A Space Called “Classroom” and the Theatre as Trial

Abstract

Education could be seen as two images; one is a mirror, where things to be learned are reflected and watched by learners, and the other is a window or door, through which learners go out in order to participate in the world unknown to them.

One-way communication from a teacher to pupils is closely related to the traditional method of learning through books. Paulo Freire, a Brazilian theorist of education, called it “banking style education”, and Augusto Boal saw it as a form of oppression analogous to what theatre audiences experience facing to the traditional picture-frame stage. Theatre should work as a tool to transform the pupil from the role of a receiver to a participant, or “actor” as conceptualized by Brecht.