Abstract
This chapter is an exploration of the author’s doctoral research methodology and methods. The chapter opens with the appropriation of a conceptual metaphor to make sense of the research problem, and its transformation into a visual metaphor to crystallise the research design. In a reflexive gesture, seven methodological challenges are outlined, framed as ‘problem-setting’ scenarios emerging from the study, problematised within the unique context of the research. The chapter ends with a reflection on the researcher’s aesthetic engagement, which provoked an active response—bridging the contexts of the research and the context of the drama. The chapter includes a narrative overview of The Journalists, a process drama designed within the doctoral research.
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Workshop 8: The Journalists
Workshop 8: The Journalists
Description: The workshop was inspired by the content of a chapter titled La Lingua dei Quotidiani (‘The Language of Newspapers’), a university textbook by Bonomi (2003). It aimed to immerse the students in a dramatic world based on this chapter, getting the students to experience, to apprehend the content of the chapter.
Students’ Context—Inspiration for the Workshop: The drama sessions explored issues related to how Chinese journalists may perceive the Italian culture. They were conducted with sixteen international students of Italian (L2) from China and Tibet, with an interest in business, media communication, and the Italian culture, enrolled in an exchange programme in a public university in Milan, Italy. The drama was created as part of Case Study One of my PhD research (2009/2013), supervised by Julie Dunn and Claire Kennedy, at Griffith University (Brisbane). The overview is deliberately presented in narrative form, focussing on the storyline, rather than in its typical drama structure, to support an argument advanced in Chapter 11.
Pre-text: A job offer (fictional) issued by the Italo-Chinese Chamber of Commerce (Fig. 6)
Pre-text (case study one)
Educational Aims: Understanding the various parts of a newspaper article; conducting an interview for a newspaper article; writing a newspaper article; presenting the content of a newspaper article, in Italian (L2).
Level: B1 to B2 (CEFR).
Duration: Twelve hours (four three-hour sessions).
This chapter has presented a reflexive exploration of my doctoral research methodology and methods. The chapter opened with the appropriation of a conceptual metaphor to make sense of the research problem, and its transformation into a visual metaphor to crystallise the research design. In a reflexive gesture, seven methodological challenges were outlined, framed as ‘problem-setting’ scenarios emerging from the study, problematised within the unique context of the research. The chapter ends with a reflection on the researcher’s aesthetic engagement, which provoked an active response and infused the practice with a performative function—bridging the contexts of the research and the context of the drama. The next chapter presents the research analysis and findings related to this doctoral study.
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Piazzoli, E. (2018). Performative Research: Methodology and Methods. In: Embodying Language in Action. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77962-1_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77962-1_9
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