Exploring Popular Theatre in Education: A Participatory Project in an Alternative Education Program for Pregnant Teens and Young Mothers

• In Event: Participatory Art-Based Research Approaches

Abstract

1. Objectives: This study considers how popular theatre could and should be implemented within formal education to the benefit of students. Drawing on years of doing popular theatre projects with youth, in and out of school contexts, I was anxious to take a detailed look at how practitioners such as myself, and supporting teachers, can implement popular theatre projects in school.

2. Perspective: This research is critical of the present day education system and engages in a practice of research that is defined by both critical and feminist pedagogy. Popular theatre has a strong base in critical pedagogy (Freire, 1974). It was also necessary to consider the feminist perspective with regards to the population and the philosophical approach of the staff at the alternative school in which the research project took place. I considered the use of popular theatre as a popular education tool and supporting theory.

3. Methods: The study took a participatory research approach employing popular theatre as an arts-based participatory method (Conrad, 2004). Popular theatre can serve as an arts-based means of gaining insight into participants’ experiences, a collective meaning-making activity. The popular theatre process as a participatory research method (Kidd & Byram, 1978), involved participants in a creative exploration into their own lived experiences. To interpret and represent the process I used ethnodrama (Saldana, 2003).
The alternative school “Young Moms Program”, in which the research study was set, was located within a mainstream urban public high school located in a western Canadian city. The work began with team building, trust exercises and informal discussions, which led into Image Theatre and then the sharing of experiences through personal storytelling and the creation of scenes.

4. Data sources: Through popular theatre activities material was generated for the research. Upon reflection, I identified themes that emerged through the popular theatre process. The themes revealed themselves from the content of the sessions, in my observations and through the context in which the program occurred. I wrote scripts to represent and explore these themes which are partially fictionalized for ethical and creative purposes.

5. Results: While there were many positive outcomes for the popular theatre program and the research study, the concerns and constraints inherent in the educational context, also had relevance for the study. The ability to do popular theatre work in schools is challenging due to constraints such as censorship, standardization, and competition. That said, there is some space in alternative programs. The space on the educational margins can be a potential place of “radical openness” (hooks, 2009), and should be taken advantage of as such.

6. Scholarly significance: This study touches upon a concern for the state of education in a broad sense. I problematized formal education to set up my localized research project, to make connections to what is practiced in community settings, how it is constrained by the overarching educational system and what we deem “normal” through standardization. This study acts as a localized example of what is possible in implementing an alternate approach to curriculum.

Author

• Lindsay Ruth Hunt, University of Alberta