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CHAPTER FIVE: DATA ANALYSIS
to be makers of the narrative as well. I wanted to see if participants felt they
had a say in the formation of the story so I included a question about this in
the questionnaire in the first cycle.
In the case of The Tribe most participants felt that they influenced
the direction of the story’s development. The average mark is 4.9 on a seven
point Likert item where 7 means that they felt they could influence the story
greatly. The marks span out fairly evenly, tipping towards influencing the story
fairly strongly.
Table 2. Influencing the narrative:
The Tribe 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Questionnaire | Did not Influence
(Q_D) influence greatly
No. of marks | 2 1 0 3 1 2 3
The difference could depend on whether the participants’ ideas were built
into the narrative, or even if they wanted to influence the story or not.
The average point was closer to 7 than 1 with the other two series as well
(4,1 for The Children and 4 for Out of Space). What is interesting is that all
participants of The Tribe marked ‘yes’ to the question asking them if they
would be happy to participate in a similar drama lesson at some other time.
This means that influencing the narrative and enjoying the lesson do not
necessarily correlate. Interestingly, the comparison of the lesson plans and
the reflective diary shows that there was the least deviation from the plan
in the case of The Tribe which means that I changed parts of the lesson on
the spot much more in the case of the other two series, where participants felt
they influenced the story less, even though more changes were made there to
incorporate their ideas and positions.
Another aspect of this issue is related to the logic of the narrative.
The constraints built into the story create expectations or desires in the
participants. The constraint of not having access to one side of the island
worked in this way.
I really enjoyed the lessons, because I started thinking what it would be like to be
on the island. And thought I would go to the other side and really research the tribe
and maybe find out that they are not undeveloped at all. But there wasn’t a chance
to play that. But then when this young Kalaf called us to the rock I was feeling that
you are reading my mind.”
677 F D3.
+ 184 +