"Shakespeare for teaching professionals" in Finland

Tyovaen Akatemia, a college of higher education in the wooded leafy town of Kauniainen Grankulla, in the suburbs of the Finnish capital, Helsinki, was recently the venue of a week-long course about William Shakespeare.

This course, entitled "Shakespeare for Teaching Professionals" was held from September 1 to 6 and was attended by Stephen Spiteri, teacher of English and English Literature at St Paul's Missionary College, Rabat, and Denise Mifsud, teacher of English at Ninu Cremona Lyceum Complex of Victoria, Gozo.

Other course participants were teachers of English Literature and drama from Spain, Portugal, Italy, Romania, Greece, and Norway.

This course was funded by the Comenius 2.2C In-Service Course programme, which in Malta is managed by the European Union Pro-grammes Unit within the Education Division.

The course was supervised by Kevin Gardner, an Oxford graduate with a number of years' experience in teaching English Literature and managing courses for teachers. Its aim was to make teachers, as well as students, capable of contextualising Shakespeare.

The way in which he wrote his plays in the 16th century was a result of the social, cultural, and political forces in motion in Britain at his time, and to appreciate his works fully, one must also be fully knowledgeable of the exterior forces influencing the writer.

Participation in the course was an eye-opener in terms of cultural awareness. Despite the clear-cut contrasts between Northern European countries and Mediterranean ones, Shakespeare features prominently in the English syllabus of all participating countries.

A surprising fact that emerged was that European students from different countries all loved Shakespearean plays, but some of them were put off by the difficulty of Elizabethan register, therefore participants came up with ideas to present them this great universal literary figure in a modern version.

During the course, which wasn't just lecture-based, but involved a lot of discussions and workshops, the relevance of Shakespeare for a modern-day multi-cultural audience, society and classroom was analysed. Various plays, as well as Shakespeare's sonnets were looked at, as well as other major works by his predecessors and contemporaries, namely Christopher Marlowe and John Donne.

The language used, the imagery, the opening and closing scenes and popular Elizabethan beliefs of the time were examined. Ways in which the structural design of the theatre as a building would have influenced the performance of his plays were investigated, as well as the impact felt by the absence of female actors.

Participants came up with different teaching methodologies: using cartoons, posters, role-plays, stage productions and props, group work, video clips, letter-writing, puppets and even modern language to present a modern-day version of a Shakespearean play appealing to the students' interests. Shakespeare's works are open to interpretation by all, and all the teachers involved gave their critical points of view, proving very informative for all present.

Participants also watched and discussed different interpretations of different directors to Shakespeare and his plays, supporting the notion that although he died nearly 400 years ago, the Bard is still a popular source for the cinema and the themes in his plays are as relevant today as they were in his time.

Another important point taken into consideration is the fact that despite living in England, Shakespeare was very much of a European man. Most of his plays take place all over the European continent, from Cyprus to Scotland, and the source of most of his plays are old stories which originated from all over Europe.

This is another important issue which is not only relevant today, but very much emphasised and encouraged, and it thus continues to support the idea that Shakespeare is for all times and for the entire world - a concept of universality very much emphasised in the contemporary European Union.