A Cave As A Third Space In Tom Schulmans Play Dead Poets Society; Practical Inspiration For Teachers

Abstract

Literacy is not a matter of talking and discussing the improvement of reading and writing skills, yet more than that, it is extending as a kind of social practice which involving peoples mundane life to generate specific and unique products of each person. Luckily, literacy can be a put in other subjects; literature and education. In this paper, the notion of third space in literacy is applied as the tool to analyze the role of a cave in Tom Schulmans play Dead Poets Society, which then influencing a group of Welton Academy students awareness of their personal identities, their own cognition and their knowledge needed. To examine the students' movements in connecting three spaces; home, school, and cave, the researcher uses the Knowledge and Cognitive Process dimension, which is retrieved from Blooms taxonomy revision as proposed by Krathwohl (2002). The result confirms that the role of a cave, as third space, assists much the students to seek their own voices and identities, and definitely rises their confidence, creativities, and innovations for better transformation.

Keywords: Third space, Literacy, Literature, Teaching