Students’ Understanding of Role

ABSTRACTThis essay examines learners’ understanding of how they use role. It draws upon a semi-structured interview with five Year 7 students, which took place after their first lesson exploring Darkwood Manor, a gothic sequence of drama. Considering the elements which shape how they adopt roles in the classroom, I interrogate the students’ reflections, including ideas about their personal motivations, co-creation of the drama, peer interactions and response to the teacher. I explore how the students use and understand role, and how they are able to articulate their thinking about role-play, pointing towards perceptive reflections on the factors at play when roles are adopted in classroom drama.KEYWORDS: Dramarolestudent interviewrole-playteacher-in-role Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Additional informationNotes on contributorsNick BentleyNick Bentley is a doctoral student at the Institute of Education, UCL, where he is undertaking research into the use of teacher-in-role. Nick has been working as a Drama, English and Literacy teacher in a secondary school in East London since qualifying from his pre-service teacher education (PGCE) programme in 2014.