Weaving, unweaving, reweaving: personal, social and creative experiences of process drama with Community Languages teachers

Abstract

Although the relationship between drama-rich pedagogies and language learning contexts is well established, the use of process-based drama in Community/Heritage Language (CL) learning contexts has not been well researched. This study uses arts-based inquiry and ethnography to illuminate the experiences and learning of a group of CL teachers in Western Sydney, Australia as they participated in a process drama program that explored the Greek myth of Penelope.

The thesis also considers the role of teaching artistry in shaping these experiences and is an extended and critical reflection on the researcher’s Teaching Artist practice. At each stage of the study, collaborative and dialogic ways of meaning-making were privileged. A preference for multi-vocal approaches is also reflected in the ethnodrama script that forms an integral part of this thesis. Penelope’s iconic weaving, unweaving, and reweaving became a central metaphor for the research as an iterative process of learning, unlearning, revisiting, and reconceiving for both the participants and the researcher. This central metaphor also resonated with the diffractive approach to data analysis, which involved threading theory through the data, and data through the theory to highlight new insights and learnings.

This research contributes to the literature concerning how adults from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds engage with participatory arts. It explores how engagement, care, and the collective shaping of thirdspace are at the heart of experiences of adults engaging in applied theatre. This study adds to a growing discourse in applied theatre that moves away from positivist jargon and grandiose claims in favour of research methods informed by social justice and the centring of the intrinsic value of arts-rich experiences. As a critical and ethnographic thesis, it is also a provocation to more deeply consider and acknowledge the complexity of Teaching Artistry.