Bosnia and Herzegovina - Summer 2019, Fall 2020
Activating Learning through the Arts
ADI participants create a gesture sequence to explore personal geographies.
In June 2019, I traveled to Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) along with collaborators Katie Dawson, Kate Proietti, and Faith Hillis. We worked in partnership with the US Embassy in Sarajevo and local mentor-teachers to design and facilitated a 4-day Applied Drama Institute (ADI). This training brought together 60 English as a Foreign Language and Civics educators from all across BiH to explore the foundational practices and theories of drama-based pedagogy. Responding to a lack of professional learning opportunities for teachers in BiH, the institute asked: How does drama-based instruction support learners in building critical and creative thinking skills?
(from left) Co-facilitators Kate Proietti, myself, and Faith Hillis
ADI Participants create an embodied tableau in a model lesson on the book The Red Tree by Sean Tan.
I was most excited about discovering that I can express myself in other ways than verbal and I can inspire my students to do the same.
—ADI Participant, 2019
I re-learned that there is joy in teaching and that is something that I've forgotten in the past couple of years.
—ADI Participant, 2019
Screenshot from a video introducing the One Bosnia and Herzegovina, One Book project. The video was shared in the fall 2020 Applied Drama Workshops held across BiH.
Building on the success of the 2019 Applied Drama Institute, Katie Dawson, Faith Hillis, and I continued to collaborate with BiH educators and the US Embassy to present the One Bosnia and Herzegovina One Book project. This country-wide program launched in fall 2020 and centers on Dear Martin by Nic Stone.
Working closely with local BiH educators, we developed professional learning workshops and virtual resources that support interethnic dialogue and creative exchange amongst teachers and students from different regions in BiH. By offering English language content, like Dear Martin, that interrogates individual and systemic injustice in the United States, we hope to invite BiH learners to consider their own experiences with privilege/oppression and civic engagement.