The ‘Unthinking Thinker’: the Reflexive Teacher for Integrated Drama Education

APA Citation

The whole purpose of writing a PhD thesis on drama education in Hong Kong is to develop relevant academic discourse for promoting the introduction of drama into the formal school curriculum with the necessary teacher development methods.

To start such an endeavour, Chapter One gives an introductory theoretical framework for the whole thesis, also arguing for the immediately follow-up rationale in Chapter Two on the research methodologies including mainly auto/biographical ethnographic reflective practice, narrative inquiry and case study.

Thus in Chapter Three I recall my own education experience revealing the problem that interests me, exhibiting an introspection into the cultural, historical and social factors that contributed to the failing educational system in Hong Kong. This serves as an ideology critique prior to the later action research for changes in the curriculum that integrates narratives, drama and life.

Field work was then conducted in Chapters Four and Five. The former displays a collective case study on four teachers’ (including my) life and teaching experiences, focusing on the issue of students’ lack of commitment in learning. This forms another critique culminating in the action research in the following chapter, which includes three loops of action giving more empirical evidence to ground my own theories on reflective processes while implementing an integrated drama curriculum.