Course Catalogue

The MA Professional Practice: Theatre and Drama Facilitation is a postgraduate programme that blends work-based, distance and modular learning to enable professional drama practitioners to develop their career by:

• Advancing, developing and renewing existing drama facilitation practice.

• Cultivating reflective practice and criticality as catalysts for on-going work-based learning, professional development and contribution to the field of drama and theatre facilitation.

• Exploiting appropriate analytical and project management paradigms and techniques in pursuance of professional goals.

At Masters level we have the expectation that students operate in complex situations or face complex problems which require sophisticated judgement. That judgement should be clearly explained by reference to appropriate evidence. In addition, there should be clear engagement with new and emergent areas in their chosen field. FHEQ descriptors are clear in this regard “deal with complex issues both systematically and creatively, make sound judgements in the absence of complete data, and communicate their conclusions clearly to specialist and non-specialist audiences” (FHEQ B1) and “originality in the application of knowledge, together with a practical understanding of how established techniques of research and enquiry are used to create and interpret knowledge in the discipline” (FHEQ A3). With this in mind, students will utilise ideas, policy arguments and critical concepts across the fields of education, politics and the performing arts to inform decision-making in their professional practice.

Students will be encouraged to utilise their existing expertise as a platform to enhance and develop their career. The focus is on capturing workplace learning as an implicit and ongoing feature of professional practice, exploiting the various modes of knowledge which can be used in theatre and drama facilitation to improve outcomes for both the participants and the facilitator themselves. In short, the programme is about learning for work, at work and through work.

Modules follow a similar pattern beginning with taught delivery followed by a period of work-based learning in which the new skills/techniques/knowledge are explored in practice. This learning is then reflected upon during a weekend seminar workshop leading to the development of action plan to deliver assessed work over a final period of work-based study. Thus, the teaching strategy blends intensive taught delivery with ongoing distance/work-based learning strategies which will take place across a range of digital platforms. Several modules will require journaling for reflective practice, and this will take the form of online blogs, augmented with the digital capture of practical work for further reflection and feedback from supervisors. Elements of this work will also be shared with other students with a view to creating and maintaining a community of practice – something often lacking in a field which by its nature leads to solo practice. Formative feedback is therefore not just embedded in the programme but is a key component of delivery.

Summative feedback will be given on coursework in line with the LJMU policy given in the Programme Specification. The Programme Leader has responsibility for ensuring that the programme has developed an assessment schedule before teaching commences. This will be managed at a local level by the Director of School/Head of Department.

This programme is focused on learning at, about, and through work. All modules centre on work-based learning.