'The Play Script', an action research study into playwriting in senior classes in the primary school
type: CreativeWork
description: This is a study into classroom playwriting in senior classes in the primary school. As a teacher, I identified a gap in the provision of genres of creative writing available to the teacher. As a community playwright, I recognised the potential of playwriting for young creative writers. As a researcher, I discovered that there was scant literature reporting on this area. I was convinced that an argument could be made for playwriting in literacy. This would challenge the prevailing assumption that writing play scripts is for performance, exclusively. My aim was to construct a theory and pedagogy of the play script to help the classroom teacher. My first research question was to address the need for the creation of a viable pedagogy. I honed six pedagogical approaches and prioritised two: the Writer’s Workshop and collaborative writing. My second research question was to address the need for a domain knowledge of the play script to support the teacher. I wondered if such a theory could be based on Aristotle’s seminal text, Poetics (330 BC). My third research question sought to bring clarity to some issue or mood or moment in playwriting and the research process. I turned to an arts-based research paradigm to construct my own research method for reflection based on visual metaphors. I adopted a reflective practitioner framework using action research as my central methodology. Epistemologically, I moved forward in a growing awareness of how phenomenology, interpretivism, constructivism and pragmatism were actualising as my research north star. I used five research methods to collect data. One was new, addressed in my third research question. I embarked on a two-year empirical journey with sixty-five students in a large primary school. I amassed data on the diverse aspects of my complex study. This was analysed in two ways: themes and crystallisation. The latter involved organising my data in different configurations that did not follow traditional triangulation practices…
abstract: This is a study into classroom playwriting in senior classes in the primary school. As a teacher, I identified a gap in the provision of genres of creative writing available to the teacher. As a community playwright, I recognised the potential of playwriting for young creative writers. As a researcher, I discovered that there was scant literature reporting on this area. I was convinced that an argument could be made for playwriting in literacy. This would challenge the prevailing assumption that writing play scripts is for performance, exclusively. My aim was to construct a theory and pedagogy of the play script to help the classroom teacher. My first research question was to address the need for the creation of a viable pedagogy. I honed six pedagogical approaches and prioritised two: the Writer’s Workshop and collaborative writing. My second research question was to address the need for a domain knowledge of the play script to support the teacher. I wondered if such a theory could be based on Aristotle’s seminal text, Poetics (330 BC). My third research question sought to bring clarity to some issue or mood or moment in playwriting and the research process. I turned to an arts-based research paradigm to construct my own research method for reflection based on visual metaphors. I adopted a reflective practitioner framework using action research as my central methodology. Epistemologically, I moved forward in a growing awareness of how phenomenology, interpretivism, constructivism and pragmatism were actualising as my research north star. I used five research methods to collect data. One was new, addressed in my third research question. I embarked on a two-year empirical journey with sixty-five students in a large primary school. I amassed data on the diverse aspects of my complex study. This was analysed in two ways: themes and crystallisation. The latter involved organising my data in different configurations that did not follow traditional triangulation practices…
author: Hallissey, Helen
language: en
keywords: Classroom playwriting, Qualitative Reflective Practitioner Paradigm, Visual metaphors (the 'Rich Picture'), Crysallisation as analysis
license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
date published: 2024
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:48:07Z
provider: University College Cork
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University College Cork

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: https://hdl.handle.net/10468/17538