Análisis de Inventario de Ciclo de Vida (NC ISO 14041, 2000)

During the interviews with the workshop participants, the class A-1 teacher said that there were some dramatic aspects in the text books for the Korean primary curriculum. Despite this, drama does not yet play an appropriate role in schools. The

emphasised in text books, if teachers are unclear as to how to deal with them, drama will never be used in the classroom. She insisted that support was necessary to provide teachers' with a clear idea for adopting drama.

On the other hand, the class A-1 teacher mentioned both the strengths and the difficulties of adopting drama. The A-1 class teacher's review was as follows.

I actually came to look back on my teaching through your workshop. What I am doing is just trying to repeatedly remind my students to remember the knowledge. But your workshop was different. There were activities to express what the students feel and think. It was impressive. It seems ideal but, in some way, it is not easy for school teachers because we were advised to have a fixed frame which we have to achieve within class-time. Personally, I think your approach is more suitable for primary students in terms of child development, but not realistic.

What the class teachers realistically need in order to adopt drama was asked during the interviews with those teachers participating in the workshop and in the teacher questionnaire.

The teachers said they needed:

 Quality workshop books, to see good examples illustrating drama skills and strategies

 Reduction of teachers' burden of daily work at school

In addition, the drama experienced teacher and the head teacher added

 Changing teachers' minds

Firstly, during the interviews with those teachers participating in the workshop and the teacher questionnaire, teachers' comments which argued for the importance of observing good examples of the adoption of drama were repeatedly found. As it was illustrated in the section 4.1.4, the head teachers also insisted on the necessity to support teachers. The B-2 class teacher said that she believed that teachers generally have a good sense of developing their own pedagogy, so if they have some experience of seeing good examples which adopt drama for the

curriculum, and if they recognise the value of doing so, teachers can develop a new adaptation of drama for the curriculum based on their experience. During the

interviews with critical friends, one school teacher who had experience of drama also asserted the necessity of quality publications. The details are as follows.

There is no drama workshop-book for the curriculum which is suitable for Korean education. I can find some books written based on other countries' educational conditions, but what we need is one for Korean schools. If we adopt drama even a little it will bring much enjoyable class time. I think we need to see good drama adopting class models which are especially applicable in Korean educational settings.

Secondly, as mentioned in section 4.1, some school teachers still have a limited understanding of drama. Through the teacher’s questionnaire, one teacher

made a comment that drama seems to be suitable for creative and well balanced education, which can be emphasized in the new NC. In addition, she mentioned that there must be more research, training courses and opportunities provided by

professionals to let school teachers know about drama. The B-3 class teacher mentioned the possibility of introducing a co-teaching programme in schools. According to her, drama professionals' and teachers' strong points can be developed if they cooperate together.

Thirdly, the workshop-participant-teachers all said that they wanted to adopt drama within their teaching. However, those teachers from school A who

participated in the workshop, in their responses to the questionnaire, expressed in particular the fact that they had a heavy burden of daily work at school. One teacher who completed the questionnaire made the comment that it is true that there is a difficulty in getting time for drama in schools, although she agreed with the positive effects of drama. A-1 teachers expressed their difficulty as follows.

In a day, there are so many things I have to do besides preparing the class. I sometimes do not even know why I need to do it. Most of them are for school affairs or for MOE or LOE. The government and MOE also knew of the school teachers' complaints. So, one administrative officer came to be sent to every primary school. But only one officer is not enough, I think. We still have a ton of work in a day.

This heavy daily workload may be one of the reasons why teachers hesitate to try a new pedagogy. This will be discussed further in chapter 5. The interesting point is that, especially in school A, teachers expressed the difficulties of adopting

drama for their classes, whereas this was not expressed by school B’s teachers. The condition of school B was slightly different from school A. As was explained in 3.1.4.2, school A was an ordinary form of state school, while school B partly adopted an innovative system. In school B, the role of the teacher is confined to classroom management and the preparation the class time. Meanwhile, school A’s teachers said that they were in charge of some of the administrative works for school affairs or for MOE or LOE, and normally it was 'a ton of work in a day' as describe above. It is reasonable that school B’s teachers find it easier to make time to try out a new pedagogy.

The A-1 class teacher described why the workshop was unrealistic, as follows.

Today you removed desks and chairs and worked in the empty space. I think it is impossible to adopt the same setting in reality. There is only one teacher in a class and there are normally over twenty younger students. Only one teacher cannot perfectly control them in the setting. Controlling them is not easy, but at the same time we need to teach in an easily distracted setting. I mean, if we remove the desks and chairs. It is impossible... We cannot teach a total of over two hundreds minutes in a day like that. Furthermore we cannot only care for classroom management at a school. If I teach like you I will run out of all my energy after an hour I think.

What she meant by 'unrealistic' is related to management and controlling issues. In addition, it seems to be connected with an innate fear of change. It was

described in section 2.4 that adopting drama is challenging, and the change which is brought by drama needs to be coped with. It may also be a fear for not having enough time to complete the curriculum. The details about the teacher’s fear for adopting drama will be dealt with in chapter 5. The opinion that teachers' minds need to be changed in order to adopt drama for the curriculum was asserted in the critical friend interview.

Of course there are some teachers who are interested in drama for the curriculum including me in Korea. However, their mind, world view and educational philosophy are clearly different from most teachers'....There are rather many teachers in Korea who are afraid to teach students without desks and chairs I think. I can say it is all related with, again, teachers’ minds, world views and educational philosophies. They put their worries first before all the educational benefits which drama brings. Although they think drama may be helpful, they hesitate to adopt drama, because they have a bigger fear that drama might lead to an unfocused and noisy classroom, and the fear is normally stronger than the benefits.

She clearly indicated the importance of changing teachers' minds. The head teacher who is interested in drama also made the comments below.

Since I am convinced of the power of drama, I have arranged many drama workshops for school teachers in my area. I always try to invite quality workshop presenters, and I hope school teachers actively take advantage of the workshops for their teaching, but the reality is that

although I have arranged the workshops every year for over fifteen years, there are, I suppose, only around 10% of teachers who have attended drama workshop at least once. I think school teachers tend to have some kind of fear of trying a new method. Eventually everything is in one's mind.

However, what should be changed for bringing actual change and whether teachers’ minds should be changed or their practices should be changed are key points that must be brought under consideration. This will be discussed in chapter 5.