Nobel Women: Readers' Theater for Global Education

Global interdependence has huge implications for the field of education. As economic, technological, cultural, transportation, and environmental concerns become not only local but international, students today must gain awareness outside of their immediate city, county, state, and country if they are to be successful citizens of the earth. The global education movement has developed in response to this need. Teacher training is a major pre-requisite for global education to be implemented meaningfully in the schools. Once teachers know and value the precepts of global education, they must be provided with effective pedagogy, activities, and topics for instruction.

This study sought to inform teacher participants about global education as well as provide an effective curriculum for implementation in the classroom. Drama pedagogy, specifically readers’ theater, and the lives of women who have won the Nobel Peace Prize were united into a series of curriculum units. A teacher training workshop was designed and implemented with a graduate level education course in drama and storytelling. A case study qualitative research was designed in order to describe teachers’ responses to selected global education strategies. Pre- and post-survey data, semi-structured interviews, and written reflections were collected and triangulated in the findings and analysis. Eight main themes emerged. The most important outcome of the NWRT workshop was that the participants felt more empowered and inspired to make a difference.