Whose story is it anyway? Exploring ethical dilemmas in performed research

As researchers in the field of education continue to expand the use of theatre as a device for inquiry-related purposes, increased attention is being paid to important methodological and ethical implications related to performatively representing and disseminating research findings. This article examines some of these issues within the context of a research project that used theatre to fictionalize the inner voices of educators in an attempt to reveal the multiple perspectives and loyalties that significantly characterize interpersonal dynamics within educational settings. The article begins with a scene from an ethnotheatre play that was designed by the researchers to serve as a site of inquiry that would enable researcher-participants, performers and audience members to performatively explore these inner voices. Who these inner voices belong to and the ethical implications involved in fictionalizing them are issues that are explored in some detail by the authors as these attempt to bring greater clarity to the process of theatricalizing and performing research.