Knowledge of how to apply theatreform to culminating project

Overview of Culminating Project: This proposal will be the basis for my topic review that I plan to present at collegium in Fall ’20. The outline was developed under the guidance of Dr. Nancy Smithner in Spring '19.

For my final project, tentatively titled, Sheltered in Place, I will develop a hip-hop theatre piece that uses an ethnographic research approach to create a one-person show, devised by the coding of transcripts from interviews that I conduct using documentary theatre techniques and the use of found artifacts, e.g., hip-hop videos, rap lyrics, previously recorded interviews with hip-hop artist, news stories, and social media platforms, that explores the intersectionality of people of color and investigates their relationship to the industrial education complex in particular and society at large. I want to gain a deeper understanding of the phenomena of hip-hop culture and the current barriers that exist in traditional academic spaces that have failed to acknowledge and integrate hip hop culture in the classroom. I believe that if the goal of schools should be to create an environment of inclusion and belonging vs. compliance and obedience, then it is incumbent upon schools to meet the students where most of them are outside of the classroom. Through this process, I hope to create a piece that amplifies voices that have been marginalized and present an alternative reality to the conditions by which our school systems are currently operating, mainly, those that are serving young people of color. Below gives a more detailed outline of my study and how it pushes the field of educational theatre forward.

Statement of Problem

This study will be an Arts-Based Inquiry into the role hip hop culture plays into 21st Century culturally responsive pedagogical. I will interrogate Eurocentric educational institutions, industrialized curriculums, and the ‘one-size fits all’ approach to education that has become the standard. This research will attempt to close the civic awareness gap that currently exists within the educational, industrial complex by using an arts-based research approach to knowledge formation through an emancipatory theoretical framework that examines positionality, intersectionality, and collaborative community-based arts practices.

Chapter 1

I. Introduction

A. Approach – The primary medium for investigation will be arts-based research (ABR) using ethnographic theatrical methods or ethnotheatre to devise a solo performance play using interview transcription, found media, and social media to develop a script that can be performed live. Secondarily, this research will use a Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach to inquiry attempting to center the voices of people from marginalized communities.

B. Purpose – The purpose of this study is to explore multimodal tenets of hip hop phenomena to strengthen current pedagogical approaches to teach young people of color and to use hip hop as a conduit to deepen the civic engagement practices.

II. Source of the study

A. Researcher’s Stance- Though I would not classify this as heuristic research I do identify as a person of color from a marginalized community that has been subjected to “whitewashed” narratives in traditional post-secondary contexts that longed for a methodological framework that was more closely aligned to my epistemology and the multimodal ways in which one can learn. Indeed, hip-hop culture has been a way of knowing for me both psychologically and physiologically way before I could articulate the relevance it has had on my identity formation. For this study, my positionality will be that of an Outsider in Collaboration with Insiders^[1]. This study will aim at investigating the conditions of members from marginalized communities with a critical race theory lens. With regards to specific topics such as racism and classism, I have a very visceral reaction that I’m sure is based in my epistemological process developed through past experiences growing up poor and black in the rural South. I have to acknowledge the extent of my personal bias and attempt to minimize the manipulation of the data I find to bend to my bias.

B. Relation to the field Hip-hop is becoming more prevalent in progressive institutions that have traditionally segregated itself from hip hop culture through the curriculum, programming, and or other forms of representation. Teacher’s College Columbia, New York University, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. have shown an investment in the preservation of hip hop culture by creating departments within their institutions whose sole purpose is to ensure that hip hop culture has a place at their institution. Additionally, plans are currently in place to establish a Universal Hip-Hop Museum in the birthplace of the art form in the Bronx, New York. Museums serve many purposes, but one crucial goal is the preservation of culture. Having a museum solely dedicated to hip hop culture further exemplifies the reality that hip hop is here to stay.

C. Any broader social concerns Hip-Hop, much like Jazz and Blues, is genuinely an art form deeply entrenched in the ethos of American life particularly. Still, not exclusively for people of color then there is an obligation on behalf of American society to preserve the cultural traditions and narratives associated with the art form.

III. Significance/Need for the study Although studies exist examining the usage of hip hop in culturally responsive pedagogy, few studies investigate the impact of this approach through an arts-based research lens that incorporates not just hip hop music but also graffiti art, dance, and fashion into ethnotheatre. Indeed, there is a shortage of literature interrogating the phenomenon of effective integration of hip hop studies in classroom settings, particularly those that use hip hop works of art as an entry point into subject matter that has become “standardized” in local and national state standards. Additionally, I am interested in exploring hip hop culture as a “way of knowing” as it relates to principles of indigenous wisdom as posed by critical hip hop theorist and practitioners.

IV. Conceptual Framework

A. Research Question: How can educators leverage the influence of Hip-Hop culture in to heighten the level of classroom engagement with marginalized youth?

Sub-Questions:

● What role could or should hip-hop play in 21st-century education?

● How does culturally responsive pedagogy manifest in trauma-informed communities or classrooms?

● How would use an arts-based participatory action framework broaden participants’ perspectives on the world around them?

B. Theoretical framework

· Emancipatory Theory: “Emancipatory social science seeks to generate scientific knowledge relevant to the collective project of challenging various forms of human oppression. To call this a form of social science, rather than simply social criticism or social philosophy, recognizes the importance of this task of systematic scientific knowledge about how the world works.” (Wright 2007)

· Critical Race Theory: “The ultimate goal of CRT is to illuminate and understand how structures of racism and corresponding white supremacy have come to permeate American life, with a focus on disrupting the mechanisms that maintain these structures” (Crenshaw, Gotanda, Peller, & Thomas, 1995).

· Postmodernist Theory: “A set of critical, strategic and rhetorical practices employing concepts such as difference, repetition, the trace, the simulacrum, and hyperreality to destabilize other concepts such as presence, identity, historical progress, epistemic certainty, and the univocity of meaning.” (Aylesworth 2015)

V. Delimitations/Limitations

1) The geographic boundary of this study will be limited to New York City and particularly areas that have been identified by the University of Pennsylvania’s Social Impact of the Arts (SIAP) study as being culturally disadvantaged, e.g., South Bronx. The transferability of this study to other areas of New York City and other parts of the United States could prove difficult.

2) The lack of youth voice is also limiting. Although some youth will be consulted via surveys and focus groups, no youth will be engaged in the conceptual development of the study. As a result, the central youth perspective may not be as strong as I would like, perhaps if this study is extended that could be featured more strongly.

3) The sample size of my study will be limited to four artists, educators, or hip hop practitioners who would not be a high enough volume to reach statistical significance or a data saturation point using the qualitative approach of this study.

4) Time to completion will also pose a challenge as a study of this nature could easily take a longitudinal approach evaluating participants of several years to document how their stories evolve over time; however, this study will be limited to an 18-month.

Chapter 2: Review of the Literature

I. Introduction

The following sources referenced throughout my study listed under in alphabetical order.

· Methodological Frameworks

Leavy, P. (2018). Handbook of arts-based research. New York: Guilford Press.

Barone T., & Eisner, E. W. (2012). Arts-based research. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE.

Saldaña, J. (2011). Fundamentals of qualitative research [Ebrary]. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Retrieved September/October 2018.

Saldaña, J. (2016). The coding manual for qualitative researchers. Los Angeles, CA, CA: SAGE.

· Historical/Contextual Information on Hip-Hip Hop Culture

Afonu, D. (2015). Hip-hop as community psychology? : a participatory research project with adolescent co-researchers. Retrieved from http://proxy.library.nyu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsble&AN=edsble.676124&site=eds-live

Chang, J. (2020). CAN'T stop WON'T Stop A history of the Hip-hop generation. S.l.: PICADOR.

Gitonga, P. N., & Delport, A. (2015). Exploring the use of hip hop music in participatory research studies that involve youth. Journal of Youth Studies, 18(8), 984–996. https://doi-org.proxy.library.nyu.edu/10.1080/13676261.2015.1020929

Haaken, J., Wallin-Ruschman, J., & Patange, S. (2012). Global hip-hop identities: Black youth, psychoanalytic action research, and the Moving to the Beat project. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 22(1), 63–74. https://doi-org.proxy.library.nyu.edu/10.1002/casp.1097

Webber, T. L. (1978). Deep like the Rivers: Education in the slave quarter community, 1831-1865. NY: Norton.

· Culturally Responsive Teaching

Akom, A. A. (2009). Critical Hip Hop Pedagogy as a Form of Liberatory Praxis. Equity & Excellence in Education, 42(1), 52–66. Retrieved from http://proxy.library.nyu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ827853&site=eds-live

Emdin, C. (2017). For white folks who teach in the hood ... and the rest of y'all too: Reality Pedagogy and urban education. Random House.

Ginwright, S. A. (2016). Hope and healing in urban education: How urban activists and teachers are reclaiming matters of the heart. New York, NY: Routledge.

Walsh, D. (2018). Youth Participatory Action Research as Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy. Theory Into Practice, 57(2), 127–136. Retrieved from http://proxy.library.nyu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1183038&site=eds-live

Wernick, L. J., Woodford, M. R., & Kulick, A. (2014). LGBTQQ Youth Using Participatory Action Research and Theater to Effect Change: Moving Adult Decision-Makers to Create Youth-Centered Change. Journal of Community Practice, 22(1/2), 47–66. https://doi-org.proxy.library.nyu.edu/10.1080/10705422.2014.901996

· Relational Research

Ayala, J., & Zaal, M. (2016). A Poetics of Justice: Using Art as Action and Analysis in Participatory Action Research. Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research, 18(1), 1–13. https://doiorg.proxy.library.nyu.edu/10.4148/2470-6353.1019

Cook, A. L., & Krueger-Henney, P. (2017). Group Work That Examines Systems of Power With Young People: Youth Participatory Action Research. Journal for Specialists in Group Work, 42(2), 176–193. https://doi-org.proxy.library.nyu.edu/10.1080/01933922.2017.1282570

D’Amico, M., Denov, M., Khan, F., Linds, W., & Akesson, B. (2016). Research as an intervention? Exploring the health and well-being of children and youth facing global adversity through participatory visual methods. Global Public Health, 11(5/6), 528–545. https://doi-org.proxy.library.nyu.edu/10.1080/17441692.2016.1165719

Del Vecchio, D., Toomey, N., & Tuck, E. (2017). Placing Photovoice: Participatory Action Research with Undocumented Migrant Youth in the Hudson Valley. Critical Questions in Education, 8(4), 358. Retrieved from http://proxy.library.nyu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1159312&site=eds-live

· Theoretical framework

Alfieri, A. V. (1997). Black And White Critical Race Theory: The Cutting Edge. Edited By Richard Delgado. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1995. Pp. xvi. 592. $ 59.95 cloth; $ 24.95 paper. Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings that Formed the Movement. Edited By Kimberle Crenshaw, Neil Gotanda, Gary Peller, and Kendall Thomas. New York: The New Press, 1995. Pp. xxxii, 494. $ 60.00 cloth. California Law Review, 85, 1647. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy.library.nyu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edslex&AN=edslex3E4B139F&site=eds-live

Aylesworth, G. (2005). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: A Developed Dynamic Reference Work [Abstract]. Postmodernism.

Wright, E. O. Envisioning Real Utopias, pp. 131-144 London Verso: 2010

Summary

All of the above literature helps to support the Methodological Frameworks, Historical/Contextual Information on Hip-Hip Hop Culture, Culturally Responsive Teaching, Theoretical Frameworks of my study.

Chapter 3: Research Design and Methods

My culminating project is an arts based research project involving four New York City educators who each teach at least one main aesthetic form of Hip-Hop Culture, i.e., music, breaking, djaying, graffiti art. And or fashion as part of their culturally responsive curriculum. This study will use an ethnotheatre approach to devising theatre.

I. Site or population selection and recruitment

· Bridging Education and Art Together (BEAT Global) & Universal Hip Hop Museum (UHMM)

· Working with four teaching artists (two from each site)

· Three month observation period by the researcher of 2-3 two-hour sessions at each of the two partner sites observing Tas who are working with students in an after-school setting.

· Classes to be observed include 1 class of djaying/scratching, and 1 class of Breaking Dancing both at BEAT Global. 1 class of hip-hop music & 1 class of Hip-Hop Theatre (UHHM)

· Two 45-min interviews with each educator. One will be conducted at the beginning of my research, and one will be conducted at the end of my research.

· Educators will be chosen by an open call at the participating organizations

II. Data management plan

· Data Secured using encrypted hard drives

· Confidentiality w/ pseudonyms of educators and students

· Alias for Community Based Organizations and/or Schools

III. Role of the researcher

· An outsider in collaboration with Insiders

· I will honor the lived experiences of those I am researching and center their voice in the research

· A critical race lens inform my research

IV. Data collection methods

Lead Researcher

· Observations

· In-Person Interviews with 4 Educators/Teaching Artists

· Emergent Design

· Field Notes

· Focus Groups

· Surveys

· Audio Recordings of interviews

· Collection of student work, e.g., journals, poetry, monologues

· Found Media, e.g., music videos, rap lyrics, interviews with hip hop artists, magazine articles, and social media platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, Snap Chat, Tik Tok, Facebook, and Twitter

V. Data analysis procedures

· Coding of Interviews*

· Coding of Social Media Posts/Youtube Videos*

· Video analysis*

· Audio Analysis*

· Triangulation of data

· Intercoder reliability

· Member checking

* Coding Software NVIVO will be used.

VI. Ethics and trustworthiness

· Written Permission from students and parents

· Permission from Community Based Organizations

· Inform participants about the purpose of the study

· Pledge to keep the data in a secure place

VII. Outcome

The discovery element of this process will be critical to define the problem further and to gain insights into the mindset of individuals affected. However, even though research shows that effective data collection and analysis can improve programming,^[2] there is still a divide in the understanding of the root causes that have placed youth in a situation where they have high-risk factors. At each site, I will interview two key personnel involved in the programming separately for approximately 30-45 mins in a sit-down recorded 1-1 interview using standard qualitative method techniques (this could also occur via phone and or Zoom). I would also like to hold a focus group of youth participants of two groups of 10-15 participants to try to gain additional data through facilitated group discussions that would be audio or video recorded with the consent of the participants. Over 10 days, I would begin to code and synthesize information gathered from interviews, focus groups, and surveys. I would hope that I could achieve some semblance of Democratic Validity, which Herr describes as, “[t]he extent to which research is done in collaboration with all parties who have a stake in the problem under investigation…While process validity depends on the inclusion of multiple voices for triangulation, democratic validity views it as an ethical and social justice issue” (Herr 68).

^[1] Herr, K. and Anderson, G. (2005). The action research dissertation: A guide for students and faculty. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. (Chapter 3).

^[2] Kira Krenichyn, Nicole Schaefer-McDaniel, Heléne Clark, & Sarah Zeller-Berkman. (2007). Where Are Young People in Youth Program Evaluation Research? Children, Youth and Environments, 17(2), 594-615. Retrieved March 27, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/10.7721/chilyoutenvi.17.2.0594