Children’s theatre play production as an integrated arts pedagogy in the foundation phase: A case study

Background: Arts education is an underutilised subject in South African teacher education institutions and schools. It is mostly characterised by fewer hours of training and is primarily theory-based. Setting: The study was conducted at an urban university of South Africa. Aim: The aim of the study was to find out how student teachers engaged with an integrated arts experience through children’s play production, in which there was a deliberate balance of the practice and theory in their Arts Education Methodology module. Method: A qualitative reflective case study was conducted with the B.Ed. students who had completed this module to solicit their experiences as well as its efficacy for teaching Arts Education effectively in their respective schools. Telephonic one-on-one interviews were conducted with 11 students who were purposefully sampled. Deductive thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Results: The study revealed that several 21st-century skills were indirectly imparted to the students through the integrated arts pedagogy and were used in the students’ play production. Conclusion and contribution: Play production is an effective pedagogical approach for teaching 21st-century skills to pre-service teachers. It could be adapted by any other Foundation Phase teacher-training institution that might be interested in implementing this integrated arts children’s play pedagogy to promote practice-based Arts Education methodology.