In this episode Erika Piazzoli and Fiona Dalziel, who are university teachers and drama in education researchers in Ireland and Italy, respectively, speak about the Sorgente project. Their joint research project focussed on performative language teaching and learning with several groups of migrants and asylum seekers. In this interview, Erika and Fiona talk for example about:
who was involved in this project that took part in Dublin and Padova and included practitioners and researchers from several countries, focusing on various art forms, including drama, music and visual artshow the project came about, who the learners were and how the pandemic put it on hold for 18 monthshow the pandemic influenced the field work when the drama-based work could finally take placethe three research topics and questions: motivation to belong, embodied research methods, ethical imaginationseveral examples of arts-based teaching and learning, such as:working with language portraits as jumping-off pointsthe process drama on the myth of the Simurgh, how it relates to the theme of migration and how the teachers approached sensitive questions raised by the storyworking with zineshow the researchers documented the work and gathered research dataethical guidelines and practices in the project, such as aesthetic distancing, trauma-informed practice and brave spaceswhat brave spaces arethe research report and the bookhow the 9 research themes of the project are summarized by a „data poem“https://erikapiazzoli.com/sorgente/Piazzoli, E., Brown, A., Dalziel, F., Jacobs, L., Scally, G., Stewart, M. (2023). Sorgente Research Report: The Irish Case Studies. School of Education, Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin. https://doi.org/10.25546/103910Piazzoli, E. & Dalziel, F. (Eds.). Performative language learning with refugees and migrants: Embodied research and practice in the Sorgente project. Routledge.Arao, B., & Clemens, K. (2013). From safe spaces to brave spaces: A new way to frame dialogue around diversity and social justice. In L. Landreman (Ed.), The art of effective facilitation: Reflections from social justice educators (pp. 135–150). Stylus. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003447580