Las Comadres : Rendering Research as Performative

Abstract

As a method for placing Latina college students at the center of research, authors present a dramatic, or performative, text illuminating participants’ life stories. The dramatic text serves as a fictional event bringing to light how five Latina students view their ethnic identities and educational values based on messages from family and peers. Data collection methods incorporated individual interviews, a culturally responsive focus group, and photo artifacts. The authors convey dialogue among script characters by using a combination of direct participant quotes from data transcripts and fictitious exchanges created by the authors to convey a performance dialogue. Authors briefly present the background of performative research text, discuss representing research through dramatic text, and review data collection procedures for this specific study. Finally, the authors detail the process used in constructing Las Comadres as a dramatic text, advancing ideas for dramatic text writers, and providing reflections on the playwriting experience.