Reading Child Drama (1954) Seven Decades After Publication

This talk offers some reflections on the book Child Drama (1954) which was published by the University of London Press. I came across the book by chance while looking for something else on the open shelves in IoE library during 2024. The author Peter Slade (1912–2004) later became known as a pioneer of drama therapy but that is not the focus of this talk. Instead I explore this book as a record of what Slade had come to understand in the first 25 years of his working life about the relationship between play and drama after observing children in schools, art centres and out in the streets making up imaginary games. The visual and the verbal ways that he went about sharing his research with an audience are also discussed in relation to the specific historical moment and wider educational context of 1954.
 
Lottie Hoare is a Senior Teaching Associate at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge and a Lecturer in Education and Early Childhood Studies at Middlesex University, London. Her published peer reviewed journal articles and book chapters have reflected on both historical and contemporary educational experiences with a focus on arts education, pedagogy, home language schools, the representation of education in radio and film and the networks of individuals who lobby to influence reforms in education policy. She also uses arts-based methods in her own research.