Using drama in café dialogues as an alternative methodology in multicultural educational processes

Mette Lyngstad ^*

• Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Bergen, Norway

This article discusses how we can use drama and storytelling in a Norwegian Adult Education Centre (AEC), as a way of facilitating collective creative processes. These drama workshops were implemented as a part of "café dialogues" between participants from different countries at the AEC. The overall goal was to see what influence drama had on the learning environment.Methods: Data were collected both by active observation in the drama workshops and individual and group interviews that focused on participants' experiences in the three drama workshops. A thematic analysis of the data material was performed, with a focus on creativity, creative expression and collective creative processes.Results: This article uses drama theory to analyse how drama can and has been used in the drama workshops to see if the use of drama in the café dialogues was successful. The findings show that drama opens people up to other ways of communication and creation across the participants' cultural background. In the drama workshop, the teacher and the participants made a safe space to create together. According to the teachers with a background in drama, there was a need for them to be more active in these workshops.Discussion: In this article, I discuss how drama-related activities can open people up to the joy of creation, creative expression and collective creative processes. I found positive common activity and involvement in the workshops across cultural background and age, which gave the participants more joy and more ways to express themselves through nonverbal communication.