ABSTRACT
The dialogic practices described take place in a Second Chance School addressing the needs of early school leavers who are returning. For most of them, the school, the image of the teacher, the learning process is generally associated with negative, often traumatic experiences. Students go individually through different sensory installations, often in darkness, forgetting that they are at school, meeting actors along the way, unaware that they are teachers who by their theatrical presence are drawing in their attention. Turned into a regular pedagogical practice sensory theatre creates a ‘potential safe space’, where one can be spontaneously playful while at the same time connected with others. Sensory theatre techniques are versatile and adaptable allowing relationships to occur at a non-verbal level. They can overcome linguistic, hierarchical and socio-cultural barriers in ways that are highly relevant for social education programmes.
