Teaching roles in schooling as drama: An ethnographic case study

Patricia Poulton Tingle, Fordham University

Abstract

This exploratory, descriptive, qualitative case study uses a dramaturgical lens to examine the director, coach, and player roles employed by teachers in conduct of both the formal and informal aspects of classroom life. Thick descriptive accounts of six elementary teachers provide the database from which role pattern categories, utilization of academic, bureaucratic, and life scripts and improvisations, indicators of dramatic consciousness, and guiding images and themes are identified. Composite profiles for each teacher are developed and provide the basis for the analysis and findings. Results cite the integration of the three teacher roles as key to facilitation of scripted and improvisational teacher/student interactions critical to development of student roles and emergent self-esteem and social conscience. Conclusions recommend further exploration of the drama lens as a powerful tool for viewing, reporting, and analyzing the dynamics of classroom life.

Subject Area

Educational sociology|School administration|Teacher education|Curricula|Teaching

Recommended Citation

Tingle, Patricia Poulton, "Teaching roles in schooling as drama: An ethnographic case study" (1990). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI9109273.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI9109273

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