Using Ethnodrama to Understand and Communicate Interview Data

• In Event: 31.091 - Roundtable Session 10
  In Roundtable Session: 31.091-17 - Teacher Voice and the Role of Arts-Based Educational Research

Abstract

In this paper, I discuss my efforts to use arts-based methods to understand teachers’ work in schools shaped by the No Child Left Behind law and other mass reforms. I describe how the process of writing, rehearsing, and putting up multiple performances of six ethnodramas allowed me to gain a deeper understanding of the data I used as the source material for these scripts. Ethnodrama changed my view of what mattered in my data and this understanding guided my choices as I created the scripts and worked with actors and community members to put up the shows.

Author

• Charles F. Vanover, University of South Florida