Mantle of the Expert

1. Mantle of the Expert A rose by any other name …?

2. What is MoE? • Dorothy Heathcote’s invention • A drama in which children engage in curriculum work through a task within a fictional world ‘as if’ they were a group of experts • Client, Enterprise • Mantle of the Expert • ‘Mantle’ meaning: I declare that I will uphold the life-style and standards of my calling • ‘Expert’ meaning: Furthermore I will undertake to take the acquisition and using of those skills deemed necessary in that life-style I have entered because of my calling

3. Heathcote’s 7 Mandatory Elements for MoE 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 7: Teacher sustains language from within the fiction; can work in roles well as a teacher /colleague and regulator of quality behaviour 6: The progressing of the work is based on doing tasks, supported by the teacher’s inventiveness, alongside the children 5: The mandatory elements begin to be established to engage the curriculum firmly and at relevant levels 4: The enterprise (as in all theatre) starts in the middle so there will be historical elements of the enterprise 3: Establishing a sense of purpose is created by the sense that we are working for ‘clients’ 2: The enterprise has been selected to provide mandatory access to the curriculum 1: Behaving ‘as if’ produces ‘now time’ of theatre and drama

4. MoE /non-MoE drama –what’s the difference? • Contentious • Need to distinguish between mantle of the expert as a particular way of working in drama and MoE as a commercial venture • Is it rigid, is it flexible? • Terminology – the ’D’ word • Is it process drama? • Ultimately the difference is about how tension is generated • Through relationships • Through task • Productive tension • Key tension

5. How does it unfold? Long term Collaborative, investigative In role and out of role work - the one gives the imperative for the other ‘Spanners in the works’

6. Core Elements of MoE • Learners gradually take on responsibility for running an enterprise in a fictional world • The student/learners care enough about the long-term goals of a fictional client that they engage in activities through which they begin to imagine the fictional world • Learners and teacher together: • interact predominantly as ‘themselves’ *** • imagine that they are interacting as experts who run the enterprise • imagine that they are interacting as other people in the fictional world with whom the experts are concerned • Over time, the pupils engage in activities that at the same time are both curriculum tasks and that would be professional practices in the fictional enterprise • The teacher must share power to position the students (individually and collectively) as knowledgeable and competent colleagues and also ensure that children position one another similarly • The children must reflect to make meaning. Adapted from: Heathcote, D. & Bolton, G. (1995). Drama for Learning: Dorothy Heathcote’s Mantle of the Expert Approach to Education

7. Finding out more • Drama for Learning: Dorothy Heathcote’s mantle of the expert approach to education • Bolton. G. & Heathcote, D. (1995) Heinemann • VivAitken • Brian Edminston • mantleoftheexpert.com • Mantleoftheexpert.co.nz