21st Century Learners

Re-housing

The first truly Spring-like Saturday morning of the year, and I spent it in a drama studio!  Fortunately it was an incredibly rewarding morning of learning with the magnificent Nantwich-based drama company, ‘The Young Actors‘. We came together to trial our ‘Re-housing’ project with an invited audience from the local community.  This journey began when Geoff Smith (Director of the Young Actors) wrote a fascinating piece of process drama to explore the concepts of ‘home‘, ‘family‘ and ‘community‘.  Geoff then approached me, curious to find out whether Philosophy for Children (P4C) could add depth to his latest piece.

 

Drama and Enquiry

In the drama, Geoff very skillfully helps the participants (I might call them enquirers) to create a community made up of small businesses and residents, young and old.  The harmony of this community is shattered by a government-backed company bent on urban redevelopment and the residents are faced with a real dilemma.  We use the techniques of P4C to help the enquirers to describe the feelings they experience in role and to explore the root cause of those feelings.  What are the important concepts or principles at the heart of the dilemma they face? What is ‘philosophical‘ here – what are the underlying questions, the answers to which might hold the key to a wise decision?

Yesterday this led to a deep and lively discussion about the tensions between our duties to those who depend on us and our principles. Back in role the community decided on the best way forward and explored the consequences of their decision.  It was just fantastic to see twenty-five adults give up their Saturday morning to throw themselves with childlike enthusiasm into an imagined world. It was also great to have time and space to engage in deep discussion about ideas that really matter and to have the opportunity to listen to and learn from the thoughts of a diverse group of people – how often does that really happen in daily life?

 

An engaging and flexible approach…

Next we will run the enquiry with local children. This approach has so much to offer to young people and to schools. It engages people, intellectually and emotionally; to me, engagement is a prerequisite for deep learning. It builds a collaborative approach to learning and it encourages and develops speaking and listening. It encourages critical thinking and creativity – and it is great fun! It is also very flexible.  The approach could be used to explore deeply stories, poems and plays and it can be a wonderful stimulus for writing.  It could be used to explore episodes from history or the ethics of contemporary science.  One of yesterday’s participants was interested in using it to stimulate design work. I am very interested in using it to inspire young people to take real action about real issues in their communities.

All in all, a wonderful morning.  A massive thank you to The Young Actors and all who took part!