The Citizenship Debate and Theatre for Young People in Contemporary Scotland

Scullion, A. (2008) The Citizenship Debate and Theatre for Young People in Contemporary Scotland. New Theatre Quarterly, 24(4), pp. 379-393. (doi: 10.1017/S0266464X08000511)

Abstract

In this article Adrienne Scullion reviews the citizenship debate in education policy within contemporary – and specifically post-devolution – Scotland. She identifies something of the impact that this debate has had on theatre-making for children and young people, with a particular focus on projects that are participatory in nature. Her key examples are drawn from TAG Theatre Company's ‘Making the Nation’ project, a major three-year initiative that sought to engage children and young people throughout Scotland in ideas around democracy, politics, and government. Revisiting a classic cultural policy stand-off between instrumental and aesthetic outcomes, she asks whether a policy-sanctioned emphasis on process, transferable skills, and capacity building limits the potential for theatre projects to develop other kinds of theatre skills, such as critical reading and/or spectatorship. With its emphasis on participatory projects rather than plays for children and young people, the article complements her earlier essay, ‘“And So This Is What Happened”: War Stories in New Drama for Children’ in New Theatre Quarterly 84 (November 2005), pp. 317-30.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Scullion, Professor Adrienne
• Authors: Scullion, A.
• Subjects: L Education > LB Theory and practice of education; P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN2000 Dramatic representation. The Theater
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Culture and Creative Arts > Theatre Film and TV Studies
• Journal Name: New Theatre Quarterly
• ISSN: 0266-464X
• ISSN (Online): 1474-0613
• Copyright Holders: Cambridge University Press