Critical Literacy, Ethnodrama, and Assessment of Arts-Informed Research

• In Event: Problematizing Assessment of and Through Performance: Three Frames of Reference

Abstract

What counts as social change? The field of critical literacy invites the interrogation of texts to unpack the biases of writers in relation to their perspectives and purposes (Freire, 1970). Critical literacy also emphasizes the interrogation of texts for the kind of social, cultural, and political work they do in situated contexts (Shor, 1997; Christensen, 1999). This work in situated contexts includes examination of cultural representations and the influence of stereotypes, partial truths and inconsistencies that influence writers’ choices and that require accountability in terms of textual impact on readers (Shor, 1997; Christensen, 1999).

How do we assess the impact of dance or any art form on social change? Ethnodramatists embrace writer accountability for the cultural biases that shape the forms that capture ideas. They combine the fields of ethnography, the study of people and cultures, with drama, the interpretation of people and cultures. They are attentive to a long legacy of colonization through which ethnographer representations have further marginalized colonized cultures and profited dominant cultures (Goldstein, 2003). Thus, they strive to use arts-based performance to include study participants in the research methods of data collection, analysis, and presentation (Mienczakowski, 1995). In the process, they work to co-construct understandings of needed social changes with study participants, with actors, and with audiences (Belliveau, 2006; Campana, 2005; Vincent, 2006).

What kinds of guideposts can arts-based researchers use to evaluate their own work? Ethnodramatists create performance-based texts that address specific social issues by using drama to perform the interviews of different stakeholders, to visualize the larger situation at hand and to reflect with actors and interviewees on the biases that are informing the research and artistic processes (Goldstein, 2003). During the collaborative production of the script, each party is invited to reflect on their own aesthetic insights and emotional and intellectual responses and the biases that are informing their perspectives (Goldstein, 2003). During post-show dialogues, audiences also are invited to reflect on their own aesthetic insights and emotional and intellectual responses and the biases that are informing their perspectives (Goldstein, 2003). As biases are identified, everyone is better equipped to identify the sources to the conflicts at hand and the specific kinds of action that are needed to effect change.

How do we assess the impact of arts-based research on audiences? Ethnodramatists understand that research is highly subjective, contextual, and never finished (Barone, 2002). There are always more dimensions of a situation to examine. There are always more possibilities for how we use arts-based research to effect specific kinds of change. Thus, comprehensive research teams draw from performance-based interpretations to continue to evaluate how to re-situate a research-based artwork within emerging understandings of the specific power and impact of the work in one context or another. With ethnodrama, academic researchers learn with and from many audiences about stakeholder realities and the possibilities for aesthetic design and cultural impact that generate collectively determined social change.

Author

• Sarah Reed Hobson, Community Allies, LLC.