Space and Time in the Creative Curriculum: Drama and education in two island nations in the early twentieth century

Abstract

This article aims to reflect on space, time and education in two distinct but related ways: space and time as components of pedagogy, focusing on drama in the curriculum, where space and time frame language and gesture in a complex mode of communication; and as dimensions of historiographical analysis of the evolution of educational policies and practices. Considering progressive innovations of teaching through drama in Britain and Japan, we explore relationships across space and time, drawing on documentary and mainly published evidence. For primary sources we draw on the writing of individuals such as Shoyo Tsubouchi and Kuniyoshi Obara in Japan, Harriet Finlay-Johnson and Henry Caldwell Cook in Britain. We identify a number of progressive schools, their enterprise and experiments, and consider the role of national and international forums. Sources include professional journals in English and Japanese languages, the New Education Fellowship, its conferences and its journal New Era as vehicles for exchange. Taking a critical approach to historiography, the article refers to more recent pedagogical discourse and historical scholarship by Takeo Fujikura, Manami Yoda, Gavin Bolton, Mary Bowmaker and Helen Nicholson. It concludes by considering lessons for education history, and legacies for drama in education, reflecting on current challenges for school drama in light of its past.

Keywords

• progressivism
• drama
• pedagogy
• creativity
• national cultures
• transnational exchange