Inquiry Drama as a Method to Explore the Museum Environment. An Action Research Example at the Historical Museum of Alexandroupolis (Greece)

The present research paper explores the contribution of the Inquiry Drama Method to meaning-making in a museum environment. It presents and assesses an educational program realized in the Historical Museum of Alexandroupolis. The article comprises a theoretical and an empirical section. The first part refers to the museum as a context of development and learning, in Inquiry Drama Method, and the functional connection between them. In the second part, a theatre-pedagogy intervention is presented through Inquiry Drama Method and Action Research methodology in a museum environment. The participants are university students in the ‘Drama and Group Empowerment and Resilience’ course of the Department of Primary Education at the Democritus University of Thrace. This educational research intervention was completed in three circles of four main stages each (plan, action, observe, reflect), drawing on museum exhibits regarding photos of refugees in Thrace as well as theatrical texts, storytelling, and personal testimonies from Armenian refugees. Results show that the participants constructed personal and social meaning through Inquiry Drama Method and drama techniques on sociopolitical issues, regarding what it means to be a refugee in the old and contemporary times.