Data collection method for phase

Drawing from the experiences in the English Phase I research, I made further refinements to the research process. The methods of collating data remained the same. For example, interviews as a method of collating data was used throughout the inquiry. But the interview protocol was amended from a ‘structured’ interview to ‘semi-structured’. These refinements, as highlighted by Yin (2003) are necessary signaling the challenges of working with the replication logic in a multiple-case study methodology as explained earlier.

10.1.1: Unstructured interviews

The earlier work with semi-structured interviews in the second pilot was less responsive to the theatre artists’ predilection to narrativising their experiences. This was a realisation I encountered when conducting the research with the English theatre artists. The interview schedule was consequently amended to respect the participants as ‘experts’ and hence offer them space and time to explicate how they make sense of their world(s) (Clandinin & Connelly 1989; Bruner 1991; Eakin 1999).

Correspondingly in the Singapore sites, I adopted what Holstein and Gubrium (2004) term as an “active interview” process. It recognises the tacit experience (now made explicit in the writing of this thesis) of the interviewer and respondents’ “constitutive contributions to the production of interview data” (p. 142). The interview was conducted in a talk-like fashion (Baker 2004), often as a dialogue with the

respondents explicating their approaches. Only the opening or lead in question of each interview was planned

Additionally, unlike the pilot, I began with the in-situ observations, interacted with the theatre artists as fellow practitioners and had informal conversations prior to the actual process of a formal interview. This process assumes that the respondents are clearly aware of their positions as active contributors and constructors of meaning and hence knowledge. They are complicit through their agreement of being key respondents to the entire meaning-making enterprise. The interviews were recorded and later transcribed verbatim.

However to help me discipline each interview session, a framework was created. To develop the framework, I returned to the key and subsidiary research questions from which 4 categories of questions emerged (Table 3.6). The ‘active interview’ process offered the participants leeway to highlight areas of concern, which would otherwise have slipped my attention. Together with the four categories of questions, and signposting from the respondents themselves, the interviews offered richly layered narratives. Thereafter, I cross-analysed these narratives with the observation records, field notes and memos.

Table 3.6: Four categories of interview questions

Categories Descriptors

Influences Influences and history of participants’ artistic and pedagogic training or experience.

Negotiation of working environment The strategies and considerations undertaken when working in a school environment.

Embodied experience of their influences and negotiations with the environment

Observing how the theatre artists explicated and implemented their artistic practices during teaching. Thereafter questions were formulated to probe and understand the practices further.

Artists’ responses, questions as well as narrative chosen by them

Areas in which they wish to expand and highlight upon not suggested by the researcher.

10.1.2: Additional interviews with teachers and students

Although the main interviews were primarily conducted with the theatre artists, I also arranged subsidiary interviews with the teachers and students. I approached the teachers who had intimate knowledge of the theatre artists’ work. These were teachers who either collaborated with the theatre artists in teaching the class or were present as observers when the theatre artists were teaching the students. The aim was

to solicit possible alternative ‘eyes’ and ‘ears’ in the hope of sharpening my reflexive lens. Four teachers responded to the request for interviews. The teachers also assisted with a random selection of students for the focus group interviews (Table 3.7).

Table 3.7: Background information of teachers and students who were interviewed

Theatre Artist

Role Years of

relationship

Gender Students (focus group)

Teacher 1 Sandra Collaborating teacher More than 12

months Female 8 female students in a drama class Teacher 2 Sandra Collaborating teacher 12 months Male N.A.

Teacher 3 Olivia Main teacher in charge of drama club

6 months Female 6 mixed gender students from the drama club

Teacher 4 Joan Main teacher in charge of drama club

More than 36 months

Female 5 mixed gender students from the drama club

10.1.3: Observation: understanding classroom teaching

Giddens (1979) claims that power prevails in every social action and varies only in the gradation of power that each act contains (cited in Carspecken 1996, p. 129). To fully understand the dynamics of power in social interaction, I employed Phil Carspecken’s (1996) 4 elements of critical ethnographic research—site; setting; locale; and social system—to conceptually map the observation. The observation was divided into two layers. The first is macro-perspective and the second is microscopic classroom setting

a) The macro-perspective

To Carspecken, a ‘site’ is a temporal and spatial boundary of the object of enquiry. For this research, the site(s) locate the artists within the premises in which they work. This could be in the theatre, a school or an open space. The ‘setting’ refers to a situation, a specific encounter and moment between the characters observed. Meanwhile, the environment surrounding the

site is described as a ‘locale’. An example is the neighbourhood of a school. In the case of this research, the locale is the professional theatre community and past artistic and teacher training, experiences and influences. Finally, the ‘social system’, which relates to the social, political and cultural network that affects the theatre artists’ work. In this highly connected age of global network, the social system would also include the tacit and obvious understandings of the cultural knowledge and dynamics of power relations both locally and internationally that affect the development of the artist.

Carspecken’s model was useful as a skeletal framework to bind the research together. However for the detailed analysis of each observation, I needed specificities to microscopically focus on the interaction between the theatre artists and the students within the classroom environment.

b) Micro-perspective: observing the classroom / site engagements

I initially constructed a classroom rubric with adapted elements from Muijs and Reynolds observation of teacher performance (2005); the University of Warwick’s Postgraduate Award (PG Award) in the Teaching of Shakespeare, in collaboration with the Royal Shakespeare Company; as well as Newmann, et al. (1996) US study of critical thinking as authentic achievement. However, implementation in the English sites proved difficult. The rubric was too rigid and could not effectively capture the more improvisational and fluid quality of the theatre artists’ teaching practices.

Drawing from the experience gained in the English research sites, I amended the observation rubric. I focused on specific points of reference, which were open enough to capture broad descriptions. This amended rubric, comprising of 5 items, was the eventual framework used to observe the Singapore theatre artists at work. They include:

1. Talk: specifically ‘classroom talk’ developed between artists and students. To ground the observation and analyses, Robin Alexander’s (2005) study on classroom talk, specifically on ‘instructional talk’, was used as a reference.

2. Body: I noted the theatre artists’ bodies in action. I noted their posture, stance, physical distance and proximity as well as gestures used during communication and non-communicative states as well as the frequency of bodily-inclined activities employed in the classroom.

3. Space: examining how artists and students negotiate, utilise, and are affected by, appropriate and transform space in theatre education.

4. Artefacts: examining the materials or resources used in the teaching moments such as texts (both published and devised); visual images (projected; printed); properties (props; smaller objects), sets (larger scenic properties), costumes, lights and sound.

5. Strategies: I noted the different strategies, conventions or ‘forms’ employed (Neelands & Goode 2000).

In addition, to offer more insights into the approaches of the theatre artists, follow-up post-observation interviews were also conducted. The interview questions were generated based on the observations. They sought to achieve clarification with a focus on motivations (why), intentions (objectives) and choices (strategies) made during the sessions. Below are three overarching questions that guided the post- observation interviews.

Observation questions:

- What are the distinctive patterns of knowledge as displayed by the artists? What are their influences?

- What challenges exist in the theatre artists’ engagement with young people?

- What and why are changes made during teaching?

- Are there differences between types of teaching projects and the strategies employed?

10.1.4: Video assisted situational recall

The experience of working with videos in the English sites continued in the Singapore research/Phase II. Working with video recording offers the technical support to ease recall and retrieval where repeated viewing to uncover nuances previously missed is made possible (Dufon 2002). For the Singapore research, the

recording was done on a digital camera, with good quality visual and audio capabilities. With it, conversations and instructions offered by the artists as well as the responses of the students were captured. It generated good material for transcription.

Although the videos proved useful, there were also limitations. Mediated by a third eye, I was working with a perspective circumscribed by the video lens. This was a limitation experienced in the English sites. As the objective of archiving was to capture the students’ responses and creation in the workshops, there were moments when I missed recording the interactions between the English theatre artists or the discussions that took place in the background. In addition, the ‘focused frame’ of the camera captured what it was aimed at, missing other ‘wide angle’ opportunities that the naked eye could achieve. As such in the Singapore sites, I relied mainly on observation and field notes, augmented by the occasional use of video recording for the purpose of the video assisted situational recall.

In video assisted situational recall, the observations recorded on video were used as

a resource to generate a feedback loop with the Singapore theatre artists. The theatre artists reviewed and selected 2 moments from the observations recorded and discussed their teaching approaches. I began the discussion with two open-ended questions, leaving room for the theatre artists to construct their narratives with limited researcher framing. The two questions were: a) Why were the two (or more) moments selected? b) What would they wish to elaborate about the videos? Video assisted situational recall was chosen to heighten intersubjectivity. It offered opportunities for alternative narratives and points of views and added to the prismatic perspective (Richardson 1997, cited in Denzin & Lincoln 2008) of the interpretive paradigm. It also assisted in undermining the subjectivity of the researcher and platformed the ‘artists-as-collaborator-and-co-creator’ in generating a rich and layered account of their ‘lived experience’ (Gallagher 2007, 2008).

10.1.5: The multiple projects approach

Again, the experience in the English sites revealed the need for contrasting projects to enhance interpretive rigour. Having multiple projects offered the possibility of cross-referencing and comparison of data within each theatre artists’ portfolio of

projects. The logic behind it is to allow for a generation of a body of evidence where patterns can be identified thereby increasing the rigour and strength of the findings (Yin 2003; Miles & Huberman 1994). As such in Phase II, I shadowed the Singapore theatre artists in as many projects available within the researching period. For example, Sandra had three different classes. Though all three classes were in the same school, the possibility of seeing her at work doing three different “types of drama work”, as she explained, would allow for a comparative analysis of her work.

PART III