overriding significance of the activities and processes within the entire group are emphasized. In the end, he draws conclusions as to what this could mean for teaching: The socio-cultural perspective implies that the entire classroom is improvising together; and it holds that the most effective learning results when the classroom proceeds in an open, improvisational fashion, as children are allowed to experiment, interact, and participate in the collaborative construction of their own knowledge. In improvisational teaching, learning is a shared social activity, and is collectively managed by all participants, not only the teacher. 137 In discussing the necessary attributes of the teacher as improviser, Sawyer stresses the importance of a high degree of subject knowledge in order to be able to respond spontaneously and creatively, and contrasts this broad knowledge to the narrow range of materials offered in pre-planned lesson scripts. He then describes what he considers the decisive skill of managing a group improvisa‐ tion, requiring a fine sensitivity to finding the balance between the need to maintain pre-existing structures and leaving enough openness for collaborative learning to emerge. 138 After elucidating the connections which he sees between the collaborative skills required in the classroom and what is developed through improvisational theatre, he proposes that teachers be trained in those techniques that are taught to aspiring improvisational actors. Arguing that there is already 77 1.3 Anglo-American Traditions - William James <?page no="78"?> 139 Ibid., 16-17. 140 Ibid., 18-19. a body of expertise in these areas, he sees a wide range of possibilities for teachers learning from what has already been developed and published for the training of actors. 139 He notes that there have been in recent years a series of summer programs and workshops based on different improvisational exercises and mentions the positive program assessment which these organizations have received from participants. 140 He argues for the systematic development of such programs in order to determine the most effective manner of integrating such work into teacher education. Sawyer has succeeded in drawing together research from different fields to construct a basis for his arguments. In his proposal that teachers practice those kinds of exercises which aspiring improvisational actors use in order to concretely develop these skills, he has introduced a clear perspective into teacher training. There are a number of connections that can be drawn between many of his ideas and the conceptual basis of the research study which will be developed in the ensuing chapters, although these concepts were developed independently of each other. The open questions which he has posed regarding the need to find the best ways to incorporate these skills into teacher training, along with his call for empirical research to be conducted in this field, closely match the intentions of the present study of the clowning courses. 1.4 Conclusions In considering both the long European and Anglo-American traditions of viewing teaching as an art, it is striking that the reasons given for adopting this perspective have not substantially changed over time. It appears to be intrinsic to teaching itself that regardless of widely divergent historical and societal circumstances, those attributes such as creativity, flexibility, sensitivity, fluidity and expressivity which have been deemed to constitute the basis of artistry in teaching have always been seen as decisive. However, although many of the exact same educational arguments for and against this view of teaching can still be heard today, these historical parallels have generally not been taken into consideration in contemporary thinking. Strikingly and unfortunately, this lack of historical reference is even typical of many of those contemporary authors who have tried to advance the concept of teaching as an art. A standpoint exclusively focused on contemporary issues can be seen as being theoretically 78 1 Concepts of Teaching <?page no="79"?> 141 Louis G. Kelly. 25 Centuries of Language Teaching. (Rowley, MA: Newbury House, 1969) 396. appropriate to the advancement of the concept of teaching as a science in which progress is generally viewed as linear. From this perspective, writings from previous times are of primarily historical interest. However, the framework of viewing teaching as an art clearly implies another understanding of the potential relevance of past thinking in a contemporary context. It lies in the nature of all artistic education that an intensive study and awareness of historical examples is considered to be a fundamental prerequisite for all individual development. Learning from and often quite literally copying the examples of the ‘old masters’ in the study of the fine arts, or music, for instance, has always been considered the basis of learning the art. Thus, the position advanced here is that viewing teaching as an art, as opposed to a science, also implies a fundamentally different relation to previous traditions and practices of education which cannot be considered as outdated per se, but rather as potentially rich sources of learning and inspiration. Hence, some of the arguments and positions which have been touched upon in this chapter will be re-examined in the later discussion and conclusions at the end of this study. In his extensive and wide ranging study of the history of language teaching, Louis G. Kelly is highly critical of a pronounced absence of historical awareness on the part of language teachers of the continually recurring nature of key issues and developments. He contrasts this with the value artists place on establishing new connections to past traditions and the gains they accrue from doing so: While one can ascribe a linear development to sciences, the development of an art is cyclical. Old approaches return, but as their social and intellectual context are changed, they seem entirely new. Very often the creative artist seeks inspiration from the past, but transforms the idea in taking it over, as did Bartok, for instance, with the contrapuntal techniques of Bach. Language teaching has shared neither the honesty nor the self-knowledge of the fine arts. Whereas artists are willing to seek inspiration from the past, teachers, being cursed with the assumption that their discoveries are necessarily an improvement on what went on before, are reluctant to learn from history. Thus it is that they unwittingly rediscover old techniques by widely differing methods of research. 141 This lack of historical knowledge can be seen as not only relevant to language teaching, but also as characteristic for a general deficiency present in much educational thinking in general. 79 1.4 Conclusions <?page no="80"?> In considering the entire historical development of the concept of teaching as an art, it becomes evident that the most critical questions regarding the responsibilities and possibilities of teacher education in developing artistry have remained unanswered. Although there has been a clear recognition of the decisive role of teacher education in helping to develop artistry, there has been a striking absence of concrete programs, or even ideas, on how to put this into actual practice. In many respects this may reflect the inevitable difficulties inherent in attempting to substantially change existing programs and also a general lack of opportunities to introduce innovations. The traditional divisions between teacher education and teaching practice can be seen as a further hindrance in connecting artistic teaching with corresponding programs of artistic teacher education. Despite these difficulties, the question of how to encourage the artistic development of the teacher has continually been seen as a decisive issue for educators who have adopted this concept. From an historical perspective it is apparent that many of the same views have been consistently adopted, albeit with somewhat different emphases. What has been consistently maintained is that a substantial revision and extension of pre-service and in-service training will be required to realize the potentials of this concept. However, in the developments of teacher education programs which have taken place in both Europe and the United States in recent years, the artistic perspectives which they have advanced appear to have played a relatively in‐ significant role. Hence the clear necessity for first designing and then evaluating appropriate programs has remained a critical question. In pursuing this admittedly complex task, it is clearly necessary to focus on a specific context. In the following chapters an attempt will be made to address these unresolved issues in connection with an empirical research study. The description and evaluation of the week-long clowning workshops which have been offered by Vivian Gladwell for English teachers over the last decade, lies within the field of EFL teacher education and specifically in the context of in-service language teacher development. Although each subject area obviously has its own particular form/ s and content of in-service training, many of the critical issues regarding language teacher education which will be examined here are considered to be potentially relevant to other fields as well. 80 1 Concepts of Teaching <?page no="81"?> 142 Katie Head &Pauline Taylor, Readings in Teacher Development. (Oxford: Heinemann, 1997) 9. 143 Jack C. Richards & Thomas S.C. Farrell, Professional Development for Language Teachers: Strategies for Teacher Learning. (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2005) 3. 2 In-Service Language Teacher Development: Goals and Concepts The in-service courses for language teachers which will be examined in this study fall into the general category of teacher development. Although there is a substantial overlap between the terms teacher education, teacher training and teacher development and they are often even used interchangeably, each has a somewhat different meaning and context. Teacher education is generally understood to refer to the type of education through which one accumulates a basis of subject knowledge, relevant theoret‐ ical knowledge, and the practical skills enabling one to become a teaching pro‐ fessional. In the context of pre-service training, this usually includes substantial periods of content-based study, the study of educational and learning theory, as well as student teaching in the classroom in conjunction with a mentoring program. Teacher training is considered to be that level of either pre-service or in-service training which focuses on the specific knowledge and methodology of what is taught and emphasizes classroom skills and techniques. 142 It typically focuses on short-term goals. 143 Henry Widdowson has formulated a sharp distinction between the two: In general terms, the distinction between education and training can be formulated in the following way. Training is a process of preparation towards the achievement of a range of outcomes which are specified in advance. This involves the acquisition of goal-oriented behaviour which is more or less formulaic in character and whose capacity for accommodation to novelty is, therefore, very limited. Training, in this view, is directed at providing solutions to a set of predictable problems and sets a premium on unreflecting expertise. (…) Education on the other hand is not predicated on predictability in this way. It provides for situations which cannot be accommodated into preconceived patterns of response but which require a reformulation of ideas and the modification of established formulae. It focuses, therefore, not on the application of ready-made problem-solving techniques but on the critical appraisal of <?page no="82"?> 144 Henry Widdowson. Aspects of Language Teaching. (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1990) 62. 145 Richards & Farrell 2005, 4. 146 Adrian Underhill, “Training, Development and Teacher Education,” in Teacher Develop‐ ment Newsletter 9, 4, quoted in Head & Taylor 1997, 10. the relationship between problem and solution as a matter of continuing inquiry and of adaptable practice. 144 In contrast to both training and education, teacher development focuses on the teacher’s attitudes and the concurrent development of self-awareness, awareness of others and the attainment of a heightened sensitivity in the classroom. It thus emphasizes general growth and is not targeted to a specific task. 145 Although there are undoubtedly elements of teacher development in pre-service training, it is more commonly connected to the continued education of teachers after their initial training has been completed, and thus most commonly occurs in the context of in-service work. Teacher development is thus generally designed to encourage growth through building on previous experiences. In trying to draw relevant distinctions between teacher training and teacher development, Adrian Underhill compares the underlying arguments for taking two different types of in-service courses: The argument for training in this sense may go like this: ‘I believe that my effectiveness as a teacher depends largely on my pedagogic skills, and my knowledge of the topic I am teaching, and on all the associated methodology. My teaching is only as good as the techniques or materials that I employ, and I improve by learning more about them. I acknowledge that the kind of person I am affects my teaching, but I don’t really see what I can do about this other than by further training and by gaining experience.’ The part of me that argues for development may say things like: ‘I believe that my effectiveness as a teacher depends largely on the way I am in the classroom, on my awareness of myself and my effect on others and on my attitudes towards learners, learning and my own role. I value my facility with pedagogic skills and my knowledge of the topic, but it is the ‘me’ who operates them that primarily influences their effectiveness. I teach only as well as the atmosphere that I engender. I believe that education is change and that I will not be able to educate unless I am also able to change, otherwise my work will come to have a static quality about it that is not good for me or for my students. 146 In the rationale that Underhill gives for taking a training course, it becomes evident that some elements which Widdowson and Tedick would ascribe to teacher education are also present in his understanding of teacher training. This 82 2 In-Service Language Teacher Development: Goals and Concepts <?page no="83"?> 147 Christoph Edelhoff, “Lehrerfortbildung in Deutschland: Instrument zur Veränderung der Schule oder Service-Einrichtung für Schulen und Lehrer? ” Fremdsprache Deutsch. Sondernummer 1999, Lehrerfortbildung, 34. plurality in the use and understanding of these terms reflects a general tendency in the literature. It is evident that the distinctions which have been drawn between these types of programs do not lead to ‘right or wrong’ or ‘either-or’ conclusions. There is clearly a place at both pre-service and in-service levels for each. Moreover, as noted, the borders which are sometimes drawn between these approaches are, in reality, often more fluid than they might first appear. This will also become evident in the context of the empirical study of the clowning courses: as the responses of the participants make clear, even in the context of a clowning course emphasizing teacher development, there are dimensions of experience closely aligned to methodology and teacher knowledge which are concretely referred to in the teachers’ own evaluations of the work. This phenomenon of overlap can be seen as an indication of the problems inherent in attempting to reduce teaching into discrete components, insofar as such attempts may ignore the actual realities of how teachers learn, as well as how they teach. 2.1 In-Service Courses for Language Teachers - Rationale and Forms Despite pronounced differences in the organization and forms of in-service courses for language teachers that exist between different countries and even within different regions of the same country, the rationale for the existence of such courses can be seen as sharing a broad, common basis. Christoph Edelhoff has listed what he considers to be the seven most common justifications for in-service courses: • To bring new scientific knowledge (in educational theory, in the subject, and in new socially relevant fields of learning) to the teacher • To implement new curricula and educational policies • To try out and implement new teaching material • To call attention to the demands and expectations of a changing society • To support and transport the development of teaching methods • To improve educational practice and adapt to new demands • To guarantee professional satisfaction and successful teaching 147 83 2.1 In-Service Courses for Language Teachers - Rationale and Forms <?page no="84"?> 148 Legutke 1999, 7. Implicit in traditional approaches to in-service training is the assumption that becoming familiar with the newest research is imperative and that teachers should always be willing to adopt the latest methods. At the same time this implies that what they are doing is always a step behind. Legutke points out, While practitioners are concerned with the application of previous concepts, re‐ searchers are already busy with new ones. Under these premises, the working knowledge of teachers is invariably seen as deficient. Since the models designed by educational science can rarely be directly translated into practice in the expected manner, the actual practice of teachers also appears deficient. Teachers are thus always not yet or not quite where they should be, according to the expectations of science and their obligatory in-service training. 148 (italics in original) The typical structure of in-service courses begins with an initial lecture from an external expert, followed by a discussion and finally the practical implementa‐ tion of the research in the classroom. However, in the last decades there has been a gradual recognition of the problems inherent in conducting such courses as a kind of continuation of pre-service training with external authorities informing teachers how to improve their work through incorporating the newest research findings and methods into their daily practice. Such modes of instruction in an in-service context have increasingly been seen not only as inappropriate, but also as largely ineffective. There is clearly an underlying contradiction, for example, in attempting to get teachers to adopt new innovative practices encouraging learner autonomy and a more collobarative approach to learning through training courses using that same traditional methodology which is being criticized as outdated and ineffective. The practice of providing short courses spaced apart at long intervals has also begun to change with the realization that the frequency and intensity of professional contact is decisive in affecting significant change. Legutke argues that this new understanding of in-service training not only reflects a deeper understanding of the decisive role of the learner in constructing his own knowledge, but also an increasing recognition of the biographical and career phases which teachers go through: Professional learning is seen as a holistic and complex process in the course of which not only cognitive capacities are addressed and extended, but affective factors must be equally taken into account, along with practical-sensory activities and skills. Since understanding and integrating something new always engages the teacher as a whole 84 2 In-Service Language Teacher Development: Goals and Concepts <?page no="85"?> 149 Ibid., 8 150 Ulrich Hermann & Herbert Hertramph, “Ein neues Berufsbild: gelernter Lehrer,” chap. III in Wie lernen Lehrer ihren Beruf ? Empirische Befunde und praktische Vorschläge. (Weinheim: Beltz, 2002) 148. 151 Richards & Farrell 2005, 23-25. 152 Ibid., 1-21. person and must also be understood as the enhancing of existing potentials, it is evident that teacher development courses face complex challenges. 149 In a similar vein, Ulrich Hermann and Herbert Hertramph have suggested that in-service training has to become more specifically oriented towards addressing the different challenges teachers face in different phases of their careers: Teacher development seen as personal development has to address the different stages in the course of an individual’s professional biography: the initial difficulties in entering the profession, the establishment of routines, breaking out of routines, overcoming crises and professional burn-out, interest in further qualifications (extended or higher professional qualifications), taking on new roles, such as mentoring, working on a professional advisory board, or doing school social-work. 150 (italics in original) Such perspectives are relatively new. Until the second half of the 1980s the emphasis in all types of in-service programs for language teachers was on training, and not on education and/ or development. It was only in the 1990s that an interest in language teacher education and development gradually began to grow. In his detailed overview of the types of courses presently offered to language teachers, Jack C. Richards, one of the leading figures in this field for over thirty years, discusses 11 types of procedures and approaches that are now commonly offered to advance professional development of language teachers: workshops, self-monitoring, teacher support groups, journal writing, peer observation, teaching portfolios, analysis of critical incidents, case analysis, peer coaching, team teaching and action research. 151 Richards considers the wide range of approaches which are now offered, including both numerous possibilities of teacher development and training, to be an essential and highly positive step in the evolution of in-service programs for language teachers. 152 2.2 Expectations and Realities It can be seen as characteristic of a broad spectrum of contemporary educational thinking, that in-service education has come to be seen as an essential compo‐ 85 2.2 Expectations and Realities <?page no="86"?> 153 Edelhoff 1999, 34. nent in addressing educational problems and issues. This position can also be seen in a societal context in which a recognition of the critical importance of lifelong learning has become prevalent in all occupations. In considering the dimensions and rapidity of the changes occurring in most professions including language teaching, it has become an almost unquestioned paradigm that regular in-service training is an absolute necessity. At the same time, in taking into account the complexity of the problems which schools and teachers are now being forced to confront, the question has also been raised whether too much is being expected from such courses. This is particularly the case in regard to programs designed for school teachers, as op‐ posed to in-service courses for those TESOL teachers who teach adult learners. In considering the intensified focus on in-service programs, as a decisive factor in improving schools, Edelhoff questions whether these expectations match the realities of school life: In-service training is cited as a way to resolve all the difficulties and problems of schools as well as a way to introduce innovations. The challenges of a consumer and communications-based society, the problems of youth, modern media and technology, changes in the economy and the world of work, globalisation and burning issues such as AIDS, drugs, right wing radicalism, and naturally the latest scientific knowledge, as well as the demands for school reform in order to attain more quality - with an aging population of teachers trained decades earlier: in-service training is supposed to be a continual source of support for schools in their attempts to overcome all their problems. 153 Albert Glaap sees the limitations of such courses for language teachers lying most often in the practical realities of schools which frequently do not allow for any interruption of the daily routines of work. The recurring consequence of these widespread hindrances is that many teachers remain stuck in their familiar routines: Naturally there are central, regional, local, or school-based in-service training courses, but few teachers take part. One knows the arguments: exempting teachers from teaching and thus having to cancel lessons creates problems with parental organisa‐ tions - and not only with them; the workday which is fully booked out with teaching and administrative duties hardly allows time to breathe, let alone for extra activities. So we are mostly left with the usual routines, with texts and methods which have ‘proved their value’, with canons of books which are self-perpetuating - Death of a 86 2 In-Service Language Teacher Development: Goals and Concepts <?page no="87"?> 154 Albert Glaap, “Perspektiven der Neuorientierung und Kanonbildung für den Engli‐ schunterricht” chap. in Anglistik Heute: Perspektiven für die Lehrerfortbildung (Frank‐ furt: Scriptor, 1990) 8. 155 C.T. Patrick Diamond, Teacher Education as Transformation: A Psychological Perspective. (Buckingham: Open UP, 1991) 47. 156 Widdowson 1990, 65. Salesman, Look Back in Anger, Macbeth and Lord in the Rye and Catcher of the Flies, as they are often ironically referred to. 154 The question of the effectiveness of in-service courses is another issue which has proved difficult to resolve. In a range of studies assessing the long-term significance of in-service courses for teachers (not only language teachers) in the 1970s and 80s there was overwhelming evidence that most of these courses offered little of lasting value. C.T. Patrick Diamond writes, Many studies on the current impact of in-service or continuing education for teachers demonstrate that the process rarely produces positive outcomes. 155 The underlying problem is generally seen as resting in the inherent difficulties of connecting what is learned in a completely different social and professional context to the daily realities of teaching. The positive feedback which such in-service courses may generate is viewed as short-lived and limited in its potential significance. Widdowson sees the problem of maintaining the initial impulses which such courses offer as the most decisive issue which has to be resolved: What happens very often here is that participants are inspired by the social and professional intensity of the event but find that they have little to carry home with them except a heady sense of general enlightenment which is often quickly dispersed on its contact with reality. This is not to deny the value of such courses: they provide, at the very least, a sense of professional community and there is no doubt that some of the inspiration they generate carries over into practice. But for many participants what is needed is something more definite in the way of a scheme of work of some kind which will direct and maintain the momentum of the course into a continuing programme of monitored activities in the classroom. 156 Legutke views a general lack of understanding of how learning derived from in-service training can best be incorporated into teaching practice as a striking deficiency in educational research: Precisely because subject methodology and in-service training have been so little concerned with the kinds of processes required for practical implementation, theory 87 2.2 Expectations and Realities <?page no="88"?> 157 Legutke 1999, 7. 158 The striking lack of empirical research on the effects of both pre-service and in-service teacher education has consistently been viewed as highly problematic with respect to instituting change at different educational levels, ranging from schools to universities. This problem has been clearly delineated in an Anglo-American context by Tedick 2005, 10-11 and in Germany by Schocker-v. Ditfurth 2001, 33-34. 159 Jack C. Richards & Thomas S. C. Farrell. Professional Development for Language Teachers: Strategies for Teacher Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2005, 9-10. and practice remain so far apart and this ultimately makes the scepticism that many teachers feel towards research understandable. 157 In general, a lack of research on the concrete effects of such in-service training for teachers has often been cited as an acute problem and in both European and American contexts there have been repeated calls for more longtitudinal studies of the effects of in-service language teaching programs. 158 2.3 Goals of Language Teacher Development Since the clowning courses clearly fall into the realm of teacher development as opposed to teacher training, it will be instructive to consider how this concept is presently understood in the context of language teaching. In surveying the literature it becomes apparent that most educators see the primary dimension of language teacher development in the acquisition of skills and knowledge and the establishing of connections between theory and practice. Jack C. Richards sees strong connections between the role of professional development in responding to teachers’ wishes to expand their knowledge and clarify their principles and a subsequent improvement in their classroom practices. He identifies six key areas of professional development which such in-service teacher development courses can address: subject-matter knowl‐ edge, pedagogical expertise, self-awareness, understanding of learners, under‐ standing of curriculum and materials and career advancement. Common to all of these areas is that they are primarily based on acquiring more knowledge and/ or skills: even the category of self-awareness is defined as knowing oneself better as a teacher, including one’s strengths and weaknesses. 159 Tarone and Allbright (2005) distinguish between the needs of novice and experienced teachers. They argue that those experienced teachers who seek out in-service programs are most likely to be looking for in-depth understanding of educational theory in order to support and improve their classroom practice. They view this as a kind of fine-tuning of teaching skills. In contrast, they 88 2 In-Service Language Teacher Development: Goals and Concepts <?page no="89"?> 160 Tarone & Allwright 2005, 27. 161 Edelhoff 1999, 36. 162 Ibid. maintain that novice teachers need to learn general teaching skills and, at the same time, expand their base of knowledge about language teaching and learning in order to establish a framework within which they can make more informed decisions. 160 In both cases, there are clear parallels to Richards’ largely knowledge and skill-based understanding of the role of in-service training. Although this cognitively based approach can be viewed as reflecting a widely held view of professional development, fundamentally different perspectives have also been introduced. Edelhoff ’s understanding of the professional devel‐ opment of language teachers focuses on the teacher’s personality. In drawing dis‐ tinctions between training and development, he sees the function of in-service development as offering the possibilities of a holistic and transformative change: More crucial than all the professional qualities required of teachers, are those fundamental personal characteristics and qualities which can hardly be planned in the curriculum but which, nevertheless, have to be considered in the description of what is necessary to attain the goal of a ‘good school’. According to Hartmut von Hentig, the most important curriculum is the teacher’s personality. I would include the following qualities: Enthusiasm, curiosity and ability to learn Ability to be moved and to be engaged Intercultural and social skills Strength of character, civil courage and the strength to stand up to one’s principles Love of children and humanity in general, empathy and compassion The ability to open oneself to others The ability to engage in dialogue 161 While admitting the difficulties of invoking such far-ranging changes, he considers their decisive importance in determining the quality of teaching as justifying the search for in-service training which could help to make such developments possible: Even though it is difficult to teach these qualities, one can nevertheless discover and initiate possibilities and methods in adult education in which these abilities can be acquired and developed - for this is where the primary task of self-sought and institutional development lies; namely in the field of human relationships and in the interchange between school and society. 162 Drawing on the insights of humanistic psychology Legutke has also emphasized the holistic elements of professional development for language teachers which 89 2.3 Goals of Language Teacher Development <?page no="90"?> 163 Legutke 1999, 8. 164 This is a point which has been consistently stressed in the literature on teacher education. It has been well-documented by both Ditfurth 2001, 35-36, as well as by V. Richardson in “Teacher Change,” chap. in Handbook of Research on Teaching. 4th ed. Ed. Virginia Richardson. (Washington, D.C.: Educational Research Association, 2001) 914-916. 165 Richardson 2001, 906. offer possibilities of substantial change and growth. In this respect he stresses that change on the level which he is referring to necessarily implies a willingness to take risks and go beyond familiar ways of behaving and thinking. Change is always connected to the willingness to take risks in going beyond what is known and familiar. Teacher development can only lead to this willingness to take risks if it fosters the steadfastness of the teacher, supports self-confidence and provides the appropriate help in these areas. (…) Only if in-service courses are perceived as being personally relevant, as fostering self-perception and the understanding of others, as helping teachers to be able to discover possibilities of self-development - only then will these courses serve to promote professional growth. 163 In this context it becomes clear that beyond the specific demands of language teaching, fundamental issues of personal development and change are also being touched upon. The issue of teacher change has consistently emerged as a particularly complex and difficult issue in the field of teacher education, not only in regard to changing entrenched attitudes and methods of experienced teachers, but also at a pre-service level in which the deeply formative effects of teachers’ own experiences as pupils have consistently been found to profoundly influence their entire thinking and behaviour. 164 2.4 Affecting Teacher Change in In-Service Courses Until the 1990s, the most common approach to teacher change was based on an empirical-rational strategy in which change was seen as a linear process. In this framework change could be induced by having teachers introduced to a new way of thinking or behaviour based on research, theory, or both: after being told what they had to do differently and having it demonstrated to them, teachers were expected to implement such changes in their classrooms. 165 The fact that this strategy did not prove to be successful gradually led educators to try to develop approaches based on a more flexible understanding of developmental processes. 90 2 In-Service Language Teacher Development: Goals and Concepts <?page no="91"?> 166 Sarrason 1999, 62. 167 Donald A. Schön, Educating the Reflective Practitioner. (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, an Imprint of Wiley, 1987). 168 Richardson 2001, 906. S. Sarason considers one of the fundamental problems in affecting teacher change to be the external and directive nature of the pressures to institute it: If anything is incontrovertible in the literature on educational reform, it is how difficult it is to get teachers to change their accustomed beliefs and practices. (…) Their resistance to change should occasion no surprise. None of us likes to change. All of us in the face of change find that we like our “symptoms,” that the pain associated with change appears greater than the pain the symptoms engender. But in the case of educational reform the stimulus for change comes far less from teachers than from “higher-ups” or other external forces, and teachers regard that pressure as an unwarranted criticism of what they have been doing. 166 There has in recent years been an increased recognition of the fact that in affecting teacher change, a teacher’s personal reflections in the context of a dialogue occurring in an atmosphere of trust, can play a decisive role. This emphasis on personal reflection as a basis of affecting change has received substantial reinforcement through Donald Schön’s highly influential concept of the reflective practitioner. 167 Virginia Richardson sees this change in strategy from an empirical-rational to a normative-reeducative approach in teacher development as occurring within a broader societal development: This change strategy is also, however, part of a larger movement toward the phenom‐ enological and hermeneutic study of how individuals make sense of and contribute to the situations in which they live and work. 168 There have been a number of studies in the last decades in which a biographical perspective has been introduced to ascertain how teachers can best learn to make sense of their respective situations and to develop within them. Michael Huberman’s career development study of secondary teachers presents a biographical perspective in which a series of stages within a teacher’s career are described. He has established six distinct stages of a teacher’s professional life: survival and discovery; stabilization; experimentation and activism; taking stock - self-doubts; serenity, consternation; and disengagement. Among his most significant and relevant findings was the recognition that the simple movement 91 2.4 Affecting Teacher Change in In-Service Courses <?page no="92"?> 169 Michael Huberman, “The Professional Life Cycle of Teachers,” Teachers College Record 91 (1) (1989): 31-58. 170 Tedick 2005, 54. 171 G. Kelchtermanns & R. Vandenberghe, “Teachers’ Professional Development: A Bio‐ graphical Perspective,” Journal of Curriculum Studies 26 (1) (1994): 45-62. 172 Sarason 1999, 63. 173 Ibid. from one stage to the next, most notably towards the end of a professional career, does not ensure teacher development. 169 Due to an increasing amount of case study research, a more differentiated understanding of the complex phenomena of teacher change has emerged. 170 Through case study narratives, it has become apparent that although teachers tend to view their own careers as a process of gradual evolution, there are usually a few decisive experiences, situations and people that have profound influences on each teacher’s development. Such incidents invariably have a highly personal character and a similar incident will by no means have a comparable effect on someone else. 171 At the same time, it has become clear that what is viewed as the difficult and complex task of affecting substantive teacher change is connected not only to the strong presence of personal habits, beliefs and often anxieties, but is inextricably tied to the nature and atmosphere of schools themselves. Sarason writes, There is little or nothing in the organization and culture of schools that spurs a teacher to regard change and development as necessary, personally and intellectually rewarding, and safe. I emphasize safe because in the culture of the school the teacher who seeks help or coaching from others is one whose competence is called into question. The teacher is expected to handle all problems that arise in the classroom, and it is a sign of weakness if it becomes apparent that that is not the case. 172 (italics in original) He sees the effects of a system that is deeply inimical to encouraging teacher change as constituting one of the decisive causes of the failures of schools: What happens over time to teachers when year in and year out they teach the same thing to the same kind of audiences? What are the sources internal and external, to give them the sense of growth, to cause them willingly to enlarge or alter their role and repertoire, to prevent the feeling that they have settled into a safe comfortable routine? The answer is: precious little. (…) In all my writing about schools and their personnel I have emphasized what I consider to be a glimpse of the obvious. If the conditions for productive learning do not exist for teachers, they cannot create and sustain these conditions for students. 173 (italics in original) 92 2 In-Service Language Teacher Development: Goals and Concepts <?page no="93"?> 174 The widespread problem of teacher burn-out has continued to remain a critical issue. I have discussed different approaches to this phenomenon in the context of a chapter in a book focusing on the role of the teacher’s personality: “Gedanken zur Lehrerbildung in einer verunsicherten Zeit.” In Edwin Hübner & Leonhard Weiss (eds.), Personalität in Schule und Lehrerbildung: Perspektiven in Zeiten der Ökonomisierung und Digitalisierung, Opladen, Berlin, Toronto: Budrich, 2015, 379-386. 175 Uwe Schaardschmidt (ed.), Psychische Gesundheit im Lehrerberuf - Analyse eines veränderungsbedürftigen Zustandes. (Weinheim: Beltz 2004). 176 Ibid., 141-144. 177 Ibid., 47-50. 178 Ibid., 72-87. 2.5 In-Service Development and Burnout One of the most pressing issues in teacher development today is finding ways to alleviate the widespread problems of high stress levels and burnout among teachers. 174 Just how prevalent these symptoms have become in the teaching profession became dramatically apparent in the landmark Potsdam study, Psychische Gesundheit im Lehrerberuf published in 2004. 175 In an unprecedented, large-scale study the mental and emotional health of teachers was examined and compared to people working in other social professions. The result of this study based on data from 17,000 people accumulated over years was that teachers experienced significantly higher levels of stress and burnout than any of the other groups who were studied including nurses, policemen, firemen, prison wardens, kindergarten teachers and founders of new companies. Inordinately high levels of stress and burnout were found to exist among teachers throughout Germany (most extremely in the new Bundesländer); equally distributed among teachers working in all types of schools (Grundschule, Hauptschule, Realschule, Gymnasium). 176 There were no significant differences found between the stress levels found in Germany and control samples drawn from other European countries. 177 The reasons teachers gave for stress and burnout were essentially the same in every country, region and type of school: the reason cited most often was the behaviour of difficult pupils, followed by the size of classes and the amount of teaching hours. 178 The results of this study matched official statistics in Germany which show that the number of teachers who retire early due to sickness is vastly higher than in other professions. In data taken from 2001, 72 % of teachers were forced to retire early solely due to health reasons. Taking into account those teachers who retired early for different reasons or in the framework of early retirement 93 2.5 In-Service Development and Burnout <?page no="94"?> 179 Ibid., 17. 180 Ibid., 154. 181 Ibid. programs [Altersteilzeit], only 5 % of teachers worked till the age of 65. There is no profession which is even remotely comparable in this respect. 179 The authors of the Potsdam study draw a series of far-ranging conclusions from their extensive material, ranging from a revision of pre-service teacher education to concrete suggestions as to how to improve the social climate in schools. Most relevant in the context of this study are the conclusions which they draw in regard to the role of in-service courses for teachers. In noting that in the course of a teaching career the levels of job satisfaction appear to become progressively lower, they see a pressing need to address these problems at all stages in a teacher’s life. They emphasize the necessity of developing a range of competences enabling teachers to more successfully address and live with the challenges they have to meet on a daily basis. In this context they consider in-service training to have a potentially decisive role: Thus, it follows that in the context of acquiring competencies, a more appropriate manner of dealing with one’s personal expectations and workload also needs to be developed. This will require considerable personal effort including the willingness to take part in in-service teacher development. 180 At the same time, they point out that such courses have to be concretely designed to directly help teachers in those areas which have been deemed most critical: Teachers themselves refer to the problem that the content of such courses is often in‐ adequately matched to those competencies which are most decisive in their everyday work. Unquestionably, providing worthwhile teacher development courses that are relevant to the real demands of teaching is also essential with respect to health. 181 (italics mine) Wolfgang Hagemann, the director of a clinic which specializes in treating teachers suffering from burnout syndrome, has also argued that a highly significant and generally ignored task of both pre-service and in-service training should be to help teachers to find their own ways of establishing psychological and emotional balance in their lives: Both in pre-service teacher training, as well as in the in-service training that is offered by the school authorities, the main emphasis lies on methodology and the didactics of the individual subjects, new teaching methods and - at least this - new methods to 94 2 In-Service Language Teacher Development: Goals and Concepts <?page no="95"?> 182 Wolfgang Hagemann, Burn Out bei Lehrern - Ursachen, Hilfen, Therapien. (Munich: C. H. Beck, 2003) 282-283. 183 Ibid., 97. motivate pupils. However, neither team skills, nor guidance with respect to personal psychological hygiene play any role. 182 He sees the continued professional education of teachers - the teacher as a committed learner and thus an authentic example for her pupils - as a potentially vital component in achieving mental and emotional health: Hartmut von Hentig speaks of school as “a place of life and experience”. He describes the teacher more as a pedagogue who as an educated person and role model guides pupils, comes to terms with the abilities and interests of individual pupils and the group, that is to say, the class, and who puts his personality everyday into the living process of teaching, prepared to take things on, to hold back, to question himself. (…) The pre-service education in the universities and the in-service courses both within schools and outside of them should supplement their work on didactics and teaching methods with a much more pronounced emphasis on teacher development. In this respect, every teacher is clearly called upon to take personal responsibility for his own educational development. This means, as Montessori pointed out, it is not the children who need to be educated, but rather the teachers. 183 In considering the Potsdam study, the critical issue of teachers’ health emerges as a paramount educational issue. The fact that this study has gone relatively unnoticed from either the public or policy makers, particularly in comparison to the unprecedented attention which the PISA study has received, must be viewed as highly disturbing and significant. There can be little doubt that the deficiencies which were highlighted in the PISA study and which have caused a sudden and fundamental revision of many educational policies cannot be redressed unless the report and conclusions of the Potsdam study are also taken into account. Up until now, this does not appear to have been the case. 2.6 Conclusions In taking into account the types of demands made on language teachers today, it is unsurprising that traditional models of in-service courses, generally focusing on new methodological procedures, have increasingly been viewed as both outdated and inadequate. The realities of the lives of many language teachers indicate they have different needs. They point to the necessity of introducing 95 2.6 Conclusions <?page no="96"?> 184 The intensive weekend clowning workshops at the Institut für Waldorfpädagogik in Witten-Annen, starting on Friday evening and going through Sunday afternoon were the one exception. There was no further program or courses offered during these weekends outside of clowning. new forms of courses which potentially offer something far more meaningful and transformative than what has commonly been found in most in-service teacher training. In the context of this study of an in-service development course for language teachers, the issue of personal development and growth as well as the factors of stress and burnout are considered to be essential in considering the potential value of such courses. In the sense in which Edelhoff refers to the development of personal qualities such as enthusiasm, openness and empathy, or in Legutke’s emphasis on the necessity of taking risks in order to affect change, visions of teacher development which clearly transcend traditional conceptions have also been offered. Achieving such dimensions of personal change requires that a number of factors be taken into account in regard to both the content and structure of such courses. The following chapters will address these issues directly. Many of the clowning courses which will be the focus of this empirical research study took place during the annual intensive five-day in-service course for English teachers in Waldorf Schools - the English Week. Some also took place in the context of the English Fortnight, a two-week summer course offered in the years 1999 and 2000 in Emerson College, England, at the Baltic Seminar in July, 2003 in Helsinki, Finnland, and at the Institut für Waldorfpädagogik in Witten-Annen, Germany, in January, 2005. All of these programs were designed as in-service programs for foreign language teachers (mostly, but not exclusively English teachers) at Steiner schools throughout Europe. Before specifically discussing and evaluating those courses, it will be neces‐ sary to gain a clearer understanding of the larger frameworks in which they took place. In almost all of these cases, the clowning workshops were not artistic courses for language teachers standing on their own, but were inextricably tied to the concept of an entire program, including daily lectures, methodology sessions, seminars and other artistic courses. 184 Hence, each of these programs was created with the intention of realizing a vision of language teaching within a coherent framework: within that conceptual structure, the artistic work, including the clowning courses, played a decisive role. It will thus be necessary to first consider that wider vision before focusing on a specific course. In this context, the particular focus will be on the English Week, not only because of the larger number of participants (and responses), but also because it is 96 2 In-Service Language Teacher Development: Goals and Concepts <?page no="97"?> 185 The Baltic Seminar was a three year in-service program for Steiner School foreign language teachers in the Baltic region and Russia, set up in the form of sequential block courses each lasting three weeks. They were designed for teachers who had had previous training as language teachers, but little or no experience in Steiner education. There were three such courses per year, each held at a different location. the only on-going program: the English Fortnight whose course leaders were almost identical with the English Week was, in effect, integrated into the English Week, and the Baltic Seminar was a three year in-service program lasting from 2002-2005. 185 97 2.6 Conclusions <?page no="99"?> 186 Since 2019, Norman Skillen has been a member of the faculty at the Freie Hochschule Stuttgart.. 187 Since the first edition of this book, the English Week has continued to grow and flourish. In the meantime, there are regularly particpants from outside of Europe as well. Each year has a different theme and over the years there have been many new guest lecturers and guest artists, however the underlying concept and the timetable are in fundamental respects, quite similar to when the first edition was published. 188 Sarah Kupke, Doris Lüdicke, and Gertrud Bäumer, “English Week for German Waldorf Teachers,” Forum for Language Teachers at Rudolf Steiner (Waldorf) Schools (1998): 19-25. Dorothea Löfler, “Fostering the Artist in the Language Teacher,” Forum for Language Teachers at Rudolf Steiner (Waldorf) Schools (1999) 95. Martyn Rawson, “Die Sprache tanzen lassen,” Erziehungskunst 4 (April 2001): 408-413. Nicholas Dodwell, “English Week,” Erziehungskunst: Zeitschrift zur Pädagogik Rudolf Steiners 2 (Feb. 2003): 202. 189 In the meantime, most of the full time teaching seminars for Waldorf language teachers in Germany offer workshops in clowning and storytelling for language teachers, in the context of both pre-service and in-service education. 3 Steiner Schools’ In-Service Training for English Teachers: The English Week The English Week was founded in Germany in 1996 by Norman Skillen (for‐ merly Steiner School, Capetown, South Africa, Institut für Waldorfpädagogik Witten-Annen), Silvia Albert-Jahn (Waldorfschule, Mülheim-Ruhr), and myself. 186 It has taken place at different conference centres throughout Germany, in recent years in Altenberg. Each year’s conference has had a different theme: some of the themes of previous years include Moving Language, Artistic Processes and Language Teaching, Encountering the Other, Transcending Borders, Inspiration and Intuition in Language Teaching, and Embracing the Unexpected: Courage and Creativity in Language Teaching. In the meantime, the English Week has become the largest international Steiner Schools language teachers’ conference with more than 100 English teachers coming from Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Austria, France, Russia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Italy, Finland and the United Kingdom. 187 The growing popularity of the English Week among Steiner schools has not only been borne out by the increasing number of participants, but in reports and articles in different journals. 188 In the meantime, the approach and structure of the English Week have also been adopted by leading in-service and pre-service programs in Steiner Schools in Germany and throughout Europe. 189 What one of the participants once wrote in an article, gives a general impression of the nature of the English Week. <?page no="100"?> 190 Dodwell 2003, 202. 191 Robert McNeer. “Teachers Learn Stage Presence and Poetry Speaking, or Eternity’s Sunrise.” Humanising Language Teaching 5 (1), January 2003, available online at (last accessed on 23.07.2021) http: / / old.hltmag.co.uk/ jan03/ sart7.htm. ---. “The Shape of Intuition.” Humanising Language Teaching 6 (2), March 2004, available online at (last accessed on 23.07.2021) http: / / old.hltmag.co.uk/ mar04/ mart3.htm. Catherine Bryden. “The Heart of Clowning” Humansing Language Teaching 7 (3) March 2005, available online at (last accessed on 09.09. 2021) http: / / old.hltmag.co.uk/ mar05/ mart06.htm 192 In the context of summer conferences organized by Pilgrims in Canterbury, UK, some of the instructors in the English Week have been asked to give their artistic workshops. I’m actually quite stupid. I am now writing a report about the last “English Week”, the sixth one. I shouldn’t do that - I should keep it a secret. The “English Week” is so good that more and more teachers want to go there. If I want to have a chance to go there again, then I should definitely not tell any of my English colleagues about it! Only speaking English for a whole week. Teacher development, methodological training, support - that all happens by itself and along the way. And for schools it is certainly less expensive than sending colleagues to England. Considering this, in my opinion, it should be possible to find a substitute for a week. I was there for the second time. The timetable and the instructors are similar every year and yet it all still generates enthusiasm and freshness. One truly feels like a member of the “extended family” of English Waldorf teachers: one has so much in common with each participant. The emphasis lies on the dramatic arts. Theatre work - a number of hours a day. Whoever has never experienced something like this, can hardly imagine how much one is transformed through such work and how intense this becomes in the course of the week. For me, the artistic emphasis is the most refreshing aspect of the “English Week”. There, Steiner’s requirement that the Waldorf teacher should “work artistically” is put into practice and one directly senses the fruits of such work. 190 (italics in original) Recognition of the English Week outside of Steiner Schools has also increased in recent years, particularly through contacts with various guests who have taken part, including Prof. Hans Hunfeld, Prof. Hans Eberhard Piepho (†), Prof. Werner Bleyhl, Prof. Alan Maley, Prof. Manfred Schewe, Prof. Engelbert Thaler, Chaz Pugliese and Mario Rinvolucri. In recent years, course leaders have regularly written about their work in the widely read online language teaching journal Humanizing Language Teaching.  191 They have also increasingly been asked to give workshops and courses similar to those which they have given at the English Week at a variety of international teachers’ courses and conferences. 192 100 3 Steiner Schools’ In-Service Training for English Teachers: The English Week <?page no="101"?> 193 Despite different variations and innovations which have been introduced over the last 16 years, the general framework has remained quite consistent. 3.1 The Concept of the English Week In the annual invitation sent out to Steiner Schools there is always a short paragraph taken from the invitation to the first English Week which briefly describes the underlying concept of the whole course. The following excerpt is taken verbatim from the invitation to English Week 2006: The idea of an English Week was born ten years ago out of our conviction that intensive artistic work with actors, directors, storytellers and clowns, would be of immeasurable benefit for foreign language teachers. The experiences and feedback that we’ve had from the last nine years of working with outstanding professionals like Vivian Gladwell, Robert McNeer, Tessa Westlake, David Campbell and Duncan Macintosh have proved to be a resounding confirmation of this concept. Thus, the daily three-hour dramatic workshops continue to remain a keystone of the entire English Week. As in previous years, there will be morning lectures based on the general conference theme and in the afternoons there will continue to be a wide variety of working groups addressing different methodological issues and questions. The evenings are full of the “Spirit of English” in the forms of lectures, songs and dances. Another tradition we have maintained has been to encourage an open exchange with leading authorities in foreign language teaching outside of Waldorf circles. Our guests in the past have included Prof. Hans Hunfeld, Prof. Hans Eberhard Piepho, Prof. Werner Bleyhl, Prof. Alan Maley, and Mario Rinvolucri (three times). The program of the English Week 2005 gives a clear picture of its basic structure during the time in which this study was conducted. 193 101 3.1 The Concept of the English Week <?page no="102"?> The Ninth English Week: 7 th to 11 th November 2005 ‘Embracing the Unexpected’ Monday 7 th Time Tuesday 8 th Wednesday 9 th Thursday 10 th Friday 11 th 7.30 B R E A K F A S T 8.15 S I N G I N G starting the day with Anne Ayre Arrival 8: 30 Lecture: Peter Lutzker Courage and Creativity Lecture Vivian Gladwell Embracing the Unexpected Working with Alan Maley II DRAMA WORKSHOPS 9: 45 D R A M A W O R K S H O P S including the coffee break 10: 00 14: 30 - 16: 00 12.45 L U N C H Workshop Presentations REGISTRATION 14.30 S I N G I N G / CHOIR with Anne Ayre and Review of the Week TEA / COFFEE 3: 00 W O R K I N G G R O U P I . Working Group I 12: 00 LUNCH 16 - 17: 00 4: 15 COFFEE & Martyn Rawson Opening Lecture 4.45-6.00 W O R K I N G G R O U P II . finishes today 17: 45 DEPARTURE 18: 00 SUPPER 6: 15 SUPPER 18-19: 00 Lecture Andrew Wolpert 19-21: 00 DRAMA 7: 30 Lecture Andrew Wolpert Romantic Poets I Working with Alan Maley I. Romantic Poets II 19.30 SOCIAL EVENING WORKSHOP followed by singing 8.30 SINGING & COUNTRY DANCING with Anne Ayre with Performances and Buffet 102 3 Steiner Schools’ In-Service Training for English Teachers: The English Week <?page no="103"?> Please choose your afternoon working groups on arrival Please choose your DRAMA WORKSHOP in advance. This is 1. Anne Ayre: Singing and Dancing in the Classroom 2. Dr. Christoph Jaffke: Activities and Games in the Lower School Please mark here your first and second choice: MORNING DRAMA WORKSHOPS my 3. Andrew Wolpert: Working on the Romantic Poets I. Tessa Westlake: The Art of Creative Speech ……… … 4. Alan Marley; Drama Techniques in Language Learning II. Sarah Kane Drama in Performance ……… … 5. Alec Templeton: Inductive Grammar in the middle school III. Robert Mc Neer: Drama & Literature in Performance ……… … 6. Martyn Rawson & Peter Lutzker: Teaching Shakespeare IV. Vivian Gladwell: Clowning ……… … 7. Martyn Rawson: Becoming a better teacher V. Alec Templeton: Performing Plays in class 9&10 ……… … 8. Peter Lutzker: Literature in the Upper School VI. Martyn Rawson/ Ulrike Sievers: Performing Shakespeare ……… … 9. Silvia A.-J. / Doris L.: Transitions - entering and leaving the middle school VII. David Campbell: The Art of Storytelling ……… … choice In order to better satisfy your wishes and needs, please let us know if you would like to attend a working group on a topic which isn´t being offered on our present plan. If so, please write to us (see Enrolment Form) and we will do our best to adjust our plan accordingly. 103 3.1 The Concept of the English Week <?page no="104"?> 194 In the meantime, there are also workshops in creative writing which are offered. The schedule gives a clear picture of the day’s activities beginning at 8.15 in the morning with singing and ending late in the evening with English folk dancing. Even within the context of a very full program, it is clear that the drama workshops have a unique status in regard to their place in the timetable and with respect to their length. Although in the context of this study, the focus will be on one of the drama courses which, as it is written in the invitation, we have always considered to be “the keystone of the entire English Week” it is essential to realize that these courses have always been offered within the general context of a conference theme and framework which is closely tied to the principles of artistic work. Both the lectures as well as the afternoon methodology courses have generally attempted to draw upon and integrate the participants’ experiences in the drama workshops into their own frameworks. Thus, each element of the program including the other artistic activities (choir singing and English folk dancing) can be seen to address related aspects of teaching and learning albeit in a very different context and form. This coherence can be viewed as an essential element of the entire week, exemplifying the common vision of artistry in teaching which we as the organizers have continued to share. Although this study will focus specifically on the clowning course, it will be instructive to give a brief overview of the other artistic courses and then describe one of them in more detail, in order to give a fuller picture of the underlying concept as well as to put the clowning course into a larger context. 3.2 Forms and Principles of the Drama Workshops The following drama workshops have been regularly offered in the English Week: Literature in Performance Clowning Drama and Creative Speech Storytelling Drama and Improvisation Drama and Presence  194 The first three of these courses have been mainstays of the English Week and have been offered every year by the same course leaders. The others have varied 104 3 Steiner Schools’ In-Service Training for English Teachers: The English Week <?page no="105"?> more and in some cases are recent additions. Generally, 6-9 artistic groups are offered, depending on the amount of participants we have or expect to have at the conference. We have always attempted to establish a limit of 20 participants for each artistic group and generally manage to have groups of about 12-15. The participants submit 1 st and 2 nd choices with their registration and we try to balance out the different groups as evenly as possible. The length of the morning workshops is three hours. One of the guiding principles behind the drama workshops has been their professionalization. While recognizing that there are many teachers with much dramatic experience and talent, we have nevertheless drawn clear distinctions between the quality of work possible with capable amateurs, compared to highly trained professionals. Although there is no doubt that dramatic work with experienced teachers can also lead to meaningful experiences, it has been our conviction that the dimensions of artistic experience which outstanding professional actors, clowns, storytellers etc. can offer teachers are, in the end, fundamentally different, and we consider this distinction to be significant. The two exceptions we have made have been in the form of courses offered by teachers with substantial drama experience who have offered workshops on how to work on drama with pupils. (All the other elements and activities on the program including lectures, methodology workshops, choir work etc. are led by experienced teachers and teacher trainers who are obviously the professionals in these areas.) Although there are different emphases in each course, there are also many common dimensions and, in fact, there are elements in each of these workshops which are remarkably similar. What all courses offer is the possibility to enter into an intensive artistic process which at different points generally require a letting go of fears, inhibitions and preconceptions in order to create something new - whether in the recitation of a poem, the telling of a story, in acting a scene, or in a clowning improvisation. It lies in the very nature of such challenges that they are invariably complex and highly personal processes entailing a wide range of difficulties. Thus, the structures of each of these groups are similar insofar as there is always extensive and careful preliminary work in the context of a wide range of warm-up exercises, all designed to foster later steps. In this warm-up phase there is a strong physical/ physiological element present with much walking, running and a wide variety of exercises and games requiring physical movement. As each group is dependent on establishing a high degree of trust and openness among the participants, most of whom do not know each other, there is also a strong emphasis placed on creating an atmosphere of warmth, humour and trust. The 105 3.2 Forms and Principles of the Drama Workshops <?page no="106"?> 195 However, there have occasionally been cases over the years where an individual participant has asked to switch groups after the first or second day, because the level of trust in the course leader and/ or the group which was perceived by the participant to be necessary for this kind of work had not been established. course leaders do this in a variety of ways through their choice of exercises and material, but also in their entire manner of speaking to and working with the group. It is a tribute to their expertise and experience that they generally appear to be able to establish this degree of rapport within the first session. 195 In order to give a more concrete picture of the kinds of artistic/ dramatic work done at the English Week, it will be necessary to look more closely at what occurs in the course of a week’s workshop. Before examining the clowning workshop and the research on the effects of the clowning course, it will be instructive to look in more detail at another course in order to give a more complete picture of the general principles underlying all the artistic work for language teachers, as well as to be able to draw essential parallels and distinctions between clowning and the other drama workshops. In this context, the course Literature in Performance can be seen to evidence both similarities and equally apparent differences. A further reason for choosing to examine this course is that Robert McNeer has written more extensively about his work than the other course leaders, thus making it possible to examine his approach in more detail. 3.3 Literature in Performance: A Drama Workshop at the English Week Robert McNeer’s courses are typically characterized by lots of smiles and laughter. Right from the beginning, there is generally surprised laughter based on his playful manner of introducing the work. Within the first hour of warm-up exercises, the laughter ranges from nervous to very pleased as teachers are asked to do things that often seem quite strange to them such as massaging each other’s feet, walking around as animals and making various musical and non-musical sounds. The warm-ups often begin with an exercise in which the participants not only get to learn each other’s names, but also learn a great deal more. Standing in a circle, each person says their own name in a way they remember having heard it in the past (loving, angry, severe etc.): afterwards the group tries to precisely imitate the way each participant has said his or her name. McNeer writes, 106 3 Steiner Schools’ In-Service Training for English Teachers: The English Week <?page no="107"?> 196 Robert McNeer, e-mail correspondence, May 8, 2005. 197 McNeer, “The Artist Within: Developing Stage Presence in Public Speaking,” unpub‐ lished manuscript. It’s very interesting to me that we hear our own names more than we say them, and this exercise gets the shoe on the other foot, subtly helps us to see ourselves or hear ourselves, from outside which is a step towards empathy and compassion. The others listen very carefully, and as a group try to reproduce exactly the same tonality, temperature and music as a chorus. This trains their observation, their musical ear, but it immediately becomes apparent that the posture and the subtle observance of the other’s posture, is an essential part of creating the sound. I think hearing their own name repeated to them in chorus, somehow legitimatizes the presence of each individual, and gives strength to the timid ones. Of course, the chorus is non-judgemental, as I’m very picky about it being EXACTLY the same sound. This means that everyone is concentrating so much on getting inside the other’s voice that they don’t have any neurons left for judging. If I see anyone judging, I become more musically demanding with them until they have no concentration left for judgement, which means they’re practicing empathy before they know it. It’s almost always funny, but we find ourselves laughing not at, but with the others, as we recognize our own situations. 196 A wide range of exercises going back and forth between the physical and vocal, not only serve the function of warming-up and stretching the participants bodies, voices and imaginations, but in enhancing perceptual awareness, these exercises can be seen as presenting a basis for all the dramatic work that follows. McNeer writes, The basis of my work is perception. Through a series of exercises, the participants are invited to direct their attention to the way in which their bodies react to psychophysical phenomena. I often begin with foot massage, which, apart from drawing the attention as far away from the head as possible, begins to open the awareness to the vital importance of balance. Depending on the circumstances, my indication to remove the shoes can meet with anything from active resistance to unconvinced acquiescence, which generally melts into joking about un-repaired and unwashed socks, or laughter when someone’s loose change falls onto the floor. The laughter is extremely important. It is a recognition of community, an acceptance that we are all in this together and the first, happy assault on the shields of self-defense. 197 Although the time-structure of each day’s sessions may vary considerably, there is a general framework present. In the three hour workshop, this first warm-up phase generally lasts at least an hour, and on the first days often longer. In the 107 3.3 Literature in Performance: A Drama Workshop at the English Week <?page no="108"?> 198 Kupke 1998, 23. 199 See note 197. next phase people get to choose from a wide range of contemporary poems which he has read to the group on the first or second day, and then work in groups of three or four on creating ‘group performances’ of those poems. At the end of the week the poems are performed for the other participants and in some cases are presented in front of the whole conference at the final plenary session. The groups are given complete freedom to experiment with their own ways of working on and presenting the poems. Since the warm-up phase strongly emphasizes creatively exploring the movements and sounds of words, the group processes and performances usually evidence many elements of this type of work. The final presentations can be quite dramatic, uninhibited, and surprising. One of the participants wrote down her recollections of working on a Dylan Thomas poem in an article: Robert McNeer built up such a trust and environment for safe experimentation with the spoken word that possibly our teaching approaches will never be quite the same again. We played with words, throwing them around the room, sometimes in chorus, sometimes merging in curious indefinable sound and sometimes like arrows, striking a specific point. We pulled Dylan Thomas’ “Fern Hill” off the page and played around ‘the lilting house, happy as the grass was green’! 198 The phase of working in small groups usually lasts between 45-60 minutes. The last part of the workshop (45-60 minutes) is devoted to individual readings. All participants have been asked to come prepared with individual material; generally poems are chosen, sometimes a monologue from a play. With the other participants sitting in a half circle as an audience, each participant in the course of the week recites or speaks his or her prepared material to the group. In an open-class situation, McNeer then works with them on their material while the others not only get to observe the process, but are often asked to actively take part through reporting to the participants what they are perceiving as changes and transformation. He writes, Part of the work involves individual presentation of a piece of literature, usually a poem. This gives us the opportunity to analyse in some depth the qualities of each individual. This is always fascinating work and often quite moving. Watching the others, one is invited to go as deeply as possible into what is perceived regarding the performer’s energy, regarding the vehicle which transmits the poem. 199 108 3 Steiner Schools’ In-Service Training for English Teachers: The English Week <?page no="109"?> 200 Ibid. 201 Löfler 1999, 95. Over the years what has remained most constant in this work is that many teachers seem to have a set image of what a good public reading should sound and look like, i. e. the kind of voice qualities and gestures that are necessary in performing literature for others. The effect of this, put simply, is that there is generally a good deal of ‘overacting’. The process through which these extraneous qualities begin to disappear and the poem and the ‘real’ person seem to gradually emerge can often be a very moving and mysterious process for both the participant and the observers. McNeer describes this from his perspective: In a calm, accepting atmosphere, the observers are often capable of reading extremely subtle signs, often surprising the performer with what seem like acts of telepathy as they respond to fluctuations in his psychophysical state. (…) Describing, without judging, the qualities of the presentation, we begin to notice that the things that we normally consider defects, such as a thin, weak or grating voice, shallow breathing, or trembling, are simply qualities which, in the right context, can be more expressive of the spirit of the poem than can the resonant but empty voice and cliché gestures to which a false idea of “correct” speaking in public can lead us. 200 The nature of the transformations that can occur in this work sometimes in the course of only a few minutes can be breathtaking. These moments are clearly dependent on the entire range of processes in the workshop which have occurred until that point. The essential role of the warm-ups in creating the atmosphere and openness necessary to make such breakthroughs becomes evident in the comments of two participants who later published reports about their experiences in his workshops. One of the first things we were asked to do was to remove our chairs which we didn’t use again. (…) We were then guided through a spectrum of exercises, done alone or in pairs or as a group that are useful for our own practical everyday use when teaching. There were warming-up exercises and a lot of body work to do away with tension and make it possible to approach learning, teaching and reciting in a different way. Robert McNeer, an American multilingual actor, who lives in Italy, took us off into a world of speech and sound, hearing and feeling, of letting go and of having to pluck up courage (…) in a very pleasant and loving atmosphere that made it possible for us to go out of ourselves and get more a taste of what the artist in us could be like. 201 During the workshops, Robert sometimes put us into situations that made us feel vulnerable, demanded courage of us, took us to what we imagined to be the limit and 109 3.3 Literature in Performance: A Drama Workshop at the English Week <?page no="110"?> 202 Kupke 1998, 23. 203 See note 197. then he guided us lovingly through, to new places we were happy to explore. We made all kinds of discoveries for ourselves and with others because he made it safe for us. This is surely what we want to aim for in each of our students through their experiences in English learning. 202 For the other participants in the group watching these transformations occur, there is sometimes the feeling of taking part in a highly personal and existential process. As the reading begins to gain clarity and expressiveness, the group simultaneously witnesses the transformation of both the reader and the poem. Despite the intimacy of the coaching process, the group remains not only closely connected to what is happening, but often becomes through its very presence a prime catalyst for the decisive steps that are being made. McNeer writes, This is work which takes place, and which can only take place, in “public” that is, in front of the others. It leads to subtle and sometimes quite profound breakthroughs regarding one’s ability to express oneself, regarding, in fact, one’s self-image. Through the eyes of the others, one discovers that there is nowhere to hide, but also no need to do so. The others inevitably see all that one thinks to hide, but they also see beyond that, somewhere deeper, to where the profound need to express oneself resides. Through the gaze of the other, we see ourselves anew. At this point we can stop wasting energy on the attempt to conceal and repress that which we considered “flaws”, stop trying to imitate an external, rigid and generic “right form” and begin to enjoy being ourselves and discovering the side of our self which can respond most appropriately to the opportunity which the moment offers. 203 It is one of the basic tenets underlying the English Week that such experiences of performing literature can have profound and wide-ranging effects on the participants - all of whom are English teachers and not actors. What also becomes apparent is that these workshops offer a remarkable opportunity for teachers to assume the role of the learner and to be taught by an enormously sensitive and capable artist. An essential characteristic of all the workshops that I have witnessed is that he is not working with the teachers as a director, but as a teacher. This means that one never has the feeling that he is aiming for the realization of his specific conception of a particular poem, story, or scene. His priority lies solely in fostering a process within each teacher which will let that person more completely express their own relation to what they have prepared. His goal remains (as he has sometimes titled his workshops), to reveal ‘the artist within’. For teachers being able to observe this, his work can function 110 3 Steiner Schools’ In-Service Training for English Teachers: The English Week <?page no="111"?> 204 McNeer has written an illuminating article (see note 5) in which he describes his internal thoughts and perceptions while having worked with a participant on a Blake poem during the English Week 2002: “Teachers Learn Stage Presence and Poetry Speaking, or Eternity’s Sunrise.” Humanising Language Teaching 5 (1), January 2003, available online at (last accessed on 23.07.2021) http: / / old.hltmag.co.uk/ jan03/ sart7.htm. 205 Robert McNeer, “The Frayed Edges of Imagination,” unpublished manuscript of a speech given at the English Week November, 2004. as a kind of paradigm of what teaching can be; in itself, a revealing and inspiring process. 204 Those elements which he stresses in all of his exercises - listening closely, learning to be completely non-judgemental, developing the powers of empathy and compassion - are the basis of his own manner of working with each of the teachers/ learners. Again and again in his work with individuals, one sees how this pedagogical attitude offers the learners the chance to transcend their own personal borders and to realize their own, individual artistic possibilities. He writes, I think a compassionate teacher can cultivate this discovery, in which the student’s apparent limit can reveal itself as a bridge, which unites him with the world, which spans the fearful gap between himself and the other, but it’s important that you, the teacher recognize the “limit” not as an obstacle, but as an opportunity, and invite the student to enjoy rather than fight, the quality that he has. For that boundary is a very rich, very fertile zone. For instance, if you have a student very timid about using her voice, it’s probably counterproductive to ask her to sing Figaro or Die Walküre: that’s exactly what she won’t do, because she’s afraid, and the nature of fear is contraction. But if you have the others close their eyes and ask her to make the sound of a sunset, you might unlock something in her. I often find this kind of synesthetic crossover very liberating. (…) By the way, this will work ONLY if you, the teacher, honestly have no preconception about the correct sound of a sunset: if there is one molecule of your being prepared to judge the response, then you’re lost from the start. You must remain very light, because you’re facilitating a bridge, and it could collapse: the artist - in this case the timid student- has to create a connection between what everyone knows - a sunset is red and what only she knows - a sunset sounds like this. (…) This is for me what transcending boundaries is about: a sense of union. “I know you through me, I know me through you”, because it’s the listening as much as the sound which creates the act. 205 (emphases in original) There certainly could be no more fitting audience for such processes than a room full of teachers. 111 3.3 Literature in Performance: A Drama Workshop at the English Week <?page no="113"?> 4 An Empirical Study of Clowning Courses with Vivian Gladwell - Research Design 4.1 The Choice of the Clowning Courses The choice to conduct an empirical research study on the clowning courses, instead of any of the other artistic workshops was made for a variety of reasons. Despite the many similarities between clowning and the other courses, the differences are significant. As will become evident in the description of the clowning workshops and in the participants’ responses, it lies in the very nature of theatre clowning and improvisation that unique opportunities of addressing critical and complex pedagogical issues are continually presented. Those attributes of artistry in teaching that have consistently been viewed as decisive, including fluidity, creativity, sensitivity etc., are all contingent upon acting and re-acting in a given moment. In contrast to theatre, an artistic lesson is not an uninterrupted, re‐ hearsed performance, but a highly dynamic process resulting from the continual interaction between pupils and teacher. In this sense, it is highly dependent on improvisatory skills which, in turn, are based on an entire set of requisite capabilities, most notably a high degree of openness, perceptual awareness, flexibility and presence. Such skills constitute the basis of theatre clowning and, in vital respects, can also be considered to be the basis of artistry in teaching. Learning to develop such capabilities in the highly focused context of clowning improvisations can be a demanding process. The most common hindrance is generally that self-critical, judgemental ‘inner voice’ which Blake called one’s ‘Spectre’. Through continually passing judgements, this inner voice can effectively block any process dependent on imaginative and spontaneous action/ s. This type of critical self-evaluation is often tied to fears of making mistakes and fears of failure. In encouraging teachers to develop a fundamen‐ tally different attitude towards their doubts, fears and insecurities, clowning addresses this level of behaviour directly. In doing so it also touches on those types of feelings in teachers, which are often the prime hindrance to their pupils’ developments. Particularly in foreign language learning, it is pupils’ fears of making mistakes and their feelings of being incompetent which often stand in the way of their acquiring that willingness to take risks vitally necessary in learning a foreign language. In a theatre clowning workshop in which teachers <?page no="114"?> 206 Vivian Gladwell, “Le travail du clown: un outil de formation pour les enseignants en langue de specialite.” (M.Phil.Universités De Bordeaux II, Toulouse I, Montepllier III, 1995). gradually learn to improvise spontaneously and creatively through freeing themselves from their own judgements, this decisive pedagogical process is experienced first hand by the teacher. Thus, more directly than in any of the other drama courses, a clowning workshop offers participants many chances to directly confront these types of anxieties in the context of artistic work, and also gives them an opportunity to experience such difficulties and themselves from a new perspective. It is partially in light of the above considerations that I chose to focus on the clowning workshops. However, there were a number of other factors that also led to this choice. Both the structure and manner of working remain relatively constant in all of Gladwell’s workshops, in contrast to the other drama workshops which tend to vary more widely from year to year. This clearly lends itself better to general descriptions of their content and structure. The fact that he also described his own workshops in his Masters Degree was a further help. 206 Moreover, as he has also worked extensively with other professionals including doctors, therapists, nurses and ecologists, there are chances of drawing parallels and distinctions to his work in other social professions. In this respect it has proved helpful that there has been an increasing body of articles published in various fields regarding his work. Finally, since he also worked with Steiner School language teachers outside of the English Week, in the context of the English Fortnight at Emerson College for two summers, in the Baltic Seminar, in Helsinki, Finland for one summer and in the framework of intensive weekends in Witten-Annen, Germany, there were possibilities to get feedback responses from a greater number of teachers, including some whom I had never met (all those from the English Fortnight), and others whom I did not know from the English Week (I was a guest lecturer in January, 2005 at the Baltic Seminar). Thus, a potential corrective was offered to what otherwise could have conceivably been considered a problem in the research design - whether teachers’ responses to a clowning workshop in the English Week could have been consciously or unconsciously affected by their knowledge of my role as one of the organizers responsible for the courses. 114 4 An Empirical Study of Clowning Courses with Vivian Gladwell - Research Design <?page no="115"?> 207 Marita Schocker-v. Ditfurth, Forschendes Lernen in der fremdsprachlichen Lehrerbil‐ dung: Grundlagen, Erfahrungen, Perspektiven. (Tübingen: Gunter Narr, 2001) 32-34. Donald Freeman, “The Unstudied Problem: Research on Teacher Learning in Language Teaching,” in Teacher Learning in Language Teaching. Eds. Donald Freeman & Jack Richards (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1996) 351-378. 4.2 Research Goals In both Anglo-American as well as in German pedagogical literature there has been an acknowledged lack of empirical research devoted to assessing the effectiveness of both pre-service and in-service language teacher education programs despite compelling reasons for doing so. 207 In the following study of the clowning and improvisation courses which Vivian Gladwell has regularly given for Steiner Schools language teachers since 1996, the attempt will be made to establish a well-grounded basis for assessing the meaning of this work. Although there is always verbal and sometimes written feedback given at the end of each of his courses, there have been no attempts made to collect and evaluate this data in a systematic way. Moreover, there is often little time or opportunity on the last day of a workshop to write more sustained comments. There has also been no research conducted until now designed to give participants the chance to reflect on these workshops, weeks, months, or years later. Hence, a critical and decisive question in evaluating any in-service training - What has a course meant in regard to a teacher’s further development? - has not been addressed in a systematic manner. This empirical study will attempt to redress that deficit. 4.3 Description of the Courses: Observation and Participation Since the type of clowning courses that will be the subject of this study are generally unknown in a pedagogical and/ or academic context, it becomes a primary task of the researcher to give the reader an accurate picture of what goes on in such a workshop. To achieve this, the role of an outside observer is crucial. At the same time, the subjective experiences and perspectives of the participants must also be seen as a key factor in establishing a clear picture of the work. During the English Weeks in November, 2004 and November, 2005 in Alten‐ berg, Germany, I attended Vivian Gladwell’s courses as an observer and to a certain degree also as an active participant. Each day, I kept a running record of 115 4.2 Research Goals <?page no="116"?> 208 Irving Seidman, Interviewing as Qualitative Research: A Guide for Researchers in Educa‐ tion and the Social Sciences. (New York: Teachers College Press, 1998) 43. the course activities and set down most of the comments made by him and the participants. At the same time, it also seemed appropriate in the context of these workshops to take part in some of the exercises and improvisations, in order to experience the course from the perspective of the participants, as well as to avoid conveying the sense of only being an external observer. This meant that my protocols were at different points briefly interrupted by my own activities as a member of the group. (The fact that a few years earlier I had taken a clowning course at the English Week and, in addition, an advanced course in the summer of 2004 in England, made it much easier for me to go back and forth between the roles of participant and researcher.) In an intensive three-day course which Gladwell gave at the Institut für Waldorf Pädagogik in Witten Annen in January, 2005, I was present only as an observer and kept a complete protocol of the sessions. Having had the chance to experience these courses from both the standpoint of an observer as well as a participant, proved to be a significant element of between method triangulation, insofar as each of these roles offered important insights which were only realizable through adopting these perspectives. 4.4 Interviews In order to gain a deeper understanding of the background and rationale of such courses, it is necessary to go beyond a description of the workshops and to explore the nature of clowning itself. In this context, it became decisive to elicit Gladwell’s own thoughts on his work. Hence the interviews which I conducted with him proved to be an essential element of this research. All of the sessions were recorded and later transcribed. From March, 20-22, 2005, I was a guest at his house in Castel Magnoc, in Southern France. In the course of these three days I had the opportunity to conduct seven semi-structured interviews with him, each lasting between 60-90 minutes. It is an accepted research paradigm that an interview should occur in a social setting in which people can converse in a relaxed and undisturbed manner. In this respect, these interviews were conducted in ideal circumstances. 208 The general framework and design of the interviews followed the underlying principles of interviewing which Irving Seidman has elucidated. Seidman suggests a three-part format beginning with general and personal background 116 4 An Empirical Study of Clowning Courses with Vivian Gladwell - Research Design <?page no="117"?> 209 Ibid., 11-13. material, followed by a descriptive phase focused on contemporary experience, which in this case involved extensive questioning about each consecutive phase of a clowning workshop, and finally more general reflections on the meaning of the work. 209 In keeping with accepted research practices, he had full access to the transcriptions and was given the freedom to change any of the wording. 4.5 Research Inquiry and Data Triangulation The heart of this empirical study consists of the 55 replies from teachers who had taken part in his courses. As mentioned above, the fact that he has regularly given clowning courses for Waldorf language teachers since 1996, offered opportunities to assess data coming from a wide range of in-service courses occurring at different times, in different contexts and in three different countries. Hence, a key element of this research data can be seen as the extensive possibilities of data triangulation which this range of courses over a decade offers. On a longitudinal level, the responses to the courses that were received were written at very different points in time, ranging from replies in which participants write about courses they had just taken in the previous week, to other participants who are reflecting on courses which occurred many years earlier. The fact that the structure and content of the courses themselves have remained largely constant means that in attempting to assess the short-term and long-term significance of these courses, the possibility of a high degree of time triangulation of the research data is introduced. Thus, distinctions and parallels can be drawn between the short and long-term effects of such courses. This element of time triangulation can be considered a particularly significant aspect of this study, since the question of the long-term effects of in-service courses must be considered one of the most critical questions in this area of research. Another element of data triangulation can be seen in the space triangulation which the participants’ responses offer. The fact that the courses took place in three different countries and that there has also generally been a strong international component to all the courses is reflected in the responses which were received: from the 54 responses 31 are from Germany and the rest are from other countries including Austria, Switzerland, England, Russia, Estonia, Lithuania, Sweden, Finland, Israel, France, Japan and the Ukraine. 117 4.5 Research Inquiry and Data Triangulation <?page no="118"?> A further significant difference between these courses can be found in the types of participants who took part. The Baltic Seminar, for instance, was primarily designed for teachers in their first years of Waldorf teaching, as opposed to the English Week which has a much higher percentage of very experienced Waldorf teachers. Hence this data offers the opportunity to evaluate possible differences between how experienced and less experienced teachers perceived the work. 4.6 Research Inquiry - ‘Thick Description’ After originally considering the option of formulating a detailed questionnaire, a much more open modus of inquiry was adopted in the form of a letter designed to offer a number of suggestions and ‘impulses’ for the participants. A copy of the standard letter is printed below. (In those courses in which I participated, an almost identical paper without the first line was handed out to the participants at the end.) Dear _________ I’m writing to you now because according to his records you attended one of Vivian Gladwell’s clowning courses. In the context of my Ph.D. research, I’m trying to assess the possible effects of Vivian’s workshops. (This is, of course, done with Vivian’s blessings.) Thus, I am asking you to please take some time when you can find it and write down anything/ everything that you can think of in terms of what you remember of the course, your experiences and feelings back then, in the meantime, and how you view this now. In the context of my work, all the thoughts and feelings you can offer in this regard would be both relevant and very much appreciated. Unless you really prefer to write this in English, I would suggest writing it in German. (This assumes, of course, that your mother tongue is German. If it is not, I would appreciate your replying in English…) All your answers will, of course, be treated as confidential and all the standard ethical practices of printed research will be followed i. e. names will be changed, background information put in a neutral context etc. This is not only the first attempt to evaluate this kind of artistic work for language teachers in a scientific context, but the first attempt to my knowledge to evaluate any Waldorf in-service training in this manner. This is clearly long overdue and we would be greatly helped for our future efforts by getting extensive feedback. It would be very helpful if you started your reflections with the following brief information: Name: 118 4 An Empirical Study of Clowning Courses with Vivian Gladwell - Research Design <?page no="119"?> 210 Norman Denzin, “The Art and Politics of Interpretation,” in Denzin & Y.S. Lincoln (eds.), Handbook of Qualitative Research ( London: Sage, 1994) 505. 211 Clifford Geertz, “Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture,” chap. 1 in The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays by Clifford Geertz. (New York: Basic Books, 1973) 16. 212 Ibid., 28. Years of Experience: Educational Background (State exams etc.): Waldorf Training: What subjects: Years of Teaching Which grades you have taught: Afterwards, it’s all yours. If you prefer to send this as an e-mail attachment, this will be fine. Best regards, The choice of this form of open letter was made with the hope and expectation that it would lead to a much greater accumulation of rich ‘thick’ data, than would be elicited from a questionnaire. In contrasting ‘thin’ and ‘thick’ data, Norman Denzin writes, A thin description simply reports facts, independent of intentions or circumstances. A thick description, in contrast, gives the context of an experience, states the intentions and meanings that organized the experience, and reveals the experience as a process. 210 In his classic discussion of the essential requirements intrinsic to all forms of ethnographic research, Clifford Geertz argues for the necessity of generating richly descriptive data which enables the researcher and later the reader to concretely perceive human behaviour. If ethnography is thick description and ethnographers those who are doing the describing, then the determining question for any given example of it, whether a field journal squib or a Malinoswski-sized monograph, is whether it sorts winks from twitches and real winks from mimicked ones. 211 He maintains that a comprehensive and accurate picture of phenomena can best be realized by focusing on its complex specifics: The aim is to draw large conclusions from small, but very densely textured facts. 212 The extensive and varied nature of the participants’ responses in this study ended up providing a rich basis for interpretation. 119 4.6 Research Inquiry - ‘Thick Description’ <?page no="120"?> 213 Norman Denzin, The Research Act. 3rd ed., (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1989) 246. 214 Adrian Holliday, Doing and Writing Qualitative Research. (London: Sage, 2002) 52-56. 4.7 Internal Validity Achieving internal validity is generally understood to mean that the research design presents an accurate basis for accumulating relevant data from which conclusions can be drawn, and that an independent researcher with the same data would come to the same conclusions. In qualitative research, data and method triangulation are generally considered to be key factors in achieving internal validity through the possibilities they offer of creating a detailed understanding of phenomena through the use of multiple perspectives. 213 The technique of ‘thick descriptions,’ which has always been considered to be a central element of ethnographic research, offers a further basis for establishing internal validity. This is one of the reasons for using extensive verbatim data in the following chapters, letting the subjects ‘speak for themselves’, and thus enabling the reader to gain a more direct impression of the phenomena and research data. Finally, a transparent discussion of the conceptual framework of the research in order to clearly define the standpoint of the researcher has consistently been stressed as a further essential requirement in attaining internal validity in qualitative research. 214 In considering the issue of internal validity in the specific context of this empirical study the decisive questions that must first be addressed concern the validity of the participants’ responses: • Do the responses to the research inquiry accurately reflect the way participants in the clowning workshops experienced the courses? • Can these responses also be considered broadly representative of the views of the other participants who did not reply? In the research inquiry, participants were asked to “write down anything/ ev‐ erything that you can think of in terms of what you remember of the course, your experiences and feelings back then, in the meantime, and how you view this now”. One of the intrinsic qualities of such an open question is that it offers the possibility of obtaining a detailed and individual picture of how a participant experienced the workshop. In fact, the highly personal nature of many of the responses suggests that this very open formulation often proved to be a decisive catalyst for sustained thoughts and reflections. In considering the question of how representative their responses were, a key element of the research design proves to be very helpful. In the context of 120 4 An Empirical Study of Clowning Courses with Vivian Gladwell - Research Design <?page no="121"?> this research, I had the opportunity to attend three different clowning courses which gave me the opportunity to observe 38 participants. From these 38 participants, 15 answered the research inquiry a percentage equivalent to the general response rate. In all three of these courses, what participants expressed in the feedback sessions at the end was very similar to the written responses that were sent. Although these direct observations only apply to the three workshops which I attended, it provides a basis to postulate that those participants who did not take the time to respond to the research inquiry did not generally experience the courses in a fundamentally different manner. This conclusion is also supported by the fact that at the end of each English Week there have always been feedback sheets regarding the entire week and from those participants who had taken his courses and who did not respond to my research inquiry, there were also similar reactions to the course. Hence, it seems legitimate to conclude that the responses which I received were representative in their appraisal of the courses. One of the key tasks with respect to establishing internal validity in qualita‐ tive research is to clearly define the position of the researcher in relation to her research. In this context, the transparency of the researcher’s conceptual framework is seen as essential to achieving verisimilitude. This elucidation of the researcher’s standpoint must invariably occur both on a conceptual level as well as in considering the potential impact of the researcher on the particular situation and relations which will be the subject of the study. One of the principles articulated in many qualitative studies is that the traditional paradigm of the disinterested and detached observer, often found in quantitative research, offers a severely limited view of the role of the researcher. This criterion is seen as contrasting strongly to the actual demands of research. Seidman writes, Research, like almost everything else in life, has autobiographical roots. It is crucial for interviewers to identify the autobiographical roots of their interest in their topic. Research is hard work; interviewing research is especially so. In order to sustain the energy needed to do the research well, a researcher must have some passion about his or her subject. Rather than seeking a “disinterested” position as a researcher, the interviewer needs to understand and affirm his or her interest in order to build on the energy that can come from it. Equally important, researchers must identify the source of their interest in order to channel it appropriately. They must acknowledge it in order to minimize the distortion such interest can cause. (…) An autobiographical 121 4.7 Internal Validity <?page no="122"?> 215 Seidman 1998, 26. section explaining researchers’ connections to their proposed research seems to me to be crucial … 215 From nine years of having observed and spoken to some of the participants in the clowning courses at the English Week and from my own experiences as a participant in one of those workshops, I began this research with the belief that these courses had clearly led to positive short-term developments for most participants, and that they had quite possibly led to significant long-term developments as well. What I had experienced myself and also informally spoken about with others, seemed to have occurred on different and often overlapping personal and professional levels. At the same time I was clearly aware of the obvious difficulties of making any sort of valid generalizations based on my own experiences, and/ or the experiences of those colleagues whom I had spoken to. Seen from the perspective which Seidman and others have adopted, my previous positive experience of the potential value of these courses, which can be considered as one of the motivating forces behind the entire research, need not detract from the internal validity of the study, provided the necessary controls and transparency are built into the research design. Through the above-mentioned uses of data and method triangulation in conjunction with the extensive use of verbatim reports from the participants, the criteria necessary for establishing internal validity in the research design is considered to have been met. Another element which must be taken into account in the context of the contextual framework is the relation of the participants to the researcher. I was well aware that a possible criticism of the study could be that participants of his English Week courses were invariably aware of my own role as one of those responsible for the organization and planning of the courses. Hence, there was a possibility of their responses being shaped by their knowledge of my own probable standpoint regarding the value of the work. Although I had hoped through the open nature of the research inquiry letter to encourage every type of response, this problem was, nevertheless, not completely resolvable. It thus became a crucial element in the research design that 26 of the 55 responses were from participants who had taken courses in the context of other in-service programs. 122 4 An Empirical Study of Clowning Courses with Vivian Gladwell - Research Design <?page no="123"?> 4.8 External Validity: The Representative Nature of the Data In qualitative research the issue of internal validity is generally considered to be more crucial than external validity, since the goal of external validity, i. e. that a research study could be exactly replicated in another context by different researchers and still elicit the identical results, is not generally the aim of most qualitative research studies. However, with respect to the clowning courses the broad spectrum of data in conjunction with the extensive possibilities of time and space triangulation make the issue of external validity a relevant consideration. A crucial issue which bears examining in this context is whether the language teachers who took the clowning course were representative of Steiner School English teachers, or instead, an atypical group of Steiner School teachers who tended naturally to this type of artistic course. This question can first be considered on the basis of the responses from the English Fortnights and the Baltic Seminar in which all the participants had to take this course. In the case of the English Fortnight this did not lead to any significant differences in what they wrote in comparison, for instance, to the English Week in which participants had chosen to take this particular course. However, in the case of the Baltic Seminar it is clear in the responses that many of the participants had clear reservations and questions about the work at the beginning. In general, their responses indicate that they as a group also initially experienced the most difficulties in the course. Significantly, their responses at the end were among the most effusive. In the English Week, there were some participants who were familiar with the courses through the presentations at the end of previous years and who thus had an idea of what they were choosing and others who were there for the first time. There do not, however, appear to be any marked general differences in the final responses of these two groups. Thus, the reasons why teachers took the course do not appear to have influenced how they later viewed it. In comparing the responses of participants from different countries who replied, it is also possible to conclude that their different forms of training and varied teaching traditions do not seem to have played a substantial role in the way they experienced the courses. 4.9 The Initial Hypothesis The importance of expressing a clearly stated hypothesis in the context of a qualitative research study has often been stressed by researchers who have 123 4.8 External Validity: The Representative Nature of the Data <?page no="124"?> 216 David Hopkins, A Teacher’s Guide to Classroom Research. 3rd ed., (Berkshire: Open UP, 2002) 53. 217 Holliday 2002, 34. 218 Hopkins 2002, 58-59. Nunan 1992, 13. maintained that hypothesis-driven research, which has traditionally been seen as belonging more to the domain of quantitative research, can also have an im‐ portant place in qualitative research in which verification, and not quantification is the goal. 216 Qualitative researchers have argued that a standpoint implying that an hypothesis can only be proved or disproved by setting up rigorous standards of measurement, reflects a narrow view of what verification can mean. Adrian Holliday writes, Hence, hypotheses are used in qualitative research which investigates a relationship between several entities. This essential nature of hypotheses does not have to be restricted to the controlled world of quantitative research. In qualitative research too there can be relationships which the researcher sets out to investigate in a systematic, though not quantifiable way. 217 It lies in the nature of a hypothesis-driven empirical study that it occurs within the framework of deductive research: i. e. an initial hypothesis presents the starting point for the research, as opposed to an “open approach” in which a broad general inquiry presents the basis for the ensuing generation of hypotheses. 218 The initial hypothesis upon which this empirical study was based can be formulated as follows: The clowning and improvisation courses which Vivian Gladwell has conducted in the context of in-service teacher development for Steiner School language teachers have had significant effects on their personal and professional development. Such development may have included an enhanced openness and attentiveness, a heightened sense of empathy, a higher degree of presence and increased improvisational skills. At the same time, these courses have also played an important role in helping teachers to learn to address their own uncertainties, anxieties and mistakes in a more constructive and creative manner. It is postulated that this development may have occurred both in short-term as well as in long-term contexts. The hypothesis is thus formulated in a manner which matches the accepted, formal standards of scientific research in terms of its being falsifiable, i. e. its defining qualities must be stated in a way that it (or parts of it) can it be clearly disproved and shown to be invalid. 124 4 An Empirical Study of Clowning Courses with Vivian Gladwell - Research Design <?page no="125"?> 219 Jacques Lecoq, The Moving Body: Teaching Creative Theatre. (London: Routledge, 2002) 5 Discovering the Clown Within: Background to Clowning Courses with Vivian Gladwell 5.1 Background: Vivian Gladwell and Bataclown Vivian Gladwell was born in England in 1953. While studying Sociology at the University of London, he first discovered clowning. He later trained with the Bataclown in France and worked with them professionally for many years. In 1990 he founded the Clowning Institute Nose to Nose. He regularly gives clowning courses throughout Europe and North America for a wide range of professionals including actors, teachers, doctors and social workers. He also teaches English at the University of Toulouse. The renowned French Bataclown group works in the tradition of theatre clowning associated with the school of Jacque Lecoq, based on improvisation and the mask. Lecoq’s work is considered seminal in the development of clowning, having its origins in the techniques of the Commedia dell’ Arte and differing markedly from the type of clowning allied to the circus tradition. 219 In adopting Lecoq’s approach and techniques, Bataclown modified them insofar as they did not solely aim to train professionals, but also used these principles and methods in working artistically with people who did not intend to become clowns. In this context, they placed their emphasis not on first developing technique, as Lecoq had done, but on making authenticity the main focus of their work and only gradually moving towards technique. Clowning in the tradition of Bataclown teaches people to improvise within the conventions of clowning, ‘protected’ by costumes and a red nose and, at the same time, encourages them to express exactly how they feel while improvising. This is an essential distinction between clowning improvisations and, for example, theatre improvisations which instead strive for a coherence and believability which are not required in clowning. In Gladwell’s words, In theatre improvisations there is a tendency to try and be coherent in the role you play. So, if you play a king, in order to be believable in that role you need to have a degree of coherence. In clowning, it doesn’t matter if you are still believable or coherent because the moment you are incoherent or “out of role” it is still clowning… <?page no="126"?> 220 Vivian Gladwell, interview by author, 20 March 2005, Castel-Magnoc, written protocol, 2. where you reveal how you feel about playing the role of the king, whether you are enjoying the role or not, whether you feel you are good at it. That twinkle in the eye that says to the audience: “Look I am having a great time here” is what clowning is about. It reveals what is underneath the convention of playing a role. So, say an actor has a hard time with imitating an Italian accent. If you are trying to be convincing you wouldn’t want your audience to know you were having a hard time because it would break the spell and they might not believe in the story or your role anymore. In clowning that is exactly what we want. We want to be taken in the story and yet we also know that the truth is that it is an actor playing a role. You are at the same time in the convention of the theatre and the truth. The twinkle in the eye reveals the truth and we all laugh because we recognize that truth. 220 Thus, as will become apparent in both the descriptions of the workshops and in the feedback of the participants, learning to fully play with the possibilities of improvising a story and yet still being able to also step out of that story and reveal one’s true feelings is an essential part of clowning. Within the playful conventions of clowning and while utilizing their imaginative capacities to act out stories, participants are also encouraged to become aware of their fears, insecurities and feelings and to give them truthful, visible expression. Learning to accept and then express these feelings on stage encourages a degree of personal authenticity which acting does not generally permit. In fact, it is precisely the problems and difficulties that occur in the course of an improvisation that often present the richest opportunities. It is the emotional transparency of the clown, whom one sees struggling to overcome difficulties and living through a problem, that we find most genuinely moving. The dimensions of self-awareness and self-expression which are called upon have implications which can go well beyond clowning. Thus, unsurprisingly, in both the concepts and methods of Bataclown there are connections to different fields, based on a similar understanding of the significance of authenticity in achieving balance and health. 5.2 Bataclown and Carl Rogers In their approach to clowning, Bataclown was profoundly influenced by the writings of the American psychologist Carl Rogers whose work was shaped by his conviction that an individual’s sense of wholeness and well-being was 126 5 Discovering the Clown Within: Background to Clowning Courses with Vivian Gladwell <?page no="127"?> 221 Carl Rogers, “The Person in Process,” chap. 12 in The Carl Rogers Reader. Ed. Howard Kirschenbaum & Valerie Land Henderson (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1989) 175. 222 Ibid., 176. dependent on a sense of personal authenticity. He believed that authenticity was dependent on a sense of congruence between what a person feels and his awareness of those feelings. He maintained that the incongruence between how people view themselves and how they actually experience their lives was a primary cause of self-estrangement. Rogers writes, …the usual adult - I feel I am speaking for most of us - has an approach to values which has these characteristics: The majority of his values are introjected from other individuals or groups significant to him, but are regarded by him as his own. The source or focus of evaluation on most matters lies outside of himself. The criterion by which his values are set is the degree to which they will cause him to be loved or accepted. These conceived preferences are either not related at all, or not clearly related, to his own process of experiencing … 221 It is in this estrangement from one’s inner experience that Rogers sees a basic conflict of modern man: By taking over the concepts of others as our own, we lose contact with the potential wisdom of our own functioning, and lose confidence in ourselves. Since these value constructs are often sharply at variance with what is going on in our own experiencing, we have in a very basic way divorced ourselves from ourselves, and this accounts for much of modern strain and insecurity. This fundamental discrepancy between the individual’s concepts and what he is actually experiencing, between the intellectual structure of his values and the valuing process going on unrecognized within him - this is a part of the fundamental estrangement of modern man from himself. 222 Not only does he view self-awareness and self-acceptance as a necessary basis for establishing a sense of personal congruence, but Rogers considers these steps to be the basis for establishing any form of sustaining and trusting relationship with others: Can I be in some way which will be perceived by the other person as trustworthy, as dependable or consistent in some deep sense? (…) I have come to recognize that being trustworthy does not demand that I be rigidly consistent but that I be dependably real. The term “congruent’” is one that I have used to describe the way I would like to be. By 127 5.2 Bataclown and Carl Rogers <?page no="128"?> 223 Carl Rogers, On Becoming a Person: A Therapist’s View of Psychotherapy. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1995) 50. 224 Gladwell, (interview 20 March), 5. this I mean that whatever feeling or attitude I am experiencing would be matched by my awareness of that attitude. When this is true, I am a unified or integrated person in that moment, and hence I can be whatever I deeply am. (…) It has made it seem to me that the most basic learning for anyone who hopes to establish any kind of helping relationship is that it is safe to be transparently real. 223 (italics in original) It is the connections between these processes and clowning which Vivian Gladwell has made the cornerstone of his work. They can be considered as potentially significant in a wide range of fields. The potential relevance of his approach has become increasingly clear to a growing number of professional groups, as evidenced by the wide range of courses that Vivian Gladwell teaches. Before we explore his work with language teachers, it will be helpful to look briefly at his work in other, related professions. 5.3 Clowning in the Social Professions Vivian Gladwell regularly gives workshops not only for teachers, but for busi‐ ness executives, doctors, social workers, nurses, midwives and psychologists. In the context of this study, it seems most appropriate to focus on his work in the social professions. The course Serious Clowning is offered regularly at the Blackstone Trust Medical Centre in Maidstone, England. He describes the rationale behind his work with doctors: In teaching as in medicine there is a similar theme to do with the individual’s relationship to knowledge. Both medicine and teaching refer to a concrete body of knowledge. So doctors need to know their stuff, they need to recognize symptoms, to prescribe drugs etc. which are part of a common, shared body of knowledge. But when you talk to doctors, they often don’t consider this knowledge as the most important part of their job. Perhaps these are just the doctors I talk to and who come to do clowning. They consider that the relationship they have with their clients and their professional relationship with their team and with their work is just as important. It is these aspects that will guarantee their professional survival in the years to come. It is the quality of this social dimension in their work that defines whether they are in a healthy or unhealthy relationship to their work. This is the dimension that clowning addresses. 224 128 5 Discovering the Clown Within: Background to Clowning Courses with Vivian Gladwell <?page no="129"?> 225 David Wheeler. “Discover Your Clown Within.” The General Practitioner Journal, Sept. 2001, available online at (last accessed on 25.07.21) https: / / www.nosetonose.info/ articl es/ davidwheelerarticle.htm 226 Ibid. One of the participants in his workshops for doctors, the general practitioner Dr. David Wheeler, wrote an article about his experiences in these workshops and its relevance for his professional work. Wheeler writes, The clown is a professional empathiser. He has to listen and respond to others on stage, to his own feelings and those of the audience. He is an improviser and has no pre-written script. If a problem arises on stage the clown is advised to “stay with it” in order to resolve the problem in an imaginative way. Improvisers on stage together are encouraged not to “block” ideas and suggestions from each other but to listen and respond to the other clown. However one clown does not have to give in completely to the other but express his own character too. He accepts the challenge posed by the other clown’s suggestion and then transforms it. The clown responds also to emotion but is not overwhelmed personally by it. He distances himself from it sufficiently to understand the drama objectively and to play with it. 225 Achieving these delicate states of balance between empathy and distance, between responding to an impulse and expressing one, requires a heightened awareness of what is happening at each moment. Wheeler draws connections between these processes occurring in improvisations and his consultations with his patients: Playing without a script was disconcerting but allowed me to observe more clearly what was happening around me. So, if I put to one side my “biomedical scripts”, my concern with disease descriptions, would I observe better my patient’s own stories? (…) This would mean listening carefully to the patient’s story and asking questions that clarify that story in preference to (though not to the complete exclusion of) pursuing ideas in the doctor’s own mind. If I could respond to my patient’s emotion without being overwhelmed personally by it then could I help to transform that emotion? 226 He sees in the co-operative nature of this process a fundamental transformation of traditional doctor-patient roles: Of course if, as a doctor, I involve myself in the patient’s experience of events, I am no longer the “expert” in charge of the consultation. My patient is regarded as an equal expert. The challenge in both clowning and doctoring is to listen and respond 129 5.3 Clowning in the Social Professions <?page no="130"?> 227 Ibid. 228 Rod Leiper. “Serious Clowning.” Interview by Vivian Gladwell, 2004, available online at (last accessed on 24.07.2021) https: / / www.nosetonose.info/ articles/ leiper.htm. 229 Ibid. with no script or clear guide to follow and to trust that an outcome favourable to all participants will emerge. 227 There are clearly emotional and behavioural dimensions here which are relevant to other social professions. Many of the qualities of empathy, listening, accept‐ ance and risk that are referred to here also appear in the responses of language teachers. In his workshops with psychotherapists there are the clearest professional parallels drawn to the ‘double nature’ of the clown who is fully engaged in the story, yet also has a certain distance to it. Rob Leiper, a clinical psychologist and Honorary Senior Research Fellow at Kent Institute of Medicine and Sciences has attended Gladwell’s workshops as part of the Serious Clowning programme at the Blackthorn Trust. He writes, Something you learn as a psychotherapist or counsellor and which is crucial to being a good practitioner is to both be in and be out at the same time, so you are in touch with the person - trying to access their experience, resonate to it, empathise with it and identify with it in such a way as to deepen it. But you are also trying to think about it and trying to know what is going on. And in order to do that you have to separate yourself. Sometimes it feels like one, sometimes like the other. That is a skill you have to learn in order to do the work well. 228 Significantly, this dynamic is not only an essential element of the therapist’s role, but is also one of the key elements of the psychotherapeutic process itself. To no small degree, the well-being of the client also hinges on his or her attaining a healthy inner balance between these perspectives. In this context, Leiper also sees parallels between clowning and what he is then able to bring into his work as a therapist to help clients reach this state: What you learn, almost more than anything else when you go through an in-depth psychotherapy, is the capacity to be playful. You learn to be playful in areas of your life in which there was no lightness. Psychotherapy loosens that up and gives some distance so you are not completely identified with something and you can start to play with it. This is the quality I have appreciated in clowning. 229 Despite these parallels, there are equally clear distinctions to be drawn between clowning and therapeutic work. Neither Bataclown nor Gladwell view them‐ 130 5 Discovering the Clown Within: Background to Clowning Courses with Vivian Gladwell <?page no="131"?> 230 Jean Pierre Bonange, “Le clown et l’imaginaire,” Practiques corporelles n°113. (Dec. 1996), adapted and trans. by Vivian Gladwell, available online at (last accessed on 22.07.21): www.nosetonose.info/ articles/ jbarticle.htm . selves as therapists or clowning as a form of therapy. Although there exist many parallels in the inner processes themselves, clowning is anchored in a theatrical tradition and herein lie its most creative possibilities. Jean-Bernard Bonange, one of the founding members of Bataclown writes, Though we recognise our work has therapeutic effects, we do not define it as a therapeutic activity but rather as a theatrical activity within which the clown - as mediator - is at the service of those who wish to “find themselves” on stage (in both senses of the word). The role of the clown as mediator comes from using the clown’s nose which as a mask unmasks our inner self. To bring our clown to life requires that we bring ourselves and our “imagination” into play. This defines our approach to the clown - it is the imagination in action. Or as Henry Miller says: The poet in action.  230 5.4 Clowning and Deep Ecology Although most of the participants in Gladwell’s workshops come from the social professions, there are some interesting exceptions. The field of deep ecology is a relatively new field which has increasingly gained recognition as a field of research. Chris Seeley from the University of Bath worked on a project examining the possible implications of clowning courses in the field of Deep Ecology. She writes, Deep Ecology means living as if the world is alive. It offers a vision of our place in the world as ordinary members of the earth community, where there is a deep sense of belonging to a sentient world and a nourishing human society. Deep Ecology asks of us to live our relationship to the world and each other with compassion and to look at the sacredness of life. In clowning, you learn that what is important is not how you control life but how you receive and respond to life. You are invited to let go of the thinking, controlling part of yourself and open yourself to what is authentic and present in the here and now. You practice a highly emotional and responsive relationship to the world. You are constantly informed by your audience’s reaction to what you do and by your feelings. 131 5.4 Clowning and Deep Ecology <?page no="132"?> 231 Chris Seeley, Clowning & Deep Ecology: The Clown as Social Activist or a Manifesto for Social Change Through Play and Joy. (December 2004), unpublished manuscript sent to author, 2. 232 Ibid., 2-3. 233 Ibid., 5. With practice, you become highly receptive to and in empathy with the world around you, your audience, your clowning partners and yourself. 231 In Seeley’s emphasis on the heightening of responsiveness to the world, there are also parallels to the reports of professionals in social work. The qualities of listening and empathy which were stressed in the context of the social professions have their pendant in relations to the non-human world: In Deep Ecology, we need to develop and refine our receptivity to the more than human world. (…)We need this degree of sensitivity when thinking about human activity and its effects on the planet. Deep ecologist Joanna Macy suggests that we are in a kind of mass denial of the harm that we are doing around us. This points to the importance of remaining sensitive to the consequences of our actions. Clowning demands that we address and live with this realisation. Macy proposes that we need to work in such a way that we can grieve and then move on into action again rather than get stuck in denial. 232 The connection established here between a heightened responsiveness to the world and taking positive action illuminates a central theme of both ecology and clowning. It is obvious that for professionals who are deeply involved in ecological issues, there are inherent dangers of being overwhelmed by frustration and despair. In a field where a heightened sense of creativity and energy are imperative, an attitude of resignation discourages imaginative and original thinking. She writes, It is vitally important that other perspectives are brought in. The whole field is full of people who are burnt-out, exhausted and over-worked. 233 Seeley’s research led her to believe that clowning and improvisation workshops, characterized by lightness, playfulness and humour, can play an important role in the field of deep ecology, offering an antidote to despair: Joy is vitally important in clowning. Clowns are incorrigible optimists in the face of all the tragedies that befall upon them. There is a need to encourage this kind of resilience, to support people in continuing to respond to desperate situations in joyful ways. So we act out what we can do to make this world more beautiful to live in. It is like being driven by love and not by fear. Scare tactics run the risk of setting us more 132 5 Discovering the Clown Within: Background to Clowning Courses with Vivian Gladwell <?page no="133"?> 234 Ibid., 5-6. rigidly in fear. (…) Clowning can bring deep ecology to life as a living experience, as a generative and creative response to the world. 234 Seeley sees clowning workshops for ecologists as a source for generating enthusiasm and involvement, as well as distance and humour. As will become clear in the next chapters, there are significant and far-ranging connections in this regard to the workshops for language teachers. 133 5.4 Clowning and Deep Ecology <?page no="135"?> 6 Clowning Workshops for Language Teachers with Vivian Gladwell 6.1 The General Structure of the Workshops A week-long, (or weekend) clowning workshop with Vivian Gladwell usually has between 10-15 participants. Each session, generally lasting three hours, is structured into three phases: I Physical and Vocal Warm-ups (30-60 minutes) II Play and Games (30-60 minutes) III Improvisations (60-90 minutes) and feedback (5-10 minutes after each improvisa‐ tion) 6.2 The Warm-Ups The framework of the warm-ups is designed to include a variety of exercises awakening, sensitizing and developing three areas - body movement and aware‐ ness, breath and voice. For professionals in the performing arts, actors, singers, clowns, etc., such exercises constitute an essential and recurring element of both their entire training and their daily routines. In the context of a workshop for teachers, all of these areas can also be viewed as potentially relevant. Particularly for non-professionals, the warm-ups serve the equally vital function of helping participants to relax and open up, creating the physical, emotional and mental basis essential to overcoming internal barriers and enabling them to connect to those parts of themselves which will be called on in artistic and imaginative work of this kind. 6.2.1 The Opening Warm-Ups The first warm-ups often focus on moving around and exploring the room. Everyone walks around, gradually becoming more aware of the space and of each other. A variety of possibilities in the room are then introduced as variations. For example, the group is asked to try to avoid large empty spaces or clusters of people; everyone is walking through the room and continually <?page no="136"?> aware of the task of having the group spread out equally through the room. In a further variation, different objects and/ or details in the room should be noticed, focused on and approached. The next step may be that the perceived object evokes appropriate sounds from the participants and can be spoken to. These objects are then imagined as being very important and are thus shown to as many of the other participants as possible. In another variation of this opening sequence, the participants are asked to become visible to all the others through establishing brief eye contact with each member of the group, while walking around the room. He explains what he is trying to achieve with these first exercises: The objectives of a warm-up with a new group will be different from those of an experienced group. In a new group your objective is to gently ease people into the work. You do lots of short games and very easy tasks such as walking and looking at things. People don’t know each other and don’t know you. So the purpose is to create an atmosphere of playfulness and to ease people gently into the work. (Interview 2) As becomes evident in the participants’ responses, these first warm-ups are generally considered to be both enjoyable and instrumental in establishing a basis for the work. However, there is also clearly a degree of embarrassment present for some participants. In some cases, these exercises were also found to be very challenging particularly with respect to those variations in which they had to use their voices, for example, while making odd sounds in ‘commu‐ nicating’ with objects in the room, and/ or in those exercises requiring brief eye contact with others. A number of participants reported both during the workshops and afterwards that they felt quite self-conscious at those points. In this context it becomes clear that although, on the one hand, he is very concerned to “ease people gently into the work”, on the other hand, he also considers it essential to establish certain ‘rules of clowning’ from the very beginning - even when the introduction of these rules may lead to a certain amount of discomfort: When starting with a new group you need to establish the basic rules of clowning. Some of these rules are not easy for people. For example, using eye contact or your voice is difficult because these are things that profoundly reveal who you are. It touches the intimate or private side of ourselves. Your voice is what makes you emotionally very visible. If you are shy, you don’t speak out, you don’t make yourself visible. Eye contact and voice are key elements that you will need on stage to become visible. They are not comfortable, but they are theatrically essential because theatre is about making yourself visible. Eye contact is to establish your connection with an audience and voice is to amplify your emotional life. These are the two basic ingredients of clowning. (Interview 2) 136 6 Clowning Workshops for Language Teachers with Vivian Gladwell <?page no="137"?> In fact, these feelings of being uncomfortable and then being able to express this discomfort become a vital part of the entire process. He considers this recognition that it is acceptable to feel self-conscious and embarrassed to be a crucial step for participants. This implies that participants begin to realize that the essential element of clowning is not about ‘getting something right’, but about how they feel while doing an exercise: It is very important that they feel that it is OK to feel self-conscious and that I am not asking them to feel relaxed in this work. The objectives of the warm-ups and games are not about doing them correctly. Some participants ask me if they could do an exercise again so that they might get it right the second time round. But for me, it’s not about getting it right or wrong. It’s about knowing how it went. That’s why I always try and bring out from the group the wide range of different feelings and ways of experiencing the work. Feeling embarrassed, or stupid is OK. It’s just one aspect of the work. It’s not the exercise that is important, but how people feel while doing the exercise. For the clowning it is important to establish this as a principle within the group. (Interview 2) In this context, the essential role of personal feedback which participants and Gladwell give each other and which goes through all the phases of a clowning workshop, already becomes evident in the initial warm-ups. Although it is only in the third phase that there are carefully structured feedback sessions, from the very beginning participants are continually encouraged to express how they felt about each exercise. The recognition, admission and expression of all types of feelings within the group is a significant aspect of the entire process that occurs within a clowning workshop. The fact that a non-threatening and non-judgemental environment is created in which people are encouraged to own up to ‘difficult’ feelings was also considered by participants to be a highly significant part of the entire process. Yet, more than that, the expression of such feelings is a critical dimension present in the art of clowning itself: In clowning, showing how you feel is what it’s about. So the audience wants to see you not only doing your job, in other words being on stage, but also being totally transparent in your emotions. If you feel awful or just want to get off the stage, you show that. When someone wants to go off stage, I often say just stay a little bit longer. That’s not because they don’t have the right to go off the stage but it is actually interesting to see someone wanting to go out, rather then to see someone going out. Wanting to go out can last five minutes and it can be extremely funny. It’s not funny to see someone going out. (Interview 2) 137 6.2 The Warm-Ups <?page no="138"?> 6.2.2 Breath In the warm-ups there is a particular attention placed on breath. This corre‐ sponds, of course, to many theatrical warm-ups where the control of breathing, particularly in regard to all aspects of voice range and projection plays a central role in training and also in the context of daily exercises. When working with non-professionals, developing a heightened awareness of breath and breathing has different qualities. First, in comparison to the actor who is very well aware of the existential importance of breathing for her work, teachers often need to develop a general awareness of the significance of breath with respect to emotional behaviour and expression: Breath is linked to the voice and to emotions. When you are tense you tend not to breathe. Of course, you do breathe, but there is a difference between shallow breath and deep breath. Deep breath moves you closer to your emotions whereas shallow breathing is just physiological because you need to breathe to live. When you are restricting your breath, you tend to get tired more quickly. By inviting you to breathe, it opens you to revealing your emotions. (Interview 2) Developing an awareness of the difference between shallow breathing and deep breathing, first during the warm ups and games and later in the improvisations, becomes a recurring theme in the workshops. Gladwell’s constant injunction during the work - ‘Breathe’ - often provides a moment of necessary release for highly concentrated and sometimes very preoccupied participants: I often point out to teachers that the way they breathe will affect their classroom. Your breath shows what you are feeling but you are not usually aware of that. By saying, ‘Breathe’ I am saying, ‘Be aware of what your breath is telling you about your feelings and express that.’ When I say to someone, ‘Breathe’ it is always an indication that an emotion is not given its full expression. If you think about it, when you are holding your breath you are usually tense. But in clowning you shouldn’t withhold the expression of that tenseness, you are allowed to be tense, so release your breath, give full expression to your tenseness … If someone holds their breath, it tells me that they are putting effort into holding back what they are feeling. The best way I know of getting someone to be emotionally present to themselves is to say, ‘Breathe’ (Interview 2) 6.2.3 Massage Another element in the warm-ups which is usually introduced only on the third day of the workshops is massage. He demonstrates specific massage techniques 138 6 Clowning Workshops for Language Teachers with Vivian Gladwell <?page no="139"?> in which one person is sitting on a chair and the other massages him for about five to seven minutes. In pairs, participants then give these massages to each other. For many participants this is a wholly welcomed exercise and is enthusiastically requested on the following days. For others, however, this exercise requires another overcoming of inner barriers. As before, there is a gentle insistence in his manner which makes clear that overcoming such personal borders can be a very worthwhile process, even if it may involve feelings of discomfort and embarrassment. Once again, the expression of those kinds of feelings becomes a decisive element in the entire process. As with eye contact, physical proximity and touching is part of a social language that defines our relationship to others and reveals our feelings and emotions. Not everybody likes massages and I respect that. But I hope that by the third day, participants trust sufficiently the work to be able to express the discomfort they might feel around any particular exercise. I am constantly saying, “If you don’t feel OK about something please express that. You need to learn to make the work safe for yourself by informing your partner… The important thing is to connect to the feelings (good or bad) that it generates and encourage a culture where everyone is able to say, this feels good or this doesn’t feel good. What you feel about something will always teach you something. (Interview 2) 6.2.4 The Warm-Ups as an Inner and Group Process The warm-up phase lasting between 30 to 60 minutes is the necessary prelude to the games and improvisations that follow. It is inconceivable to imagine how one could enter into the activities that follow without being ‘warmed-up’ in the different senses of that term. However, these exercises clearly have a purpose and value which go past their functional and sequential role in each session. As is evident from the feedback of the participants, a range of feelings is awakened. There is undoubtedly a strong physical/ physiological component to this preliminary work as many of these exercises involve movement. Yet, although this making the body more flexible and responsive is an important aspect of this phase, what happens to the participants and within the group goes well beyond this. It is in the awakening or establishing of inner connections between one’s ‘self ’ and one’s physical being that the most substantial links occur and, paradoxically, this highly internal and personal process is also dependent on what is happening within the group. In an atmosphere of play and trust, the gesture of reaching out and connecting to others, a basic and primal emotional need, is being encouraged and facilitated. As will become evident, this process 139 6.2 The Warm-Ups <?page no="140"?> is intimately tied to the art of clowning itself, but, at this point, the emphasis is not on art but on creating a sense of freedom and authenticity: The physical warm-ups are to do with connecting to your inner life and not necessarily with how you are going to give expression to that. At this stage the concern is not with the artistic process. It is an inner journey with feelings and thoughts coming up. (…) This sensitivity to your inner life is important. I have previously mentioned authenticity. Authenticity is not a technique. It comes from connecting to your inner life which at first has nothing to do with expressing yourself. Then, you are invited to become aware of these feelings and thoughts and to give expression to them. That leads you on to the next stage. (Interview 2) 6.3 Games and Play Although there are many elements in the first phase which are carried over to the second phase, particularly the general atmosphere of playfulness and lightness, there are also significant differences. As in all games, rules are established, although some games may involve the breaking of those very rules. All the different types of games in this phase involve different kinds of relationships - negotiating and collaborating, listening to others and empathizing with them. In many of the games, particularly towards the end of this phase, there is a strong element of imagination present - entering into roles and/ or developing stories. The games are played with a partner, in small groups, or with everyone together. 6.3.1 Games of Imitation and Mirroring The first games usually involve different forms of imitation. The game ‘Si‐ multaneous Leader’ requires a group of four people facing one another to simultaneously imitate each other’s gestures and sounds. There should be no clear leader, but rather the role of the ‘impulse giver’ should be equally shared by everyone. Thus, the continual changing back and forth between self-initiated activities and imitating another requires a high degree of concentration and observation. Trying to achieve the highest level of synchronicity of movement and sound while at the same time trying to maintain an equality of ‘leadership’ between the members of the group creates an intense awareness of what is happening in those moments, generally precluding conscious filtering, judging or even thinking. At a later stage of the game one group may go out and ‘encounter’ another group - each group still imitating each other while reacting 140 6 Clowning Workshops for Language Teachers with Vivian Gladwell <?page no="141"?> at the same time to the others, thus adding significantly to the complexity of the task. (The results are generally very humorous! ) For Gladwell, the process of imitation is a fundamental human capability: There is something fundamental about imitation that I still find very mysterious. Imitation practices empathy. I believe imitation also tells us something important about how we negotiate our identity in the world. I believe we exist in resonance with others around us. We only truly become ourselves when we are able to become like others. Our ability to become other people makes us better at being ourselves. (Interview 2) There is no doubt that the imitative capabilities of children are the basis of essential social and developmental processes. However, for adults to re-enter fully into this process of imitation often requires making a step into a now unfamiliar territory. During this process behaviour is no longer governed by the conscious mind, but is dependent solely on seeing, listening and unconsciously following: As adults we learn to withdraw and hold back how we act in the world which is a good idea if you don’t want to get into trouble. But imitation invites you just to mirror the other and not to judge or filter. You move out of the head into doing. This capacity to imitate practices seeing the world from the other’s point of view. You get to experience the world as the other experiences it and not through your intellectual understanding of the other’s experience. Clowning invites you to see the world through empathy and not through understanding. (Interview 2) At first glance it might appear that the capacity for imitation would not be a decisive element in the context of a workshop on improvisation. However, in Gladwell’s understanding of the different possibilities and qualities inherent in imitation, it becomes evident that there are deep connections between these processes. Just as the child’s imitation is never superficial or mechanical, but a complete and unconscious ‘going with’ the other, the adult also has the possibility of trying to replicate the entire movements, emotions and breathing of someone else. It is not just about doing what the other is doing, but about being alive to the richness of the other. The continual back and forth of leading and imitating in the group demands a heightened awareness and sensitivity to the moment. The sense of presence which this requires is the most essential element in all improvisational work: In imitation you are constantly struggling between two polarities. On the one hand you have the rule, i. e. you have to imitate and repeat what others are doing. On the other hand, you need to find your way of being alive and present in that structure. 141 6.3 Games and Play <?page no="142"?> That calls for transformation, for change, for evolution. If you just copy what the other is doing and are not somehow living through the form then the games dies. (…) The stated aim of the imitation game should not blind you from seeing that there are differences and transformations; that is what brings life and presence to the game. (Interview 3) Unsurprisingly, the exercise (Simultaneous Leader) works better for some par‐ ticipants and for some groups than for others. In the short feedback exchanges afterwards, sometimes people say that they felt that they were not being heard or seen by the others and that all they did was imitate. Another problem that can occur in this exercise is that the imitation can become mechanical and lose energy and interest: One of the big problems you come up against with imitation is when a group goes into a rhythmical pattern. Rhythm and repetition is great as long as you remain present and alive in the structure. The problems start when you are not listening for transformation and change. With rhythm, you could easily be misled into thinking that what happened before, will be what happens after. That is what repetition is by definition. But it never is - not in this game anyway. And when you start thinking you know what will happen next, you stop listening to what is happening now. (Interview 3) This distinction between organic imitation and mechanical imitation is some‐ thing which is not only experienced by the members of the group, but is also quite visible for an observer. 6.3.2 Games of Playful Confusion The atmosphere which is present through this entire phase of ‘games and play’ is one of lightness and humour. This can take very different forms. In its most chaotic and energized form it can involve participants running through the room trying to catch each other - very much like children. One game which invariably evokes this type of playfulness is the game of Cat and Mouse. In this game, pairs are spread out throughout the entire room, facing each with their arms outstretched and their palms touching over their heads. At the same time there is one person who is the ‘cat’ running through the room and chasing another person who is the ‘mouse’. If the cat manages to catch the mouse by touching it on its back they immediately reverse their roles -, the cat then becomes the mouse and the mouse becomes the cat. The only safe place for the mouse to hide is to run to one of the pairs standing around the room and stand between them. At this moment, the mouse immediately becomes one of the people standing, 142 6 Clowning Workshops for Language Teachers with Vivian Gladwell <?page no="143"?> while the person whose place he has taken suddenly becomes the cat who then chases the person who was previously the cat and who is now transformed from the cat into the mouse. Exactly that last immediate transformation from ‘hunter to the hunted’ can often be a source of utter confusion. He explains the rationale for such a form of ‘child’s play’: This game belongs to a small range of games we use to create an atmosphere of playful confusion. It isn’t very central to our pedagogy, but I like this game because it says something about how we lose and win and about our flexibility in changing our identity. You say that there is a lot of running but it is actually more interesting to do this game in slow motion …I n slow motion it becomes about how you are going to play at being the cat and the mouse, how you are going to change from one to the other and how you play at losing, at being caught. The game is totally stress-free because by being caught, you win and become the cat. By losing you win, which is great for clowning. (Interview 3) 6.3.3 Games of Listening and Perceiving These are games which involve a heightened awareness of listening and perceiving. They require a high level of awareness and trust in one’s partner, requiring each participant in turn, to let go and just follow the other. Despite their differences, each of these different games has strong elements of giving and receiving. In Blind Walk, half the participants close their eyes and walk wherever they want and at whatever speed they want, while being ‘navigated’ through the room by their seeing partners. Depending on the number of people in the group, the varying speeds of the different pairs and the size of the room this game can sometimes become very challenging for the ‘seeing half ’ of each pair who is responsible for avoiding all types of collisions. For the ‘blind’ participant, the sensation of wandering freely throughout a room without seeing anything, wholly dependent on being led by a partner who is intently watching out that no one will get hurt, calls for and creates a deep level of trust. When done to music it is called Guardian Angel and creates the feeling of dancing freely with one’s eyes closed. The partners then change roles and afterwards there is a brief feedback exchange between them. For the game Pivot Dance music is required. The range of music used is relatively broad, from dance music such as tangos to calmer and more lyrical music. The rule is that at the moment when your partner stops dancing, you then start dancing. The structure of the Pivot Dance invites you to do nothing while your partner is dancing except to watch her and wait until she finishes her turn. This back and forth can last any period of time, i. e. there are both 143 6.3 Games and Play <?page no="144"?> short and long sequences in which one or the other is dancing. This exercise is generally one of the most popular of all the games during the workshops, and it is a very beautiful exercise to watch as one can often see how in the developing relation of the dance of one person to the dance of the other a unified whole can emerge, although all is improvised in the moment. This game can be done either simultaneously by half the group while the other half watches, or, at a more advanced level, by pairs doing this in front of the others: I love the Pivot Dance because it has a very poetic dimension. This dance is about receiving and giving … Beginner improvisers often feel they need to come up with good ideas or be funny. This structure invites you to do nothing until your partner finishes her turn. The stress of feeling you need to come up with something often stops you from seeing what your partner is doing, or from receiving the world. Through this structure you get to realize that what makes good stories has nothing to do with coming up with good ideas. It’s more to do with how you receive the world that is going to make stories happen. So it’s not about what you do, but about how you receive what is happening around you. That creates a profound shift in how to understand improvisation. Up to that point you could be forgiven for thinking that the success of an improvisation depended on what you did. And here, you get these very moving stories and relationships that appear not so much from what you do, but from the space you give to your partner. (Interview 3 ) 6.3.4 Word Games: Creating Stories These games are intended to create narratives and are based on the imaginative possibilities within a group of spontaneously creating stories together, either in pairs or in a group. In the group stories, every member of the group contributes something to the creation and further development of a collective story, sequentially adding an element, either a sound, word, or a sentence. This game requires listening closely, following the direction of the developing story and responding quickly to the contribution of the person who has just spoken. Since the story often takes unexpected directions, all forms of thinking ahead become a hindrance rather than a help to the spontaneous and organic creation of the narrative. Both the individual imagination as well as a ‘collective imagination’ are thus called into play. Another game belonging to this type of work is The Mime and the Storyteller in which one person is the mime and the other is the storyteller. The storyteller looks at the mime and tells the story she thinks she is seeing. It often happens then that the told story is quite different than was intended, in which case the mime has to go along with these new developments. These kinds of games 144 6 Clowning Workshops for Language Teachers with Vivian Gladwell <?page no="145"?> involve a constant ‘sharing and shifting of power’ in the creation of each part of the story. 6.3.5 The End of the Second Phase By the end of the second phase, having completed an entire series of warm-ups and played a number of different games, participants usually experience themselves and the group in a fundamentally different manner. A sense of understanding and trust has been developed and this is clearly reflected in the atmosphere which is present. At the same time, the necessary basis has been created for what is to follow: The warm-ups establish a basic set of rules that not everyone understands straight away. You are building a language or understanding around emotional presence and authenticity which you hope participants will carry on stage. All the warm-ups and games basically prepare you to focus not on what you have to do, but on giving expression to your feelings. So feeling shy, stupid or embarrassed or not knowing what to do when you are on stage gradually becomes o. k. (Interview 4) For participants taking the workshop for the first time, the significance of having learned to accept embarrassment and insecurity only becomes fully apparent in the next phase. 6.4 The First Improvisations The improvisations can be considered to be the heart of the clowning work‐ shops. Certainly, all previous activities build up to them and the choice of warm-ups and games are thematically linked to the specific improvisatory structures which will follow in that particular workshop. With the beginning of the improvisations a clear line is delineated between all previous partner and group activities and the following solo and group performances. Until this point, the exercises and games were done with the others; either in pairs, or in groups, and generally simultaneously. Although there are some elements of performance which can be found in some of the warm-ups and the games, most notably in the pivot dance, the feedback indicated that this was not generally experienced as such, probably because at least half the group was generally doing the activities at the same time. Moreover, since there was a strong focus placed on the presence and contributions of the others, there was generally a concurrent lack of self-consciousness. 145 6.4 The First Improvisations <?page no="146"?> However, even the simplest introductory exercise with which the solo-im‐ provisations begin evokes all the qualities and feelings associated with per‐ forming alone before a waiting and expectant audience. In the course of increas‐ ingly complex improvisations, this basic framework remains. In reviewing the feedback letters from the participants, this demarcation line between the first part of the workshops with the warm-ups and games and the second part with the improvisations was clearly experienced by the participants. Whereas only some participants experienced fears and anxieties in regard to the first phases, nearly all described different types of fears with respect to their initial improvisations. There are central rules underlying all the improvisation exercises. The golden rule of improvisation is not to prepare or plan anything before coming on stage. At first, this rule invariably frightens people and seems to them like a certain recipe for disaster. What only becomes clear for the participants during the process itself is that it is exactly this absence of planning which opens them up to be more receptive and to listen to what is actually happening on stage. Moreover, this rule is inextricably connected to the very nature of clowning for it is more important to see how the clown ‘lives’ than to see the clown actually do something: It is an invitation to do something that feels totally counter-intuitive to any normal people - that is to come on stage and not plan what you are going to do or come with an idea, but to wait until something happens - not to make it happen, but to wait until it happens. The thought is terrifying and totally weird. (Interview 4) A second essential rule is to look at the audience. This is what grounds the clown in the reality of the here and now. It establishes that unique and fragile relationship between the clown and the audience which is based on transparency and is thus dependent on eye contact. It creates a feeling of a kind of immediate complicity between the clown and audience which is one of the significant distinctions between clowning and acting: Clowning invites you to look at your audience and makes that relationship very visible and explicit. Because clowning is about being emotionally transparent, we get to see how the actor feels about the role he or she is playing. In clowning, we know whether the clown is enjoying playing the role of a king. In the theatre, the actor isn’t also telling us how they feel about their role. They have to be the role. In a way, clowns are ham actors. If, for example, they play a death scene, their eye contact with the audience will tell us they are playing at dying. If they did that as actors, they would be considered to be very bad actors. (Interview 7) 146 6 Clowning Workshops for Language Teachers with Vivian Gladwell <?page no="147"?> The third rule of improvisation is not to touch, remove, or refer to the clown’s red nose. The nose has been called the smallest mask in the world. It clearly defines the character of the clown and thus protects and transforms the person behind the nose. The audience sees the person first of all as a clown: You cannot touch it, look at it, point to it, or talk about it. Don’t take it off - it’s part of you. Never say this sentence, “I’m a clown, Hello” because you never know who you are. This is the only taboo in clowning. (Vivian at the English Week Workshop, 2004) 6.4.1 An Introductory Exercise: Entering the Stage and Encountering an Object The first exercise is a kind of transition to the actual improvisations. In this exercise, there are still no costumes and no red nose. The improvisation requires one to come on stage, look at the audience, go to the object in the middle of the stage, (usually something like a blanket, or an article of clothing), do one thing with it and then exit the stage. The essential rule is that one should make absolutely no plans beforehand regarding what one will do and ‘simply’ wait till the moment itself and then ‘respond’ to the object and the situation. This seemingly innocuous exercise often generates feelings of terror. The reason is apparent: for the first time one has to go out and do something alone in front of the whole group and one is being asked to have no idea of what that will be. In their responses to my research inquiry, most of the participants refer to their intense initial fears and subsequent feelings of release during this short introductory exercise, some in striking detail. 6.4.2 The Solo-Improvisation The next step is the solo improvisation. Each participant in turn leaves the room, puts together a costume from the large array of odd jackets, pants, skirts, shirts and hats which Gladwell has assembled in an adjoining room, puts on the red nose and comes back into the room, which has now taken on all the qualities of a stage with the rest of the group as the waiting audience. In contrast to the great care he has shown in easing the participants into the work until this point, his decision to begin with a solo improvisation as opposed to beginning with less terrifying partner work seems at first somewhat inexplicable. In one of the interviews he explains the rationale behind this choice: 147 6.4 The First Improvisations <?page no="148"?> If you started by improvising with a partner, you could easily get the wrong idea about clowning improvisation because a partner would fill the emptiness. It is important for someone starting in this work to connect to what is at the core of clowning which is something around space, emptiness and presence. (…) If the focus of our interest is the emotional state, then being lost, not knowing what to do is interesting. Out of that experience comes the realization that you don’t have to do anything and that it’s more interesting to see you not knowing what to do, rather than you doing something. If you had a partner, you could easily bypass that process of confronting your emptiness. (Interview 5) In these first improvisations Gladwell plays a very supportive role, often speaking to the actor, encouraging him or her to look at the audience, to breathe, to trust that what is happening is fine and to stay with that moment. Quite often it is his positive support at those moments that enables the participant to stay with those moments of being lost, of being afraid, and in the clown’s visibly living out those emotions on stage, something very humorous and often very poignant becomes visible to everyone. A space has been created in which a feeling of being completely uncertain and vulnerable becomes not only acceptable, but through the support and usually the laughter of Gladwell and the other participants this initial feeling becomes transformed. Quite often a story begins to unfold which gathers imaginative momentum and energy, surprising everyone, not least the clown himself: The ability to hold and make safe a space that is quite frightening is an important aspect of teaching this work. I trust this space and hope that I can communicate this trust to others. My experience tells me that it is OK for a clown not to know what to do on stage and to be lost. But it won’t feel OK, if you’re on stage feeling terrified and thinking you have to do something. Of course, what I see is a terrified clown desperately trying to think what to do and I let you know that, so you might start playing at being terrified. But if you are just terrified and you can’t play at being terrified, it won’t feel OK for you, even if I reassure you that it is OK. The difference is subtle but tangible and you see it in the eyes, which is why eye contact is so important. Once someone’s focus is not on what has to happen, but on what is being lived, they start to enjoy those feelings. (Interview 5) After a while Gladwell rings his little bell, which is the previously established signal that an improvisation should now slowly be coming to its end and the clown should seek an opportunity for an appropriate exit from the stage. 148 6 Clowning Workshops for Language Teachers with Vivian Gladwell <?page no="149"?> 6.4.3 Feedback Sessions after the Improvisations It is an essential aspect of all his work that participants are encouraged to report how they felt about different exercises, games etc. However, in contrast to these more informal and voluntary opportunities in the first phases, after each improvisation there is a structured feedback session in which after dispensing with costume and nose the participant comes back into the room and sits on a chair facing the group. The feedback sessions generally last about five to ten minutes. The object is to clarify what went on during the improvisation and to speak of the difficulties and highlights. The purpose is also to initiate reflection on possible parallels between the improvisation and the personal concerns that participants have had. He first asks the clown to describe how he or she felt. Afterwards, responses from the other participants are solicited and at the end Gladwell comments too. The responses are invariably supportive and appreciative; particular moments and highlights are singled out. In the four workshops I have attended I have never experienced anyone being negative or critical and in the one instance when a participant wanted to offer some suggestions as to what he could have done at a certain point, Gladwell asked people to refrain from making technical suggestions in order to “protect the feedback space.” As becomes apparent in a number of the responses to the research inquiry, the quality of these feedback sessions and in particular the supportive and insightful nature of his comments were considered to be a crucial part of the entire workshop. Frequently, participants at first remember very little about what actually happened while they were on stage: Your first experience of the stage is often a total blank. Something important which the feedback does is to gently take you through the impro and remind you what happened. (Interview 6) A key element in the feedback is also the reassurance that those moments ex‐ perienced by the clown as moments of total helplessness were often considered to be the most humorous and moving moments in the improvisation. In this context the significance of being connected to the audience through eye contact is again made very apparent not only to the person receiving the feedback, but to all the other participants who have just observed this: If you have never done this before, it is very difficult to believe that your confusion can be enjoyable to watch. That could sound cruel, but it is only when you give us your permission to enjoy your confusion that it becomes enjoyable for us to watch. The way you give this permission is when you look at the audience. If you look at 149 6.4 The First Improvisations <?page no="150"?> the audience, it establishes the link that will enable you to realize that being lost is not such a bad thing to be for now. In fact, your audience seems captivated even though you can’t see why they should be….The only way you can move forward with clowning is by becoming aware of how people see you. (Interview 6) 6.4.4 Partner Improvisations The solo-improvisations are followed by different types of improvisations in pairs, or sometimes in groups of three. A common initial exercise in this vein is the ‘One+One’ improvisation where two clowns encounter each other on stage. Two participants leave the room and put on their costumes and noses. Needless to say, the participants do not make plans, or come up with ideas beforehand. Then one comes out first and begins to ‘live out his life’ until Gladwell suddenly rings his bell which is the signal for the second clown to appear. When the second clown enters, without having any idea of what the first clown has been doing the entire time, i. e. what ‘story’ has been developing, both then have to spontaneously and creatively deal with their unexpected and unplanned ‘meeting.’ While having someone to share the stage with clearly has its advantages in terms of reducing nervousness, it also presents a variety of new challenges and requires a very different type of awareness than in the solo-improvisation. Trying to simultaneously meet the challenges of being receptive to a partner, while being one’s own character, while developing a relationship and a common story in that very moment, while maintaining eye contact with the audience can be a very confusing, not to say overwhelming experience: When you have a partner on stage you come up against a whole new set of problems to do with listening and communicating. Does your partner understand what you understand? Do you both share the same perception of where you are and who you are? What is often difficult to realize at this stage is that it matters little whether your impro works or not - in other words whether you both actually know what you are doing. What matters more is how you listen and communicate with each other - and negotiate your misunderstandings. (…) How do you live your life on stage? What do you do when you realize your partner has not the same misunderstanding? It’s hard enough relating to your partner; you also shouldn’t forget the audience and you need to get a sense of the story that is unfolding. You easily get lost in it all. (Interview 6) What becomes increasingly clear to the participants in the course of this work is that this feeling of ‘being lost’, of having problems, can offer the most poignant and enjoyable moments, if lived out fully. A line that Gladwell constantly repeats 150 6 Clowning Workshops for Language Teachers with Vivian Gladwell <?page no="151"?> during these improvisations is, “Stay with the problem”. Those improvisations that become most enjoyable to watch are often those in which the clowns’ living together on stage with a single problem becomes the fulcrum on which an entire story seems to hinge. Living with the problem, learning to enjoy the problem, is an essential element of clowning and an aspect which constantly recurs in the feedback letters. A related experience has to do with the unexpected ‘accidents’ that often seem to occur during the improvisations. Watching how the clown or clowns spontaneously respond to such accidents can become a highlight of an entire improvisation. Both the feedback in the workshops as well as the written responses to the research inquiry make clear that this learning ‘to enjoy a problem’, ‘to be glad about the accidents’ was a completely new and liberating feeling for many participants, which often led to sustained personal reflections about their attitudes towards teaching and life. 6.4.5 Exercises in Groups of Three or More After the first solo improvisations and the improvisations in pairs, the next step to larger groups of three is, in comparison, a relatively small and manageable one. At this point, new structures are involved. For the first time there is a clear theme and structure given to the improvisation within which the participants are improvising together. The improvisation called The Siamese Twins bears clear relations to the imitation exercises in the warm-ups and to the partner improvisations insofar as two participants who come into the room one after the other suddenly discover that they’re doing exactly the same things. Trying to imitate the other without knowing or planning what is going to happen next clearly presents a number of challenges and problems, all very much in the spirit of clowning. After a few minutes of the twins attempting to deal with their ‘sameness’, a third participant who does not know that they will be there, enters the stage - in turn surprising the ‘twins’. The discovery of the others creates very rich possibilities for living through and enjoying the manifold problems which emerge. The improvisation Theatrical Audition is also often done with three partici‐ pants and involves Gladwell directly in the task as a kind of participant/ facili‐ tator. Three clowns present themselves as a company of actors auditioning for a director/ producer (Gladwell). This theme allows for the theatrical convention of ‘the play within a play’. However, through their eye contact with the audience, along with the fact that they actually have no idea what play they are auditioning with, this exercise clearly remains within the domain of clowning. That Gladwell 151 6.4 The First Improvisations <?page no="152"?> as the producer has a vast repertoire of appropriate problems and difficulties for this troupe of actors also adds a great deal to the dynamics, energy and humour of this situation. 6.5 The End of the Workshops There are two kinds of endings to the workshops. The one that always occurs involves sitting around in a circle for about 15-20 minutes and being given the opportunity to say something briefly to each other and to Gladwell. (There are also anonymous feedback sheets handed in at the end of each English Week). In contrast to the many lengthier letters which I was later to receive from participants, the verbal feedback given at the end of the workshops I attended was generally quite short. (In the English Week workshops, this last session occurs the morning after a very late social evening, so there is often a general feeling of fatigue.) The following comments, taken verbatim from the participants at the end of the English Week 2004, are also representative of statements which I heard at the end of the other workshops I attended: I’m the one who has to have plans. I got the experience that it was OK for me not to have plans. It was completely liberating for me. It was great! It was new for me going into the empty space, trusting something will happen. Living in the present. Going out with nothing. I’ve learned to bear the eye contact with the audience. They’re watching you and you have to bear it. We have grown into a big family in such a short time. You guided us so gently. The most important thing is that nothing can go wrong. I liked the lightness. It was astonishing to see in what a short time such developments took place. Clowning for me is the moment of truth. Having the feeling you don’t have borders. Also being yourself and everybody else at the same time. Not really paying attention. I’ll take everything with me and enjoy all the moments of remembering our work. Somehow strange. It was very touching for me. It’s nice to be on stage. It felt good. Afterwards, it will be hard to do it again. I loved all these games when everybody’s doing it - but to do it alone… The second ‘ending’ which does not necessarily occur in all of his courses, but which is a mainstay of his English Week courses, is the final solo improvised performance in front of the entire conference. In the final plenary session of the English Week, all the different artistic groups usually present excerpts from 152 6 Clowning Workshops for Language Teachers with Vivian Gladwell <?page no="153"?> their work, which may include dramatic scenes, poetry readings, and group or individual stories. A number of new participants confided to me that if they had known at the beginning of the week that they were going to have to improvise alone in front of an entire conference with more than a hundred fellow English teachers, they would have immediately switched groups! Some participants who had been to previous English Weeks and knew that this was going to happen wrote that it was often their fear of having to do this that had made it so difficult for them to join the clowning group until this point, despite the fact that they had very much enjoyed seeing others doing this final performance in previous years. Each participant in the clowning group does a simple crossing. Entering from the sides of the large plenum room, initially hidden behind large screens, each clown with his or her own chosen costume and red nose crosses individually in front of the entire room just walking from one side to the other; having by this time learned that the only way to be sure that something interesting will happen along their way is to not have the slightest idea beforehand of what this something could possibly be. 153 6.5 The End of the Workshops <?page no="155"?> 235 In order to guarantee the anonymity of the respondents when quoting what they wrote, I have adopted a coding system using initials. As it is relevant to know when the participants took a course (or courses), and in what context, I have included this information along with indicating their gender as (m) or (f). 7 Responses to the Research Inquiry 7.1 Feedback Responses: Breakdown According to Course From the total of 122 participants who had been approached, there were 55 responses to the research inquiries. 235 Participants had taken clowning courses within the frameworks of the following programs: English Week (1997-2005) 62 inquiries, 29 responses Baltic Seminar (2003) 28 inquiries, 11 responses English Fortnight (1999, 2000) 22 inquiries,10 responses Witten Seminar 2005 10 inquiries, 3 responses Witten Seminar 2003 1 response Schloss Hamborn 2000 1 response 7.1.1 Breakdown of Responses According to Gender 44 women and 11 men responded. This discrepancy reflects the substantially higher percentage of women who attended the courses. In the English Week, almost two thirds of the participants were women. In the Baltic Seminar there were 26 women and two men. In the English Fortnight of the 22 people who could be contacted, 19 were women. 7.1.2 Breakdown of Responses According to Country The breakdown of responses according to the country in which the teachers worked is as follows: English Week: Germany 25 Austria: 2 Switzerland 1 Japan: 1 <?page no="156"?> English Fortnight: Germany 4 Holland 2 Luxemburg 1 Japan 1 Israel 1 Sweden 1 Baltic Seminar Ukraine 2 Russia 2 Finland 2 Estonia 2 Latvia 1 Lithuania 1 Hungary 1 Witten Courses Germany 2 The Netherlands 1 Scotland 1 Schloss Hamborn 1998,1999 Germany 1 7.1.3 Summary In total, 122 former participants of Gladwell’s clowning courses were contacted either in person, by mail, or by e-mail. The total of 55 responses yields a response rate of 45 %. Considering the fact that the inquiry was not formulated as a questionnaire which could be quickly filled out, but as an open letter which, in most cases, led to far more sustained writing, this level of response is noteworthy. The possible reasons for this rate of responses will be discussed in Chapter 8 in the discussion and evaluation of what the participants wrote. 156 7 Responses to the Research Inquiry <?page no="157"?> 7.2 The Participants’ Responses 7.2.1 Expectations The initial idea of taking a clowning course as part of their in-service language teacher training often evoked mixed reactions. For those participants who had had no previous contact with Gladwell’s work, there were sometimes questions and doubts regarding the appropriateness of such courses in the context of their training. This was particularly the case in the Baltic Seminar where the clowning course was obligatory for everyone: When I heard for the first time that we were going to have clowning as an artistic course I thought: Is it an art? What should we have this course for? We are teachers. M.E. Baltic Seminar (f) Trying to guess before starting what it could be, I fancied it to be a sort of unserious playing. T.L. Baltic Seminar (f) When I first heard about CLOWNING as a Drama Workshop at the English Week I could not imagine that this subject had anything to do with my work as an English teacher. K. I English Week 2004 (f) Those participants at the English Week who had seen presentations of his groups at previous courses naturally approached clowning with a clearer understanding of what was expected. However, in some cases it was exactly this knowledge that became the cause of considerable trepidation: It took me a long time to pluck up the courage to attend Vivian’s clowning course because I felt one would be very exposed. P.M. English Week 2003 (f) It took me a bit of an effort to join the workshop, because after having seen the presentations of the previous years, I was convinced I’d never be able to do things like that. L.B. English Week 2004 (f) 7.2.2 Warm-Ups and Games From what the participants wrote, it becomes apparent that from the first session on, Gladwell seemed to be able to create an atmosphere which enabled all the participants to enter into unfamiliar and challenging exercises. The extensive warm-ups at the beginning of every session had very specific and vital functions: before the actual clowning and improvisations began, there was generally an hour of such preliminary exercises and games. Many participants specifically commented on them: 157 7.2 The Participants’ Responses <?page no="158"?> It was an extraordinary experience for me and I don’t quite know where to start. First of all I really, really enjoyed the exercises we did at the beginning of each session. They helped me to let go of some of my inhibitions towards others and to become more free to relate. This in itself was a very beautiful and liberating experience for me. It culminated in one of the last exercises we did where we were moving to this beautiful slow music of Vivaldi, our eyes closed and ‘kept safe’ by our “guardian angels”. It was a most beautiful feeling, almost like floating in space, at the same time feeling completely safe and cared for. I could have continued this exercise for a lot longer. B.U. English Week 2005 (f) The warm-up phases in his course showed me possibilities of practicing a different way of being with others and getting close to them. This reminded me of playful activities during my childhood and youth, in which fun, imagination and trust played a big role: for example, allowing yourself to be guided with your eyes closed, making contact with other participants through non-verbal actions, role-play, playfully massaging each other etc. L.A. English Week 2001 (f) At the beginning I felt very safe and relaxed, because we did a lot of warm up exercises-massage (that was great! ), dancing with closed eyes … I enjoyed it. I am sure that all people like hugs, touches, music, love … I felt that I am loved. These exercises opened me. G.M. Baltic Seminar (f) It was nice to fool around and learn to trust each other with all those exercises of being blind-folded etc. Vivian took great care to make it clear for us, that he does not want us to prepare any schemes or plans for performing. That was very odd. Just stepping onto nothing, onto emptiness. V.S. Baltic Seminar (f) Some participants specifically mentioned the decisive role that Gladwell had for them at the beginning of the work: But from the very first minute of Vivian’s presence one had the feeling of being accompanied by a good spirit. So all the exercises we did - although they required us to overcome certain inner obstacles - were a step on the way to free oneself from hesitation and inner burdens. L.B. English Week 2004 (f) At first I felt awkward having to participate in this, but I started anyway, as it was a regular element of the summer course. After the first session I felt quite all right and in the end I was really enthusiastic about it. I must say Vivian did very well and made us all feel very comfortable in the group and in doing these strange things we had to do. I would never have believed someone could make me play a square or a toy sword or whatever, but in the right setting I was able to do so. C.B. English Fortnight 2000 (f) I found it remarkable how quickly Vivian managed to create an atmosphere for all the participants in which one not only felt well, but also safe enough to try things 158 7 Responses to the Research Inquiry <?page no="159"?> out that one wouldn’t normally trust oneself to do. For me as a person and a teacher it was an extraordinary valuable experience to see how one can wholly captivate an “audience” when one is fully present. [vollkommen bei sich]. M.B. English Week 2005 (f) For two participants, these opening warm-ups which often involved non-verbal elements, presented particular challenges and difficulties: I can remember two problem-causing exercises especially well. In the first exercise we had to walk around in the room and when Vivian gave us a sign, we had to make eye contact with somebody and stay in it until another sign was given to continue moving. I found it extremely difficult to look into the other person’s eyes for more than 10 seconds. As soon as I realised this, I started working with making eye contact consciously. Another exercise, which caused deep depression at first, had to do with changing shape. One of the partners had to be square and the other a circle. The partners started moving towards each other and when meeting in the middle of the room, they gradually had to transform from one shape into the other. Both exercises had to do with meeting myself in another person and through this meeting my rigidity in the stereotypes imposed by the surrounding world and trying to overcome them. The most useful time for me was after the sessions because once I got the setback, I had to deal with it. I had to search in myself for the reasons and answers. L.K. Baltic Seminar (f) For me and the other participants it was a great challenge. Reacting or acting non-verbally is fundamentally harder. T.H English Week 1999 (f) 7.2.3 The Element of Play One of the hardest things to reproduce in any form of written report is the element of play which went through all the sessions I attended and observed. This playfulness was often reflected on one level in the frequent laughter, but it was also present on another level in the entire atmosphere of the workshops. It had different dimensions, both interpersonal in the increasingly playful manner of interaction among the group and intrapersonal in the sense that the participants so often seemed to be freeing something fundamental within themselves: Vivian’s workshops were like a breath of fresh air. Perceptive and humorous, sometimes a bit scary… Vivian directed us, ever so gently and politely and led us to self-discovery. Sounds grand, but it’s true. We tested ourselves, our capabilities in various exercises that 159 7.2 The Participants’ Responses <?page no="160"?> questioned our interaction with others, our abilities to co-operate, to share, to relay information in different ways, not just verbally. There was a sense of freedom in our workshops; freedom to explore what you see, feel, touch-sense etc. Sense of adventure - “What will today’s session bring? ” Once we had to walk towards an object in the room and make a sound - how strange, what fun. Sometimes the opportunity to be just ‘silly’ how un-inhibiting, what a release! E.L. English Fortnight 2000 (f) • permission to be playful again and discover the funny side of it! • finding or discovering a certain light-heartedness • discovering the clown within myself W. H. English Fortnight 2000 (f) What I can remember of the course with regard to Vivian’s part in it was that it made us all much more free in our social contacts, it opened us up. The practical work we did has in that sense influenced the readiness and open-mindedness we had at that time and could have during the other courses. K.B. English Fortnight 1999 (f) 7.2.4 The First Improvisations: Fears and Release The first improvisations usually involve an object such as a blanket lying on the floor which has to be picked up and ‘encountered’. As this is the first solo exercise in which the other participants then become the audience, it has a fundamentally different quality than the preceding warm-ups and games which were done by everyone simultaneously, with participants either working in pairs, small groups, or with everyone. Stepping over the drawn line of the stage and improvising alone became for each participant the first real plunge into what was often experienced as a lonely and terrifying ‘empty space’. One of the participants wrote a very detailed recollection of her feelings and recollections during this first exercise in which a blanket was used as the object: One of the first clowning exercises following a series of warm ups involves coming on stage where an object has been placed in the center. The task is to approach the object without planning anything beforehand and connect with the object. I step up to the stage. Stop. Wait. I feel stage fright, panic, and waves of anxiety. Slowly I turn to face the audience. I am struck with a bolt of expectation from the audience. I feel even more unnerved. I take a deep breath then face the audience again, my body no longer holding back the panic. I know I am all red and my palms are sweating. I start moving towards the object. Blank. No need to worry about preconceived ideas - my mind is blank. I look at the audience. They laugh. It doesn’t feel funny to me. I look down again at the object. Years are passing by. Don’t wait. Make contact with the object - gentle probing from Vivian our facilitator. I reach down and touch. Soft. 160 7 Responses to the Research Inquiry <?page no="161"?> Fuzzy. Heavy. Soothing. Comforting. Audience. I scrunch up under what is actually a piano cover. Wow. More comfort. Relief. Look at us. Look up. Snickers and giggles from the audience. I hold up my ‘blanky’ sheepishly and look at people’s sympathetic faces. I curl up a little tighter and enjoy the security. Remember to breathe. As I glance up, we all follow Vivian’s glance toward the other end of the stage. I hesitate, and then reluctantly move out from under the blanket and off the stage. Shortly afterwards, she begins to reflect on this experience: With some time to digest and watch the other participants inch, dance, crawl, slide or hurdle themselves across the stage and to see the object become a baby, mud, a bridal gown, the knot in my gut relaxes. With some laughs and supportive feedback, we all are a little more at ease with our initiatives on stage. As more time passes, I realize how long it has been since I felt so many raw emotions in the presence of other people. I see how the biggest challenge is to stay with the feelings, be present to what is going on, keep connecting to the audience and sharing what I am experiencing, and then to learn to be patient and wait for the object to speak to me. B. C. English Week 2003,2005 (f) The challenge and difficulty of this ‘letting go’ during each of the first improv‐ isation exercises, a renouncing of all preconceived plans, becoming completely open to what will develop, emerges as a critical theme appearing in almost all of the reports. For many participants, facing this initial challenge caused deep fears of what might happen, or more often of what might not happen. The entire passage of time before one’s improvisation began, then the first tentative steps onto the waiting stage - hoping for that unplanned and deeply sought ‘inspiration’ - became for many participants fearful and existential moments of confronting an emptiness in the room and within themselves. His injunction to trust that the object will ‘speak to you’, invariably remained only a theory until it was personally experienced; yet when this moment of ‘dialogue’ between the object and the participant actually occurred it often had the force of a revelation: Letting things simply happen without knowing what was happening was initially - and each time anew - accompanied by fears. Ultimately, other people were watching while I was fully exposed in that moment and had no idea what embarrassments were in store for me, or worse still - perhaps I had nothing to offer and would be standing in front of strangers (who were expecting something from me) and nothing was going to happen? ! These fears could only be overcome by confronting them. Bearing this moment and consciously waiting to see what it had to offer while I stepped over the line into an unknown and unplanned realm brought unexpected experiences: when I allowed 161 7.2 The Participants’ Responses <?page no="162"?> myself to enter into the exercise I became one with the situation and then I became inwardly calm and peaceful - something that three seconds earlier I had thought inconceivable. Through letting what that moment held for me simply happen, not only did acts occur, but also feelings associated with these acts that were unexpected and totally different from what I had felt only a few seconds earlier. Every time I stepped over that line a unique and ‘authentic’ interaction occurred between the things in the room (including smells, sounds and voices) and the way I dealt with them (both inwardly and outwardly). On closer observation, it was not that I actually dealt with these things but rather that they dealt with me and I didn’t have to do anything except to be open to them. [Bei genauerer Betrachtung war es aber gar nicht so, dass ich mit den wahrnehmbaren Dingen umging, sondern eher, dass die Dinge mit mir umgingen und ich gar nichts tun musste, als ihnen gegenüber offen zu sein.] D.K. English Week 1999, 2003 (f) The thing which always comes to mind first when I think of this course is when Vivian said we should go out of the room, choose some clothes that were lying outside the room, come back in on to the “stage” with absolutely no plan about what we were going to do and using the few items on the stage act out a scene. I didn’t think that this was possible as I’m a person who always plans out what I’m going to do. However, I managed to come in with a completely blank mind and just let it happen. P.M. English Week 2003 (f) Then we had to show something in front of others. I had to use all my will and courage. I felt like jumping in cold water or jumping from a high cliff or taking off a mask. Interesting, we put on something, but the feeling was that you are taking something off. G.M. Baltic Seminar (f) In this moment of openness the entire relation to the audience changed fundamentally: what was previously experienced as a primary cause of fear and embarrassment now became a source of help and support: The audience who I had previously feared, stopped being ‘foreign elements’ [Fremd‐ körper] and became part of the situation, at the latest when I established contact to the situation. They even became helpful because their reactions made it possible for me to make contact with them and thus they ‘extended’ and enriched the situation. D.K. English Week 1999,2003 (f) I found out that the group members were my audience in the same way as my pupils are in class, and that I actually had neglected the importance of eye contact so far. I also experienced that I could not only rely on my own plans, but also on the atmosphere, what’s present, what lives within the moment. K. I. English Week 2004 (f) In one case, the difficulties caused by the initial solo improvisation led to a questioning of the advisability of beginning with it: 162 7 Responses to the Research Inquiry <?page no="163"?> I experienced myself as extremely helpless as I stood lost in front of the red cloth and no ‘accident’ came to my help. On the other hand, I thought it nice and funny to see how differently and with what originality the others behaved in the same situation. Does one have to simply go through such a test of courage? Or couldn’t one perhaps first do the exercise in pairs and then later, with somewhat more stage experience, try the solo presentation? I.H. English Week 2005 (f) 7.2.5 “Nothing can go Wrong” In the context of the first improvisations, learning to accept potential ‘mistakes’ and embarrassment became a crucial and often transformative experience. It was generally while watching the improvisations of others that the participants began to realize that some of the richest and most moving moments in clowning result from what seems to the person on stage to be an embarrassing and unexpected ‘accident’. In this context, his continual exhortations to enjoy that moment of vulnerability ‘to stick with it’ - that ‘nothing can go wrong’ - had an increasingly liberating effect on the participants, many of whom wrote about the significance of this new feeling of learning to accept what they had formerly most feared: Even embarrassment can be portrayed successfully to the audience. So now I re‐ member the feeling that, undoubtedly there was always the audience intent on you. Now that was scary - yet confidence-building too. For me it was hard - I was self-conscious. (…) ‘Accidents are gifts’ I remember him saying. Yes, so true. That is improvising and dealing with the unknown. E. L. English Fortnight 2000 (f) Important aspects of the exercises: Learning to let go Having no fear of making a fool of yourself Learning to accept yourself as vulnerable and fallible Burying the image of the teacher as being perfect, all-knowing and fully competent C.N English week 2004 (m) The sentence ‘Enjoy the feeling of incompetence’ had gone straight into my heart and has helped me ever since. I started to let go of perfectionism and of standards that I would never be able to reach. F.A. English Week 2003, 2004 (f) Clowning helps me have faith in grasping the moment and also helps in the self-confidence department. It is funny how “making a fool of myself ” became less and less a fear. This of course had to do with how Vivian is and how the other members in the group support each other. W.S. English Week 2005 (f) 163 7.2 The Participants’ Responses <?page no="164"?> After the first course I remember saying to Vivian “Thank you for making me do scary things”, for as much as I was looking forward to crossing the line (of the stage), it scared me to the bone. It was just knowing that whatever would happen on the other side was not predictable that made it scary for me. What was going to happen would not necessarily be under my control, and could just occur if I let go and accepted that something would develop. S.V. Witten 2003 2004 (f) 7.2.6 The Breakthroughs: “You become more alive…” Many participants described moments in which they experienced personal breakthroughs. Although it lies in the very nature of improvisation that each had unique and unrepeatable experiences, a number of parallels in their reports are nevertheless apparent. Themes that consistently reappear include a heightened receptivity to the moment, a feeling of flow, an acceptance of one’s self, a deep feeling of openness and liberation and new dimensions of contact with others. It is striking that despite the fleeting and ephemeral qualities inherent to such moments, participants were later (and often many years later) able to articulate what they experienced at those points: In rare moments of grace I felt that clowning worked for me like a therapy; not pretending, not having to be someone, owning up to how I feel in that moment - truthfulness which is warmly accepted and supported. In the subsequent courses I became ever more conscious that clowning demands presence and intuition - opening up to what comes towards me. W.D. English Week 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000 (f) Then I realised that one of the most important things is to be receptive, attentive in listening to one’s senses, one’s physical body and the world around. When you find this state, when you manage to follow Vivian’s request not to come on stage with an idea what to do, a fixed plan, then you feel that something is being realised in you, and you are as if carried by a flow beyond yourself. You are not the same any more, you can hear and perceive more, you become more alive. T.L. Baltic Seminar (f) I was angry at myself for being a chicken at first and waiting to be nearly the last one to step onto the stage for the first time. I was so nervous. But more than fear of making a fool of myself I felt the danger of becoming excluded from something apparently very important and nice. So I made up my mind and went. Overcoming one’s fear was exhilarating. Stepping onto an empty space never tread on by anyone else at that real moment, and being carried by the audience. Of course Vivian took good care of us and guided us in our first probing steps. After having put the red nose on and having looked at the audience a part of me died and I got connected with a new part I had not really known I had had. Well, I have it. And I 164 7 Responses to the Research Inquiry <?page no="165"?> have it still. I like it. I think it can be liked by some other people as well. V. S. Baltic Seminar (f) The little performances we had to give every day required a lot of courage. The tendency to want to work it all out in my mind beforehand is very strong. And that was exactly what we were not supposed to do. So I found myself throwing every idea overboard that came to my mind while I was waiting, thinking all the time: “Oh, no! Now I can’t do this anymore, because I’ve already thought about it! ” To finally step onto the ‘stage’ with the mind being completely blank at that moment, yet trusting that something would come up that I would be able to pursue was a unique experience I’d never had before. Here Vivian’s gentle guidance and encouragement came in and was a great help. And it was astonishing for me what was emerging and developing on stage, and I found myself being just me doing something I enjoyed very much. I always felt exhilarated and liberated after each one of these little performances. And I was always looking forward to the next session, even though I suffered from trepidations each time round. B.U. English Week 2005 (f) To discover a few miraculous seconds of ego-loss is extremely liberating. I likened it to Zen. It has a sort of harshness that is beneficial. It cuts through to the “true you”. It is the one hand clapping, the tree falling down unseen in the forest. It is, in fact, extremely difficult to describe. It has to be experienced in the laboratory of one’s own nervous system. S. P. English Week 2004 (m) 7.3 Personal Developments and their Consequences In the original research inquiry which was sent or given to participants, they were asked to ‘write down anything/ everything you can think of in terms of the course and your experiences.’ This very open formulation led, naturally, to a broad range of responses. Many responded with more or less in-depth concrete memories and descriptions of what took place in the courses, particularly when those courses were in the more recent past. With some notable exceptions (some teachers had also taken notes which they then used to reconstruct concrete situations), those participants who had taken courses five or six years earlier did not write in such vivid detail, but rather retained a general remembrance of the course and its personal meaning for them. However, many of those participants who wrote responses only a few weeks or months after taking a course also wrote about the general significance of the workshop for their professional and personal lives. What becomes clear in evaluating these responses is that irrespective of when the course was taken, most refer to the personal significance of clowning not only in terms of their teaching, but in 165 7.3 Personal Developments and their Consequences <?page no="166"?> regard to their general personal development and in the context of their entire lives. Categorizing the different ways in which participants felt that the clowning course had contributed to their personal development presents obvious chal‐ lenges. A number of key words and phrases describing certain developments appear repeatedly; the growth of ‘creativity’, ‘spontaneity’, ‘imagination’, ‘living in the moment’, ‘heightened perception’, ‘change of perspective’, as well as ‘being honest’, ‘discovering new sides of oneself’ and ‘acceptance of others’ and ‘acceptance of oneself ’. Certainly, it lies in the very nature of this type of experience that within the same response and often within the same sentence, different aspects are addressed, leading at many points to a marked overlap of terms. 7.3.1 Growth and Discovery The far-ranging and often highly personal realizations which many participants described were in most responses considered to extend well past their direct consequences for teaching: I think it is more how one feels about life in general and teaching is only a part of that. It touches at the very source of one’s creativity. S. P. English Week 2004 (m) What I experienced flowed in a changed form into me: I have personally found a sense of orientation and criteria for judging the quality of authentic action. F.C. Schloss Hamborn 1998, 1999, English Fortnight 2000, Witten 2003 (f) I also think that some things are prepared which only later become visible, even if I can’t exactly describe it yet. One thing is very clear: clowning has contributed enormously to my personal development (and not only professionally). B. D. English Week (5 times) (m) While the days were hurrying on, I sort of sent my thoughts back to these very precious moments and hours of Vivian’s course - really unforgettable experiences that gave me completely new insights not only for teaching but for my life in general. Here are my reflections: • activation of all senses • overcoming deep inhibitions and hang-ups through accepting the clown being different (a process still in motion) • acceptance of the other’s being different • finding importance in what first seems irrelevant • being able to step outside one’s narrow, little world and enter a world of a certain abnormality 166 7 Responses to the Research Inquiry <?page no="167"?> • permission to be playful again and discover the funny side of it! • finding or discovering a certain light-heartedness • discovering the clown within myself • strong activation of ‘imagination’ - while clowning, you rely on the unexpected - the clown lives on the accident, as Vivian said • understanding, that every little incident has a significance • opening myself up to movement within myself - fixed ideas can quickly become very unimportant while clowning - find a new relationship to whatever one clowns about (clowning situation) • looking at the world through the eyes of a clown - new insights, new views, helps along on the way to tolerance. W.H. English Fortnight 2000 (f) Two months have passed, and chunks and loads of reality have been there to chew, but the memory of Clowning experience is still at work. I am glad to say that I am, hopefully, saying goodbye to the fear of making mistakes or being ungainly and gradually finding a peace, not a compromise with myself. L. S. English Week 2005 (f) Clowning was something totally new for me. Actually I feared it at first. I have never thought in the beginning of a course that I would be able to do something I have never prepared or planned. And (! ) in front of people whom I scarcely know. Vivian’s course helped me a lot to change my personality or it at least started, gave an impulse to this process. To gain more courage to do things I have never tried before - and of course - in the classroom during my English lessons. To push the boundaries of abilities and possibilities. To face the unexpected without fear. To enjoy it. To embrace it. I’m still working upon the last now. T.E. English Week 2004 (f) While reflecting on general developments they had personally gone through, some teachers concurrently tried to draw connections between what they had experienced and teaching: The relationship to teaching is subtle and intricate. But I have the strong intuition that practising clowning is a great field of experience for any work with groups of people. The growth in courage for me has been immense, trusting Vivian to guide me in performances in front of my colleagues. It has been a lot of fun, but the importance of the ability of transcending borders for a teacher has also struck me. Really that is how we are helping children as class teachers and language teachers, and how could we do it better than with a sense of humour coming out of the moment, which you have as a clown? S.V. Witten 2003, 2004 (f) The English Fortnight made a great impact on me. The clowning workshops were essential. I cannot say - or I never thought of it - that the clowning experiences were particularly linked to language teaching. But it is definitely linked to teaching as an art. It helps you focus on your surroundings - audience (read students) in a very 167 7.3 Personal Developments and their Consequences <?page no="168"?> effective way. It is a form of self-mirroring that I found unique and most interesting and challenging. (…) For quite a few in my group it released fears and gave birth to a humbleness, so that at times we were shivering and it made a group of people become very close and confident with each other. We also had a great many laughs. Clowning is, as I see it, a way of both experiencing and training how to connect to your surroundings. This connection is a necessity in teaching. Clowning, as Vivian made us share it, is also an effective way of meeting yourself and starting on the journey of self-knowledge. R.W. English Fortnight 1999 (f) I would like to deepen my understanding toward clowning and find out what clowning can do in education. As for possible advantages for actual classes which were obtained through clowning practice, I personally think that to be honest to one’s own feeling is what I learned from clowning experiences. A.N. English Week 2002 (m) For some participants, the existential dimensions which clowning touched in them and the potential seriousness and consequences of this kind of ‘playing’ were quite unexpected: I attended Vivian’s clowning course in Helsinki, summer 2003. It was the first of the kind I attended. It was a shocking experience! It was a very new one for me: I was both scared and curious, and it went extremely deep. I could see in the whole group that people were very much moved, and it took a great effort for almost everybody to overcome one’s self and be the ‘clown’. Of course people reacted in different ways and it was up to their personality, how easily or not they passed the ‘border’. But I’m most definitely convinced that of all the artistic works we had during the three-year Baltic See Seminar this one went the deepest. For me personally one week was not enough to pass that ‘border’ in a spectacular way, but I made big steps towards it and in teaching I sometimes can recall all that experience: and it is always a revelation. F.E. Baltic Seminar (f) And it turned out to be a play, but in its most serious meaning. I was supposed to play, but not pretend, be someone else but remain myself, as if the inner self rises up to the surface and becomes obvious to the people, the audience. You do it with fear and pleasure at the same time. You have to step over something, a certain boundary in consciousness and feeling and even in will. Thanks to the clown’s nose it’s easier to do that. But it’s a trick, because one can think he would hide behind the nose, but this tiny mask sooner unmasks the person, his inner self. T.L. Baltic Seminar (f) Clowning workshops are a group affair of the heart. I have found my inner clown and inner being are one and the same. Through these workshops, I found a secure, albeit uncomfortable and disconcerting playground where I can dive into my inner pools and swim around with others. I had the chance to test the public waters, test my 168 7 Responses to the Research Inquiry <?page no="169"?> buoyancy, practice breathing techniques, let go of fears, learn to enjoy the flow, the waves, the undertow; I’m learning to tread water slowly, keep my head above water, breathe, move with the current and let go of the feeling of swimming upstream; and let go of some of my need to shut down. Both the warm-up exercises and the clowning work strip away preconceived ideas of the inner and outer world bringing me closer to a sense of truth, closer to myself and to the others. Clowning is a paradoxical playing-field enabling me to create a bridge between being alone and with other people. B. C. English Week 2003, 2005 (f) In one report, after an initial improvisation that went well, it was the second, less successful performance which precipitated a decisive crisis that led to significant, personal realizations: The first try was successful - it encouraged me to do the next step. The next try wasn’t a success for me. I wasn’t satisfied. It made me sad, because I overdid it and maybe something from my subconscious came out. I felt like I was naked in front of others. I didn’t control my emotions, but that is what I am doing all the time - I change different masks every day - mother’s, teacher’s, wives … and now you have to express yourself somehow-using a red nose and some poor things. I even cried after the performance, but nobody saw that. .I bought some beer and cigarettes and went for a walk with my friend. .She felt the same. I wanted to show something interesting and funny but it was stupid what I did. Now I think the performances showed what I have to work on - to control emotions (I’m too sensitive), to be more objective, not to do a lot of things at the same time (that is in my life too, I want too much…etc.) Time to time we have to remember “take your time, enjoy a moment! ” And now clowns for me are not stupid joke makers but people who discover truth through emotions. G.M. Baltic Seminar (f) From the 55 replies, there were two participants who questioned whether the course brought them what they actually needed: I can’t say that this course has helped me in my teaching. It was entertaining but I wouldn’t necessarily take part in such a course again. I say that at the moment, perhaps that will change if I have the choice again. To be quite honest, I question whether a clowning course can really be supportive, but perhaps I’m a bit inhibited, or maybe I can’t stand the continuous laughter and being silly. I would find a normal course such as English literature, grammar, etc., far more important. T.H. English Fortnight 1999 (f) I thought it was a lot of fun and it gave me a chance to explore the “artistic” side of me. 169 7.3 Personal Developments and their Consequences <?page no="170"?> As far as it helping me with my teaching, I can’t say if it really helped or not. I’m a pretty out-going person anyway and am not afraid to “clown around” in the classroom. (Even with my adult students) I can see where the workshop would be important for introverted types and teachers who don’t get on well with their students. I think it also helps the teacher relax, thus a more relaxed atmosphere in the classroom. I don’t think I was a very successful “Waldorf ” teacher. As much as I liked Vivian’s workshop, I could have used more help with “Waldorf ” style lesson plans and discipline in the classroom. I’m too nice and the kids walked all over me. G. H. English Fortnight 2000 (f) 7.3.2 “Living in the Moment” There were a striking variety of experiences and developments which partici‐ pants considered to be relevant and beneficial with respect to their teaching. In most cases, these were directly linked to what was perceived as significant personal steps they themselves had made during the course. In this context, what the participants most frequently referred to was their experience of ‘living fully in the moment’ without any plans and preconceptions and the related gesture of learning to ‘embrace the unexpected’ - accepting, and even becoming grateful for any surprises and ‘accidents’ that unexpectedly occur. It was their primary experience of being completely open and present in the ‘empty space’ during clowning that became for many participants a crucial starting point for trying to attain this kind of presence in their teaching: Since this experience, I have tried to create more space for ‘real meetings’ with the pupils in my day to day work. That doesn’t mean any methodological or didactical changes in the lessons - it is more a matter of a change in my perceptions of difficult and hectic situations and how I deal with them. In the past, I always tried to deal with such situations by reacting as quickly as possible and trying to have an appropriate response ready to hand; now I try to allow a short but important moment of emptiness to arise that enables me to view the situation in an open and new way and only then to act. This is often a very brief moment, but one which frees me from the inner pressure to always have everything under control. When I manage this, I realise each time that things sort themselves out in a more relaxed and peaceful way which is better for everyone concerned, precisely because in this brief moment everyone involved can be seen and included in a wholly new way.D.K. English Week 1999, 2003 (f) He said over and over again that…we should think of nothing or plan nothing beforehand. We should just simply react to and work with what we find. That was very difficult at the beginning, but in the course of time we found out that it was exactly this that created a tremendous inner flexibility. That is the most important 170 7 Responses to the Research Inquiry <?page no="171"?> thing that I learned through clowning. When I now go into the classroom, I can react in a much better way to unexpected situations without immediately losing control. B. D. English Week (5 times) (m) This ‘living for the moment’ ‘living absolutely in the present’ is the situation the teacher is in at every moment in every lesson at school. We must constantly ‘expect the unexpected’. A successful coping with such a situation can often be the highlight of a lesson, as experienced teachers will confirm. This practicing and honing of one’s power to ‘really live in the present’ is, for this reason, very useful for the teacher.” D.N. English Week 2004 (m) For me personally, my personal development was the most important thing in the clowning course. In particular, the improvisations and the intensive ‘twin’ exercise taught me to trust the situation and the intuition of your partner; letting go of your own ideas and listening to the moment. These are essential preconditions for pupil-oriented teaching and for reacting appropriately in a given situation. I think I have learned a lot through clowning. Through the unexpected situations and the discussions about the dynamics of these situations held with partners or the group, I have experienced new personal borders and learned to accept them. It also helped me to become truly capable of working in a team. B.G. Schloss Hamborn 1999 (m) A few participants particularly mentioned the importance of having learned to accept the unexpected ‘accidents’ that so often occur on stage, in class, and in life: I have learnt to let go of my plans at times, to welcome ‘accidents’ to listen to what is there. F.A. English Week 2003, 2004 (f) …most of all: accepting the unexpected not only in class but in life in general; knowing that a very dynamic and important process can be set in motion through the ‘accident’, working with this accident and making something out of it. W.H. English Fortnight 2000 (f) As for me, the word ‘accident’ got a completely new meaning. It might be even a ‘funny’ one. In my everyday life - perhaps at school - it helped me not be afraid of unexpected things, but rather - in Vivian’s sense-to be glad to have such ‘accidents’. L.B. English Week 2004 (f) In one response, the connection between responding creatively in the moment to the unexpected in clowning and doing the same in class, led to extended reflections on the nature of the daily experience of being a language teacher and the relevance of the course in this context: What is the life of a foreign language teacher really like - when he stands in front of a ninth grade strengthened from a lesson in the first grade? He is never in a 171 7.3 Personal Developments and their Consequences <?page no="172"?> hurry, always curious about the new learning situations that he encounters: Has the blackboard not been wholly taken over by the class teacher? Can I draw a picture, or do I have supervision duties? Is there once again a new seating plan in class 6? Has the second grade, still once again, not had a break? (…) It is an irrefutable fact that a good educator knows how to deal with things that turn out to be different than planned. This change can be brought about by a wasp in the classroom that causes a welcome outbreak of hysteria, the first snow, a possible fire alarm, a noisy garbage truck, or a cute squirrel jumping around in front of the window; sometimes it is just the usual chaos at the beginning of a lesson that apparently can’t be controlled. Particularly in the lower school, I carry around an imaginary rucksack full of all kinds of language material [Sprachgut] and I have to decide in a given situation what to use and when. That means I have to be an improvisatory artist - that is to have the ability to integrate intuitions at the spur of the moment. How do I get into this creative state, how do I develop the trust in myself that the appropriate thing will occur to me at the right moment? (italics in original ) F.C. Schloss Hamborn 1998, 1999 English Fortnight 2000, Witten 2003 (f) In another response, a participant who had been active in teacher training herself for many years, reflected on the significance of learning how to deal with unexpected situations in the context of training younger colleagues: I have always had the impression that clowning is an absolutely necessary part of general teacher training, not only for language teachers but for all teachers. Perhaps it is particularly important for language teachers in Waldorf schools, because they need to learn to be extraordinarily relaxed and flexible in dealing with decisions during lessons, and this can be prepared for through clowning. I don’t mean that clowning should be used in lessons, but rather that one learns to respond to unexpected situations calmly and with good ideas. It may be that not every teacher needs this special training, but certainly many do and these need to work at this over a long period of time in order to change themselves. The week which I spent in England on a one week clowning course was unbelievably impressive. I think that if one does this when one is still young, it can bring about significant change. S.G. English Fortnight 2000 (f) 7.3.3 Empathy and Perception Another central theme that came up in a large number of responses was the development of perception and empathy. In the clowning exercises this was a central aspect in many of the warm-ups as well as in all the improvisations in 172 7 Responses to the Research Inquiry <?page no="173"?> pairs and groups. Furthermore, experiencing the struggles and breakthroughs of the other participants became a central dimension of the entire course. The transformations in their colleagues, which the participants could view from the relatively relaxed standpoint of the attentive audience, led to a number of reflections referring to their perceptions and preconceptions of their own students: Since I have tended to usually take the beginners courses because of my time plan, I have frequently repeated various exercises and never found them to be boring, but each time I felt enriched - also from the contributions made by ‘totally inexperienced’ beginners. I have thereby come to the conviction that it is evident that each person is blessed with rich imaginative treasures (which makes him appear all the more likeable and human) - it all depends on finding suitable ways of freeing them. This knowledge has been very significant for me in working with weaker students. F.C. Schloss Hamborn 1998, English Fortnight 2000, Witten 2003 (f) Clowning is not only about laughing and being funny, it is about being perceptive and discreet, emotional and, at the same time, tactful. F.I. English Week 2004 (f) Interpersonal interaction - giving and taking, listening to each other in a group improvisation - has something deeply human, yes, even religious. W.D. English Week 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000 (f) The central role of eye contact as an essential basis for the connection to others was continually stressed by Gladwell in all of his directions during the improvisations. This theme surfaced again in the context of its implications in the classroom in a number of responses: ‘The clown consciously looks at a person in the eyes’. After this course I more consciously sought eye contact with the pupils and could therefore establish closer contact to them. In general, the course helped me to be more authentic in dealing with pupils and enabled me to deal with unexpected reactions in a less forced and freer way. L. A. English Week 2001 (f) Working in twos and then the performance in twos at the end of the week helped me to build up my awareness of what is going on around me. I have always known that eye contact was important but this was doubly emphasized in this drama course. P. M. English Week 2003 (f) I found out that the group members were my audience in the same way as my pupils are in class, and that I actually had neglected the importance of eye contact so far. K. I. English Week 2004 (f) I have felt more relaxed in front of a class and make more eye contact. S.P. English Week 2004 (m) 173 7.3 Personal Developments and their Consequences <?page no="174"?> I look into their eyes much more often and it feels as if clowning helps me to perceive ‘myself ’ and ‘my self ’ which, in turn, enables me to be more with the children. F.A. English Week 2003, 2004 (f) Some participants drew connections between what they experienced in the workshops and the difficulties and vulnerability of their pupils in class: Pupils in foreign language lessons are in some ways in a situation which is comparable to that of the participants in a clowning course. They are being asked to leave the familiar path of language (sounds, syntax, semantics, intonation etc); they have an audience, they have to endure imperfection and not knowing what is going to happen. C.I. Witten 2003 (f) Clowning is the world of humor. Clowns need to have a sense of humor - to fool themselves. This attitude is necessary for being a teacher especially for making a close link with children. Clowning reflects vulnerable aspects of life. It is very good for teachers to learn vulnerability in people and human life. Their view of life will be broadened. N.H. English Fortnight 2000 (f) Also losing fear in ‘making mistakes’ is an experience that can help a teacher sympathize with his/ her pupils and how they are feeling. W.S. English Week 2005 (f) Gladwell’s encouragement during the improvisations and his manner of helping the participants in the feedback sessions became for some a kind of paradigm of supportive teaching, as well as a cause of reflection with respect to their own behaviour towards their pupils: In the course of each workshop I have observed a phase of self-doubt in almost all of the participants, quite independent of their sometimes confident appearance. It is precisely in this situation that Vivian’s affectionate, caring and reflective support cannot be valued highly enough. He knows how to withdraw himself as a personality - he is incredibly modest - and lightly, like an artist applying a few brush strokes - to set a new accent, to contain certain excesses, so that each participant is eventually able to get into the picture, to find the image that speaks to him or her. F.C. Schloss Hamborn 1998, 1999, English Fortnight 2000, Witten 2003 (f) Clowning has transformed the way I see myself and the way I see others, creating a shift in my perspective. The time spent talking with the facilitator, co-clowns and participants, is as valuable to the learning process as the exercises themselves. These discussions honor the mistakes, the feelings, and the growth process. The simplest of actions and interactions offer a wealth of humour and insight. B. C. English Week 2003, 2005 (f) It fascinated me to see how carefully and individually each participant was led into the theme and how this way of behaving was gradually taken over by the participants 174 7 Responses to the Research Inquiry <?page no="175"?> - people dealt with each other in a manner I never experienced before or afterwards. That was for me a greater discovery than even the clowning itself. I have often recalled this in dealing with children and young people in my teaching (particularly in the middle school): somehow as a teacher I am always leading the pupils, forcing them to face situations that they don’t like, or in which they are inhibited, and I try to deal with their sensitivities gently and let them feel respected and understood.This has made life easier for both the pupils and me, especially regarding discipline and manners. B.G. English Week 1999 (f) A few participants wrote about their experience of how significant small events can become in the context of clowning: What I learned this time was that SMALL THINGS MATTER! During a partner work we had moved on too quickly and overlooked situations, which we could have worked with if we had appreciated their importance. Also we had to realise that nothing can be hidden on stage. The audience sees the truth, and if there are two people together on stage, one of which is denying reality, it can be so healthy and entertaining to point out what is actually going on. S.V. Witten 2003, 2004 (f) Clowning helps focus on the trivial, little things in life - made me aware of basics I would otherwise not notice. It seems like we were practicing focusing in on small things - learning that small steps, little processes are important. W.S. English Week 2005 This heightened awareness for small things also applied in one case to the perception of objects and an understanding of their potential significance for others: Vivian’s sayings - ‘objects are sacred` and ‘the world is coming to you’ - and their related exercises had a positive effect on my teaching. If a pupil, for example, brought something unsuitable into the lesson that attracted the attention of the other pupils then I would especially make a point of acknowledging it by showing astonishment and taking an interest in it. The effect was that on the one hand, the pupils were satisfied and on the other hand, we could find our way back to the lesson much more quickly. L.A. English Week 2001 (f) 7.3.4 The Embodiment of Language A crucial element of clowning lies in its physicality. This element is present during the workshops in many different ways. The implications of this for teaching were viewed as manifold. A generally heightened awareness of the vital role of gestures and facial mimic in regard to expression and communication was 175 7.3 Personal Developments and their Consequences <?page no="176"?> expressed in a number of replies. Moreover, specific connections were drawn between the physical embodiment of language in clowning and its relevance to moving students in the language classroom: Furthermore I have the feeling that my miming and gestures have greatly improved, which is particularly helpful in the lower grades. B. D. English Week (5 times) (m) I frequently catch myself using elements of clowning, usually unconsciously, less in miming and more in gestures. That increases the attention of adolescents considerably and brings a bit of humour into the lessons. I also consciously use certain facial expressions - and I can see Vivian in front of me - when some ‘accident’ or some interruption occurs. It is much more effective than speaking. I.H. English Week 2004 (f) Clowning offers the possibility of learning about oneself in relation to others. Through various exercises, I have been able to develop a clearer sense of the effects of my rhythm, of my gestures and emotional expressions on an audience. B. C. English Week 2003, 2005 (f) The exercises that Vivian had us do helped me get in touch with my body and space. Help spread a person’s senses out and help teach us about grasping the moment in a physical sense as well. W.S. English Week 2005 (f) The course with Vivian was about improvising. It helped specially those, who are afraid or shy to perform in front of children/ people in general. I improvise every day in my work and consider that to be the central part of my work and because of that, Vivian’s course was mainly fun for me. The main thing that I got from the course was: simple things and gestures have the most powerful effect. If one overacts things, it loses its power. H. S. Baltic Seminar (m) For one participant, her experiences instigated reflections about the nature of communication and language: Clowning was usually performed in pairs. So it was indispensable to listen to the partner. Then words and actions were born responding to each other. It was the communication which is the foundation of language. N.H. English Fortnight 2000 (f) Another participant reflected at length on what is required of the language teacher in having to express herself in the foreign language in a manner that particularly young children are able to understand: At a primary level of experience, clowning offers an intensive training of perception. Out of nothing, I try to bring forth a small world or an imaginary space - using only the power of my voice and my imagination - in which I can ‘rediscover’ with the children in the foreign language, the world that they naturally know in the words of their mother tongue. With wonder, enthusiasm, even with reverence we discover 176 7 Responses to the Research Inquiry <?page no="177"?> things and creatures anew - sometimes also with small stories such as “The Turnip” or “The Pancake” - what we actually are familiar with suddenly fascinates us again. We can manage this only when we ourselves are convinced of these discoveries and can experience the situation anew, even drastically exaggerating and each time enjoying as well as living it - an important precondition for learning and ‘anchoring’ a foreign language. I have to be able to move the children - only at this level are they willing to be pulled along by that often cited flow of language, to be open to an adventure that only remains exciting if you don’t inwardly step out of it in the middle. You have to develop the ability to directly perceive moods which you can connect to and then use for the purpose of teaching. The pupils should feel understood and that one has responded to their needs. The clown is like the young child - wholly a sensory organ, he explores his environment completely without preconceptions and gaining unexpected insights into reality and experiencing everything physically. His stories are never confined to spoken words; he plays them out, sets them in action - which creates an important bridge to understanding especially for young children and reflects the holistic approach of the lower school. When the clown uses language he embodies it. (italics in original) F.C. Schloss Hamborn 1998, 1999, English Fortnight 2000, Witten 2003 (f) 7.3.5 Breaking Routines Considering the fact that a relatively high percentage of the responses received came from very experienced teachers (15 years or more), it’s not surprising that a number of these responses dealt with the issue of gaining new impulses and of breaking set routines of teaching and behaviour: Vivian helped me at a critical point in my teaching when things began to become ‘routine’ and I was able to prepare relatively ‘on spot’, i. e. often what I planned actually happened in the classroom. This of course is the way it should be, but there is the danger of limiting the students to your planning and also of reducing your spontaneity. In short, the freedom of the classroom situation might be diminished if you take your ‘planning’ too far. Vivian helped me to “plan” free moments of ‘letting go’ for me and the students with the knowledge that if you are really ‘there’ in those moments the outcome will be something worthwhile (whatever it may be). I have been able to retain this ability relatively well, though I admit that thinking about it now helped me realize that I do it quite frequently! In short, Vivian’s involvement in the teacher training for me is one of the greatest “gifts” we have been given (does this sound too ‘American’-enthusiastic? ). G. A. English Week 1998 (m) 177 7.3 Personal Developments and their Consequences <?page no="178"?> Teaching can be done with a preset list of objectives that one teaches or feeds to the students. The students consume the material and the outcome is relatively predictable. I have noticed that both my students and I have felt particularly enriched however when we are faced with surprising facts or situations which have led to a novel outcome. These are often the times when my lesson plans do not go as planned, when the students are late, when they walk in after a defeating test in another class or have found out they have a free period after English. Instead of holding on to my plan for dear life and instead of feeling like a failure at an unexpected turn of events, I am learning to accept the change and see what opportunity is being presented. I can even go into the classroom knowing that this is the arena where change will take place if I make room for it. Again it brings me back to being receptive to the actual situation. B. C. English Week 2003, 2005 (f) It did me good to discover within the framework of the exercises very new patterns of behaviour that helped free me from well worn clichés - and not least for the chance to be allowed for once to slip out of the role of experienced teacher … to find through clowning new sources of energy that have saved my imagination from drying up and that has countered the threat that my teaching could become routine - a danger that I have experienced as very real. F.C. Schloss Hamborn 1998, 1999, English Fortnight 2000, Witten 2003 (f) To me this course seems more than artistic training; it’s a big step to re-evaluation of the fixed concepts of one’s mind. W.H. English Fortnight 2000 (f) 178 7 Responses to the Research Inquiry <?page no="179"?> 236 Legutke 1999, 8. 8 Discussion of the Participants’ Responses 8.1 Clowning in the Context of In-Service Teacher Development One of the central issues which will be addressed in this chapter is the connection/ s between the clowning courses and existing concepts of in-service teacher development. In viewing the clowning courses within the larger context of teacher development, it becomes apparent that there are clear parallels to some of the general perspectives which were elucidated in Chapter 2. Both C. Edelhoff ’s broad vision of in-service education as intrinsically tied to the life development of the teachers (“The teacher is his curriculum”), as well as A. Underhill’s conceptual focus on teacher change (“I believe that education is change and that I will not be able to educate unless I am also able to change”), emphasize aspects which also play a decisive role in the clowning courses. In a similar vein, M. Legutke’s explication of the general goals of teacher development, partially cited in Chapter 2 can also be considered to be relevant in the context of discussing the clowning courses: Learning in a profession is a holistic and complex process in which not only cognitive capacities are to be addressed and extended, but also affective factors have to be equally considered, as well as practical skills. Because the reception and integration of something new always engages the teacher as a whole person and is understood to be the expansion of existing potentials, we can see that teacher development involves complex challenges. For example, it has to deal with the difficulties and possible dangers that change implies and address anxieties and resistance. Change is always connected to the willingness to take risks in going beyond what is familiar and habitual. Teacher development can only foster this willingness to take risks if, at the same time, it supports the steadfastness of the teacher, builds self-confidence and provides appropriate help. It must be both practice-based, providing new possibilities of working and supporting trial and error, as well as encourage the practitioner to reflect on his own experiences. Only when teacher development courses are perceived as relevant and appropriate, when they heighten self-awareness and the perception of others, as well as strengthen teachers in their resolve to discover their own possibilities of changing - only then will such courses serve to promote professional growth. 236 <?page no="180"?> In Legutke’s vision of professional growth there are clear parallels to what Edelhoff, Underhill, Sarason and others have also expressed (2.2-2.6). Such approaches to in-service teacher development go far beyond traditional con‐ cepts of ‘teacher training’. At the same time, the manifold challenges implicit in realizing such goals have been consistently recognized. The general and indeterminate nature of such calls for teacher development can also be seen as tied to a dearth of in-service programs that meet these expectations. There is also a lack of empirical research in assessing such developments in the context of existing in-service language teacher courses. Thus, one of the most significant questions that will be explored is whether the clowning courses have led to those forms of personal growth and change which are considered by leading educators to be essential for teacher development. 8.2 Evaluating the Initial Hypothesis To establish a clear conceptual framework in which the participants’ responses can be examined and discussed it will first be helpful to return to the original hypothesis (4.11): The clowning and improvisation courses which Vivian Gladwell has con‐ ducted in the context of in-service teacher development for Steiner School language teachers have had significant effects on their personal and profes‐ sional development. Such development may have included an enhanced openness and attentiveness, a heightened sense of empathy, a higher degree of presence and increased improvisational skills. At the same time, these courses have also played an important role in helping teachers to learn to address their own uncertainties, anxieties and mistakes in a more constructive and creative manner. It is postulated that this development may have occurred both in short-term as well as in long-term contexts. In considering the validity of the hypothesis in the context of what participants wrote, the inherently overlapping and interrelated nature of those developmental aspects which have been referred to must be taken into account. An increased openness to others and the world cannot be separated from the growth of empathy; both of these developments are also connected to a heightening of presence and, later, to the development of improvisational skills. Learning to courageously and creatively address anxieties can also be seen as being contingent on many of these same processes. Hence, each of these developments can be seen as inextricably tied to simultaneously occurring processes. 180 8 Discussion of the Participants’ Responses <?page no="181"?> Yet, although all of these elements exist to some extent in each phase of the workshops, they are present to varying degrees. In the opening warm-up phase the emphasis is on awakening an openness and trust, in the first solo-improv‐ isations the focus is on establishing genuineness and a heightened, creative awareness of the situation; later, in the partner and group improvisations the elements of empathy and presence within the dynamics of improvising together are particularly invoked. There is a clear progression in which each step prepares the next. The carefully devised structure of the workshops both in terms of the planning of each day as well as within the framework of the entire course can be seen as a crucial element in the entire concept of the courses. Thus it also seems appropriate to follow the structure of the workshops themselves in evaluating and discussing what the participants wrote. Moreover, this will make it easier for the reader to directly refer to the corresponding sections in the previous chapter. 8.3 Warm-Ups in Artistic Work and Clowning One of the common elements which the clowning courses share with the other artistic workshops offered at the English Week is the particular role of the lengthy opening phase, often taking up more than a third of the time, particularly in the first sessions. As we have seen in both the section on Robert McNeer’s work (3.3) and in regard to the clowning courses (6.2, 6.3), this phase is considered by the course leaders to be essential in creating the necessary basis for the participants to meet the challenges that follow. In considering what the participants wrote, it appears quite inconceivable that they could have gone through the processes they have described without this initial work which carefully prepared them each day for the ensuing improvisations. Thus, what occurred in the warm-ups calls for closer examination, not only due to its significance for the participants in the clowning courses, but also in terms of its potential relevance for teacher development in general. In this respect it will be helpful to first consider this warm-up phase within a broader artistic context. A common understanding of the importance of a preliminary phase in creating a physical and imaginative basis for artistic work links all the per‐ forming arts. Despite the obvious differences between the respective warm-ups of the actor, singer, dancer and violinist, they can all be seen as predicated on a shared recognition of the significance of attention and movement, in the fullest sense of those terms, as a necessary basis for artistic perception and expression. A heightened perceptual and imaginative awareness in their 181 8.3 Warm-Ups in Artistic Work and Clowning <?page no="182"?> 237 There is an enormous body of literature which addresses different aspects of these psycho-physical connections. In this context, the seminal works of F.M. Alexander and Moshe Feldenkrais are particularly relevant. respective artistic domains, co-occurring with the requisite suppleness and control of movement/ s can be seen as a common goal in the preparations of all performers whose instrument is always ultimately the entire human body. That human ‘instrument’ depends on the fluidity, sensitivity, suppleness and strength of the entire physical being. This is equally true for a singer, dancer, actor or clown. Thus in ‘warming-up’ it is not just the fingers of the pianist, the voice of the actor, or the legs of the dancer that are called into play, but the entire body attitude. As every professional musician, dancer and actor knows, the difference between the right and wrong amount of tension anywhere in the body can decisively affect performance. Neither the effortless fluidity of a pianist’s fingers, nor the subtle, nuanced qualities of an actor’s voice, can be separated from the requisite motor attitude of the arms, shoulders, neck and back. Disturbances in any of these areas can affect all the others. At the same time, it is vital to realize that the physical attitude of the performer is also intrinsically tied to an entire imaginative and emotional being: the range and flexibility of the dancer, musician and actor have their ultimate basis in imaginative and emotional sources expressed in and through their physical attitude. Thus although this type of preliminary work may appear to be solely physical, it is always, at the same time, a reactivation and calling into play of the entire person. 237 In the specific context of the clowning workshops the effects of this first extended warm-up phase were manifold, leading not only to a sense of feeling physically freer, but to an enhanced openness towards others: First of all I really, really enjoyed the exercises we did at the beginning of each session. They helped me to let go of some of my inhibitions towards others and to become more free to relate. This in itself was a very beautiful and liberating experience for me. B.U. English Week 2005 (f) These simple imaginative exercises during the warm-up phase helped me to break down a lot of my inner blockages. L.A. English Week 2001 (f) The exercises that Vivian had us do helped me get in touch with my body and space. They help spread a person’s senses out and help to teach us about grasping the moment in a physical sense as well. W.S. English Week 2005 (f) 182 8 Discussion of the Participants’ Responses <?page no="183"?> 238 D.W. Winnicott, Playing and Reality. (London: Tavistock, 1971) quoted in Stephen Nachmanovich, Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art. (New York: Tarcher/ Putnam, 1990) 50. This freeing from blockages and inhibitions, encouraging a new manner of relating to others and enhancing perceptual awareness, must all be seen as occurring within the spirit and atmosphere of play (6.3). 8.3.1 The Intermediary ‘Space’ of Play The psychologist Donald Winnicott developed the idea that the unique ‘space’ of play is an intermediary dimension of experience which is neither fully internal nor external. In this context he addressed the far-ranging significance of play in regard to its freeing inherent human potentials: It is in playing and only in playing that the individual child or adult is able to be creative and to use the whole personality, and it is only in being creative that the individual discovers the self. 238 The liberating experience of play also came out clearly in many responses: There was a sense of freedom in our workshops; freedom to explore what you see, feel, touch-sense etc. Sense of adventure - “What will today’s session bring? ” Once we had to walk towards an object in the room and make a sound - how strange, what fun. Sometimes the opportunity to be just ‘silly’ how un-inhibiting, what a release! E.L. English Fortnight 2000 (f) I recall a great sense of joy: in the movement (as in dancing), in the visible and audible imagination (as in sculpture, painting, poetry and music), in the interaction with the audience and the other red noses (as in conversation, in dancing…in life), in the transformation of the others and myself - becoming different, yet still the same person. Looking back, I can summarise it as ‘joy in play’: clowning brings us to play - without aims, wonderful. C.I. Witten 2003 (f) In some of the responses, entering into this world of play, beginning to act/ dance/ play without plans was compared to entering a completely foreign and strange place: It was nice to fool around and learn to trust each other with all those exercises of being blindfolded etc. Vivian took great care to make it clear for us, that he does not want us to prepare any schemes or plans for performing. That was very odd. Just stepping onto nothing, onto emptiness. Or … relying on my real self. That was really scary. A whole new universe opened up. T.S. Baltic Seminar 183 8.3 Warm-Ups in Artistic Work and Clowning <?page no="184"?> 239 Nachmanovich 1990, 43. The musician Stephen Nachmanovich in his seminal work on improvisation in the arts considers the element of play to be inextricably tied to the development of creativity. In this context he considers an essential element of play to be the encouragement to adopt fundamentally new ways of being and relating, offering new perspectives and modes of action: In play we manifest fresh, interactive ways of relating with people, animals, things, ideas, images, ourselves. It flies in the face of social hierarchies. We toss together elements that were formerly separate. Our actions take on novel sequences. To play is to free ourselves from arbitrary restrictions and expand our field of action. Our play fosters richness of response and adaptive flexibility. This is the evolutionary value of play - play makes us flexible. By reinterpreting reality and begetting novelty, we keep from becoming rigid. Play enables us to rearrange our capacities and our very identity so that they can be used in unforeseen ways. 239 The processes which Nachmanovich refers to can be found in many of the participants’ responses: • Being able to step outside one’s narrow, little world and enter a world of a certain abnormality … • opening myself up to movement within myself - fixed ideas can quickly become very unimportant while clowning • find a new relationship to whatever one clowns about (clowning situation) • looking at the world through the eyes of a clown • new insights, new views, helps along on the way to tolerance. W. H. English Fortnight 2000 (f) I have the feeling, that it helped me to see things from an unknown perspective. L.B. English Week 2004 (f) • Taking off masks; • more understanding for the feelings and masks of the others; • Experiencing freedom (if one had enough courage to overcome fears, anxieities and pre-conceptions); V.K. Baltic Seminar (f) This first phase of the clowning workshops touching upon physical/ physiolog‐ ical as well as emotional and mental dimensions of experience can be seen as a carefully designed preparation for the improvisational work which followed. Although, they were generally experienced as highly liberating, it would be inaccurate to conclude that all these exercises and games were only fun. Each 184 8 Discussion of the Participants’ Responses <?page no="185"?> 240 Peter Brook, The Open Door: Thoughts on Acting and Theatre. (New York: Theatre Communications Group/ Pantheon Books, 1995), 22-23. of these exercises requires transcending familiar borders: sometimes gently, sometimes abruptly, most of the time amusingly. They all require high degrees of attention and awareness, whether in having to simultaneously imitate four people in ‘Simultaneous Leader’, in the sudden and wild reversals of roles in ‘Cat and Mouse’, or in the somber, receptive grace of the ‘Pivot Dance’. Some require a complete letting go and a literal, blind trust as in the ‘Guardian Angel’; others an absolute presence and attention co-occurring with free imaginative play such as in ‘The Mime and the Storyteller’. All the elements which are present and referred to in the next improvisational phase can also be found here, albeit in the context of the group rather than alone, and in the exclusive context of playing with each other rather than performing for each other. Viewed from this perspective it becomes apparent that such preliminary work in an artistic context can be seen as having two components: first, such warm-ups are designed to create an optimal physical, emotional and mental basis for what immediately follows and, secondly, they lead to the further growth and development of those dimensions of imagination, attention and movement which they address. The director Peter Brook has compared such work in theatre to the daily watering of a garden and thus constituting the essential basis for growth and sustenance. He sees the development of physical sensitivity as a significant element in this process: The body that is fat and clumsy and the one that is young and quick must be equally fine in their sensitivity. When our actors do acrobatic exercises, it is to develop sensitivity and not acrobatic ability. An actor who never does any exercise “acts from the shoulders up”. 240 Brook maintains that it is this sensitivity which provides the physical basis enabling the actor to reach a state of openness, which he considers to be the precondition of inspiration in theatre. Achieving such a state, which he also calls a form of ‘emptiness’, is dependent on the simultaneous integration of the appropriate physical state with a heightened presence and focus unburdened by everyday habits of thinking: An untrained body is like an untuned musical instrument - its sounding box is filled with a confusing and ugly jangle of useless noises that prevent the true melody from being heard. When the actor’s instrument is tuned by exercises, the wasteful tensions and habits vanish. He is now ready to open himself to the unlimited possibilities of emptiness. (…) In the theatre one can taste the absolute reality of the extraordinary 185 8.3 Warm-Ups in Artistic Work and Clowning <?page no="186"?> 241 Brook 1995, 24. 242 Nina Bull, The Attitude Theory of Emotion. (New York: Nervous and Mental Disease Monograph, no. 81, Coolidge Foundations Publishers, 1951). presence of emptiness, as compared with the poverty-stricken jumble in a head crammed with thinking. 241 Brook’s observations are equally valid for clowning. The great challenge for the clown is to perceive and create within the “unlimited possibilities of emptiness”. This also requires a kind of ‘tuning’ of the body and mind, a freeing from “wasteful tensions and habits”. In the context of the clowning workshops, the immediate consequences of this phase, opening up the participants for what was to come, can be considered the primary goal. However, the fact that, at the same time, developmental processes invariably co-occurred can be considered as significant regarding the potential long-term significance of such work as well. The participants’ strikingly vivid recollections of this phase of the workshops also raise the question of whether these strong feelings of openness and freedom were contributing factors not only to the intensity of the memories, but to the long-term effects of the courses as well. In addressing these issues it will be necessary to look more closely at the relation between motor attitude and behaviour. 8.3.2 Motor Attitude and Behavior: Judgements of the Muscles In examining the significance and effects of this first warm-up phase there are not only illuminating parallels that can be drawn to the other performing arts, but it will also be instructive to consider research which has demonstrated the interdependency between the body and emotions in human behaviour. In well-known experiments conducted over a period of twenty years, Nina Bull examined the relations between physical motor attitude and emotional response. 242 Through hypnosis (as a way of excluding a conscious influence on either the body or emotions), she tried to ascertain whether specific body states consistently correspond to specific emotions. Subjects were asked, under hypnosis, to respond to certain words stimulating a certain feeling (disgust, fear, anger, depression, triumph and joy). Thereby, sensitive registrations of body tensions, pressures, and movements were made, along with a record of their behaviour. Bull’s experiments showed that emotion and body attitude were practically inextricable. Although subjects were deeply hypnotised, they were, 186 8 Discussion of the Participants’ Responses <?page no="187"?> 243 Ibid., 86. 244 Ibid., 4. 245 Paul Ekman, “Basic Emotions,” chap. 3 in Handbook of Cognition and Emotion, ed. T. Dalgleish and M. Power (Sussex, U.K.: John Wiley & Sons, 1999) available online at (last accessed on 23.07.2021), https: / / www.paulekman.com/ wp-content/ uploads/ 2013/ 07/ Fa cial-Expression-And-Emotion1.pdf . Ekman, “Facial Expression and Emotion” American Psychologist vol. 48, no. 4 (April 1993): available online at (last accessed on 23.07.2021): www.paulekman.com/ wp-cont ent/ uploads/ 2013/ 07/ Basic-Emotions.pdf . 246 Harald Rugg, Imagination. (New York, Harper & Row, 1963) 63. nevertheless totally unable to obey any command which would have meant separating an emotional reaction from its requisite bodily state. 243 Not only was Bull able to demonstrate the co-occurring interdependence of body attitude and emotion, but she made far-ranging discoveries regarding the timing of these relations. She drew the conclusion that the motor state preceding the emotion is decisive in shaping the emotion itself. The preparatory, incipient physical state cannot be separated from whatever emotion followed. Bull writes: It is not generally appreciated that all action predicates attitude since every kind of bodily movement requires some preliminary postural preparation … the chest of an angry person must be fixed to form a base of operation from which the arms can strike effectively … slow motion pictures show this postural preparation and its follow-up movement as one continuous flow, with no dividing line between the two. 244 (italics in original) In reviewing other relevant neurological and physiological research, it becomes apparent that the decisive influence of prior physical and physiological attitudes in shaping all ensuing behavior can be seen as occurring not only in regard to the determinative qualities of the entire motor attitude, but also with respect to specific physical gestures. The best known research in this regard are the extensive studies which Paul Ekman has conducted over decades on facial mimic. Among his many relevant findings, Ekman was able to document the potential effects of asking people to adopt certain facial expressions which were then shown to decisively affect their co-occurring emotional states not only during the course of the experiments, but afterwards.  245 It has thus become increasingly clear that, in Harald Rugg’s words, “motor attitude is the matrix in which perception occurs.” 246 Rugg, who was one of the first educators to concretely address these issues, writes: These inner tensions in the shoulders and other parts of the body are felt abstractions, felt expressions. Through these muscle senses we distinguish weights, dimensions, 187 8.3 Warm-Ups in Artistic Work and Clowning <?page no="188"?> 247 Ibid., 63-64. resistances. Through this capacity to feel movement we recognise shapes, forces, distances. Thus the inner movements of the body constitute an important instrument by which we respond with meaning to the outside world. (…) One does not go too far, in fact, in saying that the incipient moving, gathering-together process is the meaningful response. (…) We strike appropriate physical attitudes, and corresponding psychological attitudes, or meanings are inextricably fused with them. 247 (emphasis in original) Viewed from this perspective, both the necessity and the value of this dimension of artistic work become apparent. The participants’ responses vividly document the liberating feeling of a new sense of “freedom to explore what you see, feel, touch, sense” a way of experiencing the world in which a “whole new universe opened up”. Such comments mirror my own experiences and observations in the three workshops I attended. These were truly changes that deeply affected participants both emotionally and ‘bodily’. It is significant that one of the effects of this phase was to help participants to let go of their inhibitions towards others and to become freer. A new manner of communication [“eine andere Art von Nähe und Umgang miteinander zu praktizieren”] was experienced and ‘learned’. It was a form of learning based on and occurring through what Rugg has referred to as “the inner movements of the body”, a transformation of the “instrument by which we respond with meaning to the outside world”. In its deep effects on enhancing perception and freeing communication it can be seen as creating the basis for everything that was to follow. In a related vein, Heidegger, drawing on Nietzsche, also argued that physical and emotional expression can only be understood as a unity. Ultimately we dare not split up the matter in such a way, as though there were a bodily state housed in the basement with feelings dwelling upstairs. Feeling, as feeling oneself to be, is precisely the way we are bodily. Bodily being does not mean that the soul is burdened by a lump we call the body, but rather in self-experience the body is in our self all the time and is so in such a way that in being responsible for us it flows through us … We do not ‘have’ a body; rather we ‘are’ bodily. [Am Ende dürfen wir nicht so trennen, als hauste in einem unteren Stockwerk ein Leibzustand und im oberen das Gefühl. Das Gefühl als das Sichfühlen ist gerade die Weise, wie wir leiblich sind; leiblich sein heißt nicht, daß einer Seele noch ein Klotz, genannt Leib, angehängt sei, sondern im Sichfühlen ist der Leib im vorhinein einbehalten in unser Selbst, und zwar so, daß er in seiner Zuständlichkeit uns selbst 188 8 Discussion of the Participants’ Responses <?page no="189"?> 248 Martin Heidegger, “Der Wille zur Macht als Kunst,” in Nietzsche vol. I (Pfullingen: Gunter Neske, 1961) 118. 249 Friedrich Nietzsche, Der Wille zur Macht. Bk. 2, no. 314, (Stuttgart: Alfred Kröner, 1964) 217. 250 S. Bosbach, J. Cole, W. Prinz, & G. Knoblich, “Inferring Another’s Expectation from Action: The Role of Peripheral Sensation.” Nature Neuroscience 8, 2005, 1295-1297, available online at (last accessed on 28.07.2021) https: / / doi.org/ 10.1038/ nn1535. 251 V.S. Ramachandran, “Mirror Neurons and Imitation Learning as the Great Driving Force behind the Great Leap Forward in Evolution.” Edge 69, June 2000, available online at (last accessed on 24.07.2021) https: / / www.edge.org/ conv durchströmt. (…) Wir haben nicht einen Leib, sondern wir sind leiblich.] 248 (emphasis in original) Nietzsche expressed these relations between feelings, personal convictions and their physical embodiment still more radically: Our most sacred convictions, our immutable highest values, are judgments of our muscles. (emphasis in original) [Unsere heiligsten Überzeugungen, unser Unwandelbares in Hinsicht auf oberste Werte sind Urteile unsrer Muskeln.] 249 (emphasis in original) 8.3.3 Proprioception and Communication Neurological research has provided a basis for a more differentiated under‐ standing of some of these complex and far-ranging interrelations between body, emotions and mind, most notably in a communicative context. It has been demonstrated, for instance, that the innate human sense of proprioception (the sensing of one’s own body movements), is not only decisive in regulating and directing one’s own movements and self-perception, but is also the decisive basis for perceiving and sensing the movements of others. In the cases of patients whose sense of physical self awareness was severely impaired, i. e. they could no longer perceive their own body scheme and movements, their abilities to correctly perceive and interpret the movements and physical behavior of another person were also fundamentally disturbed. Hence, the ability to correctly understand the movements of another is seen to be predicated on an inner (generally unconscious) sensing of those same movements. 250 This research also evidences clear parallels to the much heralded discovery of the existence of mirror neurons, demonstrating that comparable patterns of neural activity occur in the same areas of the brain of someone observing specific movements as in the brain of the person making those movements. 251 189 8.3 Warm-Ups in Artistic Work and Clowning <?page no="190"?> ersation/ mirror-neurons-and-imitation-learning-as-the-driving-force-behind-the-grea t-leap-forward-in-human-evolution. 252 The seminal figures in the field of linguistic-kinesic research who advanced a new understanding of the dynamic interactional processes going on between speaker and listener on the level of unconscious micro-kinesic movements are Ray L. Birdwhistell and William S. Condon. Birdwhistell’s book, Kinesics and Context: Essays on Body Motion Communication. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1970) remains a good introduction to this field. I extensively discussed this research with respect to its significance for language acquisition in my book Der Sprachsinn which was first published in 1996. A second edition was published in 2017. 253 M. Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception. Trans. Colin Smith (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1962) 185. 254 M. Merleau Ponty, “The Child’s Relations with Others,” trans. William Cobb, in The Primacy of Perception. Ed. James Edie (Evanston: Northwestern UP, 1964) 118. These findings illuminate complex and dynamic neurological substrates of behaviour in which perception and expression cannot be considered as independent processes, but rather as being fundamentally dependent on each other. Communication viewed in this light is clearly not adequately represented by traditional “sender-receiver” models, but must be seen as far more dynamic and interdependent processes. In a number of relevant fields, most notably in sensory physiology and kinesics, there is now a large body of evidence which effectively refutes those communicational models which assume the passivity of a ‘receiver’. 252 Decades before neurologists and physiologists discovered such phenomena, the French philosopher and phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty made similar observations: The communication or comprehension of gestures comes about through the reci‐ procity of my intentions and the gestures of others, of my gestures and intentions discernible in the conduct of other people. It is as if the other person’s intention inhabited my body and mine his. 253 For Merleau-Ponty, one of the direct consequences of this understanding of human interaction lies in the potential significance of enhancing one’s propriocepetual awareness: To the extent that I can elaborate and extend my corporeal scheme, to the extent that I acquire a better organized experience of my own body, to that very extent will my consciousness of my own body cease being a chaos in which I am submerged and lend itself to a transfer to others. 254 For the participants in the clowning courses the processes of ‘elaborating’ and ‘extending’ physical awareness and presence can be seen as a decisive aspect 190 8 Discussion of the Participants’ Responses <?page no="191"?> 255 Maurice Merleau-Ponty, “Eye and Mind,” trans. William Cobb, in The Primacy of Perception. Ed. James Edie (Evanston: Northwestern UP, 1964), 160-61. of the first hour of working together, leading to a ‘transfer to others’ which manifested itself in different ways. Beginning with the very first tasks designed to develop an initial physical awareness of the space and continuing through a variety of challenging games and exercises, heightened degrees of perception, expression and communication were called upon. Included in this process of ordering bodily experience were phases of active, playful movement (“Cat and Mouse”), as well as much slower and sensitized movement (“Pivot Dance”, “Guardian Angel”). This broad range of experiences can be seen as providing the basis for that kind of “elaboration” and “extension”of physical self-con‐ sciousness which Merleau-Ponty deemed essential in enhancing perception and communication. The necessity of going beyond an informational approach to human knowledge and considering the significance of direct sensory experience is a theme going through Merleau-Ponty’s writings: Scientific thinking, a thinking which looks on from above, and thinks of the object - in general must return to the “there is” which underlies it: to the site, the soil of the sensible and opened world such as it is in our life and for our body - not that possible body which we may legitimately think of as an information machine but that actual body I call mine, this sentinel standing quietly at the command of my words and acts. 255 Although it is precisely the “there is” of teaching which in-service teacher education has generally tried to address, there has been a striking lack of attention paid to the implications of what this means on its most direct and immediate level of physical and perceptual experience. 8.3.4 Consequences for In-Service Development The sensory dimensions which have been addressed here have been largely ignored in in-service language teacher development. This general deficit can be viewed as particularly acute in considering the goal of helping the teacher in her actual work in the classroom. Most teacher training and teacher development courses are based on an underlying cognitive approach to both teaching and learning. The origins and justifications for this approach can be found in the nature of pre-service academic programs. The widespread difficulties in affecting meaningful teacher change must be considered in the light of these prevalent attitudes. 191 8.3 Warm-Ups in Artistic Work and Clowning <?page no="192"?> An exclusively cognitive approach to teacher development stands in apparent contradiction to the wide range of physiological and neurological research which has emphasized the decisive importance of sensory/ affective experience in affecting behaviour. Attempting to change habits of behaviour and thinking through an intellectual approach to learning also ignores the rich and varied traditions of the performing arts in which changes are predicated on their occurring through and within the bodies of the actor, dancer, or musician. Herein lays a profound difference between traditional forms of in-service courses for language teachers and the clowning workshops, as well as the other artistic courses offered at the English Week. This lack of knowledge and/ or interest in learning from the arts is clearly linked to the prevailing concept/ s of the teacher as a scientist examined in Chapter 1. Such views of teaching and schooling do not lend themselves to an understanding of teacher development based on “elaborat(ing) and extend(ing) my corporeal scheme”. It is within the context of viewing teaching as an art that it becomes natural and incumbent to consider these dimensions of experience and knowledge as an essential aspect in learning and growth. 8.3.5 Related Developments in In-Service Language Teacher Training There have been a few noteworthy exceptions to traditional, cognitively based approaches to in-service language teacher development. Unsurprisingly, these have often been instituted by persons involved in connecting language learning to dramatic processes and techniques. In the context of in-service teacher development, Alan Maley, Mario Rinvolucri, Bernard Dufeau and Manfred Schewe have emerged as prominent figures. In Chapter 10, their specific contributions to the field of foreign language teaching will be examined in more detail. Each of them has addressed dimensions of experience with a strong basis in the traditions of the performing arts. Maley writes, Undoubtedly, a significant part of the effect teachers have derives from their physical presence. Our body and what we do with it is our prime teaching resource. And, because it is observable, we can relatively easily both raise trainees’ awareness of physical factors and train them to make the best of them. The main physical components are: posture, breathing, voice, gesture/ expression, dress/ appearance. Of these the inter-related trio of posture/ breathing/ voice are in my view both the most important the most amenable to training. And I would strongly 192 8 Discussion of the Participants’ Responses <?page no="193"?> 256 Alan Maley, “Finding the Centre,” The Teacher Trainer vol. 7 no. 3, (1993): 14-15. 257 Ibid. contend that some sort of ‘physical’ training (not in the sense of physical jerks! ) should form an integral part of training programmes. 256 Maley develops connections between this type of ‘physical training’ and the act of teaching. In this context he addresses what he considers to be another one of the essential tasks of in-service development; helping teachers to achieve “a calm and balanced centre”: The problem for trainers is precisely how to train/ develop this ‘centering’ process so that trainees can operate with ‘effortless effort’. (…) We can recognise this harmony between forces, where we cannot ‘tell the dancer from the dance’ - but to produce it is more problematical. But I would argue again that we need to make the effort to provide some formal training in this area too. 257 In this respect, the English Week provides a number of concrete examples of how such processes can be incorporated into in-service development. In comparing Robert McNeer’s course Literature in Performance (3.3) with the clowning courses, the parallels between the goals and forms of the entire preliminary work are striking and can be considered to be far more significant than the differences. Generally speaking, the same can be said to be true of this first phase in most of the different drama workshops offered at the English Week, all of which draw upon the extensive traditions and practices of the performing arts. Irrespective of whether the focus is on drama, storytelling, literature in performance, or clowning, the awakening of potentials of perception and expression is seen as being inextricably tied to attaining the requisite physiological/ physical attitudes. At the end of the first hour of any of these courses, the same types of processes have occurred; both for each participant, as well as with respect to the dynamics of the entire group. The significant differences between each of the artistic/ dramatic workshops do not reside in how they begin, but in what follows. 8.4 The Improvisations / Experiencing the ‘Empty Space’ As becomes clear in the participants’ responses, there was a clear break between the first phase which was generally experienced as very playful, and the strong fears which the initial improvisations evoked in everyone. Their anxieties about the first improvisations often had almost existential qualities: to go on stage 193 8.4 The Improvisations / Experiencing the ‘Empty Space’ <?page no="194"?> with a complete absence of plans or ideas, being asked to simply trust that something was going to happen seemed completely removed from previous life experiences. As Gladwell says, It is an invitation to do something that feels totally counter-intuitive to any normal people. That is to come on stage and not plan what you are going to do or come with an idea, but to wait until something happens - not to make it happen, but to wait until it happens. The thought is terrifying and totally weird. (Interview 4) Even after watching wonderful moments develop spontaneously with other par‐ ticipants, the intense fears and doubts that each person experienced before their own improvisation remained. Confronting these fears and then overcoming them in performance must be considered a vital aspect of what occurred for the participants in these workshops. This becomes apparent not only in the descriptions of how participants felt before performing, but in the feelings of release they experienced afterwards. Such anxieties could only be overcome through the improvisations themselves: I was angry at myself for being a chicken at first and waiting to be nearly the last one to step onto the stage for the first time. I was so nervous. But more than the fear of making a fool of myself I felt the danger of becoming excluded from something apparently very important and nice. So I made up my mind and went. Overcoming one’s fear was exhilarating. V.S. Baltic Seminar (f) Then we had to show something in front of others. I had to use all my will and courage. I felt like jumping in cold water or jumping from a high cliff or taking off a mask. Interesting, we put on something, but the feeling was that you are taking something off. G.M. Baltic Seminar (f) After the first course I remember saying to Vivian, “Thank you for making me do scary things”, for as much as I was looking forward to crossing the line (of the stage), it scared me to the bone. S.V. Witten 2003, 2004 (f) Educators like Legutke, Underhill, Sarason and others have consistently em‐ phasized that affecting meaningful teacher change depends on creating an environment in which it becomes possible to take risks, leave familiar paths and enter into unfamiliar processes with unknown ends (2.3, 2.4). The responses of the participants make clear that the clowning workshops provided unique pos‐ sibilities of risking such steps and making such changes. Although “scared to the bone” and facing personal risks (“jumping from a high cliff ”), participants were able to overcome their fears and make crucial steps. The widely acknowledged difficulties of instituting teacher change; “(I)f anything is incontrovertible in the literature on educational reform, it is how difficult it is to get teachers to 194 8 Discussion of the Participants’ Responses <?page no="195"?> 258 Albert Camus, Notebooks: 1935-1942. (New York: Marlowe, 1996) 13-14. change their accustomed beliefs and practices” (Sarason, 1999), must be seen in the context of these courses in a radically different light: After having put the red nose on and having looked at the audience a part of me died and I got connected with a new part I had not really known I had had. Well, I have it. And I have it still. I like it. I think it can be liked by some other people as well. V.S. Baltic Seminar (f) I have never thought in the beginning of a course that I would be able to do something I have never prepared or planned. And (! ) in front of people, whom I scarcely know. Vivian’s course helped me a lot to change my personality or it at least started, gave impulse to this process. To gain more courage to do things I have never tried before - and of course - in the classroom during my English lessons. To push the boundaries of abilities and possibilities. To face the unexpected without fear. T.E. English Week 2004 (f) Almost all of the responses directly refer to these challenges and the personal meaning that making these steps had for them. There is a striking sense of liberation and discovery going through many of the responses - “a new part I had not really known I had had”. Such processes can be seen as analogous to what Albert Camus wrote about the fears and possibilities inherent in encountering something ‘foreign’ while travelling. He argued that it is only through overcoming one’s existential fears of leaving what is familiar that it becomes possible to experience new dimensions in oneself: What gives value to travel is fear when we encounter something foreign and are challenged to enlarge our thinking, our identity, our lives. It is a fact that, at a certain moment, when we are so far from our own country…we are seized by a vague fear, and an instinctive desire to go back to the protection of old habits … At that moment, we are feverish but also porous, so that the slightest touch makes us quiver to the depths of our being. We come across a cascade of light and there is eternity. 258 In considering what the participants wrote, it becomes evident that these courses can be seen as offering a paradigm of how such fears of the unfamiliar can be overcome and what this can mean afterwards. A decisive question raised in this context is the concrete relation of such processes to teaching. In considering the specific connections between what the participants experienced in the improvisations and possible effects on their teaching it will be necessary to look more closely at the different aspects of what the improvisations called for. 195 8.4 The Improvisations / Experiencing the ‘Empty Space’ <?page no="196"?> 8.4.1 Genuineness in Clowning and Teaching It is the genuineness of the clown on the empty stage, openly living through his or her feelings that distinguishes clowning so clearly from other forms of theatre. The humorous and touching qualities of such moments depend on the clown’s observing the two golden rules of clowning: not having planned anything and becoming fully transparent through looking at the audience, who thus gets to fully witness and respond to the clown’s situation. In discussing his reasons for beginning the improvisation work with solo-im‐ provisations, rather than with the ostensibly easier partner work, Gladwell explains the significance of what had to be learned in these first steps: The solo-improvisation is where you are the most confronted by emptiness. If you started by improvising with a partner, you could easily get the wrong idea about clowning improvisation because a partner would fill the emptiness. It is important for someone starting in this work to connect to what is at the core of clowning which is something around space, emptiness and presence. (Interview 5) What each of the participants learned through their own improvisations and the feedback they got afterwards, as well as through watching the others, is that this honesty in showing one’s true feelings, even feelings of fear and uncertainty, can become very moving for an audience. The decisive transformation occurs when the participant recognizes that this form of transparency, normally most dreaded in life, can actually be enjoyed by the clown on stage together with the audience. This is the moment Gladwell is speaking of when he says, Once someone’s focus is not on what has to happen, but on what is being lived, they start to enjoy those feelings … you begin to relax into your failures, your incompetence and it all going wrong. (Interview 5) One of the most common experiences which many participants referred to was how important it was for them to learn to accept the feeling that ‘things can go wrong’, that ‘accidents are gifts’; thereby learning to accept and even enjoy the clown’s incompetence. The fact that this learning process was wholly dependent on it being fully visible - being looked at and looking back at the audience - is certainly one of the reasons why, as Gladwell remarked, clowning can at first seem so “terrifying and totally weird.” One of the decisive breakthroughs which almost every participant made was to realize how liberating this experience of complete transparency could be. In an earlier section (5.2), the central role of the writings of Carl Rogers in Gladwell and Bata Clowns’ development was elucidated, in particular his con‐ viction that an individual’s sense of wholeness and authenticity was dependent 196 8 Discussion of the Participants’ Responses <?page no="197"?> 259 Carl Rogers, “The Interpersonal Relationship in the Facilitation of Learning.” chap. 21 in The Carl Rogers Reader. (1989) 306. 260 Ibid. on her establishing a fundamental congruence between what she feels and her awareness of those feelings. A decisive connection can also be made in this respect to Rogers’ lifelong work in the field of education. For Rogers this element of authenticity or genuineness was also one of the essential criteria of good teaching: When the facilitator is a real person, being what she is, entering into a relationship with the learner without presenting a front or a facade, she is much more likely to be effective. This means that the feelings that she is experiencing are available to her, available to her awareness, that she is able to live these feelings, be them, and able to communicate them if appropriate. 259 For Rogers, the teacher “being herself and not denying herself ” and not hiding behind “the façade of being a teacher” is the key to her establishing a direct personal relation with the learner. At the same time he stresses that this does not mean that it is then desirable or appropriate for the teacher to express all her feelings to her pupils. Exactly an awareness and acceptance of her feelings becomes the basis for a free and conscious choice. He writes, Because she accepts these feelings as her own, she has no need to impose them on her students. 260 Learning to accept feelings and then transparently showing them and living them out on stage can be seen as the basis of clowning. In different responses these dimensions of self-acceptance, of genuineness, are referred to as one of the central experiences of having taken the course and are often directly linked to teaching: As for possible advantages for actual classes which were obtained through clowning practice, I personally think that to be honest to one’s own feeling is what I learned from clowning experiences. A.N.English Week 2002 (m) Important aspects of the exercises: Learning to let go Having no fear of making a fool of yourself Learning to accept yourself as vulnerable and fallible Burying the image of the teacher as being perfect, all-knowing and fully competent C.N English week 2004 (m) 197 8.4 The Improvisations / Experiencing the ‘Empty Space’ <?page no="198"?> One of the lines that Gladwell most often called out during the improvisations was ‘Stay with the problem’. This simple admonition contains the essence of what clowning requires and what can make it so funny and beautiful to watch. Those moments of the clown visibly struggling, letting the audience fully witness and sympathize with his difficulties, become humorous for everyone involved. From the very first improvisations on, the moving qualities of such moments become apparent: first to those watching and then through their resonance and later their feedback to the person on stage. In the course of the week being ‘lost’ on stage, increasingly came not only to be accepted, but to be enjoyed. Both clown and audience experience something very deeply in the genuineness of the clown, protected only by his red nose and costume: Thus I learned, on the one hand, how to make people laugh - there were exact instructions on how to do this through Vivian’s famous phrases, ‘Stay with this’, ‘Look at this’, ‘Take your time’, ‘Enjoy yourself ’ - and, on the other hand, there was the continual practicing to overcome and go past the embarrassing feeling of being foolish and stupid. The second task was much more difficult than the first. But after this course I had the feeling of being free from the laughter and criticism of others. I can’t exactly describe this, but it is more of a feeling that I have let go of something. P.I. Baltic Seminar (f) And it turned out to be a play, but in its most serious meaning. I was supposed to play, but not pretend, be someone else but remain myself, as if the inner self rises up to the surface and becomes obvious to the people, the audience. You do it with fear and pleasure at the same time. T.L. Baltic Seminar (f) I am glad to say that I am, hopefully, saying goodbye to the fear of making mistakes or being ungainly and gradually finding a peace, not a compromise with myself. L.S. English Week 2005 (f) Interesting, we put on something, but the feeling was that you are taking something off. G.M. Baltic Seminar (f) The direct contact the clown establishes through looking at the audience is an essential element of clowning which was learned in the very first improvisation and consistently worked on through the course of the workshops. Gladwell’s constant injunction - ‘Look at us’ - was a reminder, that in contrast to acting, clowning calls for a kind of transparency which is predicated on eye contact between the clown on stage and her audience. This is why he starts with the simple (and terrifying) exercise of ‘encountering’ an object on stage (7.2.4). All the warm-ups and games can be seen in a certain respect as a preparation for that first encounter with the object, the audience and oneself. The ensuing discovery 198 8 Discussion of the Participants’ Responses <?page no="199"?> of the possibilities inherent in establishing this relation to the audience led to fundamental revisions of prior assumptions and fears: The audience who I had previously feared, stopped being ‘foreign elements’ [Fremd‐ körper] and became part of the situation, at the latest when I established contact to the situation. They even became helpful because their reactions made it possible for me to make contact with them and thus they ‘extended’ and enriched the situation. D.K. English Week 1999,2003 (f) One of the aspects most commonly referred to in the participants’ responses was a new realization of the significance of this form of contact, not only during clowning but in their teaching: ‘The clown consciously looks at a person in the eyes’. After this course I more consciously sought eye contact with the pupils and could therefore establish closer contact to them. I found out that the group members were my audience in the same way as my pupils are in class, and that I actually had neglected the importance of eye contact so far. K.I. English Week 2004 (f) I look into their eyes much more often and it feels as if clowning helps me to perceive ‘myself ‘ and ‘my self ‘ which, in turn, enables me to be more with the children. F.A. English Week 2003, 2004 (f) 8.4.2 Genuineness and Teacher Change Much of the literature on the difficulties of affecting teacher change has referred to the problems inherent in openly confronting difficulties and accepting the feelings of inadequacy that this generally implies. In this context, A. Underhill has elucidated four stages of teacher change and development which he views as being necessary to go through in order to establish new competences in teaching: • Unconscious incompetence I am not aware of something I am not doing well. • Conscious incompetence I become aware of doing something in a way that is not what I want. • Conscious competence I find that I can do this thing in a better way as long as I keep my attention on it. • Unconscious competence 199 8.4 The Improvisations / Experiencing the ‘Empty Space’ <?page no="200"?> 261 Adrian Underhill, “Confidence in Class,” Teacher Development Newsletter 4, 9, quoted in Head & Taylor (1997), 48. 262 Ibid. This becomes natural, leaving my attention free for something else. 261 He points out that the critical stage is invariably stage 2, since that is the one in which the teacher has to face her weaknesses and accept her vulnerability. He writes, Whatever the focus, there is often a tendency among teachers to miss out stage 2, since that is the one that hurts. This is where I am likely to feel deskilled and destabilised. But the fact that it hurts is precisely of the disparity between the effect I think I am having and the effect that I find I am actually having. Once I become defensively identified with a certain self-image it becomes difficult to open up to the risk that I am not what I imagine myself to be, and this is perhaps the biggest single obstacle to my development. 262 It lies in the very nature of clowning that such fears are addressed and felt most directly. At the same time, in the carefully ‘protected space’ of the clowning workshops and under sensitive guidance, the participants learn to face these anxieties in a completely new manner. This is not an intellectual process; it has to be experienced and lived through: And I realized that this is not a subject just to talk about, but something I had to experience myself. I am very grateful that I had the possibility to get involved, got moved, was allowed to experience. K.I. ,English Week 2004 (f) To discover a few miraculous seconds of ego loss is extremely liberating. I likened it to Zen. It has a sort of harshness that is beneficial. It cuts through to the “true you” It is the one hand clapping, the tree falling down unseen in the forest. It is, in fact, extremely difficult to describe. It has to be experienced in the laboratory of one’s own nervous system. S.P. English Week 2004 (m) The far-ranging significance of having learned to accept and then enjoy what they were feeling while improvising on stage is illuminated by what many participants wrote. To a striking degree, these experiences and the resulting changes remained very real for them: what they had lived through on stage entered into their lives and changed them. Although these processes occurred while clowning with a red nose in a space which bears little external resemblance to the classroom, the participants make apparent that the disparity of these settings are often transcended in their experiences. The connections which they have drawn to teaching are manifold. They exist both in the heightened 200 8 Discussion of the Participants’ Responses <?page no="201"?> transparency and genuineness of the teacher while teaching, as well as in a different understanding and acceptance of vulnerability and weaknesses. At the same time, these processes were co-occurring with a number of others which also constitute vital elements of clowning. 8.4.3 The Art of Improvisation and the ‘Here and Now’ Even though each improvisation has a different structure and creates new and specific challenges, the kinds of steps which clowning and improvisation con‐ tinually require remain in essential respects the same. Although the experience of being on stage without any plans in that ‘empty space’ gradually became more familiar to participants, it does not appear to have been experienced less intensely. The feeling of those charged moments in which one tries to let go of one’s ‘ideas’ in order to be fully open to the presence of the ‘here and now’ was consistently described as one of the most remarkable aspects of the entire course. This is also the dimension of clowning which most clearly differs from other types of drama courses. Although they clearly have many elements in common and lead to similar forms of development in areas such as focus, awareness, imagination and expression, there are also vital differences between the clowning and all other forms of dramatic work. In contrast to the rehearsed poem, story, scene etc. which then becomes a medium for artistic and personal growth, in clowning nothing has been prepared. The ‘only’ thing that has been practiced beforehand is to be completely open and receptive to what is happening at that moment. This also means developing an enhanced degree of presence which enables one to perceptively receive and creatively react to a great many impulses at the same time. This becomes evident, for instance, in an improvisation in which three people are simultaneously trying to develop a coherent framework which is only coming into existence in that very moment. This obviously poses a highly complex task for everyone involved. In such moments, if one of the participants tries, for instance, to ‘push through’ a pre-conceived idea, the improvisation will invariably be hindered, since it is the spontaneous and common growth of an idea which lies at the heart of group clowning. Conversely, if one of the participants is not receptive to what the others are doing, the improvisation can also be fundamentally blocked. In this continual challenge of accepting and entering into the responses of the others while being open to one’s own creative impulses, the essence of clowning becomes visible. Thus, the moments on stage in clowning are charged with a high degree of energy and attention which were 201 8.4 The Improvisations / Experiencing the ‘Empty Space’ <?page no="202"?> 263 Bonange 1996, 2, 4. consistently referred to by participants as ‘living in the moment’, ‘being here and now’, ‘living absolutely in the present’. Maintaining such continuity from moment to moment in clowning requires a total awareness and receptivity, while at the same time not losing touch with one’s creative impulses. This sometimes led to a fundamentally different experience of time: Stopping the time is what clowning has come to mean to me. Being here and now, totally. V.S .Baltic Seminar (f) For many participants it was this experience of ‘living in the present’ while clowning which they most directly connected with their teaching: I also experienced that I could not only rely on my own plans, but also on the atmosphere, what’s present, what lives within the moment. (…) I gathered a lot of self-confidence, confidence in my own abilities and in the “chance of the present” K. I. English Week 2004 (f) This ‘living for the moment’ ‘living absolutely in the present’ is the situation the teacher is in at every moment in every lesson at school. We must constantly ‘expect the unexpected’. A successful coping with such a situation can often be the highlight of a lesson, as experienced teachers will confirm. This practicing and honing of one’s power to ‘really live in the present’ is, for this reason, very useful for the teacher”. D.N. English Week 2004 (m) Jean-Bernard Bonange, one of the founders of Bata Clown, has characterized the clown as embodying the duality of always being firmly grounded on the earth and at the same time wholly free in being able to discover her unlimited imaginative possibilities in every moment. He writes: In clowning we rediscover that same child-like sense of playfulness which allows us with fear and pleasure, to open the door to our imagination. (…) Being a clown is more than a state, it is a movement, a dynamic process - it is even a two way movement: feet on the ground and head in the clouds. It is this duality which facilitates the emergence of the imagination. Feet on the ground means remaining alert, all senses alive, to the concrete and objective reality that surrounds us. When we smell, see, hear and touch we open ourselves to being touched by the presence of the world. This presence in concrete reality is the basis for the clown’s imagination. As with the child’s symbolic play, the clown finds at the heart of objects, of bodies, of actions and of space, a gold mine. 263 202 8 Discussion of the Participants’ Responses <?page no="203"?> 264 Merleau-Ponty 1964, 160-161. The crucial role of the sensory and perceptual activities which were practiced throughout the entire first phase becomes apparent here. It is the clown’s firmly grounded basis in sensory experience, combined with alertness “all senses alive” that enable him or her to be “touched by the presence of the world”. Improvisation is based on this direct bodily experience and learning to discover through the senses the “heart of objects, of bodies, ofactions and of space, a gold mine…” The connections to Merleau-Ponty’s “there is” occurring on “the soil of the sensible and opened world such as it is in our life and for our body” are evident. “(T)hat actual body I call mine, this sentinel standing quietly” 264 is what also presents the concrete sensory basis for the imagination of the clown with her “head in the clouds”. In improvising, this duality of “feet on the ground and head in the clouds” has to be brought together in the moment, each totally dependent on the co-occurring presence of the other: Then I realised that one of the most important things is to be receptive, attentive in listening to one’s senses, one’s physical body and the world around. When you find this state, when you manage to follow Vivian’s request not to come on stage with an idea what to do, a fixed plan, then you feel that something is being realised in you, and you are as if carried by a flow beyond yourself. You are not the same any more, you can hear and perceive more, you become more alive. T.L. Baltic Seminar (f) The clown is like the young child - wholly a sensory organ, he explores his environment completely without preconceptions and gaining unexpected insights into reality and experiencing everything physically. F.C. Schloss Hamborn 1998, 1999, English Fortnight 2000, Witten 2003) (f) What is particularly striking in many responses is how the intense ‘here and now’ of the improvisations were experienced as the simultaneous enhancing of the perception/ s of others, (“you can hear and perceive more”) and, at the same time, feeling “closer to myself ”. These parallel processes appear to be inextricably related to each other. This is closely tied to the critical role which both receptivity and acceptance play in clowning. They constitute decisive elements of the clown’s general attitude - continually receiving and accepting impulses from objects, situations and others, as well as receiving and accepting his own. Herein also lay far-ranging connections to teaching which were felt and expressed by the participants. 203 8.4 The Improvisations / Experiencing the ‘Empty Space’ <?page no="204"?> 8.4.4 Developing Receptivity and Acceptance in Clowning and Teaching When one crosses the line of the stage with a red nose and no plans, the only way for an improvisation to develop is through receiving. This is what is first experienced and practiced in the initial improvisatory exercise with an object on stage, holding it, letting it ‘speak ‘and trusting that something will develop (7.2.4). Later in the first improvisations, wearing a red nose and costume one begins by exploring the surrounding space. Wholly dependent on an openness and receptivity to the entire situation, a ‘story’ begins to emerge. As we have noted, in these moments of ‘searching’, maintaining eye contact to the audience is crucial, as this allows the audience to see what the clown is going through and to respond to it. At the same time, it also gives the clown a resonance which is essential for something to develop. In the ensuing improvisations with two or three people, these underlying elements remain the same. Thus, the crucial factor that leads to the creation of each situation and ‘story’ is the clown’s openness to what is happening, fully receiving and accepting what is coming, whether from the objects, the other clowns on stage, or from the audience. The importance of acceptance in these moments is something that Gladwell continually reminds participants of while they are improvising, by calling out ‘Yes, yes, stay with that’, ‘Stay with the problem’, ‘Stick with it’. These are injunctions to completely accept all that is happening or not happening in that moment, for, in reality, far more is taking place in such moments than the person on stage can realize. For the people watching it becomes evident that this fundamental underlying gesture of accepting everything that is happening, regardless of the difficulties and surprises it may present, is the essential attitude of the clown for whom ‘nothing can go wrong’. In fact, the full acceptance of something ‘going wrong’ is very moving and funny. In the end, it is exactly the surprises, the problems the ‘accidents’ which often lead to the richest moments in the improvisations. For many teachers this realization had profound effects on their teaching and in their lives: The sentence, ‘Enjoy the feeling of incompetence’ had gone straight into my heart and has helped me ever since. I started to let go of perfectionism and of standards that I would never be able to reach. F.A. English Week 2003, 2004 (f) As for me, the word ‘accident’ got a completely new meaning. It might be even a ‘funny’ one. In my everyday life - perhaps at school - it helped me not be afraid of unexpected things, but rather - in Vivian’s sense - to be glad to have such “accidents”. L. B. English Week 2004 (f) 204 8 Discussion of the Participants’ Responses <?page no="205"?> …being different is not wrong, it’s normal, that making mistakes is not unusual and that imperfection is not tragic because, as Vivian used to say, ‘Nothing can go wrong’. F. I. English Week 2005 (f) As Bonange has made clear, the clown’s attitude is based on a deep sympathy for the world. Continually believing in the existence of a “a gold mine” to be found in objects, bodies and others, the clown explores her space, dependent on that degree of openness and awareness which will enable her to perceive these riches. Through clowning, the participants experienced another manner of perception. Some of them wrote about the way they then learned to see things they would have previously ignored: Clowning helps focus on the trivial, little things in life - made me aware of basics I would otherwise not notice. It seems like we were practicing focusing in on small things - learning that small steps, little processes are important. W.S. English Week 2005 (f) What I learned this time was that SMALL THINGS MATTER! During a partner work we had moved on too quickly and overlooked situations, which we could have worked with if we had appreciated their importance. S.V. Witten 2003, 2004 (f) New levels and forms of awareness were experienced. It does not appear to be fully explainable as a heightened degree of attentiveness; some responses point to a principally different manner of perception. Some participants attempted to describe a form of perception in which they felt ‘spoken to’ - provided they were able to remain open and wait: Every time I stepped over that line a unique and ‘authentic’ interaction occurred between the things in the room (including smells, sounds and voices) and the way I dealt with them (both inwardly and outwardly). On closer observation, it was not that I actually dealt with these things but rather that they dealt with me and I didn’t have to do anything except to be open to them. D.K. English Week 1999, 2003 (f) I see how the biggest challenge is to stay with the feelings, be present to what is going on, keep connecting to the audience and sharing what I am experiencing, and then to learn to be patient and wait for the object to speak to me. B. C. English Week 2003, 2005 (f) At the same time, along with these dynamic relations occurring on stage, there is a co-occurring, parallel exchange with the audience which also becomes a vital dimension of the process for each individual, as well as for the group. I had never experienced such an intense atmosphere of serenity, of being protected, of feeling genuine affection to people so different from you because you were enabled 205 8.4 The Improvisations / Experiencing the ‘Empty Space’ <?page no="206"?> to see through the outer layers directly into their inner beauty … L.S. English Week 2005 (f) A further consequence of this heightened experience of the ‘other’ which some participants experienced occurred only afterwards, in their perceptions of their pupils: It has been a lot of fun, but the importance of the ability of transcending of borders for a teacher has also struck me. Really that is what we are helping children as class teachers and language teachers, and how could we do it better than with a sense of humour coming out of the moment, which you have as a clown? S.V. Witten 2003, 2004 (f) It is evident that on different levels, clowning opens participants to the moment, to others and to themselves. Within microseconds impulses are given, received and returned. The immense challenges involved in having two or three people trying to do this spontaneously and simultaneously are apparent. The fact that time and time again wonderful improvisations develop is a tribute to the degrees of attentiveness which have been developed up to that point. The significance that this had for the participants is reflected in their responses. The potential meaning of such experiences for teachers can hardly be overestimated. Developing more attentiveness to pupils and to the dynamics of the classroom are elements which have consistently been stressed as among the most decisive aspects of teaching; at the same time, they have often been considered to be among the most difficult skills to help teachers attain. 8.4.5 Sympathy and Caring in Clowning and Teaching The ‘gold mine’ which the clown can discover in her developing relationships to objects, situations and people on stage is also contingent on an inner gesture of extending sympathy, on her caring about what she finds in every moment. In the clown’s unpremeditated response to the situation she confronts, we are most moved and often amused when we see that this response stems from an underlying sympathy for the ‘other’ - whether another clown or an object. For John Dewey, the attitude of sympathy was the crucial element which was required in all teaching, the necessary basis from which morally valid educational judgements could be made: It is sympathy which carries thought out beyond the self and which extends its scope till it approaches the universal as its limit. It is sympathy which saves consideration of consequences from degenerating into mere calculation, by rendering vivid the 206 8 Discussion of the Participants’ Responses <?page no="207"?> 265 John Dewey, Ethics: The Later Works 1925-1954. Vol.7 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1985) 270. 266 Ibid. 267 Garrison 1997, 45. interests of others and urging us to give them the same weight as those which touch our own. (…) To put ourselves in the place of others, to see things from the standpoint of their purposes and values, to humble, contrariwise, our pretensions and claim…is the surest way to attain objectivity of moral knowledge. 265 He considered this to be particularly the case in addressing situations as complex as those that regularly occur in a classroom: Sympathy is the animating mold of moral judgment not because its dictates take precedence in action over those of other impulses (which they do not do), but because it furnishes the most efficacious intellectual standpoint. It is the tool, par excellence, for resolving complex situations. 266 (italics in original) This aspect of Dewey’s thought has been pivotal in the thinking of a number of contemporary educators including Jim Garrison. In his book Dewey and Eros (1997) he has written at length about the significance of sympathy and caring in the context of educational relationships: Teachers are moral artists. They, too, have their potentials actualized by the students and by the creative activities in which they engage that allow them to respond in ways that promote the growth of their students. In an expansive caring relationship the roles of teacher and student can reverse in curious ways. In caring for others we not only come to know ourselves but we must explore our interests, develop our abilities, and try out new ideas and attitudes. Restricting ourselves to transactions between human events, we can put the paradox thus: We may actualize our potentials only if we actualize the potential of others and we may actualize the potentials of others only if we actualize our own. 267 For Garrison, one consequence of this paradoxical relation between self-reali‐ zation and helping others realize their potentials is the necessity for teachers to accept the vulnerability which comes with the full acceptance of the reciprocal nature of this relation: Teachers need to be needed. That is the teaching eros, it is how teachers drive to live lives with a funded sense of meaning and value. Needing to be needed is a vulnerable condition, but in an ever-changing, vague, and uncertain world it is the wisest way 207 8.4 The Improvisations / Experiencing the ‘Empty Space’ <?page no="208"?> 268 Ibid., 47. 269 Ibid. to be. It allows us to be open to and perceptive of the needs of others, including our students and ourselves. 268 He draws connections between accepting this state of vulnerability and the fluidity and skilfulness of the teacher in the classroom: The fluidity of freedom of eros can recognize and respond to the complicated, rapidly shifting, and uncertain classroom context in ways that theoretical abstractions can not. 269 Garrison has touched here on a vital aspect linking teaching and clowning. His understanding of the ‘vulnerability’ of the teacher allowing him to be “open and perceptive of the needs of others” is seen as the basis of that attitude which allows him to “respond to the complicated, rapidly shifting and uncertain classroom context”. It is precisely these attributes which clowning calls for and develops. In the distillation of experience intrinsic to artistic performance, participants intensely lived through these processes on stage and then reflected on them afterwards: Clowning is the world of humor. Clowns need to have a sense of humor - to fool themselves. This attitude is necessary for being a teacher especially for making a close link with children. Clowning reflects vulnerable aspects of life. It is very good for teachers to learn vulnerability in people and human life. Their view of life will be broadened. N.H. English Fortnight 2000 (f) Clowning was very emotional and expressive and led to much laughing, but it also took a great deal of strength. I was very tired after these hours. This art is different from others insofar as conscious preparation proved to be ‘wrong’, and an attentive perception of a situation and the simultaneous response to it was ‘correct’ and ‘successful’ K. O. Baltic Seminar (f) The reason why I attend Vivian’s courses is to become more spontaneous and to lose the fear of unknown situations (which as a teacher I have to cope with daily): the trust in breaks/ pauses and the trust that something will come into my mind or that I get inspired by the situation of emptiness is very difficult for me to bear, as I’m often ‘overprepared’ - without listening to what the pupils’ needs are. S.I. English Week 1997.2002 (f) In learning to let go of previous ‘ideas’ and be more receptive to their pupils’ needs, it becomes possible for teachers to free something in their pupils and themselves. As Garrison has argued, this implies an acceptance of vulnerability. 208 8 Discussion of the Participants’ Responses <?page no="209"?> 270 Nel Noddings, “The Caring Teacher,” chap. 7 in Handbook of Research on Teaching. Ed. Richardson, 2001, 99-100. 271 Ibid., 100. It can manifest itself in different ways; in a heightened degree of awareness, in feelings of empathy, and in caring. Nel Noddings has written extensively about the primary significance of caring in education. She has continually stressed the importance of the ‘caring teacher’ as an educational ideal, transcending all issues of methodology and approach. Moreover, she has emphasized the importance of encouraging caring as a key element of a teacher’s own development. In this context she has developed the concept of a ‘cycle of caring’ in which the dynamic relations between the carer and ‘cared for’ are illuminated: If we examine how we are when we care, we see, first, that we are attentive; we try to receive what the other is telling or showing us. In such an encounter, we are not laying our own conceptual structures on the situation … for some moments at least we are receptive. (…) This receptivity is, of course, a prelude to response. When I attend (and it may be to one bubbling over with enthusiasm or joy as well as to a sufferer), I allow myself to be moved by the other’s needs and feelings. (…) My motive energies flow toward the projects of the other. Often I want to remove the pain, share the joy, solve the problem, or promote the project of the other. 270 She considers the consequences of this cycle to be decisive for both the carer and the cared-for: Anyone who has taught feels the importance of this cycle: the receptivity and motivational displacement, the outflow of motive energy (sometimes repeated to the point of fatigue), the responsive grin, a spark in the student’s eye, a spurt of growth, or a courteous gesture toward a fellow student - some sign that the caring has been completed. Without such signs, teachers become exhausted or, in today’s language, “burned out.” 271 It is exactly this ‘giving out and receiving’ which occurs continually and in different ways for the clowns on stage. It becomes visible in the new relation to the audience in which the audience no longer becomes threatening, but instead a source of resonance and inspiration. It also continually occurs when two or three people are improvising together. Some of the richest moments in the improvisations invariably had to do with this caring, the ‘giving out and receiving’ occurring between the persons on stage: 209 8.4 The Improvisations / Experiencing the ‘Empty Space’ <?page no="210"?> 272 The significance of this relation has also been extensively and illuminatingly addressed in the writings of the psychologist Viktor Frankl. Frankl’s concept of Logotherapy was based on the idea that self-actualization or self-realization is dependent on self‐transcendence. He writes, “The more one forgets himself - by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love - the more human he is and the more he actualizes himself. What is called self-actualization is not an attainable aim at all, for the simple reason that the more one would strive for it, the more he would miss it. In other words, self-actualization is possible only as a side-effect of self-transcendence.” Viktor Frankl, “Logotherapy in a Nutshell.” chap. in Man’s Search for Meaning. (New York: Pocket Books, 1959) 133. In a nutshell, I can say that Vivian’s courses have been the most PROFOUND trainings, I have ever followed! It helped me develop skills of OBSERVATION and RESPONSE. Yes, those would be the key words. S.R. Witten 2005 (f) Enormous Experience: - after initial “amusement” realization of deep impact on personality actual stage-fright moments - extremely intense personal moments in contact with other participants when sharing emotions - experience of joy in moments of “letting go” and “being open to what the situation offers” - deep satisfaction in group experience. G. A. English Week 1998 (m) Noddings’ understanding of the teacher not only as the giver but also as the receiver in the cycle of caring has manifold implications. In her concept of a ‘cycle of caring’ there are decisive parallels here to what Garrison has referred to as the “paradox” of the relation between self-realization and helping others to realize their own potentials. From this perspective developing sensitivity and accepting vulnerability are not only viewed as essential in the context of the relations of a teacher to his pupils, but also present the basis for his own personal development. 272 8.4.6 Developing Awareness in the Classroom: Perspectives in Teacher Education In further considering the relation between the ‘here and now’ of clowning and the ‘here and now’ of teaching it will be necessary to look more closely at those dimensions of teaching in which attentiveness and awareness can be regarded as the most vital educational instruments. 210 8 Discussion of the Participants’ Responses <?page no="211"?> 273 John Holt, How Children Fail. Rev. ed. (New York: Pitman, 1962; Cambridge MA, 1982) 32-34. 274 Ibid. John Holt’s seminal work, How Children Fail illuminated the critical role which awareness plays in teaching. Holt spent a good deal of time observing colleagues in classrooms and set down his observations over many months. Although written in the 1964, his insights have lost none of their relevance: Of all I saw and learned this past half year, one thing stands out. What goes on in class is not what teachers think - certainly not what I had always thought. For years now I have worked with a picture in my mind of what my class was like. The reality, which I felt I knew, was partly physical partly mental or spiritual. In other words, I thought I knew, in general, what the students were doing and also what they were thinking and feeling. I see now that my picture of reality was almost wholly false. Why didn’t I see this before? Sitting at the side of the room, watching these kids, not so much to check up on them as to find out what they were like and how they differed from the teenagers I have worked with and know, I slowly became aware of something. You can’t find out what a child does in class by looking at him only when he is called on. You have to watch him for long stretches of time without his knowing it. 273 Holt stresses the need for teachers to develop a clearer sense of what is happening in the classroom as an essential basis for reflection and improvement. In particular he urges teachers to become far more aware of those pupils who are not taking an active part in their lessons: …when explaining, questioning, or discussing was going on, the majority of children paid little attention or none at all. Some daydreamed, and no amount of calling them back to earth with a crash, much as it amused everyone else, could break them of the habit. Others wrote and passed notes, or whispered, or held conversations in sign language, or made doodles or pictures on their papers or desks, or fiddled with objects. (…) A teacher in class is like a man in the woods at night with a powerful flashlight in his hand. Wherever he turns his light, the creatures on whom it shines are aware of it, and do not behave as they do in the dark. Thus the mere fact of his watching their behaviour changes it into something very different. Shine where he will, he can never know very much of the night life of the woods. 274 The difficulties of perceiving and taking into account both the ‘day and night life’ of the pupils in a classroom while simultaneously attempting to teach a lesson can easily seem insurmountable. There is a considerable body of literature which has attempted to document the enormous complexity of what actually goes on 211 8.4 The Improvisations / Experiencing the ‘Empty Space’ <?page no="212"?> 275 Travers & Dillon (1975), 103. 276 Joachim Appel, Erfahrungswissen und Fremdsprachendidaktik. (Munich: Langen‐ scheidt-Longman, 2000) 108. 277 Schocker -v. Ditfurth 2001, 69. 278 Richards 1998, 117-119. 279 David C. Berliner, “Implications of Studies on Expertise in Pedagogy for Teacher Education and Evaluation,” New Directions for Teacher Assessment. [Proceedings of the 1988 ETS International Conference], (Princeton: Educational Testing Service, 1988): 43. in a classroom, a complexity intrinsic to a situation which is always changing. Attempts that have been made in the context of teacher education to break down teaching into separate behavioural components have recorded as many as 10,000 individual elements. 275 Hence, terms such as ‘multidimensionality’, ‘simultaneity’, ‘unpredictability’ and ‘inexactness’ etc. have consistently been used to describe the different processes co-occurring between teachers and groups of learners which may number up to 30 or more. 276 Schocker-v. Ditfurth writes, … (T)he situation in lessons is characterised by complexity, unpredictability and the simultaneity of processes. Teaching is primarily about clarifying and mastering ambiguous pedagogical situations. Learners and teachers are continuously carrying out processes of interpretation that grow out of their life stories. 277 In this context, the decisive qualities of expert teaching have consistently been connected to the teacher’s ability to react appropriately in this continually changing and unpredictable situation. The distinctions in the educational literature drawn between expert and novice teachers often specifically refer to the fluidity and naturalness of the expert improvising, in contrast to the novice trying to closely follow a detailed lesson plan. 278 In this context, David Berliner draws clear distinctions between rational, deliberative decision-making and the intuitive, effortless ‘flow’ of the expert: Experts have both an intuitive grasp of the situation and a non-analytic and non-de‐ liberative sense of the appropriate response to be made. They show fluid performance … in an apparently effortless manner … all seem to know where to be or what to do at the right time. The experts are not consciously choosing what to attend to and what to do. They are acting effortlessly, fluidly, and in a sense this is arational, because it is not easily described as deductive or analytic behaviour. Though beyond the usual meaning of rational, since neither calculation nor deliberative thought is involved, the behaviour of the expert is certainly not irrational. (…) Experts are not solving problems or making decisions in the usual sense of those terms. They ‘go with the flow’. 279 212 8 Discussion of the Participants’ Responses <?page no="213"?> 280 Polanyi’s works must be considered as seminal in this respect, having profoundly shaped the way knowledge is perceived. A good introduction to his thinking is provided by his small volume, The Tacit Dimension. (Gloucester, MA: Peter Smith, 1983). 281 Donald A. Schön, The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. (London: Basic Books, 2003) 49-50. There are obvious connections between what Berliner describes here as ‘expert teaching’ and what was viewed in Chapter 2 as artistry in teaching. Those attributes such as creativity, flexibility, sensitivity, fluidity and expressivity which have been deemed to constitute the basis of artistry in teaching are intrinsically related to what Berliner has described here as an “intuitive grasp of the situation and a non-analytic and non-deliberative sense of the appropriate response to be made.” In each case they reflect a kind of ‘knowledge in action’ which is reflected in their knowing “where to be or what to do at the right time.” Such knowledge is based on that high degree of attentiveness which is a prerequisite for action in a continually changing situation. In attempting to elucidate the decisive characteristics of such professional expertise, Michael Polanyi’s concept of tacit or personal knowledge has proven to be particularly helpful in considering that wide body of personal, unconscious knowledge which makes the fluidity of the expert possible. 280 Donald Schön has written extensively on how professionals think in action. He sees parallels between this largely unconscious ‘knowing-in-action’ of professionals and behaviour in everyday life which is also continually based on such forms of tacit, unconscious knowledge: When we go about the spontaneous, intuitive performance of the actions of everyday life, we show ourselves to be knowledgeable in a special way. Often we cannot say what it is that we know. When we try to describe it we find ourselves at a loss, or we produce descriptions that are obviously inappropriate. Our knowing is ordinarily tacit, implicit in our patterns of action and in our feel for the stuff with which we are dealing. It seems right to say that our knowing is in our action. Similarly the workday life of the professional depends on tacit knowing in-action. 281 Schön has consistently addressed the contradictions between the way profes‐ sionals are trained in both pre-service and in-service programs and the kind of ‘knowing in action’ they actually need in the context of their professional lives. He thus considers approaches to training based on acquiring specific knowledge designed to be carefully implemented as generally inadequate in addressing a new situation: 213 8.4 The Improvisations / Experiencing the ‘Empty Space’ <?page no="214"?> 282 Ibid., 19. 283 Ibid., 20 284 Appel (2000), 176-185. Complexity, instability and uncertainty are not removed or resolved by applying specialized knowledge to well-defined tasks. If anything, the effective use of special‐ ized knowledge depends on a prior restructuring of situations that are complex and uncertain. An artful practice of the unique case appears anomalous when professional competence is modelled in terms of application of established techniques to recurrent events. 282 One of the reasons why educators have traditionally had a difficult time incorporating such notions of tacit knowledge, or ‘knowledge in action’ into their concepts of teacher education is that these forms of knowledge are inherently hard to explain and quantify within standard research paradigms. There are obvious discrepancies between the acknowledged paradigms of ‘expert teaching’ and the design/ s of most teacher education courses at both pre-service and in-service levels. Schön writes, The reality of complexity, instability and uncertainty are difficult to describe and it is difficult to describe or account for the artful way in which practitioners deal with this artistically, setting problems and choosing among competing professional paradigms, when these processes seem mysterious in the light of the prevailing model of professional knowledge. 283 Although both the complex realities of the classroom and the nature of that knowledge which makes intuitive teaching possible are undoubtedly difficult to describe, the crucial role which this kind of ‘knowledge in action’ plays in teaching is incontrovertible. This raises a number of fundamental issues with respect to teacher education: the attention paid particularly in pre-service training to the careful design and accurate implementation of detailed lesson plans stands in striking contrast to what are considered to be good lesson plans and good teaching afterwards. 284 Such clearly explicated distinctions between ‘good teaching in theory’ and ‘good teaching in practice’ can be seen as symptomatic of essential deficits in teacher education. The fact that such contradictions also exist at the in-service level is borne out by what has consistently been expressed regarding the general lack of significance of such courses. This discrepancy between what constitutes the actual ‘knowledge in action’ a teacher needs and the way she has been trained, raises central questions for both pre-service and in-service education. 214 8 Discussion of the Participants’ Responses <?page no="215"?> 285 Max von Manen, “On the Epistemology of Reflective Practice,” Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice. Vol. 1, no., 1 (1995): 48, available online at (last accessed on 24.07.2021) http: / / www.maxvanmanen.com/ on-the-epistemology-of-reflective-practic e-2/ . Max von Manen has also addressed this issue of ‘knowledge in action’ in regard to teacher education. While not disputing the need for teachers to establish a solid base of subject and didactical knowledge, he questions whether this is the most relevant knowledge that has to be acquired: The ultimate success of teaching actually may rely importantly on the “knowledge” forms that inhere in practical actions, in an embodied thoughtfulness, and in the personal space, mood and relational atmosphere in which teachers find themselves with their students. The curricular thoughtfulness that good teachers learn to display towards children may depend precisely upon the internalized values, embodied qualities, thoughtful habits that constitute such generally acknowledged virtues of teaching. And the notion of pedagogical tact implies that qualities or virtues are the learned, internalized, situated, and evoked pedagogical practices that are necessary for the human vocation of bringing up and educating children. 285 The issue remains how to address and develop these “internalized values, em‐ bodied qualities, thoughtful habits that constitute such generally acknowledged virtues of good teaching.” What von Manen has referred to here as “embodied thoughtfulness” or ‘tact’ is not a methodological technique, but a reflection of an inner attitude. Although the presence or absence of such ‘tact’ is continually visible within the context of teaching, its source lies within the teacher. Thus, acquiring that most practical form of knowledge exemplified in the teacher’s actions, requires the internalization of what von Manen terms the “virtues of teaching” Attaining the embodied quality of ‘tact’ in the sense that von Manen uses the term is not an intellectual act. Seen from this perspective, teacher education has to be fundamentally concerned with the holistic development of the entire person and not exclusively focused on subject knowledge and teaching techni‐ ques. From what the participants wrote, it is evident that it was exactly this dimension of personal change and growth which occurred in so many of them. This is part of what was ‘learned’ in the improvisations and its ‘knowledge’ is reflected in those enhanced qualities of receptivity and attentiveness which participants described. A. Underhill has developed a related perspective in teacher education insofar as he has emphasized the overriding importance of developing a heightened sense of awareness in teaching, as opposed to all specific forms of knowledge: 215 8.4 The Improvisations / Experiencing the ‘Empty Space’ <?page no="216"?> 286 Adrian Underhill, “Teacher Development,” (1994) unpublished manuscript, quoted in Head & Taylor 1997, 48. 287 Ibid. Awareness is the instrument I have for getting in touch with how I affect my learners. It is the only instrument I have for reducing the disparity between what I think I do and I actually do, between the psychological atmosphere I think I create, and the one I actually create, between my experience of myself in the classroom and my learner’s experience of me. It is only through awareness that I can cross the bridge and find out what it is like on the other side, and then modify what I do on my side accordingly. 286 Underhill has stressed that the decisive importance of awareness in teacher development rests on the fact that it is an instrument which can be utilized for the improvement of a wide variety of skills in the classroom. It becomes a tool par excellence for catalysing different forms of teacher development and change: I am claiming that awareness is the instrument for teacher (or personal) development and that this instrument can be tuned into any aspect of our practice that we want to investigate or develop or become more competent at. I am also saying that of the many aspects of our practice that we could study with the instrument of awareness, the study of the psychological learning atmosphere that we create in our classrooms could be one of the most fundamental, the most fruitful, and the most far-reaching in its implications for our development as teachers. 287 It is important to recognize that awareness in this context necessarily implies an ‘awareness in action’: it is this behavioural dimension which also links those different aspects which Schön, Berliner, von Manen and others have addressed. This is the most elusive and difficult skill to achieve while teaching and it is that element which constitutes an essential link between the ‘here and now’ of the clown on stage and that of the teacher in the classroom. Learning the art of clowning requires continually listening, waiting, being acutely receptive to everything that is occurring, both outside and within, in order to respond fluidly and creatively. Learning the art of teaching requires exactly the same. The ‘knowledge’ with which the clown leaves the course is inextricably tied to the felt experience of this entire process. Later reflected on, it can be ‘set down’ as it has been in the particpants’ responses, but it first must be learned in the ‘here and now’, directly experienced in the “laboratory of one’s nervous system.” This is not knowledge gained through observation; watching other people’s successful improvisations was not enough. Each participant had to go through their own trepidations and fears to discover for themselves the existence of the “gold mine”. 216 8 Discussion of the Participants’ Responses <?page no="217"?> 288 Brook 1995, 25. Through the improvisations, participants experienced the creative possibili‐ ties present in the empty space on the stage. Overcoming their intense fears of surrendering to this form of emptiness, the participants learned to trust in the presence of something existing in that space and within their own and others’ imaginations which they had formerly not perceived. Clowning offered participants the experience of a kind of ‘knowledge in action’ which differed substantially from what they had experienced in their traditional training. The teachers in these courses had the chance to enter into a process which carefully took them through the different stages of discovering what Peter Brook has described as the “infinite possibilities of emptiness”. 288 As their responses indicate in a variety of ways, this new knowledge led them to perceive both their pupils and themselves in a fundamentally different manner. It is paradoxically a form of knowing based on ‘not knowing’. Those elusive and mysterious qualities which have been seen to constitute expert or artistic teaching are closely linked to what participants experienced while clowning. It is the clown’s complete lack of knowledge of what will happen, coupled with her complete openness and receptivity to what is occurring on stage, which exemplifies that state of attentiveness upon which creative and fluid response in a classroom are also based. 8.5 Breaking Routines, Avoiding Burnout and ‘Learning to Forget’ As we have noted, many of the participants in the clowning workshops were experienced teachers who had been in the teaching profession for many years. Most participants were over thirty and although no statistics were collected regarding age, the average age was probably between thirty five and forty. The significance the courses had for the participants must thus also be seen in the context of this having occurred at a point in which new developments and meaningful changes may no longer be common. This suggests a particular relevance of the clowning courses with respect to the critical issues of teacher change and teacher burnout addressed in chapter 2.5. In that context the acute need for in-service programs designed to address these types of problems was delineated and also made explicit in considering a single case. Those statistics documenting the exceptionally high rate of teacher burnout compared to all other social professions present a deeply concerning picture of the teaching 217 8.5 Breaking Routines, Avoiding Burnout and ‘Learning to Forget’ <?page no="218"?> profession today, reflecting the kinds of challenges that teachers have to confront on a daily basis and their difficulties in finding sources of regeneration and inspiration to help them face these challenges. Viewed from this perspective, the clowning courses can be seen to have played a valuable role in helping teachers in the middle of their professional lives experience a new sense of personal and professional growth. A strong sense of renewal goes through many of the replies: Vivian helped me at a critical point in my teaching when things began to become “routine” and I was able to prepare relatively “on spot”, i. e. often what I planned actually happened in the classroom. G.A. English Week 1998 (m) To me this course seems more than artistic training; it’s a big step to re-evaluation of the fixed concepts of one’s mind. W.H. English Fortnight 2000 (f) It did me good to discover within the framework of the exercises very new patterns of behaviour that helped free me from well worn clichés - and not least for the chance to be allowed for once to slip out of the role of experienced teacher … to find through clowning new sources of energy that have saved my imagination from drying up and that has countered the threat that my teaching could become routine - a danger that I have experienced as very real. F.C. Schloss Hamborn 1998, 1999, English Fortnight 2000, Witten 2003 (f) In considering the widely acknowledged difficulties in affecting significant teacher change, particularly in the middle of a teaching career, these effects are striking. In this context, two questions are clearly necessary to address: • What made participants at this stage in their lives both willing and able to go through such challenging processes of renewal and change? • How was it possible to affect and change ingrained attitudes and behav‐ iour so deeply in such a short period of time? In order to answer these questions it will be necessary to explore in depth the nature and form/ s of the knowledge which teachers accumulate in their careers and which fundamentally shape their entire approach to teaching. 8.5.1 The Practical Knowledge of Teachers (Erfahrungswissen) and Affecting Teacher Change In his extensive study of the practical knowledge of teachers (Erfahrungswissen) Joachim Appel has examined the nature and significance of that large body of generally unconscious knowledge which teachers accumulate in the course of their careers. Through a series of detailed interviews with 20 teachers most 218 8 Discussion of the Participants’ Responses <?page no="219"?> 289 Appel 2000, 278. 290 Ibid., 278-279. of whom had had between ten and twenty years of teaching experience, he attempted to concretely assess the nature and role of such knowledge in the context of their teaching. He writes, The experiential knowledge of the teacher is knowledge about how to deal with the (above) described requirements of the teaching situation. Experiential knowledge is essentially a situational competence. Those questioned possessed a range of general strategies as answers to the demands of teaching situations. These strategies consist of the ability to direct the lessons through the teacher’s personal presence, or through the tasks. 289 (italics in original) Appel’s findings make clear that the actual use of this practical knowledge in the classroom does not occur as a chain of deductions in a linear process. Instead there are complete images summoned up from previous experiences which decisively shape the choices made while teaching. In the context of his study, the primary importance of classroom management as a paramount factor in teaching becomes apparent: specific concepts deemed important in foreign language learning (such as the use of the target language), often play a secondary role in the actual situation of teaching a class. Appel concludes that the complexity of the classroom situation invariably leads to decision-making based on a number of factors in a specific context. He writes, Here a basic characteristic of teaching practice and how to master it becomes evident: there are no one-dimensional solutions to problems, as scientific discourse sometimes suggests, but rather a living with dilemmas. (…) This situational competence of teachers is generally characterised by the fact that it creates a kind of certainty of expectation for all involved in the lessons, that is to say it makes lessons calculable. This occurs, among other considerations, through establishing fixed routines, in particular, how lessons are begun. At the same time, the situational competence of the teacher is based on flexibility. Many decisions are made on the basis of the actual situation, which is also continuously changing in the course of a lesson - decisions that are made on the spot. 290 It lies in the very nature of such Erfahungswissen that it gradually becomes an unreflected part of teaching, automatically affecting all manner of choices: The competence described here is acquired, on the one hand, through practice in the situation. It is based on the professional routine of teachers; calling upon teacher algorithms and fixed procedures that are holistically stored. The practice of these 219 8.5 Breaking Routines, Avoiding Burnout and ‘Learning to Forget’ <?page no="220"?> 291 Ibid.,279. 292 Ibid. 293 Schön 2003, 61. 294 Appel 2000, 139. routines is accompanied by certain concepts and values. These arise partly out of the mastering of the situation and partly originate in biographical and professional experience. On the basis of these experiences the teacher decides how to assess the course of the lesson and its outcomes. Being competent also means having routines in the sense of a necessary repertory of automatic responses. 291 While recognizing that it is an inherent characteristic of such practical knowl‐ edge that it becomes unconscious, Appel delineates the potential dangers when this occurs: As such, this competence can easily become slightly rigid, i. e., it loses its openness to changes in the situation and people and becomes a kind of stereotypical answer that is no longer appropriate to the situation. 292 This phenomenon is clearly not limited to teaching, but can be considered a potential problem in every occupation. Donald Schön has addressed this issue in his well-known studies examining professional development in a variety of fields: …as a practice becomes more repetitive and routine, and as knowing-in-practice becomes increasingly tacit and spontaneous, the practitioner may miss important opportunities to think about what he is doing. (…) And if he learns, as often happens, to be selectively inattentive to phenomena that do not fit the categories of his knowing-in-action, then he may suffer from boredom or “burn-out” and afflict his clients with the consequences of his narrowness and rigidity. When this happens, the practitioner has “over-learned” what he knows. 293 Appel sees this issue of professional stagnation as a direct and important challenge for in-service training: In the context of in-service teacher training it is important to consider the fact that experienced teachers no longer see their chosen approach as one of several possible options, but rather as something natural and therefore an unchangeable feature of the situation. This form of routine is hard to change, above all because it provides a common culture for the teacher and the learning group in which stable mutual expectations are created. 294 220 8 Discussion of the Participants’ Responses <?page no="221"?> 295 Ibid. Herein lies a particular challenge for teachers who have gone through the first so-called “survival phase” of their careers and are in middle or late stages of their careers. Whereas in the first phase concerns about discipline are generally paramount, afterwards, their inner relations towards what they teach, along with their inner attitudes in regard to their students, become the most decisive factors in how they think and teach. The stagnation which Appel, Schön and others have referred to can take different forms. It can sometimes be found in increasingly cynical and resigned attitudes towards pupils, particularly towards pupils experiencing difficulties. It can also be found, for instance, when teachers year after year use the same teaching materials, course books, literature etc. Moreover, having to meet the kinds of formal requirements set by a rigid curriculum, school authorities, or standardized tests also frequently leads to high levels of frustration and/ or resignation at this stage in a teacher’s career. At the same time, there is often an unwillingness to change those attitudes and routines which have already been established. It is this combination of factors which over the course of time can lead to different forms of inner resignation and/ or burnout. 8.5.2 Affecting Change and Confronting Insecurities Appel sees the widespread difficulties in instituting meaningful teacher change as often resulting from what is being asked of the teacher in trying to get her to change hard-won routines: Such routines can easily become antagonistic to innovative approaches because they often become particularly prominent when they are questioned in the process of change. In such cases (Shavelson und Stern 1981: 484) teachers are often unwilling to give up such routines, even when they are not especially successful. One reason for this is the concern that change increases the insecurities of both the teacher and the pupils. 295 The element of insecurity to which Appel refers can be seen as one of the primary hindrances in affecting teacher change. A teacher’s resistance to adopting new approaches and methods is often based on a reluctance to breaking routines which have been seen to ‘function’ for both pupils and the teacher, as well as on his fears of having to institute a new way of teaching. It is significant that Appel refers in this context to the fears of both the teacher and the pupils. In what respects are foreign language teaching and learning shaped by these 221 8.5 Breaking Routines, Avoiding Burnout and ‘Learning to Forget’ <?page no="222"?> factors? This issue can be considered particularly relevant in a foreign language classroom, in which there can be a high degree of insecurity present for pupils in continually having to listen to and speak the foreign language. At the same time, the overcoming of such insecurities can be viewed as an essential step in the entire process of learning a foreign language. From this perspective, it can be argued that such insecurities in a teacher might not only be the cause of her own professional stagnation, but also have a negative influence on her pupils’ abilities to make these necessary steps in language learning. A teacher’s unwillingness to question familiar routines and to risk making changes can thus be seen as potentially contributing to and/ or reinforcing her pupils’ difficulties in doing the same. Such relations between the fears and insecurities of the teacher and the pupils are subtle and complex. Their presence can potentially affect all aspects of the educational process, ranging from curriculum and lesson plans, to the atmosphere in a classroom. From the perspective of in-service teacher education, the fundamental ques‐ tion raised in this context has to do with ascertaining the relation/ s between a teacher’s own development/ s, her overcoming of insecurities and realizing change, and her helping to facilitate those same processes in her pupils. This can be considered as a paramount issue in assessing the particular value of the clowning courses. There is no doubt in evaluating the participants’ responses that they were continually required to leave familiar paths, to take risks and to transcend previous borders. In what respects did their going through these processes provide a different basis for their helping pupils to do the same? Different aspects of this relation were concretely addressed by some participants: Pupils in foreign language lessons are in some ways in a situation which is comparable to that of the participants in a clowning course. They are being asked to leave the familiar path of language (sounds, syntax, semantics, intonation etc); they have an audience, they have to endure imperfection and not knowing what is going to happen. C.I. Witten 2003 (f) It has been a lot of fun, but the importance of the ability of transcending of borders for a teacher has also struck me. Really that is what we are helping children as class teachers and language teachers, and how could we do it better than with a sense of humour coming out of the moment, which you have as a clown? S. V. Witten 2003, 2004 (f) In the context of evaluating the significance of the clowning courses, these connections between the teacher transcending her own borders and her helping her pupils to do the same are essential. They imply a form of parallelism between 222 8 Discussion of the Participants’ Responses <?page no="223"?> 296 Verena Debiasi & Dorothea Gasser, Werkstatt als hermeneutischer Dialog: Ein Bericht. (Meran: Alpha Beta, 2004) a teacher’s personal and/ or professional developments and the way/ s her pupils learn. The rationale for integrating the clowning courses into teacher develop‐ ment programs hinges to a significant extent on an understanding of such forms of parallelism in which the presence or absence of such developmental processes in teachers is seen as deeply affecting what goes on between teachers and pupils. Before exploring these relations in more depth in regard to the clowning courses it will be instructive to look at three in-service teacher development programs which are also based on the concept that this parallelism of the teachers and pupils’ developments is a decisive factor in instituting meaningful educational change. Although these three programs exist in completely different contexts and formats, in each a teacher’s development is seen as a holistic and transformative process in which the underlying relations between the personal and professional developments of the teacher and her pupils’ learning are considered essential. At the same time, in considering relevant distinctions between the clowning workshops and the other three courses, key elements intrinsic to the clowning courses can also be illuminated. 8.6 In-Service Development in a Hermeneutic Context A highly innovative approach to in-service language teacher development has been developed in South Tyrol. Within the framework of implementing new guidelines for teaching German as second language in the schools in that region, a new form of in-service workshops (Werkstätten) has been introduced in which on six to eight afternoons in the course of a school year teachers meet to discuss a theme of their choice, at a place and time of their own choosing. 296 These workshops, first offered in 1994, were considered to be an essential element in implementing the concept of a hermeneutic approach to language learning which Hans Hunfeld had developed for South Tyrol and which constitute the underlying basis of the new guidelines. Initially the meetings were designed to strengthen the connection between the concepts and the teachers’ practical ex‐ periences through analysing and planning lessons together. However, through their direct incorporation of the principles underlying Hunfeld’s hermeneutic approach they have gradually evolved into workshops in which such analysis and planning no longer play a primary role. Verena Debiasi, one of the teachers responsible for the organization of these workshops writes, 223 8.6 In-Service Development in a Hermeneutic Context <?page no="224"?> 297 Verena Debiasi “Werkstatt als dialogisches Lernen im Beruf,” Babylonia 1 (2005): 17. 298 Ibid. In the workshops we are not dealing with collective lesson preparation anymore, but instead using the hermeneutic approach to directly explore the parallels between learning in the workshop and learning in lessons and then reflecting on this. In the workshop the teacher becomes a learner once more and this learning does not restrict itself to professional learning, but relates to the entire personal dimension as well. 297 In the context of implementing Hunfeld’s three central concepts - ‘sceptical hermeneutics’, the ‘normalcy of the foreign’, and ‘literature in foreign language learning’ - incorporating this dimension of parallelism between teacher and learner in the workshops meant a substantial revision of traditional concepts of in-service training. Debiasi writes, In lessons, as in the concrete workshop situation, in trying to understand each other we are dealing with different levels of previous knowledge and different interests and experiences; though it is just these differences that provide an impulse for learning. Thus it is clear that the didactical consequences of the hermeneutic principles affect all those involved in the learning process. The traditional differences between school, workshop and teacher development disappear. (…) The practice of teaching, workshop dialogues and teacher development are all equally determined by the fundamental criteria of the hermeneutic approach … 298 A decisive consequence of this parallelism is that the question of how to implement the practice of a hermeneutic dialogue in teaching does not become the subject of a planning discussion, but such dialogues occur ‘here and now,’ in the context of the workshop. Concretely this means that essential elements of Hunfeld’s entire hermeneutic concept of learning in the classroom are integrated into the structure of the course; for instance, introducing a broad range of ‘impulses’ (often poems) at the beginning of a class/ workshop, followed by periods of stillness in which pupils/ teachers work quietly on their chosen texts. Afterwards, analogous to what happens in the classroom, these individual processes are reflected on in the context of a hermeneutic dialogue. Debiasi writes, In the didactic workshops the main emphasis lay on practice-based experience which was reflected on, discussed, questioned and deepened by the group together. Learning is experienced as a process and recognised as a never-finished process; learning through understanding is practised. Thus each participant’s lessons are indirectly prepared: there is no planning of teaching units or creating work sheets, no mere 224 8 Discussion of the Participants’ Responses <?page no="225"?> 299 Ibid., 18 300 Hans Hunfeld, “Der hermeneutische Ansatz im Fremdsprachenunterricht: Rückblick und Ausblick: Ein Interview mit Hans Hunfeld,” Babylonia 1 (2005): 46. exchange of experiences, practical tips or actual teaching material, but instead a distance is created to one’s own practice in order to question the basic concepts of foreign language teaching in group discussions, drawing consequences from this for one’s own lessons. (…) Quiet and listening are the skills, the competences and key qualifications which are essential prerequisites in these processes in the didactic workshops. 299 A vital feature of these workshops is thus the critical role which the other participants in the group play in helping each other to develop these compe‐ tences. Not only are such processes by their very nature dependent on others, but the difficulties and challenges which are overcome in the context of the workshops directly parallel those same steps pupils are encouraged to make in the classroom. Underlying both processes is a hermeneutic understanding of teaching as a dialogue based on stimulating individual interest and genuine questions through offering a wide range of ‘impulses’. In making a clear distinction between a teacher offering open impulses in the form of literary excerpts or texts, or presenting a series of clearly defined tasks or assignments for everyone, Hunfeld sees a vital element of the critical hermeneutic approach which he has developed: The task calls for solutions that the teacher already knows: the impulse going out from the abundance of material and also from the reactions of the pupils, serves the purposes of the teaching aims but allows for the relative indefiniteness of these aims. If the highest goal of hermeneutic foreign language teaching is not only striving towards the linguistic autonomy of the learner and his independence of thinking and acting, then the hermeneutic foreign language approach is a dialogue based on understanding [Verstehensgespräch], that not only takes into account all the necessary conditions, contents and processes of such a dialogue under the specific conditions of school, but helps create them in the first place. A task that focuses on a series of small steps leading to a specific aim would only disturb such a dialogue and make any real focus on the learner impossible. 300 (italics mine) Reflecting on ten years of practice, Debiasi and Gasser consider the far-ranging transformative potentials of the South Tyrol workshops to constitute their essential value for teachers. The realization of these possibilities is dependent on them occurring within the dynamics of a group process offering direct 225 8.6 In-Service Development in a Hermeneutic Context <?page no="226"?> 301 Debiasi & Gasser 2004, 121. 302 Hans Hunfeld, “Fremdheit als Lernimpuls: Hermeneutischer Fremdsprachenunterricht im Überblick” chap. in Fremdheit als Lernimpuls: Skeptische Hermeneutik - Normalität des Fremden - Fremdsprache Literatur (Meran: Alpha Beta, 2004) 495. parallels to what pupils are being encouraged to do. In this context, traditional distinctions between teacher and learners are also transformed. They write, The fundamental insight of the hermeneutic approach - that in the course of time teacher and learner naturally change - can be quite practically experienced here: learners and the learning teacher in the workshop gradually go beyond what they brought with them in the form of previous knowledge and go transformed on their further teaching or learning paths. 301 8.6.1 Parallels to the Clowning Workshops: The Role of Stillness Parallels between the workshops in South Tyrol and the clowning courses are manifold. Each of these in-service programs is designed to encourage the growth of the entire person, and not just the professional skills of the teacher. Hence, in each program the focus is not on gaining more subject knowledge and/ or methodological skills, but in helping a teacher develop her inner, personal potentials. Despite clear differences in structure, the underlying principles and objectives of these programs can thus be seen as related. Many of those areas of growth that were deemed most essential in clowning including the development of heightened degrees of listening and attentiveness, can also be found in different respects in the reports of participants in the South Tyrol workshops. One of the most far-ranging parallels may exist in the particular role/ s which silence plays in each course. In the hermeneutic approach which has been adopted in the schools and in in-service training in South Tyrol, learning to face and accept silence is viewed as a central theme, insofar as it is seen as the necessary precondition for true dialogue. Hunfeld writes, In our current society, silence is clearly no longer in keeping with the spirit of the times. Yet hermeneutic-orientated teaching, which sees the dialogue aimed at understanding [Verstehensgespräch] as central, needs silence in order that intensive listening to other ways of thinking and speaking is at all possible. Silence is thus the very practical basis for dialogue in the classroom and in the workshop. It is a skill that can be practiced and learned, yet must be practised again and again in detail, in order that one can hear each other at all. 302 226 8 Discussion of the Participants’ Responses <?page no="227"?> 303 Debiasi & Gasser 2004, 43. 304 Hunfeld 2004, 495. One of the most decisive realizations that occurred in one of the workshops in South Tyrol was the particpants’ recognition of the vital significance of stillness. This happened, appropriately enough, in the context of an intensive and chaotic discussion they were having regarding discipline problems and the difficulties of getting their pupils to be quiet. Debiasi and Gasser describe this particular workshop: We are talking pretty loudly; hardly anyone can finish making their contribution without someone else interrupting them to immediately explain that they have experienced something similar or that they have a quite different opinion. When two people intensively discuss one aspect of something, then it continually happens that others start simultaneously discussing another aspect. The more interesting the theme is for everyone, the louder and more chaotic it gets in the room. Many are speaking at once. Listening or following the course of the discussions is hardly possible any more. Yet exactly this paradoxical situation becomes a new impulse and changes our discussion about silence: no longer when, where and why our pupils should be still or speak, but rather what stillness means to us, how we deal with silence, how we bear silence and how we can get this circle to be quiet. 303 In the context of a hermeneutic approach in which true dialogue is predicated on heightened forms of listening, the presence and qualities of silence are considered to be decisive. Learning to achieve this can be considered an essential and necessary step for both pupils and teachers. From the perspective of recognizing an underlying parallelism between the developments of the pupils and the teachers, incorporating this dimension of stillness into the workshop offered a new basis for achieving stillness in the classroom. At the same time, it is not only the parallelism that is relevant here: Hunfeld stresses a further aspect insofar as what has been learned goes beyond the confines of the workshops and classroom, affecting and changing the entire person: From a skill acquired in the lessons or in the workshops, being quiet becomes an attitude that goes beyond the lessons and the workshop and which is fundamental to a peaceful and tolerant multicultural and multilingual society. 304 There were different forms of silence present in the clowning courses. Some of the exercises and games in the warm-up phase were expressly done without voice, so that, for instance, in the first phase of “Simultaneous Leader” there was an intensive focus and attention on the others’ gestures and mimic (6.3.1.). 227 8.6 In-Service Development in a Hermeneutic Context <?page no="228"?> 305 Brook 1995, 24. In “Guardian Angel” there was another form of stillness; safely leading and fluidly ‘exchanging’ the people whose eyes were closed required a high degree of attentiveness and concentration (6.3.4.). Perhaps, the most intense silence was at the beginning of each solo-improvisation when the clown quietly explored the space and objects which he encountered (7.4.). As we have seen, it was this particular stillness resulting from ‘not planning’ and ‘not knowing’ that presented the basis for the creative impulses that then emerged. This is the silence which is necessary for discovering “the extraordinary presence of emptiness”. 305 In the context of clowning it became clear for the participants that such discoveries are contingent upon an attentive silence, both in the room and within the clown. Later in the pair or group improvisations another kind of stillness was experienced, enabling the clown to be completely open to the impulses of the other/ s, while at the same time being open to her own. All this had to be learned. 8.6.2 ‘Not Knowing’ in Clowning and Hermeneutics Closely tied to learning to accept this dimension of stillness was the acceptance of the condition of ‘not knowing’. As many participants in the clowning courses wrote, the idea of going on stage with absolutely no plans or ideas was one of the strangest and most challenging aspects of the entire workshop. Learning not to plan, learning to accept that one does not know what is going to happen next, was practiced in a series of carefully designed steps: first prepared through the warm-ups, then in the encounter with an object on stage, later in a solo-improvisation and finally improvising together with others. In the clowning courses, the goal of the clown’s ‘not knowing’ is to open her up to all the possibilities and potentials that are present in that moment, both in the world and in herself. When one already has a concrete plan, the type of inner stillness based on complete openness is no longer possible; one ‘knows’ something and this difference is also quite visible to the audience. In the responses of the participants it becomes apparent that their having learned to accept the richness of possibilities inherent in ‘not knowing’ was the decisive step that led to their experiencing new dimensions of perception and attentiveness. It is this initial ‘not knowing’ that became the basis for all ensuing creative impulses. ‘Not knowing’ also plays a key role in Hunfeld’s entire approach to language learning and in the South Tyrol workshops. Hunfeld’s concept of the ‘normalcy of the foreign’ (die Normalität des Fremden) emphasizes the clear borders which 228 8 Discussion of the Participants’ Responses <?page no="229"?> 306 Hans Hunfeld, “The Normalcy of the Foreigner: Requirements for a Curriculum for Intercultural Learning,” LIFE: Ideas and Materials for Intercultural Learning. (Munich: BMW, 1997) 3. are inherently present in the “otherness” of another person, language or culture. In the context of learning a foreign language, such language and intercultural borders are fully accepted and respected. Seen from this perspective, the goal of intercultural learning is not viewed as making the foreign ‘familiar’ through studying its language and culture, but rather as providing the basis for learning to respect the unique and not fully knowable qualities of the other. Hunfeld writes, Intercultural dialogues and influence are normal and ordinary phenomena; what is one’s “own” can hardly be determined with precision. Culture in modern society consists rather in the simultaneous action of different modes of perception, traditions and customs which are changing all the time. (…) Every culture of one’s “own” is also dependent upon and develops within this over-all process. Intercultural learning is therefore the lifelong realization of the mutual constitution and dependence of one’s own on the “foreign other”. The seemingly familiar robs the “other” of its own character and deprives the intercultural dialogue of its partner. Even well-meaning efforts of unilateral empathy reduce the other to an object by their very naiveté of trying to understand it. Such efforts prevent what they attempt to bring about: an equal and mutually valued recognition of the other through a process of mutually getting to know each other. What one assumes to know already, can no longer disclose itself. 306 In the context of the South Tyrol workshops, ‘not knowing’ is considered to be the precondition of a true hermeneutic dialogue. It is also implicit in Hunfeld’s entire concept of accepting the “foreignness” of the other; an understanding of the other based on a clear recognition of the limits of fully ‘knowing’ another language, culture and person. Thus, an essential common element present in both the clowning courses and the South Tyrol workshops can be seen to lie in the importance placed on developing a kind of listening and attentiveness to the “other” in a way that this “other” can disclose itself freely and fully. 8.6.3 Contrasts and Distinctions between the Courses There are many obvious differences between these two courses which need not be explored as they are not relevant in the context of this comparison. However, there are two distinctions which reveal essential qualities of the clowning 229 8.6 In-Service Development in a Hermeneutic Context <?page no="230"?> 307 Bonange 1996, 4. courses: each has to do with the very nature/ s of a hermeneutic dialogue and a clowning improvisation. In contrast to the South Tyrol workshops in which having enough time for critical reflection and consideration plays an instrumental role in each phase, there is a distillation of time in many phases of the clowning courses. Herein lies a fundamental element present in all the performing arts, whether music, theatre, or dance, insofar as they occur within a form of highly compressed time and with an intensity of focus, not otherwise normally found in everyday life. A thread going through many of the warm-ups and all the improvisations was that they occurred within that kind of close pressure of the ‘here and now’ in which the intensity of experience is magnified: in such moments there is no time for self-reflection. The participants’ responses give a clear indication of how the very nature of what they felt during those intense minutes on stage became a decisive element of their entire experience, both during the courses and in their reflections afterwards. Although the clown may slowly walk around on stage for a while ‘reflecting’ on what he sees and encounters, both his sense of time and the manner of his reflections can be clearly distinguished from what occurs in his life offstage. In theatre, music, dance, and in clowning the possibilities of self-reflection only exist later in looking back at such moments, whether directly afterwards in the feedback sessions, or at a much later point, as in their written responses. The concentrated ‘here and now’ which has been described in the South Tyrol workshops clearly occurs within a far less compressed and thus more familiar framework of time. These essential distinctions are also apparent in the very form/ s of the courses: the modus of meeting on a series of afternoons spread out over the course of a school year evidences a fundamentally different time structure than that of the intensive clowning courses. Each framework clearly fits to the processes which occur within them. A second vital distinction between these programs is the highly physical element of clowning. “Firmly grounded on the earth with his head in the clouds,” the clown has an eminently physical presence which is an integral part of everything she does and of the way she is perceived by others. 307 The decisive element of play which exists throughout the entire workshops cannot be separated from this element of physicality. This dimension of clowning is present throughout the entire courses; whether in the grace of the “Pivot Dance” the wild game of “Cat and Mouse”, or later in exploring the space and objects on stage. Both in the warm-ups and in the partner and group improvisations, communication involves the whole, active physical being: clowns improvising 230 8 Discussion of the Participants’ Responses <?page no="231"?> 308 The wide range of programs that are offered for the teaching and social professions can be viewed at (last accessed on 27.07.2021), http: / / couragerenewal.org/ parker/ . together on stage do not sit down and ‘discuss’ things in a conventional sense. As we have seen (8.3.1-8.3.3), this concrete dimension of perceptual and expressive experience was considered by many participants to be a vital aspect of the courses and has been seen as having wide-ranging ramifications. It is evident that there are both far-ranging parallels as well as clear differences between these in-service programs for language teachers. What they most notably share is that each has provided teachers with the opportunity to make significant and transformative changes: each course points to a new understanding of what language teacher development can mean. In affecting the entire person, these courses have shaped the participants’ teaching: in this context, the parallelisms between their own developments in the context of the courses and the steps that then became possible for them and their students to make in the classroom are considered to be crucial. In the South Tyrol courses this parallelism can be seen in one respect as highly congruent: the teachers entered into pedagogical processes which bore many similarities to what they asked of their pupils. In the clowning courses, this form of direct congruence was absent: here parallelisms exist on a deeper behavioural level. In learning to creatively overcome insecurities, in developing higher degrees of attentiveness and receptivity, through discovering new dimensions in themselves, foreign language teachers made personal steps which closely parallel those which they try to elicit in their pupils. Naturally, this dimension of parallelism can also be found in the South Tyrol courses; the difference is seen in the intensity, focus and distillation of time intrinsic to the performing arts which is present in the clowning workshops. In both courses, such processes are considered as essential in teaching and learning a foreign language. Viewed from this perspective, these two approaches can be regarded as complementary. 8.7 Parker Palmer’s Courage to Teach Retreats The necessity of affecting meaningful personal change in the course of a teacher’s professional life has been one of the central themes which the educator Parker Palmer has addressed over many years in both his writings and seminars. In the meantime, the courses which he has designed are offered throughout the United States. 308 His thinking and experiences in this context are highly relevant 231 8.7 Parker Palmer’s Courage to Teach Retreats <?page no="232"?> 309 Parker J. Palmer, “Reflections on a Program for ‘The Formation of Teachers’,” An Occasional Paper of the Fetzer Institute (1992), 4, available online at (last accessed 27.07.2021) http: / / couragerenewal.org/ parker/ writings/ reflections-on-a-program/ . 310 Parker J. Palmer, The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher’s Life. (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1998) 17. to what participants experienced in the clowning courses and thus important to consider in the context of this discussion of in-service teacher development. Drawing on the works of the psychologist Erik Erikson, Palmer maintains that people in the middle of their lives and careers are faced with a decisive choice between what he terms “generativity” and “stagnation.” Palmer believes this choice has particular relevance for teachers who are constantly faced with the challenges of dealing with much younger people. He writes, In middle age (and all teachers are middle-aged), one faces a critical choice between “generativity” and “stagnation.” Generativity is a more precise term than creativity. It is the capacity to turn to the new life that is emerging in the wake of one’s own aging, as it were, and to help that new life come into its own - thus renewing one’s self as well. (This “new life” could be one’s children, one’s students, new ideas, a new culture.) Stagnation sets in when those who are aging perceive the new life as holding more threat than promise, and react to the threat by building barriers of self-protection - thereby protecting themselves against the threat but cutting themselves off from the chance for self-renewal as well. 309 For Palmer, the reasons so many teachers often feel the need to build ‘barriers of self-protection’ are intrinsically related to the daily realities of the teaching profession: We lose heart, in part, because teaching is a daily exercise in vulnerability. I need not reveal personal secrets to feel naked in front of a class. I need only parse a sentence or work a proof on the board while my students doze off or pass notes. No matter how technical my subject may be the things I teach are things I care about - and what I care about helps define my selfhood. (…) To reduce our vulnerability, we disconnect from students, from subjects, and even from ourselves. We build a wall between inner truth and outer performance, and we play-act the teacher’s part. Our words, spoken at remove from our hearts become “the balloon speech in cartoon,” and we become caricatures of ourselves. We distance ourselves from students and subject to minimize the danger - forgetting that distance makes life more dangerous still by isolating the self. 310 Palmer sees a particular danger in the tendency among teachers in the middle of their professional careers to adopt an attitude of cynicism. In attempting to 232 8 Discussion of the Participants’ Responses <?page no="233"?> 311 Palmer 1992, 4. 312 Palmer 1998, 10. address this problem, he has proposed the general idea of in-service “teacher formation” as a way of helping teachers to intensify their inner connections to their pupils: …look at the number of teachers who seek refuge in the cynicism against the perceived onslaughts of the younger generation. (…) Cynicism may offer protection against minor cuts and abrasions, but only at the price of a mortal, self-inflicted wound to one’s heart: cynicism cuts one off from the great cycle of renewal that goes on between the generations. A program of “teacher formation” will take this issue very seriously. It will help teachers see that our vocation offers extraordinary opportunities for entering daily into this cycle of renewal. It will help us understand that “generativity” has even more benefits for the teacher than it does for the young who we teach. 311 Palmer’s writings and seminars are focused on helping teachers develop their sense of identity and selfhood and connecting this to their teaching. He developed his original concept of ‘teacher formation’ into his Courage to Teach retreats. These courses are based on an underlying principle which he has articulated as “we teach who we are.” He writes, After three decades of trying to learn my craft, every class comes down to this: my students and I, face to face, engaged in an ancient and exacting exchange called education. The techniques I have mastered do not disappear, but neither do they suffice. Face to face with my students, only one resource is at my immediate command: my identity, my selfhood, my sense of this “I” who teaches - without which I have no sense of the “thou” who learns. This book builds on a simple premise: good teaching cannot be reduced to technique: good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher. The premise is simple, but its implications are not. 312 (italics in original) The in-service courses that Palmer has designed in his Courage to Teach program typically consist of twenty-five K-12 teachers from a variety of schools in a region who in the course of two years go on eight weekend retreats of three days, working together under the guidance of a trained facilitator. Central to Parker’s concept is his understanding of the human soul and the importance of creating a ‘safe space’ during these weekend retreats for the soul to be able to open up and reveal itself: Just like a wild animal, the soul is tough, resilient, savvy, resourceful and self-suffi‐ cient: it knows how to survive in hard places. Many of us learn about these qualities 233 8.7 Parker Palmer’s Courage to Teach Retreats <?page no="234"?> 313 Parker J. Palmer, “Teaching with Heart and Soul: Reflections on Spirituality in Teacher Education,” Journal of Teacher Education. vol. 54, no. 5, (Nov/ Dec. 2003) available online at (last accessed on 23.07.2021), http: / / couragerenewal.org/ parker/ writings/ heart-and -soul/ . 314 Ibid. in the darkest moments of our lives when the faculties we normally depend upon utterly fail us - the intellect is useless, the emotions dead, the will impotent, and the ego shattered. But sometimes, way back in the thickets of our inner lives, we sense the presence of something that knows how to stay alive and helps us to keep going. That something, I suggest, is the tough and tenacious soul. And yet the soul, despite its toughness, is also essentially shy - just like a wild animal. It will flee from the noisy crowd and seek safety in the deep underbrush. If we want to see a wild animal, we know that the last thing we should do is go crashing through the woods yelling for it to come out! But if we will walk into the woods quietly and sit at the base of a tree, breathing with the earth and fading into our surroundings, the wild creature we seek may eventually show up. 313 This understanding of the soul shapes the structure and content of the entire courses. The kinds of life questions and issues which are addressed in the context of these eight weekends are based on the metaphor of the different ‘seasons of the soul’ each of which needs to be addressed in one’s life. Questions such as, “How can I recall and reclaim more of my birthright potentials? ” or “Where am I called to use my gifts in the world? ” present a basis for such work. The methods through which this occurs in the group, also result directly from his understanding of the soul: We enforce a simple ground rule regarding how we are to speak to each other: “No fixing, no saving, no advising, no setting straight.” It is impossible to exaggerate how demanding this rule seems to most people. (…) But following this rule consistently is the key to this form of community. The last thing the soul wants is to be fixed or saved, and any effort to do so will send it running back into the woods. The soul wants simply to be witnessed, attended to, heard. And in a CTT group, it does not matter whether or not you hear my soul speak: what matters is that you help to create a trustworthy space where I can hear my own inner teacher more and more clearly. 314 The principles and structures which determine these courses have been deeply influenced by the principles of the Quakers and their long tradition of creating ‘circles of trust’ in which conflicts and difficulties are resolved in a manner closely related to the principles and structures of these courses. In the place 234 8 Discussion of the Participants’ Responses <?page no="235"?> 315 Ibid., 8. 316 Ibid. of giving advice, ‘fixing’, ‘setting straight’, the kinds of questions which the participants and the facilitator pose become an instrument in helping each person hear their own ‘inner teacher’: We learn to respond to each other in a CTT group by asking honest, open questions whose sole intent is to help “hear each other into speech”, deeper and deeper speech. (…) An honest question is one that I can ask you without being able to think to myself, “I know the right answer to this question, and I sure hope you give it to me.” An open question is one that gives you a full and free range of responses, rather than one that tries to nudge you in the direction I have in mind. Most of us find it very hard to give up our long-time tendency of trying to set other people straight. But as we do so, many of us find our relationships at work and at home transformed in remarkable ways. 315 Another essential element in these retreats is the use of “third things” to facilitate these processes through touching on these essential dimensions through art and not direct reference: …the pedagogy of the CTT program makes constant use of “third things” - poems, teaching stories, music or works of art - that represent a voice other than that of the facilitator or a member of the group. These third things are selected because they embody, or carry, the issue we want to focus on - and they allow the shy soul to speak about that issue without being scared off by the headlong, and headstrong, “running at topics” so characteristic of academic discourse. 316 Palmer views these courses as not only being an instrument for self-discovery and attaining personal growth, but also as intrinsically related to what is required in teaching. He sees underlying parallels between the problems of pupils struggling to find their inner voices and teachers who are struggling to do the same. Through a teacher’s learning to do this for himself and with others in the context of these courses, he sees a crucial and often decisive step in learning to help pupils to do the same: Behind their fearful silence, our students want to find their voices, speak their voices, have their voices heard. A good teacher is one who can listen to those voices even before they are spoken - so that someday they can speak with truth and confidence. What does it mean to listen to a voice before it is spoken? It means making space for the other, being aware of the other, paying attention to the other, honouring the 235 8.7 Parker Palmer’s Courage to Teach Retreats <?page no="236"?> 317 Palmer 1998, 46. 318 Ibid., 106. other. It means not rushing to fill our students’ silences with fearful speech of our own and not trying to coerce them into saying the things that we want to hear. It means entering empathetically into the student’s world so that he or she perceives you as someone who has the promise of being able to hear another person’s truth. 317 In this respect he draws a vital connection between a teacher’s capacity for empathy and her own view of herself: We cannot know the subject well if we stand only in our own shoes. We must believe in the subject’s inner life and enter with empathy into it, an empathy unavailable to us when we neither believe in nor cultivate an inner life of our own. When we deny or disparage the knower’s inner life, as is the objectivist habit, we have no capacity to intuit, let alone inhabit the inwardness of the known. 318 8.7.1 Parallels to the Clowning Workshops: Personal Knowledge and ‘Objective’ Knowledge In comparing Palmer’s weekend retreats with the clowning workshops, it is evi‐ dent that they share a common view of the potential value of subjective, personal forms of ‘knowing’. Such forms of ‘knowing’ can clearly be distinguished from the prevalent academic understanding of abstract, ‘objective’ knowledge. What the participants learn in the clowning courses in making the requisite steps which enable them to improvise freely becomes a form of ‘personal knowledge’. Such knowledge becomes meaningful in and through the felt experience of its practice. In the clowning courses, such forms of ‘knowing’ are tied to the development of a whole range of perceptual and expressive capabilities: they are also, paradoxically, based on an acceptance of the state of ‘not knowing’. These elements are also present in different respects in the Courage to Teach courses. As Palmer has consistently argued, the general primacy of an academic approach to learning and knowledge has had decisive effects on all aspects of teaching and learning. He considers the widespread dominance of this form of academic thinking at all stages of teacher education to be one of the sources of the ‘split’ between the whole being of the teacher and her teaching practices. This “self-protective” split of personhood from practice is encouraged by an academic culture that distrusts personal truth. Though the academy claims to value multiple modes of knowing, it honors only one - an “objective” way of knowing that takes us into the “real” world by taking us “out of ourselves”. 236 8 Discussion of the Participants’ Responses <?page no="237"?> 319 Ibid., 17-18. 320 See Chap 5.2. In this culture, objective facts are regarded as pure, while subjective feelings are suspect and sullied. In this culture, the self is not a source to be tapped but a danger to be suppressed, not a potential to be fulfilled but an obstacle to be overcome. 319 It is through focusing on the “inwardness” of the teacher that Palmer sees the only possibilities of generating meaningful growth. Such growth encompasses the entire human being and can only be effected through addressing her as such. Thus he sees the emphasis on academic knowledge and the absence of possibilities to acquire personal forms of knowledge as an inexcusable deficit in both pre-service and in-service teacher education. It is the situation of a teacher, imbued with his professional knowledge and experience, but emotionally cut off from the rest of his life and self which Palmer has so strongly attempted to transform. In this context there are far-ranging parallels to the thinking of Carl Rogers whose work was shaped by his conviction that an individual’s sense of wholeness and well-being was dependent on a fundamental congruence between what she feels and her awareness of those feelings. 320 There are also connections here to the entire issue of teacher burnout discussed in Chapter 2. In that context it became apparent that the necessary antidote to a teacher’s feelings of despair and resignation cannot be found in those forms of traditional in-service education based on enhancing subject knowledge and/ or methodological skills. Both Palmer’s courses as well as the clowning workshops can be seen as having adopted an approach to in-service development in which a teacher’s inner life is directly addressed. In the “Courage to Teach” seminars this occurs by speaking and listening to each other within a ‘circle of trust’. In the clowning courses this takes place in a form of ‘play’ through which the participants in making discoveries about themselves also acquired personal and highly meaningful forms of ‘knowledge’: The consequences of those distinctions made between the scientific, objective knowledge which teachers are required to learn in their training and those subjective dimensions of experience which are often ignored in the context of teacher education have also been addressed by other educators, including Horst Rumpf, Ernst Michael Kranich and Theodor Adorno. In this respect, Adorno’s lectures to prospective teachers held in 1963 can still be seen as highly relevant. He argues that those reasons given for adopting a scientific approach to teacher education ostensibly based on what scientific thought has contributed to human intellectual development are profoundly flawed: 237 8.7 Parker Palmer’s Courage to Teach Retreats <?page no="238"?> 321 Theodor W. Adorno, “Philosophie und Lehrer,” chap. in Eingriffe. (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1963) 49. Once, the concept of what is scientific was understood as a demand to accept nothing unseen and untested, as freedom, as the emancipation from being dominated by heteronomous dogmas. Today the apostles of the scientific approach have created a new form of heteronomy and taken it to such a degree that one is horrified by it. One presumes that when one follows scientific rules, obeys the scientific rituals and surrounds oneself with science, one will be saved. Scientific approbation becomes a substitute for intellectual reflection on reality; for which science stands in the first place. The armour covers the wound. A materialistic consciousness utilizes science as an apparatus between one’s self and living experience. The more one senses that one has forgotten what is best, the more one comforts oneself with the fact that one has the apparatus. [Einmal meinte er (der Begriff der Wissenschaftlichkeit), als Forderung, nichts ungesehen und ungeprüft zu akzeptieren, Freiheit, die Emanzipation von der Bevor‐ mundung durch heteronome Dogmen. Heute ist Wissenschaftlichkeit in einem Maß, vor dem einen schaudert, ihren Jüngern zu einer neuen Gestalt der Heteronomie geworden. Man wähnt, wenn man nach wissenschaftlichen Regeln sich richtet, dem wissenschaftlichen Ritual gehorcht, mit Wissenschaft sich umgibt, gerettet zu sein. Wissenschaftliche Approbation wird zum Ersatz der geistigen Reflexion des Tatsächlichen, in der Wissenschaft erst bestünde. Der Panzer verdeckt die Wunde. Das verdinglichte Bewusstsein schaltet Wissenschaft als Apparatur zwischen sich selbst und die lebendige Erfahrung. Je tiefer man ahnt, daß man das Beste vergessen hat, desto mehr tröstet man sich damit, daß man über die Apparatur verfügt.] 321 It is precisely this covered “wound” which Palmer is so concerned to reach, through providing a ‘safe space’ in which one’s ‘inner teacher’ can be heard. In a related way, the clowning courses also attempt to create a safe space in which through ‘playing’ it becomes possible to awaken the ‘best’ that has been forgotten. To arrive at this point means giving up ingrained habits of thinking and being while discovering new possibilities within oneself. Such developments are invariably experienced as a form of regeneration. Palmer’s retreats are also expressly designed to elicit such transformative growth and regeneration. Within the framework of a ‘circle of trust’ in which one is being attentively listened to, such forms of inner knowing are encouraged and supported. Comparable to clowning this often requires taking substantial personal risks. The entire design and framework of both of these courses can be seen as intending to create ‘safe places’ for such processes to occur. The vital importance of attentiveness and empathy in both contexts is apparent. The role 238 8 Discussion of the Participants’ Responses <?page no="239"?> of acceptance in sensitively and openly receiving the impulses of the ‘other’ can also be seen as analogous. At the heart of both programs lies the common conviction that such forms of growth and knowledge can only be reached from ‘within’, through awakening the creative potentials of one’s ‘inner teacher.’ Hence, each course is expressly designed to awaken something wholly personal whose origins exist within each individual; neither offers models to be imitated or demonstrates the ‘right way’ to do something. 8.7.2 Contrasts and Parallels Both with respect to the determinative qualities of the performing arts present in clowning, as well as in considering its highly sensory/ physical dimension of experience, those distinctions drawn between the South Tyrol Courses and the clowning courses can also be seen as equally relevant in regard to Palmer’s ‘Courage to Teach’ retreats. In the end, the differences between teachers sitting around in a circle talking, and teachers wearing costumes and red noses improvising on stage are certainly not insignificant ones. A further, crucial difference between these two programs is the overt focus of the courses. Whereas the ‘Courage to Teach’ courses address the challenges of attaining inner growth through trying to provide the soul with a ‘safe space to speak’, the clowning courses are designed to bring participants to the point where they can learn to improvise freely within the ‘space of performance’. These learning processes are dependent on going through a careful series of steps. As we have seen, many dimensions of this process, particularly in the warm-up phase, evidenced strong parallels to comparable learning processes in the other performing arts. Unique to clowning and improvisation were those steps which followed. In all of these phases, the clown was continually forced to address the challenges faced by the performing artist. This is clearly a dimension of learning which is not present in the ‘Courage to Teach’ seminars. As was the case with the South Tyrol seminars, the very different time frameworks of these two programs reflect and match the nature of the work. However, more significant than the differences between Palmer’s seminars, the South Tyrol workshops and the clowning courses are the striking parallels which they evidence. These include their common holistic approaches to a teacher’s entire personal development and their conviction that such develop‐ ments are more decisive in affecting meaningful teacher change than in-service courses focused on subject knowledge and/ or methodological techniques. Through concentrated hermeneutic dialogues, through establishing a ‘circle of trust’, or through clowning and improvisation, these three in-service courses 239 8.7 Parker Palmer’s Courage to Teach Retreats <?page no="240"?> in very different ways attempt to do something quite similar: each initiates and supports processes through which it becomes possible for participants to grow and change in fundamental ways. It lies in the very nature of such changes that they can become transformative, shaping one’s personal and professional life. Each of the courses also shares a common understanding of the inherent parallelism between a teacher’s making significant personal steps in developing, for instance, an enhanced sense of openness and attentiveness, higher degrees of sympathy and empathy - and in her being able to help her pupils to do the same. In all of these courses these dimensions of personal growth are considered to be decisive elements in both a pupil’s and a teacher’s education. The conceptual frameworks of each of these courses are based on a common conviction that such developments are only made through the ‘here and now’ of direct experience. Thus, the forms and structures of each of the courses are based on making such growth possible within the workshops themselves. The final in-service program to be examined was not discussed in the first edition. On a fundamental level, its entire concept and intentions are closely related to the goals of each of the other courses. At the same time, it can also be seen as bridging a certain gap between the South Tyrol workshops and the Courage to Teach retreats on the one hand, and the theatre clowning courses on the other. 8.8 Maxine Greene and The Lincoln Center Institute Initiated by Maxine Greene over 50 years ago, the Lincoln Center Institute offers professional training programs for teachers focusing on the arts, most notably in the form of its yearly summer sessions which attract teachers from all over the United States. During three-week courses, teachers are offered the opportunity to intensively immerse themselves in different arts including music, theatre, dance, the visual arts, and poetry. For Greene, artistic work and learning offers a basis of affective, cognitive and embodied experience which she views as a paradigm for all education: I believe that the learning provoked by what we call aesthetic education is paradig‐ matic for the learning many of us would like to see. Learning stimulated by the desire to explore, to find out, to go in search. This is the learning that goes beyond teaching - the only significant learning, I believe. It is self-initiated at some point, permeated 240 8 Discussion of the Participants’ Responses <?page no="241"?> 322 Maxine Greene. Variations on a Blue Guitar: The Lincoln Center Institute Lectures on Aesthetic Education. (New York: Teachers College Press, 2001), 46-47. 323 Ibid., 203. 324 Ibid., 206. by wonder, studded by moments of questioning, always with the sense that there is something out there, something worthwhile beyond. 322 An element unique to the Lincoln Center program is the effort made to help participants to attain a deeper level of appreciation of specific works of art, which the participants are then able to directly experience in the course of their time in New York City. Greene explains what this form of preparation entails and why she deems it to be so important: “People must be empowered to notice what is there to be noticed. They must know what it is to move within paintings and among the masses of sculptures, to live in music, to attend to bodies in motion on a stage - not solely with eyes and mind, but with nerves and muscles and pulsing blood. What I have in mind is not art appreciation in any of its customary senses: appreciation imposed on passive people sitting still to be improved. Nor am I talking about anything that can be easily subsumed under art history or the humanities. Affective education does not describe it; nor is it to be understood as a predominantly intellectualized engagement - musicological, literary critical, philosophical, aesthetical - with selected works in the artistic domains. It can be called aesthetic education; it can be called education in being present, personally present as imagining, feeling, perceiving, thinking beings to works of art. 323 It is in this context that the arts are seen to offer unparalleled opportunities for developing perceptual capabilities: We need to hold in mind the fact that the arts are almost always inexhaustible. There is no using up of a painting or a concerto or a poem. If they have any richness, any density at all, they are inexhaustible, there is always more. 324 At the heart of this entire program lies an underlying conviction that such intensive encounters with works of art offer unique opportunities for teachers, initiating personal and professional growth and leading to another view of teaching: …clearly, each of us has to be there in person and fully present if dance is to come alive, if the landscape is to fulfil itself, if the sonata is to run its course, if the poem is to be achieved. We cannot send our representatives to see The Magic Flute for us or a Motherwell drawing or The Prodigal Son or any of the works I have named. It can only be we ourselves, among other selves, and this true of the young among us 241 8.8 Maxine Greene and The Lincoln Center Institute <?page no="242"?> 325 Ibid., 207 326 Ibid., p. 47 327 Ibid., 206. 328 There have a broad range of both dissertations and publications based on the work of the Lincoln Center Institute. The different chapters, for instance, in the book, Community in the Making: Lincoln Center Institute, the Arts, and Teacher Education, edited by Madeleine as well - who may be opened to the surprise of self-discovery in this fashion, as they are to the sense of craft, of discipline, of taste, of standard as they become aware of what excellence can mean. 325 In experiencing and considering aesthetic education as an ideal, the task of the teacher can be transformed from imparting knowledge into creating opportunities for pupils to become immersed in those dimensions of learning that the teachers were able to engage in themselves. At the core of this vision lies a belief in the individual wishes of pupils to grasp such opportunities of growth when they are presented to them: “Surely you recognize that this kind of thing seldom happens naturally. Situations have to be created that release the energies required, that provoke interest, that move persons to reach beyond themselves. (…) With this in mind, we can somehow trust that, if we have taught how to search and let them catch some gleam of the untraveled, they will find their own ways, as we have done, and begin teaching themselves, pursuing their own possibilities.” 326 Finally, it is the richness of the arts which enables their active practice to become a catalyst for transforming habits of thinking, feeling and being. Thus, in learning to meet the varied demands which the arts make on an individual, there exist unique possibilities for both teachers and pupils to learn to perceive and participate in the world in a deeply enhanced manner. It is this connection between artistic experience and personal development that lies at the heart of Greene’s understanding of a meaningful education: Most significantly, I think we too often forget that the primary purpose of education is to free persons to make sense of their actual lived situations - not only cognitively, but perceptually, imaginatively, affectively - to attend mindfully to their own lives, to take their own initiatives in interpreting them and finding out where the deficiencies are and trying to transform them. 327 In the course of the three-week summer program, the range and intensity of artistic and aesthetic experience in which teachers are immersed is extraor‐ dinary and the benefits of this program for the participants have also been documented. 328 In establishing rich and manifold connections between the study 242 8 Discussion of the Participants’ Responses <?page no="243"?> Fuchs Holzer and Scott Noppe-Brandon (New York: Teachers College Press, 2005), give a differentiated picture of some of the effects of these courses. of the arts and teacher education, Greene has not only elucidated fundamental relations between them, but in creating the Lincoln Center Institute also designed a framework in which such connections can be put into practice. At the same time, out of a deep understanding of the possibilities intrinsic to the study of the arts, she also developed a vision in which a teacher’s experience and practice of the arts is not merely justified for its own sake as l’art pour l’art but, finally, for the sake of others - namely, for her pupils. In many respects, the programs offered by the Lincoln Center Institute evidence clear parallels to the English Week and the drama and theatre clowning courses offered there. As with the English Week, there is a focus placed on a ‘hands on’ approach and intensive artistic work led by experts in their respective fields. Significant contrasts between these programs can be seen in the fact that the Lincoln Center Institute program is designed for teachers of all subjects, and in the broad range of art forms which are part of the program. The crucial role which the enhancement of the appreciation of works of art in different mediums constitutes a further important difference. The focus in the English Week on the performing arts and, in particular, on drama, storytelling, and theatre clowning, is directly related to the fact that these are viewed as the artistic forms most closely related to both teaching in general and foreign language teaching in particular. The English Week also offers lectures and a broad range of methodology courses specifically designed to help teachers bridge the divide between the artistic work and the actual practice of language teaching. In contrast, the Lincoln Center programs can be seen as a general immersion course in different arts, based on the conviction that such intensive artistic/ aesthetic experiences, in themselves, will lead to significant personal and professional developments. This apparent distinction between the two programs bears closer examination. On a more fundamental level, what the programs at the Lincoln Center Institute share with the theatre clowning courses is their common understanding of how personal artistic experiences can initiate far-ranging developmental and transformative processes. As an essential part of in-service education for foreign language teachers, theatre clowning offers teachers possibilities of personal growth in areas that are inextricably tied to exactly those kinds of challenges which teaching continually poses. This is clearly borne out by what the participants wrote in their reflections. Although the courses were in no way planned or conducted with a specific focus on improving teaching skills, those 243 8.8 Maxine Greene and The Lincoln Center Institute <?page no="244"?> areas which are continually emphasized by the participants and have been dis‐ cussed in this chapter such as the development of improvisational capabilities, genuineness, receptivity and acceptance, sympathy and caring, awareness and perception, breaking routines and avoiding burn-out, are directly related to the most fundamental aspects of teaching. One could even say that because these courses were not concretely designed to improve their teaching, what the participants intensively experienced in clowning affected them in completely new, unexpected ways and thus all the more deeply. Indeed, these distinctive and subtle relations between artistic experience, personal transformation and the practice of teaching are closely connected to the entire approach underlying the Lincoln Center Institute as well. Thus, what appears from one perspective to be a clear difference between these concepts, viewed from another perspective can be seen as what connects them. 8.9 Learning the Art of Clowning and the Art of Teaching In Chapter 1, the challenges encountered in previous attempts to define artistry in teaching and incorporating this understanding into the framework of teacher education were elucidated. In that context the absence of any clear concepts of how to teach those attributes deemed intrinsic to artistic teaching was considered to be a clear and striking deficit. There appears at certain points to be almost an inherent contradiction in defining the general qualities of artistry in teaching and then designing a specific program for teaching them. Within the different concepts in which teaching has been viewed as an art, the question of how to integrate this understanding of teaching into teacher education has remained a highly elusive goal. In many significant respects, these difficulties can be seen as being closely tied to the unique role which personal authenticity and genuineness are considered to play in different views of artistic teaching. A number of the leading figures in language teacher education have addressed this dilemma directly. Rod Bolitho writes, Although teaching is a skill, the rudiments of which can be acquired by study, imitation of models, evaluation and other means, it is not an activity which can be successfully conducted in a way extrinsic to a person’s being. The best teachers I know are all people who have achieved an integrity of personality; the best teaching I have been aware of has been at moments when the barriers between teachers and students, between the classroom and the world, have become unnoticeable or 244 8 Discussion of the Participants’ Responses <?page no="245"?> 329 Rod Bolitho, “Teacher Development - a Personal Perspective,” Teacher Development Newsletter 1 (1986): 2. 330 Earl W. Stevick, Teaching Languages: A Way and Ways. (Rowley, MA: Newbury House, 1980) 32. irrelevant. Conversely, I have seen technically brilliant teaching which has been devoid of any lasting significance. These perceptions have consequences for teacher training and teacher development. 329 Earl Stewick has also addressed this difficulty in the context of pointing out the necessity of teachers finding their own personal styles and the impossibility of their imitating someone else: Trying to copy the surface structure - the concrete techniques - of someone else’s method is a common temptation, particularly when one has just seen a brilliant “demonstration” by a prestigious personage endowed with charisma. This is like folding one kind of paper airplane, and then using scissors to trim the wings into the shape of another style of plane. I have done this sort of thing often enough myself. Maybe it is a necessary first step in learning from observation of master teachers. Nevertheless, it means that the teacher does not fully understand what she is doing and why; it does not grow organically out of her self and the present situation. 330 The issue that both Bolito and Stevick are addressing here must be considered as an essential dilemma in realizing artistry in teaching through teacher development programs. Although in traditional teacher education trying to learn by observing and imitating models has consistently been advanced as one of the most viable possibilities of teacher training at pre-service and in-service levels, precisely within the framework of viewing teaching as an art there are inherent challenges in this approach which need to be addressed. In this context much can be learned from the traditions of the performing arts. 8.9.1 Attaining Artistry in the Performing Arts Seymour Sarason’s unique contribution to the concept of teaching as an art was based on the connections he elucidated between the performing arts and teaching (1.3.7). His comparison of the relations between a performer and his audience and a teacher and his pupils can be considered relevant to the clowning courses in different respects. As we have seen, a primary aspect of clowning has to do with creating and continually maintaining a relationship to one’s audience. While improvising, the possibilities inherent in realizing this are directly experienced by the performer. At the same time, the audience watching 245 8.9 Learning the Art of Clowning and the Art of Teaching <?page no="246"?> 331 Ibid., 48. 332 Ibid. the clown in the ‘empty space’ is moved by the immediacy and transparency of the clown’s ‘discovery’ of these possibilities. For Sarason, it is this dynamic connection between the performing artist and his audience which underlies his entire understanding of teaching as an art. While recognizing the role and responsibilities of the teacher as an instructor, he also calls upon the teacher to recognize his role and responsibilities as a performer. He sees this as a crucial point with far-ranging implications for teaching and teacher education: When we say that performers seek both to instruct and move an audience, we mean that the teacher as performing artist has in some positive way altered the students’ conception of the relationship between sense of self and the significance of the subject matter, i. e., an increase in competence. And it is that process and engagement which reinforces the sense of the teacher’s competence. The word instruct engenders imagery of a one-way-street interaction, imagery all too frequently observable in the classroom, which is why so many students never experience the sense of being moved. If this point is not central in the preparatory program of the teacher, it subverts all other changes or improvements a program can make. 331 Writing at the age of 80, Sarason made clear that he was not able to design the profound revision of teacher education that he was convinced was necessary. A relevant observation he made in this context was his recognition of the limits of only talking or writing about these connections. 332 Within the framework which Sarason has envisioned, the clowning workshops and, in fact, the entire range of courses offered in the context of the English Week can be seen as the realization of a concept of in-service teacher education derived from the traditions of the performing arts. The clowning courses gave language teachers a wide range of opportunities to heighten their capabilities of perception and expression. At the same time, the courses helped participants discover new dimensions of creativity and artistry within themselves. In facing the considerable challenges presented by clowning and improvisation, participants were thus continually given a chance to discover ‘the artist within’. There was never a question of trying to follow or imitate a model. This establishes a vital link between learning the art of clowning in these workshops and learning the art of teaching. It lies in the very nature of those attributes of artistry in teaching discussed in Chapter 1 that they do not fit to prescribed models, but rather reflect pedagogical insights and intuitions in a given situation. In this vision of teaching as an art there is no preordained ‘right way’ of doing things; instead, the special, 246 8 Discussion of the Participants’ Responses <?page no="247"?> 333 Palmer 1998, 24. 334 Eisner 1985, 366. individual qualities of a given teacher are called upon in the unique ‘here and now’ of a particular classroom situation. From this perspective, both the underlying basis of Gladwell’s entire approach to teaching the art of clowning, as well as the development of the personal artistry of a teacher can be seen as originating in a person’s discovering her own caring and creative impulses. It is evident that the sensibility and capabilities which this understanding of artistic teaching entails cannot be reduced to the level of methodology. This fits closely to what Palmer has written with respect to the learning of teaching techniques: Here, I believe, is the proper and powerful role of technique: as we learn more about who we are, we can learn techniques that reveal rather than conceal the personhood from which good teaching comes. We no longer need to use technique to mask the subjective self, as the culture of professionalism encourages us to do. Now we can use technique to manifest more fully the gift of self from which our best teaching comes. 333 (italics in original) Eisner sees a vital connection in this respect between such personal qualities of artistry in teaching and the personal qualities of artists in all the arts: Such individuals work with the creation and organization of qualities, the actor with the qualities of speech and gesture, the musician with those of sound, the painter with color, line and form, and the teacher with words, timing, and the creation of educational environments. What all of these artists have in common is the aspiration to confer a unique, personal order on the materials with which they work. And most work in contexts that are in a state of continual flux. No recipe will do. No routine will be adequate, even if routines must be acquired as a part of one’s repertoire. The point here is that much of what we know and the basis for much of our actions rest on inexpressible forms of consciousness that recognize the feel of things and sense the qualities that lead to closure and consummation. 334 In the context of teacher education, much can be learned from how individual artistry is developed in the performing arts and, in particular, drama. Although models are often utilized in drama education and the director demonstrating what he wants is a familiar sight in theatre, in the writings of leading directors including Constantin Stanislavski, Michael Chekhov, Jerzy Grotowski, Peter Brook, Declan Donnellan and Augusto Boal, the limitations of all forms of 247 8.9 Learning the Art of Clowning and the Art of Teaching <?page no="248"?> 335 Relevant works in this context by Brook, Donnellan, and Stanislavski have already been cited. Michael Chekov’s approach to acting is described in, To the Actor on the Technique of Acting. Rev. ed. (New York: Harper & Row, 1953; London: Routledge, 2002). A good introduction to the work of Augusto Boal is provided by his memoirs: Hamlet and the Baker’s Son: My Life in Theatre and Politics (London: Routledge, 2001). The best introduction to Jerzy Grotowski’s views on theatre is, Towards a Poor Theatre. London: Methuen) 1992. 336 Peter Brook, Threads of Time. (Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint, 1998) 73. imitation are clearly explicated. 335 As different as their approaches sometimes are, they all share a common recognition that in the end, the actor is wholly dependent on finding her own inner relation to a character and situation. What Brook writes in this context is relevant: It takes a long while for a director to cease thinking in terms of the result he desires and instead concentrate on discovering the source of energy in the actor from which true impulses can arise. If one describes or demonstrates the result one is seeking, an actor can for a moment reproduce it. To be able to do so a second time with sufficient energy, however, the actor must have such conviction that the impulse becomes truly his or her own. Invariably, for actors, this sense of conviction comes from their inner sense of reality, not from obedience to a director’s ideas. 336 Seen from this perspective, both Vivian Gladwell’s clowning courses, as well as Robert McNeer’s drama courses can be seen as exemplary. Their goal in working with teachers was clearly not to get them to carry out their pre-defined conceptions of the way a particular improvisation, scene, story, poem, should be performed. In this sense there is a decisive distinction that can be drawn to theatre work in which the director generally has a more or less clear conception of how something should be performed. In working with teachers in an artistic context, their aim was to enhance the development of personal, artistic expression within the structure of working on an improvisation, poem, story etc. In almost every case one could witness how such work gained focus, became more alive and more believable. In the clowning courses this was what enabled them to respond more creatively and freely. In the other drama workshops this generally involved an enhancing of the imagination and a concurrent elimination of extraneous gestures and habits - letting the poem or story become simpler and more eloquent. In all of these cases, a genuineness of personal expression was attained which became apparent for both the performer and her audience. The feedback of the participants eloquently documents the significance such steps had for them. 248 8 Discussion of the Participants’ Responses <?page no="249"?> 337 Horst Rumpf, Diesseits der Belehrungswut: Pädagogische Aufmerksamkeiten. (Weinheim: Juventa, 2004) 55. 338 Ibid., 55-56. 8.9.2 Artistry and Effectiveness in Teaching/ Two Views of the World In further considering the relation of the clowning courses to the classroom it will be helpful to return again to the different visions of teaching that were examined in Chapter 1. In this context it can be enlightening to consider the distinctions between effectiveness and artistry in teaching. As discussed in Chapter 1, the model of efficiency in education and the concurrent goal of heightening the effectiveness of the teacher have been images which have profoundly shaped the teaching profession. Teacher education seen from this perspective has been shown to have fundamentally different goals and methods than teaching viewed as an art. These two ways of viewing teaching can also be seen as reflecting funda‐ mentally different ways of experiencing the world. In assessing the effects of these two divergent views on teacher education, the writings of the educator Horst Rumpf are illuminating. Rumpf has drawn clear distinctions between two ways of perceiving the world which he has labelled Weltumgang I und II. With Weltumgang I, he elucidates the manner of perception which he believes underlies most forms of teaching and education: There is a way of dealing with the world that aims to reduce life’s threats and incalculable horizons. (…) One seeks and produces stability and enough room for ma‐ noeuvre, in looking for general concepts. One gets a hold on the world - by grasping it. What a great cultural achievement - this type of learning, its preservation, its transmission, its continual optimisation, its highly developed information technology - the world tends to become controllable - a network of facts and information. Here the symbols of language, number and image are instruments in the service of stability and acceleration. 337 While recognizing the successes and accomplishments which this manner of perception and knowledge has produced, he points out what he considers the critical danger inherent in this view of the world: … Practiced to excess and imposed as a monoculture it can lead people to control the world while at the same time forgetting how to touch it, to sense its bodily, mortal being. 338 He contrasts this with another manner of perceiving and being which he calls Weltumgang II: 249 8.9 Learning the Art of Clowning and the Art of Teaching <?page no="250"?> 339 Ibid., 56. 340 Ibid. 341 John Dewey, Experience and Nature. (New York: Dover, 1958) 117. It is a way of dealing with the world that allows itself to be impressed by that which falls through the net of awareness in the first way of relating to the world; that means it allows itself to meet with, be wounded by, irritated and fascinated by the radiance of appearances, of the world as appearance … (T)his awareness responds to what can be felt with the senses, what is unique, that ‘special something’ of the scene, the gestalt, the atmosphere - it is fascinated by what is charming and what is horrifying in certain things, events, phenomena, symbols - by its unfamiliarity, its strangeness, its ambiguity, its paradoxical nature and its craziness - by all that which the first way of dealing with the world was inclined to ignore in the interests of the world’s solidity. 339 (italics in original) Rumpf sees schools as essential places in which these different manners of perceiving and knowing are learned. What is learned in each case is fundamen‐ tally different. This is most evident in the very act of perception. Whereas the first perspective leads most directly to general and utilizable forms of knowledge, the second view accepts and lives with the potential ambiguities of the unknown. Dwelling on a phenomenon without trying to immediately reduce the complexity of that experience, stands in striking contradiction to the goal of quickly resolving any contradictions in order to arrive at a clear understanding of what is perceived. The second way of dealing with the world responds to the vehement force of being; the first way is fixated on a non-situational, generally determinable way of being. The second way allows the world quasi to drip with mysteriousness and astonishment. From the perspective of the first way of dealing with the world, it practices a kind of burdening of perception. 340 Rumpf also draws connections in this context to the writings of a number of other educators. He cites Dewey to support his argument that the goal of the development of abstract thinking in Weltumgang I should be to provide a more differentiated basis of experience for that form of direct experience only possible through Weltumgang II. Dewey writes, …something unpredictable, spontaneous, unformulable and ineffable is found in any terminal object. Standardizations, formulae, generalizationas, principles, universals, have their place, but the place is that of being instrumental to better approximation to what is unique and unrepeatable. 341 250 8 Discussion of the Participants’ Responses <?page no="251"?> 342 Ted. T. Aoki, “Layered Voices of Teaching.” Chap. 8 in Curriculum in a New Key: The Collected Works of Ted. T. Aoki. (Mahweh, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2004) 190-91. There are manifold parallels here to what the participants in the clowning courses experienced. The clown’s way of seeing the world is characterized by a continual fascination and sympathy with the phenomena she encounters; the art of clowning is wholly dependent on this form of perception and experience. The intense experience of what objects, people and a situation may suddenly offer - the “radiance of appearances” [Strahlkraft der Erscheinungen] - is exactly what the clown continually discovers on stage. The participants’ responses make clear in a variety of ways that such discoveries were not only momentary, but had lasting effects. The consequences of these different ways of experiencing the world go through all aspects of teacher education. As discussed in Chapter 1, the various choices of images and words used within each framework are highly revealing. What the Canadian educator Ted Aoki has written contrasting the goal of “effective teaching” with a fundamentally different vision of teaching and teacher education is illuminating in this respect: The notion of “effective teaching” flows from the behaviouristic theories of motiva‐ tion, retention, and the like, transformed into the language of teaching as doing. (…) In the first flush of thought, the notion of effectiveness has a seductive appeal of essential simplicity that suggests the possibility of a focus that can be grasped. It suggests, too, that effectiveness is mainly a matter of skill and technique, and that if I can but identify the components of effective teaching and if, with some concentrated effort, I can but identify the skills, maybe in a three-or four-day workshop, my teaching can become readily effective. All of these scientific and technical understandings of teaching emerge from our interest in intellectual and manipulative grasp and control. But in so understanding, we must be attuned to the fact that although those understandings that can be grasped are uncannily correct, the essence of teaching still eludes our grasp. What we need to do is to break away from the attitude of grasping and seek to be more properly oriented to what teaching is, so we can attune ourselves to the call of what teaching is. (…) So placed, I may be allowed to hear better the voice what teaching essentially is. The question understood in this way urges me to be attuned to a teacher’s presence with children. This presence, if authentic, is being. I find that teaching so understood is attuned to the place where care dwells, a place of ingathering and belonging, where the indwelling of teachers and students is made possible by the presence of care that each has for the other. 342 251 8.9 Learning the Art of Clowning and the Art of Teaching <?page no="252"?> 343 David Michael Levin, The Body’s Recollection of Being: Phenomenological Psychology and the Deconstruction of Nihilism. (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985) 163-64. Aoki’s vision of a classroom as a place of “ingathering and belonging” offers a striking image of schooling. This place where “the indwelling of teachers and students is made possible by the presence of care that each has for the other” stands in stark contrast to the widely held view of a classroom as a place of work. In fact, it is hard to imagine a stronger contrast than between those industrial images which have dominated educational thinking along with their related concepts of productivity, quality assurance, quality control etc., and Aoki’s vision of school being a place of “ingathering”, a place “where care dwells”. The vision of the classroom and learning that the latter evokes is far removed from the workplace; it summons up, instead, the image of the hermeneutic circle. 8.10 Clowning, Teaching and the Hermeneutic Circle of Learning The form of learning occurring in the clowning courses can be seen as closely related to the concept of a hermeneutic circle in which learning is not seen as a straight line, but as an ongoing beginning. The philosopher David Michael Levin has written eloquently about the significance of this circle as a symbol of learning: As a symbol for the hermeneutical method, the circle demonstrates the fact that processes of reflection, and inquiry in general, can have no absolute beginning, no absolute end. It demonstrates, further, that every beginning is also an end, and every end is also a beginning. The circle reminds us therefore, that all our understandings are preceded by a field of pre-understanding whose origins will forever elude our grasp: the circle reminds us to consult our unclear sense of how things are for us; it reminds us to listen to our body of felt sense, as the surest route to a deeper, more articulate understanding. And the circle shows us that no matter how far we journey, we must always come back to ourselves. (…) The circle reminds us that hermeneutics is a circuit of recollection: there is always a leaving and a returning; but somehow, the returning is never a full returning, and the leaving is never a final leaving. 343 In considering the gesture implied by this image of the circle, Levin draws illuminating contrasts to the gesture implied by a straight line moving towards its goal: 252 8 Discussion of the Participants’ Responses <?page no="253"?> 344 Ibid., 164 345 Ibid. 346 Ibid.,165 More than any other, the hermeneutical gesture, always circuitous, is the gesture of culture, whereas the more direct gesture, the gesture of the straight line, is the gesture which comes from our untutored nature. This latter gesture is the gesture moved straightaway by desire, by strong ego-logical attractions and aversions, or tends to be impatient, possessive, grasping and greedy, always seeking the most immediate egocentric satisfaction. It is a gesture which inscribes a trajectory of opposition and conflict between its object and itself. Naturally, it tends to be aggressive, wilful, manipulative. It is, in fact, a gesture of objectification befitting the will to power of our modern technological epoch, an epoch in which everything is required to be ready-to-hand, always available, permanently present within the reach of our gestures. 344 Levin sees the gesture of the circle as based on a welcoming, a gathering into a whole. At the same time he stresses that it is an open circle; what is enclosed in the circle is neither constrained nor directly pointed to: As a gathering which encircles the hermeneutical gesture inevitably alludes to a center, something precious and worthy of protection. But the center is only evoked by the encircling: the gesture makes no move to point to it directly.  345 (emphases in original) In addressing the question of what is in that centre, Levin arrives at what, at first, may seem to be a surprising conclusion: …there is ‘nothing’ in this center - nothing at all. In the center of the hermeneutical circle, ‘there is’ only emptiness, the presencing of an absence, absencing of a presence. No origin. No goal. And this is true even if, ontically and literally speaking, ‘something’ is there. For the encircling motion of the gesture clearly acknowledges that which is as its center, and yet it is equally clear, equally legible from its comportment, that nothing is there to be grasped, nothing to be posited, nothing to be possessed, nothing reached. 346 (emphases in original) In that hermeneutical ‘gesture’ Levin thus sees a paradigm for humility, def‐ erence and tact insofar as there is an acceptance of not being able to fully comprehend, let alone ‘grasp’ the living presence of something that is inherently unreachable: The hermeneutical circle symbolizes gestures of gracious humility: gestures of selfless waiting, letting go, letting be. It symbolizes gestures which body forth the 253 8.10 Clowning, Teaching and the Hermeneutic Circle of Learning <?page no="254"?> 347 Ibid. 348 What the teacher and educator Martin Wagenschein writes in his autobiography illustrates this point. He describes a conversation he had with Prof. Wolfgang Metzger who had often invited him to speak at his pedagogical courses. Wagenschein writes, “I remember a conversation in the Münster train station café as Professor Metzger cunningly asked me, ‘Are you a scholar? ’ We immediately began to laugh and agreed that I certainly was not. A scholar is someone who knows very much and in time knows even more. While I was very busy almost intentionally trying to forget that which I knew, in order that I could teach it.” [Ich erinnere mich an ein Gespräch im Münsteraner Bahnhofscafe’, als Metzger mich mit offener List fragte: „Sind Sie ein Gelehrter? “ Ein Gelächter einigte uns sofort: eben nicht! Ein Gelehrter ist ja einer, der viel weiß, und mit der Zeit immer mehr. Während ich damit beschäftigt war, das was ich wusste, fast vorsätzlich zu vergessen, damit ich es lehren könnte.] Martin Wagenschein, Erinnerungen für Morgen: Eine pädagogische Autobiographie. (Weinheim: Beltz, 1983) 89. attitude which Heidegger has called Gelassenheit: gestures of equanimity in which the polarizing, objectifying tendency has been neutralized and the motivational energies are held in a dynamic balance. The circle can symbolize these gestures - can symbolize, in fact, the very essence of these gestures - because it is, after all, the material trace, the inscription that has been left, taking its shape from the very gesture it symbolizes. 347 These gestures of “selfless waiting, letting go and letting be” are very familiar to the clown. The gelassenheit of the clown experiencing the emptiness of the stage comes from an acceptance and recognition of the presence and possibilities which exist in that emptiness. There is a deep sense of gratitude at having had the chance to make this discovery which goes through many of the participants’ responses: What participants learned in play and laughter does not belong to the realm of ‘objective, scientific knowledge’ nor can it be materially ‘grasped’. In this sense, the clown’s ‘not knowing’ stands in striking contrast to any traditional understanding of ‘hard’ replicable knowledge’. This is a form of knowledge which one never really ‘has’. In fact, even if one ‘had it’, it would have to be continually ‘forgotten’ in order to be continually rediscovered.  348 In this context, G Lichtenberg’s two aphorisms written more than 200 years ago seem both topical and prophetic: Considering our early and often even frequent reading, through which we acquire so much material without using it, through which our memory grows used to being responsible for feelings and taste, it often requires a deeper philosophy to restore our feelings to that first condition of innocence again, to free ourselves from the rubble 254 8 Discussion of the Participants’ Responses <?page no="255"?> 349 Georg Chr. Lichtenberg, Schriften und Briefe. Ed. Wolfgang Promies, vol. 1, (Munich: Carl Hanser Verlag 1968) 115. 350 Georg Chr. Lichtenberg, Aphorismen, Briefe, Schriften. Ed. P. Requadt, (Stuttgart: Kroener, 1953) 126. of foreign things, even to begin to feel and to speak, and I would almost like to say, to exist. 349 Now one seeks to spread wisdom everywhere; who knows if whether in a few hundred years there might not be universities which will seek to restore the previous ignorance. [ Jetzt sucht man überall Weisheit auszubreiten, wer weiß, ob es nicht in ein paar hundert Jahren Universitäten gibt, die alte Unwissenheit wiederherzustellen.] 350 ‘Not knowing’ is what allows the clown to first perceive and then enjoy the perpetual emptiness in the centre of the hermeneutic circle. This process is dependent on the “encircling gesture” of the circle in which something “precious and worthy of protection” is evoked. The discovery that in the end “nothing is there to be grasped, nothing to be posited, nothing to be possessed, nothing reached” came as a revelation for the participants. It is the “letting go”, the “letting be” which they experienced in these moments of discovery that opened and transformed them. You are not the same any more, you can hear and perceive more, you become more alive. T. L .Baltic Seminar (f) Just stepping onto nothing, onto emptiness. Or…relying on my real self. That was really scary. A whole new universe opened up. V. S. Baltic Seminar (f) 255 8.10 Clowning, Teaching and the Hermeneutic Circle of Learning <?page no="257"?> 9 Conclusions 9.1 The Initial Hypothesis The responses of the participants offer a clear and convincing basis for estab‐ lishing the validity of the original hypothesis elucidated in Chapter 4 (4.9). Those specific areas of development cited - an enhanced openness and attentive‐ ness, a heightened sense of empathy, a higher degree of presence and increased improvisational skills - were experienced to various degrees by almost all of the participants. Moreover, their responses make clear that the courses played an important role in helping teachers to learn to address their own uncertainties, anxieties and mistakes in a more constructive and creative manner. In considering what participants wrote concerning the effects of courses that they had taken years earlier, it also becomes apparent that the original postulate that these developments have occurred both in short-term, as well as in long-term contexts can be confirmed. 9.2 The Meaning of the Clowning Courses for the Participants In attempting to more concretely delineate what the courses meant for the participants it will be helpful to adopt a framework in which four central dimensions of clowning can be viewed independently. First, the physical level of behaviour underlying the sensory/ affective aspect of clowning will be examined. Second, the intensive experience of performance reflected in the ‘here and now’ of improvisation will be considered together with the element/ s of play and regeneration. Third, the emotional significance of the experiences of the participants in opening themselves to others will be considered along with the heightened forms of awareness and empathy which were described. Finally, dimensions of personal growth and development to which participants referred will be examined along with the nature of the personal knowledge they gained. <?page no="258"?> 9.2.1 The Sensory-Affective Dimension of Clowning The sensory/ affective nature of clowning with its basis in direct perceptual experience was an essential element of the courses. What the participants learned was closely connected to a heightened sense of physical openness and attentiveness first developed through the warm-ups, which then offered the basis for intensified perceptual and emotional awareness. This enhancement of sensory capabilities and elaboration of physical awareness, reflected in ‘noticing more’ and ‘feeling more’ is closely tied to the clown’s being both deeply rooted in and fully open to the tangible world. This physical attitude offers the necessary basis for the spontaneous, playful creativity which clowning and improvisation continually demand. The profound significance of these physical/ physiological dimensions of experience in affecting all levels of behaviour has been illuminated by a wide range of research in different fields (8.3.2, 8.3.3).Those dimensions of change which participants specifically referred to in discussing the effects of the courses on their personal and professional lives, including enhanced openness, attentiveness, flexibility, empathy and trust have been demonstrated to be in‐ trinsically linked to the development of the requisite physical states. Such effects have been shown to be both decisive in shaping all directly ensuing perception and behaviour, as well as in providing a physical/ physiological state conducive to long-term change. The longstanding traditions of the performing arts in successfully preparing and affecting change through a detailed understanding of the decisive role of the body’s physical/ motor attitude in such processes provide a further basis for understanding how these workshops had the effects they did. The transformative effects of the courses which are apparent in the responses of the participants are thus seen as dependent on the requisite physical attitudes which allowed these processes to occur. 9.2.2 Play and Regeneration The highly regenerative effect of these courses which emerged very clearly in the participants’ responses is considered to be a crucial element of what was experienced. The spirit of play going through the workshops reflected in both the frequent laughter and high levels of enthusiasm continually present can be seen as an essential factor contributing to this widespread feeling of rejuvenation. This entire regenerative process can be seen as highly relevant in considering the critical issue of teacher burnout. A key element in this context is the relation between fear/ s - and release which can be seen as intrinsic to the performing arts. The participants frequently 258 9 Conclusions <?page no="259"?> described having strong fears before the improvisations: it is evident that they were continually forced to overcome these fears, take risks and transcend personal borders. There are no short-cuts to such experiences: the feelings of joy and release that were experienced afterwards can be seen as an essential dimension of the performing arts and they presuppose a prior tension. The high levels of adrenalin and energy invariably accompanying performance, the distillation of time and experience while performing, the intense focus on the ‘here and now’, can all be seen within this framework. In clowning, these processes occur in a particularly concentrated and unique form since no familiar form of preparation is of any assistance. Improvising often leads to a completely different feeling and experience of time. What is striking is that although time is experienced as highly compressed, a new kind of receptivity and attentiveness is also present, enabling the clown to discover that which she otherwise might have ignored. This discovery is inherently related to the dual nature of the clown with his “feet firmly planted on the ground, head in the clouds”. In a highly distilled form, the clown can be seen as embodying what Rumpf has described as Weltumgang II; a manner of perceiving the world in which one does not ‘pass over’ sensory phenomena, but ‘takes the time’ to be affected by them (8.9.2). The rejuvenating effects of this process are evident in what the participants wrote. Overcoming their intense fears, the participants learned to let go of their ‘plans’ and trust their own and others’ imaginative potentials. Within an ‘empty space’ participants discovered a new world full of creative possibilities. Clowning thus offered participants the direct experience of a creative and personal ‘knowledge in action’ which differed substantially from anything they had previously experienced. These experiences were dependent on the presence of the other participants both in regard to working together, as well as in their resonance as an audience and later in feedback. The vital significance of the group in supporting these developments was referred to in most of the responses. 9.2.3 Clowning and Acceptance A theme which frequently appeared in the participants’ responses can generally be termed as acceptance. This aspect emerged most notably with respect to accepting one’s own insecurities and fears in conjunction with transparently allowing these feelings to be visible. Those phrases which consistently recur both in the workshops and in the participants’ responses, “nothing can go wrong”, “accidents are gifts”, “stay with the problem” are all reflections of their 259 9.2 The Meaning of the Clowning Courses for the Participants <?page no="260"?> discoveries that those moments in which something has gone ‘terribly wrong’ for the clown can become the most precious moments of all - provided this is fully lived through and transparent. Gladwell’s continual injunction “Look at us” provides the key to understanding how this process between clown and audience occurs. Having experienced this on stage and observing it repeatedly from the perspective of the audience, this realization became a vital element of what the courses meant for the participants. The deeply liberating effect of this dimension of acceptance, encompassing both self-acceptance and an acceptance of others is apparent in almost all of the responses. This process is clearly dependent on establishing a congruence between feelings and behaviour. In what the participants wrote, the relevance and meaning of this relation is illuminated in different ways. In this context there were a number of connections which participants made to their teaching, particularly in regard to revising their expectations of themselves and others. This also emerged with respect to a new understanding of the potential value of genuineness in teaching. Heightened degrees of transparency and genuineness are key aspects of what makes the clown so vulnerable on stage and this continual vulnerability can be seen as an essential dimension of clowning. This is also linked to teaching insofar as it offers a basis for that state of openness which enables a teacher to continually perceive and flexibly respond to the rapidly changing situation in a classroom. 9.2.4 Attentiveness and Receptivity Other closely related aspects which were consistently referred to by participants were the heightened degrees of attentiveness and receptivity which they experi‐ enced through clowning. Attentiveness and receptivity constitute the most vital elements in the clown’s entire relation to the world and to herself. These are the attributes which lead to that inherent openness towards both the world and one’s inner life which are the basis of clowning and improvisation. This occurs in their perception of objects as well as in relation to the others on stage and in the audience. These were also the areas which were consistently linked to changes the clowning courses induced in their teaching, most often in the context of an increased awareness of their pupils. In many cases this was concretely expressed in the realization of the importance of eye contact. Holt, Underhill and others have argued that awareness provides the most crucial instrument in affecting all forms of meaningful teacher change (8.4.6). It can also be seen as providing the 260 9 Conclusions <?page no="261"?> basis from which a heightened degree of sympathy and empathy for one’s pupils becomes possible. Sympathy and caring in education which Dewey, Noddings, and others have maintained are fundamentally decisive in all educational contexts is clearly also predicated on attentiveness and receptivity (8.4.5). 9.2.5 Personal Growth and Development Perhaps, the single most striking aspect of the participants’ responses is how many of them described long-term transformative effects, often resulting from just a single course lasting less than a week. New ways of seeing the world and new ways of ‘being in the world’ led to many unexpected personal devel‐ opments. Whether in the form of a “revaluation of the fixed concepts of one’s mind”, or in discovering “a new universe”, “finding a peace not a compromise with myself ” or “bringing me closer to a sense of truth” the clowning courses led to forms of change and growth which often seemed not to be a continuation of previous developments, but took on new and often surprising forms. A number of participants specifically commented that they had been previously convinced that they could never learn to do the kinds of things which clowning required of them. This discovery of new untapped possibilities, or, as some participants noted, their rediscovery of them often led to strong feelings of exhilaration and gratitude. 9.2.6 The Parts and the Whole In discussing each of these four dimensions separately it becomes possible to more clearly delineate the different levels which clowning touched in the participants. At the same time, it is apparent that this framework is a purely theoretical construction, dividing aspects which, in reality, are not separated from each other, but must always be understood as overlapping and co-occur‐ ring. Viewed together, they constitute a fluid, continually changing whole. Clowning was experienced as playing in the fullest and richest sense of that word. In reading what the participants wrote, it is evident that what they experienced in themselves and others reflected a realization of inner potentials and growth with transformative and potentially lasting effects. This realization was by no means only an intellectual act: its basis is rooted in their sensory/ affective experience, as well as within their emotional lives. The integration of these physical, emotional and mental dimensions in the context of clowning and improvisation became the basis for inner growth. Going through this process was sometimes difficult, but it was almost without exception also 261 9.2 The Meaning of the Clowning Courses for the Participants <?page no="262"?> 351 Nietzsche, Nachlaß 1884-1885. (Munich: DTV, 1999) 680. experienced as pleasurable and deeply satisfying. The reason for this seems to lie in the very nature of such artistic processes in which the entire human being is touched and moved. This is the dynamic condition which Nietzsche refers to when he writes: …the spirit is then as much at home in the senses as the senses are at home in the spirit; and whatever takes place in the spirit must enkindle a subtle, extraordinary happiness and play in the senses. And also the other way around! […der Geist ist dann ebenso in den Sinnen heimisch und zu Hause, wie die Sinne in dem Geiste zu Hause und heimisch sind; und Alles, was nur in diesem sich abspielt, muss auch in jenen ein feines außerordentliches Glück und Spiel auslösen. Und ebenfalls umgekehrt! ] 351 262 9 Conclusions <?page no="263"?> Part II: Dramatic Processes and Foreign Language Learning In the second part of this work, the concept of foreign language teaching as an art will be examined in regard to its potential implications for foreign language learning. As discussed in the introduction to this study, it was crucial for me in developing this concept to focus on its meaning for both teachers and pupils. This implies that after having viewed teacher education in the context of artistic development and in the framework of the traditions of the dramatic/ performing arts, it will be necessary to look at foreign language learning within a related framework. To do this, I chose to examine the process of rehearsing and performing a full-length English play in a 10 th grade class of a Steiner School in Germany. Hence, this empirical study falls into the general category of case study research. As I was the teacher of this class, it is practitioner-based research (‘action research’). In examining drama in the context of language learning, I will be working within a field which in the last twenty years has become increasingly significant. There is, in the meantime, a large body of literature addressing different uses of drama for the teaching of English as a foreign language, as well as for other languages. At the same time, it has generally been viewed as a striking deficit that there has been comparatively little empirical research assessing the effects of this kind of work. To my knowledge, there has never been any comparable study published examining the work on a full-length play with an entire class in the context of high school EFL lessons. For this reason alone, it seemed an appropriate topic of research. However, in the end, my reasons for making this choice went deeper. Although working on a class play was, in many respects, atypical of most of my work as a language teacher and most of my pupils’ experiences as language learners, it can also be seen as a kind of distillation of many key elements implicit in the concept of foreign language teaching as an art. Viewed from the perspective of the approach to teacher training that was explored in Part I, the choice to examine the work on a drama production can also illuminate some of the possibilities in language teaching gained through such artistic training. Although the clowning courses and most of the other dramatic courses offered at the English Week do not specifically address the challenges of working with pupils in this context, there are, nevertheless, far-ranging connections between the teachers’ courses that have been examined <?page no="264"?> and this kind of dramatic work. Those elements which were viewed as being intrinsic to artistic teaching become most evident in the demands which working on such a production place on a teacher. Certainly, my own preparation for this project was strongly rooted in my own experiences of having participated in the artistic workshops at the English Week over the previous eight years. In no other area of teaching did I feel more directly helped by the courses I had attended than in this work on the play. Hence, this training can clearly be viewed as the basis from which this project was undertaken and conducted. It thus will become possible at different points to draw direct connections between my own experiences as a learner in the context of artistic training and my work as a language teacher in a related framework. <?page no="265"?> 352 Wallace A. Bacon, The Art of Interpretation. 2nd ed., (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1972) 4. 353 Ausonius, “Liber protrepicus,” Opera omni. Ed. H. G. White (Cambridge, MA: Loeb Classical Library) vv. 50-54, quoted in L. G. Kelly, 25 Centuries of Language Teaching. (Rowley, MA: Newbury House, 1976) 97. 354 L. G. Kelly, 25 Centuries of Language Teaching. (Rowley, MA: Newbury House, 1976) 99. 355 Ibid., 288. 10 Dramatic Processes and Language Teaching 10.1 Historical Overview The origins of including dramatic elements in language learning can be traced back to Classical Greece where it was assumed that all literature in any language was meant to be read aloud. The art of oral recitation was considered a mainstay of all learning and the content of literature was learned simultaneously with its correct delivery. 352 This practice continued through Roman times, also in the context of learning Greek as a foreign language. The importance attached to the development of rhetorical skills was a further contributing factor to the general tenet that classical literature should be spoken aloud as if it were to be performed. The following instructions are considered to be typical of what was customarily demanded of foreign language students: You will have to pore over Homer and the delightful works of Menander. Bring life to innumerable verses with the subtle melody and skilled intonation of your voice. Feel the emotion as you read. The shape you give the sentence will show its meaning, and pauses will give vigour to limping verses. 353 This tradition in studying Greek and later Latin continued without interruption through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The memorization and artistic recitation of Latin poetry was considered essential in language learning, partic‐ ularly with regard to learning the correct rhythm and intonation patterns. 354 With the ascent of the printed word through the increasing availability of books, the ancient tradition of the oral interpretation of literature which can be considered the oldest of the speech arts preceding both the study of rhetoric and the advent of drama, gradually died out. This also had far-ranging consequences for the study of foreign languages. In conjunction with the decline of Latin as a spoken language, the art of oral recitation became progressively irrelevant. 355 <?page no="266"?> 356 Ibid., 122. 357 Ibid., 123. 358 Routledge Encyclopedia of Language Teaching and Learning. Ed. Michael Byram, (London: Routledge, 2002) s.v. “History: the Nineteenth Century,” by Renzo Titone. 359 Ibid. 360 Kelly 1976, 124. 361 Manfred Schewe, Fremdsprache inszenieren: Zur Fundierung einer dramapädagogischen Lehr- und Lernpraxis. (Oldenburg: Carl Ossietzky Universität, 1993) 127-35. 362 Handbuch Fremdsprachenunterricht. 4th ed. Eds. Karl-Richard Bausch, Herbert Christ and Hans-Jürgen Krumm, (Tübingen: E. Francke, 2003) s.v. “Geschichte des Fremdspra‐ chenunterrichts bis 1945,” by Reiner Lehberger. The practice of rehearsing and performing dramas in the context of learning a foreign language dates back to the Renaissance. 356 This practice was most notably prevalent among the Jesuits who intended through drama to drill pupils in speaking Latin and Greek. At this time, the performance of classical drama was a vital part of the school curriculum. 357 Although this tradition was maintained to some degree in a few countries over the ensuing centuries, in general, the significance of drama in language learning declined after the Renaissance. During the 18 th and much of the 19 th centuries, foreign language learning was generally considered more a matter of reading than speaking, although there are some fascinating exceptions.  358 The Grammar-Translation method gradually became the most widespread method of teaching and in this context dramatic activities were of no importance. 359 It was towards the end of the 19 th century with the advent of the Direct Method that there was a renewed interest in speech in the context of learning modern languages. 360 Vietor’s seminal work Der Sprachunterricht muss umkehren (1882) represented a turning point in foreign language teaching insofar as developing language capabilities, rather than language knowledge became the goal, and the foreign language became the sole medium of instruction. This opened up new possibilities for the inclusion of dramatic elements in foreign language learning. The approach was further developed in the first decades of the 20 th century by a number of leading authorities in the so-called Reform Movement, most notably Otto Jespersen, Max Walter, Ernst Otto, and later Harold Palmer, Georg Albrecht, and Karl Matthes all of whom emphasized natural communication and to varying degrees included dramatic techniques in their methods. This was most clearly the case with Albrecht and Matthes who developed the idea of including Stehgreifspiele in foreign language lessons. 361 However, the Direct Method, particularly in its pure form, was not widely adopted in the general practice of foreign language teaching in schools. 362 In 266 10 Dramatic Processes and Language Teaching <?page no="267"?> 363 Routledge Encyclopedia of Language Teaching and Learning. Ed. Michael Byram, s.v. “History from the Reform Movement to 1945,” by Alastair Pennycook. 364 Shin-Mei Kao and Cecily O’Neill, Words into Worlds: Learning a Second Language Through Process Drama. (Stamford, CN: Ablex, 1998) 4. 365 Wagner 1998, 5-6. the different and often eclectic mixtures of traditional and reform approaches which were developed in the first half of the 20 th century in Europe and the United States, the use of drama or dramatic techniques does not appear to have played a significant role in most foreign language teaching up until the 1970s. 363 The most important steps preparing the way for the inclusion of drama as an accepted element in language teaching did not, in fact, occur in the context of foreign language teaching, but in the field of educational drama. Although originally intended for use in the context of working in the mother tongue, the development of educational drama was later to have important ramifications in foreign language learning. 10.2 Related Developments in the 20 th Century: Creative Dramatics and Drama in Education In both the United States and England, the concept of integrating educational drama into the general school curriculum is part of a tradition dating back to the 1930s. The development of the principles of educational drama are usually traced to the influence of a few pioneering figures. In the United States the work of Winifred Ward of Northwestern University who established Creative Dramatics as an important part of the education of children in the twenties and thirties must be seen as particularly significant. 364 Ward’s approach to creative drama was primarily based on children enacting a story and generally includes elements of role playing, improvisation and pantomime. The story is known in advance, but they may also enact scenes that are not actually a part of the original story. The lessons always begin with warm-ups and relaxation exercises. Betty Jane Wagner, one of the world’s current authorities in this field, describes the general goals linking the different forms of educational drama: The goal of educational drama is to create an experience through which students may come to understand human interactions, empathize with other people and internalize alternative points of view. (…) This kind of drama is something all children can do and benefit from, not just those who might have a natural gift for theatrical performance. 365 267 10.2 Related Developments in the 20 th Century: Drama in Education <?page no="268"?> 366 Kao 1998, 12. 367 Dorothy Heathcote, “Learning, Knowing, and Languaging in Drama: An Interview with Dorothy Heathcote,” Language Arts, 60 (6) (1983): 695. 368 Wagner 1998, 8. With the growth in England of educational drama as a recognized medium of general learning, beginning in the 1940s and 50s with Peter Slade and Brian Way and later through the influential work of Dorothy Heathcote and Gavin Bolton, the concept of ‘drama in education’ increasingly became viewed as an art form in its own right. 366 In ‘drama in education’ or ‘process drama’ the starting point of the work is generally not a story, but rather a particular area of the curriculum that pupils are studying. The goal is to use drama to help pupils to explore and directly experience a very different world than their own, for example, an historical event, the fictional world of a novel, the different lives of people in their respective professions etc. Hence, this method is intended to be used in a wide variety of subjects. Texts are used as an initial basis from which something new is created. Heathcote particularly stresses the possibilities which drama offers for children to fully enter into the lives of imagined characters and thus experience the immediacy of a given moment: You have the whole energy of knowledge, all the affairs of mankind “over there.” Drama filters it to us “here” through a tiny fissure. That fissure is the event, the episode, and those who are, not were, but are present at that one moment. 367 Although the traditions of creative drama and drama in education share many common aims, there are also some clear differences. The most decisive distinction between these two forms is that whereas in creative drama the pupil’s imaginative enacting of a story is considered in itself the goal, in ‘drama in education’, this act is viewed as the decisive first step which then offers the basis for later reflection and learning. An essential element that both traditions have in common is their focus on the processes of drama and not on a formal presentation for an audience. 368 David Hornbrook emerged as a leading spokesman in England for a more rigorous and performance-oriented approach to educational drama. He argued that the strong emphasis placed on a process-oriented approach based on improvisational exercises done in class, has led to a lack of interest in developing the dramatic skills and craft which the study of theatre and all arts should require from pupils. In reviewing various texts in which the highest goal of ed‐ ucational drama is considered to be the development of the pupil’s capabilities of spontaneous self-expression, he proposes, instead, the adoption of an approach in which learning the craft of acting, as well as gaining knowledge about the 268 10 Dramatic Processes and Language Teaching <?page no="269"?> 369 Barrie Hawkins, “Back to Back: Drama Techniques and Second Language Acquisition,” in Towards Drama as a Method in the Foreign Language Classroom. Eds. Manfed Schewe and Peter Shaw, (Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 1993) 59. 370 A notable exception in this respect can be found in the work of Johanna Meixner in teaching German as a second language to Turkish pupils. She discusses both the theo‐ retical basis and practical aspects of her approach in her highly worthwhile study, Das Lernen im Als-Ob: Theorie und Praxis ästhetischer Erfahrung im Fremdsprachenunterricht. (Tübingen: Gunter Narr, 2001) 371 Ingo Scheller, Szenische Interpretation: Theorie und Praxis eines handlungs- und erfah‐ rungsbezogenen Literaturunterrichts in Sekundarstufe I und II. (Seeze-Velber: Kallmeyer‐ sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 2004). 372 Ibid., 18. traditions of drama, replace what he considers to be an excessively “narcissistic” approach advocated by other educators in this field. In the final chapters of this study, we will look again at some of the implications of these different approaches to educational drama with respect to the 10 th grade play. Whereas the influences of Ward, Heathcote, Bolton and Hornbrook on the use of drama in foreign language teaching can most clearly be seen in their arguments for the general necessity of including drama in the school curriculum, it was Brian Way’s approach with its emphasis on working in small groups, offering a chance for simultaneous speech that may have been the most influential in terms of foreign language teaching. 369 In Germany, the role of educational drama has not played a comparable role in the general curriculum as it has in Great Britain or in the United States. 370 However, a noteworthy more recent development can be seen in the concept of szenische Interpretation which is generally connected with the work of Ingo Scheller beginning in the 1980s. 371 Scheller’s concept of working with literature in performance (in the mother tongue) was shaped by the theatrical approaches of seminal figures such as Stanislawski, Brecht, Strasberg, Grotowski, Fo, Moreno and Boal. It has been used in all types of schools as well as in teacher training. It has also been adopted in the context of teaching German as a Foreign Language. 372 10.3 Drama in Modern Foreign Language Teaching The first significant developments in modern foreign language teaching that led to drama gradually becoming a part of the curriculum can be seen in the context of the so-called humanistic approaches that emerged in the 1970s 269 10.3 Drama in Modern Foreign Language Teaching <?page no="270"?> 373 An initial precursor of this movement can perhaps be seen in the work of Richard Via who went to Japan as a Fulbright lecturer in 1966 and began teaching EFL through directing plays with his students. 374 Manfred Schewe, “The Theoretical Architecture of a Drama-Based Foreign-Language Class,” in Towards Drama as a Method in the Foreign Language Classroom. Eds. Manfred Schewe and Peter Shaw, (Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 1993) 295-300. 375 Ibid., 291-294. 376 Schewe 1993, 144. including the Silent Way, Suggestopedia, Community Language Learning and Total Physical Response. 373 Although these different methods vary considerably, they also share common underlying principles, most notably in their emphasis on the possibilities of natural language acquisition as opposed to structured language learning. In this context they all stress communication activities in which developing self-confidence and creativity in a natural and relaxed setting is considered a paramount goal. In all of these methods, there are a range of activities offered, often conceived in the spirit of imaginative play, with the intention of involving the whole person. Although none of the humanistic methods had dramatic techniques as their starting point, both in their general approaches and in many of their activities, they incorporated related aspects, paving the way for much of what was to come. 374 Parallel to the development of humanistic approaches to language teaching in the 1970s, elements of drama began to play an increasing role in more traditional language teaching due to the gradual ascent of the communicative approach during this time. In its emphasis on communication in the classroom, a wide range of activities was proposed, often involving certain dramatic activities. 375 However, many of the suggested activities with their emphasis on highly constructed situations and a strongly pre-planned use of language were clearly shaped by a behaviouristic approach to language learning, and had few or no elements connecting them to the underlying principles of educational drama. A fundamental antagonism in language teaching remained between, on the one hand, fulfilling a specified curriculum, the rigid progression of the textbook and clearly defined lesson plans and, on the other hand, the inherently open, dynamic processes which drama encourages and thrives upon. Manfred Schewe in a chapter entitled Spielen als Farce critically examines a wide range of dramatic exercises in a number of textbooks for teaching German and comes to the conclusion that what they generally have in common is a marked absence of drama. He writes: Dialogues that have no blank spaces, create no tensions and present no mysteries are un-dramatic. There are too many of this sort in our textbooks. 376 270 10 Dramatic Processes and Language Teaching <?page no="271"?> 377 Ruth Huber, Im Haus der Sprache wohnen: Wahrnehmung und Theater im Fremdsprache‐ nunterricht. (Tübingen: Max Niemeyer, 2003) 326. 378 Handbuch Fremdsprachenunterricht. 4 th ed. Karl-Richard Bausch, Herbert Christ & Hans-Jürgen Krumm (eds.), (Tübingen: E. Francke, 2003), s.v. “Geschichte des Fremd‐ sprachenunterrichts in deutschsprachigen Ländern seit 1945,” by Herbert Christ and Rudolf de Cillia, 620. 379 Manfred Schewe, “Literatur verstehen und inszenieren: Foreign Language Literature Through Drama. A Research Project” German as a Foreign Language Journal 3 (2003), available online at (last accessed on 09.09.2021) http: http: / / www.gfl-journal.de/ 3-2003 / schewe_scott.pdf. In a similar vein, Ruth Huber explores the polarity between the expressed goals of educational drama and the use of dramatic activities in the context of the communicative approach. She writes, …the psychological concept which underlies the use of role-play in the teaching material of the communicative school is ultimately based on the behaviourist concept of language learning as language training. Moreover, most of the chapters in these textbooks follow the rule of thumb that says, “first comes the work, then comes the pleasure”. The authors seem to treat acting scenes as the dessert after the main course of the meal, or the encore after the performance. In any case, they do not treat it as anything substantial; in no way do they attempt to do justice to the serious nature of human play. It is exactly in this attitude that the difficulties of foreign language educational theatre lie. Its concepts are integrative, yet difficult to handle and run counter to the piecemeal approach of textbooks. Theatre in a foreign language leads to self-organised and dynamic processes which are unpredictable with respect to the curriculum, let alone in regard to determining the single steps which learners have to make. Its products are not suitable for measurement in grades and they don’t fit into the prescribed system. 377 (italics in original) As the communicative method of the late 1970s and 80s gradually evolved into a somewhat more holistic approach to learning in the 90s with an emphasis on more open forms of learning, there was a heightened interest in the use of dramatic techniques in language teaching. 378 It is generally acknowledged that from the 1990s on, drama became established as an accepted reference discipline in the teaching of modern languages. 379 In the course of the 80s and 90s, the range of literature proposing a wide variety of methods of incorporating dramatic techniques in language teaching increased significantly. In a bibliography registering all the literature published on drama in foreign language teaching in English, French and German published until 1993, there were already 346 271 10.3 Drama in Modern Foreign Language Teaching <?page no="272"?> 380 Udo O.H. Jung, “The Muses’ Itinerary: Drama in Foreign Language Teaching. A Bibliography,” German as a Foreign Language 1 (2004), available online at (last accessed on 09.09.2021) http: / / www.gfl-journal.de/ 1-2004/ jung.html. 381 Alan Maley and Alan Duff, Drama Techniques in Language Learning. 2nd ed. (Cam‐ bridge: Cambridge UP, 1982) 6. entries, with a high percentage written in the 1980s. 380 Ten years later in 2003, this bibliography had increased to over 500 sources. Since 2003, through the rapid growth of a number of worldwide Internet ‘communities’ devoted to an exchange of materials and ideas on using drama in FLT, the amount of available information on this theme has expanded enormously. Before we examine those issues which are most closely connected to this study, it will be helpful to look more closely at those crucial developments which have shaped this entire field. 10.3.1 Dramatic Techniques: Maley and Duff The most important and influential book published in the 1970s on the use of drama in language teaching was neither based on one of the Humanistic approaches, nor was it connected to the Communicative Method. It was Alan Maley and Alan Duff ’s seminal work Drama Techniques in Language Learning first published in 1978, which not only introduced a fundamentally new way of incorporating dramatic techniques into language teaching, but with its ensuing three revised editions with well over twenty printings has become a classic work in this field. In their introduction to the first edition of Drama Techniques in Language Learning the authors define what they mean by dramatic activities: They are activities which give the student an opportunity to use his or her own personality in creating the material on which part of the language class is to be based. These activities draw on the natural ability of every person to imitate, mimic and express himself or herself through gesture. They draw, too, on the student’s imagination and memory, and natural capacity to bring to life parts of his or her past experience that might never otherwise emerge. They are dramatic because they arouse our interest … 381 (italics in original) The authors make clear that they do not want to replicate what was often understood in the Communicative Method as the dramatization of language learning material: The stiff, self-conscious ‘dramatization’ of dialogues and short sketches, as occasion‐ ally produced for distraction or language reinforcement, is not what we have in mind 272 10 Dramatic Processes and Language Teaching <?page no="273"?> 382 Ibid. 383 Lutzker 1996, 38-48. 384 Maley and Duff 1982, 7. 385 Ibid.,13. here. Words, other people’s words, which have been mechanically memorized, can turn to ashes in the speaker’s mouth. 382 The focus of their exercises lies in releasing imaginative potentials and creative energy in the context of language lessons. They attach a clear priority to creating situations which offer pupils possibilities for authentic and meaningful communication, in contrast to the artificial dialogues and patterns of traditional language exercises. There is no intention of preparing a formal performance at the end for an audience. In their attention to meaningfulness, they place a high emphasis on group exercises which draw on and draw out those emotional and physical aspects of language, including gesture, intonation and body attitude, which viewed together constitute decisive aspects of language in terms of conveying meaning.  383 The authors write, Much has changed in language teaching, but it is still true that the conviction that Vocabulary + Essential Structures = Language lies at the base of nearly every foreign language syllabus. Teaching on these lines takes account of only one aspect of the language - the intellectual aspect. But language is not purely an intellectual matter. Our minds are attached to our bodies, and our bodies to our minds. The intellect rarely functions without an element of emotion, yet is so often just this element that is lacking in teaching material. (…) Drama attempts to put back some of this forgotten emotional content into language - and to put the body back too. 384 The wide range of dramatic exercises which they offer in their book (which has been revised and expanded in each ensuing edition) have in common the attempt to create open situations in which pupils are challenged to respond in a meaningful way. In such exercises the goal is not to practice particular structures of the foreign language, although this may happen incidentally, but instead, to take an active and creative part in interactive processes within a group: If drama is motivating - and we believe it is - the reason may be that it draws on the entire human resources of the class and that each technique, in its own way, yields a different, unique result every time it is practised. Nobody can predict exactly what will be thrown up in the way of ideas during these activities. This is what makes them enjoyable. 385 273 10.3 Drama in Modern Foreign Language Teaching <?page no="274"?> 386 personal communication, November 2002. 387 Earl Stevick, Teaching Languages: A Way and Ways. (Rowley MA: Newbury House, 1980) 298. 388 Bernard Dufeau, Wege zu einer Pädagogik des Seins: Ein psychodramaturgischer Ansatz zum Fremdsprachenerwerb. (Mainz: Éditions Psychodramaturgie, 2003) 64. The effects of Maley and Duff ’s work in shaping the way drama in language learning was viewed can hardly be overestimated. Leading figures in FLT in both countries have consistently cited its publication as being a landmark in the development of humanistic language teaching methods. Mario Rinvolucri has said that it was the single book which instigated the most impulses for much of the creative teaching techniques which were to follow over the next decades. 386 Earl Stevick considers the introduction to this book to be unmatched in its precise description of what has to be learned and taught. 387 Certainly in the years following its publication, it remained a cornerstone upon which all related approaches built. 10.3.2 Towards a Pedagogy of Being: The Work of Bernard Dufeu One of the most highly developed methods for incorporating dramatic pro‐ cesses into FLL is Psychodramaturgy which has been practiced over the last twenty-five years by Bernard Dufeu at the Centre de Psychodramaturgie in Mainz, Germany, as well as at the University of Mainz. Since his works have been published in French, English and German they have attracted attention in an in‐ ternational context. His approach has its origins in the concept of psychodrama which J. L. Moreno (1889-1974) initiated and which is generally associated with a specific psychotherapeutic method, although Moreno considered these principles to be valid in a wide range of non-therapeutic areas. It is based on the concept of active role-playing as a method of working through problems. Dufeu writes, In psychodrama - following the tradition of ancient Greek theatre - the patient is known as the protagonist, the leading character. Put simply, one can say that the protagonist translates his problems into actions (the Greek term ’drama’ means action), rather than talking about them. Thus he chooses participants from the group who could play the roles of the others in his ‘drama’. 388 Dufeu’s use of psychodramatic methods in FLL is based on the idea that interaction within a group of learners can become the driving force of speech thus making the foreign language a vehicle for authentic communication within the group: 274 10 Dramatic Processes and Language Teaching <?page no="275"?> 389 Ibid. 390 Ibid., 65. 391 Ibid., 134-136. 392 Ibid. Linguistic psychodrama is an invitation to meet in and about the foreign language. Language develops out of this encounter between the participants. This encounter proceeds in successive, coordinated steps in the first phases of PDL (Pyschodrama‐ turgie Linguistique). Through various exercises, linguistic psychodrama offers a kind of step by step progression in the relationship between the participants. 389 Through a series of imaginative exercises and techniques, often including the use of neutral masks, the participants are encouraged to use the foreign language spontaneously and creatively in the concrete situations which the exercises introduce. The progression of exercises is based on a relational progression rather than a linguistic one and their content is thus shaped by the wishes and needs of the particular group. It is an approach deeply rooted in the attempt to address the language learner as a whole person in an authentic relational context. Dufeu writes, Language is not mediated in an abstract way; rather it is directly experienced through active usage. It develops out of the communication between the participants. It arises in action and through interaction (…) The participants are addressed as entire persons through the actions of real or imagined persons. Body, feelings, intellect are simultaneously addressed in the web of social activity. The body supports the vocal and verbal qualities of expression, or contributes to the stimulation of expression. The actions make the language dynamic and vice versa. 390 This method is used in small groups and Dufeu considers a group size of eight to twelve persons optimal. Ideally there are two trainers in a group. It is also based on the concept of intensive courses lasting six to eight hours a day as weekend courses or in courses going over one to two weeks. 391 He has worked almost exclusively with adults in the context of continuing education courses. 392 10.3.3 Im Haus der Sprache wohnen: Ruth Huber’s Approach to Theatre in Language Learning One of the most significant works published in the field of Drama in FLL is Ruth Huber’s Im Haus der Sprache wohnen: Wahrnehmung und Theater im Fremdsprachenunterricht (2003). It is based on the author’s experiences in teaching German as a foreign language to students at the University of Lisbon. 275 10.3 Drama in Modern Foreign Language Teaching <?page no="276"?> 393 Huber 2003, 322. 394 Peter Bichsel, “Erfahrungen beim Fremdsprachenlernen,” chap. in Schulmeistereien. (Darmstadt: Luchterhand, 1985) 52. It must be considered as perhaps the most extensive and far-ranging discussion up until now of the reasons for including drama in FLL. Huber describes her goals in working on theatre with her students: Drama is the aim of the group and at the same time the excuse for authentic interaction in the foreign language related to the common project, though the word ‘excuse’ is to be understood as a paradox. Though drama is a medium for developing competence in the foreign language, it only serves this purpose in an optimal way when it is not used didactically as such, or made accessible or domesticated, but rather when it becomes an autonomous medium. The lessons then become in the widest sense communicative, when they challenge each individual to develop joy in acting, makeup, costume, what Thomas Mann called the ‘costume-head’ [Kostümkopf]; when they enable the actors to develop something from the diversity of their individually acquired role-play potentials within the foreign language and involve them as dramatis personae in a double sense; as persons with multiple role competences who are involved in a many-sided social and aesthetic theatrical event. 393 At the core of her approach lies her belief in the unique possibilities of the foreign language to open up new dimensions of personal experience. Her method focuses on exploring the emotional and imaginative possibilities of creating a new ‘character’ in and through the foreign language. In this context, it is illuminating to read how she was originally inspired to begin working in this manner. She describes listening to a speech at a conference given by the Swiss writer Peter Bichsel (later published) in which he compared his experiences in not learning French to those of his learning English. Bichsel first describes the effects of his French lessons: I am a victim - a victim of French lessons. Not just because school did not manage to teach an untalented person this language - such damage would anyway be reparable and it also happened to me in other subjects - but the school did something much worse to me in this subject. It blocked this language for me forever. I don’t dare anymore to allow myself to make a mistake in this language. I would have difficulty psychologically surviving if I were to make a fool of myself even just once in this language. (…) If I had never had French lessons in school, I could have later uninhibitedly acquired the language later and would be able to speak it today. 394 He contrasts this experience with his learning of English: 276 10 Dramatic Processes and Language Teaching <?page no="277"?> 395 Ibid., 54. 396 Huber 2003, 319-334. 397 Peter Bichsel, quoted in Huber 2003, 175. 398 Huber 2003, 339-362. 399 Ibid., 410-437. I was told French could be useful, one could earn money with it, or one would earn no money without it. My learning of English later however had nothing to do with those considerations; it was the realisation of a boyhood dream. I rather learn the language of Karl May than Shakespeare; rather that of Henry Fonda than Jimmy Carter. I thus learn an artificial language, a language that does not primarily open a new world, but rather offers me the chance to play a new role, a game; it is a hint of a change, a small reminder of an old dream of men, to become someone else. I don’t have to be someone in this language at all, instead I can play something. 395 Bichsel’s reflections became the starting point for Huber’s concept based on the possibilities of experimenting with different ‘roles’ in a foreign language. The process through which Huber tries to help her university students discover such possibilities takes place over the course of one or two semesters. She has divided it into five separate ‘acts’ in which the consecutive goals of writing, rehearsing and performing a play are to be realized. 396 The first act, which she considers to be the essential preparation for the work, is called Einstimmung. Through a broad array of exercises based on the use of literature, collages, photos and music (ranging from Chopin to Patti Smith), she tries to enhance perceptual and imaginative capabilities before entering into the more concrete theatrical work. There is a pronounced emphasis on the use of the hands in many of these activities. In this context she quotes Bichsel’s maxim: “Language is a handcraft, not a product of the head’” [Sprache ist ein Handwerk, kein Kopfwerk.] 397 This initial phase or act takes up about half of the entire time - for a larger project two to three months. 398 In the next phase the actual material for the play is developed by the group and then turned into a play. (This is also the point at which a group decides whether they want to continue working together.) At the end of this period most of the drama exists in a kind of raw version, with different scenes and fragments completed. This process takes between one to two months. 399 In the third phase, the focus is on the actual process of rehearsing the play for performance. In this context she invites a professional guest director who works with the students in turning their work into a dramatically coherent production. This takes place in the form of a workshop lasting a week to ten days, followed by a performance 277 10.3 Drama in Modern Foreign Language Teaching <?page no="278"?> 400 Ibid., 445-465. 401 Ibid., 472-481. 402 Ibid., 74-75. for an invited audience. 400 The last phase consists of an extensive reflection on the entire process. 401 In comparing this work to traditional methods of foreign language teaching, Huber draws distinctions between the forms of communication which occur in this context, and communication in the context of language lessons in which language is used to realize the goal of teaching its correct usage. She contrasts such an instrumental view of drama activities with the dynamics of theatre itself and argues that through the opportunity to work on drama in a foreign language, learners are offered the most possibilities of discovering something significant and new. She writes, Instead of simply renaming what has been previously arranged in the native tongue, the learner can get to know other, exotic-appearing constructions of reality and move within them. He can take on unfamiliar roles and thus revise his internalised, culturally specific norms of behaviour. Moreover, in the foreign language he has a medium to hand with which he can construct new worlds of a third kind, within which he himself can become another person. In short, he has the chance to experience differently, to see and hear anew and to act as another. In the concept I am presenting here, the learner is led through a process of perceptual development in conjunction with drama. Because language shapes physical attitude and perception, it is the ‘house of identity’ within which we live; it is the social context we move in, it is a material with its own inner resistance out of which we construct the fabric of our world. Learning a foreign language is the expression of a wish to discover new spaces - whether internal, geographical, ideal or virtual - in which to arrange our dwelling within a house of language. 402 (italics in original) Like Dufeu, Huber has developed an entire approach to incorporating drama into foreign language learning which goes well beyond the occasional use of dramatic techniques in lessons. As different as these two approaches are, they have in common that they use a broad range of dramatic activities within a clear and coherent framework. The responses of the learners which are cited in her study indicate their deep satisfaction with respect to language learning and in terms of general personal development. 278 10 Dramatic Processes and Language Teaching <?page no="279"?> 10.3.4 Drama in EFL School Classrooms It is significant that both Dufeu’s and Huber’s work take place in the context of working solely with adults: in Huber’s case with university students who have chosen to major in German, in Dufeu’s workshops with a wider range of university students and professionals who have chosen to take such courses. In reviewing the material on drama in foreign language teaching that has been published in recent years, it is striking that almost all of the empirical research that has been done refers to work with college and university students. This certainly reflects the fact that within the last decades there have been a wide range of such programs instituted in the context of university studies throughout Europe as well as in the United States, Canada and Australia. It also undoubtedly reflects the far greater tendency for academics working in such contexts to write and publish reports of their work, as opposed to school teachers who often lack the time and motivation to do so. Even within the much broader and more inclusive range of material available in the Internet communities in this field, there also appears to be a clear emphasis on work done at a university level. It is thus exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to get a clear picture of the extent in which drama and drama techniques have become a part of elementary and secondary school foreign language lessons. Judging from the significant increase in the amount of material in this field that has been published from the 1990s on, and from the enormous range of material now available on the internet, it seems logical however to assume that dramatic work plays a larger role in language teaching in schools now than it did before. Thus, despite the striking lack of published empirical research on drama in language lessons in schools, it is highly doubtful whether one can conclude from this fact alone that little work is done in this context. What is evident, however, is that there are many obvious reasons which make instituting dramatic techniques and drama education in foreign language lessons in schools more difficult than in a university setting. The combination of both curricular pressures and the prescribed use of textbooks are the most obvious hurdles. Moreover, the heightened role which standardized testing has come to play in many European countries as well as in the U.S. is clearly a factor which invariably discourages teachers from engaging in this kind of artistic work. The inadequacy of teacher training in this area also makes the introduction of dramatic techniques a difficult, if not impossible task for many language teachers. When one further considers the lack of research assessing the effects of drama in foreign language classrooms, it becomes evident why educators who are proponents of this approach have had little 279 10.3 Drama in Modern Foreign Language Teaching <?page no="280"?> 403 Unfortunately, what follows in my critical discussion of the original framework remains, in light of the latest revisions published in 2020, still valid. There have been some significant and positive revisions in the CEF regarding a heightened emphasis on linguistic and cultural diversity, social inclusion and plurilingual and intercultural competences. However, the one very brief section on aesthetic education from 2001, in which the words ‘drama’ and ‘performance’ appear, remains wholly isolated in the hundreds of pages of both the original and revised frameworks. One searches in vain for any other discussion of drama, dramatic processes, performativity, and aesthetic education. In the book recommendations none of the authors referred to in my new introduction appear. The latest version is available online at (last accessed on 27.07.2020) https: / / rm.coe.int/ common-european-framework-of-reference-for-languag es-learning-teaching/ 16809ea0d4 404 Council of Europe, Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment. (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2001), available online at (last accessed on 27.07.2021) https: / / rm.coe.int/ 1680459f97 . chance to argue their cases convincingly with respect to curriculum planning. All these inhibiting factors appear to be generally comparable when viewed in an international context. The marginal role which drama techniques play in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment (CEF) can be viewed as highly symptomatic in this respect. Published in 2001, the CEF became arguably the single most influential document shaping language learning and teaching in European schools. 403 Its goals are stated in the opening paragraphs: The Common European Framework provides a common basis for the elaboration of language syllabuses, curriculum guidelines, examinations, textbooks etc. across Europe. It describes in a comprehensive way what language learners have to learn to do in order to use a language for communication and what knowledge and skills they have to develop so as to be able to act effectively … 404 In choosing not to advocate specific methods or materials, and by focusing on defining objectives and competences, the CEF has succeeded in establishing detailed and standardized criteria for evaluating foreign language abilities. Its clearly drawn categories of proficiency, with precise distinctions made between different levels of competence, are based on a pragmatic view of language skills which can be efficiently broken down into definable and measurable units. The orientation is towards an output-oriented and strategic use of the foreign language. Although there is a brief section on the importance of the aesthetic uses of language and literature, this element viewed in the entire context of the goals expressed in this document can certainly not be considered a central 280 10 Dramatic Processes and Language Teaching <?page no="281"?> 405 Barbara Schmenck, “Drama in the Margins? The Common European Framework of Reference and its Implications for Drama Pedagogy in the Foreign Language Classroom,” German as a Foreign Language Journal 1 (2004): 11-12, available online at (last accessed on 28-07-21) www.gfl-journal.de/ 1-2004/ schmenk.pdf 406 Ibid., 14. theme. In her critical discussion of the CEF and its marginalization of drama processes in language learning Barbara Schmenck writes, …. the CEF does not particularly focus on language learning as a personal and emo‐ tional, identity-related intercultural experience that may enable persons to discover new and alternative perspectives, new senses of self etc. The CEF is strongly directed towards language learning ‘output’ i. e. competence … Since elements of drama in language education as outlined by many authors and their potential aid in language learning processes cannot be conceptualised in terms of strategic behaviour, drama elements appear to be barely compatible with the CEF. The fact that drama often brings about rather surprising results is thoroughly at odds with an approach to language learning that is predominantly output-oriented. 405 She concludes her article by expressing her fears of what this view of language learning may lead to in the future: … we have to face the fact that educational drama is not mentioned in the most important document on European language policy. Moreover, the CEF does not encourage teachers to use drama techniques, let alone drama pedagogy, as a principle of language learning and teaching. In fact, the instrumentalist view of language and language learning processes may prevent textbook authors, curriculum designers, teachers etc. from taking drama pedagogy more seriously and seeking to integrate drama into language programmes and materials. 406 Viewed from an economic standpoint in which the importance of learning foreign languages in a global economy has been consistently propagated, the pragmatic approach underlying the CEF is understandable. At the same time, its view of language learning, although appearing to be pluralistic with respect to methodology and content, is often incongruent with approaches whose goals and methods are based on encouraging other dimensions of experience and growth. Clearly, the approach to language learning stressed in the CEF does not place much value on those dimensions of personal experience and development which underlie artistic or hermeneutic approaches to foreign language learning. Seen from this perspective, there is a clear necessity for research examining what happens in those classrooms in which fundamentally different goals 281 10.3 Drama in Modern Foreign Language Teaching <?page no="282"?> 407 Wagner 1998, 3. 408 The most detailed works in this respect are Schewe 1993, Huber 2003 and Stephen M. Smith, The Theater Arts and the Teaching of Second Languages (Reading MA: Addison-Wesley, 1984). 409 Douglas J. Moody, “Undergoing a Process and Achieving a Product: A Contradiction in Educational Drama? ” in Bräuer 2002, 138. are pursued, and where language learning occurs in a substantially different manner. 10.4 Research on Drama-Based Approaches to Foreign Language Learning A recurring complaint going through the literature of drama-based approaches to FLL is the lack of empirical research that has been done in the field. Betty Jane Wagner writes in this context, Handbooks of research are increasingly common in the teaching profession, but among these compilations surveys of studies of drama are noticeably absent. 407 There are a variety of explanations for this. Along with the oft cited reasons of lack of time and motivation for teachers to act as researchers, it may be that the very ways in which dramatic elements are incorporated in lessons do not lend themselves to research. Of the little research that has been done, most has focused on improvisational drama in the classroom. There has been hardly any research published on product-oriented drama in FLL and that which does exist has been in the context of working with university students and generally refers to work on very short plays. 408 In drawing distinctions between the respective benefits of process drama approaches based on improvisational exercises and a performance-oriented approach to theatre, Douglas Moody argues for the necessity of more research examining the effects of product-oriented, text based approaches. He writes, There has been very little written about producing foreign language theatre as a method for drama-based pedagogy, though some research exists and a very small number of teaching publications have explored the benefits of performing texts. (…) However the fact remains that there are many foreign-language departments in the United States and Europe, as well as other parts of the world, where teachers and students dedicate tremendous time and energy to the production of theatre-as-per‐ formance projects, and it is a shame that there has not been more public discussion about the pedagogical and social benefits of these practices. 409 282 10 Dramatic Processes and Language Teaching <?page no="283"?> 410 Huber 2003, 329. Huber is also struck by the almost complete absence of publications which are concerned with exploring the potentials of entering into a role/ character in the foreign language. She writes, It is quite astonishing that the potential of using the foreign language in a theatrical role - which in the context of foreign language drama education can be so effectively realized - has hardly ever been referred to in any of the relevant literature. 410 Viewed in this context, this study examining the processes of rehearsing and performing a full-length drama in a 10 th grade foreign language class can be seen as an attempt to contribute to an increasingly important field in which there has been a striking lack of such research. 283 10.4 Research on Drama-Based Approaches to Foreign Language Learning <?page no="285"?> 411 Hopkins 2002, 124. 412 Nunan 1992, 103. 413 Wellington 2000, 97. 11 Research Methods 11.1 Case Studies in Educational Research Case studies have been considered to be of particular significance in educational research. It has been argued that they provide a more accurate and representa‐ tive picture than other methods insofar as they are capable of presenting a comprehensive analysis of a specific aspect of teaching behaviour or classroom life. 411 In that they also offer a chance to examine a specific question or issue within the complex realities of a given classroom, their data has also been viewed as being more relevant to educational practice than much quantitative research. Having reviewed 50 extensively cited educational studies in which a relatively small percentage were actually based on research done in “genuine classrooms”, David Nunan was struck by the preponderance of educational research outside of a real life context. He writes, The great majority collected their data outside of the classroom in laboratory, simulated and naturalistic settings. Despite this, the researchers had no hesitation in claiming pedagogic relevance for their research. (…) One of the disturbing outcomes of the survey was the fact that only fifteen of the studies were classroom-based. If context is important to research outcomes, then we need far more of these classroom-based, as opposed to classroom-oriented studies. 412 Another argument for the inclusion of case studies in educational research has been their accessibility. As opposed to larger sample-based quantitative studies in which the goal of establishing external validity is paramount, case studies in their in-depth treatments of ‘real’ situations are viewed as easier for teachers to relate to and actually learn from. Jerry Wellington writes, Case studies can be illuminating and insightful; if well written, they can be atten‐ tion-holding and exude a strong sense of reality; they are often accessible and engaging for readers; case studies derived from research can be of great value in teaching and learning … 413 <?page no="286"?> 414 Rüdiger Grotjahn, “Konzepte für die Erforschung des Lehrens und Lernens fremder Sprachen: Forschungsmethodologischer Überblick,” in Handbuch Fremdsprachenunter‐ richt. 4th ed. Eds. Karl-Richard Bausch, Herbert Christ, and Hans-Jürgen Krumm (Tübingen: Francke, 2003) 493. 415 Nunan 1992, 103. 416 Lawrence Stenhouse, “Case Study in Educational Research and Evaluation,” in Case Study: An Overview. eds. L. Bartlett, S. Kemmnis, and G. Gillard (Geelong, Australia: Deakin UP), quoted in Nunan 1992, 78. In the context of educational research on foreign language learning, the indi‐ viduality and discontinuity of the processes of language learning have been specifically advanced as an argument for a case study approach focusing on single learners over a longer period of time, as opposed to the more typical quantitative research procedures of examining larger sample groups within a much shorter period of time. Rüdiger Grotjahn writes, Learners go through different stages within a learning process with respect to their abilities to utilize knowledge and to integrate knowledge and practical skills. Thus, from a methodological perspective, it is important for researchers to focus more on single learners than has previously been the case and to make use of multiple case studies in which individual progress is regularly examined over a long period of time. 414 It has also been argued that a case study in its ability to portray the reality of classroom interaction provides a far better basis for understanding the actual holistic process of language development than experiments which attempt to isolate and examine single elements of language learning outside of its original context. 415 Generally speaking, the particular strength of case studies in educational research has been considered to be its exhaustive focus on a single setting, subject or event within a specific context: its weakness has been seen to be the problematic nature of generalizing from a single study, and hence the difficulty of postulating any degree of external validity from it. 11.1.1 Case Studies and the Teacher as Researcher Stenhouse distinguishes between four different types of educational case study: neo-ethnographic, evaluative, multi-site case study, and classroom action re‐ search undertaken by teachers who use their participant status as a basis from which such research is conducted. 416 The latter form of case study research in education, while remaining controversial, has become increasingly prominent in recent decades. In the context of the study of the 10 th grade play in which I had 286 11 Research Methods <?page no="287"?> 417 John Dewey, The Sources of a Science of Education. (New York: Horace Liveright, 1929). 418 Hopkins 2002, 44. 419 Ibid. 420 Nunan 1992, 17-18. this participant status, it will be necessary to look at the relevant background and issues in detail. In a number of respects this case study fits into the category of teacher-di‐ rected research or what has become known as action-research, or practitioner research. This approach has its origins in the work of John Dewey, who believed that educational practices could and should be examined by the inductive methods of scientific evaluation. 417 It is also historically connected to the writings of the psychologist Kurt Lewin who in the 1930s and 40s argued for the importance of establishing democratic and collaborative ways of conducting scientific inquiries in group settings. 418 The later developments of this concept in educational settings are invariably connected with the work of Stephen Corey in the United States, Lawrence Stenhouse and John Elliott in Great Britain and Herbert Altrichter in Germany and Austria. 419 The concept of the teacher as researcher implies not only a fundamental revision of the way educational research is generally viewed, but often a revision of the personal and professional relation of a teacher to her work. Although there are certain differences in the priorities and methodologies established by each of the national traditions of teacher-directed research, the fundamental principle underlying this concept is that research based on teachers self-critically examining and evaluating hypotheses in their classrooms can be a decisive instrument of educational improvement. It is generally focused on concrete situations, with the teacher identifying a relevant problem or issue and then conducting research with the intention of effecting improvement. It is sometimes a collaborative activity involving different teachers within an institution. Educational theory emerging from such research is generally viewed as inherently hypothetical, requiring further empirical testing. 420 In contrast to much of educational research conducted by researchers working in academic contexts and often viewed by teachers as being irrelevant to the actual demands of their work, the goal of action research is to pass on the results of such work from teacher to teacher. Thus, a paradigm underlying practitioner research is that educational research can only be considered meaningful insofar as it can be shown to be of importance and offering direct benefits in the ‘real world’ of pupils and teachers. Stenhouse writes, 287 11.1 Case Studies in Educational Research <?page no="288"?> 421 Stenhouse, “Action Research and the Teacher’s Responsibility for the Educational Process,” in Stenhouse 1985, 58. 422 See chap. 8.4.6. So I would want to ask any action researcher what contribution his work is making to a theory of education and teaching which is accessible to other teachers. I want the audience for action research to be teachers, not social scientists. Finally, I believe that a theory of education derived from action research should be testable through action research. That is, teachers should, within the limits of their time, be able to test the results of action research by monitoring their own practice, its context and its results. It is the strength of action research in curriculum and teaching that its utilization does not depend upon teachers’ accepting its hypotheses, but on their testing them. 421 Action research is thus often seen as offering a substantial basis for instituting direct educational change and innovation within schools, as well as in the field of curriculum development. Most notably, it has been progressively seen as an important factor in promoting continuing professional development. The idea of action research can be seen as closely connected to Schön’s concept in which professional artistry is understood in terms of reflection-in-action. 422 11.1.2 Relevant Distinctions between Practitioner Research and this Study Although many of the concepts underlying practitioner research are implicit in my study of the 10 th grade play, it is important to draw some key distinctions. In much, though certainly not all of action research, there is a clear focus on the research providing a basis for the improvement of teaching through observation and self-reflection. There is undoubtedly a high intrinsic value to establishing this priority of enhancing the quality of one’s own and potentially others’ teaching through a self-directed research study. This is also the area in which traditional researchers have most readily been willing to recognize the potential benefits of the teacher as researcher. However, my principal focus in this study of the 10 th grade play has not been on directly addressing the question of how this research can help me improve my teaching, or, in fact, on the improvement of teaching at all. Although, I certainly learned and profited in many different and important ways from this entire experience, how and why this happened is not my main area of concern. The central focus of this study has been on examining the experiences of pupils in this class and attempting to assess the significance of this work for them, during this process and afterwards. Thus, although I have also adopted 288 11 Research Methods <?page no="289"?> 423 Seidman 1998, 26. 424 Wagner 1998, 10-12. some of the characteristic concepts and methods of action research, the actual methodological basis of the study rests heavily on the methods of qualitative research generally used by external researchers. From this perspective, the central challenge in all qualitative case studies, namely the necessity of attaining internal validity becomes the most critical issue in the entire research design. 11.2 Research Design for the Study of the Class Play/ The Conceptual Framework Having examined relevant issues regarding case study research and practitioner research in a larger framework, this case study of the class play will now be addressed. The conceptual framework in which this research took place is clearly based on a belief in the potential significance which artistic and dramatic processes can offer young people in secondary schools. Both the general educational goals which I hold as a teacher in a Waldorf School, as well as the personal experiences of the potential value of artistic work which I have gained in the course of almost twenty years of language teaching, constitute deep, personal motives for doing this work. This view implies a willingness to make a significant commitment of time and energy to the artistic process itself, as well as a deep interest in exploring the results of such work. This dimension of personal commitment to the topic of research and to the importance of its scientific evaluation has been considered to be a decisive criterion for all worthwhile teacher-directed research. 423 In trying to ascertain what occurred in the pupils during this process, and what this form of artistic work meant for them, I am thus pursuing an avenue of inquiry which through my previous experiences I felt to be highly worthwhile of study. However, until now I had never attempted to examine and/ or evaluate this work in a systematic and empirical manner. In previous class plays in which I had been involved, there was usually a classroom session after the performance discussing what the work had meant to the participants, and then it was ‘back to work’ as usual. As Wagner and many others have noted, this can be viewed as typical of most teacher behaviour in such contexts, reflecting the realities of teachers’ lack of time and motivation to conduct research, parallel to their daily teaching responsibilities. 424 In the context of doing my dissertation, I was able 289 11.2 Research Design for the Study of the Class Play/ The Conceptual Framework <?page no="290"?> 425 Hopkins 2002, 58-59. 426 Nunan 1992, 13. 427 See chap. 4.9. 428 Hopkins, 2002, 53. 429 Ibid. 430 Guba and Lincoln 1994, 106. to reduce my teaching load to a degree that made it possible to undertake this study. From this perspective it is apparent that this study does not fall into the category of an ‘open approach’ in which a broad, initial inquiry presents the basis for a later choice to focus on a particular area, culminating in the generation of hypotheses. 425 In my work, the hypothesis which constitutes the basis of this work presented an initial starting point for research which was then designed to examine its validity. This approach has been classified as deductive research. 426 11.3 The Initial Hypothesis The importance of expressing a clearly stated hypothesis in the context of a qualitative research study has been addressed in a previous chapter. 427 This point has been stressed by researchers who have maintained that hypothesis-driven research, which has traditionally been seen as belonging more to the domain of quantitative research, can also have its place in qualitative research in which verification, and not quantification becomes a goal. Hopkins and others have argued strongly for the development of “confident” and testable hypotheses even in the context of action research. 428 In this context it has also been argued that a clearly formulated hypothesis along with a high degree of methodological clarity, offers the most convincing basis for qualitative research to be viewed as valid. 429 The formulation of a hypothesis is expected to meet the customary standard of scientific research in terms of its being falsifiable, i. e. it must be formulated in such a way that it can be disproved and shown to be invalid. 430 I am proposing that the processes inherent in the rehearsing and performing of a full-length drama in a foreign language offer high school students (16-17 years old) significant benefits in a wide range of areas, including new and heightened possibilities of personal, social and language development. 290 11 Research Methods <?page no="291"?> 431 See chap. 4.8. 432 Holliday 2002, 34. In the context of investigating the validity of the hypothesis posed in this study, the fact that this work did not take place within a clearly defined school curriculum, with its attendant categories of measurement and/ or evaluation, obviously makes it difficult to establish those kinds of clear parameters of learning and development which might customarily be decisive in drawing conclusions in a quantitative research study. This issue has often been addressed by qualitative researchers who have argued that insisting that a hypothesis can only be proved or disproved by setting clearly quantifiable standards of measurement reflects a narrow view of what verification in research can and should mean. 431 In proposing that the pupils’ work on the play may affect them significantly in a wide range of areas, I am thus advancing a hypothesis which will require closely examining and evaluating the relations between this work and pupils’ developments. Viewed in this context, in order to be able to verify, disprove, or revise the initial hypothesis, it will be essential to pose specific questions and to adopt a systematic approach to investigating them. 432 11.3.1 Research Questions The following research questions reflect the broad scope of areas which are addressed. They are neither viewed as a definitive list to be rigidly followed, nor, by any means, as exhausting the range of questions. Instead, they offer the possibility of establishing general categories from which the relevant issues can be explored in depth. From the broadest perspective, the initial hypothesis leads to the following question: What did the processes of rehearsing and performing this class play in English mean for the pupils of the class during and after this work? This general inquiry gives rise to a number of more concrete questions in regard to specific areas of possible development. In the larger framework of personal and social development the following question can be posed: Did students make personal and/ or social developments which can be viewed as resulting from this work? This general question can be considered both in the context of a pupil’s individual work, as well as in regard to the process of working together with others. 291 11.3 The Initial Hypothesis <?page no="292"?> 433 Jerry Wellington, Educational Research: Contemporary Issues and Practical Applications. (London: Continum, 2000), 49. What did the processes of entering into and embodying the role of a character in the drama production mean for pupils? Did this work promote pupils’ social development with respect to the nature and quality of their interactions with others? In what respects did the entire class viewed as a social unit and/ or social groups within the class change through this work? The particular historical context of “The Diary of Anne Frank” leads to questions regarding the effects of rehearsing and performing a drama based on her experiences. Did the work on this play change pupils’ perceptions and perspectives of this period of history? More concretely, Did acting a role in this play lead to another degree or form of empathy and understanding for the victims of the Nazis? The context of rehearsing and performing a play in a foreign language raises a number of questions intrinsic to this particular process: In what respects did assuming and embodying a role in English become a significant experience of the language? In what respects did the motivation to learn English increase through the work? In what areas did pupils develop increased capabilities in English? In the area of enhancing language skills there is the possibility of drawing clearer distinctions between different types of capabilities. The questions which can be raised in this context include the following: In what senses were capabilities of oral comprehension affected? In what senses were the capabilities of spontaneous oral fluency in the foreign language enhanced? In what respects was the ability to pronounce English clearly and correctly affected by the work? In what respects was self-confidence in the foreign language promoted? There is clearly a preponderance of ‘What’ questions in this entire register. Tra‐ ditionally such questions are connected to descriptive research, i. e. describing what has taken place. 433 This reflects the phenomenological basis of this inquiry. 292 11 Research Methods <?page no="293"?> 434 Ibid., 49, 88. 435 Wagner 1998, 243. 436 Ibid., 241. Nevertheless, at a number of different points, we will also be examining more exploratory and explanatory questions dealing with the issues of ‘How’ and ‘Why’ things happen. Such questions are an essential component of explanatory theory and are often also seen as potentially having predictive capabilities. 434 In the context of this study, I have attempted to draw clear distinctions between the descriptive and the explanatory sections of the work by consistently beginning descriptively with verbatim research data and its elucidation, and only later addressing explanatory and/ or exploratory questions. 11.4 Relevant Methodological Considerations Examining what occurs in the process of rehearsing and performing a class play presents a variety of methodological challenges. Wagner concludes her extensive review of the research on educational drama by elucidating the criteria which she views as decisive for all future drama research. She writes, We need to explore such questions as these: What does a good drama lesson look like? What are the teacher’s goals and how does he or she achieve them? Which instructional strategies can be pinpointed as instrumental in effecting improvement in students’ language growth? What types of student response indicate growth? What kind of cognitive processing takes place? To answer such questions, teachers need rich descriptions, the kind that typically include long verbatim quotations of students’ oral and written output. 435 She goes on to criticize reductionist approaches to empirical research which have dominated drama research in previous decades, first because they have had little effect on the teaching practice itself, and second because they do not accurately reflect what actually takes place in drama lessons. 436 In a similar vein, Eliot Eisner has written extensively about the pressing need to create new approaches to research in the study of the arts: One of the great needs in education is finding ways to evaluate the effects of arts education that provide information the public will find convincing. To secure con‐ vincing information that does not trivialize the educational effects of solid curriculum and excellent teaching, a campaign needs to be mounted to invent the procedures needed. These procedures cannot be found: they must be created. (…) Despite these 293 11.4 Relevant Methodological Considerations <?page no="294"?> 437 Eisner 2002, 228-229. 438 See chap. 4.6. complexities, the design of evaluation procedures that present a convincing body of evidence regarding the benefits of arts education is one of the primary research needs in the field. The trick is to resist the reductionism that has characterized much of conventional assessment and at the same time to secure approaches that are not so labor-intensive as to render them impractical. It is a challenge, but one worth taking. 437 Through making use of the extensive possibilities offered by qualitative research methods, I hope to have established a research design which will meet the standards which Wagner, Eisner and others have called for. 11.5 Collecting “Thick” Research Data - Research Inquiries The requirement which Wagner stipulates as being necessary for research in drama - “rich descriptions, the kind that typically include long quotations of students’ oral and written output” - presents the starting point for much of this study. In conjunction with the methods of triangulation, the extensive use of what is usually termed as ‘thick’ or ‘rich’ data in reference to an anthropologi‐ cally based research approach, constitutes the primary methodological basis for this research. 438 During the entire period in which the pupils worked on the play (between the end of December 2004 till the beginning of June 2005), all the pupils in the 10 th grade were asked to fill out a total of five research inquiries. These inquiries were intended to elicit a broad range of their thoughts and feelings about the work on the play. Although the wording of each research inquiry varied somewhat, they all were designed to offer the widest possible range of personal responses. The list of different themes which pupils were invited to address in each inquiry were described as possibilities and they were encouraged to address any other questions or issues which they felt were important. These inquiries were thus intended to offer impulses for writing about their experiences and not to give pupils the feeling of responding to a type of questionnaire. (Copies of each of the research inquires are found in the next chapter.) The initial inquiry that was handed out in December before rehearsals began was answered in English lessons. In three of the subsequent inquires, including their final reflections after the play, the pupils wrote their responses during their weekly lesson with their class teacher (Betreuungsstunde). (The one exception will be discussed in the next chapter.) Except for the first inquiry, I was not 294 11 Research Methods <?page no="295"?> 439 Hopkins, 2002, 109. present during the writing or collection of the inquiries. The pupils were given the opportunity to reply anonymously if they chose to do so. What the students wrote in the course of the work will be examined in two different contexts. First, using a cross-sectional approach in viewing all the pupils’ responses, I will trace their different experiences of the work on the play from a chronological perspective beginning with their initial expectations before the rehearsals began, then looking at different phases during the rehearsal period and ending with their reflections on the work after the performances. In this section I will be concerned with presenting a broad range of pupils’ writing at different points. Afterwards, I will use these research inquiries in the context of focusing on the complete series of responses of five pupils whose experiences will be examined in depth. 11.5.1 Interviews with Groups of Pupils A further source of “thick data” was the interviews which I conducted with two groups of five pupils, one month after the performances. Working with groups of this size has become an established and frequently used method of interviewing pupils, insofar as it appears to be easier for some pupils to speak more freely in this constellation, than in a one-to-one interview. 439 I wrote down much of the interviews simultaneously and also recorded them. This material proved to be particularly relevant in regard to the individual studies of the five pupils. 11.5.2 Parent’s Perspectives Two weeks after the performances, I asked the parents in the class to write how they had experienced this entire process from their perspective. Their replies present an illuminating picture of how parents perceived the work and, in particular, how they experienced their children on stage. They also reveal how the pupils spoke about the play at home. Comparable in this respect to the research inquiries which the pupils received, the parents were given a wide range of themes which they could choose to respond to, but were also encouraged to write any other observations, thoughts etc. which they cared to relate. From the 37 parents in the class, 17 replied. 295 11.5 Collecting “Thick” Research Data - Research Inquiries <?page no="296"?> 440 Hopkins 2002, 103-105. 11.5.3 Teacher’s Perspectives A further perspective which proved to be highly relevant was the observations of the teachers of the class whom I asked in a very similar manner to write down any thoughts regarding the work which they considered to be relevant. From the nine teachers of the class, five replied. Two other teachers who do not teach the class, but saw the performances also wrote comments. 11.5.4 Field Notes - Teacher’s Log One of the most frequently used research instruments in practitioner-based research has proved to be a teacher’s diary or log. 440 I regularly recorded, on average four to five times a week, my own observations regarding different aspects of the process. 11.5.5 Videos of Rehearsals and Performances Videos were made of three rehearsals after the first six weeks of rehearsals. They proved to be of very limited interest in regard to answering the research questions that I had posed. All six performances were videotaped. They provide an objective record of what the pupils achieved and have been of some value in re-assessing developments made by some pupils. 11.6 Data Triangulation and Method Triangulation In being able to view different aspects of these processes not only from the pupils’ perspectives but also from their parents and other teachers’ standpoints, a triangulation of data becomes possible. My own field notes offered a further source of observation and information. Finally, three videos made of rehearsals and the videotaping of the performances offer an additional documentary record of this process. The possibilities of being able to view the experiences of the pupils over the course of five months also proved to be a significant ‘within method’ element of triangulation insofar as this accorded valuable insights into developments which occurred during this time. Although their final reflections written after the play were generally the most extensive responses, the insights which they 296 11 Research Methods <?page no="297"?> offer only become fully evident in the context of studying the changes which pupils went through in the course of the entire process. The interviews with the two groups of students which took place a month after the performances offer not only a further extension of this perspective, but it was possible in this context to view certain aspects in more depth than would have been possible only from the written responses. Here, the advantages of a ‘between method’ form of triangulation became apparent. 297 11.6 Data Triangulation and Method Triangulation <?page no="299"?> 441 Martyn Rawson and Tobias Richter (eds.), The Educational Tasks and Content of the Steiner Waldorf Curriculum. (Forest Row: Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship, 2000) 46-49, 59-62. 442 Ibid. 443 The reason for this focus on English plays lies in our school structure. All pupils have lessons in English and French beginning in the 1 st grade and in the 7 th grade Latin is offered as an alternative to French. Thus from this point on, English is the only foreign language which the whole class has together. 444 Despite the obvious challenges which the 10 th grade play poses every year for pupils, teachers and the school timetable with respect to the amount of time it requires, the fact that this tradition has continued to thrive is a reflection of both the benefits which it is generally seen to offer, as well as the commitment of the English faculty and in particular one of my colleagues, Volker Wodin, who first introduced the idea. 12 The Class Play in the 10 th Grade 2004-2005: Framework and Circumstances 12.1 Class Plays in the Düsseldorf Steiner School There is a long-standing tradition in Waldorf Education of performing a class play in the 8 th and 12 th grades. Both of these grades are viewed as respective endpoints of decisive periods of development, and the class play is seen as an integral part of the conclusion of these processes. 441 The work on this play is designed to involve the entire class, i. e. it is not viewed as a voluntary dramatic project for interested pupils, but as a project involving everyone. This tradition is still very much alive in Steiner schools today and is considered a mainstay of the Waldorf curriculum both in Europe and the rest of the world. 442 In the Düsseldorf Steiner School, along with the 8 th and 12 th grade plays, a tradition has been established over the past 15 years of also performing a play in the 10 th grade in a foreign language. With one exception, this has always been in English. 443 Although there have been countless instances of foreign language productions in Waldorf Schools, the Düsseldorf Steiner School is exceptional insofar as this tradition has become as firmly established as that of the other class plays. 444 The fact that the foreign language play has become anchored in the school curriculum has far-ranging consequences. First, insofar as it is viewed by pupils, parents and teachers as an essential part of the 10 th grade curriculum, there is an acceptance of the requirements which such a project necessarily entails. <?page no="300"?> 445 However, I have also experienced in the Frankfurt Waldorf School, where I taught English for 8 years before coming to Düsseldorf, that it is possible for classes to spontaneously decide to perform a play that they read in class and be willing to invest the time which is necessary. Such voluntary decisions naturally shape the entire process in a highly positive way. 446 This was the first class that I had ever taken at the primary and early middle school level, having previously taught English and Music only in grades 8-13. From the pupils and parents’ perspectives this is most notably apparent in their understanding that four extra hours per week are reserved for rehearsals which generally go on for almost half the school year. There is an acceptance from certain members of the faculty that they may be called upon to assist in certain elements of the play, typically set construction and music. There is also general support from the teachers of the class, as evidenced for example in their willingness to excuse individual pupils from their lessons for rehearsals. In the framework of the school budget, there are two extra hours allotted for the teacher responsible for the play, although in consideration of the actual hours invested in such a production this allotment must be considered as more symbolic than realistic. Viewed as a whole, these are ideal conditions for a production. Although there are undoubtedly also advantages to a dramatic project developing organically and spontaneously in a class, the entire framework which a production of this dimension requires would obviously make an unplanned project more difficult to integrate into a school curriculum and timetable which has made no allowance for it. 445 12.2 The Tenth Grade Play in the Year 2004-2005: My Relation to the Class and the Background of the Class I have taught this class in English since 1997 when I suddenly had to take over from a colleague who left in the middle of the third grade. 446 The pupils have had three English lessons a week from 1 st grade on: until fifth grade they were taught as an entire class and afterwards they were divided into two equal-sized groups of roughly twenty pupils. The fact that I have taught this class over such a long period of time reflects the principle of many Waldorf Schools in attempting to maintain a high degree of continuity in language lessons, provided, of course, that the school planning commission is convinced that this continuity benefits the respective class. Class 10 in this school year had 39 pupils; 19 girls and 20 boys. Like all Waldorf classes, the pupils in this class have not been selected, 300 12 The Class Play in the 10 th Grade 2004-2005: Framework and Circumstances <?page no="301"?> 447 As is generally unavoidable in those Waldorf Schools in which there is only one class for each year, one of my own children is also in the class. This was an issue which I reviewed regularly, both in my family and in the school planning conferences at the end of each school year. We had all come to the conclusion that this was not creating difficulties for my daughter, the class or me. There are probably a number of contributing factors which have made this situation unproblematic, including the general social climate of the class, my daughter’s character and role in the class, and perhaps her abilities in English as she has been raised bilingually. 448 It has been our experience that the kinds of personal developments which pupils tend to go through in the course of 10 th grade argue for placing this work in the second half of the school year. Hence, in our school, the 10 th grade play is generally performed at some so that the class is extremely heterogeneous in terms of learning abilities. In examining report cards over the last years and taking into account discussions in class conferences, it is evident that about two thirds of the pupils would be capable of meeting the standards of a German gymnasium and about a third of the class would be incapable of working at this level in most or all of their subjects. 447 In the numerous class conferences which I have attended over seven years, certain attributes of the class have regularly been discussed. It is considered to be a class with a warm and friendly social atmosphere. To my knowledge and the knowledge of their class teachers, there have never been any serious, long-lasting personal conflicts among the pupils themselves, nor between the pupils and teachers. At the same time, the class has been consistently perceived as extremely talkative, with obvious difficulties in maintaining quiet and concentration over any length of time. A phenomenon continually remarked on in this context is that the marked lack of discipline during lessons was not caused by a small group of ‘difficult’ pupils, but reflected a general way of behaviour. Hence, the class conferences in the 9 th and 10 th grades, although generally positive about the level of interest and motivation, regularly came to the conclusion that the pupils in the class, viewed as a whole, were not learning as much nor as effectively as they could be, due to a general lack of classroom discipline. 12.3 The Planning of the School Year 2004-2005 and the Choice of the Play The 10 th grade class play is generally performed in the second half of the school year. For a number of reasons, I have always advocated having the performance close to the end of the school year. 448 Since traditionally before the work actually 301 12.3 The Planning of the School Year 2004-2005 and the Choice of the Play <?page no="302"?> point between Easter and summer vacation. Our performances at the beginning of June were about four weeks before the end of that school year. In the context of the Steiner School curriculum, there are also strong arguments for having the play performed as close to 11 th grade as possible. 449 Due to my conviction that the content would be a decisive element shaping the qualities of the entire process, I had originally presented them with a choice between only two dramas, both of which I felt offered a depth of experience that I view as essential for pupils of this age. There is also undoubtedly much that can be learned through rehearsing and performing a comedy and/ or a musical. Yet, in considering the nature of an adolescent’s search for meaning and purpose, I view it as vital in 10 th grade to work on a play whose content conveys a larger vision of life. In very different ways, both Our Town and The Diary of Anne Frank do this. begins, the pupils are first given a selection of two plays from which to choose, this entire process begins well before the actual rehearsals start. In this school year, after a short introductory unit of two weeks examining different reasons for learning foreign languages, we began with Thornton Wilder’s play Our Town which we read together and discussed for the remaining five weeks before fall vacation. After fall vacation we read a dramatized version of “The Diary of Anne Frank” in the adaptation by F. Hackett and A. Goodrich over a period of three weeks. 449 At the end of this period there were two sessions with the entire class and their class teachers in which they discussed the advantages and disadvantages of each play. These discussions were characterized by a high degree of concentration and interest: there were many contrasting opinions and every pupil spoke up. After the final session, pupils were asked on the following day to write down their preference for the class play along with their explanation for their choice. Both the two class teachers and I had come to the conclusion that although we felt we had to assume the final responsibility for the choice of the play, the results of the pupils’ vote would be our primary consideration. Our reason for leaving the final decision to the teachers had to do with past experiences in other classes in which a narrow majority voted for one play, but this group proved to be wholly unrepresentative of important elements of the class. For example, six years earlier in a class in which there were far more boys than girls, many of the boys had voted for a play which none of the girls voted for, thus winning the vote by a narrow margin, but leading to a socially impossible situation. (In the end, a completely different play was chosen.) Thus, we reserved the right in the case of a close vote to make a decision based on different aspects of the entire situation and when our reasons for doing so were explained to the class no objections were made. 302 12 The Class Play in the 10 th Grade 2004-2005: Framework and Circumstances <?page no="303"?> The result of this vote was a relatively narrow majority of five votes for The Diary of Anne Frank over Our Town. There was a good mixture of male and female votes for each play as well as a mixture of stronger and weaker pupils. The principal difficulty which we had to confront was the personal nature of the objections which some pupils had to performing The Diary of Anne Frank. In long replies, some pupils wrote that this would be the third time within one year that they had intensively worked on the theme of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust and that they felt ‘saturated’ with this topic. Other pupils wrote persuasively about the necessity of performing something that reflected Anglo-American culture. The class teachers and I spent a long evening together discussing different alternatives. In the end, we came to the conclusion that we would respect the majority vote for The Diary of Anne Frank. However, before announcing this we decided to first talk individually to some of the pupils who had argued against this choice in order to discuss with them different possibilities which this play might offer. A few days later the class was informed of the results of the vote. The choice was accepted without bitterness. The fact that we had spoken with a number of pupils beforehand may have contributed to this general acceptance. 12.4 Choosing the Roles/ Casting After the choice of play was clear, pupils were asked to list their first three choices of roles. The final decisions regarding the casting were to be made in conjunction with the two class teachers. I made it clear that we would try to give every pupil either their first or second choice, but it was obviously impossible to promise this. Fortunately, most pupils got their first or second choices. In almost every class play it is necessary to have at least two complete casts in order to give each pupil a speaking role. Since the cast of Anne Frank has only 10 roles, it was clear from the beginning that in addition to this customary double casting, it would also be necessary within each cast to have a number of pupils play roles in the first act and then be replaced by different pupils who took over the same role in the second act. Although this decision had obvious disadvantages, it appeared to me in this play to be relatively easy for both pupils and the audience to accept, since the second act takes place more than a year later than the first act. As the characters have aged significantly during this year, I was convinced that it was possible through certain casting choices, along with appropriate make-up and costumes, to perform the play in this manner. 303 12.4 Choosing the Roles/ Casting <?page no="304"?> Some pupils were sceptical, but since there were no practical alternatives it was quickly accepted. 12.5 Setting up the Rehearsal Timetable On the school timetables which pupils had received at the beginning of the year, rehearsals for the class play were listed as taking place on Mondays and Wednesdays between 1.00 p. m. and 3.00 p. m., directly after classes on those days. After Christmas vacation, these were to be our set rehearsal times. Moreover, as will be elucidated in the next chapter, I often worked with individuals or small groups at other times. In the final two months, the rehearsal times were extended by an hour, and in the last month, extra days of rehearsals were added. 12.6 Added Responsibilities In addition to learning and performing their roles, pupils were expected to sign up for the other responsibilities required for the performance. These included taking part in the direction and rehearsal organization, building the set, arranging for the publicity and programs, and taking responsibility for lighting, sound and costumes. As will become evident in the following chapters, these extra responsibilities and tasks became highly significant aspects of many pupils’ experiences of the entire process. 304 12 The Class Play in the 10 th Grade 2004-2005: Framework and Circumstances <?page no="305"?> 450 The pupils and parents gave their written consent to the publication of all they wrote in the context of this study. With one exception, they chose to have their actual names used. 13 The Pupils’ Perspectives: A Cross-Sectional Examination of the Research Inquiries 13.1 The Pupils’ Expectations The first research inquiry was designed to ascertain the pupils’ expectations before the rehearsals began. It was handed out in the week before Christmas vacation. At this point, the roles had been assigned and the pupils had the task to begin learning their texts. All the questions and answers in this and later research inquiries were written in German and have been translated here. 450 The question read, What expectations do you have regarding the class play? 33 pupils replied. In comparison to the responses to the ensuing inquiries, the pupils’ responses here were generally quite short, on the average one paragraph. 13.1.1 The Success of the Play What is immediately striking about pupils’ expectations regarding the up‐ coming work is that more than half of them already refer to the performances and their hopes that the play will be a success. There is no other single aspect or theme which emerges this clearly in their responses: I hope that the work will be worthwhile and the audience enjoys the play. Marie I hope we manage to get the play across. Mathias I don’t expect much, but I think if we all make an effort the play can be good. I also hope naturally that the play works well for the audience, because it is so well-known. Mara In many of these responses, concrete hopes regarding different aspects of the performance are already addressed, particularly in regard to the set and costumes: <?page no="306"?> I expect the whole class to make an effort and that we have a good stage set. I hope that the play is a success. Thaddäa I hope that we get good costumes and that the stage set doesn’t always stay the same. Jeanne I expect the play to be interesting for us and for the audience! We have to perform it well and we have to be enthusiastic about the theme. That’s why we need a really good and convincing set design. Angela I hope that we can bring the play across well and that the stage is beautifully designed. Martin I hope that the performances of the play are well attended! There has to be a lot of advertising especially to attract an English-speaking audience. I wish that after all the rehearsals the actors can speak their parts, so that there are no problems with the text during the performances. (…)I also think there should be lots of sound effects, a backdrop and so on. Good costumes, make-up and a good set are all part of a good theatre play. Mailin In a few cases, their own role/ s are already a subject of concern: I have to say about my part that I wouldn’t like to sit near the front of the stage. I’d rather move slowly across the stage. And I have no idea how you can do that, when I have to speak personally with Mr. Frank, or if we have to speak together, or if we divide that up. Stephanie For my own part, I hope that my role will not end up as a boring, complaining, passive, sobbing mother. Lieselotte Anne Frank is a big role and I hope I can do it justice. Anna 13.1.2 Enjoying Work and Avoiding Stress A wish that emerges in more than a third of the responses is that rehearsing should be enjoyable and not a cause of stress: I hope that the rehearsals are not too strict and that it’s fun to rehearse. Marc-Martin I hope that it doesn’t cause us too much stress. Grischa Apart from which I hope that the rehearsals are easy-going and fun - but not too easy-going! Jakob I hope we have lots of fun with the play and of course I hope that the performances are good. Sarah Personally I hope that I enjoy the work on an English language play. It’s a very different way to learn English. Steffi 306 13 The Pupils’ Perspectives: A Cross-Sectional Examination of the Research Inquiries <?page no="307"?> 13.1.3 Working Together and Coming Together The hope is often expressed that the class will be able to work well together and that social relations in the class will improve: I think the class will grow together. Grischa Everyone should work together and no one is more important than the others. Anna M. Naturally, I expect the class to stick together and to produce a good play. Elisabeth I also hope that the sense of community within the class gets better. Marie My expectations are that every one pulls together so that we can produce a really good play. Mats In a few comments, hopes regarding the work with the teachers are expressed: I hope that our ideas fit with our teachers’ ideas and that we can work well together. Mara I expect the teachers to prepare us well for our performance and help us and that they not only realise their own ideas but take ours into account as well. Elisabeth 13.1.4 Pupils’ Concerns Although the inquiry was designed to assess the pupils’ expectations regarding the work, a significant amount of concerns were also expressed. This element was clearly already present in many of the responses regarding the potential success of play. Further concerns can be separated into two distinct categories. First, more general thoughts regarding the rehearsals and secondly, personal doubts regarding the demands of the particular role. The quality of the rehearsals and particularly the discipline was a primary concern for some students: I think it will be very difficult to get the class to be quiet during rehearsals. Constanze I expect a reasonable and fair rehearsal plan in which everyone has the same amount of rehearsals, or as much as is needed for their parts. (…) I hope that it is orderly and one person tells us what to do and not that everyone orders everyone else around as it suits them. That is a waste of time and generates only chaos and frustration. Anna And I hope that the rehearsals are well-disciplined this time and aren’t as chaotic as they were during the class 8 play. Amelie The challenge of learning a role and performing in a foreign language also emerged as a source of worry for a number of students: I hope I enjoy playing my part even if I have problems practising my cues. Mathias 307 13.1 The Pupils’ Expectations <?page no="308"?> I hope I’m not too inhibited. Benedikt I’m looking forward to the rehearsals and the performance, but I’m also a bit anxious. Manuel Some responses indicate doubts whether the amount of rehearsal time which was listed in their school timetable (two times a week between 1.00 and 3.00 p. m.) was going to be enough: I can imagine that we will rehearse for more than four hours a week! Jeanne I hope that we have enough rehearsals. Hosea When we get to the final phase of the rehearsals I think we should rehearse during main lessons and in the subject lessons. Lukas 13.1.5 Personal Development and Goals A wish to improve their English and, in particular, their English pronunciation is mentioned as a personal goal in almost a third of the responses: I hope that my English pronunciation gets a lot better and my self-confidence grows. Manuel My pronunciation may get better. Robert I hope that I learn to speak English better through the rehearsals. Marc-Martin I hope I learn a lot of English through the play. Jakob I hope I can speak English better after the play. Anonymous In some cases, this focus on pronunciation may be directly attributable to the frustration experienced in watching other 10 th grade plays. This is specifically mentioned in one comment: I expect to get speech training, because I don’t want to do an English play like the other ones I’ve seen that you couldn’t understand. Anna Some pupils expressed more personal and/ or general wishes in regard to the upcoming work and its possible effects on their lives: I hope that I can gain something for my later life from the class play. Fabian I expect myself to get into the part and be able to act it as well as possible. I expect the play to be a success and to help us get on in life. Angela I am going to develop both in terms of language and in my personal development. Grischa 308 13 The Pupils’ Perspectives: A Cross-Sectional Examination of the Research Inquiries <?page no="309"?> 451 Of course these concerns with respect to potential success or failure were also tied to the level of trust they had in the teacher responsible for the production, although this issue was never directly brought up. Since in recent years I had only been involved in the production of a musical, there were no direct connections made between the productions which they viewed as problematic and the problems they feared. However, there was also no particular reason to believe that the problems inherent in performing a serious drama in a foreign language would be solvable. 13.2 Discussion of the Initial Research Inquiry In answering a question regarding their expectations of the upcoming work, a broad range of pupils primarily expressed their concerns about the success of the performances. The possible reasons for this focus on a final product six months away are worthy of attention. They must first be viewed in the context of a school that has a strong dramatic tradition; class plays in the 8 th and 12 th grade often attract large and enthusiastic audiences of parents, pupils and guests. In this context, the 10 th grade play has always had a difficult status, due to the unique challenges implicit in performing a play in a foreign language for an audience for whom this language is also foreign. Foreign language plays in recent years with serious dramatic content (Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, and an adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey) had been experienced by both pupils and parents as being very difficult to understand not only because of the complex vocabulary, but also because some of the actors had obvious difficulties in pronouncing English texts in an understandable manner. Thus, the foreign language plays were often found to be boring and the low attendance at the public performances was viewed as a reflection of this problem. Those performances of foreign language plays which had been the most successful and which also had drawn the largest audiences were musicals. The excellent quality and support of the school’s music department, clearly evident in the high quality of singing in those productions, coupled with fast-paced and colourful dramaturgical conceptions made these plays into critical and popular successes. Hence, their concerns regarding the potential success of their production of The Diary of Anne Frank were certainly not unfounded in the context of their personal experiences. 451 This can also be viewed in the wider context of the heightened expectations of pupils and audiences concerning high school performances. As schools attempt to develop their own distinct profiles, it is unsurprising that public presentations often play a more prominent role than they have in the past. In our school, concerts and drama productions have always been viewed as a significant element of our school profile, distinguishing us from other schools. In this 309 13.2 Discussion of the Initial Research Inquiry <?page no="310"?> regard, the fact that these are always productions involving all the students of an entire class and not just voluntary groups of interested pupils is considered a vital aspect of our school concept. It can perhaps also be seen as indicative of our increasingly high standards that on a number of occasions in recent years, professionals (generally friends of teachers, or parents) have been brought in for short periods to work with students on specific aspects of a production, most notably in regard to dance. Hence, the atmosphere is certainly present in which the final success of a production and not the process, or even personal benefits, can easily become the most prominent element in pupils’ expectations. The responses of the students with respect to the rehearsal process give a general indication of how many pupils entered into the work. A wish to be able to enjoy the rehearsal process emerged as a clear theme expressed by many pupils. Their hopes that the class would learn to work together can be understood as a reflection of their recognition that working on a play is inherently a group process. The fact that two thirds of the students did not express any personal expectations was somewhat unexpected. It may indicate an absence of much prior thought as to what could be gained from this work. The fact that the performance of a play in a foreign language is so firmly anchored in the school curriculum certainly could have had the effect that many pupils had never questioned either the reasons for doing so, or the benefits it might bring them. Those pupils who did express personal hopes often wished to improve their English and, in particular, their pronunciation. These pupils were, without exception, weaker students with a wide range of problems in English including specific difficulties with pronunciation. The fact that these students expressed such wishes appears to demonstrate their clear recognition of these problems and their hopes that the play might offer them opportunities for improvement. Moreover, the fact that they were going to have to learn to be able to speak English clearly and distinctly on stage was also a point which I had mentioned on different occasions in previous years and had also emphasized in the first half of 10 th grade. Hence, their awareness of the demands which they would be facing can be viewed, in part, as perhaps having resulted from my previous efforts to make them more conscious of this challenge. The five pupils who mentioned hopes for long-term, personal developments present an interesting contrast to their peers. Since, with one exception, they are weak students in English, it would have been unsurprising if they had considered their improvement in English as their primary goal. The fact that instead each focused on more general issues, “something for their lives” is an aspect which sets them off from others. 310 13 The Pupils’ Perspectives: A Cross-Sectional Examination of the Research Inquiries <?page no="311"?> 13.3 The First Rehearsal Phase: Second Research Inquiry The second inquiry below was given out to the students on March 1, at the end of the first six week rehearsal period: Class 10 March 1, 2005 Research Questionnaire In the following lesson I would like to ask you to write a detailed reflection about the first six weeks of rehearsals for the class play. You should look back on what has been and what has changed, and also describe how you feel about the current situation. The more honest and open you are the better. Please structure the reflection any way you want: the following themes are only suggestions what you could write about. You don’t have to discuss these aspects, you can freely choose aspects/ themes of your own. Everything that you write will only be used in the context of my research. It will have no relevance for English lessons and naturally everything will be kept strictly confidential. Possible aspects: Your own work with the text. Work in the rehearsals: Group rehearsals Rehearsals with other students Rehearsals in small groups Individual rehearsals Connection to your part Connection to the play Work on the planning of the house (set construction), directing etc. Developments, changes in the course of the work so far - for example, with respect to language, social, or personal changes Thoughts/ feelings/ wishes relating to the present and the future Many thanks, [Forschungsbogen In der folgenden Schulstunde bitte ich Euch um eine ausführliche Reflektion über die ersten sechs Wochen der Probenarbeit am Klassenspiel. Es sollte sowohl ein Rückblick - was ist gewesen, was hat sich geändert - als auch eine Bestandsaufnahme - was empfindet/ denkt Ihr jetzt - sein. Je ehrlicher und freier ihr darüber schreibt, desto besser. 311 13.3 The First Rehearsal Phase: Second Research Inquiry <?page no="312"?> Die Reflexion ist ganz frei zu gestalten - ich gebe die folgenden Themen nur als Vorschläge, worüber Ihr schreiben könntet. Es müssen jedoch nicht diese As‐ pekte/ Themen behandelt werden und Ihr könnt ganz frei eigene Aspekte/ Themen dazu nehmen. Alles was Ihr schreibt wird nur im Kontext meiner Forschung benutzt werden - es hat keine Relevanz für den Englischunterricht und es wird natürlich vertraulich bleiben. Mögliche Aspekte: Eigene Arbeit am Text. Arbeit in den Proben: Gruppen Proben Proben nur mit Schülern Proben in kleinen Gruppen Einzelproben Beziehung zur Rolle Beziehung zum Stück Arbeit an der Planung des Hauses (set construction), Regiearbeit usw. Entwicklungen, Änderungen im Laufe der bisherigen Arbeit - z. B. sprachliche, soziale, persönliche Veränderungen Gedanken/ Gefühle/ Wünsche bezogen auf die Gegenwart und die Zukunft VielenDank! ] Each of the students had 40 minutes to respond. 32 pupils wrote responses. There were two immediately apparent distinctions between the answers to this research inquiry in comparison to the initial one. First, almost everyone wrote significantly longer responses and secondly, from the 32 replies, 9 chose to reply anonymously. 13.3.1 Learning the Text and Exploring the Role The first six weeks of rehearsals were primarily devoted to learning the texts and finding a way into the characters and the play. This process was experienced in very different ways. For some pupils it appeared to be relatively easy to enter into their roles: I enjoy my role as Anne and it is fun. (…)I don’t have any problems with Anne’s personality, because the problems she has in the play I also have at this point. Amelie I can identify with the part really well. This feeling grew bit by bit. I gradually built up an image of Mr. v Daan in my head which will mature even more. It suits me to argue with ‘Anne’. I often go home and am still angry at this ‘stupid, little girl’. Nicolai 312 13 The Pupils’ Perspectives: A Cross-Sectional Examination of the Research Inquiries <?page no="313"?> My relationship to this part is good because I think I am exactly like that, or at least similar. Mats While for these pupils and others there appeared to be an immediate possibility of identifying with their characters, for others this process of entering into their role was perceived as somewhat more elusive: I am gradually identifying with this role. But it’s hard. I had a little difficulty at the beginning to learn this part. In the meantime the frequent rehearsals are ok and it’s beginning to be fun! Franziska Up until now I didn’t have a strong connection to my part. But I am beginning to understand Mrs Frank’s relationship to Anne. I would probably react just like Mrs Frank if I had a daughter like Anne. Sarah Apart from the fact that I have more or less mastered the text, I am getting slowly into the part. I haven’t noticed real progress yet. I won’t say that I haven’t made any progress yet, but it’s clear that you don’t perceive many small steps as one big one! Grischa A number of pupils were also clearly struggling with their roles at this point: Since I don’t think the play is very good, I don’t have much of a connection to my part. Anonymous I don’t find it easy to learn my part and in the meantime I don’t know if I chose the right part. Anonymous I don’t really like the role I’m playing, I find her arrogant. Constanze And I find it hard to learn my part, that is to say to let go in the rehearsals and play the role as it is, with those emotions, with that behaviour … Manuel For some students, their difficulties in entering into the role were connected to their difficulties in learning the text by heart: I don’t really have any connection to my part and I also don’t know it 100 % yet. But I think that in around a week or two I will be ready and then I’ll be able to build up a relationship to the role. (…) That doesn’t mean that I’m lazy and don’t make an effort to learn my lines by heart, quite the contrary. Every day I sit for one or two hours (or whatever time I have) and work on my part and my pronunciation and emphasis etc. I wish you would take this into account, because perhaps I’m not as quick as Milena. I can’t learn everything so quickly. But I’m trying. I will keep trying to learn my lines and to get into my part. P.S. You wanted us to be open and honest. Steffi 313 13.3 The First Rehearsal Phase: Second Research Inquiry <?page no="314"?> A number of pupils also made observations about the way others were learning and performing their roles. In this context the difficulties of rehearsing with others who had not learned their texts is often mentioned: One notices how disturbing it is if someone really doesn’t know their lines. Practising the text in small groups is more or less a waste of time (it depends on who is in the group and how motivated they are) because certain people would rather do something else and also sometimes disturb the work. Apart from which, I can’t concentrate on the text very well, because I sometimes like to allow myself to get distracted. Marie It is really noticeable that the people who know their lines (without the book) can get into their roles and act better. Nevertheless you can’t expect everyone to have learned their lines by heart by now; after all, there is still plenty of time. [smiley drawn] (…) Everyone has made real progress with their pronunciation. Anonymous I think it’s pretty pathetic that there are people who still don’t know their lines at all. It’s difficult to rehearse with these pupils, because they don’t really have any idea about the scene. But that’s bound to get better. Constanze Others comment on the inner involvement or lack of involvement of their classmates and the various consequences of their different attitudes on the rehearsal process: It’s difficult to assess the progress of the class as a whole because each pupil has different talents and energy levels. When we watched a rehearsal you could see quite different things. For example, I noticed that most of the pupils were pretty uncertain, many didn’t trust themselves to really act their parts. Many others didn’t make an effort, either because they didn’t know their lines or because they couldn’t be bothered. But there were others who made an effort to learn their lines and tried to get into the part and present the character. Grischa The people don’t trust themselves to really get into the play, to get out of themselves and enter into their roles because they are afraid of being laughed at. Everyone pretends in front of the others, laughs with embarrassment and behaves as if they find everything crap. Lieselotte 13.3.2 Pupils’ Comments on the Rehearsals I had suggested in this inquiry the possibility of pupils drawing distinctions between the different types of rehearsals in their discussions of the work. Until this point there had been (1) individual rehearsals with me, (2) rehearsals in small groups, (3) rehearsals with everyone and (4) rehearsals directed by students without me. 314 13 The Pupils’ Perspectives: A Cross-Sectional Examination of the Research Inquiries <?page no="315"?> Individual Rehearsals What emerged most clearly from these responses was that the rehearsals that were viewed most positively were the individual rehearsals which I had held with pupils alone. These rehearsals, generally lasting 20-25 minutes, took place during their other lessons, generally during their arts and crafts lessons or their sports lessons which were two larger blocks of time (90 minutes), when I had no other classes to teach and they had teachers who accepted that single students would leave class for this amount of time. Although up to this point only a quarter of the pupils had taken part in such rehearsals, almost all of these pupils responded very positively: I think the individual rehearsals are great because it’s so much more relaxed. Moreover, you have the confidence to act more. Anonymous The individual rehearsals help you improve your language and speak with the right emphasis. Nicolai In my personal opinion the individual rehearsals are best and most useful because you don’t have to be there so long and you don’t get personally stressed - you get more out of it. Elisabeth You make the most progress in the individual rehearsals. Anonymous Two pupils, although generally positive, expressed reservations about it possibly being too early for this kind of intense work: I think that the individual rehearsals will be more effective later because the pupils will know their lines better. On the other hand, I find that the rehearsals have been good for me because they have helped me improve my pronunciation. Anonymous I personally think the individual rehearsals are too early. I, for example, first have to really know and understand my role before I can rehearse alone with you, otherwise I’ll be too uncertain. The last time I had a solo rehearsal with you, I was still uncertain in Act 1. When you then wrote down the words that I couldn’t pronounce properly, that really didn’t help me very much either because the words I couldn’t pronounce were quite different ones. But generally I think the individual rehearsals are also very helpful. Steffi Rehearsals with a Complete Cast The tenor of the comments regarding the rehearsals with a complete cast were generally positive: The play was boring when we just read it, but since we have started to act it out it has begun to be more fun. Martin 315 13.3 The First Rehearsal Phase: Second Research Inquiry <?page no="316"?> The rehearsals with more people are also fun. When we are doing a class play I work more for the play than for school. Through the play the class learns to come together. Anonymous In the last few weeks I was often stressed-out because I didn’t know exactly what was expected of me. Yet after the first rehearsals I realised that it is all for the best, because I think that if we are already as far as this in the rehearsals, then we won’t have the usual rehearsal-stress later. Anonymous Rehearsals in Small Groups Some students, however, clearly preferred working in smaller groups or with just one other person: I prefer the rehearsals in the small groups to the larger ones. There isn’t so much unrest in the small groups and the concentration is better because there are less distractions. Firat I think that the group rehearsals are going well. But I find it a bit extreme in the full rehearsals - it’s too much when everyone is rehearsing together. Mats I don’t like rehearsing in larger groups because I’ve got little to say and sit around most of the time. On the other hand, rehearsing in pairs is pretty good. Marc-Martin Rehearsals Directed by Pupils The rehearsals without a teacher in which students assumed the role of the director were viewed in very contrasting ways. Many viewed these rehearsals positively: I think the rehearsals without teachers work really well. I didn’t think that we would be able to work on our own without teachers. Anonymous I found and find the rehearsals with pupils as directors (Philipp and Lieselotte) very good. (All of them.) You realise that you have to think about who has to do what in order that everything comes together smoothly. Marie I especially think the rehearsals only with pupils are good, because the pupils make a real effort (even without the teachers) [smiley drawn on the paper]. The cooperation in the group has been strengthened and thus naturally the social contacts. Franziska I didn’t think the rehearsals were that good, because some people weren’t very keen on working and the mood was then a drag. I find the rehearsals with only pupils are better. (Please don’t take this personally! ) Although it’s louder without the teachers, it was still really good. Thaddäa However, others saw these rehearsals as problematic for a variety of reasons, most often in regard to what was viewed as a lack of discipline: 316 13 The Pupils’ Perspectives: A Cross-Sectional Examination of the Research Inquiries <?page no="317"?> The rehearsals in which individual pupils directed weren’t very effective since they often don’t understand the stage directions and we only did what we anyway already knew. The rehearsals with the teachers were basically much better since the teacher understands what he is reading and saying and we just get on better. Elisabeth In my opinion, the rehearsals of students without teachers are too undisciplined. Amelie In my opinion, the rehearsals with pupils don’t accomplish much because people fool around most of the time. Sometimes it works quite well for a while, but mostly it doesn’t. Sarah In the beginning I enjoyed the rehearsals, but now, especially when pupils direct rehearsals, I have the feeling that it’s pointless and a waste of time. Anna M From the comments made, it becomes clear that there were very disparate views of how the rehearsals directed by students were going. However, in considering which pupils were critical and which were positive it had become apparent to me that the rehearsals in Act II with students directing were generally considered to be more effective than the ones in Act I. 13.3.3 The Development of Language Capabilities A few students mentioned a noticeable difference in their English abilities: I think that my pronunciation has really improved and I can understand spoken English sentences better. I’ve also stopped translating every sentence into German in my head and ‘understand’ the English meaning. Manuel And my vocabulary has got much better. Amelie I think that my language abilities will improve a lot through the play, because you get used to the language. Nicolai 13.3.4 Complaints and The Rehearsal Organization and Schedule The general tenor of the replies while quite positive in regard to the rehearsals was critical of different aspects of the rehearsal organization. A number of pupils had specific criticisms of the fact that rehearsal schedules were generally only posted one day before the rehearsals and sometimes, usually on the Mondays, only posted on the same day as the rehearsal: I’d prefer if everything was better organised, for example, that a rehearsal plan for several weeks was posted and not just one at the beginning of the week, which means that some people have rehearsals on the same day they heard about them. Anna 317 13.3 The First Rehearsal Phase: Second Research Inquiry <?page no="318"?> I think the organisation isn’t very good, because we often only get to hear very late that we have to stay longer for rehearsals. (We have to be told at least a day beforehand.) Fabian I have the strong wish that the organisation should be better. You can’t expect us to think on Tuesday that we haven’t got a rehearsal the next day and then on Wednesday you hear you have one! I’m sorry, but that is crap! That has to definitely change. Elisabeth Sometimes the general organization of the rehearsals was critically viewed: The planning is sometimes chaotic, inexact and not well-planned (for example, when someone has very few lines and these only come at the end of the scene being rehearsed, he shouldn’t have to stay to the end). Milena There were also four students who questioned the amount of rehearsals we were already having, considering that the performance was many months away: It is stupid that we already have so many rehearsals when the play is in June! Sometimes that is really too much. But it’s also often fun rehearsing (especially when it is more relaxed). Anonymous I still don’t find it good that we have to rehearse so much and that this limits my free time. Manuel In two of the cases this was brought into direct connection with my dissertation: At the beginning I really looked forward to the class play but in the meantime it has changed into just work. I have the feeling that we are acting your doctoral thesis and not our play. Anonymous At the beginning of the work I was really looking forward to the play, but now I think you are putting us under too much pressure and as a result I don’t like the play as much. Since we have been rehearsing the play, I feel worse each time I leave the rehearsal room. I think it would be nice if you didn’t use our play to write your doctoral thesis and the class play didn’t have to have a professional level of acting. Mats A particular criticism of two students was the fact that they were being taken out of other lessons: I think it is stupid for example that one already gets taken out of other lessons (though never out of English lessons). There are other subjects that are just as important. That’s why it really gets on my nerves sometimes! ! ! Franziska I also think that one should take care not to have rehearsals during the lessons of other teachers. Anonymous 318 13 The Pupils’ Perspectives: A Cross-Sectional Examination of the Research Inquiries <?page no="319"?> 13.4 Discussion of the Second Research Inquiry Pupils experienced the first six weeks of rehearsals in very different ways. This is evident both in regard to the individual work on the roles, as well as in the comments on the rehearsal work. Many of these responses mirrored my own entries in my teacher’s diary, particularly with respect to the positive responses to the individual rehearsals, the frustration with discipline in some rehearsals and regarding their insecurities with the text. Of particular interest to me were the responses to the rehearsals directed by the students, since I had only had an indirect perception of them. A distinct pattern had begun to emerge: more of those pupils who spoke favourably of the student-led rehearsals were in the second act than in the first act. (Each act had a different cast.) Up until this point there had also been more of these rehearsals in the second act than in the first act, reflecting both my assessment of the pupils and the types of difficulties which each act presented. In this context, it is significant that more of those pupils who commented most on the positive growth of social developments appear to be in the second act (because of the number of anonymous replies, this cannot be precisely ascertained), while those pupils who commented specifically on their gains in English were all in the first act. The criticisms of the rehearsal organization were widespread. This had also been expressed to me verbally on different occasions. They reflect my difficulties in having to design rehearsal plans each week for what were essentially four different casts, with each act having its own full cast and double-casting for every role. The complaints that we were rehearsing too much too soon indicate that some pupils had a very different concept than I did of what was necessary at that point in time. 13.5 In the Middle of the Rehearsal Process: Research Inquiry 3 The next research inquiry was handed out on April 26 th after another six weeks of rehearsals. (Two weeks of Easter vacation in this phase did not count as rehearsal weeks.) The text of the inquiry was practically identical to the first research inquiry. (See 13.3). Once again, the length of the replies increased significantly in comparison to the previous inquiry. 33 students replied, four anonymously. 319 13.4 Discussion of the Second Research Inquiry <?page no="320"?> 13.5.1 The Difficulties of “Having to Imagine Everything” One disadvantage of working on a play in a school in which there are many plays and concerts in the course of a year is that one gets very little time to rehearse on stage. In our school this problem is compounded by our very attractive new auditorium which is not only used extensively for our own productions, but is also regularly rented out to a variety of other groups for concerts, dance productions etc. In the case of our play this meant that it was only in the last two weeks before the performance that we had full access to the stage and it was only at that point that we were able to put up our elaborate set. For the pupils this meant continually having to rehearse in different rooms, either in classrooms, or more fortunately, in larger rooms without desks. Anne Frank’s house in which the drama was to take place was still very much in the planning stage at this point and no one, including myself, had a very clear conception of the size and shape of the different rooms. As the contents and appearance of the three rooms in which the drama takes place were only partially explained in the stage directions, it was also difficult for everyone to have a picture of the rooms and living situation. Finally, the fact that at that stage we were rehearsing with very few of the different props that were mentioned, meant that almost everything including books, a diary, shopping lists, food, tableware, a pipe etc. had to be imagined. Hence, it is unsurprising that many comments expressed a recognition that for the work to progress further it was necessary to have a clearer indication of the set and to have concrete props, instead of having to consistently imagine and pretend. I think we should start rehearsing with props as soon as possible because this provides new motivation and opens up new possibilities. Nicolai I think that the biggest problem we have is imagining the stage set, for example where each room is and how big it is and where we should stand on stage without getting in the way. Marian I believe it would be easier for us if we could rehearse with props. Mathias Some pupils also mentioned the advantages of having costumes: I’m actually quite happy with the rehearsals. Without props however some things are difficult to work out. One should soon sort out the costumes. You can get into the role better in costume. You also feel uncomfortable in your own clothes, if you have to act someone else (who is maybe not so nice). Anonymous 320 13 The Pupils’ Perspectives: A Cross-Sectional Examination of the Research Inquiries <?page no="321"?> I think having props is important for the rehearsals from now on. And we should also sort out the costumes as soon as possible because there is always lots to do, like altering, adding things on, washing them and so on. Anonymous 13.5.2 Advice to the Director Many of the comments were written with the clear intention of giving construc‐ tive advice to me. Most prominently was the recognition that a key element in this play was the acting and reacting of the people who were not actually speaking. (In part, this awareness is also attributable to comments made by an experienced colleague of mine who had observed a couple of rehearsals and tried to make this clear to the students.) One big wish I have is that the teachers should pay more attention to the people who don’t have anything to say at a given moment - also to the small details, since so much attention is usually paid to the speakers. Many don’t know how to show such emotions as shock, surprise and other feelings. Attention should really be paid to this. Elisabeth The rehearsals are actually getting better, although they sometimes have to be interrupted because some of the cast haven’t read the stage directions. I think one should pay attention to the details in the rehearsals, for example it often happens that somebody says something and the others just stand there and don’t do anything. During the last class 10 th grade play everyone was on stage and they all had something to do, like in normal life. Thus the play was lively and wasn’t boring. I think it would be nice if we would also try to make the play livelier in the same way. Marie The rehearsals are getting better with time. In the beginning they were still boring and everything took a long time. But now the rehearsals are more interesting and we are progressing somewhat faster. That has to do with the fact that most now know their lines. It would be nice if one were to pay more attention to those who have nothing to say at the moment. At present they are often just standing around, looking stupid. Constanze It is not only those speaking who are important on stage. For example we haven’t even discussed facial expressions yet. Couldn’t we film the rehearsals on video and see how everything looks? Manuel There was sometimes a feeling that the rehearsals did not go into enough detail and that pupils were only running through the scenes: I think that the rehearsals have in general got better. Regarding the rehearsals with Mr. Lutzker, I think the rehearsals are OK, but I think that Mr. Lutzker should pay 321 13.5 In the Middle of the Rehearsal Process: Research Inquiry 3 <?page no="322"?> more attention to the details, such as pronunciation, who one looks at, voice, loudness and so on. But also naturally to the acting of individual roles. Mara The rehearsals are actually OK. But we just keep running the scene through without practising the details. Robert However, one pupil felt that the work had already become so detailed that he was losing the connection to his character: At the beginning we got on well I think. Now that we are only working on details, we are making less progress. (…) At the beginning I could identify with my role very well. I imagined how this person would react in certain situations or what they would think of something. I thought out certain ‘personality traits’ which would distinguish my character. Unfortunately I have lost these ‘personality traits’ because the rehearsals don’t flow and I can’t act these traits out. Nicolai Another suggestion was that the casts in the different acts should watch each other. Some students expressed regret that there was so little contact and knowledge of what their classmates in the other act were doing: I notice that for me the play Anne Frank is really only the first act. That is a shame because I’d like to know more about Act II. We also don’t have anything to do with the pupils in Act II any more and you don’t see how it’s developing. Elisabeth I would find it good if we could watch the other cast rehearsing sometimes. Then it would be possible to be inspired by them and also let them make suggestions. Hosea That’s why I would suggest that one should change directors now and then, or watch the other act to get inspired. Lukas A number of pupils believed that more work on pronunciation was necessary: I think (one of the points not listed here) is that much, much more attention should be paid to pronunciation. Each role in all casts should meet together with tutors or mentors in order to practise pronunciation. ‘Th’ mistakes are still really bad and if you don’t start dealing with it soon, it will in my view be difficult. Milena I think that much more should be done to work on spoken expression and more attention has to be paid to this. Elisabeth I thought that we came along very slowly in the first 12 weeks with our play, because many people didn’t know their lines. In the meantime we could get into details such as pronunciation. It would be good to get more professional help with this. Marian 322 13 The Pupils’ Perspectives: A Cross-Sectional Examination of the Research Inquiries <?page no="323"?> 13.5.3 Entering into their Roles Their experiences with their roles were discussed in a variety of ways. Generally speaking, in the course of these six weeks, remembering their lines had become much less of a problem for most pupils. Being able to enter into the process of acting without having to continually worry about their lines was experienced by a number of students as a positive, new step in the rehearsal process: I think that one now gets more into the play. One understands the plot better since most now know their parts. I am getting into the play much more and can act better now. But I still find combining words and acting a bit difficult. Martin K. I am playing Mrs v. Daan and when I act I can really get into her character, also because I have to. I notice that this is the only role that I would really like to play, because it’s humorous and interesting. Lilly My relationship to my part is good because I find that I am very similar to the role. Acting has been more and more fun, because we are really getting into acting the play. Mats Some students described in more detail some of the processes they were going through at this point: I have a connection to my role and I can partly understand why my part, why Anne reacts as she does and why she says what she says. I think it is really interesting to act Anne, but I know that I am not always Anne. I don’ t want to get too deeply into the role, because I think that would create a mixture of Anne and me and I don’t want that. Anna My connection to my part has not changed a lot. At the beginning of the rehearsals I couldn’t identify with my role at all. In the meantime that has got a bit better. I can now see why Mrs Frank has such a bad relationship to her daughter Anne. Sarah On the one hand I have found my relationship to my role, but on the other hand I haven’t. But perhaps that will still come. Mara Two pupils expressed clear problems with identifying with their roles: I can identify myself with my role less and less. I find Margot simply stupid - her reactions and her comments (whenever she says anything). Constanze I’ve got a problem really getting into my part because I don’t know what kind of guy Düssel is. Hosea A few students expressed their insecurities and anxieties about themselves or others and their concern that they might not be ready in five weeks: 323 13.5 In the Middle of the Rehearsal Process: Research Inquiry 3 <?page no="324"?> I believe that having only 5 weeks to the performance won’t be enough. I notice that even though I know my part, I still can’t act it very well. The people who still don’t know their parts will in my opinion have even more difficulties in acting! Apart from which I think that there should be more attention paid in the rehearsals to the reactions of the people who don’t have anything to say! ! ! A further problem is pronunciation and (in my case) volume. Manuel M. I don’t know what has changed. Certainly something has changed - only it must have been slow and subtle. I also don’t know whether the play will be good in such a short time. At the moment I believe it is still much too superficial. We still can’t - and that goes for me in particular - really get into our parts/ roles. Jakob Generally I have found the group rehearsals up until now really good. But I fear that in 5 weeks we won’t be ready to perform the play. I’m afraid that I won’t be ready in 5 weeks to perform the play on the stage. Manuel B. A few students expressed different views of the strengths and weaknesses of their classmates and attempted to understand and explain the causes: All in all I think that the play is making progress in its development. Some students are still having difficulties with their parts, although they know their lines. I think that that doesn’t have to do with the fact that they don’t know what they should be doing, but rather it has to do with the fact that they simply don’t trust themselves to act, that they still feel blocked. I have the impression that there are other students (just a few) who are making an effort but sometimes don’t know exactly what they are saying. They often have very wrong emphases in their lines. Grischa One of the pupils responsible for the direction of the second act expressed specific concerns: In the meantime the actors have taken on most of the stage directions. I only have to remind them of a few important points. But there are still a few difficult problems: the pronunciation of some pupils still has to be practised. Furthermore the dedication of some of the pupils will have to significantly grow. (…) The problem with these pupils is that they are severely hindering the play through their lack of commitment. Philipp 13.5.4 Rehearsals with Students as Directors In general, the rehearsals with the students were viewed increasingly favour‐ ably. The tenor of the comments often reflects both confidence in their class‐ mates and a high degree of respect for their work. This was particularly true of the second act, in which most of the rehearsals at this point were being directed 324 13 The Pupils’ Perspectives: A Cross-Sectional Examination of the Research Inquiries <?page no="325"?> by two pupils, in comparison to the first act which I was directing most of the time: I am in Act II and have Philipp as director. I get something from the rehearsals! I find that Philipp (or Milena) does it well. We are paying attention to many details and most of us are working well. After the rehearsals we usually have a good feeling and now I really enjoy it, which wasn’t the case a while back. Franziska I think it’s good that students direct some rehearsals. Martin K. Rehearsing only with students - I think is a good opportunity to learn quickly, because if you don’t know your lines really well the other students encourage you to get on with it and learn your lines. Robin The rehearsals with students work really well. Anonymous There were a few exceptions: in two cases clearly coming from pupils who were in the cast of the first act: I don’t find the rehearsals with students very good because it’s all a bit chaotic and afterwards I always think that the rehearsal was a waste of time. It’s best when we rehearse with a teacher in the whole group. Angela The rehearsals with students were in my view not as effective as those with a teacher. The students who directed couldn’t implement their ideas that well (except for Philipp). The atmosphere was always a bit tense and it was usually pretty loud. Sarah 13.5.5 The Rehearsal Organization In a marked contrast to the earlier research inquiry, there were only two complaints about the rehearsal organization and the amount of time spent rehearsing: Group rehearsals: generally I think that the rehearsals are quite OK. I think they have changed in positive ways. But what I still think is crap is that you usually hear on the same day whether you’ve got a rehearsal - or not. Then you can’t meet up with friends, because maybe you’ve got a rehearsal. Marc-Martin The rehearsals are a major extra burden for me because of the long school days on the first three days of the week and personal appointments - there is very little time for homework, free-time etc. Nicolai Two students were very critical about my intention to rehearse during the four day holiday weekend, directly before the week of the performances: 325 13.5 In the Middle of the Rehearsal Process: Research Inquiry 3 <?page no="326"?> Apart from which you want us to rehearse on a free weekend. That is my free time, there is no compulsory school - I certainly won’t rehearse! And if other pupils come to the rehearsals - there will probably be very few - they will certainly be in bad moods and won’t want to rehearse at all. I doubt that these rehearsals will be worth doing! Jakob And what I find really crap is that we have to rehearse on free days! Marc-Martin 13.5.6 Reflections on Their Own Work There were a wide range of judgements regarding the stages which they had reached. These disparate judgements are often from pupils in the same act. Some clearly reflect a feeling of confidence and pride: At the beginning I really wasn’t looking forward to the play, but now I am optimistic that it will in fact be really good! I also think it’s good that we are rehearsing so intensively! (During the Class 8 play, I thought we started much too late) but this way one has a better feeling. Franziska Conclusion: I am still convinced that if we continue to work like this, the results will be fantastic and above all we will have lots of fun and experiences from our work with the play! ! ! Milena Other pupils were clearly very concerned that they were not far enough along at this point in time: And I think that the pupils should be made more aware that there are only 5 weeks left and that we are not far enough. Elisabeth I believe that 5 weeks to the performance are not enough. Manuel M. Could we maybe put off the play? Manuel B. 13.6 Discussion of the Third Research Inquiry Viewed as a whole, what is striking about this set of responses is the degree of involvement they all evidence at this point. Although there are some areas in which it is evident that pupils experienced the rehearsal process in different ways, most notably with respect to their evaluation of the play’s progress, there is also a general tone conveying an atmosphere of concentrated work which goes through all the replies. This is most clearly seen in the wide range of constructive suggestions regarding what needed to be done in the upcoming weeks. The general lack of complaints about the rehearsal organization, although the actual 326 13 The Pupils’ Perspectives: A Cross-Sectional Examination of the Research Inquiries <?page no="327"?> modus had not changed significantly, seems to indicate that a rhythm and a way of working had generally been established and accepted. Though the general tenor of the comments regarding the rehearsals is positive, there are fewer comments expressing positive or negative judgements of the work: the main concern is addressing what is necessary to improve the quality of the rehearsals. More was written with respect to these issues than about their personal experiences in their roles. What is particularly striking in this context is the accuracy of their observations and the quality of the suggestions. Many of these aspects were, of course, evident to me at this time. Yet, the students recognized and pointed out, with more clarity than perhaps I was capable of at that point, much of what was lacking and still had to be done. This was true of pupils in both acts. In some responses there is a tone of well-meant constructive criticism, since the students consciously or unconsciously made the assumption that the absence of clarity regarding the set and the absence of props were areas for which I bore the chief responsibility. This conclusion was a logical one insofar as I had tolerated this situation until this point, and had not made any serious efforts to change it. In my focus on the various elements of the text, character, movement, tempo, etc., I had not paid much attention to these details. It was only weeks later when they began working with different props that I realized how much these details could actually help them. 13.7 The Final Phases - Fourth Research Inquiry The last phase can be divided into two separate phases. In the first phase lasting four weeks, the intensity and length of the rehearsals picked up insofar as I began to use two of my regular English hours for the play, so that we rehearsed from 12.00-15.00 on Mondays and Wednesdays, instead of from 13.00-15.00. In addition to these times which were used for large group rehearsals, I continued to work regularly, now twice a week, with single pupils or, sometimes with small groups of pupils for periods of 20-30 minutes on particular scenes. As before, this meant taking them out of their other lessons. During this phase, the student directors sometimes also worked parallel to me, rehearsing with individuals or small groups. At the end of this phase each act did a complete run through for the pupils in the other act. A friend of mine, an American opera director, observed the rehearsal and made a number of comments to me and to the pupils. A week earlier the mother of one of the pupils, a professional actress, had also observed 327 13.7 The Final Phases - Fourth Research Inquiry <?page no="328"?> two rehearsals and later rehearsed with a small group. It was at the end of this period that we all went together to Amsterdam for a day and visited the Anne Frank House. I had originally planned to have the next inquiry distributed and completed ten days before the first performance, when we had the stage and would be rehearsing pretty much all day. Unfortunately, I didn’t take into account that handing it out at the beginning of this intense period, when there was no longer any opportunity for them to fill it out together during class as they had in the previous inquiries, meant that they would have to fill it out in their free time - which in this last phase was understandably very limited. This resulted in very few responses. Thus, in order to get an impression of their view of the entire last phase of rehearsals, I specifically asked them in the final research inquiry which was handed out after the performances, to also reflect on this last phase. Almost all of the pupils wrote in their final responses, written two days after the last performance, about the last weeks of rehearsals. Along with four responses that were written before the performances, they give a picture of what went on during the last rehearsal phases. The final phase began on Monday, May 23rd, 10 days before the first performance, when we had full access to the stage for the first time. This was in many respects a decisive date, since only from this point on could the house be constructed on stage. (Due to the dimensions of the house, it was only feasible to build it up directly on the stage.) As long as pupils were constructing it, there was no chance to set up the interiors of the house or to rehearse on stage - two things that they desperately needed to do. Thus, it was imperative that the set be built as quickly as possible. The crew of four students who had been responsible for the design of the house and organizing the materials (they had also been assisted by their woodworking teacher) put in two 15-hour workdays, sometimes with the assistance of the teacher who had been helping them, and occasionally with a couple of other classmates, and managed to construct a life-size two-story wooden house in two days. As of the Wednesday, one week before the first performance, we were able to rehearse on stage in the house for the first time and could also begin setting up the interiors. By this point, we also had an overview of most of the costumes and many of the props and objects we would need. (Two mothers in the class proved to be extremely helpful in this last phase in terms of choosing and organizing the costumes.) From Monday, May 23rd on, each cast rehearsed every day and from Wednesday, we did the same on stage. We also used three of the four free days during the Corpus Christi holidays to rehearse mornings and afternoons. The students found this phase very straining, not only because they had to 328 13 The Pupils’ Perspectives: A Cross-Sectional Examination of the Research Inquiries <?page no="329"?> rehearse intensely for hours every day, but particularly because there were also countless, pressing organizational details to attend to; finding period objects and furniture for the interiors, searching for further costumes, writing and designing programs, printing and putting up posters etc. Moreover, for the first time it was now possible and very necessary to set up and work with lighting and sound, two areas requiring substantial amounts of time for a number of students. 13.7.1 “I particularly enjoyed the last weeks of rehearsals” Considering the amount of work and time involved, and that they were now also working on their free days, it is striking that almost all of the pupils write about how they particularly enjoyed the last phase: The last weeks before the class play were often stressful, but good. It was fun to work on the play in groups. After a while I felt better and more secure in my part. Even when I had to stay longer to work on the house, I enjoyed it. Anonymous The rehearsals were very tiring but the play had come so far that I had the feeling that it would be good. That’s why it was fun. These rehearsals were the last parts that were missing in order that the play was ready to be performed. There was a very concentrated atmosphere and I got a lot done. Anna I didn’t think the rehearsals were stressful, just tiring, which was sometimes also fun. In the last weeks I found the rehearsals were not so bad, because I knew my lines. Mirko I found the work in the last weeks very relaxing, since we had few lessons and towards the end the rehearsals were more and more fun. Marian For many students, the leap in the quality of the work which they witnessed was a decisive element in shaping how they felt: The nearer we got to the performance the better the rehearsals worked. Even though I didn’t really enjoy rehearsing that much beforehand, I now began to enjoy it more and more. You could see how the play grew. Anna-Sophie The rehearsals were pretty disorganised - especially at the beginning. You didn’t know what you had to emphasise and how you had to relate that to the gestures. In the last weeks everything went really well. Most of us were in our roles. And that was good. Anonymous I can remember the rehearsals in the last weeks very well because from all the individual scenes the play was shaped into a meaningful whole. Benedikt With each run-through rehearsal on the stage I had the feeling that we gained more self-confidence. At the rehearsals we were all in a good mood and relaxed and there was no stress. Manuel B. 329 13.7 The Final Phases - Fourth Research Inquiry <?page no="330"?> Two pupils specifically mentioned the effect seeing the house built had on them at this point: I am totally fascinated by the work on the house because the group who are responsible for it really made a total effort and were really committed. And I really think the house is great. Steffi [written a week before the performances] I, along with many others, was really enthusiastic about the work they did on constructing the house. Martin B. The fact that one could finally work on the set with real objects, lighting and sound was seen by some pupils as the most important new element: The rehearsals in the last weeks were most productive because we rehearsed with lighting and sound effects. Jakob The rehearsals in the last weeks were the most important because everyone knew what he had to do. It changed everything when we could rehearse with lighting. And the rehearsals were the best in terms of organisation. Marc-Martin Others commented favourably on the heightened discipline and the organiza‐ tion: I think the rehearsals in the last few weeks were very disciplined. Naturally there was also considerable tension during the rehearsals. What I also noticed was that it was good that we had started so early with the rehearsals, because the time went really quickly. Mara The rehearsals in the last weeks were very calm and were carried out by the class in a disciplined way, which perhaps had something to do with the fact that there were no lessons and you didn’t have to get up so early. Lukas 13.7.2 Becoming the Character Many pupils felt they fully entered into their roles only in this phase: When everyone knew their lines the rehearsals went better. And one could get into one’s part better. I really got better and then I also tried to get into the other roles and to think - What would Mr. van Daan do in this situation? Manuel It got more demanding as we entered the final phase of rehearsals. Nevertheless, I personally enjoyed working on the smaller details. One really began to act and one could see how one’s role really is. Fabian My connection to my part got better towards the end; for example, I was as hungry as Mr v. Daan. Mats 330 13 The Pupils’ Perspectives: A Cross-Sectional Examination of the Research Inquiries <?page no="331"?> My relationship to my part got better once I had seen the whole play. Then I realised what kind of person I was playing. Jakob In this context, wearing the costumes for the first time was for a number of students a decisive moment: When I put on my costume with the gold star on it for the first time, then I really felt myself in the role of Mrs. Frank. For a brief moment I could feel what it really must have felt like to be excluded from society because of the star. Sarah I could only get into the role (or at least I had that feeling) when I acted in the costume. Hosea The rehearsal weekend was particularly important for me in getting into my role because we were able to use the costumes and the props (especially the diary). In the days before the performance I tried (unconsciously) to transform my voice into the actual voice of Anne Frank and I tried to express in language the emotions which sometimes appeared to me to be hidden in the text. Milena 13.7.3 The Ups and Downs There were clearly also additional strains at this point particularly for those pupils who were responsible for organizing materials, costumes, setting up the lighting, etc. Over the last weeks we got steadily better. Practically everybody took part. I thought we managed everything the last days before the performance very well. It was different during the Class 8 play. I had extra stress because I was making the costumes. I was very grateful that at the end the two mothers took over almost all of the responsibility for the costumes. Marie I have to honestly say that the work on the play particularly during the last few weeks and during the performances was very stressful. I had my highs and lows, but in the end I did enjoy the whole project. Sarah A few students found the stress too much at different points, particularly in conjunction with all the other things that had to be done: I experienced the rehearsals in the last weeks as very stressful because I had to do the lighting and my part also required much work. Mats My experience was that I was very tense and stressed during the rehearsals. I was mostly more relaxed during the performances, because nothing was changed and everyone knew what to do. Elisabeth The rehearsals during the last weeks were tiring and therefore I was ill. The work (I had to do the posters, which wasn’t too bad) on the house, sound effects and lighting 331 13.7 The Final Phases - Fourth Research Inquiry <?page no="332"?> were certainly very tiring, but no account was taken of this - whether they managed, or how they managed - instead everything had to be done immediately. That was often too much. Franziska 13.8 Discussion of the Final Phase What emerges clearly in the pupils’ discussion of this phase is a feeling of consolidation. For the first time, the set, their roles and finally the entire play became clearly visible and were experienced as a coherent gestalt. Their general enjoyment of this time (strikingly, it is the word Spaß which appears most often in their descriptions of this phase), despite the strains which everyone experienced, can be understood as resulting from their feelings of finally witnessing, on stage, the product of months of work. The fact that they were now regularly watching each other and could thus objectively see what had been reached was a key element insofar as many genuinely experienced it as artistically satisfying and moving. The comment by one of the few pupils who wrote about her experiences during this phase and not afterwards, gives a clear picture of how this ‘discovery’ of what had been accomplished was experienced by many in the final week: When I sat down today and looked at the whole play from the beginning of Act 1 to the end of Act 2, I was overwhelmed. To think how we act now in comparison to four weeks ago - it is insane. Steffi [research inquiry written before the performances] Watching the house go up at the beginning of this final period was a very exciting experience for the class (and for me! ). For the pupils, it evoked amazement and pride in their four classmates who had spent months planning for this moment; first on paper, then building an exact model and finally helping their woodworking teacher to arrange for all the necessary materials. Under enormous time pressure and with a remarkable amount of energy and determination, they erected the set in two days. Undoubtedly, the high level of energy and enthusiasm with which everyone seemed to enter the final phase can be attributed, in part, to the fact that an empty stage had been transformed literally overnight into the largest scale set which any of the pupils had ever seen in a school production. Another factor contributing to the general feeling of pride and confidence that was developing in this week were the very positive comments of other teachers who sometimes stopped by to watch the rehearsals. 332 13 The Pupils’ Perspectives: A Cross-Sectional Examination of the Research Inquiries <?page no="333"?> My own working modus as a director changed significantly in the last week insofar as I seldom interrupted the scenes during the rehearsals, but instead continually wrote down (or often dictated to a pupil) my comments during the rehearsals and then, after the act was completed, read and discussed them with the cast. This new way of working was intended to give them the experience of performing an entire act without interruptions and also to enable them to learn to spontaneously deal with all the surprises which inevitably occur on stage. However, I believe it also had the unplanned effect of changing how the cast felt about their work together - they were now fundamentally and existentially left on their own, even, or rather, especially when something went wrong. Undoubtedly, the individual and group consolidation that occurred in the last week must be viewed as the result of the many months of hard work preceding it. This fact was recognized in a number of comments which mentioned the amount of rehearsal time which we had rehearsed before as being decisive in the final phase. If we had had the chance to rehearse on the set on stage before, or had the props and costumes earlier, many of these processes might have occurred over a longer period of time. In considering the fact that three pupils got sick during this phase, each missing a day or more of rehearsals, there would have been clear advantages for these pupils if this final phase had been more relaxed. Certainly, given the choice we would have built the set much earlier. However, in retrospect, there were also advantages to this happening so late, insofar as the energy level and the quality of the work grew rapidly from this point due to the pressure of the impending performances. Exactly one week after having rehearsed for the first time in ‘Anne Frank’s House’ the play was ready to be performed for an audience of 200 pupils. 13.9 The Performances: The Final Research Inquiry There were six performances all together. The first three were student perform‐ ances for pupils and teachers of other schools and our own. The next three were public performances for parents, pupils and guests. 13.9.1 Dealing with Stage Fright One theme which emerged in many responses was the different degrees of nervousness which nearly everyone experienced. This was clearly to be expected in any kind of performance, but particularly in performing in a foreign language this can become a key factor, since for most students the possibilities 333 13.9 The Performances: The Final Research Inquiry <?page no="334"?> 452 I had consistently stressed that the golden rule to be followed above all was that no one under any circumstances should ever break character, regardless of what happens on stage. It was clear even during the final rehearsals that they had learned to follow this rule, but they also knew that having learned not to break character did not, of course, provide them with any immediate solutions as to what to do if they forgot their texts. (During the performances we did use a prompter sitting in the first row who was, in fact, never needed.) of improvising were quite limited in case they forgot their texts, or if something unexpected happened: 452 In the first performance I was very nervous, but after I had spoken my first two lines I wasn’t so nervous and was pretty cool about everything. In the second I wasn’t as nervous, because I had already acted in front of the parents and I really had no reason to be anxious. By the last performance I wasn’t nervous at all. My experience was that you could do the whole thing in a relaxed and cool way. Martin K. In the Class 8 play I was totally nervous before I had to go on stage. In the winter I had a piano performance and I was so nervous I was nearly sick. Before the class play however I wasn’t nervous at all. That was because I knew exactly what I had to do. Even in the first scene I was hardly nervous at all. Marie Before the performances I was always nervous, but this disappeared by the first scene I played. I even enjoyed it, especially when the audience laughed in the right places. Anna-Sophie I was surprised that I wasn’t nervous at all before the performances; this is because I felt so sure in my part. Mathias 13.9.2 The Experience of Performance A unique form of concentration during the performances was experienced by many pupils: In the performances I had the feeling that I finally understood my role as Mr. Frank. Martin In the course of time, I got more and more into the play and into my role (with each performance I understood more). In the end I really enjoyed acting in the play and somehow it’s a shame that it’s all over. Franziska I found during the performances that I understood more and discovered new things each time. Angela During the performances I noticed that there were still a few passages that I only understood with time. I also noticed during the performances that there were many things that I would have changed. Mara 334 13 The Pupils’ Perspectives: A Cross-Sectional Examination of the Research Inquiries <?page no="335"?> The atmosphere and feeling of community during the performances was described: During the play and the performances the atmosphere of the class was very different. I got to know people from a different side. The atmosphere was more ‘unified’ than during normal lessons. Everyone helped before the performances, for example, with the make-up and hair. I noticed that the apparently chaotic situation before the performance actually had a certain organisation which everyone was aware of and unconsciously everyone did their part. Anna M. The experience of the very first performance remained vivid in one pupil’s memory: Wednesday, the first performance for the pupils was the first public performance and it was particularly exciting to see how the pupils (the audience) would react to our play for the first time. POSITIVE! This was the start of five different and intensive performances. Milena 13.10 Discussion Interestingly, more was written in the final research inquiry about the final rehearsal phase than about the performances themselves. However, it also lies in the nature of performance itself that particularly when it goes well, one forgets oneself in the doing. This can make the process of self-reflection afterwards a subtle and often elusive act. The difficulty of expressing in words what one experiences in a performance is a phenomenon familiar enough to professionals who perform regularly. This challenge is certainly at least as daunting for adolescents who have had little or no comparable experience. In the interviews that I conducted with two groups of students a few weeks after the play, I asked them a number of specific questions about their memories of the performances, in order to help illuminate their experiences more clearly. These interviews constitute a part of the material for the case studies in the next chapter. 13.11 Final Research Inquiry: The Pupils’ Reflections on the Entire Process In the final research inquiries, two days after the last performance, I asked the pupils to look back on a process that had had its first beginnings eight months earlier with the reading of two dramas, the second of which, “The Diary of 335 13.10 Discussion <?page no="336"?> Anne Frank” they had chosen as their class play. Over the course of the ensuing months, this play had become an increasingly significant element in their lives. The last research inquiry was designed to offer as much space as possible for the pupils to write freely and openly about their experiences. As in the previous inquiries, I gave them a number of possible themes and areas which they could consider addressing in their responses. Class 10 June 7, 2005 In the following lesson please write a detailed review of the play. Please shape this in any way you wish - the following themes are just suggestions which you can take or leave. You don’t have to use these examples and you are free to take any other aspects into account. Possible aspects: What experiences did you have during the work on the play and in the performances? How did you experience the work especially during the last weeks of rehearsals? How did your connection to your part change over the last months? What did the work on set construction, directing, lighting, costume, sound effects, props mean for you? Were there developments in the course of the work so far, e. g., language, social, or personal changes that were important for you? Thoughts, feelings, wishes about the present and future? Thank you! Unsurprisingly, almost everyone wrote considerably more here than they had in all their previous responses. There were 38 replies. One pupil responded anonymously. 13.11.1 The Effects on Language Abilities Two thirds of the pupils wrote about the effects of working on the play with respect to their relation to English. Some (9 pupils) felt that it had brought about substantial changes: I think that one got a different understanding of speaking English through this class play. Continuously speaking English and hearing and understanding English helped me a great deal. (…) My relationship to English has become in any case very different now. I really enjoyed speaking English over such a long period of time. Steffi Yes my relationship to English has definitely changed through this class play. This is also because I spoke English every day, which one almost never does. Only in lessons. Jeanne 336 13 The Pupils’ Perspectives: A Cross-Sectional Examination of the Research Inquiries <?page no="337"?> Apart from which, one improved one’s own English, because one became more secure as one’s vocabulary grew. Nicolai I think that I have become much freer in speaking English following the work on the class play. It really helped a lot to become freer, when you can only speak English and even sometimes have to improvise in it. Sarah My pronunciation and comprehension have got better. Manuel Yes I think not only my relationship to English has improved, but I think my English has improved. Jakob A number of others spoke positively, but somewhat more reservedly about different areas of improvement that they noticed (13 pupils): The class play was good for my English even though I didn’t have enough lines to really make a lot of progress; nevertheless, it has definitely helped my English. Madeleine I have the feeling that my English improved a bit. The more often I watched the play, the more I could understand. I can even understand the sentences that are spoken quickly better … from a language point of view there was a change in regard to speaking and understanding. Martin I think many pupils’ pronunciation got better through the rehearsals. Benedikt I think that my pronunciation has got better through the many speech exercises. Marian I’ve learned some new words through the play and I have become more secure in the English language. Manuel M. I have the impression that our English pronunciation has got somewhat better, e. g., ‘th’ and other sounds. Philipp Some of those students who had always liked English did not feel that their basic positive relation to English had changed. However, different areas of improvement were mentioned: Before the play I had the feeling that I was quite good in English, but the play gave me the feeling that I could really master it and speak with perfect pronunciation. It appears that it actually wasn’t as difficult as I had imagined. Anna My relationship to the English language has changed in that I have gained a broader vocabulary. Otherwise, my relationship is as good as it was beforehand. Grischa My relationship to English has hardly changed; I am just as certain as I was before in this language. However, in the meantime I have started to think in English. I was surprised when I saw Act II that I understood everything. Elisabeth A few pupils sounded more doubtful about what the work on the play had brought them in terms of their relation to English and their capabilities: 337 13.11 Final Research Inquiry: The Pupils’ Reflections on the Entire Process <?page no="338"?> I have improved in English minimally. Pronunciation and vocabulary have improved minimally. Robert I can’t really say whether my pronunciation has got better but I hope so. Otherwise, I haven’t noticed any changes. Mara 13.11.2 Overcoming Doubts Almost half of the class (18 pupils), began their review with a discussion of their initial doubts, fears and scepticism regarding different aspects of the work and the subsequent changes that occurred in the course of the work and performances: At first I was sceptical about the play because I didn’t believe that the class or some pupils were up to it. I also didn’t think I was up to it. It was a difficult class play, but I did enjoy it. [smiley drawn on page] Anonymous. All in all, I am full of pride and happy about how our play turned out and have noticed (since Anne Frank was not my first choice of play) that even a play which one didn’t wish to perform can become very good when one is open to it in a sensible way. Milena I got to know the play from another side. One thought it was boring. But it wasn’t. Robert Overall I was satisfied with the play. At the beginning I was not happy with the fact that we had chosen the play ‘The Diary of Anne Frank”, but the more we worked on it, the better I liked it. I believe most of us have learned a lot through the play. Madeleine At the beginning I didn’t want to play ‚Anne Frank’ and found it boring and uninteresting. But once the rehearsals began, I noticed that the play gradually began to get interesting. Jeanne I enjoyed the performances and the last month of rehearsals most. I noticed that my attitude to the play strongly changed in the course of time! At the beginning I really didn’t enjoy the rehearsals at all, but at the end I enjoyed them a lot. Manuel M. A number of pupils emphasized their surprise at how well it had all turned out: My experience was that at the beginning I thought that we would never do it as well as we did. But then over the last two weeks I was positively surprised … I have to say honestly, I never thought our class would ever be able to perform it so well. Stefanie I think we worked really well together, even when I/ we were on the verge of despair in the rehearsals. I didn’t really know that some of the pupils in the class had so much energy and could put on such a brilliant play. Firat The play showed me that together the class can achieve much (when it wants to) … I would never have thought that we would perform the play so well. I thought it was boring and too long, but it really wasn’t. Mailin 338 13 The Pupils’ Perspectives: A Cross-Sectional Examination of the Research Inquiries <?page no="339"?> I experienced that the performance can be really good even if you don’t like the play. Mara I experienced that it’s worth working hard to perform a play well, i. e., to produce something good. Mats In my opinion, the class play was a great challenge and we really mastered it. Sarah 13.11.3 Acting their Roles. For more than half of the pupils (21) the experiences that they had in acting their roles were concretely discussed as being a very important part of their entire experience. A number of students described having gone through a series of different phases in this process: Over the course of the last months, I have been intensively busy with my part and thus it began to get a bit easier to act it. After we looked at the house in Amsterdam and then came home I thought a bit differently about the whole story and now after the play I personally think much differently about it. Steffi The longer we rehearsed, the more I was able to get into my role. Anna-Sophie I noticed that I grew into the role … It was actually clear to me from the beginning that I would play Mrs. V. Daan, I don’t know exactly why, but the part interested me. I could see for myself how I grew into the role. I really enjoyed playing this part. I could sometimes recognise myself in it. Jeanne At first I was critical about the choice of the play and at first I would have preferred to play Mr. Frank. After a few rehearsals, I began to value the ‘charm’ and ‘peculiarities’ of Mr. v. Daan. I could identify with the role well and could no longer imagine playing any other personality. Nicolai I learned to appreciate my part and was fully satisfied with it. In fact, I began to concentrate on the small details of my role and on the little details of the whole play that I liked very much. Philipp I think I have become more responsible through the work on the play, because I had to focus intensively on the role of a mother! Sarah Others who had immediately felt drawn to their character from the beginning felt that their relation to the role had remained relatively constant: My relationship to my role and to the play didn’t change that much over the course of time. I liked the play from the start and my role as well. Nevertheless, you grow into your role more and more towards the end. Grischa My relationship to my part remained as I have described it. I felt like her when I acted the part and had the same feelings in the same situations. Elisabeth 339 13.11 Final Research Inquiry: The Pupils’ Reflections on the Entire Process <?page no="340"?> I really enjoyed my role and I found it relatively easy to get into it. After the performance several people said to me that the role was tailor-made for me - Mailin, as she loves and lives! [a smiling face was drawn]. I somehow thought that was funny. Mailin Three pupils who had difficulties identifying with their roles throughout the entire process described how they viewed this experience in retrospect: My relationship to the play, or to the part, hasn’t changed that much. I found the play interesting because it was based on a true story. I still don’t like the play as a class play. I still don’t feel connected to my part, although I tried to get into it during the rehearsals and performances. Mara My relationship to the role hasn’t changed much in the course of the rehearsals. In order to have a relationship to Miep I would have to get to know more about her, by reading a biography or something. Marie My experience was that even if you didn’t like your part, you gave your best. I didn’t like my part and even the play itself was and is somewhat questionable. I was very positively surprised that the play worked out so well - and that it was so well-received. I think that it was the right thing that we performed this play especially at a time when National Socialism is getting stronger again. Constanze 13.11.4 Assuming Responsibilities More than one third of the class (15 pupils) specifically mentioned their pride in the fact that the class had been responsible for so many aspects of the play, ranging from set construction to much of the organization: I thought it was very good that we organised our class play so independently with costumes, props and sound effects. It welded the whole cast more together. Anna The work on the sound-effects and lighting, especially the sound-effects was also an experience. At the beginning it was exciting; at the end it was totally normal. However you often noticed that you were responsible - with the wrong sound effects, or lighting-effects, you can ruin a whole play. Robert I was really proud of the finished set construction (including the house) because it was really done by friends/ class mates. That was the starting signal for the shows. I can’t imagine a better set design. Also the collecting of the props, which I somehow got involved in, was enjoyable despite the incredible stress and pressure; it kept me and Madeline very busy. To see how things that were long overdue finally turned up in the end ( Jewish Star, cakes, candles etc) was great. However, it made the feeling even stranger on Thursday when everything was finally organised and prepared and we found that there was nothing more to do. Milena 340 13 The Pupils’ Perspectives: A Cross-Sectional Examination of the Research Inquiries <?page no="341"?> Three of the four pupils who had been responsible for planning and building the house wrote about this experience: I enjoyed building the house although it was very demanding. It was not only the task of building the house, but also the planning, the measuring, getting materials, clearing up and so on. The work was harder than I had ever imagined and I learned a lot. Fabian I enjoyed building the house; it was a challenge because it had to be built so you could act in it. Hosea Even though I sometimes had to stay longer (at school), I really enjoyed building the house. Mathias Some pupils from the second act reflected on their experiences of working with classmates who had assumed the role of directors: I thought Milena and Philipp were damned good, that they worked so intensively on Act II. Steffi I found the rehearsals really good and I enjoyed working with Milena and Philipp - who deserve great praise! Franziska One of the student directors expressed similar feelings of gratitude towards his classmates: The directing work was a great experience for me. I am very grateful that all the actors accepted Milena and me as directors and we could collectively work on Act II. Philipp 13.11.5 A New Sense of Community Almost half of the pupils (18) wrote about differences they perceived in the social relationships within the class: I think that the class-community has been very much strengthened through the class play. Angela In my opinion, the classes’ sense of belonging together was enhanced through the play. For example, we were all trembling before the first performance and were all pleased when it was over. I personally felt that the play brought people closer together. Franziska I think the class has changed socially. For me personally, nothing has changed. Nevertheless, I think such a class play is good because you learn to work with people you don’t know well, or like much. Through working together you get to know the people very differently. This leads to a good class-community. Mara I noticed that the relationships within the class clearly got better. Nicolai 341 13.11 Final Research Inquiry: The Pupils’ Reflections on the Entire Process <?page no="342"?> I think that the class has grown closer together through this play and the fact that it was a success and I hope this quality remains. Philipp These processes were viewed by some pupils as having mostly occurred independently within each act: The sense of solidarity within the class didn’t suffer; quite the contrary, it got better (at least within the acts). Thus half of the class got to ‘know each other better’, but if we had rehearsed with the whole class, we probably would have gone back into cliques again. Madeleine Two pupils commented specifically on their own positive social development: It was a very positive experience for me. I saw myself and the class from another side. (…) In the work on the play and in the performances I learned to help and to concentrate on the matter in hand. This wasn’t always easy! Firat I don’t think I have experienced any personal changes, but I think I have improved in my language skills and socially. Mirko For three students who were relatively new in the class these social develop‐ ments were viewed as particularly important. My personal and most important experience was seeing the class from another side. Suddenly I had to deal with pupils whom I had never spoken to or done anything with. I think the class has been ‘welded together’ a bit more. Firat The nicest experience for me was the feeling of solidarity within the class. I worked with pupils whom I didn’t know very well and with whom I had hardly had anything to do. It would be nice if we did a class play every year. It brings the class together and it is a lot of fun. Anna-Sophie For me there were many personal changes because I was pretty new to the class. Through the rehearsals and performances I got to know my classmates much better. Martin One pupil had negative feelings about his own social behaviour and develop‐ ment during the rehearsals: My social development was not very good because I was often frustrated and therefore easily became aggressive. I frequently fell out with people. Mats Another pupil was somewhat sceptical about how long this sense of community would last: 342 13 The Pupils’ Perspectives: A Cross-Sectional Examination of the Research Inquiries <?page no="343"?> I found the work on the play very refreshing. It was nice for me to see how the class-community improved, even if it only lasts for a week after the performances. Robin Two pupils who had at different points been openly critical of the rehearsal organization took the opportunity to address this issue in a new vein: I would also like to tell you that you planned the rehearsals very well! (I’ve actually only just realised this). Manuel M. And once more I would like to thank you. I think it is incredible what you achieved and what energy and strength you had the whole time. I really enjoyed working with you. Steffi 13.11.6 Overview of the Final Research Inquiry Although a broad range of feelings and thoughts emerge in these final responses, there is also a striking degree of consensus in all that the pupils wrote. There is a deep sense of pride and satisfaction in what they had accomplished, along with the feeling that it had been an enjoyable though sometimes strenuous experience which had brought the class much closer together, and that their English, particularly their pronunciation, had improved. Considering that it had been a very time-consuming process, requiring many months of rehearsals at the end of long school days, the fact that in nearly all the final responses the work was viewed as enjoyable is, in itself, significant. 13.12 The Growth of Language Capabilities Although almost all of the pupils wrote about the positive effects of the play on their abilities to speak English, this was perceived in different ways. Some pupils described what they experienced as breakthroughs, or as significant improvements in their capabilities of comprehending and using English. Other pupils only referred to a noticeable improvement in pronunciation. In a few cases, there were some doubts as to whether there had been any lasting improvements at all. There are no clear distinctions to be drawn in this context between the experiences of weaker and stronger pupils: in each category there was a variety of responses. The one generalization that can be made is that all the weaker students who had large roles wrote the most positively about the changes in their English abilities, whereas those pupils who were more reserved or just referred to improvement in pronunciation had roles with much less text. 343 13.12 The Growth of Language Capabilities <?page no="344"?> In this respect, it appears that learning and speaking large amounts of text may have offered more possibilities of experiencing significant progress in a wider range of areas. However, there were also a number of instances where two pupils with the same smaller role experienced the degree of their improvement in completely different ways. What was somewhat surprising to me was that the differences between how the casts of the two acts viewed the growth of their language capabilities were not as significant as I had expected. Since I had directed most of the rehearsals in the first act solely in English, and the pupils who had directed most of the rehearsals in the second act had spoken mostly German, I had assumed that this difference would constitute a significant factor in how pupils viewed their own language learning. Although a marked increase in language abilities is referred to more often among pupils in the first act, there are also a number of instances where pupils in the second act experienced a significant increase in their abilities, as well as some cases where pupils in the first act were sceptical about the degree of their improvement. The effects of the play with respect to pupils’ perceptions regarding the improvement of their language abilities turned out to be the area in which the responses were the most heterogeneous. 13.13 Becoming the Character In reading the final reflections, it becomes evident that for most pupils the process of entering into their roles and embodying a life and world vastly different from their own became a fundamental aspect of their entire experience. In a few cases these steps seemed to happen almost effortlessly; for most pupils it required a much longer process. For some pupils, this readiness to find and enter into another character led to a complex process of learning to differentiate between their own ‘selves’ and the ‘self ’ of their character. What one of the girls who acted the role of Anne Frank in the second act wrote is very revealing about the challenges, particularly at this age, of establishing these distinctions for oneself clearly. At first I couldn’t recognise the Anne I had read about in the book in the play, but bit by bit - also in Act 1 - I was able to gain a clearer picture of this figure. I enjoyed playing the role, but I was always Anna who behaved as if she were Anne and never quite just Anne. I enjoyed playing scenes in which - had I been asked my personal opinion - I would not have acted like that, that is I would have reacted differently, but I knew this scene had to be like that because it is Anne and not me. Anna 344 13 The Pupils’ Perspectives: A Cross-Sectional Examination of the Research Inquiries <?page no="345"?> What she writes here is symptomatic of similar processes which many pupils went through in having to search in themselves and in their own experiences for ways in which they could gain a deeper understanding of their characters’ behaviour and situation. This was a very individual and varied process and, as we have noted, for many pupils occurred most intensely during the last phase of rehearsals: For me the rehearsal weekend was my way into my part, because then we received costumes and props (the diary! ). In the days before the first performance I tried to transform (unconsciously) my voice into the voice of Anne Frank and to express in language the emotions that were partly hidden for me by the text. Milena When I put on my costume with the gold star on it for the first time, then I really felt myself in the role of Mrs. Frank. Sarah I could only get into the role (or at least I had that feeling) when I acted in the costume. Hosea 13.14 The Content of The Diary of Anne Frank Entering into their roles also meant trying to imagine and feel the existential fears of the eight Jewish people hiding from the Nazis, as well as the two Dutch people who were risking their lives by helping them. As I have mentioned, there had initially been a feeling among some pupils in the class of being inundated with the theme of the Holocaust, which in different forms they had been extensively confronted with during the previous school year. My hope had been that this dramatic adaptation of Anne Frank’s diary, which emphasizes the daily realities of the lives and relationships of the inhabitants confined to these rooms over years, would lead to these dimensions becoming the focus of most of our work. In fact, for long sections of the play, the threat of deportation under which they lived only plays an underlying role. Much of the drama revolves around the growing up of an enormously lively and creative young girl, her conflicts with the other inhabitants and particularly her mother, her growing relationship with her friend Peter and, finally, her own search for meaning in her life. The drama conveys the daily struggles of the people living there, who with remarkable inner strength and sometimes also very human weaknesses tried to lead their lives in dignity, despite the conditions under which they were forced to live. Thus, for much of the play, the tragedy of their final deportation and later deaths does not, and should not overshadow their lives. One of the many challenges for the actress playing Anne is to convey the humour and lightness which Anne as a young girl consistently must have 345 13.14 The Content of The Diary of Anne Frank <?page no="346"?> radiated, and it is an equally important challenge for the other actors to respond in kind. This lightness in many scenes stands in stark contrast to the deep anxieties and feelings of terror which emerge at a few different points in the play and, most dramatically, to the horror of the next to last scene when their doorbell suddenly rings and the sounds of soldiers and dogs are heard. The final scene of the play is directly connected to the opening scene in which Otto Frank, having returned to their hiding place shortly after the end of the war, was first given the diary of his daughter which he then begins to read. In the final scene he closes the diary, so that the structure and content of the rest of the play are embedded in his having read Anne’s diary then for the first time. At the end of the play he closes the diary, and speaking to the two Dutch people who helped hide and support the family, he describes how he had searched for his family in the weeks after the war and how in the course of those weeks had learned about each of their deaths. He tells them that he had still had the hope that Anne was alive, until two days earlier when a lady who had been in the concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen with Anne confirmed her death. At the very end Mr. Frank reads aloud the words from her diary which Anne had spoken on stage a few minutes earlier: “Despite everything, I still believe in the goodness of people.” The play ends with his next words, “She puts me to shame.” These last two scenes invariably generated among both the pupils and audience the most intense feelings and reactions. Particularly in the last phase of rehearsals, pupils sometimes confessed to me that they were constantly near tears in these last scenes, even after having watched and performed them countless times. Such experiences led some pupils to feel a new and different relation to this entire period and theme. Five pupils wrote specifically about this in their final reflections: Once I nearly cried because I had rehearsed the 5 th scene in Act I all day. Then I felt just like someone was about to discover me in hiding. Elisabeth In the last month I noticed that I developed a feeling for what the Jews or persecuted people in war must have felt and so that has become much clearer to me. Amelie For a brief moment I could feel what it really must have felt like to be excluded from society because of the star. Sarah One pupil viewed this afterwards in a wider historical and political framework: I think that it was the right thing that we performed this play especially at a time when National Socialism is getting stronger again. Slowly the events of the Second World War are beginning to be forgotten. Perhaps we have reminded a few people again with this play. Constanze 346 13 The Pupils’ Perspectives: A Cross-Sectional Examination of the Research Inquiries <?page no="347"?> Nazi Germany and the Holocaust were also themes which were addressed in most of the responses that parents sent to me after the play. Many commented in this context about how they experienced their children during the rehearsal process and afterwards: During the performances, the audiences were visibly moved and inwardly touched. Encouraged by the way the audience responded, the actors were able to get even more into their roles and experience the political situation during the NS times and empathize with Anne Frank. At no point could we sense that Grischa had had too much of this theme, although it was discussed in other subjects. Quite to the contrary, Grischa read a book for the first time in ages, a book that had lain untouched on his desk for a long time: the theme was the destiny of a young person during the Third Reich. We can only congratulate you on the choice of the play and on the performances. At a time when the pupils are often irritated by the frequent reference to the theme of Nazi Germany and at home we rarely found possibilities to talk to Jorinde about such things, you were able to work intensively on this theme for many weeks. The week after the performance was accompanied by many very good talks with Jorinde who could actively contribute in a very competent way. However, in one case the absence of such discussions was the cause of an initial feeling of disappointment: At first it irritated me that the theme of the persecution of the Jews and the historical situation did not become a subject of discussion in our family and that Mailin did not pursue this theme more intensively on her own. In the meantime, I believe that it was not the right time for her to do this at the same time as she was working on the play. In the context of discussing the reactions of their children, some parents also described their own feelings in detail: The information that I first had from the pupils in the 10 th grade was they were rather negative about performing this play since the theme is actually a German theme and it didn’t make any sense to do it in a foreign language. However little by little this attitude changed and I noticed that my daughter let herself be moved by the theme and that she fully lived with the play and took on more and more responsibility for its success. Perhaps this theme that everyone knows was made more accessible by its being in English. Then she wanted to act it so that everyone understood it and so they worked with each other on good pronunciation and also met privately to do this. I was amazed when I saw that the pupils of the 10 th grade had taken almost the complete responsibility for all the props and the stage design, as well as the costumes. 347 13.14 The Content of The Diary of Anne Frank <?page no="348"?> Before the first performance I saw the set at a rehearsal and was surprised with what simplicity, but also precision and clarity the stage design was realised. The first performance then showed me that both in terms of language as well as acting, this class under your direction had reached a level which moved me very deeply. The pronunciation was so good that I understood everything, even though I do not speak this language in daily life. Through their acting, the pupils were able to take me into this “prison” in which Anne Frank lived, so that I could not only empathize with the people having to live in these extraordinary circumstances, but felt I lived there with them. The direction of the play allowed even those members of the audience who had often seen plays on this theme, to be deeply moved. As far as I’m concerned, the class was able to emotionally involve the audience in what happened on stage to such a degree that they weren’t just an audience, but could also become participants. One father (who is also a teacher in this class), viewed this work in a complex historical and psychological context. After writing at length about the traumatic effects of the Holocaust on three generations of Germans and the needs of young people today to find ways to authentically encounter this historical reality, he ends with a discussion of the play: (…) The theme Anne Frank is closely tied to our generation and our children’s generation. The fact that she lived in Holland and that this play was performed in English enabled the actors to outwardly distance themselves a little from the historical problem, in order to identify all the more strongly with the characters and to face them. In you, they found someone who was like a catalyst in fusing together the unspoken personal and societal tasks of coming to terms with this trauma, the necessities of school, and each pupil’s own biographical concern; because you, your biography, your subject knowledge and your way of dealing with these young people automatically authorised you to do so. The whole situation was wholly authentic and for everyone, including the audience, healing [heilsam]. This theme of the pupils’ personal, heartfelt connection to the historical reality also emerged in other teachers’ responses. A language teacher wrote, My commentary to the 10 th grade English class play: An outstanding choice of play, since it illuminates the background of the Nazi Regimes through the personal experiences of a few people (which is very effective for pupils too): particularly because of the ending, the theme cannot be pushed-away. (…) In a wonderful manner, appreciation becomes a higher truth - conveyed through acting and artistry - a wisdom which has been lived comes through. [In wunderbarer Weise wird eine Würdigung zur höheren Wahrheit - spielerisch und künstlerisch vermittelte - gelebte Weisheit scheint hindurch.] 348 13 The Pupils’ Perspectives: A Cross-Sectional Examination of the Research Inquiries <?page no="349"?> One mother describes the change that occurred in her son’s relation to the Holocaust: The theme of Nazi Germany and the murder of the Jews was sometimes a theme or subject of discussion, whereas his attitude towards the Nazis was always completely negative but - surprising for me each time - emotionless and very matter-of-fact. (…) I found this lack of feeling in my children very strange. (“Schindler’s List is boring”), or, as they assured me during other films - “Mama, that’s tomato juice, not blood” when, for example, something moved me too deeply. I have never had the distance to this theme that my children have. (Perhaps this is because of the fact that they are boys, and that this generation in general has grown up with media differently than my generation, and the amount of time that has passed.) They had no interest whatsoever in a discussion of collective guilt. I have always tried to make it clear how I feel about this, particularly when one has children oneself and imagines something like that could happen to them. (…) As I described to him how I felt after the class play - I had never thought that a school performance could shake me so deeply; particularly the last minutes were so oppressive and frightening - the beating of my heart, the feelings of pity - that tears came to my eyes. The scene became even more intensive through the absence of any screams or crying, the barking of the dogs growing louder, the frozen terror and then the quiet giving-up. That my own child acted this (sitting alone on his bed, his head in his hands) intensified this impression. He told me that it was “crap” it was a “crappy feeling” to have to play a character who “had to die”. (…) His role moved him visibly. This was for me in considering his otherwise distanced view and his matching “cool attitude” important, yes also a relief. This pupil seemed to me to be representative of a small group of boys who were, at different points, visibly shaken by the end of the play, despite this not fitting with their otherwise generally ‘cool’ and distanced attitudes. What this group of pupils all had in common was that they had spent much of their free time over many years in front of computer and television screens. Having spent so much time in an environment in which different forms of virtual terror and violence were highly prevalent and, in fact, the main attraction of many of the games and films, it is noteworthy that scenes in the play in which the terror and suffering were felt and imagined, but never directly portrayed, could have had such effects as one of their mothers described them as having. 349 13.14 The Content of The Diary of Anne Frank <?page no="350"?> 13.15 The Development of Artistic Discipline It was not only in their experience of the content of the play that pupils were able to establish meaningful connections between the work and their own lives. From the middle of January until the beginning of June, the class was involved in an on-going process requiring from each pupil a sense of discipline and responsibility which, for many, was very new. From an early point on, it became obvious to them that the quality of the rehearsals depended on their prior preparation in having learned their texts and in their maintaining motivation, energy and discipline throughout a two-hour rehearsal. Knowing this did not, of course, make it easy for all pupils to accomplish it. For some, putting this knowledge into practice was part of a gradual and difficult process. As we have seen in the comments made after the first six weeks of rehearsals, the lack of discipline (particularly when there was no teacher present), along with a lack of preparation and in some cases a lack of motivation were sometimes the cause of frustration and complaints from pupils. The gradual growth of a sense of self-discipline and a feeling of shared responsibility for the quality of their work becomes evident in comparing the last three research inquiries. This was true for all the pupils, but perhaps most notably for those in the second act who, often working without a teacher present, were particularly dependent on these developments. The research inquiries give a clear perspective on how this process developed and how, in the end, it became a primary source of their feelings of pride and accomplishment. This also must be viewed in the related context of their assuming responsibilities for so much of what was involved in producing the play, ranging from the set, properties, costumes and programs to the lighting and sound. It is significant that such responsibilities and demands did not occur in a theoretical context, but resulted from the practical requirements of the work. The importance of their having gone through these processes together is made particularly evident in the fact that almost two thirds of the class wrote in their final reflections that they considered the growth of a sense of community (Gemeinschaft) to be an essential part of their experience. There are a number of reasons which they gave for this. Most generally, it was expressed in the context of their pride in what they had accomplished through working together, first in rehearsals with their respective casts and then as a whole class. Clearly, the continual challenge of constantly working together to improve as a drama ensemble, wholly dependent on the motivation, energy and concentration of everyone involved, was a new experience for all of them. In 350 13 The Pupils’ Perspectives: A Cross-Sectional Examination of the Research Inquiries <?page no="351"?> conjunction with the content of the play, it led to a strong sense of working together for a meaningful purpose. It is significant that in many of the responses that I got from the parents they also commented on the particular importance that this dimension appeared to have had for their children: Franziska seemed to me to be very enthusiastic from the beginning to the end. She loved the play and working on it. She only recently told me that at the beginning her attitude had been rather critical, because she could not imagine how it would be possible to manage all this. Naturally, she was very impressed that her group was so disciplined and that it could be directed without a teacher present. She also enjoyed the liveliness with which different ideas and creative artistic possibilities could be explored, and she valued the democratic cooperation. Franziska felt personally enriched by the experience of being able to try out different possibilities of self-expression. The social processes which this involved were also highly significant for her. She came into contact with pupils with whom she otherwise would not have, and she experienced acceptance from those whom she was never sure of. Their being able to rehearse on their own was experienced as something very positive. This seemed to lead to a clear growth in self-confidence. Sometimes Grischa told us with great pride that he had been able to explain the content of a passage to another pupil. Through the play Grischa came into contact with pupils whom he had previously only viewed from a distance. Along with the theme which moved her very deeply (this was the play which she had wanted to perform), it was an important experience for Anna-Sophie that her acting received so much appreciation and confirmation from many sides. Anna-Sophie spoke positively about the new feeling of community in the class. Many pupils seem to have discovered each other in new and different ways. The rehearsals directed by pupils were never criticised or questioned. 13.16 Final Remarks What the pupils and their parents wrote in their final reflections offers eloquent testimony to the value this project had for them and their class. However, these responses must also be seen in the context that they were written two days after six successful performances. Considering the original research questions, there remain a number of key issues which this cross-sectional examination 351 13.16 Final Remarks <?page no="352"?> cannot address in enough depth. Thus, having begun with an overview of all the pupils’ responses, in the following chapter a different perspective will be adopted and five pupils and their respective developments will be examined in detail. Through focusing on single cases, it should become possible to more concretely and deeply assess the experiences that individual pupils had. 352 13 The Pupils’ Perspectives: A Cross-Sectional Examination of the Research Inquiries <?page no="353"?> 14 Five In-Depth Studies An examination and discussion of five pupils’ responses to the research inquiries constitutes the framework for these studies. Since the focus will be on their inner developments, their own writings offer a revealing source of material. The perspectives of their parents will also be examined in this context. In some cases, what teachers in the class specifically wrote about a pupil will also be considered. Finally, my own observations which I recorded on a regular basis offer another perspective. Deciding which of the thirty-nine pupils in the class to focus on presented a challenging problem. One criterion that was immediately apparent was that pupils from both acts had to be represented, since their experiences were in some important respects different. It also seemed appropriate to have a broad range of students, including pupils who are strong in English and others who are not. Clearly, they also needed to have written enough in their responses to the research inquiries to offer enough material to consider. This criterion also meant that I had to exclude pupils whose comments I could not identify because they had submitted their responses anonymously, or who did not respond to more than one of the four inquiries. However, taking into account these guidelines, two thirds of the class were still in question. Finding clear justifications for narrowing down the choice to a small group became a complex task. Constantly having to resist the temptation to expand the list, I finally chose to focus on five pupils. There were many more pupils whom I would have also liked to write about, yet it did not seem appropriate to make this chapter any longer than it already is. The range of developments these pupils describe in their written responses is wide and thus serves to illustrate a broad spectrum of processes that occurred among pupils during this work. The kinds of developments experienced in each of these cases, although undeniably unique, also evidence significant parallels to the types of experiences and developments which some of their classmates described. This becomes apparent when one compares the cross-sectional perspective of the class in the previous chapter with the following individual studies. <?page no="354"?> 14.1 Jorinde (Mrs. van Daan in Act I) Jorinde began the 10 th grade as a pupil with a wide range of deficits in English. She generally appeared to pay little attention in class and when questioned about this invariably replied that she was unable to follow the lessons because I only spoke English. She did little homework because she said she did not feel capable of doing the assignments. When she spoke up in class, it was almost always in German and it was mostly because she wanted something to be translated for her. My attempts to speak to her in English were often met with frustration or resignation. She sometimes expressed to me her disappointment that we did not work with vocabulary lists with clearly defined English-German equivalents. It was very clear that many characteristics of my teaching style such as working extensively with original works of literature, conducting the lessons entirely in English and doing almost no work with translation, had always presented her with severe difficulties which until this point she had been unable to overcome. A characteristic often considered to be essential in learning foreign languages, a ‘tolerance of ambiguity’, seemed to be extremely difficult for her to develop. There had been discussions with Jorinde together with her parents and with her class teachers, to try to figure out ways to help her address these deficits. Although these discussions were serious and constructive, they did not bring about any far-ranging changes in her attitudes or working habits in the 9 th grade, or in the first part of the 10 th grade. This may also be due to the fact that, in the meantime, she had fallen far behind the general level of the class in many areas, so that any change would have required substantial energy and remedial work to catch up. In her other subjects she was a better student, particularly in mathematics. She is a lively and outgoing girl with a number of friends in the class. Outside of school she is active as a hockey player. First Inquiry December 20, 2004 I hope and wish that the class grows closer together through doing the play and that the rehearsals are fun. I think that we will manage to perform the play well, if we really want to. I also hope that the stage set is imaginatively designed. Personally, I hope that I like working on an English play! It’s a very different way to learn English. I am especially looking forward to the trip to Amsterdam! ! ! Her first wish that the class will grow closer together through the work on the play and that the rehearsals will be enjoyable is characteristic of many of her classmates’ responses. She expresses a certain confidence that the play can be a success. This reserved optimism stands in contrast to many of her classmates’ 354 14 Five In-Depth Studies <?page no="355"?> concerns. The clear hope which she expresses for herself is that the work on the play might prove to be a new way for her to learn English. Perhaps, this can be understood in the context of her realization that it was very necessary for her to improve. Her excitement in regard to the planned trip to Amsterdam (which was only to take place many months later) is unusual, insofar as she was the only pupil who mentioned this. The generally positive and hopeful tone of her first reply, illustrated by her use of exclamation marks, indicates a higher degree of optimism and enthusiasm than she had previously evidenced in English until this point. Six weeks later she wrote, Second Inquiry March 1, 2005 I am very pleased with the way we have worked so far. The rehearsals have gone well and you can see that the students have an overwhelmingly positive attitude! But I have already noticed that the long hours during the week are very tiring. Apart from which, the short-term planning is typical! [A sad face was drawn on the page. P.L.] I can’t learn my lines at home as well as I can during the rehearsals at school because I remember them better when they are learned in connection with the rehearsals. Of course the rehearsals work best with you; the rehearsals with just students are a bit stop and go, but I think that it will work well with time. Up until now I only had one solo rehearsal, but I was pleasantly surprised - there was a relaxed atmosphere, I got help with remembering my lines and pronunciation; I would like to do it again! Am very pleased with my role and the play is also OK. Jorinde Her comments in the second inquiry show that within the first six weeks a positive attitude to the work had already been established. At the same time, the work is characterized as strenuous. Although her criticisms of the rehearsal organization are clearly articulated, these problems did not seem to have affected her general satisfaction with her role and the rehearsals. In this context, she specifically mentions the one solo-rehearsal (lasting about 25 minutes) which we had had together: Up until now I only had one solo rehearsal, but I was pleasantly surprised - there was a relaxed atmosphere, I got help with remembering my lines and pronunciation; I would like to do it again! Her surprise regarding the nature of the work together may reflect the fact that this was probably the first truly positive experience we had ever had together in English. In my teacher’s log I also wrote positively about this rehearsal and her work on the role. In fact, her enthusiasm and acting abilities in the group rehearsals led me to ask her shortly afterwards whether she would be willing 355 14.1 Jorinde (Mrs. van Daan in Act I) <?page no="356"?> to help direct the first act along with another pupil. She immediately expressed her willingness to do so although this meant extra rehearsal time after school. She appeared to be both surprised and pleased to have been asked. Her parents’ comments also evidence their perception of the growth of her interest in conjunction with her being asked to help direct: Before the rehearsals began and also at the beginning we didn’t really hear much from Jorinde. She half-heartedly asked a few times for a bit of help in learning her lines. In the end she learned her part without our help. When she was in the middle of the rehearsal period and was asked to help with the directing we periodically heard more from her. Her response to the third inquiry gives a clear picture of how she viewed the work after six more weeks of rehearsals: Third Inquiry April 26, 2005 I think that our class play is coming along well, we are doing well time-wise and on the whole the rehearsals are fun. The rehearsals are very organised, though sometimes set up at short notice, but well thought-out. They are evenly spread out and each pupil has approximately the same amount to do. In my opinion, the rehearsals are similar to those at the beginning. They always have the same structure, which gives us security and helps avoid confusion. Nevertheless, the content of the rehearsals has developed a lot and one can clearly see how we are getting better and more independent. Even the rehearsals without a teacher run smoothly. Working alone on the text is in my view the hardest part. It is much easier to learn your role in the context of rehearsing. The rehearsals are very good and I have never heard of a class that was so certain of its lines. The rehearsals with only students are good, but are not really comparable with those when a teacher is present. I am finding my way into my role more and more. The more I rehearse, the easier it gets to enter into my role. The play itself grows more appealing to me as time goes by. At first I really disliked it, but this feeling has completely disappeared. I hope that your attitude to the play and to us remains as it has been so far. You are always very motivated and always in a good mood. Please stay like that! By the time of the third inquiry, Jorinde’s initial positive experiences had become consolidated. At a number of points she radiates a sense of security, both in regard to her own role and in considering the level the entire class had reached. Her comments about the rehearsals are revealing: 356 14 Five In-Depth Studies <?page no="357"?> The rehearsals are very organised, though sometimes set up at short notice, but well thought-out. They are evenly spread out and each pupil has approximately the same amount to do. In my opinion, the rehearsals are similar to those at the beginning. They always have the same structure, which gives us security and helps avoid confusion. Nevertheless, the content of the rehearsals has developed a lot and one can clearly see how we are getting better and more independent. Her strong wishes for security and regularity within the rehearsal process are evident here. It had been precisely the absence of security that had often been a major cause for her frustration in English lessons. Yet in the context of the rehearsal process these needs appear to have been satisfied in a way that had not been possible in class. The fact that the rehearsals were wholly in English seems to be no hindrance for her at this point. Decisive elements in this context seem to be her positive feelings about her role, the play and the rehearsal atmosphere. After the performances, she looks back on the entire process using the specific questions which I had posed in the final research inquiry as a framework: Final Research Inquiry June 6, 2005 • At the beginning I was against this play. But then once I became open to it, I almost always had positive experiences. I got to like the play more and more and I got to know the different characters better. I also became ever more conscious that I fit much better into the first act, or that I felt more comfortable because it was more amusing and humorous despite the dramatic events. One special experience that I had was that you can really achieve something if you stick to it. We didn’t let the play get us down and in the end we managed to put something together for which we received much praise and recognition. • I found the work during the last few weeks was really very good. Most of us were engaged and kept that up, so that we clearly got into the play more and more. Even when I was sometimes on the brink of despair because everything was so exhausting, the work kept going. • I really liked my role and got very involved with it. Even when I was falling asleep I thought about certain passages or how I could act a particular scene. Sometimes I didn’t want to think about it, but the thoughts wouldn’t go away. Particularly after the performances I noticed how a certain arm movement that I had made fitted better to Mrs. Van Daan, than to me. By the performance on Friday, I felt really strongly that I had become someone else. • Yes, I think a bit, but not really that much. [She is referring to the question regarding the effect of the play on her relation to English. P.L.] I feel most 357 14.1 Jorinde (Mrs. van Daan in Act I) <?page no="358"?> positively about English when I am in an English-speaking country. But yes, I think my pronunciation has got better. • A great deal of work on my own. [Referring here to the question about the props, costumes etc. P.L] That’s how you get active yourself - you don’t let others do everything for you. Through your own work, finding things for yourself etc., you value the things you use later more. • Yes I think they all happened. [She is referring to the specific developments listed in the question. P.L.] A class grows together through a play. I could clearly see this process this time. Almost everyone improved with respect to language. I hope the next play will be a similarly good experience. Her final reflections in looking back at the entire process in the last research inquiry show an awareness of a wide range of developments that had occurred. One observation appears to be particularly significant: One special experience that I had was that you can really achieve something if you stick to it. We didn’t let the play get us down and in the end we managed to put something together for which we received much praise and recognition. Her sense of pride in what she and the class had accomplished comes out clearly, along with the recognition that it was made possible through months of hard work which she often had found challenging and which she mentions here as being so strenuous at the end that she was close to desperation. Having gone through such points and then succeeding appears to be a central aspect of her experience. Another aspect stressed at different points in her final reflections was her deep identification with her role. From the beginning on, she had had a pronounced affinity for the role which continued to grow in the course of the work: I really liked my role and got very involved with it. Even when I was falling asleep I thought about certain passages or how I could act a particular scene. Sometimes I didn’t want to think about it, but the thoughts wouldn’t go away. Particularly after the performances I noticed how a certain arm movement that I had made fitted better to Mrs. Van Daan, than to me. By the performance on Friday, I felt really strongly that I had become someone else. Her feelings about her development in English appear much more reserved than the rest of her responses. Answering the question of whether her relation to English had changed through the work on the play she writes, 358 14 Five In-Depth Studies <?page no="359"?> Yes, I think a bit, but not really that much I feel most positively about English when I am in an English-speaking country. But yes, I think my pronunciation has got better. Her doubts regarding her English abilities are clearly still present and she appears to not quite believe that something substantial has changed, except her pronunciation. Her hope seems to be that spending time in an English-speaking country, (an experience that she had briefly had once), would make a more significant difference. Her reflections on both the social developments that had taken place and her pride in what the class had achieved reflect the general tenor of the replies of her classmates. Her observation that they had accomplished so much through their own efforts is an aspect which also emerges in many of her classmates’ response. She reflects on this with clarity: That’s how you get active yourself - you don’t let others do everything for you. Through your own work, finding things for yourself etc., you value the things you use later more. Conclusions For Jorinde, the class play appears to be a turning point in her relation to English. Although she wrote that she had doubts at the beginning about the choice of the play, her clear identification with her role from early on in the rehearsals became a decisive factor in her establishing a personal connection to the play. My own diary entries make clear that she was one of the pupils who entered into the spirit of acting without difficulties and she was able to accept and work with any suggestions that were made. Since she was in the first act it meant that she was working in an environment in which I was directing most of the rehearsals and speaking English the entire time. This was exactly what had caused her to consistently give up in her regular lessons. Why was it possible for her in this context to become so engaged in the work and not become frustrated by having to rehearse for two hours in a language which she had always complained she did not understand? Trying to answer this question requires examining a number of different, yet connected, factors. There are clearly strong physical components to both the habit of being closed-off, as well as to the process of learning to become more open. As we have noted in the section on clowning (8.3.2-8.3.3), there is an extensive body of research documenting this underlying and often determi‐ native connection. All the rehearsals for the first act were always preceded by 359 Conclusions <?page no="360"?> at least 20 minutes of physical and vocal warm-ups. Such exercises can have wide-ranging effects, precisely in terms of loosening the physical tension which is invariably connected to different forms of blockages. After doing different types of such exercises and games, which in any given rehearsal may have included stretching, walking and running around the room, breathing exercises and pupils massaging or chasing each other, a very different physical state was reached: pupils were visibly much looser, more relaxed, breathing more deeply and quite often amused. For a pupil like Jorinde, I believe the effects of such warm-ups cannot be overestimated. During the interviews, when I asked her and the others what they had thought of the warm ups, she laughed and immediately replied, It was a bit annoying but somehow good. Running around all over the place - loads of meaningless stuff - it loosened up the atmosphere. The fact that the warm-ups were also conducted only in English (although far more was done than said), may have had the effect of gradually opening her to listen to the language and giving her the chance to respond directly through actions instead of words. The fact that these actions had nothing to do with learning English, or school in general, may also be significant in this context. Those pupils who entered into the spirit of the warm-ups - and Jorinde was certainly one of them - were often laughing as they took part in a variety of exercises which sometimes appeared to be quite ‘silly’ and nonsensical, more like children’s games than school. This change in her physical state through the warm-ups which appeared to have the effect of changing her general attitude was, I believe, a decisive step towards a different experience of English. What then followed in the rehearsals had a new physical and emotional basis, fundamentally different than in her English lessons. She was able to leave those negative physical and mental habits of English classes behind, which gave her more openness and flexibility to be able to spend the next hour/ s being spoken to only in English. She clearly enjoyed acting her role. At a point when many pupils still had obvious problems in entering into their roles, she had no difficulties in playing her part in an extroverted manner. I was able to make a number of suggestions at an early point with which she very willingly and flexibly experimented. In such moments in the rehearsals, whether in groups or in our individual rehearsal, the fact that I was giving her spontaneous and direct feedback in English and she was understanding what I meant and responding appropriately, highlights another important aspect of what had become so different for her. She was not sitting in a classroom trying to learn English, we were moving around a 360 14 Five In-Depth Studies <?page no="361"?> room working on her role together. Along with the physical differences in these situations, the atmospheric distinctions are equally significant. When one reads her responses, it becomes clear that the positive atmosphere which she perceived in the rehearsals is a crucial aspect of her experience. In a situation which she experienced as being fundamentally different from her English lessons, she became increasingly comfortable doing the type of work in which we were engaged. That I continued to speak only English became an unimportant factor; what mattered was the work itself. One of her class teachers remarked on how from the beginning on, she appeared to him to be highly motivated and very supportive of the work: Jorinde worked very hard and came to enjoy acting very much. It appeared to me that she made an effort early on to learn her lines in order to really get into her role and thus she was able to support the weaker actors. Her further development in the course of these months could thus continue under optimal conditions. The positive resonance which she received from everyone was certainly important to her. The fact that I had asked her to help with directing, despite her weaknesses in English, was also significant and her parents’ comments reveal that this was something that she spoke about at home. A further positive element adding to the positive dynamic of the process was the gradual overcoming of her aversion to the ‘strangeness’ of the foreign language. Even the sound of the language began to have new qualities for her. In the interviews she remarked at one point, … even the pronunciation became more appealing. In the last phase and during the performances, Jorinde continued to improve. On stage she consistently shaped the feeling and tempo of certain scenes, radiating a distinct sense of being completely comfortable in her role. This invariably had a positive effect in establishing the right tempo and feeling for the entire cast. In the interviews I asked her about how she felt on stage: I wasn’t totally nervous. I wasn’t myself, I was in the role. My own thoughts were gone and I was at one with the role. A great feeling - now you are really inside - I was inside my role - totally separated from the world, in the role. Her parents were both surprised and impressed when they saw her on stage: We were also very impressed by Jorinde. She moved on the stage with confidence, spoke well and played Mrs. Van Daan convincingly. Naturally, there were some aspects of Mrs van Daan’s character that suited Jorinde’s temperament; nevertheless, the way she was open to the role and fully entered into it was a great achievement for her. 361 Conclusions <?page no="362"?> At the end, her rather reserved feelings about what she had learned in English seem to indicate that she is unsure how much of a difference this will make in her lessons. Only in the area of pronunciation does she appear to be certain of her improvement. However, in the larger context of what she wrote at the end and what came out in the interviews, her lack of certainty in this regard does not appear to be that significant to her. What she was able to do in English on stage, the way it felt and the responses that it evoked in others is far more important. In the interviews she tried to explain how she felt: It was good for me. The praise of my family, friends, godfather - the total problem child speaking fluent English in the role When I asked her in the interview if it had been worth it for her personally, aside from all the positive reactions of the others, she emphatically replied, I think that it was really worth it! Simply the fact that you open yourself up to something and it turns out really well. What was it then that she had opened herself up to? On one level, simply the foreign language which she had always found so difficult. However, I think it goes past this. Through her own efforts, she had been able to overcome a deep-seated attitude which had blocked her from accepting the uncertainties implied in the process of learning a foreign language. This transformation required her to open up and also meant letting go. Unsurprisingly, she experienced this process as being both strenuous and enjoyable. Through totally entering into the role of another, she was able to let go of familiar habits and discover something new in herself: I wasn’t myself, I was in the role. My own thoughts were gone and I was at one with the role. A great feeling - now you are really inside … In the course of this process, she developed an openness and flexibility which had previously seemed impossible. The significance of her having made this kind of step may, in fact, go well beyond her learning English. What she discovered through her role freed something in her and it was, above all, this newly found sense of freedom which allowed her to embody her role so satisfyingly on stage. For Jorinde, strikingly, it proved to be exactly the foreign language which she had resisted for so long which offered her the best opportunity of discovering these possibilities in herself. 362 14 Five In-Depth Studies <?page no="363"?> 14.2 Lieselotte (Mrs. Frank in Act II) Lieselotte is a very good student in English and in her other subjects as well. She has a talent for languages and is also hard-working and conscientious. In class, she tends to be somewhat reserved, although she does not hesitate to ask questions if something is not clear to her. In her homework and in her exams she writes extensive answers which consistently show a clear understanding of the material and a fine grasp of the English language. Although she can sometimes appear to be rather sceptical, she also has a pronounced, though somewhat ironic sense of humor. Since she takes her schoolwork so seriously, she has sometimes expressed her concern that she is not learning enough. At one point during this school year she decided, in fact, that it would be a good idea to leave the Waldorf School at the end of the school year because she thought she could learn more at a gymnasium. She also did not feel socially very comfortable in the class and with the exception of one or two other girls did not have too much contact with anyone (My information comes not only from my own observations and those of her class teachers, but also from her parents with whom I spoke on different occasions.) However, after a week of observing the lessons at a gymnasium in April, she came to the conclusion that in the end she preferred the methods of teaching in the Waldorf School and chose to stay. She plays the violin and is a member of a string quartet, as well as the Düsseldorf Youth Orchestra. In response to the first research inquiry regarding pupils’ expectations of the upcoming work, Lieselotte writes, First Inquiry December 20, 2004 That in the end the play is performed in such a way that it is fun to watch, even if one’s English is not very good. That we have a good stage set (I think we should definitely have several levels on the stage). The costumes should look serious, but still be funny. The play shouldn’t make either the actors or the audience feel bad. Working together should be good and everyone should make an effort. For my own part, I hope that my role will not end up as a boring, complaining, passive, sobbing mother. She begins abruptly, expressing her direct concerns regarding the audiences’ reactions. Her expectations regarding the set and costumes are quite concrete and demanding. Perhaps, this reflects her hope that if the stage and the costumes 363 14.2 Lieselotte (Mrs. Frank in Act II) <?page no="364"?> were convincing, it might offset other deficits. Her wish that everyone should work together and make the necessary efforts may have reflected her conviction that some pupils in the class often do not work in this manner. Her own expectations of herself are quite striking insofar that she has a very clear picture of exactly the mother/ character she does not want to be. In this context, it should be pointed out that she originally did not want to have this role, but rather the role of Miep which would have been a smaller part. Since there were not enough girls who had signed up for Mrs. Frank and too many who wanted to play Miep, I spoke to two girls including Lieselotte about playing this larger and more demanding role. At first, both were sceptical, but then each decided to do it. After the first six weeks of rehearsals she writes, Second Inquiry March 20, 2005 I also direct and I find that the group I’m working with in rehearsals is much too big. Apart from that we should do at most one scene in a rehearsal, not three. We’d get more out of a rehearsal if we had a maximum of four people and chose a part of a scene and worked on that in more detail. One could then get more into the situation which is supposed to be presented. When one had rehearsed a while in this small group then one would come together with the larger cast from time to time to get a sense for the scene in the context of the play. When we have to rehearse so much in so little time, we are also under time pressure, the mood is bad and not concentrated; one gets less done. I am also not sure if it wouldn’t be better if there was only one student ‘director’ present at each rehearsal because up until now, the other one just sat around doing nothing. Up until now the mood at the rehearsals wasn’t very good, the organisation was too chaotic, the groups too big and concentration was lacking. I’ve read the Diary of Anne Frank and found her much more appealing, grown-up and generally very different than she is in our play. In the rehearsals the individual pupils do not take enough responsibility for them‐ selves. Some still don’t even know their lines. I also think that those who are directing shouldn’t just order people to ‘do this’ or ‘do that’. I think that everyone should get involved. Otherwise it is a mess and (logically) the mood gets bad. The people don’t trust themselves to really get into the play, to get out of themselves and enter into their roles because they are afraid of being laughed at. Everyone pretends in front of the others, laughs with embarrassment and behaves as if they find everything crap. 364 14 Five In-Depth Studies <?page no="365"?> Her second response points out a number of difficulties in the second act, particularly in regard to what she experienced in her role as one of the directors. (She had been one of the pupils who had originally signed up for this task.) She gives a number of constructive suggestions as to how the quality and organization of the rehearsals could be improved. She questions the idea of having two directors for a scene. Her conclusion is quite critical: Up until now the mood at the rehearsals wasn’t very good, the organisation was too chaotic, the groups too big and concentration was lacking. Her statement stands in contrast to a number of responses of other pupils in this act who even at this point were generally positive about the work with student directors, although more reserved than six weeks later. This may reflect her higher expectations of discipline and organization. It may also reflect her difficulties in assuming the role of the director, which clearly presented her with a number of problems, many of which she addressed at the beginning of this response. It may, in the end, also reflect the problems she had with her classmate who was also responsible for the direction and who, from the nature of his personality and from the way he was viewed by the class, was far more of a natural director than Lieselotte. Her comment in this context is revealing: I am also not sure if it wouldn’t be better if there was only one student ‘director’ present at each rehearsal because up until now, the other one just sat around doing nothing. It was obvious to me that she was the one who was sitting around with nothing to do and this was clearly not a role with which she could feel comfortable. In the course of the next weeks, a third student increasingly became responsible for the direction, which turned out to be much easier in terms of their working together. Lieselotte no longer directed group scenes and instead sometimes had individual rehearsals with pupils who were having difficulties with their texts, or pronunciation. Lieselotte was not present in the third inquiry, since this was exactly the week she was observing classes in another school. After the play, she begins her final reflections by looking back at the performances: Final Inquiry June 7, 2005 Through the performances I learned to get into the same thing each time anew. I mean it is difficult to perform a play as well the next time, once you have already performed it well. I have learned not to aim to do it as well as the last time, but to try to do it as well as possible, but in its own way. 365 14.2 Lieselotte (Mrs. Frank in Act II) <?page no="366"?> I have also learned to concentrate more than I could before. That has to do with the fact that you have to really concentrate in a performance and if something unplanned happens, you have to carry on without your level of performance dropping and in an emergency you even have to improvise. I have thus learned something useful for playing the violin. Through the intensive working together during the rehearsals and the need to rely on each other during both the preparation and during the performances, the sense of solidarity in the class grew stronger - at least during this time. I believe there were never as few outsiders in the class as during the time of the class play. My relationship to the language hasn’t actually changed because I believe I already had a good relationship to the English language. Although I have to say that I noticed at the end that I found it quite normal to speak English and to hear the others speak English in the performances. There were times when I didn’t even notice that it wasn’t my mother tongue that was being spoken. I thought it was great that we had to do everything ourselves, props, costumes, stage set, lighting, sound, direction…that gives one the feeling that it really is our class play. You notice that you can do much more than you believed was possible. Through this the class became much more self-dependent. There is a striking contrast between her responses to the final research inquiry and all that she wrote before this. Reading her reflections after the play, it becomes clear that in the course of those three months far-ranging changes occurred. Her first comments here refer to two aspects of her experience of performance. She begins by reflecting on the challenge of having to repeat a successful performance: Through the performances I learned to get into the same thing each time anew. I mean it is difficult to perform a play as well the next time, once you have already performed it well. She then writes of the challenge inherent in having to ‘re-invent’ a role in each performance: I have learned not to aim to do it as well as the last time, but to try to do it as well as possible, but in its own way. She writes about a level of concentration which she was able to attain which was new for her, a kind of concentration in which she was so focused that she felt she was able to improvise on stage when necessary. She is convinced that this form of concentration will prove helpful for her in playing the violin. (This point will be discussed in more detail in the next section.) 366 14 Five In-Depth Studies <?page no="367"?> Her next comments stand in striking contrast to what she had expressed three months earlier. The social relations within the class which had been both before and during the first six weeks of rehearsals a critical aspect for her, are now experienced as having been positively transformed in the last weeks, although there remains an undertone of doubt whether this new sense of community will actually last. Clearly, for Lieselotte this phase was quite unique in this respect: Through the intensive working together during the rehearsals and the need to rely on each other during both the preparation and during the performances, the sense of solidarity in the class grew stronger - at least during this time. I believe there were never as few outsiders in the class as during the time of the class play. She writes that in the end it became so normal for her to hear and speak English that she sometimes was no longer aware that it was a foreign language: There were times when I didn’t even notice that it wasn’t my mother tongue that was being spoken. She ends her reflections with a definite note of pride in considering what the class has accomplished. After listing all the areas in which the class demon‐ strated their capabilities, she expresses not only her pride, but her identification with her class: …that gives you the feeling that it really is our class play. This again stands in stark contrast to some of the doubts which she had expressed in her first two responses and, in general, to many of her doubts regarding the class and some of her classmates: You notice that you can do much more than you believed was possible. Her conclusion clearly shows that developments have occurred which three months earlier she was very sceptical about, and that she now, somewhat uncharacteristically, describes as being “great”. Conclusions Lieselotte’s initial scepticism about the play which was reflected partially in the concerns she expressed in her first responses, also seems to have played a part in her having first chosen the smallest female role in the play. This was confirmed by what her father wrote: 367 Conclusions <?page no="368"?> At the beginning L showed little interest in either of the plays being discussed … the choice of ‘Anne Frank’ was in the end the lesser evil, although she was by then already rather fed up with the theme of the Nazi period. She couldn’t get interested in any of the roles, in the end she decided to take on what she thought was an insignificant role; she didn’t want to invest much energy in the work on the play because she was much more interested in her extracurricular musical activities. The fears she had had from the very beginning of becoming a boring, docile, whining mother seem to have changed at the point when she began to rehearse her role in the 4 th scene in Act II. This is the scene when Mrs. Frank realizes that one of the adults hiding with them has secretly been stealing food at night from their sparse rations. Her outbreak of uncontrolled rage at that moment stands in stark contrast to her otherwise controlled and often meek behaviour throughout the play. In the comments I made in my teacher’s diary, I remarked how impressed I was with how intensely Lieselotte acted this scene in a rehearsal. I also told her at that point that I had never imagined that she could actually become like that. Her classmates appeared to be equally surprised. What her father writes in this context is very relevant: Then she told us that she had to perform an outbreak of anger on the stage; that seemed to interest her. Sometime later she recalled that people found her outburst of anger pretty impressive (she was rather proud and this seemed to have awakened her sense of ambition). What really got her involved in the end was the fact that it was a special challenge for her to perform an outburst of anger on stage. (I think the reason for this was that acting out such an outburst on the stage gave her a strong sense of ‘self ’ - a ‘self ’ that she would like to be, strong enough not to be easily tripped up by her emotions). Since Lieselotte was not there for the third research inquiry, it is difficult to assess how she felt at that point in time. My own impression and notes indicate that she also worked at a high level well before the final phase, which was when I first got to see her regularly. What seems to have intensified in the last weeks is her feeling about working together with her classmates. Her experiences in the final phase - the intensive rehearsing together, the countless details that had to be attended to and, finally, the performances themselves - clearly offered her new possibilities of establishing connections to and working with her classmates. Her remark that there were never so few outsiders as now may very well reflect her own feelings in regard to her role in the class. Again in this context, her father’s comments are instructive: 368 14 Five In-Depth Studies <?page no="369"?> She experienced that she was seen quite differently by her classmates, she was enormously relieved because she now had the feeling that she was perceived as the person she would actually like to be… This also fits to what one of her class teachers wrote: L, as expected, took on responsibilities, but was also able to be convincing because she took on a role that didn’t reflect her normal character and she clearly felt good presenting a very different Lieselotte (one that was not always well-behaved) to her class and to herself. Many pupils wrote of getting to know their classmates in a completely different way through this work, often classmates with whom they had gone to school together for almost ten years, but with whom they had previously had little contact. Lieselotte does not refer to this directly in her response, but it seems to have been a theme for her at home and from her father’s perspective, was clearly a significant aspect of her experience: She was now able to come into contact with her classmates in a very new way. She suddenly began to be interested in people she had up until then shown little interest in and vice versa. She also suddenly began to be interested in fellow students to whom she unexpectedly found a new way of relating. Generally somewhat reserved and distanced to her class and others, she gradually entered into a new spirit of work and community in the final phase. In reading her response to the last research inquiry, this change is most apparent in the tone in which she writes and can sometimes be sensed between the lines. At home, her father experienced this more directly: The nearer the performance came the more she got involved with the play and the unhappier her violin teacher probably became, because his formerly enthusiastic pupil now shifted the focus of her enthusiasm to the play, to the point where it reached a fever pitch. She reported then that the class had never experienced such true togetherness and that the sense of community in the class had never been so good. One can see how different elements come together here. Her experience of being socially integrated in a class which she now views in a very different light is new and important for her. At the same time, it is significant that she feels that she is being viewed differently by the others, too. Her experience of the performance itself was evidently very important for her, and she was able to reflect upon it quite clearly. In particular, what she wrote about having experienced a new dimension of concentration must be viewed 369 Conclusions <?page no="370"?> in the context of a particular difficulty she had had during the rehearsals. It had become an increasingly annoying problem that in her cast she performed together with a girl who was her closest friend in the class and they had the habit of sometimes uncontrollably smiling or even giggling when they acted together - at completely inappropriate times in the play. Both the student directors and I complained strongly each time this happened and when it occurred again in the final weeks, I became quite furious and made clear to them that their behaviour could destroy the believability of the entire play. Their seemingly unexplainable behaviour at such times clearly resulted from feelings which neither girl was completely able to control and towards the end it was evident that neither of them wanted this to happen. (The reasons why it persisted are complex and have much to do with her friend who was even more insecure in her social relations to the class than Lieselotte.) However, this behaviour also reflected a certain distance which Lieselotte sometimes had to her role and to the situation when she was acting. She could quickly be brought out of the role, most obviously in the context of her uncontrolled smiling, but also less visibly in terms of watching herself and others from the perspective of the ‘observer’ rather than being fully inside the role. This was a trait that she had also evidenced in other contexts, including in her ironic sense of humour. Thus, what she wrote about concentration during the performances referred to a very important theme for her. In the interviews when I asked her and the other pupils what they were most nervous about before the performances, she immediately replied that she was most afraid that she and her friend might smile. Since, in the end, they both fully maintained their concentration and stayed completely in character, it is clear that this was a part of what she meant when she wrote: I have also learned to concentrate more than I could before. That has to do with the fact that you have to really concentrate in a performance and if something unplanned happens, you have to carry on without your level of performance dropping and in an emergency you even have to improvise. The connections that she then makes to playing the violin are significant: I have thus learned something useful for playing the violin. She had told me on different occasions that she suffered badly from stage fright and after one school concert complained bitterly that she had played terribly in comparison to the rehearsals. I surmise this has to do with a common problem in performing, particularly prevalent among self-conscious people like Lieselotte, that one begins to think critically about what one is doing while trying to 370 14 Five In-Depth Studies <?page no="371"?> 453 Timothy Gallwey, The Inner Game of Tennis. (London: Jonathan Cape, 1974) 31-32. do it at the same time. This phenomenon of the self-conscious critical mind interfering with the focused concentration of performance is the subject of Timothey Gallwey’s well-known book The Inner Game of Tennis. He writes, It is the constant “thinking” activity of Self 1, the ego mind, which causes interference with the natural doing processes of Self 2. Harmony between the two selves exists when the mind itself is quiet. Only when the mind is still is one’s peak performance reached. (…) During such experiences the mind does not act like a separate entity telling you what you should do or criticizing how you do it. It is quiet; you are “together” and the action flows as free as a river. 453 In the interviews with the pupils after the performances it became clear that although Lieselotte had experienced this kind of separation at certain moments during the performances, she had been able to consciously bring herself back to this focused state through her connection to the audience and her feeling of artistic responsibility: I didn’t really notice the audience anymore - although in the second performance I did a bit because I noticed somehow that the energy level wasn’t as high - and at some point I looked into the audience and then I saw so many people who I knew and then I suddenly thought, it is actually awful to offer them something like that and so I really made an effort and somehow it turned out well. For a pupil like Lieselotte who had learned her role effortlessly in the first weeks and who had no difficulties in understanding both the text and all that I said in rehearsals, the significance of this work in regard to her progress in English is substantially different than for a pupil like Jorinde. What she writes in this context is interesting: My relationship to the language hasn’t actually changed because I believe I already had a good relationship to the English language. Although I have to say that I noticed at the end that I found it quite normal to speak English and to hear the others speak English in the performances. There were times when I didn’t even notice that it wasn’t my mother tongue that was being spoken. Although what she writes about understanding English as if it were her mother-tongue might appear at first glance to be a potentially significant part of her experience, particularly for someone as academically ambitious as Lieselotte, this aspect of the work, viewed in the entire context of her final reflections, plays only a secondary role in her thoughts about the process. To me 371 Conclusions <?page no="372"?> this is a sign that she herself has a sense of the deeper value of what she learned through confronting what was most challenging for her. In contrast to others, this was probably not contingent upon the fact that this happened in English. In fact, viewed only from the perspective of improving her language abilities, a class play was not only unnecessary, but, if that had been the only goal, perhaps not even the most effective way of doing this. Although I certainly do not want to underestimate the value of her experience that the foreign language could become as familiar as her mother tongue, I also do not believe that this aspect is what will prove to be the most decisive and valuable element of what she gained through the work on the play. What her father writes about the lasting benefits which she accrued appears to me to be accurate, precisely in the order in which he views them: I certainly believe that the class play had a long-term effect both in terms of her general personality development (including the development of her personality within the community) and in relation to the development of general linguistic abilities and in particular the foreign language. For Lieselotte, what was most essential was the experience and recognition that such deep, underlying changes were actually possible for her in the course of a long process which she, at first, had not believed offered her any such possibilities at all. 14.3 Fabian (Mr. Krahler in Act I) Fabian was a weak student in all his academic subjects and particularly in English and French. Over the course of many years he had often given the impression of having resigned himself to not understanding much of what we did and had shown little impetus to change. During some phases over the last few years he had done almost no homework, at other times he had managed to submit the minimum amount. His written work evidenced clear deficits in all areas. Towards the end of the previous school year, he had shown, for the first time, a more sustained interest in trying to follow lessons and keep up with the work. His report card for that last year (9 th grade) in English gives a clear picture of the problems and challenges which he was facing at the beginning of the 10 th grade: Fabian worked inconsistently during this school year. There were long periods, particularly before Easter, in which he did very little work. Consequently, there are large gaps in all areas of his work. Fortunately, he became more consistent and active 372 14 Five In-Depth Studies <?page no="373"?> in his work habits towards the end of the year and was able to make some real progress for the first time in expression and vocabulary. There remains a considerable amount to do, but if he maintains and intensifies this new attitude he still has the chance to meet the demands of the coming year. He has to do this from the very start of the new school year. In the first half of the 10 th grade, before the work on the class play began, the new seriousness in Fabian’s attitude which had already begun to emerge the previous year continued to grow. This was most visible in his heightened concentration during the lessons and in his attempts to do his homework regularly. However, the range and nature of deficits which had accumulated over years presented him with severe difficulties in trying to keep pace with the class. He failed both exams in the first half of the year, and the comments which I wrote on his exam on Our Town give a clear picture of the extensive difficulties he still had, despite his now consistent attempts to keep up with the work: Fabian, your first answer starts off well, but then you lose yourself in details of their marriage which was not a part of the question. What is even more problematic is that you completely ignore the last part of the question which was very important to write about. What you say in the third answer needs to be explained more fully. Once again, you have not answered all the parts of the question. This ends up being a beginning to an answer. Your commentary has the same problem. I do not understand what you mean in the most important part of this answer - what the play meant to you. (…) Fabian’s strong subjects were crafts (Werken), art, and sports. He was a quiet and reserved pupil who, because he neither took an active part in lessons nor disturbed the lessons in any way, often went unnoticed. This appeared to be the case in a number of his other subjects as well. However, he appeared to be well integrated into the class socially. His interests outside of school are skateboarding and cycling. Fabian’s first response is strikingly different from most of his classmates: First Inquiry December 20, 2004 I hope that I can gain something for my later life from the class play. I think that if we work hard, we will be able to perform the play well and hopefully please the audience. I also hope that we have fun and not too much stress in the rehearsals. Otherwise I am open for what the class play will bring and am interested to see what it brings me/ us. 373 14.3 Fabian (Mr. Krahler in Act I) <?page no="374"?> Fabian’s first sentence was one of the few statements of this kind. It evidences a wish for something significant but intangible, beyond his possibilities of imagining what this might mean. In this first inquiry, he also expresses his hope that the work on the play will be enjoyable and successful. At the end of his response, he expresses an openness for whatever this process might bring. His response to the next inquiry is typical of many of his classmates’ responses insofar as he begins with a criticism of the rehearsal organization: Second Inquiry March 1, 2005 I think the organisation isn’t very good, because we often only get to hear very late that we have to stay longer for rehearsals. (We have to be told at least a day beforehand). Nevertheless I think one learns a lot in the rehearsals. One learns to communicate in English and how to pronounce the words correctly. I find practicing with other students better for learning lines than the group work. The group work with the teacher is very good for practising the play (movements, who speaks to whom? ). Through planning the house, I think one can find out more about the problems they had in their living situation (small rooms…). All in all, the planning is fun and the English play is very good and I think that it will benefit us in the long run in school, or even longer. He draws a clear distinction between the rehearsal organization and his expe‐ riences in the rehearsals of which he writes very positively. He also explicitly discusses the advantages of the different types of rehearsals. This degree of differentiation, which also appears to have the implicit function of advising me, was rather uncommon in the second group of responses, appearing only in a few instances. His comments about the work on the planning of the house indicate the connections he is able to draw between this and the content of the play. (Fabian was one of the four pupils who had been chosen to take the responsibility of planning and building the entire set.) Through planning the house, I think one can find out more about the problems they had in their living situation (small rooms…). In the last statement in this inquiry, there is an apparent link to what he expressed at the beginning of the first inquiry regarding the possible long-term positive effects of this work. His response to the third inquiry begins directly with a number of sugges‐ tions. As we have noted, this was also characteristic of many pupils’ responses to this inquiry: 374 14 Five In-Depth Studies <?page no="375"?> Third Inquiry April 26, 2005 I think that we have to work much more in small groups, on our pronunciation and on our cues. I have often noticed in rehearsals that that the problems of pronunciation and cues hold us back, because we have to stop. If we have all got our pronunciation and cues completely right, then we should start acting. As I said, I think individual rehearsals are very very good for practicing pronunciation and cues. They are also really good for learning what you need to do and when and where you have to go on stage. I want to comment on a few aspects of building the house since I am in the group responsible for this. I didn’t think at first that the planning and design of the house would take up so much time and be so demanding. In the end we took on many of the things ourselves during the construction of the model that, in fact, would not have been possible without the help of Mr. S. Although Mr. S. offered us help beforehand, he didn’t actually give us any support. We had to get everything we needed such as wood, glue and tools ourselves. We also had to work under time pressure and often had to stay in school longer than usual. Thanks to Mr. Jensen, who lent us his room. On the whole, the planning and the construction of the house was good fun because we did it on our own without the help of any teachers and it turned out very well. When we were rehearsing I noticed that we had to act differently depending on which teacher was present. The teachers should organise it so that they observe each other. Fabian’s response conveys the sense of his being very involved in an on-going process. His positive experience of the individual rehearsals comes out very clearly at two different points, along with a certain frustration with the interruptions and tempo of the group rehearsals. His discussion of the work on the planning of the house is striking in different respects. There is first the issue of having to work much harder than he had anticipated, which for him meant staying in school longer. He is also annoyed at one of his teachers from whom he had expected more support. At the same time, it also becomes apparent that he is proud of the fact that he and his three other classmates are doing this without the help of their teacher. Despite his irritation at being left alone with the entire planning, Fabian’s choice of words indicates that it was exactly the fact that left entirely on their own they were able to accomplish what they did, which became a central factor in his being able to view the work as enjoyable: On the whole, the planning and the construction of the house was good fun because we did it on our own without the help of any teachers and it turned out very well. After the play, he reflected on what he had learned. 375 14.3 Fabian (Mr. Krahler in Act I) <?page no="376"?> Final Research Inquiry June 6, 2005 • The work on the play and the performances taught me how one can work together and to stay concentrated on the matter in hand. This wasn’t always easy! • I had the experience of learning the English language by heart (my role) and understanding it. The English play also helped me to improve my English pronunciation. • It got more demanding as we entered the final phase of rehearsals. Nevertheless, I personally enjoyed working on the smaller details. One really began to act and one could see how one’s role really is. • Through the rehearsals and speaking one’s part over a longer period of time, one speaks English more fluently and understands even the smallest details. • I enjoyed building the house although it was very demanding. It was not only the task of building the house, but also the planning, the measuring, getting materials, clearing up and so on. The work was harder than I had ever imagined and I learned a lot. • One got to know individual students better, whom one didn’t know so well before. We helped each other. One learned better English pronunciation. In his final reflections many of the themes which had been previously mentioned are addressed again. Although his role (Mr. Krahler) was not one of the larger ones in the play, learning and speaking the role correctly was clearly a crucial element for him. Moreover, his feeling of understanding so much English so clearly, along with his being able to speak it with better pronunciation and in a fluent manner, appear to be both new and significant experiences for him: I had the experience of learning the English language by heart (my role) and understanding it. The English play also helped me to improve my pronunciation. (…) Through the rehearsals and speaking one’s part over a longer period of time, one speaks English more fluently and understands even the smallest details. Through what he wrote in the final research inquiry it becomes clear that the process of gradually entering into the character of Mr. Krahler, particularly in the last phase, was an important aspect of his entire experience of the work: It got more demanding as we entered the final phase of rehearsals. Nevertheless, I personally enjoyed working on the smaller details. One really began to act and one could see how one’s role really is. He begins his final reflections about the work on the house by making clear that although he enjoyed it, it was very strenuous work. His listing of all that had 376 14 Five In-Depth Studies <?page no="377"?> been required in planning and building the house, his statement of it having been more work than he could have ever imagined, together with his conclusion that he learned a lot from doing it give a clear picture of both what the work entailed and his positive feelings about having done it. His comment on having gotten to know some classmates in a different manner was one of the most frequently expressed observations that pupils made. His particular emphasis on having learned to help each other more, a comment which appears at the beginning and end of his response, may specifically also refer to the work on the house and the way in which the four students who were responsible for this were wholly dependent on each other. Conclusions As I have mentioned, Fabian was a pupil who easily got lost in a class of 39 pupils, and even in a group of 20 pupils. (Although the class has 39 pupils, English is always taught in groups consisting of half the class, so I taught him in a group of 20.) He never took an active part in class discussions, nor in any way called attention to himself. He was also not the kind of problematic pupil who is a subject of discussion among his teachers. Thus, my perception of Fabian before the class play was often limited to a vague frustration and disappointment that his work remained below the required standards. When the question arose in discussion with the wood-working teacher which four pupils from the very long list of pupils who had signed up to build the set should actually be responsible for this large project, I was quite surprised when he mentioned Fabian as one of the very first. (My colleague had come to the conclusion from his long years of experience that four pupils was the right number for this task.) When I questioned him about his choice, his response was that Fabian would be able to quickly get an overview of what had to be done and would also have an excellent sense of how to solve the different types of problems that would inevitably occur. My colleague was quite amused at my surprise regarding his choice and expressed the wish that the teachers who teach academic subjects would come and observe how pupils like Fabian work in his class. The notes that I made after the first individual rehearsals in the opening phase reflect my surprise at how well Fabian did, and particularly my surprise at how flexible he was in working with my suggestions. In the course of later rehearsals I refer to him consistently as being pleasant to work with. He learned his role 377 Conclusions <?page no="378"?> relatively quickly and was always grateful for help. My positive impressions are confirmed by what his parents observed and later wrote to me: We experienced Fabian during the rehearsals as very committed and aware of his responsibilities. He was proud to belong to the group of carpenters who built Anne Frank’s house in a short time. He also took the rehearsals seriously. He practiced on his own without needing to be reminded by us. He took over the roles of classmates who had fallen ill without complaining. Considered from the perspective of Howard Gardiner’s concept of multiple intelligences, Fabian undoubtedly has a high degree of both spatial and practical intelligence. Characteristically, it was through the work on the planning of the house and the building of the model that he attained a clearer understanding of the content: Through planning the house, I think one can find out more about the problems they had in their living situation (small rooms…). These are areas of intelligence which are generally of little significance in academic subjects and which more often than not, go completely unnoticed (It was only much later that I realized that I actually had had the opportunity to perceive some of these capabilities in his strikingly well-formed handwriting). Moreover, considering the openness and flexibility which he showed in the work on his role, as well as the way he wrote about and reflected on much of the work, he also evidences clear strengths in what Gardner refers to as the personal intelligences, both interpersonal and intrapersonal. This is also evident in the way the group of four pupils were able to work together over months in all the areas that were necessary for the planning and construction of the set. During those two 14-hour days in which the pupils built the house, I came by at different points to bring refreshments (it was the end of May and very hot), to lend them moral support, and sometimes just to watch. Observing Fabian and the others quietly and determinedly working, I had the feeling we were all learning something important. In my teacher’s diary in the days immediately after the house was built, I wrote about this experience: The work on the house was very exciting to observe - I spent 15 hours in school on Monday and 14 on Tuesday. Along with rehearsing etc., I also wanted to keep up the spirits of the four and sometimes more of them who worked incredibly hard. Not only did they do a great job which they were understandably proud of, but a lot of things happened at the same time in terms of what they felt about themselves and certainly, the way I viewed them. When one thinks just how weak for instance Fabian and Mathias are in English and how competently and capably they worked the entire 378 14 Five In-Depth Studies <?page no="379"?> time on the house you see the point of doing something like this and, in fact, the great advantages of this kind of elaborate set in a class play. Even though it’s not my taste or priority, it’s exactly a chance for those pupils whose taste and priorities lie in this kind of work. This is part of the whole bit - and one of the key parts and I had no idea. In his first line in the research inquiry, before the whole process began, Fabian had written, I hope that I can gain something for my later life from the class play. At this point in time it is, of course, impossible to know for sure whether the hope he expressed then will become a reality. Yet, I believe both the way he was perceived and his own self-image changed in the course of the work. The thunderous applause which the group of four pupils who built the house got from the audience and from their classmates at the end of each performance, when they appeared holding up their original small model of the house, clearly moved him deeply each time. The fact that his feeling of self-confidence grew can also be ascertained in something his parents wrote at the end of their comments. In contrast to both the 8 th grade play and the 10 th grade plays, in which he had signed up for the smallest possible roles, he now appears ready for something new: After we had seen the play, Fabian revealed to us that he felt able to take on a larger role in the next class play. That the process through which he finally reached this point was a difficult and challenging one for him is revealed in something that one of his class teachers wrote after the play. In contrast to the impressions that I and his parents had often had, he writes of the struggles which he saw Fabian going through in regard to performing his role: Fabian complained quietly but insistently about the play and his role; it wasn’t an attitude of opposition so much as an expression of insecurity. He had to rethink his own previous attitudes towards the expected standards several times and he had to recognise the achievements of other pupils which he often found extremely hard to swallow. He found it hardest to see his own performance. I believe the content of the play touched him deeply; he once emphasized the hopelessness of being able to do justice to the mood through acting. I was very moved by his performance. For his other class teacher, it was in and through the performances that Fabian made his most important breakthrough: 379 Conclusions <?page no="380"?> I believe it was important for him that he actually spoke his part in public; he got better in the rehearsals and especially in the performances. He showed me very vividly how important a ‘big performance’ is, with the prevailing mood there of all those involved and, above all, the great concentration. The act of performing inspired him: without the performance, he wouldn’t have been able to improve in the way he did. How far these developments will help him to remedy his many deficits in English is still an open question, but the gradual improvement of his work in English lessons in the course of the year gives me good reason to think that he will continue to make important steps. In the course of the last term, parallel to the work on the play, he was able to attain a passing grade for the content of an exam (for the very first time), though his language skills were still below the passing level. Working consistently in the course of the next two years, I now believe he will be able to graduate 12 th grade with at least a passing grade and perhaps even better. One year ago, I was not confident about this. Undoubtedly, the steps Fabian made in understanding and speaking English were more decisive for him than for a pupil like Lieselotte. The feelings which he expresses of understanding far more and of having experienced a new feeling of fluency offer clear testimony of the significance of this process for him. He gained a new basis for his further work in the foreign language. And yet, as delighted as I am about how his English abilities have improved and as significant as it may turn out to be in terms of his high school career, it seems to me that this improvement was only one of the important changes that occurred through working on the play. For many of his classmates, for many of his teachers and certainly for me, Fabian became truly visible for the first time in his ten years at school. This visibility was most dramatically apparent in the sudden appearance of a two-story house on the stage. However, even before the house stood, he had become more visible through the unexpected quality of his work in acting his role, in the responsibilities he bore in regard to the design of the house and through his constructive attitude throughout this long process. In his final reflections, Fabian described the process of building the house as being instructive [lehrreich] for him. Clearly the same must be said for me. The diary entry which I have cited above ended with the following realization: When one sees this house and the model and one has watched them slowly, surely, patiently with discipline and will power, putting in days like they did and then on the days afterwards the final touches, it’s very exciting, and I’ve learned a whole lot about the nature of a class play. 380 14 Five In-Depth Studies <?page no="381"?> Looking back at those comments written in the last days before the premiere when all thoughts revolved around the upcoming performances, I realize now that what we both learned through his efforts goes beyond our work on the play. At the very beginning of the process he had expressed his hope that this work would give him something for his later life. In the course of a learning process in which he may have succeeded in making that wish come true for himself, he also managed to give something of lasting value to others, helping us to learn to see those pupils more clearly who can so easily go unnoticed. 14.4 Martin B (Mr. Frank in Act I) Since Martin was new in the class having only come at the beginning of 10 th grade, he viewed the class from a different perspective than his classmates, most of whom had been in school together for the previous nine years. However, as he had formerly attended a Waldorf School in Vienna, he was also familiar with the Waldorf curriculum and methods. Martin was a good pupil in his academic subjects and since, in addition, he had also spent four years of his childhood living in Australia, his abilities in both spoken and written English were gener‐ ally excellent. He could articulate his thoughts clearly and generally correctly, although his range of vocabulary was somewhat limited. The exams he wrote were excellent and demonstrated a very clear understanding of the material. He was usually somewhat reserved in English lessons and other teachers reported the same. He is a friendly and polite pupil, who was immediately accepted and well-liked by his new classmates. His hobby is tennis and he plays competitively on a local team I did not receive a response from Martin for the initial research inquiry. Since he was not listed as absent that day, I have to assume that he chose to write his reply anonymously. Thus it will not be referred to in this context. His response to the second research inquiry was unusual: Second Inquiry March 1, 2005 I feel good in my role. I am also getting on well with the text. I think we should rehearse more during school time. The fact that Martin only wrote two sentences after the first six weeks of rehearsals was in strong contrast to his classmates who all wrote more and, in most cases, considerably more. This perhaps can be seen in the light of something that his mother wrote in her comments: 381 14.4 Martin B (Mr. Frank in Act I) <?page no="382"?> Martin is very much a “minimalist” in what he shows in life. [Martin ist sehr „minimal“ in seinem Auftreten überhaupt im Leben.] His positive feelings about his own role reflect his confidence in his abilities in English. His wish to rehearse more during school times rather than after school can be viewed as a polite way of expressing his dissatisfaction about having to rehearse regularly after school. In his third response, he writes significantly more: Third Inquiry April 26, 2005 I think that the class has grown more focused on the play and more involved with it over the course of time. I think it would be better however, if we rehearsed more during the lesson times because we have so many other things to do for school. I sometimes find it difficult to work with some people whose pronunciation is so poor or unclear. Then you slip out of the role a bit. It would be important for these people to work more on their weaknesses so that we could get on with the play better. The rehearsals with only students have in my opinion gone very well. So far, we’ve had no problems. We always work in a concentrated way. It is, of course, best when you are there, but it is still good. I have a good relationship to my role. I can, in the meantime, identify strongly with Mr. Frank. It gets easier to get into the role. My relationship to the play is also good. I think that many students fit very well to the roles they have. I also think that you are doing a very good job. I think the way you work with the students and their roles is also very good. His response conveys a clear sense of being involved in the entire process. He begins by focusing on the general progress of the class which he views positively. The issue of the amount of time spent rehearsing after school recurs, this time more concretely in regard to the requirements of his other subjects. He explains his difficulties in working with some other pupils due to their pronunciation and makes the point that they need to work on their weaknesses. However, he is also positive about the way the pupils are able to rehearse on their own. This fits to what his mother wrote: At home he always told us how independent and disciplined this class is in comparison to his previous class in Vienna. That impressed him very much and has naturally contributed to his making more of an effort. He remains positive about his own role and feels that he is now able to identify with Mr. Frank. Finally, he makes the point of praising and thanking me for my efforts. This also fits closely to what his mother wrote in her comments: 382 14 Five In-Depth Studies <?page no="383"?> Because he has so much respect for you it was important to him to give his best. (…). According to Martin you have behaved in a very competent and professional manner the whole time, no outbursts of anger, no ironical comments, very controlled and motivated throughout. In the final research inquiry, Martin reflects on the last weeks of rehearsals. A striking point is made right at the beginning: Final Inquiry June 6, 2005 The rehearsals in the last few weeks became increasingly intense. I only really improved a lot in the last three to four weeks. Many of the students were into their roles almost from the start. I finally felt that I was fully in my role as Mr Frank and understood it completely in the actual performances. The rehearsals without you got better in the last few weeks. I had the feeling that everyone really made an effort and wanted to master their roles. When you were not there, there was hardly any restlessness or laziness. When you were there you always provided a certain sense of security which was also necessary. I, along with many others, was really enthusiastic about the work they did on constructing the house. The lighting and sound were good, but nothing special. For me there were many personal changes because I was pretty new to the class. Through the rehearsals and performances I got to know my classmates much better. In each of his earlier responses, he had expressed a sense of security and confidence regarding his role. Now, for the first time, he draws a comparison between others who had fully entered into their roles early on and himself who only really made significant steps in the last three to four weeks. Finally, he writes that it was only during the performances that he finally and fully understood the role. His comments that the pupils were able to work conscientiously on their own and that my presence had heightened their sense of security, fit to earlier statements he had made and also reflect what he reported at home. In his last comments, his own personal situation as a new pupil is openly referred to for the first time. Conclusions When one considers the fact that Martin submitted nothing, or nothing in his own name in the first research inquiry and in the second one only two short sentences, the development in the final two inquiries simply in terms of the amount that he chose to write is striking. His mother’s description of him as a 383 Conclusions <?page no="384"?> “minimalist” in life may give a clue as to why he first wrote so little. Seen from this perspective, his writing far more in the later inquiries can be viewed as a significant change. This is certainly connected to the nature and intensity of what he was experiencing. The fact that this process had become an increasingly important one for him becomes apparent in the tone in which he writes about his fellow students, and perhaps also in regard to his comments to and about me. His sense of heightened interest and enthusiasm is also confirmed by what his mother wrote. What he does not write about in the last inquiry is also very revealing. In contrast to almost all of the other pupils, Martin does not mention how strenuous the last period of rehearsals was. He also does not write anything about the amount of time spent rehearsing. This stands in strong contrast to the feelings he had expressed in the previous two inquiries that the rehearsals were taking up too much time after school. Exactly in looking back at this last phase in which the amount and length of the rehearsals after school steadily increased, it is striking that this theme, for the first time, is not even mentioned. There is a clear connection here to a statement he made in the interviews: I don’t really know exactly how the rehearsals were. The rehearsals are gone. The performances are much more present in my mind than the rehearsal process. This statement indicates that Martin at this point had a fundamentally different relation to both the rehearsals and the performances than most of his classmates who wrote more extensively about the final phase of rehearsals than about the performances. Viewed also in the context of what he wrote here about only fully entering into the role during the performances, it becomes clear that the performances appeared to have a unique status for him. In his memory, they seem to practically eclipse the previous five months of rehearsals. I believe the reasons for this become clearer when one examines what he wrote during the rehearsal process and compares it to what he wrote after the performances. After the first six weeks of rehearsals Martin expresses a clear satisfaction with how he feels in his role: I feel good in my role. Six weeks later, he expresses very similar feelings: I have a good relationship to my role. I can, in the meantime, identify strongly with Mr. Frank. It gets easier to get into the role. However, after the performances he views this entire process in a completely different light: 384 14 Five In-Depth Studies <?page no="385"?> I only really improved a lot in the last three to four weeks. Many of the students were into their roles almost from the start. I finally felt that I was fully in my role as Mr Frank and understood it completely in the actual performances. In the contradiction between having consistently reported that he felt very comfortable with the role and his later statement that it was only in the final weeks that this happened, much can be ascertained. What Martin wrote at the end matched my own views of his development in the course of the rehearsal process. Although he had claimed from the beginning that he felt comfortable with his role, it was clear from my perspective that he had obvious difficulties in fully entering into the character and acting this role convincingly. This contradiction between what he first wrote and what I saw may, in part, be explained by the fact that since he was able to learn his text relatively easily and pronounce his text very clearly, he felt he was doing comparatively well in his role. On this level, but only on this level, this was true. However, it was evident to me that he had problems emotionally entering into his role and embodying it convincingly. Although he was always ready to take suggestions, I had not been able to help him very much in this respect. His difficulties in entering into the role, despite his strong wish and willingness to do so was a dichotomy that had also been observed by one of his class teachers: In discussions, Martin was very critical about the theme of the play. I had the impression that despite a clear distance to the role, he quite consciously developed the ability to empathize. He wanted to get into the play in an authentic way. A particularly visible sign of his difficulties was his stiff quality on stage and his almost total absence of gestures. An experienced colleague of mine observing him in a rehearsal was struck by his very static presence and made the point of telling me afterwards that Martin clearly needed help in this respect. It is representative of these difficulties that he also had problems in the one scene where he had to dance a few measures of a waltz with Anne. (His having lived in Vienna unfortunately did not prove to be of any help.) He only seemed to begin to realize and admit these difficulties in the last six weeks. When he saw his classmate from the other cast playing Mr. Frank at a rehearsal who although a much weaker pupil in English was more flexible and expressive on stage, it may have contributed to his becoming aware of his deficits. It was shortly after this that he drew me aside after a rehearsal and asked me if we could have an individual rehearsal together just to work on his gestures. He complained that he had no idea what to do with his hands the entire time. This recognition and request can be viewed as a turning point for him. 385 Conclusions <?page no="386"?> In this rehearsal and later in the group rehearsals, I had him experiment with different types of fatherly gestures. In particular, I encouraged him to touch the other characters more and in different kinds of ways, depending on their respective relationships - as a father, as a husband and as a friend. This suggestion appeared to help. Thus, his comment in the last inquiry that it was only in the last weeks that he made tangible and progressive improvement matches my own impressions. However, despite these steps, his physical presence on stage was still clearly not his strong point. His gestures were less wooden and helpless, but still not yet fluid, and he continued to have a rather slow and static tempo of movement in most scenes. However, his clear loud voice, along with his pronunciation and diction, made it a pleasure to listen to him. Sitting in the last row, one could easily understand every word he said. In the performances, something new emerged. He was able not only to consolidate all the improvements he had made until that point, but he actually appeared to become his character for the first time. Embodying Mr. Frank, he became fluid in his movements and gestures, and in his role as father and the person most responsible for the well-being of all the occupants he gave the impression of directing the tempo of the entire act. This was visible for me and his classmates as the highpoint of all his work, and his clear realization of this I consider to be accurate. For one of his class teachers, these steps had resulted from his growing recognition of the significance of the role of Mr. Frank in the play: … above all, he increasingly recognised which role he was performing in the play, what responsibility his character carried and thus he himself took on more and more responsibility. In the course of the group interviews, I tried to get a better sense of how this had become possible for him. We spoke about the general theme of nervousness and fears the pupils had sometimes felt during the performances. Martin’s comments in this context are very revealing: It was hard if you weren’t concentrated. If you were already in the role it was much easier. Then you can’t make any mistakes because as that person you can’t act any other way. When I was in the role during the warm-ups, then it was easier. It was this naturalness, above all, that was so striking about his performances. It was visible in his gestures and movements, and his voice, formerly consistently loud and clear, became more nuanced and subtle. He maintained this presence throughout - even in those moments when this became particularly challenging. In the interview he remembered one terrifying point in the premiere when 386 14 Five In-Depth Studies <?page no="387"?> things went very differently than planned: Anne was supposed to already be out of her room and had not yet emerged, because she could not find something she needed for the next scene. The entire ensuing lines were based on her being visible at that moment. This meant that he then had to improvise and change the lines, which he managed to do in a completely convincing manner. He describes his feelings at that moment: Suddenly I experienced panic and fear. She didn’t come out of the room - where is she? - then I wasn’t in the role any more - one gets out of the role and you have to get back in, and when you get back in, you’ve saved it. His excellent language abilities, which enabled him to improvise freely and change lines in English which most of the other pupils on stage would have been unable to do, served him here in good stead. However, more critically, in those unbearably long seconds of panic he had also managed to stay - for the audience - fully in character. Such unexpected moments often reveal many things: in Martin’s case it was striking to watch how he continued to maintain this new sense of stage presence. For those seeing him for the first time, this all must have appeared to be quite natural and effortless. This seems to be the case even for his mother. Her comments after having seen him only in the performances are illuminating: Martin performed his role well. The role suits him. As the oldest of four brothers, he often has to take on responsibilities and sometimes has to give comfort, create a good mood, etc. What she did not realize and probably could not know is that his convincing presence on stage had not come naturally from his family situation, but had only been attained at the end of a long and challenging process. What she saw on stage was, for him, a unique experience at that moment. Watching Martin as Mr. Frank in his three performances, I often had the feeling he was continually discovering new sides and dimensions of Mr. Frank’s character. It was the highpoint of a process which had begun late: only towards the end had he realized that such dimensions existed and only then had he begun the work necessary for him to find them. From that point on, he was also discovering new dimensions in himself. This was the vital lesson he learned through the work, and to have this lesson occur during a performance was most certainly a remarkable and unexpected feeling. It was the intensity of this experience which makes his “forgetting” of the entire rehearsal process which preceded it not only understandable, but perhaps inevitable. 387 Conclusions <?page no="388"?> 14.5 Amelie (Anne Frank in Act I) Amelie was a very quiet, insecure pupil who through her conscientious work in the last years had managed to generally reach passing grades, or nearly passing grades in English. She did quite well in grammar units in which through dutifully studying a specific area she was able to attain a solid grasp of the material. She had more difficulties in understanding literary or non-fiction texts and, particularly, in writing essays about them. Although she appeared to be quite concentrated during lessons, she almost never spoke up in class and if called upon, turned red and usually stammered embarrassedly in German. For this reason, I generally avoided calling on her. In her other classes she was also perceived as reserved and insecure. In fact, glancing through the copies of earlier report cards it becomes clear that through her entire school career she was considered to be shy and insecure in class. It was through her disciplined work at home that she had achieved passing grades in her other subjects. Outside of school, she is very busy with her hobby, equestrian vaulting (Voltigieren) and she also competes in tournaments. Her familiarity with horses comes quite naturally as she lives in idyllic, country surroundings on a large old farm on the outskirts of Düsseldorf. She is quite small and thin and her appearance gives the impression that she is younger than the other girls in her class. Her response to the first inquiry is very revealing: First Inquiry December 20, 2004 I don’t have any expectations. My wish is that the rehearsals go well. I have good feelings about the play and I hope that many people come to the performances. And I hope that the rehearsals are well-disciplined this time and aren’t as chaotic as they were during the class 8 play. I hope that through the many rehearsals and the big role, I can overcome my stage fright and my fear of speaking alone in lessons. Perhaps it can be viewed as characteristic of Amelie that she begins her first response by stating that she has no expectations. What she writes next about her hopes that the rehearsals will be more disciplined than they were in the 8 th grade play seems to reflect her fears that the chaos that she had previously experienced in rehearsals for the last class play (in which she had only had a relatively small role) could occur again. Her last sentence is striking: I hope that through the many rehearsals and the big role, I can overcome my stage fright and my fear of speaking alone in lessons. 388 14 Five In-Depth Studies <?page no="389"?> What emerges clearly is that her choice of the main role in the play was a conscious choice she had made to confront deep anxieties which she had been unable to overcome until this point. In her second response after the first six weeks of rehearsals, she begins with three concerns: Second Inquiry March 1, 2005 In my opinion, the rehearsals of students without teachers are too undisciplined. In the general rehearsals I have noticed over the course of time that a few students have no interest any more in the rehearsals, or their roles, and that they totally disturb the rehearsals - for example, when Peter doesn’t make an effort and stands around bored in the scenes with Anne then she finds it really hard to work with him. I also have the problem in rehearsals that I don’t always know what to do. I enjoy my role as Anne and it is fun. At the beginning, I had great doubts whether I would be able to do this role, but these doubts are now gone. However, I am worried whether I will be able to remember all my entrances, because there are so many. I don’t have any problems with Anne’s personality, because the problems she has in the play I also have at this point. My development in the play has had an effect on my nervousness. Earlier and at the beginning of the rehearsals I was always nervous when I had to say something, but now I don’t have any problems with nervousness. And my vocabulary has got much better. In her criticism of the rehearsals which the students direct and which she finds too undisciplined, there are clear connections to the fears that she had already expressed before the rehearsals began. The next point of concern and frustration for her is the lack of interest of some of the other pupils. In particular, she explains how difficult it is when one of the other characters with whom she had many scenes together does not try to act. She does not write in the first person at this point, nor mention her classmate by name; instead, she uses the third person, referring to the names of the characters. Her criticism was, from my perspective, a valid one since one of the classmates who had this role was often quite listless, making it difficult to work on these scenes together. After expressing her final concern that she sometimes does not know what to do on stage, she shifts her focus and tone completely. She then makes clear that despite all this, she is enjoying the work and the role and that the intense nervousness which she had so feared and experienced at the beginning of the rehearsal period has in the meantime completely disappeared. Her response to the third research inquiry addresses a number of different areas: 389 14.5 Amelie (Anne Frank in Act I) <?page no="390"?> Third Inquiry April 26, .2005 Unfortunately, I have worked less and less at learning my own lines and therefore I don’t remember as much of the text as before. The rehearsals have got much better in the course of time. They are much more disciplined and one learns something new each time. The only negative thing is that some people either don’t know their lines, or simply mumble them without making any effort. This ruins the rehearsals every time. It is also disturbing when you have rehearsals with different teachers and each teacher says something different so in the end you are uncertain and you can’t decide how you should do it. I really enjoy the individual rehearsals, but one should correct the pronunciation more. I can build up my relationship to my role very well, because I have big problems in my private life with my parents and brother and sisters and I can therefore identify very well with Anne’s situation. In my view the development of the play is lagging a bit, because the performance is in five weeks and much is still unclear. My personal development is going very positively, because it used to be that if I had to present something I was always terribly nervous and my whole body shook and so on, and that has gone completely. My English vocabulary lists have grown much longer. After first expressing her frustration with herself that she has not been consci‐ entious enough in practicing her text at home, she writes that she feels the rehearsals are now going much better. However, she then goes on to express her continued frustration with some of her classmates who still do not know their texts, and who are not trying hard enough to act their roles well. She also complains about having had rehearsals with different teachers which, in the end, made her unsure of herself, since she feels she received conflicting directions. Although she speaks positively about the individual rehearsals, her concerns about her English pronunciation are also expressed. Having expressed these feelings of insecurity and frustration she then looks again at her own relation to the role and explains that she finds it easy to identify with the role since it also reflects her own personal situation. She expresses her concern that there is still very much to do and not enough time. Finally, as in the previous two responses, she ends by looking back at her earlier fears and anxieties and compares how she felt then to how she feels now: My personal development is going very positively, because it used to be that if I had to present something I was always terribly nervous and my whole body shook and so on, and that has gone completely. 390 14 Five In-Depth Studies <?page no="391"?> In the course of this response, she expresses a range of different concerns regarding the play. At the same time she writes positively about the rehearsal process and about her own development in overcoming her fears. Insecurities are still present, but one also senses the clear beginnings of a new feeling of self-confidence and a recognition that she has in critical respects become very different than she had been. At the end of both the second and third inquiries she comments on how her English vocabulary has improved. Her fourth and final response is divided into seven different points: Fourth Inquiry June 6, 2005 • I have had the experience that I could fully enter into a role and therefore was hardly nervous; that in sad scenes I was sad and in happy scenes, happy. • I really enjoyed the rehearsals in the final weeks. After every rehearsal one felt one had made a further step and as one noticed - one was really into the role and that I was not myself any more. • In the last month I noticed that I developed a feeling for what the Jews or persecuted people in war must have felt and so that has become much clearer to me. In the course of the rehearsals I was able to identify ever more strongly with her situation and therefore was able to act more freely. • I enjoyed the English language much more through the English class play and I find it more interesting and my vocabulary has increased a lot. Because this has awakened my interest in the English language, I have decided to go to England in September for three months. • The work with the props didn’t hold much interest for me. I only really wanted to do something for the class and not let the others do everything. • It has changed me to the extent that I was no longer nervous at all, in strong contrast to how I was before. I have learned to understand English as a language better and through the text the grammar has become much clearer to me. • I hope that my nervousness is now gone forever. In her reflections in the final inquiry, there is a clear thread going through the first three points. The process through which she entered so fully into the role is concretely described and connected to the overcoming of her nervousness: I have had the experience that I could fully enter into a role and therefore was hardly nervous; that in sad scenes I was sad and in happy scenes, happy. The rehearsals of the last weeks are viewed as highly satisfying, and she describes how she finally was able to reach that point where she was no longer herself but had become the character: 391 14.5 Amelie (Anne Frank in Act I) <?page no="392"?> I really enjoyed the rehearsals in the final weeks. After every rehearsal one felt one had made a further step and as one noticed - one was really into the role and that I was not myself any more. The consequences of this immersion in the role are wide-ranging for her. Apparently for the first time, she is able to go past simply identifying with the role of Anne as a child in conflict with her parents. Formerly, she had viewed this as the reason why she could so easily identify with the role. She is now able to enter into Anne’s situation, to feel and see things through Anne’s perspective and thus she begins to understand how they felt in hiding: In the last month I noticed that I developed a feeling for what the Jews or persecuted people in war must have felt and so that has become much clearer to me. The deeper she entered the role, the freer she became in her acting: In the course of the rehearsals I was able to identify ever more strongly with her situation and therefore was able to act more freely. Her next reflection shifts back to the level of language abilities, but this time, in contrast to her earlier responses, not solely in regard to increasing her vocabulary, but much more globally here in her whole relation to the language: I enjoyed the English language much more through the English class play and I find it more interesting and my vocabulary has increased a lot. The consequences of her new relation to English lead to a concrete decision: Because this has awakened my interest in the English language, I have decided to go to England in September for three months. At the end of her final reflections, as in all the previous responses, she returns to the theme of her nervousness. In this context she also appears to connect this with a deeper understanding of the text and even aspects of grammar. At the end she expresses her wish that her anxieties and nervousness are now gone forever. Conclusions Her class teachers who periodically watched rehearsals invariably commented on their surprise at seeing Amelie acting as she did. What they saw then and during the performances was far removed from the way they had always viewed 392 14 Five In-Depth Studies <?page no="393"?> her. They each had the opportunity to observe her development at different points during the entire rehearsal period, also in the context of their own classes: Amelie has grown beyond herself; she has worked very diligently without neglecting her other subjects (German), has grown with the task; she enjoyed acting more and more and this increased with each performance - you couldn’t see in the performance that she had really had to work hard: on the contrary, one could experience her great joy in acting. During the rehearsals she was often uncertain whether she could master the entire text and the play; but she never showed signs of being overwhelmed or demoralised and by the way, there was no sense of competition with Mailin who at the beginning seemed stronger for the part. This role was a major step for her self-confidence; afterwards, she was very proud without in any sense being arrogant. Another class teacher wrote, In order to play this leading role, Amelie had to ‘transcend’ her own self. She gave the impression of being very introverted and concentrated during the rehearsals and developed the ability to get wholly into the work and to cooperate. Sometimes I had the impression that she was totally out of her depth. Amelie’s staying power has made her much more confident today. For her teachers who had not seen her in rehearsals and first saw her on stage in the heightened intensity of the performances, this was an unexpected revelation: It was a great surprise for me to see Amelie as the young Anne Frank. In my single religion lesson a week, Amelie is an attentive, but totally unresponsive and silent student. I could hardly recognise her in the lively, quick, high-spirited, teasing, imaginative Anne who was always good for a surprise - for instance, the presents for the others. In reviewing my notes during the entire rehearsal process, it is evident that Amelie had a determinative part in shaping much of the work. This began even before the rehearsals started. At the point at which I saw that Amelie had listed Anne Frank as her first choice of role - a role that was, by far, the largest in the play - I was rather amazed by her surprising and courageous choice. As her teacher I was very pleased by her decision, but at the same time, as the director responsible for the play, I also viewed this with some trepidation since I had no idea if she had the flexibility on stage that this role demanded, nor was it clear to me how her timid, shy voice would manage to project into our large auditorium. The only point about which I was confident was that she would learn the role very conscientiously, which also proved to be the case. (She was one of the pupils who were always well prepared.) 393 Conclusions <?page no="394"?> From the point the rehearsals began, I was consistently moved by the untiring intensity and concentration she brought to the work. It is characteristic that in all her responses she never mentioned the fact that for much of the rehearsal period she was ill with mononucleosis and that her doctors had actually wanted her to leave school everyday at the latest at 2.00 p. m., because it was considered much too strenuous for someone in her condition to remain in school longer. (Our rehearsals only began at 1.00 p. m.). She insisted on rehearsing anyway, her parents accepted her decision and despite her illness, her levels of energy and concentration during the rehearsals were consistently the highest in the group. Her frustration with others who sometimes hung around listlessly at this point in the day becomes clearer when one realizes that her doctors were worried she would not have the strength to even sit in classes after 2: 00 p. m., let alone to move around in rehearsals until 3.00 p. m., or later. There are a number of factors which contributed to her behaviour. She is clearly a girl who has a highly developed work ethic and who is capable of forcing herself to work hard when necessary, regardless of how she may feel. However, it is not only her capability of dealing with illness that explains her energy and concentration levels at the rehearsals. Far more significant was the inner step which she had first been able to take in signing up for the role, and then the continual steps she made in every rehearsal towards overcoming her intense nervousness about speaking in front of others. In each of her responses to the research inquiries this issue is a central theme. From what she wrote in the first inquiry it becomes clear that her initial choice to play the lead role was a conscious one which she had made to directly confront and overcome her fears of speaking in public, whether in class or on stage: I hope that through the many rehearsals and the big role, I can overcome my stage fright and my fear of speaking alone in lessons. In her choice to take on that particular role, she evidenced a readiness and will to make a step that she had previously been unable to make. This fits to what her father wrote: Beforehand, Amelie showed a great interest in having one of the most important parts in the play. At first I had the impression that this was primarily because of the social status that one would like to have in the class. After she got the role she wanted, I was concerned whether she would be able to manage the task. I gradually lost these concerns: Amelie got seriously involved in the play and learned her part on her own without anyone having to encourage her. 394 14 Five In-Depth Studies <?page no="395"?> However, at the same time, the fact that this decision was a difficult one for her is indicated by what she wrote in the second inquiry, at a point long past the moment she had taken that decisive step: At the beginning, I had great doubts whether I would be able to do this role, but these doubts are now gone. Within the first six weeks of rehearsals she had already managed to overcome her former feelings and habits: My development in the play has had an effect on my nervousness. Earlier and at the beginning of the rehearsals I was always nervous when I had to say something, but now I don’t have any problems with nervousness. Six weeks later she concretely reveals for the first time how she used to feel before speaking in public, and contrasts this with her completely different experiences at this point: My personal development is going very positively, because it used to be that if I had to present something I was always terribly nervous and my whole body shook and so on, and that has gone completely. In looking back at this process after the performances, she writes: It has changed me to the extent that I was no longer nervous at all, in strong contrast to how I was before. (…) I hope that my nervousness is now gone forever. In trying to understand how such deeply engrained habits which had been clearly visible during her ten years in school, could have been changed so completely in the course of weeks of rehearsals, one must above all realize that the intense drive to change her behaviour came from within her. It was this aspect that struck and moved her parents so deeply: We were renumerated for everything by the performance which was a moving and impressive experience for us. I was astonished how such a delicate person could build up so much energy and release it in the performance. My wife recalled the time in kindergarten when Amelie cried daily over many years when her mother brought her to the group. It was similar in the first years at school and on the first day at school; it was very hard for her when others looked at her. She was afraid every week when she had to speak her birthday verse in front of the class and also when she had to perform music in public - at which points it required a great deal of persuasion to make her do it - and sometimes she just wouldn’t do it! 395 Conclusions <?page no="396"?> The basis for everything that happened can be seen in Amelie’s readiness to make that choice and confront her weakness. The way she chose to face this is striking and deserves closer consideration. Since she makes clear that her anxieties sprang from having to speak in front of others in general, and not specifically in English, it would also have been possible for her to make these steps in any of her classes. She was clearly a good enough pupil to be able to take a more active part in any of her subjects. Why did she choose to take this step in the foreign language play? And, if she particularly wanted to take this step in the play, why did she not she pick a medium-sized role, which would have given her a better chance to work her way gradually through this problem? Her choice to take on the main role in a foreign language production, speaking in a language which she had barely ever spoken aloud in front of others, seems a remarkable and unexpected step. And yet despite the obvious difficulties implied in taking on the main role in an English play, there were also significant advantages. Right from the start there was a strong connection to the role and to the play. As we have seen, the significance of her identification and finally immersion in the role comes out repeatedly in her responses. Acting the role of another person in another language who experienced similar problems and conflicts appears to have given her a unique possibility to make this leap. It is not clear to me how consciously she was aware of these aspects when she made this initial step. I suspect, however, that she sensed in the role of Anne Frank something that would give her the possibility to break free of how she had felt and viewed herself until then. In trying to follow and understand the different steps in this process, it ap‐ pears to me that, comparable in this respect to Jorinde, the physical component that changed in her must be seen as essential to this transformation. As I have mentioned, she always became extremely anxious when she was called upon to speak or do something in front of the class. At such moments, her tenseness was very apparent in her red face, hunched shoulders, and cramped physical attitude. The warm-ups with which we began every rehearsal were, of course, quite specifically designed to have the effect of loosening and relaxing the entire body and person. Amelie was someone who was able to fully enter into the spirit of this kind of work and she always appeared to particularly enjoy chasing others through the room in some of our wilder games. After twenty minutes of such activities, together with stretching, breathing and speech exercises, I believe that she had a completely new physical basis for taking on the challenge of speaking her role in front of others. If we had begun with rehearsals in the context of our English lessons, I think this process would have been much more 396 14 Five In-Depth Studies <?page no="397"?> difficult for her. The dramatic transformation from the pupil she had always been in the classroom to the pupil she was now trying to become in the rehearsals required a completely different physical, emotional and mental basis. I believe that the warm-ups gave her that basis necessary for what she was trying to achieve. Within the rehearsals she became more and more flexible and was increas‐ ingly willing to take chances and experiment with the role. This all struck me as being very new. Similar in this respect to Jorinde, she had been a pupil who always wanted to have the security of learning a foreign language through a continual reference to what she already knew, for instance, in the context of working with English-German vocabulary lists. (Although I never did this kind of work in class, she was one of those pupils who on their own initiative kept up their own personal little English-German vocabulary notebooks, something I neither encouraged nor discouraged.) She did well in grammar units because this kind of work came closest to what she sought. When given the chance to work on a specific area of language which offered her the certainty that if she worked hard enough at home, she could fully understand it, she was highly conscientious about the work. Faced with the openness of a literary text and with a broad range of questions and possibilities, she often seemed quite helpless and unhappy. During the rehearsals in which we were constantly experimenting with different possibilities in each scene, there was very little security and yet she flourished in this environment. There appear to me to be two main reasons for this. First and most obvious, she had gained a high degree of security in regard to the text because she had worked very hard at learning her role and continued to work on her text at home. This was certainly critical for her and gave her a foundation from which she could work. However, this intense preparatory work on her own also turned out to have some problematic consequences which are worth considering. From all those years of having almost never spoken English alone, Amelie had, unsurprisingly, severe difficulties with the pronunciation of almost all the English syllables and sounds which are often difficult for German speakers to correctly articulate. Together with a pronounced German sentence melody which was very apparent even when she pronounced words correctly, it made her comprehensibility problematic for someone who did not have the text in front of them. Early on, we had put together a long list of words from her role which she was pronouncing incorrectly which I then sometimes practiced with her. However, as I was always so pleased with her acting, and there were so many seemingly far more pressing problems with the other pupils, I did not 397 Conclusions <?page no="398"?> pay too much attention to her heavy German accent. In fact, I had also grown quite used to it and as long as she was not mispronouncing words, I did not pay too much attention to her general tone and diction. Thus, it was only when a colleague listened to a rehearsal for the first time and informed me afterwards that she considered Amelie’s German accent and pronunciation to be a major hindrance for the comprehensibility of her role and hence the entire play, that I realized how much I had underestimated the problem. (This was also the point at which Amelie commented on the need for this in her third inquiry.) In the last six weeks, this became a major area of concentration for her. We worked regularly on it and she also worked with other pupils as well. She had made definite improvements by the time of the performance, but it remained a challenge for those people hearing her for the first time to fully understand what she said. In retrospect, in terms of her pronunciation it would have been better if I had told her not to practice and learn her part before the rehearsals began, but rather to learn it only in the context of the rehearsals. Thus the correct diction and pronunciation would have been learned from the start, instead of having to ‘undo’ so many mispronounced words later. This is a method which some experienced colleagues whom I know use, but which had never seemed to me to be appropriate, or necessary. However, in Amelie’s case it could have potentially made a significant difference with respect to this problem. Yet, at the same time, it is also conceivable that it would have endangered the other processes that she was going through, considering that her confidence in her preparation gave her a strong basis from which to work. Undoubtedly, I should have been more aware of the extent of this problem from the beginning and taken appropriate measures much sooner. However, in the end, I do not think it would have been wise to ask her not to prepare so conscientiously on her own, despite the fact that this meant investing large amounts of time later ‘undoing’ some of her work. The second and deeper reason for her being able to flourish in the unlikely situation of rehearsing in English was her identification with the role of Anne. What was required in the first act was the complete immersion into the world of this remarkable and impetuous twelve-year-old, a world, which despite the oppressive living conditions, was often full of spontaneous and creative play, unburdened by any form of self-consciousness. After being cramped up in the apartment for the entire day, not allowed to make a sound, Anne invariably exploded with youthful energy in the evenings when they were finally allowed to move. The entire range of experiences which Anne has with the other people living there (most of whom she manages to drive crazy), along with her complicated relationship with her mother are all closely connected to her 398 14 Five In-Depth Studies <?page no="399"?> feelings of being trapped in a world she desperately wants to escape. Amelie was able to fully identify with these feelings. Embodying the impetuousness and intensity of Anne’s character always seemed to be a welcome challenge for her and it also gave her a wonderful possibility to release all her nervous energy. The fact that this was all taking place in a foreign language, that we were rehearsing in a classroom having to imagine the entire set and objects, that her classmates were there too, - all elements which could easily bring about a lack of security - became unimportant. For Amelie as an adolescent, wholly entering this child’s world appeared to offer her a unique chance to free herself from the extreme self-consciousness from which she had always suffered. However, most significantly, her development in the end went past this initial level of identification and continued to grow. In the last phase of rehearsals and in the performances she was not only able to go past her own former personal borders, but also discover dimensions of Anne’s character beyond those she had enacted until that point. For the first time, she began to more fully feel and understand Anne’s life and situation: In the last month I noticed that I developed a feeling for what the Jews or persecuted people in war must have felt and so that has become much clearer to me. The effects of this development which were visible to me both as a deepening of the character and through a heightened intensity, she perceived as a sense of increased freedom. She writes: In the course of the rehearsals I was able to identify ever more strongly with her situation and therefore was able to act more freely. In the course of a long process requiring a high degree of personal and artistic discipline, she had reached a point where her personal theme of overcoming her fears was no longer the primary force driving her. A deepening of her understanding for the others began to take over. Going beyond those childlike qualities of Anne, which she had found so natural to act out, she began to feel the gravity of the entire situation. From this point on, the exciting possibilities of personal development which artistic experience had offered her in letting her enter into the freedom of this child’s world were no longer the only dimension of experience which became visible; another more realistic and serious one became apparent too. Out of her deeper sense of the larger context of Anne Frank’s life not only did her acting, without losing its childlike qualities, become more mature, but, I believe Amelie did too. A much larger meaning and purpose than her own struggles had become visible to her and she tried to embody that vision in each performance. This is why she was able to so completely forget herself 399 Conclusions <?page no="400"?> in the performances. It is the reason why she felt so free on stage and also the reason I believe that for us, the audience, it all became so real. 400 14 Five In-Depth Studies <?page no="401"?> 454 Wagner 1998, 231-244. 15 Rehearsing and Performing a Play in a Foreign Language: Discussion In Chapter 11 (11.3), the initial research hypothesis was formulated: The processes inherent in the rehearsing and performing of a full-length drama in a foreign language offer high school students (16-17 years old) significant benefits in a wide range of areas, including new and heightened possibilities of personal, social and language devel‐ opment. Within the three general areas of personal growth, social development, and language capabilities, a number of concrete questions were posed (11.3.1). Having reviewed in the two previous chapters what the pupils wrote during and after this process, along with the comments of their parents and teachers, it is apparent that these questions have been addressed from a variety of perspectives. Although these three areas offered an initial framework for considering pupils’ developments, it has become clear that in many cases these developments overlapped and were intrinsically connected to each other. The decisive changes, for instance, for Amelie in terms of her language abilities were closely tied to important personal steps which she was able to make. In a different sense, this was also the case for Jorinde. For a pupil like Lieselotte, the changes in social relations she experienced became an important aspect of her personal development. This pattern holds true for many other pupils as well. Hence, these categories cannot be seen as distinct, but instead offer a general framework for viewing different aspects of what occurred. As previously noted, there is a marked absence of research on the use of drama-based teaching approaches in high schools. 454 The research conducted in foreign language settings has chiefly focused on improvisational drama and not on performance-based projects. In examining performances of a full-length drama, previous research has been primarily concerned with older learners studying a foreign language in a university setting. Thus, considering the dearth of published research with respect to this type of work during adolescence, it will be necessary to first look closely at a number of relevant aspects pertaining to that age in order to ascertain what this kind of artistic experience may offer to young people. The particular point in their lives in which this work occurred is seen to constitute a decisive element in evaluating its effects. In the <?page no="402"?> 455 Barbara Strauch, The Primal Teen: What the New Discoveries about the Teenage Brain Tell Us About Our Kids. (New York: Anchor Books, 2003), 51-74. 456 Adam M. Sillito, “Visual System: Environmental Influences” in The Oxford Companion to the Mind. Ed. Richard Gregory (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1991), 796-799. context of the further discussion of the play, a broad range of connections to the writings of well-known educators including Lev Vygotsky, Gordon Wells, Nel Noddings, Jerome Bruner, Howard Gardner, Douglas Sloan and Elliot Eisner will be examined 15.1 Adolescence as a ‘Critical Period’ One of the most significant and unexpected developments in neurological research in recent years has been the recognition of the extent of the changes that can occur in the adolescent brain, dependent on experience. Whereas formerly puberty was viewed as a watershed point in regard to the brain’s development past which little neurological change was considered possible, due to new techniques of examining the brain there is now incontrovertible evidence that the vaunted plasticity of the brain, formerly thought to exist only in infancy and childhood, continues to exist through adolescence. In fact, for some vital areas of the brain, particularly within the pre-frontal cortex, adolescence now appears to be a critical and decisive period of development. 455 The term ‘critical period’ is used by biologists, neurologists and psycholin‐ guists to denote those limited periods of time in the growth of organs, or in the attaining of specific capabilities, in which certain steps must be reached in order to assure normal development later. These highly time-bound steps are tied to the determinative interaction between an organism and its environment in this uniquely formative phase. During such critical periods, specific organs and their functional organization are particularly sensitive to and dependent on this interaction. A classic example of a critical period is in the development of vision. An infant is born with 1/ 100 of the sight of an adult. To develop normal vision it is essential that within the first months of life the infant is exposed to light, otherwise less than half of the responsible cells will later be capable of reacting to light. 456 Another well-known example of a critical period, albeit a far longer and more complex one, is in the acquisition of language. The entire process of language acquisition is inextricably tied to the unique neurological plasticity of the brain which is decisively formed by the language/ s the child is exposed to. It is this enormous plasticity which also enables children to readily overcome major cerebral injuries leading to a temporary loss of 402 15 Rehearsing and Performing a Play in a Foreign Language: Discussion <?page no="403"?> 457 Eric Lenneberg, The Biological Foundations of Language. (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1967), 146. 458 Ibid., 150. 459 Strauch 2003, 55-66. 460 Ibid. language - injuries which would cause permanent damage after puberty - by developing fully new neurological connections and structures which effectively ‘take over’ the functions of the injured areas. Such formative capabilities are highly typical of the developmental possibilities inherent in and often limited to critical periods. 457 In the case of language acquisition, the critical period is considered to be over, at the latest, at the onset of puberty. 458 The key to how critical periods function lies in the way the brain works. At the beginning of these periods, the brain first produces far more cells than it needs, or could possibly survive. After this enormous over-production there is then a long-term competitive process of elimination during which through the determinative principle of ‘use it or lose it’ some brain cells and connections survive while most do not. Such periods of extensive overproduction have long been known to occur in the womb and in the first 18 months of life. The existence of any form of critical period from the time of puberty on was until quite recently considered neurologically untenable, and it was assumed that the corresponding plasticity of the brain no longer exists at this point. 459 Only recently has it become apparent that there is also a much later period of extensive overproduction occurring at the onset of puberty in which the amount of grey matter of the brain increases almost 100 % in the course of a year. The ensuing ‘pruning’ process by which those cells and connections which are used are strengthened, and most others die off, is now understood to be a process which continues throughout adolescence. 460 The implications of this research for education must be considered as enormous. Jay Giedd, one of the world’s leading researchers in this field, said in a recent interview: These cells and connections that are used will survive and flourish. Those cells and connections that are not used will wither and die. So if a teen is doing music or sports or academics, those are the cells and connections that will be hard-wired. If they’re lying on the couch or playing video games or MTV, those are the cells and connections that are going to survive. Right around the time of puberty and on into the adult years is a particularly critical time for the brain sculpting to take place. Much like Michelangelo’s David, you start out with a huge block of granite at the peak at the puberty years. Then the art is created by removing pieces of the granite, and that is the way the brain also sculpts 403 15.1 Adolescence as a ‘Critical Period’ <?page no="404"?> 461 Jay Giedd. Interview PBS Frontline. Jan 2002, available online at (last accessed on 24.07.2021) at https: / / www.pbs.org/ wgbh/ pages/ frontline/ shows/ teenbrain/ interviews / giedd.html, 1-2. 462 Strauch 2003, 16. 463 In the context of reviewing this research on the maturing adolescent brain, the well-known psychiatrist Manfred Spitzer has drawn attention to the pointlessness of teaching some subjects too early in schools. He argues that there are subjects which require a type of understanding dependent on a maturity of the frontal lobes which would not yet have been reached at the point at which these subjects are sometimes taught. The conclusions he draws from this research can be found in, Manfred Spitzer, Lernen: Gehirnforschung und die Schule des Lebens. (Heidelberg: Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, 2003), 351-359. In a very different context, research documenting the very gradual maturing of the frontal lobes has also directly influenced changes in driving laws in a number of states in the United States in which, for example, young drivers are now not allowed to drive with more than one or two unrelated passengers. 464 Jay Giedd, Interview PBS, 5. itself. Bigger isn’t necessarily better, or else the peak in brain function would occur at age 11 or 12. The advances come from actually taking away and pruning down of certain connections themselves. 461 There are a number of areas of the brain in which these processes of the thickening of some connections and the pruning of others appear to be partic‐ ularly evident. These include the parietal lobes, which are associated with logic and spatial abilities, and the temporal areas which are connected to language. Particular attention has also been paid to the frontal lobes which determine executive functioning, enabling one to plan, organize and, most importantly, to control and resist impulses. It has become clear that the brain’s overproduction in the frontal lobes peaks at the beginning of puberty, rising far above adult levels and then after a gradual process of pruning only finally reaches a stable, adult state, well past the age of twenty. 462 Hence, neurologists like Giedd argue, it may be, neurologically speaking, unrealistic to expect certain types of reasoned, thoughtful planning from teenagers insofar as the brain structures which are viewed to be decisively responsible for these functions are only just beginning to form at this time. These findings clearly raise a host of educational and societal issues. 463 Another part of the teenage brain which is the subject of much attention is the cerebellum which appears to be highly susceptible to environmental as opposed to genetic influences. This has become clear through studies with twins in which identical twins’ cerebellums have been shown to be no more alike than those of non-identical twins. 464 This is also the part of the brain that changes most in adolescence and continues to grow and change in the 404 15 Rehearsing and Performing a Play in a Foreign Language: Discussion <?page no="405"?> 465 Ibid. 466 Ibid., 6. 467 Strauch 2003, 43. 468 Ibid. 469 Lutzker 2017, 49-91, 154-190. early twenties. 465 It was formerly thought that the cerebellum was primarily used in the coordination of muscles: athletes and dancers, for example, had highly developed neural connections in their cerebellums. In the meantime, the cerebellum is now believed to be involved in far more than this and researchers now believe the cerebellum plays an important role in the management of different forms of complicated, higher activities, whether bodily or cognitive. This neurological connection between cognitive and bodily capabilities raises significant educational issues. Giedd writes, Traditionally it was thought that physical activity would most influence the cere‐ bellum, and that’s still one of the leading thoughts. It actually raises thoughts about, as a society, we’re less active than we have ever been in the history of humanity. We’re good with our thumbs and video games and such. But as far as actual physical activity, running, jumping, playing, children are doing less and less of that, and we wonder, long-term, whether that may have a an effect on the development of the cerebellum. The recess and play seems to be the first thing that is cut out of school curriculums in tight times. But those actually may be as important, or maybe even more important, than some of the academic subjects that the children are doing. (…) We think that the “Use it or lose it” principle holds for the cerebellum as well. If the cerebellum is exercised and used, both for physical activity but also for cognitive activities, that it will enhance its development. 466 The cerebellum is also believed to play a decisive role in key aspects of social behaviour, particularly those requiring flexibility or fluidity, including recognizing social cues and getting jokes. 467 Disturbances in the metabolism of the cerebellum are now thought to play a role in Asperger’s syndrome, a form of mild autism characterized by social awkwardness and aloofness. 468 It lies in the nature of critical periods that an organism is most profoundly shaped by experiences occurring during this time. For example, in studying the extended critical period of language acquisition, it has become clear that the specific languages which infants and children hear determinatively shape the structures of their brains, as well as the nature of their entire kinesic responses to language. 469 Thus, both brain structures and the linguistic-kinesic organization of language vary, depending on the speech sounds and structures of the first 405 15.1 Adolescence as a ‘Critical Period’ <?page no="406"?> 470 Ibid. 471 Strauch 2003, 174-188. 472 Ibid. 473 Strauch 2003, 125-144. language/ s. 470 Past the critical age, this degree of plasticity of the brain and movement organization does not exist to a comparable degree and hence the natural process of first language acquisition cannot occur in this manner. Related to this formability of structures and organization is a corresponding vulnerability. Within this critical period in which these structures are being deeply formed, they are also uniquely vulnerable to being deformed. Thus, the same research demonstrating the high degree of plasticity present in the teenage brain, has recently sparked off a wave of research into the effects of substances on the adolescent brain which, strikingly enough, until then had never been a subject of extensive, long-term studies. 471 Present research indicates strongly that both the effects of both alcohol and nicotine on teenagers are far more profound than was previously thought to be the case, affecting the size and development of critical areas of the brain including the hippocampus, which plays a decisive role in memory functions. 472 15.2 Parallel Developments in the Critical Period Neurological research has made clear that there are highly individual and complex processes occurring simultaneously in many parts of the brain during adolescence. However, the profound neurological changes taking place at this age are only one part of a number of co-occurring physiological and physical developments. The changes which puberty causes, and which also have to be considered in the context of this ‘critical period’, are inextricably connected to the vast hormonal changes which occur, with all their known effects in shaping teenage behaviour, notably but certainly not exclusively in regard to sexual maturity. Recent research in this field has made evident that the dramatic changes in the hormonal systems which occur during the course of puberty also play a significant role in the context of neurological processes. 473 Through vastly improved possibilities of studying the different systems of the human organism, it has become increasingly clear that there is far more communication between these parallel systems than formerly assumed. Neuroscientist Candace Pert writes, 406 15 Rehearsing and Performing a Play in a Foreign Language: Discussion <?page no="407"?> 474 Candace Pert, Molecules of Emotion: Why You Feel the Way You Feel. (London: Simon and Schuster, 1997), 184 475 Ibid., 188-189. 476 Ernst-Michael Kranich, Anthropologische Grundlagen der Waldorfpädagogik. (Stuttgart: Verlag Freies Geistesleben, 1999), 198-202. The three classically separated areas of neuroscience, endocrinology, and immunology with their various organs - the brain; the glands; and the spleen, bone marrow and lymph nodes - are actually joined to each other in a multidirectional network of communication, linked by information carriers known as neuropeptides. There are well-studied physiological substrates showing that communication exists in both directions for every single one of these areas and their organs. 474 For Pert and other researchers, the concept of the body as a highly complex network of parallel organizations connected by information substances has replaced the previous mechanistic model which saw the body and brain in terms of energy and matter, driven by electrical stimulation across synapses. The widespread integration of these systems, most notably on the molecular level, makes clear that the kinds of dramatic changes which occur in puberty in the brain or hormonal system not only strongly affect that respective system, but the others as well. Pert writes, In summary, the point I am making is that your brain is extremely well integrated with the rest of your body at a molecular level, so much so that the term mobile brain is an apt description of the psychosomatic network through which intelligent information travels from one system to another. Every one of the zones, or systems, of the network - the neural, the hormonal, the gastrointestinal, and the immune - is set up to communicate with one another, via peptides and messenger-specific peptide rectors. Every second, a massive information exchange is occurring in your body. 475 (italics in original) Puberty is, of course, also characterized by a radical growth in the size of limbs and organs. As opposed to earlier phases of growth in childhood which are characterized by the forming of the organs, both internally and externally, this later phase is crucial in regard to growth, and the intensification of life pro‐ cesses, reflected for instance in markedly increased blood circulation, increased nutritional needs and in the extensive development of the entire respiratory organization. These processes begin earlier for girls than boys, and in a number of respects evidence different dynamics and different characteristics. 476 The growth of the lungs is characteristic of these developments, and is particularly significant with respect to its consequences. For girls between ten 407 15.2 Parallel Developments in the Critical Period <?page no="408"?> 477 Schwartze H. & Schwartze P., Physiologie des Foetal-, Neugeborenen- und Kindesalters. (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1977), 119-120. 478 Kranich 1999, 186-190. 479 Ibid., 184-185. 480 Strauch 2003, 164. 481 Kranich 1999, 189-190. and fourteen, lung capacity grows 41 %. For boys between twelve and sixteen it grows 55 %. 477 This substantial deepening of breathing can be viewed in conjunction with a variety of co-occurring emotional and mental changes. 478 It is also related to changes in sleep, insofar as the ratio of the pulse to breath changes: a child in the lower school has a fundamentally different relation of pulse to breath while sleeping than when awake; a young person from roughly thirteen on maintains the same relation of 4 to 1. 479 Research also indicates that the nature of dreams changes at this point: they tend to become more coherent and narrative, involving the dreamer as the main character. 480 A further revealing example of the far-ranging changes in organs which occur at this age is the parallel growth of the heart, which reaches its adult size and its own individual form in puberty. Interestingly, from this point it is also perceived differently. For example, a child under the age of thirteen who has a severe heart problem is practically incapable of sensing that anything is wrong. Hence, he or she will play without care and is thus in constant danger of risking an incipient crisis. It is only from puberty on that children can sense their heart consciously and thus have the possibility of becoming more careful. 481 15.3 Adolescence as a ‘Critical Period’: Further Perspectives In examining the neurological, physiological, physical, emotional and mental processes simultaneously occurring in puberty, it is apparent that such an entire dynamic organization or gestalt cannot be firmly localized - either within specific material substrates of the brain, hormonal systems, or in predetermined genetic codes. It can also not be defined by isolating and evaluating specific aspects of neurological development, physical growth, emotional behaviour or cognitive development, but must be viewed as simultaneously present in all of these co-occurring processes and thus fully perceivable only in its entire behav‐ ioural expression. Even for researchers concretely focusing on specific areas within their own fields, it has become increasingly clear how interdependent 408 15 Rehearsing and Performing a Play in a Foreign Language: Discussion <?page no="409"?> 482 The complex interaction of these different factors has been illuminatingly and exten‐ sively documented by Joachim Bauer in Das Gedächtnis des Körpers: Wie Beziehungen und Lebensstile unsere Gene steuern. (Munich: Piper, 2004). and overlapping these physiological, neurological and psychological processes are. 482 For parents and teachers, viewing adolescence as a critical period implies accepting a significant degree of responsibility. This has clear ramifications in considering the lifelong significance of different types of experiences, or their absence, at this age. At the same time, in striking comparison to all other critical periods, there are also innumerable possibilities of adolescents themselves playing a crucial role in directing their own development. As opposed to the infant or child who is dependent on his environment for the development of his requisite organs and capabilities, a teenager clearly has many opportunities to participate actively in shaping her own physiological and neurological developments. In the context of this study of the class play, the long-term perspective implied in the concept of a critical period is considered to be highly relevant in a number of key respects. In discussing the potential meaning of this work, many of these aspects will play a decisive role in our considerations of what this work meant for pupils and what they learned from it. Measuring success or failure in education through traditional methods of testing does not and cannot encompass those formative dimensions of being which neurologists now believe to be the essential measure of development and learning at this age. Alternatively, the framework of viewing adolescence as a critical period of development offers a basis for exploring the potential long-term significance of pupils’ experiences. Those educational concepts which will be examined in this context have in common that their frameworks encompass far more than can be quantita‐ tively measured and assessed in a given moment at school. In various ways they all emphasize dimensions of experience and learning which reflect a deeper meaning than can be cogently evidenced in a score or grade. Such educational perspectives thus offer possibilities of not only gaining a clearer understanding of what and how the pupils learned, but also of considering the later significance of this work. Thus, although none of the authors whose works we will be discussing specifically refer to adolescence as a critical period, the far-ranging educational perspectives they offer complement the long-term neurological/ physiological view implicit in this concept. Before looking at the work on the play, it will be helpful to begin more generally by briefly considering the potential attraction and significance of 409 15.3 Adolescence as a ‘Critical Period’: Further Perspectives <?page no="410"?> artistic processes for the developing adolescent, and thereby to consider those aspects of adolescent behaviour most relevant to this study. 15.4 A Search for Meaning: Artistic Processes in Adolescence At the point at which the work began, the pupils in the 10 th grade were either fifteen or sixteen years old. This is an age at which there is generally a readiness and wish to search for something new in life. It is a search often fraught with concerns and doubts, some of which may not be openly expressed. As we have noted, in the first research inquiry before the rehearsals began, two thirds of the pupils did not answer the one question they had been asked regarding their personal expectations, and instead expressed a broad range of concerns about the upcoming project. At the same time, many also often expressed a basic openness and willingness to begin the work. In spite of their doubts, the pupils’ first responses generally ended with a clear expression of anticipation and hope. This mixture of feelings can be viewed as characteristic for pupils at this age. The origins of many of these feelings can be found in the adolescent’s search for a new sense of meaning and purpose. Significantly, the initial steps made often involve rejection: well before she may have a feeling of who she is, a young person in puberty will often make very clear who she is not. The past is clearly ‘out’ - answers are sought from the future in new friends and models, in music, clothes and haircuts. Adolescence is the age in which young people are capable of expressing both severe forms of criticism of their familiar reality, and passionate idealism directed towards an imagined future. Both forms of behaviour can be seen as manifestations of the same existential search for meaning. The abrasive and sometimes dramatic forms in which these feelings are often expressed can disguise their true meaning and later significance. The therapist Mathias Wais writes: The self seeks itself in the realm of Ideals during puberty. A seemingly rough or crude exterior is often a secret sign for something idealistic. The leather boots stand for freedom, the lipstick for devotedness, rock music for calmness in stormy times and a Mohawk haircut for autonomy. It is tragic that adults do not take young people in puberty seriously. Parents, teachers and conservative relatives are appalled by the appearance of the previously neat, well-behaved child. They view puberty as a kind of passing illness: afterwards, everything will hopefully be all right. If instead, one were to address, confirm and take up the Ideals young people are seeking in concrete, sensual ways, how they try to find their own ways in life, then one could sometimes 410 15 Rehearsing and Performing a Play in a Foreign Language: Discussion <?page no="411"?> 483 Mathias Wais, Ich bin, was ich werden könnte: Entwicklungschancen des Lebenslaufs. (Ostfildern: Tertium, 1995), 65-66. avoid a later narrowing of life-perspectives, a holding on to clichés - and, missed chances in life. (… ) Puberty is a beginning and often already the end. 483 What Wais is proposing here regarding the biographical significance of such emotional and psychological developments in adolescence suggests clear par‐ allels to what neurologists like Giedd have argued in considering the forming of the teenage brain. From each perspective, puberty is viewed as a unique period of development, offering innumerable chances as well as dangers, all with potentially lifelong consequences. In this often turbulent period in which a constantly shifting and sometimes chaotic interior life can often determine relations to the world, the high degree of selflessness and self-discipline inherent in artistic processes, requiring the continual ‘entering into’ the role and situation of another, might appear to be quite unreachable. Within the physiological and emotional turmoil of puberty, trying to consistently attain that degree of discipline and artistic responsibility which the regular practice and rehearsing of any form of art demands, may seem far-removed from the way young people at this age actually feel and behave. Yet, almost without exception, the 39 pupils in their final reflections looked back on this demanding and time-consuming work as having been in many different respects highly worthwhile, and in the end, even enjoyable. In a third of their final responses they expressly referred to it as having been fun [Spaß]. Other terms used were, ‘pleasant’ [angenehm] ‘nice’ [schön] and ‘refreshing’ [erholsam]. The striking fact that five months of strenuous and often repetitious work, generally beginning at the very end of their school days and taking up so much of their time, was viewed so positively raises a number of highly relevant issues and questions. In the context of discussing and later drawing conclusions from this study, the strikingly positive attitudes of the pupils offer an appropriate starting point in trying to assess the meaning of this work. This will require first looking more closely and concretely at what went on during the rehearsal process. 15.5 The Role and Significance of the Warm-Ups One of the most profound differences between a language classroom and a drama rehearsal is the type and qualities of physical presence which are required. As opposed to classrooms where pupils generally sit at desks for 411 15.5 The Role and Significance of the Warm-Ups <?page no="412"?> 484 See Chap. 8.3.2-8.3.3. 485 When this transformation did not take place, it sometimes led to a discussion after the rehearsal, or, at a different point, in which I made it clear how difficult this attitude made the work for everyone else. This was usually ruefully recognized and the attempt was made, at least for the next rehearsals, to work more positively. forty-five minutes, in a drama rehearsal pupils are expected to be standing and moving in a largely empty space for two to three hours. Thus, it is apparent that both physiologically and psychologically, the degree of physical presence and levels of energy which a rehearsal demands will necessarily be much higher than what is generally required in a classroom. This distinction between the normal psycho/ physical attitudes of pupils in a classroom and those called for in a drama rehearsal must be considered as highly significant, shaping the nature and quality of the entire work. Hence, one of the most important challenges facing the pupils at the beginning of every rehearsal is how to get their bodies, minds and energy levels to the point necessary to make the work satisfying and fruitful. This challenge was compounded by the fact that our rehearsals only started at 1 p. m., directly after a school day which had begun at 8.10 a. m. In this context the importance of effecting a clear transition between the common psycho-physical attitudes of the classroom, and those required in acting, becomes evident. As we have seen in the study of the clowning courses, an initial physical attitude can be decisive in shaping a resulting psychological attitude. 484 There are indeed physical attitudes which would doom any rehearsal. When I came in the room to begin the rehearsals, pupils were usually sitting, often appeared to be quite tired and sometimes greeted me with different variations of - “I’m much too tired” [Ich bin viel zu müde] and “I can’t do anything else” [Ich kann nicht mehr] etc. Certainly, in the first months of rehearsals there was hardly a rehearsal in which at least one person did not make these kinds of feelings clear at the beginning of the work. It invariably required a high level of energy and conviction (along with a good sense of humour), to help these pupils to get moving and to effect this necessary transition. Most of the time, it was possible to achieve this transformation through the warm-ups. 485 Therefore, the twenty to twenty-five minutes of warm-ups at the beginning of each rehearsal can be seen as an essential part of the entire rehearsal process, shaping the physical, emotional and mental transition between the school day that was over, and the drama rehearsal that was to come. Although the warm-ups varied, depending on what seemed necessary for that group on that day and how much time we had, there was a basic recurring pattern. We began in a circle, stretching and shaking out arms, head, legs, hands, making different sounds - then started walking around the room in 412 15 Rehearsing and Performing a Play in a Foreign Language: Discussion <?page no="413"?> 486 Two of England’s most renowned figures in drama and speech work, Cicely Berry and Patsy Rodenburg, have written a number of enlightening books illustrating different types of exercises: Cicely Berry, Voice and the Actor. (New York: Wiley, 1973), and Patsy Rodenburg, The Right to Speak: Working with the Voice. (London: Methuen, 1992). varying tempi, becoming more conscious of the distances and spaces in the room through different types of awareness exercises. Afterwards, there would usually be different games requiring running around, occasionally a massage with the pupils working in pairs, followed by breathing exercises. Finally, there would be a longer series of speech and articulation exercises, working both individually and with the entire group speaking together, sometimes done while walking briskly through the room. Most of these exercises I had adopted from the clowning and other artistic courses I had taken, or from a number of excellent books that exist on this topic. 486 One of the class teachers observed our warm-ups on a number of occasions when we were working on speech and articulation. He wrote, Again here, I noticed the concentrated attitudes of the students; no excuses, no laughter. or other diversionary tactics; great efforts when individual students had to speak the exercises; everyone listened, they were concentrated and focused. By the way, the students probably never speak so much in normal lessons; I found it good that all the students spoke the same exercises, irrespective of their level: it appeared to me that the good, clear pronunciation of the stronger pupils was motivating for the weaker ones, because everything flowed, there were no uncomfortable pauses and all ‘simply spoke’ (even where an inner opposition was possibly present). At one point in the group interviews, I asked the pupils how they had experi‐ enced these warm-ups. What they then said can be seen as representative of the processes which many pupils went through: Lieselotte: I didn’t exactly understand what they were supposed to be good for in the rehearsals. I sensed it, but it wasn’t really clear. It was only during the performances that it really became clear. Franziska: In the beginning I found it totally bothersome, the first three or four [rehearsals] I really had no idea what purpose they served, I found it really stupid, I though ‘naaaaa’. Lieselotte: I felt really stupid doing that, but - Franziska: But somehow afterwards it was fun, we were all together. Grischa: You got used to it. In the beginning you thought somehow - what are warm ups for if we can’t even really act? It is useless if we can all speak perfectly but can’t act. When we spent a quarter of an hour doing warm ups instead of working 413 15.5 The Role and Significance of the Warm-Ups <?page no="414"?> on individual scenes I really saw it as a waste of time. But looking back now, as the performances drew nearer it was obviously important. [pause] I do think it was important. [pause] I think that if you do this from the beginning and keep at it then it’s - I don’t know - somehow it becomes normal, it was anyway somehow good. Nobody really understood it but as I said, it really somehow strengthened the class. What emerges in the pupils’ comments at the end illuminates another essential element of the warm-ups - the development of a sense of ensemble among the pupils in a given cast. Since the actors in each cast had not chosen to work together, there were inevitably constellations of pupils who ordinarily would not have had anything to do with each other. Even for professionals, the kind of work which theatre requires can be very difficult when there is not a personal rapport and a clear sense of working together as a group. For non-professionals and particularly for adolescents, the significance of these issues is generally heightened. The warm-ups were thus also intended to create an atmosphere which would encourage everyone to enter into the spirit of working constructively together. From a pedagogical perspective, it is evident that such challenging social processes are an essential component of what can be developed during such a production. When one considers that a significant number of pupils viewed the changes in the social relationships as one of the most positive aspects of the entire production, it becomes clear that as strenuous as this process sometimes was, it also offered substantial opportunities. Needless to say, there were also warm-ups and rehearsals in which these developments did not take place and, as we have seen, the responses of some of the pupils, particularly after the first six weeks of rehearsals, make clear that there were sometimes problems and difficulties in this respect. In reviewing my teacher’s log, it becomes clear that particularly at the beginning, my thoughts about the warm-ups occupied a central role in all my deliberations about the play. It had been essential to me to establish the warm-ups as a regular part of our rehearsals and not to have to continually justify spending time on activities not directly related to the play. Most of the pupils appeared to quickly accept this as a necessary element of dramatic work and were able to enter into the spirit of such exercises. Significantly, and for me surprisingly, the question of whether we could skip over them and begin rehearsing right away was never raised. At the same time, in each cast there were also a few pupils who were clearly reluctant to do some of these exercises and who at different points more or less only ‘went through the motions’. In considering these eight pupils in the class who to varying degrees had difficulties in entering into the spirit of the 414 15 Rehearsing and Performing a Play in a Foreign Language: Discussion <?page no="415"?> 487 Brook 1995, 89. warm-ups, the potential meaning and ramifications of these activities become clearer. In contrast to most of their classmates, these pupils evidenced very little energy in all the physical activities and generally had problems entering into the light-hearted spirit of play present through much of the warm-ups. In both a very real and in a metaphorical sense, they remained to varying degrees ‘cold’ during much of this phase. It was only during the speech and articulation exercises at the end that they generally joined the others with any sense of conviction. Without exception, these were also the same pupils who often had to be ‘carried’ by the others through the rehearsals; both in terms of their energy levels, and their motivation and concentration. With a striking correspondence, they also had the clearest difficulties in getting past their own self-consciousness about acting. The critical comments made by some pupils about the lack of energy and will of other pupils refer almost exclusively to this same group. Fortunately, each pupil in this group made progress in the course of these five months, and in the final phase and most notably in their performances they demonstrated these developments clearly. In their final comments most of them also expressed pride in what they had accomplished. Yet, in reviewing what both the other pupils and I wrote, it becomes clear that the high levels of energy and commitment which the others had consistently maintained had been necessary to make the rehearsals fruitful. If most pupils had remained in that initial state of body and mind which they generally appeared to be in when they showed up for the rehearsals, it is difficult to imagine how they could have dealt with and helped those who had obvious difficulties as they usually did. In the end, the fact that the rehearsals were generally viewed so positively is, from my perspective, due in no small part to the fact that a large number of pupils were able to regularly and successfully manage this difficult psycho/ physical transition between school lessons and drama rehearsals. Along with the above-mentioned considerations, I also viewed the different technical aspects of this preliminary work, including breathing exercises de‐ signed to help voice production, different forms of movement work, articulation exercises, etc., to be highly valuable in their own right. This was a point which I had stressed with the pupils from the very beginning. The director Peter Brook has compared the function of such preparatory exercises to the way one regularly weeds and waters a garden, and I find this analogy apt insofar as when such work becomes a recurring element over a long period of time, capabilities begin to grow and flourish. 487 Most obviously for the students, the marked improvements in pronunciation and articulation which were con‐ 415 15.5 The Role and Significance of the Warm-Ups <?page no="416"?> 488 Marjorie Bingham Wesche, “Early French Immersion: How has the Original Canadian Model Stood the Test of Time? ” in An Integrated View of Language Development: Papers in Honor of Henning Wode. eds. Petra Burmeister, Thorsten Piske and Andreas Rohde, (Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag, 2002), 357-379. Petra Burmeister & Angelika Daniel, “How Effective is Late Partial Immersion? Some Findings from a Secondary School Program in Germany” in An Integrated View of Language Development: Papers in Honor of Henning Wode, 499-515. 489 Lutzker 2017, 198-266. 490 Ibid. sistently mentioned in the responses were certainly tied to the innumerable articulation and pronunciation exercises. Moreover, on a variety of other, subtler levels, developments occurred in regard to their developing a physical and social awareness of their relations to others in the theatre space, in learning to react more flexibly and quickly in the context of different types of ‘games’, and most generally, in learning to be freer and more spontaneous with each other. 15.6 Rehearsing in a Foreign Language: The Sensory and Imaginative Experience of Language Rehearsing a full-length play in a foreign language over many months has certain similarities to bilingual or foreign language immersion programs. This is most evident from the fact that both the immediate efforts as well as the envisioned goals are not directly connected to language learning, although they do occur in the foreign language. The well-documented successes of many immersion settings in foreign language learning make clear that language learning is certainly not dependent on conscious language learning, and in fact can occur to a striking degree while something else is being consciously worked on and goals other than language learning pursued. 488 In the context of rehearsing a play, these unconscious processes can be signif‐ icantly magnified insofar as dramatic activities offer a wide range of possibilities of encountering the foreign language in its fullest and richest form. This is most evidently the case with respect to non-semantic, gestural and kinesic dimensions of language. In another context, I have written extensively about the significance of non-semantic levels of language in regard to the child’s acquisition of her first language. 489 In particular, the significance of research documenting the child’s direct experiencing of microkinesic and macrokinesic movements intrinsic to her mother tongue from birth on, and of her having absorbed these language specific and culturally specific levels of language before she begins to talk, was discussed. 490 In addition to examining the potential significance of these early 416 15 Rehearsing and Performing a Play in a Foreign Language: Discussion <?page no="417"?> 491 Ibid., 267-305. 492 Birdwhistell 1970, 3. 493 Ibid., 3-11. 494 Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence: Why it Can Matter More Than IQ. (New York: Bantam, 1995), 111. 495 Oliver Sacks has given a wonderful example demonstrating the significance of these hemispheric relations in his book, The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat.(New York: Harper Perennial, 1990), 80-84. developments with regard to first language acquisition, I also addressed the wide-ranging implications of that research for foreign language learning. 491 In considering the potential significance of theatre work in foreign language learning, it is important to note that although traditional classroom approaches to foreign language learning continue to be almost exclusively based on a lexical-semantic understanding of language, in highly relevant fields such as linguistics, neurolinguistics and kinesics this perspective has since been replaced by far more encompassing views of language and language perception. Researchers have ascertained that while two people are talking to each other there is an exchange of 2,500-5,000 and up to 10,000 ‘bits of information’ per second. 492 Within this entire communicational process, the semantic meanings of words are now considered to play only a relatively modest role: by far the largest amount of ‘information’ occurs as unconscious physical movements made while speaking and listening. These positional shifts and gestures of the body, demonstrating both cultural and individual variations, are tied to body language and gestural expression as well as to micro-kinesic movements co-occurring with the speech sounds of language. 493 Along with these overlapping levels of kinesic and micro-kinesic communi‐ cation, all aspects of tone, modulation and register that accompany the meanings of words must also be considered as further essential ‘bits of information’ in the entire communicational process. The significance of these emotional, non-semantic levels of language have been estimated by both psychologists and neurologists as constituting up to 90 % of what is actually perceived and understood. 494 The overriding significance of non-semantic meaning has also become increasingly clear in the context of neurological research exam‐ ining the interaction and interdependence of the hemispheres of the brain in understanding and using language. Although the left hemisphere is in most cases dominant in both semantic expression and perception, this dominance is unquestionably dependent on the right (minor) hemisphere’s capacity to perceive the emotional tone/ s behind and between the lines. Together, they constitute the cerebral basis for the manifold levels of meaning inherent in human interaction. 495 417 15.6 Rehearsing: The Sensory and Imaginative Experience of Language <?page no="418"?> 496 The distinctions between conscious language learning and first language acquisition have been widely explored by Stephen D. Krashen in the context of his approach to foreign language teaching. His entire ‘natural method’ is based on maximizing the role of language acquisition as opposed to language learning in the teaching of foreign languages. A good introduction to his work can be found in, Stephen D. Krashen and Tracy D. Terrell, The Natural Approach. (Englewood Cliffs: Alemany Press, 1983). 497 Huber 2003, 328-334. 498 Bichsel, 1985, 54. In the context of drama rehearsals in a foreign language, it is apparent that having to fully enter into and act out the movements, gestures, expres‐ sions, tonal/ emotional qualities etc. of a role in another language offers a fundamentally different experience of that language than any work occurring in a traditional classroom setting. In the holistic experience of language in its full gestalt which drama offers, there are clear parallels to the experience of first language acquisition, as well as to those of language learners acquiring a language through living in a foreign country. In both of these cases, the unconscious process of language acquisition through meaningful interaction, as opposed to conscious and progressive language learning, becomes decisive. 496 The importance of assuming and acting out the role of another person in a foreign language is also a critical element in this process. The sense of freedom which can be experienced in this context reflects a dimension which Huber and others have stressed as being decisive in the imaginative and theatrical process of becoming someone new in and through another language. 497 This fits closely to the possibilities which Bichsel described in his having realized some of the dreams of his youth while learning English: I don’t have to be someone in this language at all, instead I can play something. [Ich muss in dieser Sprache nicht vor allem jemand sein, son