System Failure: A series of interlogues about emptiness, detachment, and the Chicago Public Schools
Location
1053
Format Type
Event
Format Type
Panel
Start Date
January 2019
End Date
January 2019
Abstract
This session uses data from a verbatim play about the Chicago Public Schools, System Failure, to inquire into the confrontation between abstraction and experience. We begin the session with a verbatim performance of a 10 minute excerpt from the ethnodrama: a third grade teacher’s narrative about working with students who failed their high-stakes exams. Audience members will share responses to the ethnodrama before listening to an interlogue by Dr. Rose Thomas that reframes the play in light of a core theme of the teacher's narrative—Buddhist practice. Panelists and audience reflect on this material in view of the concepts of emptiness, detachment, and the miracle of life. We conclude by returning to the racial issues driving the ethnodrama--the teacher's students were African-American; the teacher and the primary movers of Chicago’s high-stakes testing policy were White.
Keywords
Ethnodrama, Chicago Public Schools, Buddhist Practice
System Failure: A series of interlogues about emptiness, detachment, and the Chicago Public Schools
1053
This session uses data from a verbatim play about the Chicago Public Schools, System Failure, to inquire into the confrontation between abstraction and experience. We begin the session with a verbatim performance of a 10 minute excerpt from the ethnodrama: a third grade teacher’s narrative about working with students who failed their high-stakes exams. Audience members will share responses to the ethnodrama before listening to an interlogue by Dr. Rose Thomas that reframes the play in light of a core theme of the teacher's narrative—Buddhist practice. Panelists and audience reflect on this material in view of the concepts of emptiness, detachment, and the miracle of life. We conclude by returning to the racial issues driving the ethnodrama--the teacher's students were African-American; the teacher and the primary movers of Chicago’s high-stakes testing policy were White.
Comments
Breakout Session E