Creative Drama and Forum Theatre in initial teacher education: Fostering students’ empathy and awareness of professional conflicts

Abstract

Two studies examined the impact of a programme that used Creative Drama and Forum Theatre on the social, emotional, and ethical skills of student teachers. The first study qualitatively analysed 49 teaching conflict situations devised by 280 students. The second analysed the programme's effect on 626 students? empathy and perception of their teaching-learning processes. The types of conflicts, contexts, and ethical dilemmas involved were categorised. Pedagogical tools and their effect on self-knowledge, perspectivetaking, and socio-moral sensitivity and reflection were favourably assessed. The emotional understanding component of empathy significantly improved. The results support a more comprehensive training of future teachers.