Review of Magela, A. (2025). Theater education – why, what, how. Philosophical, educational and action-based guidelines and principles for teachers. Waxmann.

Abstract

This review examines the book's central claim that theater education should be understood as a specific mode of cognition rather than as an instrument for developing transferable skills. It discusses the relationship between the book's philosophical framework and its pedagogical proposals, focusing on theater cognition, theatrical attention, embodiment, and the production of subjectivity. It argues that the work offers an original and philosophically rigorous contribution to contemporary debates on theater education and educational theory,  while also considering the relevance of Magela's approach for performative language education and its potential for situated and relational language learning.