The aim of this study is to develop our understanding of the teacher`s roles in didactic practices. This is a follow-up study of previous qualitative studies, based on the use of computer-games in Norwegian kindergartens and in which three main categories of teacher- roles were suggested: The directing teacher who conveys knowledge, the supportive teacher who guides and scaffolds, and the distal teacher who leaves the responsibility for the learning process to the children (Vangsnes, Krumsvik & Økland 2012, Vangsnes & Økland 2015). In this study, based on a broader data material from school classrooms where learning is facilitated by process drama and dramatization we want to elaborate the characteristics of the teacher roles and examine the role concepts as an analytical entrance to understanding teacher practice. Our research questions are: 1) What characterizes the three teacher-roles when explorative teaching strategies are used in school classrooms?  2) What is the connection between the teacher`s didactic intention and choice of teacher-role?

In our analysis, we apply a phenomenological hermeneutical approach where dramaturgy and didactics constitute our theoretical and analytical positions.

Dramaturgy can be a helpful tool for planning and performing didactics. This is so because dramaturgy has a framework and theories for describing and analysing actions performed by someone in time and space. These actions can be fictional, as in traditional theatre and drama in education, or the actions can be non-fictional, as in everyday activities. But, as Goffman has pointed out, we play different roles even in daily life and activities. Taking this perspective, it means that educators can get assistance from dramaturgic concepts and theories when planning, performing and evaluating structure, form and content of education. Dramaturgy operates, for instance, by describing different models for how to build and analyse actions in time and space. In staged rehearsal rooms, complex relations can be made the subject of investigation and student teachers can be trained in acting in a reflective and competent manner. This discursive universe can thus establish a resonance for interpretation and understanding and might also respond to the changes in media ecology that have important implications for education.

Our data-material consists of field-observations in classrooms, interviews and planning documents and the study is based on more than seven years of research, undergoing critical responses by peers.

Our main findings reveal the diversity and characteristics of the three teacher roles as well as the teacher`s alternation between the roles. The characteristic features of each teacher role are specified in relation to three aspects of the teacher role: a) teacher`s positioning, b) teacher`s academic presentation and c) teacher`s interaction and communication.

By clarifying the content of the three teacher roles, we want to contribute to reflection on teacher education and teacher practice. Conceptualizing the three teacher-roles may be an analytical instrument that can contribute to the development of the discourse on teaching professionalism

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