The Water Reckoning project was initiated to involve young people, teachers and academics in a creative project which drew on Dorothy Heathcote’s philosophy and strategies. Together the groups have co-constructed a story that responds to a common pre-text. Educational and research sites have been involved from Australia, Greece, Singapore, the USA and the UK. This project has focused on exploring ideas that relate to the UN Year of Water Cooperation in keeping with Heathcote’s concern for using drama to raise awareness about human understanding and experience. For her drama had to be about things ‘that mattered’. Our drama has explored how humans cooperate to share and manage water and deal with situations such as drought or extreme weather events. Research has explored the nature of learnings and understandings that have emerged for participants from the process, including cross-cultural awareness and attitudes towards sustainability issues.

1. +
Water Reckoning
Research Roundtable
Heathcote Reconsidered Conference, July
7, 2013, Greenwich University, London
Present at session: Sue Davis, Xenia Simou,
Christine Hatton, Mary Mooney, Julian Kennard
With contributions also from: Prue Wales, Mei Yee
Chang, Angelina Ambrosetti, Glenn Taylor, Jenny
Nicholls & Jeffrey Tan

2. +
Rolling Roll – what is it?
 The concept of Rolling Role is to involve different groups or classes in
building a community that then faces some kind of change. The
initiators create a common context and agree to the key
features, affairs and concerns of the community. The students/children
are then involved in building the community, the lives, events and
artefacts of it and add to developments.
 Work is often left incomplete so another group can take it forward and
continue the drama.
 Work produced by classes if publicly open and available to stimulate
other work.
 Heathcote suggested this work lends it self to sharing through
something like a website.
See ‘Contexts for active learning: four models’ By
Dorothy Heathcote

3. +
Site – type of
school
Grade/Age Number of
students/gend
er
Drama
experience
Other relevant
details
Queensland –
Public
secondary
school – 1000
students
Year 10 –
14-5 years
25 students
22 girls, 3 boys
1-3 years Little drama outside
school. Limited
process drama
Sydney –
Independent
school 1200
Year 9, 2 x
year 10
21 students, -
11 girls, 9 boys
Elective
drama
Quite a lot of out of
school experience –
NIDA etc
Greece –
Public school
near sea,
approx. 230
students 15-18
15 years
old
12 students –
11 girls, 1 boy
No school
drama
Different type of
drama work for
students, hard to get
together for co-
curricular work.
Singapore -
polytechnic
16 year
olds
3 x classes Studying
applied
theatre
Approx 3 x 2 hr
sessions
USA- small
private
secondary
14-15 & 16-
17 years
16 students 11
girls, 5 boys
Studying
applied
theatre
Applied theatre
students leading
workshops for year 6

4. +
The dramatic pre-text
# Discovery of a lost culture of frozen people
underwater who experienced times of crisis
# Responding to a message in a bottle about
the history of „Ardus Unda‟
# Who were these people and what
happened?
# What did their emissaries learn about
stories from elsewhere around the world?
# Is it possible to help the frozen people or
restore them to life?
(VIDEOS REMOVED FROM THIS
POWERPOINT – SEE www.water-
reckoning.net for videos and project details )
Jason
deCaires
Taylor
imagery

5. +
Ideas from Heathcote‟s
work
 Drama is about making
significant meaning through
commitment to an enterprise
and fiction
 Students will see the real world
more clearly when they have
experienced the dramatic one
 Drama as rehearsal for life
 Finding the universal in the
particular making, the emotional
connection
 Participants should have the
power to take action and
operate, drawing on what they
know and can do

6. +
How it has worked?
# Groups create drama work
using different conventions. Key
content and outcomes and
digitally recorded and
documented - audio, text, images,
videos
# Selected material is posted to
PlaceStories, videos on YouTube
# Each group reviews what has
already been posted and
considering ways to „roll‟ the
action forward
# There are some session where
participants interact online
together

7. +
Research questions
How can Heathcote‟s Rolling Role strategy, drama
and digital platforms be used for contemporary
education?
What impact do these models have on student
learning?
What impact does cultural context and place have
on the work and learning that emerges?
How can rolling role be used for sustainability and
active citizenship education?

8. +
Research methods
Pre and post-test surveys
Small group focus group questions (beginning
and end)
Analysis of student work, artefacts and
creative outputs
Field notes and observations
(NB Project has just finished and data analysis
is ongoing but some initial data and preliminary
findings follows)

9. +
Survey 1
N = 83
 Qld = 25
 NSW = 19
 Greece = 11
 Singapore = 15
 USA = 16
General demographics

10. • Technology use
– Nearly all
participants have
a mobile device
and multiple
digital devices
• Main uses
communications
and consumption
(of music)
• Low level of
digital creative
content
generation
• Not a vrey high
level of gamers
• More content
generated
reported by Greek
students

11. +
Technology devices
0 devices
1 device
2 devices
3 devices
4 devices
6 devices
95% of devices
include a
mobile phone

12. + Technology use
 95% of students spend more than 10 hours per week online
or using their mobile devices
 100% of students use their devices to communicate with
friends (Facebook, messaging)
 Youtube, Instagram, Tumblr, downloading music were also
popular uses
95% of devices
include a
mobile phone
90% of devices
include a
computer
75% of devices
include an IPod

13. Sustainability
awareness and
intent

15. Polyxeni Simou
MSt in Drama in Education

16. Water Drama
 learning the
importance of water in
our life
 the water problems
 the relationship of
man with water
 the consequences of
our actions
 imagination
 creativity
 cooperation
 communication
 meeting other people‟s
cultures
 building on other
people‟s contribution

17.  the strange and innovative ideas
 the video watching and making
 the team work and cooperation
 the rolling role technique
the new way of using technology
 the freedom and ownership in
creativity

18.  Half of the students have reported that drama
has helped them change their attitude towards
their responsibility about water issues.
 One student wrote:
“I couldn‟t believe that such a precious
„possession‟ could be connected with such a
tremendous catastrophe”
 Another reported:
 “I haven‟t changed my attitude, but sometimes I
wonder: could we be in the Ardus Unda people‟s
place, because of the environmental problems of
our civilization?”

19.  All of them found
the use of technology in this project very
important
 They loved the idea of videos,
but
because of their
inexperience, sometimes, they were
confused and they couldn‟t distinguish
what was real and what was not.

20. would like to participate
in the same or a similar project
again

21. Water Reckoning:
The Singapore Story
Mei Yee Chang
Prue Wales

22. The Singapore Situation
In addition the 3 classes
were undertaking a
module in Qualitative
Research
As the drama was going
on in one class another
class was
observing, notating and
studying their peers

23. Aims & Objectives
Like the other sites we sought
• Digital learning through applied drama as a
means to explore contemporary issues around
sustainability
• We were also interested in examining ways
the students expressed their personal and
national identities

24. Our Key Objectives
• To facilitate students’
learning about process
drama
And
• To identify what they
were learning about
process drama as an art
form

25. What did students learn about
• Planning
• Framing
• Facilitation/Artistry of
Teacher
• Development of ideas ?

26. The Pre-text
Initially, while students found
the pre-text engaging they
didn’t buy into fiction
- Many said the video was
too “professional”, music
was not needed
- Archaeologists would not
make such “polished” films
Hegemonic belief/practice of
‘Singaporean
pragmatism’, we wonder?

27. The Fiction
Students subsequently bought
into the fiction through a
video clip of Dwarka
(lost, sunken Indian
city), and by re-creating
aspects of the city
They found the ‘Rolling’ from
other locations engaging
and helpful in building
narrative
Constant struggle with
‘suspension of
disbelief’, that seems partly
due the mixture of fact and
fiction, real and unreal

28. Thinking about Process Drama
Throughout the drama, students were evaluating how
their teacher was engaging them. At the end of each
sessions questions included…
• How can I make this (the pre-text) more relevant for
the Singapore context?
• How can I make the drama (more) engaging?
• What are the skills I need to facilitate something like
this?
• Could I make this work with a group of secondary
school students?

29. Reflections
• Students told us, during
drama, they wondered…
• Will I be able to do what
she [the teacher] is doing?
• Will I be able to frame a
drama and develop it like
that?
• Eg: Co-creation of city prior
to disaster. They found
activity engaging and felt it
something they could do
• They talked about ways
that they could refine
activity

30. National & Social Identity
One of our aims has been to
explore students’ shifting
subjectivities in relation to
the dramatic subject matter
& how they resonate in &
with the real world
&
To identify how the
expressions of “being
Singaporean” emerged
through the drama

31. Cultural identity
• Multicultural groups were created
within the city. This was seen
through…
• Creation of religious temples in
doomed city. Students conducted
religious rituals conveying
multiple belief systems rather
than a hegemonic religion
• In creation of entertainment
sites, students constructed
markets that sold food from all
over the world
• This supported in online survey –
majority of students claimed they
feel accepting of different cultures

32. To Conclude
• Students feel they have learnt much about
process drama from the experience
• They recognise the possibilities of using digital
technologies for projects such as this
• They see strong possibilities for using ‘rolling
role’ as a way of building drama
• They really enjoyed the experience of talking
with young people from overseas

34. Program - 10 lessons
• Students-in-role as
scientists, TiR as the curator of
an international science
convention, students examined
artefacts and gave an in role
press conference
• Creating the people of Ardus
Unda and their stories using the
artefacts, mapping time before
the disaster (the warnings)
• The circle as a selection ritual
and symbol of strength
• Selecting the emissaries – who
is best to go? Potential
candidates are put forward at a
town meeting (taking Seattle‟s
idea) and a collective decision
is reached
• Saying goodbye, giving the
emissaries a keepsake for the
journey and endowing the
object with story – „remember
who we are, you need to teach
them about our ways‟
• The emissaries journey –what
did they find? What was
different? Did they find help?
• A ritual ending – our message
to the future
• Playbuilding as synthesis

35. (e)ngagement framework
Place
Knowledge
Ability
Control
Voice
(Munns et al 2013)

36. Theme: student
engagement
Discourses of power: placeEngaging message: It's great to be a kid from / home is ...
Sydney site: Students used mobile phones to document their
sense of place; they played with notions of place and
connection within the drama (eg home, land, future places
and change)
Data excerpts:
I chose one that was a photo on the way to school by car, and I wanted to
incorporate what we did in the Water Reckoning Project, when it was like what the
world would be like in the future if we were transported. It was really foggy in the
morning so I wanted to have kind of sad looking city rather than a positive one.
Well the photos I put in were of Parramatta Road, on my way to school. So that‟s
my average day. One was the view from the back of the school, so its, you
know, centred around school. And then one was of the beach, its kind of what I do
with my recreation time.

37. I did ... another picture
of, like, a big graffiti wall that
me and a few of my other
friends and cousins and stuff
did which is like…who I am.

38. I took a photo of the Bondi
icebergs and the Tamarama beach
where I live. It‟s very beautiful and
some of my favourite places in the
world.
I put in two photos. One of the
sunset, because where I live on
the Bay Run. Because one day
there was a really really red
sun, so I took a photograph of that.
And one of the beach, like my
pastime and the Bay Run is where
I live. There‟s often sunsets like
that, like really nice sunsets
against the bay.
I took some ones of the harbour
bridge and of the city. I thought that
was really. You know.. about
Sydney.

39. Theme: student
engagement
Discourses of power: knowledge
Engaging message: We can see the connection and
the meaning
Sydney site: Group playbuilding synthesising significant
moments of their role-based drama and the motifs
online in the dramatic fiction – rolling role; goodbye
circle
Data excerpt:
S2.3: When we did that circle thing…that was quite personal. At least that‟s
when I started to connect with them.
I: Which circle one was that?
S2.3: The one where we had to, like the item we had to say goodbye…
S2.1: That…its almost like in real life as well…you don‟t realise how real
something is until you lose it. Like its almost like we were experiencing it…like
you kind of thought about how someone is going to go away and you will never
see them again. And it makes you think, if this was real, those people would
have gone through so much. Yeah I agree…that was the bit that I felt….

40. Theme: student
engagement
Discourses of power: ability
Engaging message: I am capable
Sydney site: Students compared their drama work with other
sites
Data excerpt:
4.2 I really liked when… I really like seeing other people put on different
characters that they had thought of. (Interviewer: In our group?) yes in the
whole class and all around the world… like people become the ancestors
2.1 Everyone is more or less at the same level as us. There‟s no one that‟s
really really really good or a group that doesn‟t really know what they are
doing. Like I am not saying everyone‟s bad or anything, but we are all the
same level, which is quite good.

41. Theme: student
engagement
Discourses of power:
controlEngaging message: We do this
Sydney site: The in-role Town Hall Meeting; Students-in-role as
scientists across various fields and teacher-in-role as a curator of an
international science convention; Students-in-role as people of Ardus
Unda and emissaries; Costume apparel support students
commitment to role

42. Data excerpts - control:
About TiR: S2.1: It sort of gives you the standard…he‟s like the teacher and he just
jumps into this role that he‟s obviously never played before and he‟s really setting
the standard for everyone. Like everyone else is like, „alright so, this is how into
it…how a teacher is…so, its not going to be embarrassing if we are the same as
him, because we can just, like go and be in character...‟ and no one is going to
care.
About SiR: 4.5 I really liked when we were choosing who would survive and who would
die cause it was just interesting and how we did that exercise where we were
promoting our cases as to why we should get chosen and it was just kind of
interesting to put people up in front of others but for a good cause because of their
skills and we did feel a bit bad for the characters that didn‟t make it and didn‟t have
hopes for the future.
4.3 When we play their role it kind of makes you understand it more being these people
pretending to be them makes you understand it more… what it would be like.
4.5 I think I empathised in a way that it did seem like a very real scenario…. Like you
couldn‟t imagine the community…(Interviewer interjects something about the
Tuvalu community not wanting to leave) … cause all of us definitely wanted to
leave and we were all very frightened and a lot of people… if it was me..if that
happened to us I would want to leave. I wouldn‟t want to stay. You would just see it
getting worse.

43. Theme: student
engagement
Discourses of power: voiceEngaging message: We share
Sydney site: Teacher-in-role with Students-in-role – making decisions
around dramatic action, character relationships and playbuilt
performances; Researchers filmed students work and uploaded to
PlaceStories – validation of their ideas
Data excerpt:
4.4 I liked watching the videos of other schools and us to see, like, if they
were doing the same thing, comparing them.
S2.4: I liked the meeting the best, when everyone was sitting around and
talking, there was a high level of energy and everyone had a very fixed view
on something but you had an opportunity to change their mind on something.
There was a lot of, kind of, there was some anger that was either acting or
real, I‟m not quite sure, if they wanted to be chosen or not, they tried to force
people to like them, and that was really interesting and cool to be able to do.

44. Christine Hatton, University of Newcastle, Sydney
Mary Mooney, University of Western Sydney
Jennifer Nicholls, Macquarie University Sydney
Julian Kennard, participating teacher

45. +
Queensland site
Some initial reflections on
Sustainability and technology
aspects
(Susan Davis, Angelina
Ambrosetti, Glenn Taylor)

46. + What do you think are the
current water issues that the
world is facing?
Natural disasters
Flood
Drought
Tsunami
Water contamination
1st world vs. 3rd world
Water wastage
Restrictions
Pollution
Global Warming
 Rising sea levels
Destruction of life
Overfishing
Loss of marine life
Loss of mammals
People care more about
themselves than the
environment.

47. +
Technology will …..
create more issues within our
environment,
but it could also help to solve some
issues within our environment in that
we would develop specific technology
to address those issues.

48. +Key experiences in shifting
understandings – realising these are
real „human‟ issues – the sensory
and the „now‟
Importance of the „Tuvalu‟ video for highlighting the urgency of these issues
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlFVJBZfsBY

49. + Changed perceptions – from the
head to the heart……
At the beginning of the project, students
reported that….„sustainability plays such a
big part in our lives‟,
They knew and could recite the rhetoric
about sustainability – don‟t waste
water, don‟t pollute, recycle etc.
The drama activities
provided the opportunity
to „feel‟ the impacts and
become emotionally
involved
The realization that
water issues surround
us and that we need to
work together to create
solutions

50. +
Changed perceptions – from the
head to the heart……
Students indicated that they felt
sympathy towards those who were
facing sustainability issues
“Realizing the affects
and issues to do with
water and how it
affects large groups
of people.”
“Watching the
video about Tuvalu
– seeing that it is
really sinking. It is
real.”
“The world is
changing and water is
becoming more
valuable.”
Will this lead to active citizenship? Of what
kind?

51. +
Changed perceptions – from the
head to the heart……but…
Many of the project‟s
young people distrust
authority, particularly
the government and
those seen with „power‟
The direction in which the
drama progressed brought out
these distrust issues and the
students emphasized these in
role.
The rolling role provided
the students with the
opportunity to
communicate what they
distrust about people in
power.
People in power:
• Make choices to suit
themselves
• Are only in power to get rich
• Don‟t think about the greater
good

52. +
Digitally creative generation?
 Considering that the majority of students owned a mobile
phone, most did not engage in the project in a digitally creative
way.
 Students were keen to use their phones for personal social media
purposes (outside the drama), the phones were actually a
distraction for the resistant students and disengaged them from
the context and content
 Real value of digital media – experience framed and meaning
shaped by technology
 Digital creative modes were mediated by the teacher and
researcher – students enjoyed watching the outputs and were
happy to star in the digital modes, but did not want to create any
themselves.
 The use of online platforms for enabling collaborative learning
experiences across sites viewed very positively – enabling
international collaboration – real potential for „global citizenship‟

53. Narrative anticipation
Teacher as mediator and curator of aesthetic encounters
Utilising Mediation tools of imagination & experience
Negotiating & becoming the other
Creating identities linked to own experience – exploring identity within safety of dramatic
context
Engagement of the senses (feeling and feelings)
Sensory engagement increasing the sense of presence in the real world and the fiction
(touch, taste, feel)
Use of recording technology creates a context where an elevated sense of presence and audience
Framing experience with
technology
Interpreter of meaning
Community formation and commitment

54. +
Common elements &
interesting points

55. +
 There were difficulties with students embracing the pre-text and focus as
both a fictional context that was also dealing with real-life issues.
 Great opportunity for teachers/researchers to share planning &
experience (de-privatise the classroom)
 Explicit teaching of drama conventions and artform & sustainability
issues essential in current educational climates
 Importance of utilising aesthetically charged 'tools‟
 Increased awareness by students of local and global water issues – For
many the data shows that understanding moved from 'the head to the
heart' from cognitive knowing to feeling and knowing.
 Those who experienced hangouts all commented on how although the
technology issues in schools are still significant, that these experiences
were very engaging for students and worth pursuing – enabling real
global awareness and citizenship
 Great potential for exploring human aspects of sustainability at local and
global levels