A mixed-method case study of Readers’ Theatre with African immigrant and refugee students

ABSTRACT

Readers' Theatre, a drama-based literacy intervention, has been studied for its academic benefit with the socio-emotional impacts largely neglected. In the current study, the Principal Investigator partnered with a summer Readers' Theatre intervention for public middle school students. Following, students completed a self-concept measure and participated in an interview on the experience. This study presents results of the first-and-second-generation African immigrant and refugee participants. Three themes from the interviews are explored: (1) culturally based-arts experiences and intervention buy-in, (2) emphasis on perceived achievement, and (3) the relationship of self-reported impact on middle school readiness, reading attitudes, and sense of ensemble.

KEYWORDS:

• Literacy
• Readers’ Theatre
• immigrant and refugee students
• middle schoolers

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Tennessee’s Office of Undergraduate Research and Fellowships under the 2021 Summer Undergraduate Research Internship Fellowships; and the University of Tennessee’s Haslam Scholar’s Program under the Scholar Research Stipend.