The ‘To be or not to be well – Drama and Theatre in Education’ project ran between 2019 and 2022. It was about using Drama and TIE to collaborate with teachers in ways that support their wellbeing and that of the students, especially the ones who are at risk of exclusion. Big Brum TiE from the UK, The Lužánky Leisure Time Activity Centre from the Czech Republic, Nyitott Kör Association from Hungary and Association of Drama Practitioners STOP-KLATKA from Poland collaborated to create new resources, which are shared on this page.

The final results of the project include a Well-being Curricula, which consists of four document packages, one from each partner, based on the local context’s characteristics, and needs of the schools. We offer this as a scheme for other European practitioners, who would like to work on the well-being of their schools, involving Drama. A Guidebook is supporting fellow practitioners to understand what and how happened during the project.

We considered it important to measure, follow, and Research the impact of the process, using the encounters of the Well-being Curricula as core material for observation. Project partners from the UK, from Hungary and from the Czech Republic invited academics and professionals to collaborate in the analyses of results and creation of the studies, which we share through this book.

Ben Ballin took an interpretative and ethnographic approach to qualitative data from teachers participating in the project. This was subsequently analysed by an expert interpretation panel, involving Dr. Gill Brigg, Stacy Brown, and Matt Hinks. The research explored how the Theatre in Education Company Big Brum sought to meet the needs of the ‘displaced child’ by engaging these teachers in a felt and creative manner.

Dr. Gabriella Dóczi-Vámos and Dr. Lilla Lendvai, with the help of Zsófia Jozifek from Nyitott Kör, conducted an Art Based Participatory Action Research, following and affecting closely the sequence of workshops with teachers, exploring key factors of their professional well-being and the role of Drama and Theatre in Education in it.

Hana Cisovská, Eva Janebová and Lenka Polánková, collaborating with Lužánky, carried out a qualitative research that functions as a probe into how selected teachers and school management workers understood well-being, and how this was reflected during the encounters of the project.

We wished to develop evidence-based materials about the impact of the processes throughout the project, to raise awareness about the situation in each place, its challenges, educational problems, and the points of view of different actors. We aimed to articulate why Drama and Theatre in Education are strong stimuli for enabling participants to become agents of change, and how they can support the well-being of teachers, students and that of the school as an organisation. We will be happy to discuss, debate and be questioned about our results, with the aim of fostering a shift that raises awareness about conscious work on the well-being of schools, and the importance of creativity in education.