Oldal 151 [151]
CHAPTER FOUR: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research in the field of drama is most often gualitative, ?? researchers might
employ some guantitative tools, but investigations are rarely done with large
numbers of participants in this field. One of the few important guantitative
enquiries in this territory was the DICE research, which was perhaps the largest
international research in the field of educational drama and theatre?! which
used guantitative methods to measure the impact of educational drama and
theatre on five Lisbon key competences. Ihe impact of drama and theatre
education on communication in the mother tongue, learning to learn, social
and civic competences, sense of initiative and entrepreneurship and cultural
awareness and expression were recorded with eight different data collection
methods from 4475 students participating in 111 different programs in
12 countries.°® The aim of DICE was to measure the impact of programmes
that represent a variety of drama approaches so results could reflect the wide
field of drama and theatre education in order to prove the effectiveness of
drama and use the results for the advocacy of this field.
Philip Taylor states that qualitative research “has now been widely adopted
in drama education research”*® and the publication in which he writes
these lines supports this statement by presenting seven different qualitative
research methodologies applied to examine drama work. Some examples of
the different methodologies employed in drama follow below.
Winston argues that a case study approach suits research into drama
in education because it allows researchers to “seek out rather than solve
problems, provoke rather than answer questions, deepen our understanding
rather than rush to closure. In fact as any good drama would be used”.’”
Winston also explains that a case study research would concentrate “on depth
rather than breadth”,*** exploring the complexities and circumstances of
the case it investigates.
Belarie Zatzman offers the methodology of narrative inquiry as a possible
approach to researching drama teaching. “Narrative inquiry asks us to
retell our stories as research and to examine those stories critically. If we
533 Judith Ackroyd: Introduction, in Judith Ackroyd (ed.): Research Methodologies for Drama
Education, Stoke on Trent, Trentham Book, 2006, ix.
Stig A. Eriksson — Kari Mjaaland Heggstad — Katrine Heggstad — Cziboly Addm: “Rolling
the DICE”. Introduction to the international research project Drama Improves Lisbon Key
Competences in Education, Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre
and Performance, 19, 2014/4, 403.
Cziboly, Addm (ed.): The DICE has been cast; Research findings and recommendations on
educational theatre and drama, Budapest, DICE Consortium, 2010, 3.
Philip Taylor: Power and Privilege: re-envisioning the qualitative research lens, in Judith
Ackroyd (ed.): Research Methodologies for Drama Education, Stoke on Trent, Trentham
Books, 2006, 7.
Joe Winston: Researching Through Case Study, in Judith Ackroyd (ed.): Research
Methodologies for Drama Education, Stoke on Trent, Trentham Books, 2006, 45.
Ibid., 41.
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