How does Educational Drama promote pupil voice during primary-secondary transition for children with Additional Support Needs?

Primary-secondary transition can create a challenging time for pupils which can impact on their social, emotional and academic achievement (Jindal-Snape & Miller, 2008). Children are thought of having additional support needs (ASN) if they have long or short-term needs that inhibit their participation with learning; ASN has replaced the term special educational needs (SEN) in Scotland. The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 (amended 2009), highlights that a child might have ASN if they are experiencing medical conditions, difficulty accessing the curriculum (e.g. English as an Additional Language), family difficulties (e.g. becoming looked-after) and experiencing social emotional trauma (e.g. bullying). Currently, there are 170, 329 pupils in Scotland with ASN (24.9% of all pupils) with 162, 034 (95% in mainstream education) making up 23.9% of mainstream school pupils (Scottish Government, 2016).

Children with ASN might experience transitional risk factors which include low achievement and self-esteem, behavioural problems and social difficulties (Barnes-Holmes et al., 2013). Children identified as having ASN, in comparison with those who do not, report low self-confidence and struggle with friendships (Forgan & Vaughn, 2000). Furthermore, children with ASN might be less well supported by their primary teachers than children without ASN. Barnes-Holmes et al. (2013) suggest that children with ASN share similar concerns regarding primary-secondary transition to those children who do not have ASN. Contrastingly, children with ASN report that they are concerned they might experience victimisation (Hannah & Topping, 2013). Whereas, some children with Autism spectrum disorder might keenly anticipate their transfer due to learning in specialised units with like-minded peers (Hannah & Topping, 2013), other children with Autism can experience delays in placements (Jindal-Snape et al., 2006) which can cause anxiety and stress (Hannah & Topping, 2012). Unfortunately, children with ASN often are scared to disclose their ASN for fear of bullying and some do not engage with ASN bases to prevent peers viewing them as being different (Knesting et al., 2008). Jindal-Snape (2016) indicates that for some children with ASN transitions can elicit feelings of vulnerability, anxiety and stress at transition time which in itself could cause ASN. However, many children with ASN, just as those without, indicate that initial transitional fears often subside within the first few weeks of secondary school (Barnes-Holmes et al., 2013).


The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 (amended 2009), emphasises the need for professionals to work together and listen to the voice of children. However, Dickins (2008) suggests that professionals might ignore the views of children with ASN. Jindal-Snape (2012) indicates that creative approaches might be an appropriate way of empowering pupil voice at transition.

Why might we use Educational Drama to promote pupil voice for children with ASN during primary-secondary transition?
Dramatic play, which is richly embodied and oral medium, is among the primary ways in which children together explore their world, invent new worlds, try out models of behaviour and communication.
(O’Toole and Stinson, 2015)

Play can be described as a human being’s instinctive mode of communication (Hammond, 2016). However, research has tended to use data gathering tools such as: questionnaires, writing tasks and interviews, which are often researcher-centred as opposed to child-centred, to establish pupils’ transitional views. Jindal-Snape et al. (2011) used secondary data from a drama activity investigating transition and determined that the child-centred approach of drama empowered participants to rehearse possible transitional scenarios. Using drama at transition can provide equitable opportunities for children to express their views, support pupil motivation, develop positive behaviour, self-esteem, resilience, emotional intelligence and agency (Jindal –Snape, 2012). Creative approaches to transition also develop young people’s voice and enable them to express themselves in meaningful ways (Jindal-Snape, 2011). Jindal-Snape et al. (2011) and Hammond (2015) suggest that drama provides opportunities for young people to practices future scenarios which help them to deal with, and give voice to, their transitional concerns through the safety-net of fiction. Unfortunately, children with ASN might experience situations where their voices are not always heard (Mitchell, 2012). Jindal-Snape (2012) suggests that it is important to gather children’s voices at transition in planning and preparing for their transition in ways that are meaningful to the participants. To date, few studies have adopted a Drama Convention approach (Neelands and Goode, 2015) to listen to the voices of children with ASN during transition. As such, this study seeks to understand if educational drama helps to promote pupil voice for children with ASN during primary-secondary transition.

Proposed Research Methodology and methods.
The likely methodological approach adopted for this study will be qualitative through using explanatory case study. Data collection should seek to provide rich descriptive accounts of the young people’s transitional experience (Yin, 2009).