The Future of Education

I am a practitioner-scholarly teacher that have increasingly become uncomfortable with the traditional Western content and methods of actor training that can be exclusionary and potentially damaging. Three years ago, I started teaching Anne Bogart and Tina Landau’s Viewpoints technique which focusses less on individual psychology and more on observation of others in the space; encouraging actors to notice everything and let it influence you. This echoes the South African concept of Ubuntu which refers to the collectivist notion that I am what I am because of who we all are. I decided to combine my classes with my research on a more ethical, collaborative and sustainable way of training actors at South African universities. At the end of the module, anonymous focus group discussions aimed to determine to what extent Viewpoints enhanced, changed or modified students’ experience and perceptions regarding the training process at the Drama Department of Stellenbosch University? I have received three sets of data and although I am only at the start of the analysis process, certain themes are already emerging as salient: democracy, freedom, easy, decolonisation, collaboration and creativity. These students represent a diverse range of perspectives on the impact and challenges of integrating Viewpoints into actor training within a specific cultural and institutional context. Their voices provide valuable insight into the ongoing evolution of acting pedagogy and the complexities of navigating personal experience, artistic expression, and institutional structures.

Ethics approval was granted by the Social, Behavioural and Education Research Ethics Committee (project number: 27108) SU.