The Use of Drama for Exploring Research Questions Within Master Theses in Psychosocial Work—A Qualitative Study of a Pedagogical Intervention in Health and Welfare Education

In this study, we have used drama as a pedagogical strategy to facilitate students work with their research questions related to their master thesis in psychosocial work. This strategy creates and promotes a transdisciplinary team approach, as the group of students represents a variety of professions with different perspectives and creates an interdisciplinary discussion. To describe and analyse the use of drama and Enhanced Forum Theatre (EFT) as a teaching strategy to activate the student's practice-based knowledge when exploring challenges in various psychosocial fields to identify and define research questions for their master theses. A qualitative approach is used, consisting of the researchers' participatory and field observations of a one-day drama workshop. Three role plays were prepared and performed as EFT. The staging of EFT from real life experiences made professional knowledge available for group discussion and analysis. The process induced a transdisciplinary exploration of identified challenges together with possible research questions being elaborated upon. Issues of power, marginalisation, vulnerability and empowerment in the psychosocial fields became visible and tangible in a direct and relevant way across the plays. To our knowledge, EFT has not been applied before with the objective to develop research questions for master's theses in health and welfare studies/psychosocial work.