Communicating vessels: drama and human rights education in in-service teacher training

Nassia Choleva; Antonis Lenakakis; Myrto Pigkou-Repousi

doi:10.7577/hrer.4186

Authors

Nassia Choleva Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6729-2621
Antonis Lenakakis Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
Myrto Pigkou-Repousi Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2398-3981

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7577/hrer.4186

Abstract

This paper supports the contention that the methodologies of human rights education and educational drama share a common ground and that that the three fundamental dimensions of human rights education (HRE) (learning about, through and for human rights) can be addressed through drama. Our quantitative research is focused on an educational drama workshop for in-service teachers that dealt with human rights and refugees. The data was collected through questionnaires and analysed with reference to six hypotheses. These hypotheses were about how highly motivated teachers assessed their knowledge of human rights and their readiness for teaching human rights by using educational drama methodologies. The data showed statistically significant increase on all of the above hypotheses after the teachers had been trained. Their levels of readiness were also found to be significantly higher after the end of the school year. This indicates that the drama training had an impact on teachers’ human rights education.

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Author Biographies

Nassia Choleva, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

Nassia Choleva is a drama pedagogue and a PhD candidate at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Department of Early Childhood Education, Faculty of Education. She studied Theatre/Drama in the same university (School of Drama, Faculty of Fine Arts) and received a Master's degree in Applied Drama from University of Exeter. She has worked as a drama teacher/facilitator in formal and non-formal settings with people of different ages, learning, physical and other abilities and trains educators in the use of drama. She has produced a range of educational materials from drama education projects for TENet-Gr, ActionAid Hellas and UNHCR Greece.in which she has engaged

Antonis Lenakakis, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

Antonis Lenakakis is associate professor of drama/theatre pedagogy at the Department of Early Childhood Education, Faculty of Education, of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He studied education, sociology, intercultural education, cultural studies and drama/theatre pedagogy in the Universities of Crete, Essen and Berlin. He received his master’s degree and his PhD from the University of the Arts of Berlin. He has taught at the Institute of Theatre Pedagogy, University of the Arts of Berlin, at the KPH Wien/Krems, at the Faculties of Education of the Universities of Crete, Thessaly and Thessaloniki, and of the Frederick University in Cyprus. He participated in the Greek and European committees of experts for drama/theatre, puppetry and arts curricula and teacher trainings. He has published in international journals, collective volumes and conference proceedings.

Myrto Pigkou-Repousi, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

Myrto Pigkou-Repousi is assistant professor of Theatre in Education in the School of Drama, Faculty of Fine Arts, of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She studied Acting and Theatre in the Contemporary Theatre of Athens, in the School of Philippe Gaulier in Paris and she completed and her master’s degree and her PhD at the Institute of Education of the University of Warwick. She has taught at the Open University of Cyprus and at the University of Thessaly. She is a research collaborator in the multi-sited project 'Global Youth (Digital) Citizen-Artists and their Publics: Performing for Socio-Ecological Justice' coordinated by Pr. Kathleen Gallagher (Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto) and funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Her previous research collaborations include the project 'Towards Youth: Youth Civic Engagement and Theatre' of the same team and institution and the cross-media project 'Solidarity Made In Greece: The Rebirth of Citizenship in the Era of Crisis'

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