This study aims to design and apply a human rights education program using story drama to explore the impact of the story drama program on the human rights consciousness of upper elementary school students. Story drama is a genre of drama based on sto...
This study aims to design and apply a human rights education program using story drama to explore the impact of the story drama program on the human rights consciousness of upper elementary school students. Story drama is a genre of drama based on stories, in which students become the agents of learning, immerse themselves in stories through improvisational drama activities, and create new stories reflecting their lives. In story drama, teachers and students form a story community to cooperate and communicate. These features of story drama are pertinent to the principles of effective implementation of human rights education in schools. Therefore, the researcher set the following research questions.
First, how to design and organize a human rights education program using story drama.
Second, how does a human rights education program using story dramas impact the human rights consciousness of upper elementary school students?
To answer these research questions, this study first examined the contents and principles of human rights education in schools, the concept and characteristics of story drama, and the significance of human rights education using story drama. In the program design stage, the researcher designed a human rights education program using story drama by establishing book selection criteria and devising a teaching and learning model. The program was implemented for 25 students in one class of Grade 5 at G Elementary School in Gyeonggi-do, South Korea, for a total of 15 sessions in three periods of five sessions per period. The qualitative data collected during the implementation of the program were analyzed using the constant comparison method, focusing on 'human rights consciousness'.
The findings of this study are summarized as follows. First, a teaching-learning model for human rights education using story drama was designed and the program was organized. The teaching-learning model is based on the steps of 'Preparing for Experience-Experiencing Human Rights Issues-Reflecting on Experience', which allows students to experience human rights issues through drama, solve problems, and reflect on human rights issues in their own lives. In addition, books suitable for human rights education using story drama were selected and the program was structured using drama conventions applicable to exploring the themes of each session. Second, the researcher noticed positive changes in students' human rights consciousness through the human rights education program using story drama. Through this program, students developed human rights judgment skills by working together and developing an understanding of human rights issues in depth. The students also expressed human rights sensitivity by empathizing with characters with human rights issues through story drama and formed behavioral intentions to solve human rights issues in real life.