Using Drama to Teach Citizenship

Drama can provide a highly engaging, social and inclusive way, of helping children to engage with, and practice responsible citizenship. This session will explain how to set up a fictitious community with a whole class, that includes opportunities for them to actively explore and reflect on moral dilemmas, civic issues, and their individual and collective responsibilities as citizens. An exemplar lesson will be presented that contains opportunities for children to voice and listen to a range of opinions and viewpoints, (both in and out of role), to justify and explain their decisions and actions, and to accept responsibility for the consequences.

TBC

Patrice Baldwin is an international ‘Drama for Learning’ teacher trainer, workshop leader and conference speaker. She is Immediate past Chair of the Council for Subject Associations (CfSA) and a Higher-Level Action Learning Facilitator, (recognised by the Institute of Leadership and Management), and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Patrice has written several books for teachers, most recently, ‘40+ ‘Drama’ Strategies to Deepen Whole Class Learning’ (Routledge, 2024) and ‘Process Drama for Second Language Teaching and Learning’ (Bloomsbury Academic, 2021). She writes regularly for ‘Drama and Theatre’ magazine.

Patrice was a Primary Headteacher, Arts Education and School Improvement Adviser and an Ofsted inspector. She was Sir Jim Rose’s Editorial Expert for Drama for his proposed primary national curriculum and Oak National Academy’s Primary Drama subject leader during the pandemic. She worked regularly with Pie Corbett for several years, delivering their ‘Talk and Drama for Writing’ conferences across England and Wales. From 2012 to 2020, she organised many primary curriculum courses and leadership conferences for Norfolk schools, through ‘Inspiring Professional Development and School Improvement’.

Patrice was President of the International Drama Theatre and Education Association (IDEA) from 2010-2013, Chair of National Drama (2004- 2015) and was a BBC Education scriptwriter and Drama series consultant. She founded and directed, Drama for Learning and Creativity (D4LC), a school improvement initiative which was supported by Norfolk County Council, QCA, Arts Council England, Creative Partnerships and NESTA, and was presented at UNESCO’s 2nd World Arts in Education Conference in South Korea.