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The dissertation deals with the issue of reflection, democracy and educational drama. The overarching aim of the dissertation is to investigate whether educational drama may be perceived as fostering democratic values in the literature and curricula.

The dissertation shows that, based on various different theoretical and philosophical values, an interplay does exist between the goals for an activity and the choice of content and work method, which creates a number of opportunities for reflection in the various different perspectives of educational drama. It also indicates, however, that attitudes towards educational drama shift in the different curricula, where the artistically oriented perspective is the one most sought after. As a result, education in democratic values, which does not necessarily problemize social and political issues, is demanded from educational drama.

The literature analyses made in the dissertation reveal four perspectives. Within the artistically oriented perspective, a democratic potential exists in giving the individual tools with which to learn both how to achieve and to create knowledge. Every performance is a story about life and, for every performance the individual takes part in, his knowledge of art and human problems at different times and in different situations increases.

Within the personal development perspective the individual. acquires tools to understand himself in relation to others and to understand the connection between various dynamic processes occurring at individual, group and community levels. The aesthetic form as well as the participant s' own experience of life gives cause for adaptation and reflection.

The democratic potential contained in the critically liberating perspective are that the individual acquires the necessary tools to investigate both in word and deed power relationships in society and how such power relationships are made apparent in concrete human situations.

The idea of fostering democratic values contained in the holistic learning perspective is characterised by acquiring tools with which to understand the universal human significance behind every problem. In the communicative process, the varying language skills of the individual are developed, skills in which artistic expression is fundamental for understanding complex human situations.