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Drama, Play and Pedagogy in the Early Years: A Research Journey

On behalf of Professor Anne Looney, I have the pleasure of inviting you to the first in the series of virtual research conversations with the Awardees of the Institute of Education Research Fellowship. 

This Research Conversation features Dr Una McCabe from the School of Arts Education and Movement in conversation with Dr Michael Flannery discussing Drama, Play and Pedagogy in the Early Years: A Research Journey.

Date: Wednesday 30th September, 6pm-7pm. Please click here or to register for this Zoom online event. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Dr Una McCabe studied Drama at the Samuel Beckett Centre in Trinity College Dublin, before becoming a qualified teacher. Her teaching experience includes the pre-school, primary, secondary, vocational and international sectors and has always focussed on drama and arts based methods. She has facilitated early years’ story, art and drama workshops for the Ark Children's Cultural Centre and the Hugh Lane Municipal Art Gallery. She has lectured in Drama and Play Pedagogy on B.Ed. and Early Years degree programmes across Ireland and is now Assistant Professor in Drama Education at the School of Arts Education and Movement at Dublin City University.

Una has researched, published and presented in the area of drama and early childhood education since 1999. She holds a PhD in Early Childhood Education from University College Cork for which she completed a thesis on the role of drama in children’s sociodramatic play. Her M.A at the National College of Art and Design was a study of the Arts in Early Childhood Education. She was pedagogic co-ordinator and researcher of MUS-E Ireland, a project in association with The Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaion and a component of the international arts education programme of The Yehudi Menuhin Foundation (Brussels).

In Conversation with: Dr Michael Flannery

Dr. Michael Flannery has been newly appointed to the School of Arts Education and Movement. Michael worked as Senior Lecturer and Department Head at Marino Institute of Education for twenty years. He obtained his PhD in Education and Higher Diploma in Community Arts Education from NCAD. He obtained a MSc in Technology and Learning from TCD and MA in English Language Education from Canterbury Christ Church University. Prior to lecturing, Michael worked as a primary school teacher in Dublin and Kilkenny.

Focus of research conversation

The research completed during the fellowship concerns the role of drama in children’s play in the early years. As a result of the fellowship a chapter entitled The Role of Drama in Role Play has been published in A Vygotskian Analysis of Children’s Play Behaviours: Beyond the Home Corner (Kingdon, 2020). The book is a component of The European Early Childhood Education Research Association Series ‘Towards an Ethical Praxis in Early Childhood’ (Routledge) which offers an innovative and exemplary vehicle for the international early childhood sector to develop transformative pedagogy which demonstrates effective integrated praxis.

The second outcome to result from the fellowship is an article entitled Play, pedagogy and power: a reinterpretation of research using a Foucauldian lens which is published in the International Journal of Early Years Education. This represents a progression of research collaboration with an IoE colleague in Early Childhood Education, in which we sought to develop our understanding of the power dynamic between children and educators in the sociodramatic play context through the use of an alternative perspective. An additional outcome of the fellowship was to develop a new research project which was inspired by a study visit to an early year’s arts company in the United Kingdom. As a result, the Drama and Early Childhood specialism students at the IoE have collaborated with Fighting Words and early years’ classrooms in a local school. This ongoing work builds on the published research and focuses on the importance of drama pedagogy in developing children’s narrative competencies.