Assata Haki: Week 6 Resource Reflection

Source: Applied Theatre: Research, Radicl Departure. Peter OConnor and Michael Anderson

Date: Tuesday, October 10th, 2017

Duration: 9:39a.m.-10:57a.m.

Chapter: Pretending to Research

Purpose: This chapter talked about an intergenerational project with young students and senior
citizens, living in Aukland, New Zealand. Its base research design is applied theatre. The
students participated in workshops to help prepare them for the interviews with the elder
participants, while engaging in theatre techniques. For the older participants, the drama
techniques within their workshops was said to had unlock memories hidden. This one statement
is why I chose to write my masters essay on applied theatre and human development. Also, the
intergenerational project drew me to want to read to see if there were research methods and or
approaches and techniques in applied theatre could be added to my field of knowledge. As I read
through this chapter, I noticed that I was checking off steps within my own practice. Meaning,
the process steps that the student researchers were following, are similar to my applied theatre
processes. The project was very similar to a project that I facilitated and directed between my
senior citizen students, and a group of high school English seniors. The difference between the
two are that the young did not interview the older students, and the older students wrote their
own stories for performance. I was also hoping that I could learn more about action research and
how I could apply it to my fieldwork. The read for action research information was unsuccessful.
However, I was able to read more on ethnographic performances, which I realized is what my
senior citizen students had done. What I would like to learn or understand better is dramaturgical
analysis. It was a data collection method that I had never heard of and would like to know more
on how that is conducted.

I began flipping through the other chapters and came across the chapter, Research in a Post
Normal World: Co-constructing research: Mapping the questions. I felt like I was unsatisfied in
finding a good research method for my work. I read pages 51-52, that talked about how you first
create the questions, ask them, and then design a research method that best fits the project and its
community. It didnt discuss one research method in particular in this chapter but it gave me a
new way of looking at them. It helped me understand my role as a researcher and how we are to
pay attention to the design, the scope, and the shape project from the responses of the questions.

I will continue to ponder on how this could be useful to my fieldwork. As we are building on our
framework, I feel like this could be approached while creating or forming the questions that are
used to get my students to brainstorm. I think that I am on to something here or I am getting
close.

Source: Research in Dance Education: Seeking new ways of living community in the classroom
and the world: an action research study An action research study. Anne Morris

Date: October 10th, 2017

Duration: 10:47p.m.- 11:27p.m.

Purpose: I was searching to read more on action research and how it is conducted. Action
research is a method to conduct self-study through the reflection process. I decided to read
further to learn in what ways was this challenging and or successful in the authors dance
practice. I know that this is dance, however, some of the dance techniques used in the creative
process can be adoptable to other art forms. The author linked the lessons with literature about
feminist and critical pedagogy to help create a democratic classroom community. This helped me
understand why it is important to find literature that will support my work and project goals. I
must research information that links senior citizens and theatre art affects and effects that it has
on them.

Moving along the journal, the author shares how she used methodologies from a variety of
disciplines, such as technologies, and computer graphics, geography, and other forms to reshape
how the students would understand the dance visually. The dynamics of that process can be a
method in its self. The author always came back to the original point of the study, action
research, or self-study of ones own practice. She stated that it wasnt to learn how to teach
students better, but how to better her pedagogy. Part of my goals in my fieldwork with Hannan
House, are to learn how to better assess and evaluate learning and teaching goals, so that I can
better my practice/pedagogy. What I appreciated about this study was that it offered truth to
reflection on what our values are and what values are better. Meaning, should I stick to my
values of self-awareness and empowerment as important, or should my students value for being
in the class over rule? These reflections bring a different light to why I practice applied theatre.
Is it for me, or is it for the better of the students and their communities? For me, it is always
about the students and the community. I use theatre as a tool to teach and guide us into the how
to live as a community.

As I read down further, the author talks being able to help the students see themselves as subjects
and not objects. Her concern stemmed beyond the classroom. How could what the students learn
in her dance studio, reflect in their communities? I believe it is an individual responsibility to
take what you have learned and apply it to your daily living. I make sure that my students are
clear from the beginning of any project or class that we are a family or an ensemble. The work
that we do builds on that truth within the classroom. I observe how this builds trust within the
classroom and we engage in group activities, that promotes social skills, communication skills,
and critical thinking skills. When students engage as subjects, they learn how to use objects for
their benefit. This is to be true with my senior citizens students as well. I had a student that
shared with me after three semesters that before I taught them, she was shy due to pre-conceived
judgment from others. As she ended her third semester, she felt more confident in her personal
life and came to confirm that she has a voice.

Anne Morris shares in her section of Storytelling, that storytelling is a way of reminding us that
we know what we know. I instantly reflected by to my senior citizen students that created a
performance from their 1967 Rebellion memories. They were guided through many activities
that would help them feel what they know. It became intense for one student and she left the
class, but recalling stories is powerful. Applied theatre allows for this media and or platform for
stories to be told, and working with the elderly population, using theatre, has given them
excitement, something to look forward to, other than just sitting in their homes, watching
television. It gives them confidence, and some have stated that it calms them. Storytelling is
connected with improvisation exercises. This is a technique I use to engage their memory and
mental sharpness. Storytelling can be a technique in the brainstorming process as well.

Source: Applied Theatre as Research: Provoking the Possibilities. Peter OConnor, Michael
Anderson.

Date: October 14th, 2017

Duration: 9:30p,m.-10:00p.m

Purpose: I skimmed through and it discusses how applied theatre is a form of research and can
also be parallel with action research. Applied theatre as research was used in a case study, with
young people, in Sidney, Australia. The purpose was to develop self-esteem, self-knowledge
about their culture in which they live in, and leadership. The processes used within this case
study are similar, if not exact to the processes used within my classrooms. The techniques,
activities, exercises, help create performances that addresses aging, family, healthy living, and
community. Applied theatre can be used as more than research, but a way of healing, bridging
communities, and families, while empowering those engaging in the creative process.

Three Questions:

1.) How can I use dramaturgy as an analytical tool?

2.) When using action research as a method in my pedagogy, in what ways should I observe
myself, while facilitating? What is an important question that I should seek to answer
while practicing?
3.) Documentation is vital to our fieldwork, what are some ways that you find easy to help
you record what is going on, if you are engaged in teaching? Does setting up a laptop
work, just taking a lot of photos, or audio recordings? Jotting is a challenge.