Dissertations and Theses @ UNI
Availability
Open Access Thesis
Keywords
University of Northern Iowa--Students--Attitudes; University of Northern Iowa; Theater--Political aspects; Participatory theater; Drama in education; Participatory theater; Students--Attitudes; Theater--Political aspects; Academic theses;
Abstract
During the Spring 2001 semester I had the opportunity to conduct an ethnography of Dr. Karen Mitchell's course "Texts and Contexts: Performance and Social Change" at the University of Northern Iowa. This course is designed to link performance with social change issues, by utilizing personal narrative and Augusto Boal' s Theatre of the Oppressed techniques: forum theatre, image theatre, and invisible theatre. These techniques were chosen by Dr. Mitchell on the basis of their capacity to involve both actors and audiences in the issues to be addressed and because they are based on Paulo Freire' s principles of liberatory education. In this class, theory and practice are intricately connected and can and are used to enhance each other. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine how interactive performance techniques are used to create a classroom cu1ture and a community of learners. And once the community of learners is created how it becomes a safe space to explore and rehearse for social activism. In order to analyze and explain my ethnographic data, I use a combination of performative pedagogy, Paulo Freire' s ( 1970), Pedagogy of the Oppressed, and Victor Turner's hypothesis of social drama and the conditions under which social dramas occur. Using the data collected from classroom participant observation, student interviews, course journals, an Internet bulletin board and forum theatre scenarios, throughout the semester, I examine how the practice of liberatory education and performance pedagogy influence the development of the classroom community and the emergence of activism.
Year of Submission
2003
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Department of Communication Studies
First Advisor
Karen Mitchell
Second Advisor
Victoria DeFrancisco
Third Advisor
William Michael Fleming
Date Original
2003
Object Description
1 PDF file (133 leaves)
Copyright
©2003 Jana Gymer-Koch
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Gymer-Koch, Jana, "Negotiating Voices: Ethnography of Interactive Theatre Techniques Within a Classroom" (2003). Dissertations and Theses @ UNI. 2810.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/etd/2810
Comments
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