Drama,Spirituality and the Curriculum

The field of drama and moral education has been given some theoretical attention in recent years but little if any theorising has been applied to the area of drama and spiritual education. In UK schools, however, the spiritual education of children is seen as one of a school's core functions and a spiritual dimension has often been important in the global history of drama and acting. Various and conflicting definitions of spirituality and approaches to spiritual education exist. In this article, I begin with an attempt to make connections between these approaches and recent epistemologies of drama education. I then outline a possible theoretical framework for defining spirituality, influenced largely by anthropological and cultural studies, and exemplify it by drawing upon examples from existing practices in the fields of theatre and educational drama. I then conclude by speculating as to how these ideas might find practical expression within a drama curriculum.