Theatre for Democratic Participation: Creative Approaches to Civic Engagement in Schools
Introduction
Empower your classroom through theatre. This course equips educators with creative, participatory drama methods to foster democratic values, student voice, and active citizenship. Transform learning into an engaging, inclusive, and action-oriented experience.
Description
This course explores the pedagogical potential of theatre as a powerful tool for fostering democratic participation, civic engagement, and inclusive dialogue in educational settings. Grounded in drama pedagogy and participatory learning theories, it provides educators with practical strategies to support student voice, critical thinking, and collaborative problem-solving. Participants engage in experiential workshops inspired by applied theatre approaches, including Forum Theatre and devising techniques, to address real-world social and civic issues. The course emphasises the role of education in promoting democratic culture, human rights, and active citizenship, aligning closely with Erasmus+ priorities. Through reflection, practice, and collaborative design, participants develop theatre-based learning activities and projects that encourage meaningful participation and empower learners as active members of society.
Learning Objectives
By the end of the course, participants will be able to:
-
Understand key principles of democratic participation and active citizenship in education
-
Explore the theoretical foundations of drama pedagogy and applied theatre
-
Develop skills in using theatre techniques to foster student voice and inclusion
-
Apply methods such as Forum Theatre, role-play, and devising for civic learning
-
Promote critical thinking, empathy, and perspective-taking through embodied learning
-
Design participatory and inclusive classroom activities
-
Facilitate dialogue and manage sensitive or controversial topics constructively
-
Create theatre-based projects that connect classroom learning with community engagement
-
Reflect on the role of the educator in fostering democratic school environments
Methodology and Assessment
The course adopts an experiential, learner-centred methodology combining practical workshops, collaborative learning, reflection, and peer feedback. Participants engage in hands-on theatre activities and co-creation processes. Assessment is continuous and formative, based on participation, reflective tasks, and the development and presentation of a final theatre-based civic project.
Materials, Digital Tools & Other Learning Resources
Participants will use a range of creative and pedagogical resources, including drama toolkits, scenario cards, and reflection journals. Supplementary readings on drama pedagogy, democratic education, and civic engagement will be provided.
Preparation
After registration participants will receive pre-course questionnaire which will be used by the trainer to learn about participants’ teaching backgrounds and to assess their exact needs. Before the beginning of the course a basic reading list will be suggested to participants to prepare for the training. Participants will also be asked to prepare a presentation about themselves, their professional context and their culture which will be presented during the course. Participants will receive information about the country they are going to visit in order to prepare them for their cultural experience.
Follow up
After the course participants will be asked to share what they have learned with the rest of the staff in their schools. Further books and articles to deepen the topic and contacts with some other practitioners all over Europe and in the world will be suggested by the trainer. The methods shared and explored and the bibliography given will allow the participants to complete and improve their educational path.
Certificate
Each participant will get a course attendance certificate and on request we will complete the Europass Mobility Document.
Accommodation
We do not directly offer accommodation and subsistence and participants are responsible for organizing it by themselves.
Paperwork
We also provide all the support with paperwork you might need for your Erasmus+ project documentation such as mobility agreement and registration letter.
Fee: 560 €
Cancelation policy
Free cancellation up to 30 days before the start. After that, the reservation is not refundable. Changes in name and profile of the participant are possible any time before the start of the course (replacement participants from the same school/org are accepted at any time). In case the school/org doesn't find a replacement, we will still offer a place at any of our confirmed courses later in the year without any additional costs but we can not guarantee that every course session will be confirmed and the school/org will only be offered to choose from already confirmed course sessions. In case it will not be possible for the participant to attend the course or for us to organize the course due to extraordinary circumstances (classified as such by the European Commission) which present themselves in the period of less than 30 days before the start of the course and we don’t manage to find an alternative solution, we will keep 50 % of the payment and refund the remaining balance of 50% to the payer’s bank account.
Draft Programme - 35 didactic hours
Day 1
-
Welcome and introduction
-
Outline of the programme
-
Cultural exchange
-
Warm ups and icebreakers
-
Course expectations and needs analysis, setting up a collaborative learning environment and creating an educational contract
-
Foundations of democratic participation in education
Day 2
-
Introduction to Drama in Education
-
Building trust and psychological safety
-
Establishing group norms for expression
-
Drama pedagogy as a tool for civic learning
Day 3
-
Exploring identity through drama
-
Power, marginalisation, and student voice
-
Still images of social realities
-
Interpreting and reshaping meaning
-
Embodied dialogue and perspective-taking
Day 4
-
Introduction to Forum Theatre
-
Forum Theatre and active citizenship
-
Identifying real school/community challenges
-
Creating civic scenarios
Day 5
-
Exploring concepts of oppression, conflict, and transformation
-
Short Forum Theatre scenes
-
Audience intervention and alternative solutions
-
Whole group reflection and pedagogical transfer
Day 6
-
Theatre as a tool for critical inquiry
-
Questioning narratives and assumptions
-
Exploring complex characters and motivations
-
Structured improvisation for debate
-
Facilitating dialogue and managing conflict
-
Ethics and responsibility in representation
Day 7
-
Design of personal plan for implementation of theatre for democratic participation
-
Presentation of outputs(personal implementation plans)
-
Group reflection, feedback and discussion
-
Dissemination strategy and european dimension
-
Validation of the learning outcomes
-
Evaluation of the course
-
Closing session