CHAPTER THREE
METHODOLOGY
Introduction
The chapter clarifies the implemented research process for this inquiry. The chapter first gives a brief overview of the research and spells out the research methodology. Orientation, conduct of the research and overall design are the major coverage of this chapter. The entire research process embraces several relationships of observation, participation, and interaction, among others.
A small-scale qualitative research study was adopted by the researcher in two stages. The researcher decided to teach two sets of drama lessons based on citizenship education topics in the upper primary school curriculum specifically primary six, in the first stage. Two classes of children, Classes P and K, from two different …show more content…
The ‘Drama’ referred to in this research is not based on pre-written scripts. Rather, it is based on the theories and techniques of international practitioner-researchers such as Gavin Bolton (1984, 1992) and Jonothan Neelands (1992). ‘Drama in Education’ (Bolton, 1984) or ‘Process Drama’ (O’Neill, 1995), improvised and often employs the strategy of teacher-in-role. It is concerned with exploring ideas and feelings and looking at different perspectives. Working in role, both teacher and pupils are actively recreating and adapting their perceptions of the world and the people in it. Out of role, reflection and analysis of the drama helps to extend and deepen understanding of what might be termed as ‘the human condition’. Although educational drama employs many of the techniques of theatre, unlike theatre, there is often no external audience for the work. In the process of participating in the drama, and during the reflection and evaluation, the participants ‘live through’ the drama rather than watching from the outside. It was the researcher’s hypothesis that educational drama might be able to help in the exploration of issues, in the development of communication and decision-making skills and in increasing the children’s appreciation of and sensitivity to others. The researcher examined the syllabus for citizenship education of the basic schools of Ghana and found scanty references to the use of drama in this documentation. Role-play was the only evidence of the use of drama among the teaching methodologies described and even with this to an unappreciable degree of usage. The key purpose of this research therefore was to discover whether specific techniques and processes in drama could, in fact, be added to the range of strategies used to help children to learn effectively in Citizenship Education and even across other subject areas. Positive findings might encourage a broader, more