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Title
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Making the Stumble Part of the Dance: Using Improvisational Gameplay to Empower Year 8 Girls to Courageously Collaborate in a Social Entrepreneurial Program
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Author
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Samanda Sankowsky (2024)
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Year Published
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2024
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Description
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This action research project explored how 13 to 14 year-old girls engaged in improvisational gameplay activities to empower them to courageously collaborate in a social entrepreneurial program. The research was conducted with a group of 17 Year 8 students at an all-girls independent school in Perth, Western Australia. The project examined how in social entrepreneurial teams of four to five, girls participated in one 5-10-minute improvisational gameplay warm up each lesson that didactically explored and developed a “toolkit” of fundamental collaborative skills and processes. The research tracked the effectiveness of this toolkit when girls applied it to their collaborative social entrepreneurial project as their group pitched, designed, manufactured, and sold a market product that advocated for a local charity in support of a United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG). Both qualitative and quantitative data including questionnaires, rating scales, interviews, observations, and student reflections were collected as the girls participated in and reflected upon the process over a 10-week period. The results indicate that the girls exhibited a greater sense of joy towards collaboration, and this allowed them to develop not only a better understanding of the skills associated with social entrepreneurship but inspired them to strive for personal growth in this role. The girls were taking collaborative risks more frequently with their peers and expressed that they were better equipped with the tools to embrace mistakes and transform them into innovative possibilities or solutions. All in all, throughout the development and application of their improvisational toolkit, the girls’ felt that their voices were projected with greater confidence and collective equity, both in their collaborative groups and in their role as a social entrepreneur in the broader school community.
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Type
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Research Report
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Research Category
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Teaching
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Middle Grades (ages 11-14)
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Institution
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Perth College
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Year of Study
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2024
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Identifier
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38440
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Publisher
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Perth College
