Addressing controversial issues in religious education by enacting and rehearsing democracy through Forum Theatre: student perspectives

Abstract

Both policy and research emphasise the significant role that addressing controversial issues plays in democracy and citizenship education. However, less work has examined what forms of democratic learning are promoted when controversial issues are addressed in specific ways. This article is rooted in action research and, through an analysis of student perspectives, explores the potential for democratic learning when Forum Theatre (FT) is used to address controversial issues in religious education (RE). FT facilitates critical democratic education; hence, it centres on power asymmetries, empowerment and transformation. The findings indicate that this critical pedagogical approach empowers students to become political and moral agents in the search for nonoppressive solutions and that FT promotes education both through and for democracy. However, an explicit goal in FT and critical pedagogy is to critically examine the interconnectedness between micro-oppressions and macro-structures. This was not achieved in the FT exercises in this study: this article discusses the possible reasons for this result, along with recommendations for further reinventions of FT in the context of RE, controversial issues and democratic learning.