On Puppets and Literary Education in Diverse Schools: A Review from Spain

Abstract

Intercultural education and the attention to diversity have become two of the most important aspects of education in recent decades. There are many areas of diversity that can be addressed in the classroom, always based on tolerance and the acceptance of difference. However, intercultural education is destined to go one step further: from an inalienable foundation of respect and tolerance for everyone, we aim to develop diversity as a positive value that must be understood and accepted. There is no doubt that we are faced with one of the great challenges of education.

Literature and theatre, on the other hand, is always a meeting point, first and foremost between the author and the recipient, often separated by temporal, spatial, linguistic, and cultural factors. In this sense, as Josep Ballester (2015) reminds us that the different sets of values and worldviews presented by the different human communities, as well as certain patterns of conduct and folk wisdom developed over generations, are stored and alive in language and literature. We will focus our educational approach precisely in this capacity of literature and drama -puppets specifically- to confront different human cultures and bring them to dialogue.