Using Interactive Theater As a Methodology to Advocate for Racial Equity and Social Action in Child Welfare

Background/Purpose: Interactive theater techniques have been used to promote social change. Influenced by critical theory and pedagogy frameworks, Augusto Boal introduced a form of interactive theater, Theater of the Oppressed (Boal, 1979), to engage audiences as both spectators and actors to actively problem solve systemic oppressions in their community. Boal’s approach encouraged audiences to “freeze� or stop a scene to collaboratively discuss and re-create it with alternative critically conscious actions. Presently, interactive theater techniques are used for innovative professional development (Burgoyne et al, 2008; Skye et al., 2014), conflict resolution (Meng & Sullivan, 2011), bystander interventions (Yoshihama & Tolman, 2014), and social action (Fox & Leeder, 2018). Previous studies with university faculty members and students, medical students, and community members showed that participation in interactive theater scenarios helped participants practice difficult conversations and form dialogue around complex issues in safe learning environments.

The child welfare (CW) system disproportionately over-represents and harms Black and Brown families. Members of the CW system (e.g., case workers, social workers, mandated reporters, etc.) are often at the center of perpetuating systemic racism through over surveillance and over reporting resulting in adverse outcomes for CW involved families. Although efforts are made to advocate and support families by adopting anti-racist approaches in CW, members in CW are often unsure how to disrupt problematic situations and conversations. Collaborators from a non-profit organization and academic researchers in social welfare, partnered with a playwright and professor at a Midwestern university to write, produce, and perform a series of short acts that depict the nuanced ways systemic racism impacts CW involved families. Using Boal’s approach, these short acts were performed at an event with members of CW to help them identify the presence of systemic racism and ways to disrupt them to promote racial equity in CW.

Format & Content: The roundtable session will begin a dialogue about the disproportionalities and disparities experienced by Black and Brown families and youth in CW, and the nuanced ways systemic racism and inequities are perpetuated, often implicitly, by those in and around the CW system. Presenters will focus on action steps and practices to interrupt and disrupt systemic racism to identify ways to better support Black and Brown families and youth to mitigate the inequities they may experience. Other presenters will discuss innovative ways, such as interactive theater methods, to engage members of the CW system in difficult dialogues to better understand how they can make alternative decisions to decrease the harm families and youth experience. Finally, presenters will show examples of scenes previously performed and the ways in which other CW members engaged in conversations to identify ways to decrease their impact of maintaining systemic inequities. Attendees will have an opportunity to discuss areas of systemic racism they observed and ways they would interrupt the scenes for better outcomes.

Roundtable Goal: Our goal is to stimulate conversation that will promote shared understanding in ways to critically address systemic racism and structural barriers and effectively promote racial equity and social action in CW.