This work examines the author's experience in teaching A Doll House by Henrik Ibsen to students in the course Play Analysis, THEA 2440, at the University of North Texas in the Fall 2003 and Spring 2004 semesters. Descriptions of the preparations, presentations, student responses, and the author's self-evaluations and observations are included. Included as appendices are a history of Henrik Ibsen to the beginning of his work on A Doll House, a description of Laura Kieler, the young woman on whose life Ibsen based the lead character, and an analysis outline form that the students completed for the play as a requirement for the class.

This study sets out to develop a framework for the analysis of a school subject and uses as a focal study the NAC drama syllabus developed in1994. Drawing in the main on Basil Bernstein's theory of curriculum, an analysis is made of how a syllabus is constituted through recontextualizing, using the theoretical concepts of voice and identity, classification and framing, and hierarchy. The discourses that have been recontextualized in the formation of the syllabus are identified. Two sets of discourses are identified: educational policy discourses (namely the discourses of progressivism, utilitarianism and reconstruction and development) and educational drama discourses. The specialization of voice in the syllabus marks out the academic identity, and is an indicator of educational drama discourses evident in the syllabus. The specialization of identity marks out projected social identities, indicating the recruitment of educational policy discourses in the constitution of the syllabus. The field in which the syllabus is constructed is also examined, which following Bernstein is defined as the recontextualizing field. The syllabus writers, located in this field, act selectively on the educational policy and educational drama discourses in constituting the syllabus. The rules for selection in the development of the syllabus are examined, and these are related to the syllabus writers' situation within the recontextualizing field. It is argued that the syllabus writers are positioned subordinately within the field, and that this factor to a large extent regulates the operation of educational policy discourses as rules for selection in the drawing up of the syllabus .

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No description available.

The purpose of this study was to determine attitude and attitude change toward,student teaching as expressed by students who were pursuing certification to teach speech and/or drama courses in the public school at the secondary level.

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This qualitative case study explores the experiences of adolescent boys and their female teacher in two single sex drama classrooms over a two year period. It has been influenced by sociological and educational frames of knowledge with a specific emphasis on gender studies. Driven by the work of Biddulph (1995), Bly (1990), Pollack (1999), Hawkes (2001), Hartman (1999), Connell (1995,1996) and Kenway (1997), this research is ideologically grounded in theories that investigate the areas of masculinity, boys' education and drama practice. It takes as its pivotal focus the notion that educationally, adolescent boys are facing complex and troubled times and that a reassessment of the way boys are taught in schools is crucial. Additionally, the role and influence of the female teacher in the single sex boys' classroom was significant, providing an essential backdrop for investigating the classroom experiences of the boys. In the area of educational drama, research into adolescent boys and classroom drama is still unfolding.This thesis contributes to knowledge in this area and reveals the important benefits and potential that educational drama holds for empowering young males to explore their own masculine identities and understand their world with clarity and insight. Data collected during this research forms the basis of a narrative journey shared between the reader and the researcher. The research is heavily grounded in the ethnographic tradition of 'telling stories' from the field - stories which reveal the authentic lived experiences of the participants. Part of the greater story told here includes that of the researcher and documents some of the more notable challenges and highlights of working in the field over an extended time frame. Specifically, the research addresses the following questions: What benefits do adolescent boys perceive they gain from doing drama? How do adolescent boys communicate with each other in the drama classroom? How do adolescent boys approach drama work in their classroom? How do they perceive their own experiences and relationships in a single-sex drama classroom? What role does their female teacher play in their experiences in the drama classroom? The research revealed a number of important considerations for the fields ofsociology, gender studies and education. Amongst some of the major findings was the potential of drama to break down stereotypical notions associated with masculinity and boys' abilities to excel in area such as the Arts. The enjoyment and fulfillment that the boys felt they gained from participating in drama resulted in a heathlier classroom environment characterised by a greater tolerance and understanding of each boy's individual masculinity. It was also revealed that the presence of a female drama teacher was considered an advantage, granting the boys access to a field of knowledge and feeling that was different to their 'male ways of knowing.' Additionally, for the field of drama, the research revealed that the value of solid planning, a defined understanding of contemporary drama practice and implementing learning experiences carefully and thoughtfully grounded in the lives of the students, cannot be underestimated as essential components of effective drama teaching.

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"It was clearly the Government (by a great section of the electorate) that brought politics into the theatre, and we, the producers, the actors, the theatre-goers must pay the price for it." Alan Paton. This thesis attempts to analyse the way South African Theatre is developing against a background of social transition within a political framework which has enforced a policy of separate development based on racial distinction and ethnicity. Signs of political reform are beginning to show - not only as a result of pressure from within and without - but also because economic interdependency between the groups is breaking down barriers as the third world sector of the population aspires to the attractions of the first world urban sector. Polemical issues in the performing arts, which have risen out of the prevailing socio-economic climate, range from global attempts at cultural isolation of South Africa to such pragmatic matters as absorbing into actor-training programmes the various sectors of the community with their particular ethnic and linguistic identities preserved in an apartheid system. The research takes into account the history of the South African people and the various modes of theatre which have evolved as a result of natural and, later, imposed segregation of the various cultural groups. It examines, too, the dominant cuItural trends imported from Europe which have formed an infra-structure for South African theatre from training programmes to theatre managements, as well as criteria for critical assessment of theatre as a codified form of dramatic performance. It analyses the politically sensitive but vital issue of arts funding where most sponsorship emanates from public sources. It looks at actor-training programmes in terms of cultural service to the community and the diverse needs of the performance industry and takes into account the changing focus in some tertiary drama departments in an effort to adapt to transitional social conditions. It also takes cognisance of the prevailing mood of social consciousness amongst those artists who sense the need to move towards a theatre which expresses the collective experience of the South African situation. Whether this is possible in a country as culturally diverse as South Africa and whether the socio-political climate and reform measures which the government has adopted are conducive to the growth of a genre of theatre uniquely South African in its synthesis of endogenous and exogenous traditions - a theatre that will have cross-cultural appeal - is one of the major thrusts of this research. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1988.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1984.