An interactive ethnographic performance: using research-based theatre and drama pedagogy to enhance meaning making

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the application and efficacy of performance ethnography designed for adult professional learning. An ethnographic performance related to women in research leadership was constructed and performed in an executive tertiary leadership programme and the responses from the female audience/participants were investigated. The study defines a form of research-based theatre: interactive ethnographic performance where an ethnographic performance text is intersected by drama pedagogy designed to enhance the learning experience. It found that this model of interactive ethnographic performance applied to professional learning provides opportunities for deep engagement and critical reflection and offers a site for powerful collective learning.

KEYWORDS:

• Performance ethnography
• research-based theatre
• drama pedagogy
• professional learning

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributors

Dr Jane Bird is a drama education lecturer at The University of Melbourne specialising in artistic, embodied and collaborative qualities of teaching and learning in and through drama and theatre. Jane has developed multiple pieces of research-based theatre and written about the construction processes and aesthetic nature of performance ethnography.

Associate Professor Kate Donelan is Honorary Principal Fellow in Arts Education at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, The University of Melbourne. As an ethnographic researcher, she has written extensively about the pro-social impact of drama on young people at risk and the development of intercultural understanding in Australian schools.

ORCID

Jane Bird http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3022-7081