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Contents

Preface

SOCIALLY CONNECTED: THE DISPLACED TEACHER AND THE DISPLACED CHILD
Abstract
Executive Summary
Summary of key findings
Conclusion
Recommendations
1. Introduction and key questions
2. Project background
3. Methodology
4. Research Findings
5. The Expert Interpretation Panel: understanding the research evidence
6. References
7. Appendices

ARE YOU GOOD? - RESEARCHING NYITOTT KÖR'S TEACHER WELL-BEING WORKSHOPS THROUGH ARTS BASED PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH
Abstract
1. Introduction
2. Literature review
3. Research methodology
4. Results
5. Discussion and Conclusion
6. Outlook
7. Limitations of the research
8. References
9. Appendices

THE WELL-BEING OF PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHERS AND MANAGEMENT WORKERS IN THE CONTEXT OF DRAMA IN EDUCATION
Abstract
1. Introduction
2. Methodology
3. Results
4. Discussion
5. References

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Preface

The 'To be or not to be well? - Drama and Theatre in Education' project ran from 2019 to 2022, with the support of the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union. During the 29-months-long project, the four organizations of the transnational partnership worked through Drama and Theatre in Education to collaborate with teachers in ways that support their well-being and that of the students, especially those who are at risk of exclusion.

Big Brum TiE from the UK, The Lužánky Leisure Time Activity Centre from the Czech Republic, Nyitott Kör Association from Hungary and the Association of Drama Practitioners STOP-KLATKA from Poland collaborated to create new education resources to foster the well-being of school communities, which are shared and downloadable on the tobe.nyitottkor.hu site.

All of the four partners have long lasting and extensive experience in Drama and/or Theatre in Education, which has resulted in meaningful collaborations with schools. Their practices are authentic, and this is intentionally reflected in the To Be projects' outputs. The key events of the project were encounters with teachers, education workers and their students in all four European contexts, which took the form of workshops, seminars, performances and follow-up sessions, in which the needs of - and feedback from - these target groups were systematically taken into account. The project team had created, facilitated and lived out a joint experience of creative training at the beginning of the project, which set out a common ground for the sessions with the target groups in each country.

The idea of focusing not only on students, but also on other members of the school was born around 2018, based on the research results of a previous Nyitott Kör project (Lendvai, Horváth, Dóczi-Vámos, & Jozifek, 2018). From these results we found that in order to reach a long-term and meaningful impact on the students, we need to consider them as part of an organisation and to reach more members of the school community. Simultaneously, Big Brum had been trying to collaborate closely with a group of teachers from a single school, engaging them in Drama, so as to invite them to experience it, and thereby become more equipped to engage students (Ballin, 2019). Drama practitioners at Lužánky and STOP-KLATKA joined us on the journey of exploring the potential of collaborating with teachers and education workers on the long-term, because they also perceived, in their local contexts, a lack of awareness and practices concerning the well-being of teachers, the lack of their communities, and which impacted on students and education itself.

The final results of the To Be project include a Well-being Curricula, which consists of four document packages, one from each partner. The Well-being Curricula are schemes to be used by other practitioners, who would like to work on the well-being of their schools, involving Drama, through a process-oriented approach, that targets both teachers and students. The 'To Be - A Living Question: Guidebook for Drama & Education practitioners' narrates the story of the project and the story of the encounters that partners had with teachers, students, and with each other in the European partnership. Through the Guidebook we share the key principles that guided the practitioners' work, their (re)search of authentic and creative moments, and ways in which the project coped with the challenging times of the Covid-19 pandemic to reach all the aforementioned objectives.

We considered it important to measure, follow, and Research the impact of the process, using the encounters of the Well-being Curricula as core materials for observation. Project partners from the Czech Republic, from Hungary and from the UK invited academics and professionals to collaborate in the analyses of the results and creation of the studies, which we share through this book.

Ben Ballin took an interpretative and ethnographic approach to qualitative data from teachers participating in the project. This was subsequently analysed by an expert interpretation panel, involving Dr. Gill Brigg, Stacy Brown, and Matt Hinks. The research explored how the Theatre in Education Company Big Brum sought to meet the needs of the 'displaced child' by engaging these teachers in a felt and creative manner.

Dr. Gabriella Dóczi-Vámos and Dr. Lilla Lendvai, with the help of Zsófia Jozifek from Nyitott Kör, conducted an Art Based Participatory Action Research, following and affecting closely the sequence of workshops with teachers, exploring key factors of their professional well-being and the role of Drama and Theatre in Education in working on it.

Hana Cisovská, Eva Janebová and Lenka Polánková, collaborating with Lužánky, carried out a qualitative research that functions as a probe into how selected teachers and school management workers understood well-being, and how this was reflected during project encounters.

We wished to develop evidence-based materials about the impact of the processes throughout the project, to raise awareness about the situation in each place, its challenges, educational problems, and the points of view of different actors. We aimed to articulate why Drama and Theatre in Education are strong stimuli for enabling participants to become agents of change, and how they can support the well-being of teachers, students and that of the school as an organisation. We will be happy to discuss, debate and be questioned about our results, with the aim of fostering a shift that raises awareness about conscious work on the wellbeing of schools, and the importance of creativity in education.

Zsófia Jozifek
Coordinator of the project

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