Ethnographic performance: a change agent for drama teaching and learning

Abstract

This article considers the ways in which an ethnographic performance can be an effective means of data generation, analysis and presentation for a researcher working in collaboration with drama teachers and students in an educational setting. The creation of the ethnodramatic play was part of a three-year Ph.D. educational ethnography conducted by the researcher in the Drama department of an inner-city co-educational government school in Melbourne, Australia. The researcher mapped the development of the play including how the drama teachers and their students collaborated on its development by providing feedback as it was being written and performed. The topic of the play was boys' participation in drama in a co-educational learning environment, how they ‘performed’ gender in the classes and how this affected, and was affected by, the drama teachers, the female students and other males in the class. The article examines how the development of the ethnodramatic play was a transformative experience for the school community. The ethnodramatic process affected a change for the better in the work habits of the teachers and how some of their students viewed their participation in the drama classes.

本文探討了民族志表演如何能夠使研究者在與戲劇教師與學生同處於同一教學環境中的時候有效地進行資料收集、分析與展示。民族志戲劇的作品是為期三年的民族志博士研究的一部分，該研究由澳洲墨爾本市中心公立男女學校戲劇系的研究者執行。研究者詳細安排了戲劇的發展，包括戲劇教師及其學生如何通過書寫與表演形式的回饋建立合作。戲劇的主題是在男女同校的環境中，男孩們參與戲劇的情況，例如他們如何在課堂上“演繹”性別(Butler 1999; Goffman 1959)，他們的表演對老師，女生和其他男性的影響以及這些人對他們表演的影響。本文驗證了民族志戲劇的發展對於學校這一社群帶來了變革性的經驗。民族志戲劇的影響改變了教師們的工作習慣，也改變了學生對戲劇課上參與活動的看法。

Este artículo considera los modos en que una representación etnográfica puede ser un método efectivo para la generación de datos, el análisis y la presentación para un investigador trabajando en colaboración con profesores de teatro y alumnos en un marco educativo. La creación de la obra etnodramática formaba parte de una etnografía educativa de un Doctorado de tres años conducido por el investigador en el departamento de Drama de un colegio público mixto de las zonas marginales en Melbourne, Australia. El investigador esquematizó el desarrollo de la obra incluyendo cómo los profesores y sus alumnos colaboraron en su desarrollo al proveer de retroalimentación según iba siendo escrita y representada. El tópico de la obra era la participación de los chicos en el teatro en un ambiente de aprendizaje mixto, cómo ellos ‘representaron’ el género (Butler 1999; Goffman 1959) en las aulas y cómo esto afectó y era afectado por los profesores de teatro, las estudiantes femeninas y los otros varones en la clase. El artículo examina cómo el desarrollo de la obra etnodramática fue una experiencia transformadora para la comunidad escolar. El proceso etnodramático afectó un cambio a mejor en los hábitos de trabajo de los profesores y cómo algunos de sus alumnos vieron su participación en las clases de teatro.

Keywords:

• ethnographic performance
• gender
• drama pedagogy

Notes on contributor

Richard Sallis lectures in drama/theatre education in the Melbourne Graduate School of Education at the University of Melbourne. He began his career writing, directing and acting in theatre for young people. He is the current Director of Publications for IDEA, the International Drama/theatre and Education Association. His Master's thesis, Masculinities and Drama, was the recipient of the Freda Cohen Award for the most meritorious Master's thesis in education (2005) and received the Fred Knight Research Scholarship (2005). His Ph.D. (2010) study, The drama of boys: An ethnographic study and its performance, was awarded the 2012 American Alliance for Theatre and Education Distinguished Dissertation prize.

Notes

1. I use the term ‘ethnographic performance’ to mean the transformation of research data into an ethnodramatic script, which is performed either by the person(s) who conducted the research or by another/others. I use the terms ‘ethnodrama’ and ‘performed research’ interchangeably with ‘ethnographic performance’ to describe my work whilst acknowledging that some other proponents of the genre may make a distinction between these terms.

2. The title of each play was derived from the words of the research participants.

3. This was the other major focus of the investigation and warrants further discussion on another occasion.

4. According to Mienczakowski and Moore (2001), performed research can be emancipatory and can aim to effect change. This accords with Madison's (2005) notion of critical ethnography.

5. Non-naturalism is a compositional and performance form that comprises a range of styles of theatre that originate from a broad set of traditions of theatre and performances, especially Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty, Brecht's Epic theatre and Grotowski's Poor theatre.