James Hunt
Department: Graduate School of Education
Discipline: Education
Project Summary
I am exploring the relationship betwen using physical methods in the teaching of Shakespeare, which allow embodiment of the text, and creative thinking. The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), has been working with schools to develop a rehearsal-room pedagogy, that is taking the methods a director would use with actors to bring a play to life in a rehearsal studio, into the classroom to allow students (as actors) to find meaning in a play through physical interaction with it. The RSC research has widely found that engagement and enjoyment for both students and teachers has significantly increased with this approach, as opposed to traditional-pedagogies which involve line-by-line explanation. I am exploring, through a creative methodology, how such an approach can also develop plurality of thinking within student interpretation and analysis. Shakespeare is a core requirement of the English National Curriculum, and is heavily examined at the end of compulsory secondary school: as a result, much teaching leans towards telling students what each line means, and what features Shakespeare has used to convey that meaning. I am exploring the ways active pedagogies can change that and turn compulsory Shakespeare into an enabling constraint, by freeing up dialogue about possibilities within meaning and analysis.
Wider Research Interests
For my MEd, I explored creative spaces and writing. Since then, through school-based, and partner school networks, I have been exploring assessment, metacognition and reflection. However, the pre-thesis phase of the EdD has led me to become interested in enabling constraints, complexity and plurality, looking at the ways education can open up and liberate creative thinking, rather than provide linear pathways through subject content, such as a literary text.
