Transformative learning: writing narrative comedy as creative resistance

ABSTRACT

This paper examines a self-directed, transformative, learning journey triggered by the writer-researcher’s experiences of change management which led to widespread redundancies within the vocational education sector in Queensland, Australia. The creative-practice led research focussed on writing narrative comedy screenplays, titled Fighting Fit. Critical reflection was embedded in the research methodology. Reflective writing was documented in a reflection journal and triangulated against external feedback to improve screenplay drafts. Critical feedback on scripts provoked a cycle of inquiry into the lived experiences which inspired the screenplays and highlighted concerns about diminished professional agency and alienation in the workplace. These concerns were then reframed within a humorous perspective by parodying discourses surrounding organisational change management. In doing so, the creative practice-led research enabled the writer-researcher to examine her professional disquiet in response to workplace changes, crystallise values in conflict with neoliberal approaches to education and performed a kind of creative resistance to the corporatisation of vocational education. Moreover, critical reflection embedded in creative writing processes shifted the writer-researcher’s perspective towards an increased sense of agency and openness to change; arguably, a desirable outcome for practitioners operating within increasingly precarious employment situations.

KEYWORDS:

• Transformative learning
• critical reflection
• reflective writing
• creative writing
• narrative comedy
• screenwriting

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Queensland University of Technology, Creative Industries Faculty, School of Film, Screen & Animation [QUT Write Up Scholarship].

Notes on contributors

Susan Cake

Susan Cake creative practice-led doctoral research focused critical reflection on writing a series of narrative comedy screenplays for a proposed television series titled Fighting Fit. Her research proposes that writing narrative comedy can perform creative resistance to neoliberal approaches to vocational education and facilitate transformative learning. Susan has more than 15 years experience as a screen production curriculum specialist in the vocational education and training (VET) sector. She has written an Innovative Teaching Guide as part of an ABC International Development project to support TVET Journalism training in the South Pacific; was lead author on a paper in the International Journal of Reflective Practice, and has presented papers at the Australian Screen Production Education and Research Association conferences in 2016 and 2017.