Inclusion and cooperation in a musical theater project: the case of a Spanish bilingual school

Abstract

Inclusive education is a widely debated issue in the international educational landscape, recognized as a Human Right (​​UN, 2006) and part of the 4th Sustainable Development Goal of the Global 2030 Agenda (UNESCO, 2015). The Spanish educational system is based on the Council Recommendation on Key Competences for Lifelong Learning (2018), aligned with the Global Agenda mentioned above. Inclusive education is promoted through several of those Competences. This research presents a first analysis of a project carried out in a Spanish bilingual school in which several artistic disciplines come together: music, dance and theater. This educational project takes place from the 1st year of Primary Education to the 3rd year of Secondary Education and consists of the production of a musical theater by the students of each course, under the guidance of their teachers. Data were obtained through qualitative-thematic analysis of the interviews carried out with the teachers involved in the project and from non-participant observation of students group dynamics. The main themes obtained and analyzed are fundamentally focused on the following issues: the development of attitudes of cooperation among students and with the teaching staff; the inclusion positions to involve all the members of each working group, including students with special educational needs; the development of personal self-esteem in the different educational stages, mainly fostered by the improvisation work produced through theatrical dynamics; and the management of inclusion in activities carried out in the foreign language. Results indicate that this project could promote the development of the aforementioned Competences.