Using drama in café dialogue as an alternative approach in multicultural educational processes

Mette Lyngstad^*

• Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Bergen, Norway

This article discusses how and why we should use drama and storytelling in café dialogue at an adult education centre (AEC). I will present and discuss three drama workshops that were implemented as part of café dialogue and that explore the same topics as in traditional café dialogue at an AEC. Participants from different countries came together for exploration in the drama workshop, whereas the group participants in café dialogue came mostly from the same country in order to facilitate the organisation of a bilingual immigrant assistant or a language host. I will also analyse and discuss the data material from the interviews as this relates to the research questions. The overall goal of this article is to explore the potential and the limitations of using drama and theatre as part of café dialogue.Methods: Our research methods are observations, logs, and interviews. Data were collected through participant and non-participant observation of three drama workshops in which several drama conventions were used. Two teachers at an AEC with a drama background led the first workshop while I observed, and I led the second workshop while one of the teachers with a drama background actively participated and wrote a log afterwards. The third workshop was led by both a teacher with a drama background and myself.After the workshops, a colleague from HVL and I conducted individual interviews with the two teachers with drama experience, a bilingual immigrant assistant, and a participant in the drama workshops. In this article, I analyse the interviews to gain more insight into the teachers' and students' experience of drama as part of café dialogue, while my colleague analyses other data material from café dialogue (world café) in her article (Ravneberg 2024).The students actively participated in collective creative processes and gave different topics an aesthetic form. They generated much joy and laughter in the classroom. Drama opened the way for both nonverbal and verbal communication across age and culture.Several students were reluctant at first but became more active over time thanks to the creation of a safe atmosphere and the nature of participation.