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Professor Kathleen Gallagher OISE - University of Toronto Luisa Sotomayor, Research Officer Centre for Urban Schooling Ivan Service, Graduate Assistant OISE - University of Toronto Using Applied Theatre to Change School Culture: An Impact Evaluation of ETFOs Poverty and Education Project 2007-2009

Kathleen Gallagher

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Page 1: Kathleen Gallagher

Professor Kathleen Gallagher OISE - University of Toronto

Luisa Sotomayor, Research OfficerCentre for Urban Schooling

Ivan Service, Graduate AssistantOISE - University of Toronto

Using Applied Theatreto Change School Culture:

An Impact Evaluation of ETFO’s Poverty andEducation Project 2007-2009

Page 2: Kathleen Gallagher

Danny, King of the Basementby David Craig

Page 3: Kathleen Gallagher

The Ontario Context One in six children - approximately 478, 480 - live in poverty. 132,000 children rely on a food bank each month. Two in every five children living in low-income families have a

parent working full-time, year round. Women and youth account for 83% of Canada’s minimum wage

workers. The majority- 54.6%- of children living in low-income, single-

parent families live with their mother. 47% of children in new immigrant families and 32% of children

in racialized families are considered poor, an increase of 60%over the last 20 years.

70% of Ontario’s Aboriginal population lives off-reserve. One-third of off-reserve Aboriginal children live in poverty.

Page 4: Kathleen Gallagher

ETFO Poverty and Education Project

ETFO’s Goal: Help elementary schools understand and cope with child and

family poverty.

Each school received:Performance of the playAfternoon workshops with theactorsClass scripts for schoolETFO’s community resourceposterDVD: “One in Six”Professional development$10,000 in funding20 release days

Actors facilitating a workshop withstudents (Fall 2007)

Page 5: Kathleen Gallagher

Research Goals: Year 1 & 2 Year 1:

To understand agency within constraint To examine the role played by theatre to affect change in

relationships, initiate dialogue, and deepen understanding ofsocial issues To understand sustainability of the project forschools different levels of funding, support, and length ofinvolvement

Year 2: To understand sustainability of the project for schools with

different levels of funding, support, and length ofinvolvement

(Research funded by ETFO)

Page 6: Kathleen Gallagher

* Film Intermission *

Page 7: Kathleen Gallagher

Discovering Danny: ChallengingAssumptions, Seeing Context

“…the other day [a student] said something aboutmoving. ‘Oh that’s like my mom, she doesn’t like to stayin one place. We just usually stay there for a month at atime…’ We went on a bus trip and so we had gone byone of his old houses. And he was referring to some ofthe different places that he’s lived and he said, ‘Mymom doesn’t like to stay any longer than a month at aplace.’ So I thought, that’s Danny, really.”

Page 8: Kathleen Gallagher

Method for Impact Assessment Year 1: Mixed Methods Design (n = 8)

Phase A: 3 pre-play focus groups with teachers Phase B: Online survey Phase C: 8 focus groups and 8 interviews followed

by coding and analysis

Year 2: Case Study Approach (n = 3) Phase A: 3 focus groups with all schools Phase B: 2 focus groups with 2 supported schools

followed by coding and analysis

Page 9: Kathleen Gallagher

School-Based Initiatives Year 1 & 2: Initiatives Aimed to Address:

1. Physical Needs: Kitchens, laundry rooms, clothing,nutritional and hygiene programs.

2. Intrinsic Needs: Counselor.3. Pedagogical: Focus on character Ed, literacy

resources, media, arts programs, Danny themesembedded in curriculum, trips.

4. Social/Cultural: Parent and community outreach,visits to the museum, performances.

5. Mix of Various Strategies

Page 10: Kathleen Gallagher

School-Based Initiatives Year 1 & 2:“And that’s a big part of what we want to dothis year is the whole student engagementpiece and getting them involved in thingsthat they may not have a chance to at homebecause our kids don’t have the money tojoin sports teams and go to dance classesand things like that.”

Page 11: Kathleen Gallagher

Applied Theatre: ChangingSchool Culture

“There is now a greater amount of patience forthe students on the part of some teachers as aresult of the play...The sentiment was that the playinspired one to remember why one wanted toteach in first place, something that can get lost inthe daily grind of school life.”

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Survey: Impact of DramaQuestion SA SWA U SWD SD

The play was a high quality artisticexperience.

74 9 0 0 0

The production was engaging for mystudents.

75 8 0 0 0

The topics addressed in the playwere too sensitive for a discussion.

0 4 2 16 64

The messages of the play areconsistent with what we want totransmit to our students.

69 12 1 1 0

My students were able to translatethe issues that Danny and his friendswere facing into their own context.

25 45 8 4 1

Page 13: Kathleen Gallagher

Survey: Impact of DramaQuestion SA SWA U SWD SD

I believe these types of projects canenhance the curriculum.

62 16 4 1 0

The play made me reflect about myown teaching practice and working ina high-needs community.

51 27 1 4 0

We have very few opportunities andresources in our school to addresspoverty on our own.

14 46 6 14 3

I don’t see how the school can moveforward to address issues of povertythat are too complex for teachers tosolve – like single parenting andhomelessness.

2 16 16 20 29

Page 14: Kathleen Gallagher

Survey: Impact of Drama

Page 15: Kathleen Gallagher

Survey: Impact of Drama

Page 16: Kathleen Gallagher

Survey: Effectiveness of Applied TheatreQuestion SA SWA U SWD SD

I believe that theatre is an effectiveway to raise awareness of ourstudents needs among staff.

65 18 0 0 0

I believe that theatre an effective wayto communicate with our studentsand engage them in discussionsabout social justice.

73 9 1 0 0

Theatre-based PDs are an engagingand informative way to learn aboutsocial issues.

72 10 1 0 0

I would like ETFO to bring us moretheatre-based PDs in the future.

73 8 1 0 1

Page 17: Kathleen Gallagher

Aesthetic Engagement Responses describing the intrinsic value of

seeing drama or appreciation of the art form “The play and drama workshops were wonderful, and they have

inspired both our staff and students to feel empowered toovercome obstacles associated with poverty.”

“Really listening, really thinking about it. I know it's had an impactwell-beyond that week. We're still hearing things about it. Talking toother teachers too, um, I know that in Mr. Adam’s room upstairs hehas kids that are making text connections to it, and still talkingabout it. So it's really carrying on, and affecting all the kids in theschool.”

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Catharsis and Empathy Emotional response or change in thinking towards

issues of poverty that resulted from watching thedrama

"Well, particularly a scene where Danny is being revived after hehas been exposed to the elements and the kids in three groups thatmade the comment…about the fact that it was fairly awful how hefound himself in that situation and how terrible it would be to be putinto the situation where you felt you had no options but to run awayand be left at the mercy of mother nature and not feel that therewas any place to turn to. So the kids talked about options andthings within the community that were available to people thatneed."

Page 19: Kathleen Gallagher

Dialogue Frequency of conversations or depth of the

discussions that followed the drama "It knocked down those walls that you didn’t realize were there, but

it was just something that you never really talked about, but itopened the doorway for communication to start.”

“…before the play came to the school we were asked to discusspoverty…and I found my students didn’t really understand the wordpoverty…but it was after the play came to the school that theconversation became really interesting…I had kids who weretwelve years old understanding the parents perspective,understanding the parents motivations, understanding the parentschallenges, which I didn’t think they were capable of doing.”

Page 20: Kathleen Gallagher

Changes In Social Relations New relationships that emerged within the school-

community as a result of the performance "After seeing ‘Danny King of The Basement’ and the readings…it

really opened the doors to free communication.” "In my classroom, I have a lot of students that act out because

they're hungry, and that, they haven't had proper nutrition, and Ihave this one student in particular that, um, it's really severe. Andthis year, because of the inclusive environment that we've created,and through talking about poverty, he will no longer shut that off, hewill say out loud, put his hand up, and when we're on the carpetand say, “You know Miss Betty I'm really hungry, can I have abanana…That's something that they feel like they can discuss notonly one on one but they feel like they can discuss it with theirpeers, so, it's pretty good."

Page 21: Kathleen Gallagher

Learning From The Drama Staff and students learned more about issues of poverty

directly from the drama "It brought personal beliefs and experiences to the forefront through

character experiences and situations. This play was excellent and helpedme get in touch with what some of our students are likely feeling, and whythey are reacting the way they do."

"For us, it’s broadened our definition because we often think of poverty weonly think in terms of physical needs but garbled… you see there are somekids that are emotionally poor that are well provided for but…thecomments that they make, you know give the impression that they areemotionally poor. They are missing something else from their life that isn’tnecessarily connected to a monetary value."

Page 22: Kathleen Gallagher

Pedagogical Tool Incorporating themes or ideas found within the

drama into the curriculum or teaching practices "And I was impressed with how fast they picked up drama as a

means of communication. They respected the form ofcommunication…it moved us ahead in conversation to a deeperdepth, discussing everything in language arts…So I felt that it hadspin offs that were valuable in the curriculum content as well.”

"Where as instead of saying someone, you know, it might be likefirst they can relate, well, Danny in the play he was poor, like,monetarily, but, you know, he was rich in his imagination and stufflike that. So, they can talk about, you know, the characteristics ofdifferent types of poverty of stage characters. Where as normally ifyou were talking without seeing a play or something, it’d be likethey couldn’t bring that realization of seeing someone like that."

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Other research themes Principals’ Awareness Teachers’ Awareness Teachers’ Practice Collaboration Engagement Students Leadership Impact on students School environment School Culture Project Operations Danny’s Tree of Hope, Oshawa

Page 24: Kathleen Gallagher

The Sustainability of AppliedTheatre

“…we’re not going outside to find something all thetime. It’s Diana, it’s Fiona, it’s Tammy. We’re looking atourselves and what can we do and we teach oneanother…We’re going to teach one another how to do iton a daily basis in a classroom. So I see that assustainable instead of being a one-time fun, oh this isgreat, let’s do this. No, it’s something we help oneanother with and then you know we have moreconfidence to do it on our own…”

Page 25: Kathleen Gallagher

Sustainability: Where did theDrama Go?

For these three schools, the focus of the Danny playdisappeared as the project progressed

“Last year the focus for us was really on Character Education…wehave veered off in a different direction while keeping going what wedid last year.”

“Well they only know about swimming, but we haven’t really tied it tothe Danny project or Danny play or project with the kids.”

Page 26: Kathleen Gallagher

Sustainability: EmbeddingInitiatives In Curriculum

Incorporating initiatives into the curriculum led to greatersustainability of the lessons and insights

“We definitely considered it from the beginning and especially lastyear embedding it in the curriculum was the best way we could thinkof continuing it. And you can see that it’s still happening. A lot of thelessons that were written have been passed on and people are usingor just remembering what happened last year.”

Page 27: Kathleen Gallagher

Sustainability: DevelopingPartnerships

Partnerships with community organizations sustained theinitiatives because of increased resources, support, andenergy

“That is a big part of it. That was the sort of more of the focus of ourpresentation to all the community people that day was we want this tocontinue. How can you help us make this continue? What can you dofor us? And where can the volunteers tap in? So who has volunteersor who knows where we can get some? So between some servicegroups and the church group and things like that, that was one focusof the people we invited and the other part was who has the mostmoney to give us each year?”

Page 28: Kathleen Gallagher

Sustainability: RaisingConsciousness

Raising staff consciousness about issues of poverty impacted theirteaching practices and school programs well into the future, with orwithout continued support from ETFO

“I’m an awful lot more sensitive, I think most teachers are to whereour kids are coming from and it affects their work in school and so on.And I just have a class full of needy kids this year. And I probablyalways have had a class of needy kids, I just didn’t really pay muchattention to the need. Or not enough attention.”

“Well I’m much more attentive to parents and to kids. I’m listening alot more than I used to. So you know the teacher-learner relationshipsare just a whole lot better. So make time for that to happen and goodthings happen.”

Page 29: Kathleen Gallagher

Conclusions Applied theatre proved effective to initiate

dialogue and transform social relations. Flexibility was key to programme success. Workshops, grants, release days, embedding

in curriculum, and raising consciousness keptthe themes of the play alive.

Page 30: Kathleen Gallagher

Effective practices Enough pre-play preparation time All-school involvement Horizontal partnerships Distributed Leadership Sound use of resources Regular meeting times Team work Embedding in curriculum Raising consciousness

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In Summary

Performance is about ‘going into another world andcoming back with gifts’

Tim Etchells, British theatre director.

Page 32: Kathleen Gallagher

Questions?

Danny School, Oshawa