Living Museums is dedicated to history and heritage projects - created with and for young people
DOROTHY HEATHCOTE LIVING HISTORY PROJECT
The celebrated drama teacher Dorothy Heathcote undertook a number of history projects in schools, and also projects with heritage sites such as Clarke Hall, Wakefield (above, and below), and Higher Mill Textile Museum.
Now, the Mantle Network has been awarded a grant by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, to research her work in this field. Our aim is to explore the strategies she used, and to create new local history projects inspired by her work.
We will be collaborating with a number of schools, and also working closely with the Black Country Living Museum.
Our first project is looking at the story of Sister Dora, a pioneering nurse in Walsall in the nineteenth century. For more details, go to the "Sister Dora" page.r
“NOW TIME" IN TEACHING HISTORY
Dorothy distinguished between “over there” time in teaching – i.e., talking about something as happening in another time and place – and the “now” time of drama. She said:
For example, let's say we are considering with some children General Wolfe at the siege of Quebec. If we say, “Interesting what Wolfe did at Quebec, wasn't it?” he remains “over there.” Even if we become very involved and intrigued by our study of it, we're still “here” looking over “there.”
But in drama the 'over there becomes “here” and the whole world is around me. In this example, it happens to be Wolfe's world at Quebec. Now I'm in a totally different position for joining things together or learning within the drama. I can see things only from the point of view of my present responsibility at Quebec. That imminent pressure activates or harnesses my previous knowledge in a totally different way and very quickly at that. Wolfe is standing there and everyone is saying, “Give us your orders.” ...
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It's the pressure, or the authenticity, of that dramatic moment that creates the new knowledge, that makes different connections, that suddenly brings connections that have been dormant in my previous knowledge into active use in making sense of new information I encounter... Drama, while appearing to develop a story forward, actually unpacks previously held conclusions because it stands still... The actual knowledge that's inside the learner creates a focus or drive that says there must be somewhere or somehow I can get that new knowledge I need.
From: “Learning, Knowing and Languaging in Drama,” in Language Arts Vol. 60 No. 6 (Sept 1983).