This is not a study, but a research note on academic writing practices in our field, whose purpose it is to serve as a foundation for discussion. It provides a brief introduction into researcher reflexivity, my own positioning towards the topic, and a numerical thematic overview of authorial presence (pronouns, third-person terms, and their semantic functions) in data-based research articles published in the Scenario journal over the last ten years. I do not draw conclusions, but from the angle of researcher reflexivity, I submit questions with respect to clarity of premises and ethics, for possible consideration by future authors in our field.
This paper introduces a practice-based drama framework developed in response to the evolving educational landscape in Ireland. Recent curricular reforms, including the redeveloped Primary Arts Curriculum (NCCA, 2025), have repositioned drama as a distinct art form while continuing to value its capacity for integration across learning areas. Drawing on the findings of Teachers Talking Drama (McEntee & Finneran, 2025) and grounded in qualitative research with primary teachers, the proposed framework addresses long-standing challenges around teacher confidence, clarity, and enactment. It offers a flexible, accessible model built on three interdependent pillars: drama as collaborative process, drama as a transdisciplinary tool, and drama as artistic practice. In doing so, it responds to teachers’ desire for concrete strategies that are context-responsive and aligned with curriculum aims. The framework aims to reposition drama not as a marginal or enrichment activity, but as a foundational methodology that supports expressive, critical, and inclusive learning across the primary school.
This is not a study, but a research note on academic writing practices in our field, whose purpose it is to serve as a foundation for discussion. It provides a brief introduction into researcher reflexivity, my own positioning towards the topic, and a numerical thematic overview of authorial presence (pronouns, third-person terms, and their semantic functions) in data-based research articles published in the Scenario journal over the last ten years. I do not draw conclusions, but from the angle of researcher reflexivity, I submit questions with respect to clarity of premises and ethics, for possible consideration by future authors in our field.
This article examines how embodied sensory-affective spaces support the emergence of communication in English as a foreign language within a performative, translanguaging approach. Drawing on an enactive perspective, language is understood as a shared, situated and embodied as well as a psychosocial and linguistic experience shaped by the dynamic interplay between bodies, material spaces, imagination, speech and the temporalities of classroom life. The study analyses data from the CELAVIE project, conducted in Grade 4 and 5 classrooms, combining qualitative materials (18 focus groups, 21 semi-structured interviews, and three explanatory teacher interviews) with quantitative measures of autonomous lexical production in pre- and post-tests. The findings show that transforming the classroom into a performative space—through physical openness, sensory comfort, creative exploration and embodied engagement—encourages students to speak more spontaneously, to draw on multiple languages, and to develop empathy, creativity, and confidence. Six interrelated dimensions of sensitive space emerged: sensitive space-time, intimate spaces, material spaces, performance spaces, physical engagement, and spaces for creativity and autonomy. Together, they reveal how performative practice supports the emergence of communicative behaviour by engaging students’ bodies, emotions, perceptions and imaginative capacities. The results highlight the potential of performative pedagogy to create inclusive learning environments where language becomes a lived, relational and creative experience.
Diese qualitative Fallstudie untersucht, welches pädagogische Potenzial sich entfaltet, wenn Bertolt Brechts Lehrstücke (Der Jasager/Der Neinsager) im Deutsch-als-Fremdsprache-Unterricht in Senegal nicht als literarische Artefakte, sondern als Ausgangspunkt für performatives Lehren und Lernen genutzt werden. Basierend auf einer qualitativen Triangulation aus Interviews (n=9), Umfragen (n=60) und teilnehmenden Beobachtungen an vier senegalesischen Schulen, analysiert der Beitrag die transkulturellen Aushandlungsprozesse der beteiligten Schüler:innen. Die Ergebnissezeigen, dass durch die performative Aneignung des Stücks transkulturelle Resonanzräume geschaffen wurden, in denen die Jugendlichen den historischen Text zu einem Spiegel ihrer eigenen Lebenswelt machten. Neben der sprachlichen und interkulturellen Kompetenz stärkte der Prozess vorallem die Selbstwirksamkeit und das kritische Denken der Teilnehmenden. Die Studie schlussfolgert, dass theaterpädagogische Ansätze ein wirkmächtiges Instrument für kulturelle Selbstvergewisserung und pädagogische Innovation in postkolonialen Bildungsräumen darstellen.
