Journey to the Water
Dr Tríona Stokes
Drama Lecturer, Maynooth University, Ireland
WORKSHOP
At Athens International Conference "Theatre/Drama & Inclusive Education"
21-23 of March 2025
Hellenic Theatre/Drama & Education Network (TENet-Gr)
Language: English
Limited number of participants
Workshop short description
Key words: Artistic expression and social justice/ Education for Gender Equality
Workshop Aim and background: This workshop draws on dance and drama in education methods to explore playfully a young girl’s early morning journey to collect water for her family with her mother. The narrative frame is set in Burkina Faso and inspired by international model and activist, Georgie (Gie Gie) Badiel. Questions regarding power and gender roles are raised as the protagonist cannot attend school due to her daily walk to the well. The workshop will explore Sustainable Development Global Goal 6 Clean Water and Sanitation artistically as well as Goal 5 Gender Equality. The workshop represents a commitment to teaching children about sustainable development from a young age. The workshop content features a cross-curricular arts education resource written by the author for age 5 years upwards, in conjunction with Irish NGO GOAL. Through dance and drama, the workshop aims to co-create the fictional journey with participants, and to gain planning insights from feedback garnered from teachers’ experiences of adapting the lessons for children aged 5-12.
Theoretical backdrop: Embodied and experiential learning are at the heart of this workshop which introduces challenging themes in an age-appropriate manner to children. A sense of ‘self’ and ‘other’ can be extended through role-taking in drama, whereby participants are protected ‘into’ emotion (Bolton, 1984). Such protection is made possible in drama through the use of a fictional narrative through which difficult issues can be gradually introduced (Ó Breacháin and Fagan, 2021).
Through the communal experience of drama, the poetic imagination can gain us access to the ‘social fabric’ of ‘the other’, thus extending our human experience (Stokes, 2006). Such a social imagining has been described as ‘the essence of compassion’ (Neelands, 2002, p.318). Becoming part of Gie Gie’s everyday lived experience of travelling to collect water invites participants into daily family life in an imagined depiction of the arid surrounds of Burkina Faso. NGO and Global Citizenship Education academics served as critical support in the development of an associated arts education teaching resource, contributing a photo pack, a map and fact file of the context. Authentic images of the given context and the integration of language were essential to support an informed artistic exploration of a landscape, both physically and metaphorically far from home.
Expected learning outcomes are to:
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Connect through drama to imagined lived experiences of girls and women in Burkina Faso
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Respond imaginatively through movement to stimuli such as words, images, stories and music
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Cooperate and communicate in and out of role in making drama and creating dance
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Co-create dance phrases through the use of different body parts and travelling in space
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Experience artistically the relationship between story, theme and life experience.
Target group and conditions: this workshop will be facilitated in English.
It will suit those teaching or facilitating drama or dance with children aged 5 upwards.
However, no prior experience of dance or drama education is required, and an inclusive approach to movement will be incorporated.
Comfortable clothing and non-slip socks/ footwear or bare feet.
Workshop includes exercises with possible physical contact.
References:
Bolton, G.M. (1984). Drama as Education: An argument for placing drama at the heart of the curriculum. Essex, UK: Longman Group.
Neelands, J. (2002). ‘11/09- The space in our hearts’: Theatre in Education: Art form and learning tool, in Govas, N. (ed.): Proceedings on the 2nd Athens International Theatre/Drama & Education Conference, Keynote Address, Athens: Hellenic Theatre/Drama & Education Network.
Ó Breacháin, A. and Fagan, C. (2021). Drama, social justice and education for sustainable development: Theory in action, in Kavanagh, A.M, Waldron, F. and Mallon, B. (2021) Teaching for Social Justice and Sustainable Development across the Primary Curriculum, London: Routledge/Taylor and Francis. 124-138.
Stokes, T. (2006). Exploring “Irishness”; examining the relationship between Celtic mythology, drama and cultural identity, in Govas, N. (ed.) Creating New Roles for the 21st Century: Proceedings on the 5th Athens International Theatre/Drama & Education Conference, Athens: Hellenic Theatre/Drama & Education Network, 129-136.
Stokes, T. (2019). Water, Come to Me! Dublin, Ireland: GOAL. Retrieved 6 September, 2024. www.goalglobal.ord/stories
Dr Tríona Stokes lectures in Drama Education at Maynooth University, Ireland. A former primary teacher of children aged 3-13, her doctoral study examined children’s agency in school-based pretend play. She prioritises engaged research, collaborative engagement with community to develop arts facilitation with young children as a matter of public and societal interest. Her research focuses on developing play and creativity through arts facilitation with children. She has written several drama teaching resources in Global Citizenship Education. On behalf of the Irish government, she devised principles for arts facilitation to promote play and creativity in early childhood education. She has reported on the extent to which a publicly funded theatre use reciprocal and dialogic means in partnering with children to devise theatre.
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