Introduction

In this introductory chapter, we make the case that the revitalisation of English/Language Arts as a curriculum subject is a much-needed endeavour and present our rationale for drama-inflected pedagogies. We introduce the core theoretical perspectives underpinning the approach we identify as ‘drama-in-English’, drawing attention to its hybrid nature as a pedagogy that combines aspects of reader response theory, social constructivist understandings of literacy development, and educational drama practices. With reference to examples of classroom practice reported in the chapters that follow, we point to the capacity of drama-based approaches to enrich learning right across the field of English/Language Arts. Our contention is that working in this way not only encourages students to think creatively but, crucially, to develop a critical perspective. Furthermore, regularly incorporating moments of drama within English offers an inherently inclusive and culturally responsive way of working, one that draws on students’ own lives and sets of cultural knowledge. We argue that a strength of this volume is that our contributors do not interpret the concept of drama-in-English in identical ways: the following chapters demonstrate that it represents an internationally applicable pedagogy which affords learners proper agency and is rightly respectful of English teachers’ intellectual, creative and professional expertise.