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EVALUATION

Evaluation of the Ely Intergenerational Theatre Project

Dr. Susan Lyle, Swansea Institute of Higher Education

David Hendley, University of Wales, Swansea.

Introduction

In July 2000 members of the Healthy, Wealthy and Wise project for the over 50’s, together with pupils from Glyn Derw Comprehensive School, gave 13 performances of Generation X, a community play for the primary schools of Ely. This report is the result of an evaluation of the theatre project.

 

Background

Over the last thirty years there has been a movement to use theatre as an educative medium for social change and development. The aim is to help those involved explore the living conditions in their own communities for the purpose of improving them. Theatre is regarded as valuable at a time of rising social violence and instability because it allows participants to explore conflict in their community without confrontation. It therefore seemed a particularly appropriate tool for Ely following the 1991 riots.

Interested in the view that puppetry can provide a safe vehicle for exploring conflict, John Winslade, the director of Healthy, Wealthy and Wise, employed a puppet theatre group to bring together pupils from a local comprehensive school to work with the over-50s on an intergenerational performance project. A key purpose of the project has been to explore the perceptions each group has of the other. The first two projects in 1995 and 1997 demonstrated the power of theatre, in particular puppetry, to engage the two target groups in debate and discussion. The first two projects identified apprehension and fear of youth by many of the older people of Ely. Young people clearly held many ageist assumptions and prejudices about older men and women. The project aimed to confront these prejudices and encourage older and younger people to communicate with each other to better understand each other through the medium of puppetry and performance.

In 2000, the third phase of the project began with workshop sessions using puppets and role-play to help participants explore differences between them and incorporate their ideas into performance in the form of a play that would bring the issues to wider audiences. The play incorporated actors, life-size puppets and shadow puppetry and was performed in and for the community of Ely by members of that community. This year the sponsors of the third project decided to commission an independent evaluation of the work that is reported here.

 

Data Collection

Data was collected from all the participants in the project using a variety of research tools as follows:

1) Video recordings were made of all the interactions between Small World Theatre and participants in the project. These provided evidence of the methodology of Participatory Theatre Research.

2) Interviews were carried out with participants. These were recorded using audio and/or video recordings. Interviews were carried out with the following:

Interviews were semi-structured, but each one took cues from the interviewees to follow up their specific responses along lines particularly relevant to them. Interviews were quite lengthy; we wanted the interviewees to enjoy the process of being interviewed and to give them some control over the process so they could represent their perspectives more fully. The group nature of the interviews reflect our view that knowledge is constructed and that interviews would be more authentic if participants could draw on each other’s views, opinions and memories of the process.

3) Data was collected from four of the eight primary schools that watched the play. The purpose was to gather evidence of the children’s perceptions of the over-50s and gangs in Ely before seeing the play. After the play we collected further data, which enabled us to judge the impact the play had had on its audiences. Different kinds of data were collected. Before the play children were asked to:

After the play:

 

Findings

 

Overview of the Report

The report is divided into three parts. Part 1 begins with a descriptive account of Participatory Theatre Research and the claims made for the approach it uses. The impact of the project on participants is described. Evidence is drawn from interviews with Small World Theatre, the actors and head teacher of Glyn Derw. In part 2 we present the perceptions of primary school children towards the elderly and gangs in Ely before they saw the play. In part 3 we report on the impact the play had on the primary school audience. Finally, the report is drawn to a conclusion.

 

Part 1 Participatory Theatre Research

 

Healthy, Wealthy and Wise have employed the same theatre company to direct the intergenerational theatre projects. Small World Theatre has a specific way of working which they call Participatory Theatre Research. Participatory approaches are commonly used in community settings because they provide a way of listening to the voices of a community with the express intention of empowering that community. In this evaluation we have attempted to find out the impact of a participatory performance on the participants and on the target audience for the play.

Interviews with Ann and Bill of Small World Theatre provide an insight into the aims and objectives of this way of working. Bill told us:

By using theatre you can compress time, mix it with action and feeling and make it accessible to all. The participants can act out life experiences. Participatory theatre does not normally use professional actors; people from the community represent their own experiences. The power of the resulting play is often much greater than using a professional actor to portray these experiences. Participants are of the audience and speak to that audience and they are affected by it.

This type of work is often done in communities that are facing problems, who lack self-confidence. A key aspect of projects like this is providing someone to listen to, validate and care about their lives. The purpose of such work is to empower participants to believe they can do something, and in the process increase self-esteem and confidence.

In Ely, historical and environmental pressures are telling young people that they can’t take part; the creative medium tells them their voices are worth listening to. The play raises important issues for the whole community to consider.

One of the tenets of this way of working is the creation of a space where open dialogue can take place. A key role for the theatre group is to engage in dialogue with participants about their community and help them identify issues they wish to explore.

The process of building and managing the groups and assisting with the development of the relationships was of paramount importance to the success of the project. Small World Theatre began the process of creating a dialogue between themselves and the participants through workshops using puppets. They kept a video diary of all sessions. These recordings and later interviews with participants show that all participants felt their voices were heard and listened to. The play was constructed around an agreed theme that came out of the initial discussions with the different age groups, both separately and together. The issues involved were both sensitive and complex and all involved felt the final performance gave an insight into the character of the community of Ely today and in the past.

The participatory workshops enabled issues that were important to the different generations to be raised. Their ideas were clarified through drama and role-play incorporating two life-size puppets representing an older person and a teenager. In this way the play became a window into aspects of the lives of its authors. The content reflected the everyday realities of the participants and the lived experiences of the people of Ely. Evidence to support this comes from the primary school audiences for the play. The evaluative process found clear evidence that the children recognised the Ely that was portrayed and were keen to enter into dialogue with each other about the implications of the message of the play for their community.

Those involved learnt in a manner different from that which is customary in formal education. The young people involved in this play went through a long process of creating, rehearsing and performing over a period of several months. During this time Small World Theatre created a programme to help the young people develop. At each session the pupils had to organise their thoughts in order to analyse the process as it was developing and collaborate with others to achieve a common goal.

The evidence from the video diaries suggests that the workshops did provide the teenagers with an educational experience that has helped prepare them for real-world problem solving. The process made extensive use of role-playing to help the pupils develop characters and scenes for the final production. Role-play gave the young people the freedom to create a play about a topic they had identified which was relevant to their lives. Similarly, the workshop sessions with the older people using the puppets provoked intense emotional responses revealing the fears and apprehension of youth held by the over 50s.

The workshop sessions were held separately with the older and younger people so that when they came together they ready to work together on the planned performance. All aspects of the play, plot, setting, characters and resolution were planned both together and separately over a period of several months. Lines and actions were improvised as the play developed; characters and scripts evolved over time. Scenes were re-enacted to incorporate suggestions for improvement. Participants discussed how to plan the setting and set the stage for action. All took part in critical discussion about what worked and what could be improved. The process was assisted by the use of puppets and masks that enabled the participants to adopt different personas and to experiment with a range of emotional responses to the developing characters.

The process, although carefully planned and structured was not straightforward. Small World Theatre had to work very hard to secure the children’s involvement. They were clearly not used to being asked for their views and the self-discipline required was not present for much of the time. Awareness of this came from the children themselves. In interviews all of them acknowledged the difficulties: ‘they wouldn’t listen to Ann’, ‘the boys were always messing around’ (interview with girls); ‘some of the girls were showing off’ (interview with boys). When asked what Ann and Bill could have done differently the children all said ‘be stricter’. This reflects their experience of school discipline and does not fit with the philosophy of participatory approaches. Nevertheless, the patience of Ann and Bill and their faith in the efficacy of the participatory approach paid off in the end and interviews with the teenagers did provide evidence to support the value of this way of working:

We’ve learnt a lot about how to put things together. You film a little bit and then practice and changed scripts and everything.

We designed the set and everything.

We’ve learnt to be a team.

Through the play the participants readily took the chance to use performance to educate the younger children in their own community. This is reflected in the content of the play, which portrays the problems faced by both young and old in Ely because of the behaviour of gangs. The characters in the play model desired behaviour between siblings, families and different generations as participants put forward their ideas for solving the problems. The message of the play was specific and reflected the views of the participants. By incorporating life-size and shadow puppets and work with masks, the participants drew on the puppetry and performance skills they had developed during the workshop process. Interviews with the young actors revealed their confidence about the messages of the play getting through to the target audience of primary school children as the young actors revealed:

Yeah if like before we did the play and they think blah, blah, blah is right, so when after the play they’d know what was right and what was wrong. Like trashing the chip shop was wrong. They knew that because of the way we set it out.

The play was funny, but it was really serious as well.

It is clear the teenagers have learnt how to use theatre to challenge the behaviour of gangs in Ely. That they believe the message they have for younger children will change behaviour demonstrates the empowering potential of participatory theatre.

Impact on the participants

Drama has long been recognised as a powerful tool for developing a range of skills relevant to life-long learning. The mental, physical and technical disciplines required to succeed on stage are also needed to succeed in life. Interviews with the pupils in Glyn Derw Comprehensive School supports this view. All the young people report increased confidence and the development of a wide range of skills. Most commonly mentioned were communication skills and the ability to work cooperatively with others of different ages and experiences. Lasting friendships between pupils has been one outcome of the play, and between the teenagers and the over-50s. Pupils also discussed how the play had changed their attitudes. All of them reported a greater respect for the over-50s and abhorrence for the ill treatment of them by others in Ely. General attitudes also seem to have changed, children said they had, ‘stopped being lazy’, the play, ‘energised me’, helped me, ‘take responsibility’. Support for this came from the Head Teacher of the children’s school; he saw the play as a remarkable achievement in the time available and the ‘disparate’ group of children involved. Some of the children have learning difficulties and come from different year groups in the school; they did not form a natural group, but for the purpose of the play, ‘they were all ready to muck in’. For one child, the head believed ‘this theatre project has given him a context and a content’. Commenting on his performance in the play he said that at one point, ‘he had the audience in his hands’. The head, convinced by the value of theatre work has instigated a new after-school drama club to be run by a professional theatre company:

‘… because of the experience we’ve had of Small World, we think drama is an important outlet to develop speaking and listening, because in this school youngsters find it very difficult to hold a sustained conversation’.

Support for the benefit of the process for the children also came from the over-50s. Reflecting on what they felt the children had got from the experience they agreed they had gained confidence and improved self-esteem. This was discussed with direct reference to the process of making the play, ‘when their ideas were translated into parts of the script they began to take an interest and began to see that their performance was of value’.

All of the children had faith in the play’s ability to affect the audience. They believed the play would ‘stop people being bad’, help children, ‘respect their elders’, teach them, ‘not to get involved in gangs’, or ‘do things they shouldn’t be doing’. It is interesting to consider what impact the play did have on the audience, perhaps not the exact one the children had anticipated, but nevertheless a powerful impact as demonstrated later in this evaluation.

The children were also aware of the effect their behaviour had on others. They knew that the over-50s had found them difficult to cope with, ‘especially at first’. They believed that as a group they should have ‘shown more respect for Ann and Bill’, but they also felt they should have ‘been stricter’ and ‘been there more often’.

Interviews with the three members of the over-50s cast revealed that they found the children very demanding. There had originally been four members in the cast but the fourth dropped out, she was ‘a bit overwhelmed by the children’. The difficulty of working with the children was a recurring theme during the interviews. The over-50s found their lack of concentration and discipline very wearing and this made it difficult for them to focus themselves. ‘… they (the children) made you feel very, very tired’. (It should be remembered that two of the cast were in their 80’s.) Right up until the dress rehearsal they feared the play would not go on. The reason they stuck with it was out of a sense of loyalty to Ann and Bill and a commitment to the children. It was important that the children had ‘good role models’, could see the importance of ‘seeing things through’. They blamed the lack of self-discipline on the children’s ‘special needs’, particularly ‘behaviour problems’, and their ‘home backgrounds’. They saw themselves in the role of surrogate grandparents for the children, ‘They don’t have many grandparents around if their parents are not in stable relationships’.

Over the period of the play their attitudes towards the children changed as they got to know them as individuals:

…they were very, very, sweet to us.

Yes. Get two or three together and they were great kids.

I talked to them one-to-one … they talked really sensible.

The over-50s believed the children benefited from their discussions, ‘I think they quite enjoyed the way we talked to them and listened to them’; ’ I think they are looking for someone to confide in — to ask questions about things in their life’. This was reflected in the way the children addressed the elderly, ‘I was Nan, she called me Nan’, and they also acknowledged how they had benefited too, ‘I quite enjoyed their company really’. The over-50s were struck by the kindness shown to them by some of the children; one was given a gift on her birthday from one of the boys, another recalls, ‘And the boys, they’d come up and take your arm, tuck you in and walk us in… Amazing.’

Overall the over-50s learnt a lot, ‘I think that it’s taught us that kids can come across in the end with something worthwhile’; and, ‘if you look for something good in kids it’ll come up’. They acknowledged the quality of the relationships, which developed between them and the children, ‘we’ve got a terrific rapport between the children … K and B told me they know where I live and they are going to come and visit me’. They also recognised the importance of supporting the children, ‘We need to encourage them to believe in themselves. They must believe that they can change the world and that will encourage other people.’

The teenagers also acknowledge how the elderly had helped them, ‘they calmed us down a lot’, ‘told us not to be nervous’. They recognised how their behaviour had impacted on the over-50s, ‘They don’t really show it but when we did the play it shows that they hate kids mucking about and stuff’. Their attitudes toward the over-50s clearly changed as they got to know them, ‘they can be fun’; ‘we learnt a lot about Ely in the past from them and how it’s changed’. This aspect of the play was represented by shadow puppets operated by the pupils and narrated by the character of ‘old gripper’. The pupils made the puppets and jointly planned the presentation to support the monologue scripted the older people. In the process they gained a range of skills and self-discipline.

The interviews show that the participatory process facilitated the development of positive relationships between the two groups. This was of paramount importance to the success of the project. There was clear evidence of mutual respect and a sense of achievement from the older and younger people teenagers alike.

 

 

Part 2 Perceptions of primary school children before the play

We worked with children in years 4 and 5 (ages 8-10) in three primary schools in Ely. We wished to find out a number of things. Firstly we wished to know what pupil attitudes to the elderly were before they saw the play. Secondly, we wanted to know what the children's understanding was of gangs in Ely.

Children’s perceptions of the elderly.

Schools A and B

Teachers in years 4 and 5 asked the children in their classes to draw a picture of an elderly person and indicate by appearance the person’s gender. They were also asked to write something they thought an old person might say into a speech bubble. The pictures were collated and analysed.

Analysis by gender

There are almost equal numbers of pictures of men (103) and women (106). We then looked to see whether or not the children had drawn an elderly person the same sex as themselves. Twice as many boys drew pictures of men, and twice as many girls drew pictures of women, suggesting that children of this age identify more strongly with elderly people of the same sex. Nevertheless, a significant number of boys (18%) and girls (15%) drew pictures of the opposite sex. This may reflect their experience of the elderly in their lives.

Analysis by topic

We examined the speech bubbles and derived categories to enable us to collate the children’s ideas. These categories reflect the statements of pupils in two Ely schools about elderly people. Fourteen statements didn’t fit into any of the categories. The categories are as follows:

Category 1 Positive statements (60 statements)
e.g. ‘Hallo, I’m Beryl’
  ‘Would you like a cup of tea?’
  ‘I always feel happy when my niece Cerys comes’.
   
Category 2 Negative statements (25)
e.g. ‘I feel very lonely because I’m by myself’
  ‘I’m getting too old for this’
  ‘It’s not fair, I’ve got no money’.
   
Category 3 Health statements (44 statements)
e.g. ‘Oh my goodness. I can’t walk’.
  ‘Oh, my back hurts?’
  ‘Where’s my teeth?’
   
Category 4 Lifestyle statements (38 statements)
e.g. ‘Where’s my walking stick?’
  ‘Please can you pass me my slippers?’
  ‘I’m going down the shop’.
   
Category 5 Moaning about young people statements (33 statements)
e.g. ‘Get that football out of my garden.’
  ‘Watch where you are going you idiot!’
  ‘Stop smashing the window. I’m phoning the police.’

School C

Further support for our identification of these categories comes from School C. In this school pupils were put into groups of four that were mixed gender and brainstormed on the theme of ‘old people’. Analysis revealed the same categories as follows:

Category

Number

Health

14

Positive

15

Negative

14

Complaining about young people

11

Gender differences

We further collated the statements on the drawing according to gender. This again was interesting. On drawings of men the speech bubbles produced by boys concerning health was 14 against 9 speech bubbles from girls. On drawings of females, the speech bubbles produced by girls concerning health was 15 against 9 speech bubbles from boys. This suggests that in matters of health, the pupils are more concerned with the same sex as themselves.

Examination of the positive statements revealed that boys had more positive statements on drawings of men (11: 7), and girls had more positive statements on drawings of women (18: 12). This suggests the children have more positive experiences with elderly people of the same sex as themselves. This is supported by an examination of the negative statements, they indicate that boys expect more negativity from men than women, and girls expect more negativity from women than men (See below).

Category

Boys

Girls

Non-identified

Health

14

9

1

Lifestyle

11

5

0

Positive

11

7

1

Negative about young people

12

4

2

Negative

11

5

1

Drawings identified as male.

 

Category

Boys

Girls

Non-identified

Health

9

15

1

Lifestyle

4

7

1

Positive

12

18

3

Negative about young people

5

9

0

Negative

6

6

0

Drawings identified as female.

 

Overall the picture of the over-50s emerging from the children’s drawings and speech bubbles is a mixed one. The children see older people as preoccupied with their health and the minutiae of everyday life. They expect them to moan about life in general as reflected in the negative speech bubbles, and about young people in particular. The speech bubbles reveal that children do indulge in the kind of behaviour that upsets and annoys the over-50s (see examples from category 5). However, this is not the whole picture. Positive statements reflect the pleasure older people get from their families when they visit regularly, and the kindness they show to others.

This mirrors the kind of perceptions revealed in the earlier project in 1997, when perceptions of the elderly was researched using poetry writing as a strategy to elict children’s ideas. The poems from 1997 and the annotated drawings from 2000 expose a narrow perception of what the lives of older people may be like.

Children’s perceptions of gangs in Ely

In schools A, B and C, children from years 4 and 5 were put into groups of four and given a large sheet of paper and pens. They were asked to brainstorm whatever came into their heads when they thought about gangs in Ely. The responses from the pupils were examined and categories were generated. The table below shows the number of instances for each of the categories as follows:

 

Category

Number

Violence

128

Bullying

51

Stealing

48

Substance abuse

42

Activities to do with cars

47

Examples of the most commonly occurring examples for each category are illustrated below:

Category 1 Violence
e.g. set things on fire (17 citings)
  fights (18 citings)
  vandalism (14 citings)
   
Category 2 Bullying
e.g. calling names (19 citings)
  attacking people (17 citings)
   
Category 3 Stealing
e.g. Robbing houses (13 citings)
  Stealing (14 citings)
  Robbing people (7 citings)
   
Category 4 Substance abuse
e.g. Take drugs (15 citings)
  Smoke (14 citings)
  Drink alcohol (8 citings)
   
Category 5 Vehicles
e.g. Stealing cars (13 citings)
  Driving dangerously 12 citings)
  Joyriding (12 citings)
   
Category 6 Unsociable behaviour
e.g. Graffiti (10 citings)
  Swear (8 citings)
  Play loud music (5 citings)

In addition the children used lots of words to describe the kind of people who were in gangs, they are ‘cowards’, ‘dangerous’, ‘liars’ and ‘in trouble with the police’. Other descriptions of behaviour expected from gangs included ‘watch horror movies’, ‘cause trouble’, ‘don’t go to school’. People in gangs, ‘blame others’, are ‘selfish’, ‘cause arguments’ and ‘look for trouble’. There was only one remark that could be interpreted as positive: gangs wear ‘cool clothes’.

Personal experience of gangs by children

Many of the children recorded personal experiences of gangs in Ely. These included experiences of stealing, ‘my dad’s car got nicked’, ‘they tried to take my bike off me’, ‘a gang slashed my nan’s tyres’; of violence, both to themselves and their family or people they knew: ‘my best friend got raped by a gang of girls’, ‘they stop me going out’, ‘me and Michelle were threatened’, ‘10 year old boys did naughty things to my 6 year old cousin’. Children had advice for people to follow: ‘don’t walk alone’, ‘lock your doors’, ‘don’t let little kids out at night’, ‘run away’.

Some of the children were clearly involved in gangs or had family members who were in gangs. — ‘my brother’s got 20 people in his gang’, ‘all my brother and sisters are in gangs’, ‘I’m in a gang — we bully people’. Gangs could be boy gangs, girl gangs or mixed. Children seemed to feel there was little that could be done to stop gangs, ‘no way we can stop gangs’, except through violence, ‘stop gangs by beating the hell out of them’. There was a general feeling that ‘gangs are getting worse’. Two groups of children simply compiled lists of names of gangs in Ely including individual members indicating that children are well aware of who is involved.

These findings indicate that the children in Ely have a great deal of knowledge of gangs and their behaviour and clear attitudes towards them and ideas about how to respond to them.

Over-50s perceptions of their lives

Small World Theatre spent time working with elderly people involved with the Healthy, Wealthy and Wise project in Ely. The use of a teenage puppet provoked intense reactions from the older people and enabled them to vent their anger and frustration towards youth without actual confrontation. The puppet proved to be a very powerful tool to access deeply felt concerns and anxieties. Concerns expressed by the over-50s were discussed and formulated into four topics. The topics were as follows

  1. Pension increase has not kept pace with council increases.
  2. Access to health care.
  3. Disrespect to others and fear from youngsters, vandalism and criminal damage.
  4. Bus service needed improvement.

Voting for which of these topics were the ones they were most concerned about was as follows: 1) 28; 2) 27; 3) 30; 4) 23. It is interesting to note that the key things young people regard as issues for the elderly were health and problems from young people, many of the negative statements also reflected concern about poverty. This study seems to suggest that the young have a realistic understanding of the concerns of the elderly.

 

Part 3 Pupil perceptions following Generation X

After the children had seen the play the class teachers were asked to find out whether or not the children’s perceptions of the elderly or gangs in Ely had changed. Different schools and teachers in the schools approached this in different ways. Data was also collected from four classes by the evaluators. These classes took part in a community of inquiry that is discussed later.

Data collected by teachers

In this section the data collected by teachers is considered. One teacher asked the class to work in groups to brainstorm their views after the play was over. Two classes were asked to compare the thoughts they had had about elderly people and gangs before the play with those they had after the play. The results of these two approaches were analysed and put together. The majority of statements made concerned the elderly, 86 altogether, and only 12 statements concerned gangs. Of the ‘gang’ statements, five were concerned that young people should not be involved with gangs and offered advice, for example, ‘don’t do anything bad if your friends tell you it is fun’. Seven statements made comments about gangs, for example, ‘push off bad people’, ‘gangs rule the town’. However, the majority of statements were about the elderly, and are summarised below:

There were 22 statements about not hurting the elderly for example, ‘stop picking on the elderly’, and 38 statements about treating the elderly well, summed up by one statement ‘help old people’. In the brainstorming sessions before the play none of the children had given any indication that they wanted to help the elderly, or that they were aware of how the elderly were treated by gangs. Some categories generated before the play did reappear, for example health, there were 12 statements on health after the play that compared to 44 beforehand. There were 7 positive statements about the elderly after the play compared with 60 beforehand and 7 negative statements afterwards compared with 25 beforehand.

If we add to this an analysis of the 121 questions generated by children who took part in a community of inquiry we find that 15 of these questions were concerned with why the elderly were treated badly by gangs. However, more significantly, the question chosen for discussion in three of the four classes focused on asking why young people treat the elderly badly thus indicating that the majority of children found this issue important.

An analysis of the different ways in which the three schools and 8 teachers considered the impact of the play produced some interesting results. All classes, regardless of the method used to generate their response were primarily concerned with the way in which gangs in Ely treat the over-50s. This was clearly a strong message of the play as reflected in the chip shop scene where an elderly man is accosted by youths. The children’s response to the play shows that this had a big impact on them. In the one class where children were asked to evaluate the play, the chip shop scene and the way the elderly were treated in that scene generated 13 statements.

Before the play the children were able to generate a lot of images about both the elderly and gangs in Ely, and there is some evidence to suggest they were aware that the elderly, as well as themselves were victims of gang behaviour. However, there was little evidence to support the view that the children were aware that gangs targeted the over-50s. Their statements evoke careless and thoughtless behaviour rather than deliberate and callous behaviour.

The children had clear ideas about gang behaviour which probably reflected their own experiences of gangs, and as the categories suggest, the stereotypical activities of gangs, for example violence, stealing and unsociable behaviour. There were no examples of children linking gang behaviour specifically to the elderly.

After the play, there is considerable evidence to suggest that children had gained a greater understanding of how gang behaviour manifests itself towards the over-50s. In fact, the evidence suggests this aspect of the play had the greatest impact on the children and clearly shocked them. It is important to remember that the content of the play was generated out of the actual experiences of the over-50s who are part of the Healthy, Wealthy and Wise project.

That the children felt concerned about the over-50s comes through in their written responses, they tend either to see them as vulnerable and in need of protection, or to want action to help them. The play clearly enabled the children to hear their voices, in particular through the character of ‘old gripper’, which caused them to reflect on appropriate responses. The children were puzzled by the behaviour of the gangs as depicted in the play. This comes through most clearly in the community of inquiry where the children discuss the issue that both surprised and puzzled them.

Another class was asked to compare the thoughts they had had about elderly people before the play with those they had after the play. It is worth quoting from some of these, which are typical of the kind of comments the class made:

I thought they can’t do much, but now I know they can do some things.

I thought earlier that they don’t get hurt much, but they do.

I thought that old people are not much fun, but they are.

I thought old people don’t have many feelings, but they do.

I thought they wasn’t (sic) very friendly, but they are.

I now know that they are quite fit.

Old people are happy.

They are funny, they make people laugh.

We thought they were hopeless and can’t walk, but they can.

It is clear that the play challenged children’s stereotyped views of the over-50s

Comments about the play

One school asked children to evaluate the play. All the children enjoyed the play; it was ‘brilliant’, ‘excellent’, ‘very good’ and ‘good’. Eight children thought the play was funny. The children made positive comments about the actors, the puppet character, Frank got the most mention with 9 comments. The ‘comfy chair’ made a big impression on the children, 15 mentions were made, all positive, although one child was ‘scared’. Comments were also made about specific scenes with the chip shop scene the clear favourite. Children were very interested in the idea of old and young acting together which stimulated 13 comments, all of which were positive. Three children commented that the play was ‘educational’, or about ‘morals’.

Community of Inquiry

A more in-depth study of children’s responses to the play took place in four classes in two schools and was carried out by the evaluators. This particular way of evaluating was chosen because of its participatory approach. The purpose of a Community of Inquiry (COI) is for the children themselves to select a topic for discussion, and for them to direct the process of inquiry.

Preparation for a Community of Inquiry — the classroom process.

Each of the classes in which recordings took place followed exactly the same process to prepare for the discussion. The first task is to help the children generate a question for discussion.

Stage 1 Generating questions

Following the performance the children were given individual thinking time to formulate a question which they thought would be interesting for the class to discuss. Next they were asked to work with a partner to share their questions and between them agree on one question that they would like to discuss with the whole class. They were told the question should be problematic in some way. The children were then put in groups of four to consider their questions and asked to agree on one question between them to present to the whole class.

Stage 2 Choosing a question

Each group’s agreed question was written on the board with the names of the children in brackets after the question. When all the questions were written up each one was read out loud, one at a time. The other groups have the opportunity to ask questions to help clarify the meaning of each of the questions. After the questions are aired thoroughly the children are invited to choose which question to discuss. The question is chosen democratically by a ‘hands up’ vote with all eyes shut to make sure the vote is secret.

The process of arriving at a question for discussion in this way is very important: it gives every child a voice. Once a question for discussion is chosen, the group who formulated the question begin the inquiry. The whole class sit in a circle to ensure everyone can hear and see each other. Dr. Susan Lyle who sat as part of the circle facilitated the discussion. In two of the four classes the class teacher chose to join the circle. In the other two they preferred to act as observers.

Stage 3 The discussion

The children control the direction of the discussion, deciding what to talk about and how. The children were asked to follow simple ground rules to ensure that everyone had the chance to contribute and be heard: only one child was to speak at a time; they should listen carefully and try to genuinely respond to what each other said. It was explained that this should increase the chances of any understanding which they developed being a joint effort. The children were told that the facilitator would not offer her opinions, but merely assist the inquiry by summarising what different children had said, or by clarifying a point.

The questions

An analysis of the questions generated by the four classes who took part in the community of inquiry was undertaken. A total of 121 questions were generated by the children, just over two thirds were to do with the behaviour of gangs. These can be divided as follows:

The behaviour of gangs (86 questions).

These can be divided into the following categories:

Category 1 Substance Abuse - smoking (4); alcohol (4); drugs (7)

Category 2 Violence/fights (range includes 1 question to do with murder, 3 rape).

Category 3 Why gangs treated the elderly badly (15)

Category 4 Bullying (10)

Category 5 Vandalism (11)

Category 6 Stealing (1)

Category 7 Gang behaviour (e.g. swearing — 6; hanging out — 5)

Seven questions asked why people in Ely were not free, for example, What does it mean in Ely not to be free?

Eight questions were about changing things, for example, Do people have a proper heart to stop vandalising the city?

How can we make Ely a safer place to live (for everyone)?

The remaining questions were about the play, for example, What was it like rehearsing the play with older children? What really happens to children in the comfy chair?

The questions asked by the different classes and schools were very similar, with similar numbers of questions asked in each category in each school.

Questions considered for discussion.

The questions put forward for voting in the different classes were as follows:

Questions selected for voting in school A, class A:

  1. Why do they wreck our bus stop?
  2. What is it like to be in the show?
  3. Who do you think is the best character?
  4. Why do you think they are bad boys?
  5. How can young people be so nasty to older people?

Questions selected for voting in school A, class B:

  1. What does it mean in Ely not to be free?
  2. Why do gangs rob elderly people?
  3. What does safe mean?
  4. What is a gang?
  5. What is it like to be a bully?
  6. Why do old people get beaten up by the gangs?

Questions selected for voting in school B, class A:

  1. Why are old people frightened?
  2. Why do kids vandalise?
  3. Why do people frighten kids?
  4. How can teenagers help old people?

Questions selected for voting in school B, class B:

  1. Why can gangs rape people?
  2. Why do people go into gangs?
  3. Why do people get drunk and start to fight?
  4. Why do children swear in front of little children?

The questions chosen for discussion in each of the classes are as follows:

How can young people be so nasty to older people?

Why do old people get beaten up by the gangs?

Why are old people frightened?

Why do children swear in front of little children?

It is interesting that from the range of questions to vote on, that three out of the four questions democratically chosen for discussion focused on the experiences of the elderly in Ely. This suggests that the play had a powerful effect on the children and raised issues they had not considered before seeing the play. Further examination of the questions reveals how puzzled the children are that gangs should pick on the elderly. They are clearly interested in examining the motives of the gangs.

The community of inquiry

All the class teachers felt the children would not be inhibited by a video recorder so it was decided to video the discussions. These were viewed later and transcribed.

The discussions in the different classes provide an insight into the power of theatre to engage children’s interest in the lives and experiences of others in their own community. Once engaged, the process of the COI helped children deepen their understanding as they attended to, interpreted and extended their discussion beyond the play. The play was clearly a successful vehicle for stimulating their interest.

Although the groups began by discussing the experiences of the over-50s they clearly found it difficult to understand why gangs targeted older people. A number of suggestions were offered:

Because old people can’t fight back

They’re not afraid of old people

Want to make fun of them

Young people smash old people’s window ‘cos they know they can’t chase them

They pick on them ‘cos they’re weaker than themselves — they’re cowards’

They do it for fun

Do it to show off

They do it to shows (sic) they’re not chicken

They pick on old (people) because because they’re really cowards trying to look hard.

These comments preceded a discussion about the behaviour of gangs. The children were keen to consider why gangs engage in bullying others. The suggestions indicated in the above dialogue were identified by all four of the classes taking part in the COI. The dominant reasons suggested by the children to explain the behaviour of gangs was the desire to feel powerful and in control; a need to ‘show off’ or to appear ‘cool’.

Children went on to discus how they should respond to bullying by gangs or to the pressure to join gangs. They were very aware of the dilemmas involved. Fear of the gangs was very much on the children’s minds. They did not have much faith in adults to protect them, be it their parents, teachers or the police.

In discussing how the school could respond the children were aware of the possible actions that could be taken. Bullies could be ‘suspended’, ‘expelled’ or punished in some way. However, faith that this would solve problems was not

strong. Similarly, although it was felt that parents have a responsibility to, ‘sort things out’, they were seen as weak in the face of gangs as well:

Tell mum not to tell school or you’ll be beaten up for grassing.

If you stay home a couple of days when you go back to school they bully you more.

It makes it worse

Parents say ‘go and sort it out yourself.

When asked what schools can do the children had some suggestions:

Suspend bullies

Expel them

Tell their parents

Move school

If you move school they can still get to you

If you expel a bully they will go to another school and do it again.

If they’ve bullied they may become a bully.

Bullies who bully were bullied themselves

Sometimes.

However, in one school the children said the school was well organised to stop bullying:

they punish bullies

treat bullying seriously

they don’t get away with it

tell a teacher — they sort it out in school and they help you make friends.

Nevertheless, at least one child was resentful about being expected to make friends:

We have to learn to live together — but not necessarily to like each other.

Asked what they could do themselves, the children put forward various ideas. The suggestion that, ‘you pay the bullies to leave you alone’, was dismissed because ‘bullies take your money and keep on bullying you’. One child revealed that his family had to move house to get away from bullies, another said you should, ‘stand up for yourself and the bully won’t like it’. Another pointed out that, ‘if a bully’s on their own it’s easy — but if they were with friends you couldn’t’. One child suggested, ‘stay at home — don’t go out’. This led to an extended piece of talk:

B: No — could come to your house and make trouble

L: Smash your windows

D: Petrol bombs.

G: Fire arms.

A: Makes it worse to stay in the house - they could all be waiting.

B: Can’t stay in all your life.

E: Run away.

J: That’s not an answer.

L: Try to stay away from them.

Sue: Who can help?

B: If you have friends to protect you.

C: If you help others it brings trouble to yourself.

D: Tell people — it’ll make you feel better and can do something.

A: If you stay home a couple of days when you got back to school they bully you more. It makes it worse.

Speculating on motives for actions was also common involving a wide range of comments. Children revealed there was great pressure to be in a gang, for example peer pressure, ‘(they) just want to fit in with their mates’, or, ‘for protection’. ‘If you’re picked on you get protection’. In a gang you, ‘feel safe’. However, the children also acknowledged the negative consequences of gang membership, it led children to behave in ways that they did not like: ‘there’s pressure to be in a gang and be a bully — you’re afraid to do it, but have to’. Some children said it wasn’t easy to get in a gang and Sue asked them how you got in, ‘set a car on fire — this shows you’re cool and the gang will let you in’; ‘you prove you can be in a gang by stealing’. The responses of the primary school children here mirror the responses found by Ann and Bill with the teenagers during the theatre research phase.

The primary school children were aware of the consequences of joining a gang, ‘if you’re in a bad gang and they get you to light fires and stuff and the police get involved then you have a miserable life.’ The only protection the children felt was possible was to be part of a gang themselves:

If you’re bullied get a group of kids to support you

That would make a gang

If you help others it brings trouble to yourself.

Through the discussions, the children locate the events dramatised in the play in a context that makes sense in terms of their own lives. By extending the narrative into events that have happened in their own lives they examine causes, motives, feelings and consequences. They actively try to make sense of the activities of gangs by drawing on their own experiences of life, both actual and vicarious. In the next extract the children discuss their experiences of being the victims of bullies and gangs:

S: There’s a girl in my street who keeps beating my sister up and she’s only seven. My stepfather goes up her house and she stays away for a day and then does it again. My sister is sad and feels under a lot of stress and anger.

J: It’s not a good start to your life.

Sue: Has your sister got friends?

S: She did have loads of friends but they turned on her the other day.

L: It goes with being a gang.

S: Sometimes I try to help her — my sister, she needs special needs (the child is in the unit for children with learning difficulties.)

This prompted other children to reveal how members of their family have been treated by gangs:

D: My nan’s moving now because she hates her street. She’s a disabled person and it’s so horrible for her and it’s horrible for me ‘cos gangs of people in the street they chuck stones and chuck eggs and everything because she’s a disabled old person.

B then revealed that his nan is disabled:

B: I help my nan out a lot ‘cos she’s disabled as well. I do the cooking for her sometimes.

This came near the end of the COI and Sue told the class they have to finish and says there’s time for one last person to speak. To the teacher’s surprise, R reveals that she is being bullied:

R: I’ve been bullied.

Sue: Did someone help you?

R: shakes head

Sue: Did you cope?

R: My mum went to see the girl

Sue: Did that sort it out?

R: Miss, there was a big gang of them. I got hit by a baseball bat on my legs.

Sue: Has it stopped now?

R: No.

Tracing R’s contribution to the discussion you can see that she has been reflecting on her situation throughout. Her first comment came when the children were discussing why older children pick on smaller ones, R. said ‘they do it for fun’. Later in response to someone who said it’s important to ‘be hard’, she said, ‘If you’re not hard then other people bully you’. This illustrates the power of a COI to help children explore their feelings without actually revealing what is happening in their own lives. The fact that R chose to disclose what had happened to her shows she felt safe to do so. This is particularly interesting as the class teacher told us he was aware of her situation, but she had not wanted the class to know previously. The play clearly provided the stimulus for the children to reflect on issues which impact on their daily lives. A COI treats children’s views seriously and gives them an opportunity to identify and discuss issues, which are important to them in their lives outside school. The transcripts provide evidence of children showing a willingness to help one another by expanding and supporting each other’s ideas, take one another’s ideas seriously, and empathise with their experiences.

The children created understanding of the events depicted in the play by relating it to their personal and vicarious experience. This highlights the importance of the dialectic between the child’s own thinking and her/his immediate social world, which is developed through language and shared concepts. A COI provides a vehicle for this to happen.

The evidence from research of the impact stereotyping can have on the elderly demonstrates the importance of finding ways of challenging negative images. Stereotypes affect their targets, dramatically altering how they feel, their capabilities and even how they act (Adler 2000). Research into the effects of stereotypes of ageing on the aged show that negative stereotypes can significantly affect their physical functioning. Other researchers have demonstrated the importance of weeding out negative stereotypes before they take root in young people’s minds. The evidence from this project and the work in 1997 suggests that intergenerational theatre work of this kind has enormous potential to address this task. As demonstrated here, the stereotyped images of the elderly the primary school children portrayed in their drawings were challenged once they had seen the play. In 1997 the poems written by the young people also revealed stereotypes that were challenged once the two generations met face-to-face (see evaluation 1997). Whilst it is not surprising that personal contact of the kind described here can challenge stereotypes and change perceptions, it is more interesting to find that the vicarious experience of a play can have a similar effect. The findings of this evaluation are similar to those found when audiences of the 1997 production were interviewed by HTV. This has important implications for the efficacy of funding intensive work with small groups if this then leads to a final product that is disseminated to a wider target audience. Then the potential exists to influence large numbers of children and therefore multiply the impact of the work. This has important implications for proper funding for the research process that informs the final outcome.

 

Constraints and Recommendations

Intergenerational work of this kind is ambitious and requires an immense amount of goodwill and cooperation from the individuals, organisations and institutions involved. Some key issues have arisen as a result of this evaluation that need to be considered if similar work is carried out in the future:

 

Conclusions

The evidence reported here provides support for the importance of theatre as ‘social capital’. At an individual level it encourages ‘personal and interpersonal skills … self-transformations … mutual respect that comes from interaction within a group working together for — and achieving — a common goal’ (Williams 2000). When participants have responsibility for and ownership of the performance, its content, the set, costume, and so on, as they did in this project, they have the opportunity to develop a wide range of skills. In the process of producing Generation X the older and younger members of the group were involved in forming the purposes that directed their activities. The influential and problematic features of their lives were the starting point. One of the intended outcomes was a growth in understanding of their own lives and circumstances through the production of a play. It should be remembered that lots of children and older people inputted to the research process during the workshop sessions; those actually in the play were representative of those who had taken part. The meaning-making process was a collaborative process and each individual involved can take credit for the finished product.

The content of the play came out of a workshop process with younger and older people interacting with puppets. The authenticity of the portrayal is supported by the responses of the audiences to the play. The play successfully mediated the experiences common to the children, teenagers and over-50s in Ely. The skilled facilitation of Small World Theatre enabled the participants to use theatre as a medium to portray their lives and the lives of others in their community. It also provided a catalyst for potential change as the participants jointly negotiated solutions in the context of the drama.

The evaluation has clearly shown the positive impact on the development of the individuals who took part. This was achieved because of the interpersonal relationships developed during the process of creating the play and the dynamic nature of theatre to provide motivation and purpose. As the Head of Glyn Derw remarked, schools have the task of transmitting curriculum which has been designed independently of the needs and aspirations of the pupils, learning is conceptualised as the outcome of instruction measured through examinations. In contrast, through Generation X, learning occurred as a function of participation in activities that had real meaning and purpose. The play engaged the participants in productive activities that were personally as well as socially significant. There were no predetermined learning outcomes, outcomes were both aimed for and emergent. The participants knew they were acting as agents of change, confident in the potential of the play to change lives. This was an empowering process, especially for the young people involved.

The evidence gathered during the evaluation suggests that the intergenerational play, Generation X has succeeded in its goal of challenging and even changing the attitudes and perceptions of the young performers and their audience towards the over-50s. This has important implications in the context of recent research which shows that children as young as three or four can describe their culture’s stereotypes, including stereotypes of the elderly. The research process with the over 50’s had also revealed the stereotypes held of the young by the older generation. Through working with the young people these stereotypes were also challenged. What was most significant, however, was the commitment towards the children shown by the older members of the cast. Interviews revealed the concern they had for the future of the youngsters and their feelings of responsibility for them. They were determined to stick with the play through demanding workshop sessions and a punishing performance schedule to provide positive role models for the children.

The play took place in an area that has multiple problems. The government has set targets for schools in areas such as these that include raising standards and reducing truancy. Strategies for achieving the set targets include a plethora of measures ranging from home-school agreements, involving pupils in schools’ councils, supporting literacy development, study support, homework clubs, thinking skills workshops, family support services, mentoring schemes and improved careers guidance. Initiatives for multi-agency approaches including the LEA, youth service, social services and the police are currently planned and in various stages of implementation. Schools are expected to review and revise their policies on such topics as drugs and alcohol, bullying and racial and sexual harassment. The pastoral support programmes are expected to focus on developing successful behaviour management strategies. Considerable resources are being provided to support these initiatives. What is clear from this cursory glance at current initiatives is that all agencies involved with young people are expected to find ways of improving the hopes, expectations and outcomes for those who society at large seem to have forgotten.

The Ely Intergenerational Theatre Project has demonstrated the power of drama to engage young people in a way that motivates and empowers them. Glyn Derw School, convinced by the power of theatre as a tool for pupil development is seeking to provide opportunities for pupils to be involved in drama in their out of school clubs. Evidence from this project suggests that the power of participatory theatre to engage young people in work for their community is too important to be merely added on as an optional extra. If places such as Ely are to be transformed, then the community has to be empowered to work for change. This intergenerational project provided people who were able to listen, to validate and care about the lives of the young people involved. The experience provided hope to the young that they could do something, whilst at the same time raising their self-esteem and confidence that they have a valuable part to play in the life of their community. The impact of the play on its young audiences supports the confidence of the young people themselves that their message would change hearts and minds; this demonstrates the power of the participatory process that listens to the voice of the community and then reflects back their concerns and desires for change. As Bill from Small World Theatre pointed out, historical and environmental pressures are telling young people that they can’t take part, the creative medium tells them their voices are worth listening to. This message deserves to be spread to the wider community of Ely and has lessons for all concerned with the future of our inner cities

December 2000

 

References

Adler, R. (2000) Stereotypes can profoundly affect your behaviour and performance. New Scientist 30th September. Pp. 39-41.

Williams, J. (2000) Personal correspondence.

 

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