The Archive Speaks: Exploring Heathcote’s Praxis as a “More-than-Human” Pedagogy

Abstract

Heathcote’s contributions to drama education have traditionally been explored through a predominantly humanist philosophical lens, emphasising human-centred meaning-making through shared dramatic inquiry and personal reflection. More recently, however, process philosophy and posthuman/new material feminist theory and practice have generated alternative ways of understanding the material, relational, and affective dimensions of her praxis as that which is always “more-than-human”. Accordingly, this article draws upon a workshop event entitled “The Archive Speaks” that took place during the 2025 Dorothy Heathcote Now Conference hosted at Manchester Metropolitan University. Using an imaginary framework that was facilitated by Heathcote’s own pedagogical innovation, Teacher-in-Role, and one of her thirty-three drama conventions, the workshop invited participants to explore objects borrowed from the Dorothy Heathcote Archive currently held at Manchester Metropolitan University. Inspired by Brian Massumi’s notion of a relational architecture, we explore these objects as affective provocations, where assembled materials within an imaginary frame generated ideas related to Heathcote and her influence on drama education and personal drama teacher histories. We conclude by theorising what more Heathcote’s praxis can offer Drama education as a conduit for affective resonance that is always “more-than-human”.