To Be Genuine in Artificial Circumstances: Using the Theater Analogy to Understand Teachers' Workplace and Work

• In Event: 41.083 - Roundtable Session 15
  In Roundtable Session: 41.083-15 - Qualities of Effective Arts Educators, Teaching Artists, and Lessons

Abstract

Analogies are routinely used in educational discourse to reason about research and practice – such as when schools are likened to factories, or teaching to surgery. Such analogies are similar to statistical models, of which Box stated “all…are wrong, but some are useful.” Drawing upon scholarly works in education that make use of the theatre analogy for teaching, as well as scholarship on theatre, I develop a thesis about the unique nature of teachers’ workplace and work. Where Stanislavski claimed that the actor’s key challenge was “to be truthful in imaginary circumstances,” I argue that the teacher’s key challenge is to be genuine in artificial circumstances – namely, the institutional confines of the school. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Author

• Kevin D O'Neill, Simon Fraser University