Chapter Three

Dorothy Heathcote’s Mantle of the Expert

Approach to Teaching and Learning:
A Brief Introduction
Viv Aitken

Introduction
In four of the case studies described in this book, teachers opted to teach
using the dramatic inquiry teaching approach known as Mantle of the
Expert. It is the aim of this chapter to provide the reader with further
background information about this approach, including its core principles,
impacts on learning and place in the New Zealand educational context. Of
course it will only be possible to offer the briefest of summaries here.
For fuller description and discussion, please refer to Dorothy Heathcote
and Gavin Bolton’s Drama for Learning (Heathcote & Bolton, 1994). Also
useful are Sandra Heston’s very thorough PhD study, available online
at http://www.partnership.mmu.ac.uk, the numerous articles and
materials available at http://www.mantleoftheexpert.com and Bolton’s
excellent biography of Heathcote’s life, which describes how the approach
developed (Bolton, 2003).
The Mantle of the Expert approach was developed by UK-based drama
educator Dorothy Heathcote (1926−2012). It was the culmination of over
40 years of practice, which saw Heathcote lauded as “one of the greatest
teachers of the twentieth century” (John Carroll, cited in Heston, 1993, p.
1). Heathcote saw Mantle of the Expert as a “clear system” with “operant
laws”, which she defined and explained through numerous charts and

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addresses over the years (see http://www.mantleoftheexpert.com;

Heston, 1993). At the same time, Heathcote always acknowledged that
the approach had enormous complexity and fluidity, and she considered
herself to be learning, uncovering and discovering new aspects right to
the end of her life (Heathcote, 2009). Heathcote’s work has been further
developed and theorised by academics and practitioners around the
world, including Brian Edmiston (Edmiston, 2003), Luke Abbott (Abbott,
2007), John Carroll (Carroll, Anderson, & Cameron, 2006), Stig Erikson
(Erikson, 2011) and others.

The metaphor of the mantle: The child at the

centre
The name “Mantle of the Expert” evokes the idea of learning growing
like a mantle, or cloak, surrounding the learner. In some ways the image
resonates with the concept of the Māori korowai, or feathered cloak,
which is bestowed as a sign of mana, or respect, knowledge and status.
However, Heathcote makes it clear that unlike the korowai, the “mantle”
in Mantle of the Expert is not a garment to be gifted by another, but a
quality that grows from within:
Mantle is not a cloak by which a person is recognised. This is no garment
to cover. I use it as a quality: of leadership, carrying standards of behaviour,
morality, responsibility, ethics and the spiritual basis of all action. The mantle
embodies the standards I ascribe to. It grows by usage, not garment stitching.
(Heathcote, 2009, pp. 1−2)
As Heathcote’s words imply, the Mantle of the Expert approach places
the child at the centre of the learning. The teacher’s role is to create the
conditions whereby a mantle of leadership, knowledge, competency
and understanding grows around the child. This approach assumes a
progressive view of learning, responsive to the needs of the child (Heston,
1993). The child centrism begins in the planning stages, with the teacher
starting from the children’s interests and needs, alongside the curriculum
objectives, and continues in the classroom interactions, where the teacher
consciously positions the children as competent co-constructors of the
learning. Although placing the child at the centre, and including strong
elements of inquiry, the approach is far from child-led. The role played by

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the teacher, both in and outside the drama, is a crucial part of the success
of Mantle of the Expert.
Broadly speaking, Mantle of the Expert draws on three teaching
modalities: inquiry learning; drama for learning (closely related to drama-
in-education, or, as it is sometimes called, process drama); and what we
might call “expert framing”, which involves children being positioned as
adult experts. This reframing asks the children to “frame” or think about
their learning in a new way. It also involves a conscious repositioning of
power within the teacher−student relationship. Abbott suggests that for
Mantle of the Expert to work at its best, the teacher needs to be conscious
of, and adept in, all three of these modes of teaching (2007, pp. 3, 23).

MANTLE OF THE expert

Drama for Inquiry
learning learning

Expert
framing

Figure 3.1 The three pedagogic structures of Mantle of the Expert

Source: Adapted from Abbott (2007)

In our research project we found that teachers using Mantle of the Expert
had different strengths depending on their prior teaching experience. For
teachers with a background in inquiry learning it was often the drama for
learning aspects that challenged them, while those familiar with process
drama often needed to build skills in guiding student-led inquiry. As for
the third of these modalities—the systems and strategies that comprise
the building of the expert frame—these were a new challenge for all
involved, and they are the main focus of discussion in this chapter.

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Core components of the approach

Overview
So, what does Mantle of the Expert look like in practice? Although
each Mantle of the Expert experience is unique, there are certain core
components, as italicised in the following description. In its very simplest
terms, Mantle of the Expert is about teachers and children taking on
roles as experts in an imaginary enterprise (this might be a full-blown
“company” or simply a “responsible team”). The company or team is set
up in such a way that the issue being explored is framed from a certain
point of view. Within this fictional context, the children work together
as a responsible team to carry out an important job, or commission, for
a high-status (fictional) client. Along the way, they encounter problems,
or tensions (either naturally arising, or planned and introduced by the
teacher). The element of tension is essential to all drama, and in a Mantle
of the Expert experience tensions add complexity to the commission,
keep it interesting and promote new tasks for learning. At the same time,
through episodes of drama, students are encouraged to explore multiple
perspectives on the issues at hand and to reflect deeply on their learning
and on the process of learning itself.
In Mantle of the Expert, curriculum is encountered in the same way
as in real life: not as a set of separated “subjects” or “learning areas”, but
as landing points within an holistic ongoing experience. Mantle of the
Expert, then, is an approach to curriculum integration. Abbott prefers the
term “curriculum incorporation”, because it resists seeing curriculum as
separated in the first place (L. Abbott, personal communication, 2009).
Learning in Mantle of the Expert has a strong element of inquiry, in that
students may pursue their own directions and interests within the bounds
of the wider commission. The possibilities for cross-curricula learning
mean that the Mantle of the Expert approach is particularly well suited
to the primary generalist classroom. Having said this, some secondary
specialists also use the approach within particular curriculum areas,
achieving focus by narrowing the commission and limiting the scope for
student-led inquiry.

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It can be seen from the other chapters how the core attributes of
Mantle of the Expert were manifested in the examples in the research
project. Teachers selected various enterprises, ranging from designers of
interactive museum displays (see Chapter Five), to expert documentary
researchers (see Chapter Four) and archaeologists (see Chapter Seven).
The expert roles were framed as having a particular specialism or world
view: the archaeologists were particularly experienced with Māori taonga
(treasures), while the visitor centre designers (see Chapter Six) had a
focus on sustainable practices. The commission and client in each case
were chosen as suiting the children’s interests and to promote curriculum
tasks within the areas the teacher wished to focus on. For example, the
documentary makers in Lynette’s class were asked to imagine they had
been commissioned by the WWF (the World Wide Fund for Nature) to
carry out research and produce storyboards for a complex environmental
issue (as a means to explore ethical issues and promote work in visual
arts), while the cave experts in Whakarongo and Michelle’s classes were
commissioned by the land owners to explore and excavate the caves in a
respectful way (leading to opportunities to explore ideas of respect and
cultural ownership).
In every case, the curriculum tasks were framed as professional tasks
that were necessary for the company to undertake. For example, instead
of producing some persuasive writing as part of a “lesson” called “literacy”,
students in Lynette’s room were asked to take a position, in writing, as
part of writing a professional report for sharing at a company meeting. In
Mantle of the Expert, the purpose of learning is clear and immediate. This
is not learning for its own sake, nor for the teacher or “for your own good”.
Neither is it learning for some time in the future or for a test. Rather, it is
learning because someone actually needs it done now, and needs it done
well. In other words, each task is purposeful and occurs within a real-life
context.

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In each example from our project we can also see how drama for learn­
ing was used to explore multiple perspectives. Michelle asked children to
create vignettes exploring the ethical issues arising from amateur treasure
collecting. Coryn used teacher-in-role and story drama to explore a dilemma
with children in role as members of a Stone Age community. Meanwhile,
Whakarongo’s town meeting allowed children in role to debate the pros
and cons of goldmining in their town. All the teachers introduced tensions
to keep students engaged. These ranged from the pressure of limited time
to open a museum (Coryn’s class), to the question of how to put right an
accidental, but serious, breakage of a treasured object (Elicia’s room),
through to the chance discoveries of covert activity and threats to personal
integrity (in Lynette’s room). It can be seen, too, how, in every case, the
teachers used a combination of teacher-led tasks and student inquiry to
pursue learning goals, and that curriculum learning was approached in
an incorporated way rather than within discrete boxes of time labelled as
“maths” or “science” lessons.
Having identified the core elements that make up a Mantle of the
Expert experience, the next and more important question to consider is
how these components combine to influence learning. I have attempted
to show this in the following table. The core elements are listed down
the left side. The central column gives a definition, and in the right
column an analysis is offered of how each element supports teaching
and learning. The table is offered as a starting point and is expanded on,
using examples from the project, over the rest of the chapter. It is worth
noting that Heathcote herself identified six core elements for Mantle of
the Expert practice (Heathcote & Bolton, 1994), but for our purposes I
have subdivided some of these, giving a list of 10 core elements.

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Table 3.1 Ten core elements of Mantle of the Expert

Core
Definition What it means for the learning
element

Fictional The children and their teacher A fictional context means:

context agree to operate together in a • learning tasks are both playful and
fictional context, using their serious
imaginations to “agree to see” or • there is dual awareness of both
“pretend” together. fictional and real worlds (metaxis)
• safety is ensured—there are no real-
world consequences
• learning is not bound by real-world
limitations (time, power, finance, age).

“Company”, The children and their teacher Taking on a collective identity means:
“enterprise”, take on a collective identity • learning in collaboration
“responsible as members of a collaborative • a shared sense of mission, values
team” enterprise or company. and morals (e.g., through a mission
Sometimes this may not be a fully statement)
realised “company” but some • a shared past history of excellence
other “responsible team” with a • opportunities for kinaesthetic
common goal. response (e.g., setting up office space)
• a real-world context

Frame The enterprise or company is • being framed as a certain “kind” of

“framed” as having a particular company enhances collaboration and
specialism or point of view on builds shared perspectives
the issues being considered. Any • by framing roles, the teacher can
further roles adopted during the increase or decrease the intensity
drama are also “framed”. of the experience and explore from
a particular perspective (frame
distance).

Commission The enterprise or company is The commission provides:

asked to undertake a particular • clearly expressed long-term learning
important job. goals—a shared purpose
• an authentic bounded inquiry.

Client The commission, or important Involving a client means:

job, is for a very important • there is a clear purpose to the learning
(fictional) client. beyond “for the teacher” or “for its own
sake”
• a real-world context, that is relevant
but safe
• high status, high stakes, high standards
• having a sense of audience, which gives
a sense of obligation.

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Core
Definition What it means for the learning
element

Curriculum The tasks the children carry out Framing the curriculum as professional
framed as in response to the commission tasks:
professional are both appropriate curriculum • provides a real-world context
tasks tasks and professional tasks for • gives an immediate purpose for
the company. learning
• involves an “incorporated” curriculum
rather than discrete “subjects”.

Powerful Children predominantly interact Power repositioning:

repositioning as “themselves” within the • provides a shared sense of past
company, but they are positioned success, which increases group and
as experts: people who have individual self-efficacy
been doing this a long time. The • involves high-status positioning—
teacher positions children as learners as experts
knowledgeable and competent • results in shifts in language register
colleagues. • causes lasting shifts in the power
relationships between teacher and
student.

Drama for Along with their ongoing roles Using drama for learning means:
learning/ within the company, children • multiple perspectives are explored
conventions and their teacher explore the • an embracing of complexity/
perspectives of “others”—people postmodernity
with alternative points of view • contesting binary/black-and-white
on the issues being explored. thinking
Various “conventions of dramatic • exploring paradox and ambiguity
action” are used by the teacher • taking an approach that is not
to evoke these other roles. necessarily linear
Heathcote listed 33 conventions, • not necessarily employing
and others can also be used (see “naturalistic” drama.
http://www.mantleoftheexpert.
com).

Tensions The teacher plans for certain Introducing tensions means:

obstacles or difficulties to arise • embracing the complexity and
during the completion of the “messiness” of learning
commission. Often drama is used • providing authentic contexts for
to reveal these tensions. learning
• engaging the children—maintaining
their interest and intrigue
• grappling and struggling, which
teaches resilience.

Reflection The teacher will allow times Reflection involves:

(both within role and out of role) • meta-learning
for discussion and reflection on • an awareness of multiple worlds
the learning and the learning (classroom, company, client, content),
process in multiple worlds. which makes meta-awareness more
vivid.

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Core element 1: The fiction

Crucial to the operation of Mantle of the Expert is the fact that the children
and teachers are operating in a fictional context. They do not form a
company or responsible team in the real world, but operate in role, or
at least in a shadow role (in that participants remain largely themselves
but agree to act as if they were operating in the imagined context). The
intention is not for students to get swept away in the imagined world, but
rather to inhabit a state of metaxis, with an ongoing awareness of both
the fictional world of the company and the ongoing social reality of their
classroom (Boal, 1995; Edmiston, 2003).
During our project we saw evidence of children operating in a
metaxical space, in which they remained aware of their ongoing identity
as school children while responding as a member of the company. For
example, in an interaction between classroom teacher Elicia and a child
in her class, the child showed that he still saw her as “teacher” even as he
was exploring his adult role: “Can you write how you spell ‘established’?
I want to say ‘I helped established [sic] the company. I’ve been here 20
years’.” As in this example, the fictional context allows the teacher and
students to operate in a dual reality, where learning can be playful and
serious, risky and safe, pretend and realistic. There are no real-world
consequences for the actions students take, but there are plenty of real-
world learnings.

Core element 2: The enterprise, company and respon-

sible team
For some, the language of the “company” or “enterprise” might evoke
somewhat unwelcome associations with business and moneymaking.
However, this is not how the concept operates in Mantle of the Expert.
Here the notion is closer to the one explored by Czikszentmihalyi (2003)
in his explorations of collaboration or “flow” in various settings where
humans collaborate, including in business. The agreement to operate as a
responsible team, company or enterprise allows participants in a Mantle
of the Expert experience to enter a collaborative learning arrangement
with a shared sense of purpose, a set of values (often written up as a
“mission statement”) and, crucially, a shared past in which each person

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imagines “We have done this kind of thing before”. It is the sense of
individual and group efficacy that arises from membership of the team
that is of key importance here.
Within our project, teachers reported that working in a responsible
team in this way seemed to facilitate the inclusion of peers. Children
previously treated as outsiders seemed to be regarded by their peers as
valued members of the company. In Lynette’s words:
There seems to be a want to listen, and take on everyone’s ideas. More able
children lead the others, delegate and empower others to share their ideas.
There’s definitely more input from the children who are often disengaged.

Not every Mantle of the Expert experience involves adopting the

identity of a full-blown company. Sometimes, particularly with younger
children, a sense of being in a team is enough. However, the setting up
of the company offices through things like defining the space, designing
logos and organising communication systems is an opportunity for
rich curriculum learning in itself, much of it kinaesthetic and tangible.
Moreover, a full company identity can afford opportunities for teachers
and students to adopt conventions of behaviour and speech that allow
things to be organised and run in a formal, grown-up way (meetings,
memos, pigeonholes and so on). Some teachers in our project found
that they needed to remind children of the behaviour expected at board
meetings, while for others, the shifts in behaviour seemed to happen as
an automatic response to the repositioning. Teachers observed changes
in body language, with students sitting “like adults”, involving greater
alertness, listening and turn-taking, along with more students opting to
take notes during discussions.

Core element 3: Framing

The concept of framing, though complex, is crucial to Mantle of the Expert.
Heathcote developed the concept after reading the sociological writings
of Erving Goffman, who used the idea of “frame” to refer to the range of
available viewpoints, or sense-making “frames”, that humans inevitably
bring to any social situation (Goffman, 1986). Heathcote recognised that
by putting students into role, the teacher is also asking them to adopt a
point of view, or “frame of reference”, and suggested that a skilled teacher
could plan to take this into account.

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We can see how this was done in our project. For example, Lynette’s
students were not simply “documentary makers” but were framed as
researchers with a particular dedication to telling the truth and dealing
with difficult issues. This frame was established through clues, including
letters from past clients and award citations. Having framed the students’
role in this way early on, the teachers were later able to plan tensions
that put this identity to the test. Another way teachers can manipulate the
frame is to plan ways that increase or decrease the intensity of students’
emotional relationship to the material. For example, in Coryn’s classroom,
students dealt with the world of the Stone Age through very different
frames and with very different emotional involvement. As museum
curators, they were distanced from the material in time and relationship.
In contrast, during the episode where they took on roles as members
of the community offering advice to the trainee shaman, students were
taken right into the action, which increased the intensity of their personal
emotional investment in the material. Such varied uses of the frame
provide multiple learning opportunities within the same study.

Core element 4: The commission

The fourth core element of Mantle of the Expert is the presence of a
specific commission that the enterprise, or team, is asked to undertake. The
commission is generally delivered to the team a short while into the Mantle
of the Expert unit, after the teacher has spent some time first building belief
in the fictional enterprise. In all the examples in our research project the
commission was delivered in the form of a letter. The advantage of this
format for teachers and students is that the commission letter can clearly
express the learning goals and set parameters for the experience. Unlike
open-ended inquiry, where the teacher will support the student to go in his
or her own direction, the teacher in Mantle of the Expert has a document
that sets out shared goals and clear limits for the unit.
Although the students are aware that the commission is a planning
device produced by the teacher, there is nonetheless a sense of being
accountable to (and limited by) an “external” request. The commission
has a contractual element, in that students will respond formally to
it and will refer back to it for requirements. Many important learning
opportunities arise from negotiating the commission. For example, in the

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case of Lynette’s classroom, the students became concerned that they

would not be able to fulfil the original specifications of the commission,
so they requested a renegotiation of terms. This required formal letter
writing and taking responsibility for time frames and standards.

Core element 5: The client

Associated with the commission, another important aspect of the Mantle
of the Expert approach is the sense of working for an important (but
fictional) client. The client is generally portrayed as someone of high
status who expects top standards. For example, in Elicia’s classroom, the
client was a local preservation society, while in Whakarongo’s class the
commission came from a family of land owners. Evoking these external
figures gives a clear purpose to the learning beyond doing what the
teacher says or picking up skills that may be useful one day. The presence
of the client gives us a clear sense of who we are working for (and “we” in
this case includes the teacher). The teacher can also use role conventions
to bring the client in to the classroom to check in on progress, or to attend
a presentation at the end of the project. The client, then, supplies the
sense of an audience to enhance the intrinsic motivation for learning that
other elements can produce.

Core element 6: Curriculum tasks framed as professional

tasks
Having established the enterprise, and having received a commission
from a client, a range of tasks will naturally suggest themselves. In the
case of the Years 5/6 museum curators in Coryn’s class, for example, once
the commission for the interactive museum exhibit had been received,
there were endless curriculum possibilities: responding in writing to
the commission; carrying out research into an aspect of Stone Age life;
designing and testing interactive features of the exhibit; constructing
signage; advertising; budgeting; catering for visitors; and so on. In our
project, teachers found this aspect of curriculum planning a relief: instead
of having to try to find ways to bring real-world contexts into their
teaching, they now had a real-world context out of which curriculum
tasks seemed to fall quite naturally. As Heathcote put it, “The teacher
can trust any Mantle to take them to curriculum” (Heathcote, n.d. b). The

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challenge is to ensure the learning experiences arising are appropriate

to the curriculum level and have the same integrity as traditional stand-
alone tasks. As one teacher put it, “they still need to do the maths and the
literacy”. This is where careful teacher planning is needed.
In our project, teachers found it helpful to mix periods of student-
led inquiry with teacher-led tasks. Ideally, in Mantle of the Expert, even
during the teacher-led tasks teachers will avoid telling the students
things, but instead look to support students to discover understandings
for themselves. At the same time, Heathcote herself acknowledged that,
from time to time, straight teaching has its place in Mantle of the Expert
(Heathcote, n.d a). A useful strategy developed by some teachers in
our project was to frame traditional teaching episodes as professional
development for the company. In several cases, this was provided by a
real-world expert such as a professional artist or designer coming in to
the company to offer professional development.
Perhaps the most important aspect of planning tasks for Mantle of
the Expert is that everything the students are asked to do should have
relevance to their identity as professionals. Nothing is asked of the
students unless it serves the purpose for which they are working. This
is where Mantle of the Expert differs from many typical lessons, where
students might be asked to carry out a piece of writing “because we are
learning about persuasive writing”. Here, instead, the persuasive writing
has a purpose within the fictional context. For example, in Whakarongo’s
room, students constructed arguments for and against a proposed
goldmine development, while in Lynette’s room children wrote at length
in an attempt to balance the two contrasting sides of the Kaimanawa
horse debate.
Sequencing of tasks within Mantle of the Expert is a balance of teacher-
directed planning and emergent inquiry. Sometimes the teacher will take
the learning in a particular direction to fulfil a preplanned intention or to
lead into a particular task they want the children to undertake. At other
times the teacher might respond to quite unexpected directions emerging
from the work. For teachers who like to be thoroughly planned in advance,
the more flexible aspects can be a challenge. One of the teachers in the
project, Lynette, admits that she struggled with emergent inquiry at first,
but ultimately found it empowering:

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For teachers starting out the scary thing is you feel you are not owning it—you
don’t know where you are going next. Every day after school I’d be thinking
‘Where are we going next?’ But it’s actually great … Or to put it another way,
you are owning it more—you are right inside it. You become more caught up
in it. I think that’s the beauty of it.

The important challenge for teachers, of course, is to ensure the

children themselves understand the direction of the experience and
are not confused by shifts in direction. Elicia found that “storying” the
emergent adventure on the classroom walls was a very useful device,
while other teachers made use of class blogs for a similar purpose. One
challenge experienced by several teachers in our project was how to work
with children who had missed out on part of the Mantle of the Expert
experience. This seemed particularly difficult where children missed early
stages of the programme and had not been part of the co-construction of
the company identity.

Core element 7: Conscious repositioning of students

Issues of power and positioning are absolutely pivotal to Mantle of the
Expert. The way children are invited to take on roles, and the ways these
roles are framed, leads to a conscious repositioning of relationships and
an attempt to shift the way power operates within the classroom. First
of all the children are repositioned as members of the team or company.
It is important to note that while in role in the company, students are
not expected to take on a character any different from their own. Though
some teachers in our project favoured the use of name tags with made-up
names, this is not necessary: children are essentially playing themselves
but adopting the position of experienced professionals in a particular
field. The most important aspect of the company or team role is the way
the students are positioned—by the teacher and the other students—
as both competent and experienced. The aim of this repositioning is to
prime the students’ and the teacher’s attitude so that they encounter
new learnings and new knowledge from a place of self-efficacy. Learning
is presented as a growing-on of existing expertise rather than as a leap
into unknown territory. This is one of the most subtle, and yet most
fundamental, cornerstones of Mantle of the Expert teaching.

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Teachers involved in our research noticed a difference in student

self-efficacy, which they attributed to this repositioning of students. As
Lynette put it, “The drama put them ‘up there’, and they wanted to remain.”
Teachers also reported that this sense of self-efficacy seemed to persist
beyond the intervention. Several weeks after the end of the Mantle of the
Expert experience, teachers felt that children were still interacting with
each other, and the teacher, from this position of competence. Children,
too, noted the lasting shift in relationship that occurred through working
in Mantle of the Expert, as in this quote from a child in Lynette’s class:
MOTE [Mantle of the Expert] gave Room 10 a chance to be ‘adults’ ... It was
really interesting to discuss and be with people in the class when they are
being ‘adults’ because it was very different than when we are doing work
normally. Because everyone is treated equally it is amazing when children and
teachers alike all come together to work.

Though more research is needed into the effects of repositioning on

student achievement in the context of Mantle of the Expert, other studies
have been carried out in which repositioning of subjects has been found
to significantly improve achievement (e.g., Kahnemann, 2012).
The repositioning of students in a Mantle of the Expert classroom is
made manifest in a number of ways. For example, Elicia experimented
with alternatives to the classroom tradition of putting up your hand.
Several of the teachers reorganised the space to reflect the equality of
teachers and students during meetings (sitting on chairs rather than the
floor, rotating the position of “chair” for the meetings, using pigeonholes
or memos to share important information). Perhaps the most obvious
way of signalling a shift in agency is through the teacher’s talk, and indeed
our researchers saw teachers shifting to a quite different register when
speaking to the students in role as experts.
More important than any of these outward indicators of power shifting
is the underlying shift in attitude that is required, as Elicia describes here:
It’s really easy when teaching to think you’ve handed the power over but that
can be a trap. There’s a difference between saying ‘Here you have my permission
to take some power now’ and the kids understanding the power they already
have within them. The kind of thing I’m talking about here is something I’ve only
noticed within a mantle. It’s not a sudden shift or a gift from the teacher. It’s a
subtle process of growing into status. It is evidenced in their body language and
their side conversations with you and with each other.

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This fundamental shift in attitude is not always an easy move for teachers
to make because it does imply a ceding of agency in a situation where
most teachers are very concerned with managing and controlling the
class.
Another reason why the repositioning of students may be challenging
for some teachers is that it has quasi-political overtones, to do with
shifting the underlying locus of power within the classroom, the school
and even the wider world. Brian Edmiston expresses this very well:
One of the core reasons why as a teacher I use drama is because when we
create an imagined world, we can imagine that we frame events differently
so that our power and authority relationships are changed. A long-term aim
of mine as a teacher is as much as possible to share power and authority with
students. I want students to have more opportunities to use words and deeds
to act appropriately but in ways that are often not sanctioned in classrooms.
Additionally I hope that students’ sense of their personal and shared authority
will become more secure and more extended while at the same time more
aware of others’ authority. I want a culture to develop that is more egalitarian
than most students expect walking into the room. (Edmiston, 2003, p. 225)

As Edmiston’s words imply, the reconceptualising of children that occurs

within Mantle of the Expert is, for many teachers, part of a deliberate
attempt to reconceptualise young people within the real world. For many
teachers, using Mantle of the Expert is not using an approach so much as
adopting a world view.

Core element 8: Drama for learning

Along with the roles set up within the company or team, the teacher
using Mantle of the Expert will plan additional role-based activities so
that children have the chance to explore different points of view on the
issues being explored. For example, in Michelle’s classroom the students
(in company role as cave experts) were invited to step into the past and
role-play a moment in the lives of the earliest dwellers in the cave. An
important artefact from this episode (an arrowhead, lovingly carved)
was then shown, in another episode, being handled disrespectfully by
a modern-day visitor. In Lynette’s room children had the opportunity
to take on roles as protesters, police officers and even horses as they
explored the different perspectives on the issue of the Kaimanawa horses.

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Dramatic role-taking permits the exploration of multiple viewpoints by

giving students the opportunity to “walk in the shoes” of people other
than themselves. It even moves them beyond their responses as experts
within the company. The adopting of multiple perspectives strengthens
the children’s reflective discussion and supports them to realise that
there are multiple possible answers to any given issue.
Heathcote has identified 33 different drama conventions that can be
utilised to deepen role-taking, so that students can not only walk in the
shoes of someone else but might also speak their thoughts, write their
words, ask or respond to questions, engage in dialogue with another
and so on (see role conventions at http://www.mantleoftheexpert.com).
In our project, the teachers were more familiar with the process drama
conventions as identified in The New Zealand Curriculum (for example,
freeze frame, hotseating, spoken thoughts) and so tended to make use of
these (Ministry of Education, 2000, pp. 48−49).
It is not only the children who can take multiple roles within a drama-
for-learning segment of a Mantle of the Expert experience. The teacher
can also take on different identities through teaching in role. The teacher
can choose from a variety of different status positions and so utilise their
role-taking for a number of different purposes (Edmiston, 2003). Within
our project, teachers adopted roles in order to bring information to the
team, represent a point of view, issue a challenge or introduce a new
problem. For example, Coryn took on the role of village elder during a
drama-for-learning episode in her class. She evoked an atmosphere of
respect and seriousness while the children in role as people of the village
discussed whether a young woman from the village should become a
shaman or stay with her family. Elicia took on the role of Joseph Banks, the
botanist who travelled with James Cook, to describe to the archaeology
team the way New Zealand looked and sounded when he first arrived,
and to ask for their help in reproducing the lost pages of his sketchbook.
Some teachers in this project were more comfortable relying on more
experienced teachers to take on the roles in their classrooms and invited
outside teachers in as in-role visitors. It may be worth mentioning, too, that
in this project the researchers also took on roles at times, including one
researcher going into role as an apprentice to hold learning conversations
with the children as they taught her the ropes in the company.

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There is insufficient space here to describe the many benefits for

learning that arise from role-taking. However, one of the key benefits
is the capacity to explore multiple perspectives and the breaking down
of binary black-and-white thinking that results. In drama we are not
bound by one identity (we can walk in different shoes and see the issue
through other people’s eyes). Nor are we bound by time (we can see the
same moment over and over, change it or play out several possibilities
at once). We are not bound by conventions of social behaviour (we can
shift the conventions to play a moment naturalistically, melodramatically
or in a range of different ways). Nor are we bound by rules of nature or
physics (we can hear people’s thoughts, see through walls or invoke a
magic potion to force someone to speak the truth). Far from being “just”
pretend, drama is an emancipatory device that frees its participants from
the constraints of reality. Drama encourages an embracing of complexity
by acknowledging and embodying multiple “truths”. This was illustrated
within our project when one of the children in Lynette’s class, grappling
with how to portray both sides of the Kaimanawa horse issue, stated, “I
don’t think there is such a thing as one truth.” One wonders whether he
could have reached such a conclusion without having engaged with all
the different stakeholders through drama. In the broadest sense, then,
drama offers children access to a post-structuralist view of reality, with
its inherent openness to multiple perspectives. As O’Neill has pointed out,
process drama’s postmodern, fragmented, nonlinear way of presenting
the world also aligns it with developments in contemporary theatre
performers (O’Neill, 1995, p. xvii).

Core element 9: Tensions

Whether in the theatre, television or children’s socio-dramatic play, all
effective drama relies on tension. The same is true in classroom drama,
where, as Heathcote puts it, “the teacher puts the tension in and the
rest follows” (quoted in Smedley, 1971). Throughout a Mantle of the
Expert experience, then, the teacher will plan for certain obstacles or
difficulties to arise. To help in planning for these tensions, Heathcote
offers a taxonomy of 12 levels of tensions, which outlines the different

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qualities, or intensity, of each tension.1 At level 1 of the scale, the teacher

might evoke a vague sense of tension by implying someone is watching or
scrutinising the company. A slightly more intense tension can be conjured
up through pressure of time (level 7 on the scale). At the very top of the list
comes “loss of faith in some companions”. Here the teacher might plan an
episode in which someone in the company (a fictional “other”, of course,
not one of the actual children) has carried out their work inadequately. As
well as ongoing “productive” tensions, the teacher may plan to introduce
a particularly challenging “key tension” that really tests the mettle of the
company. For example, in the case of the documentary makers in Lynette’s
class, a serious case of subterfuge was uncovered and the members of the
company were placed in an ethical dilemma about whether they should
report it and thereby betray a friend.
Using tensions like this serves a number of purposes. First of all,
tensions or problems are a part of life, so by introducing them the teacher
can offer authentic contexts for learning in which learning is complex
and messy and not overly simplified. Second, tensions help maintain a
sense of interest and intrigue in the drama. Children become accustomed
to the fact that twists and turns are to be expected, and this builds
their engagement in learning and makes it fun. Third, and significantly,
tensions mean that children have to “grapple” in order to learn. They are
not simply given expert status in an empty way, but are encouraged to
earn and justify that position. The skills, understanding and attitudes that
have been so carefully set up in the early stages of the drama (through
the timeline, mission statement, profiles, etc.) are tested through the
tensions, challenging the child to defend their point of view and operate
from that heightened state of agency. The mantle of expertise is not given,
but earned and worked for in a gradual and authentic way.

Core element 10: Reflection

A final, but crucial, element of Mantle of the Expert is reflection. The
teacher will allow times (both inside and outside the fictional frame)
for participants to engage in discussion and reflection on the learning
that is taking place. The dual realities operating within the Mantle of the

1 See http://www.mantleoftheexpert.com

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Expert classroom make the learning context very explicit and a distanced
relationship, which enhances reflection on what is being learned. As
Edmiston (2003) points out, the participant in Mantle of the Expert is
always aware of both the “as if” and the “as is” worlds operating together.
The teacher can, at any time, signal a step out of the fictional company
back into the real-life classroom to discuss and evaluate what is being
learned “over there” in the fictional context. In our project we found
that one of the simplest yet most effective reflection strategies was for a
teacher who had been working in role with the children to step out of role
and ask, “So what happened while I was away?” Children were happy to
recap and reflect on the work they had just done, even when they were
aware this was the very same teacher they had just been working with
in role. At other times, children asked teachers to move into role so that
they could explain something that the teacher in role figure needed to
understand.
The dual realities of Mantle of the Expert encourage reflection not
only on what is being learned but how it is being learned. As The New
Zealand Curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2007) reminds us, the ability
to notice the ways one is learning (meta-learning or learning as inquiry)
is an important skill and one that should be fostered by teachers. Mantle
of the Expert, with its clearly signalled multiple contexts, brings the
child’s awareness of their learning into consciousness and makes the
structures under which learning is happening very explicit. With skilful
questioning and negotiation the teacher can encourage students to reflect
on how the learning is going, and even renegotiate aspects of the learning
environment before stepping back into it. All teachers who used Mantle
of the Expert in our project remarked on this as a key feature of their
experience with the children.
Indeed, in our project we found evidence of children continuing to
reflect on the systems and structures of their learning even beyond the
Mantle of the Expert intervention. For example, in one classroom, some
weeks after the Mantle of the Expert experience was over, some students
respectfully asked the teacher whether they might re-organise the reading
groups. In our view, it is exciting to think that Mantle of the Expert might
encourage this kind of agentic positioning of learners.

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Conclusion
This chapter has attempted to outline 10 core components of Mantle of
the Expert. Of course none of these components works in isolation: each
depends on the others to be successful. For example, it is not enough
to simply tell students they are experts: if a genuine shift in power and
positioning is to occur, the teacher must spend time building belief in the
company. Similarly, if the teacher wishes to introduce tensions to really
challenge the students, they will need to plan tensions that confront the
values and shared history set up within the company identity. The subtle
and sophisticated teaching required to interweave the components of
Mantle of the Expert has led to its being described as a “system”, which
takes years to learn to use successfully (Abbott, 2007, p. 3). Though
complex, the “system” provides structures and practices that seem—
almost in and of themselves—to encourage shifts within the traditional
classroom attitudes to teaching, learning and the curriculum.
The complexity of Mantle of the Expert should not be viewed as
a discouragement to teachers interested in trying the approach. The
teacher’s learning in how to use Mantle of the Expert can be seen in the
same light as learning for the children in the fictional enterprise. With
time and experience, and a striving for high standards, the “mantle” of
experience and expertise will surely grow around the teacher’s shoulders.
In the case of our project, all the teachers were relatively inexperienced
in Mantle of the Expert and, apart from attendance at a 3-day conference,
had had very little exposure to it. Nevertheless, with the support of
members of the research team and each other, these teachers were able
to introduce features of the approach into their classrooms and see the
effects. The teachers involved would all say that they learned from the
experience and all have seen it as worthwhile to continue to develop their
practice. Like any complex teaching approach, the teacher wishing to use
Mantle of the Expert must be willing to embark on an ongoing learning
experience akin to an apprenticeship. However, it is an apprenticeship
that can be started at any time and, in the case of teachers in this project,
one that is gladly continued.

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References
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Boal, A. (1995). The rainbow of desire: The Boal method of theatre and
therapy. New York, NY: Routledge.
Bolton, G. (2003). Dorothy Heathcote’s story: Biography of a remarkable
drama teacher. Stoke on Trent, UK: Trentham Books.
Carroll, J., Anderson, M., & Cameron, D. (2006). Real players?: Drama,
technology and education. Stoke on Trent, UK: Trentham Books.
Czikszentmihalyi, H. (2003). Good business: Leadership, flow and the
making of meaning. New York: Penguin.
Edmiston, B. (2003). What’s my position?: Role, frame and positioning
when using process drama. Research in Drama Education: The Journal
of Applied Theatre and Performance, 8(2), 221–229.
Erikson, S. A. (2011). Distancing at close range: Making strange devices
in Dorothy Heathcote’s process drama: Teaching political awareness
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Goffman, E. (1986). Frame analysis: An essay on the organisation of
experience. Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press.
Heathcote, D. (2009, April). Mantle of the Expert: My current understanding.
Keynote address to the Weaving Our Stories: International Mantle of
the Expert conference, University of Waikato, Hamilton.
Heathcote, D. (n.d. a). Drama for living: A twentyfirst century vision for
education [video recording]. Address given at Trinity College, Dublin.
Heathcote, D. (n.d. b). Education through drama: Planning with Heathcote
[video recording]. New York: Insight Media.
Heathcote, D., & Bolton, G. (1994). Drama for learning: Dorothy
Heathcote’s Mantle of the Expert approach to education. Portsmouth,
NH: Heinemann Press.
Heston, S. (1993). The Dorothy Heathcote archive. Manchester: Manchester
Metropolitan University. Retrieved from http://www.did.stu.mmu.
ac.uk/dha/hcheston.asp
Kahnemann, D. (2012). Thinking fast and slow. London: Penguin Books.
Ministry of Education. (2007). The New Zealand curriculum. Wellington:
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Ministry of Education. (2000). Arts in the New Zealand curriculum.
Wellington: Learning Media.

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O’Neill, C. (1995). Drama worlds: A framework for process drama.

Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Press.
Smedley, R. (1971). Three looms waiting. BBC Omnibus documentary.
Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5jBNIEQrZs

Further resources
Mantle of the Expert (NZ) website: http://www.mantleoftheexpert.co.nz
Mantle of the Expert (UK) website: http://www.mantleoftheexpert.com

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