Rehearsing for the Revolution in Nursing: Engaging in the Indigenous Education Blueprint Through Forum Theatre

Background: In December 2015, post-secondary institutions across the province of Manitoba signed a historic Manitoba Collaborative Indigenous Education Blueprint (MCIEB). The MCIEB is intended to take action on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Calls to Action and identifies key priorities which include (among others): promoting research and learning that reflects the history and contemporary context of the lives of Indigenous peoples; bringing Indigenous knowledge, languages and intellectual traditions, models and approaches into curriculum and pedagogy; and building school and campus communities that value diversity, foster cultural safety and are free of racism. To meaningfully integrate Indigenous perspectives and knowledges within nursing programs for Indigenous and non-Indigenous students requires a pedagogical approach that supports reflexivity, dialogue and critical thinking. Further yet, the approach must be epistemologically and ontologically compatible with Indigenous knowledge systems. Given that Indigenous people have long lived and learned in holistic and artistic ways, arts-based practices may offer possibilities towards meaningful engagement with the priorities of the MCIEB. In particular, forum theatre, a form of participatory theatre, wherein participants have opportunities to critically dialogue, reflect and act may prove effective as a pedagogical approach to support personal, professional and social change.

Purpose: To engage nursing educators, students and health care providers with the priorities of the MCIEB and to explore possibilities for integrating the priorities of the MCIEB in nursing education through forum theatre. The central objectives are:

• To facilitate a dialogue regarding several of the priorities of the MCIEB with nursing educators, health care providers and nursing students.
• To explore possibilities for integrating the priorities of the MCIEB within nursing education.
• To explore nursing educators’, students’, and health care providers’ experiences of forum theatre as a pedagogical approach.

Design: Using an arts-based participatory methodology, nursing educators and health care providers will participate in a playbuilding workshop in which they will collaboratively create a forum theatre play relating to the priorities of the MCIEB alongside the primary researcher, a trained theatre facilitator, and an Indigenous Nurse-Elder. Nursing educators and health care providers will then perform the play to an audience of nursing students who will watch the play once without interruptions. The second time the play is performed, nursing students will have an opportunity to stop the play and replace a character on stage and attempt to change the outcome of the play.

Sample/Setting: Nursing educators, nurses and health care providers from Manitoba will be recruited via snowball sampling. Current undergraduate or graduate nursing students at the University of Manitoba will be recruited via purposive sampling. Nursing students must be willing to participate in the forum theatre play. All participants must be willing to be videotaped and photographed during the forum theatre play.

Methods: Data collection will include a demographic questionnaire, the script, the performance of the forum theatre play, and a post-play discussion. Data will be analyzed using content and form analysis. Rigour will be ensured through co-reflexive member checking.

Significance: This study will contribute to advancing reconciliation within nursing education and to the knowledge of forum theatre as a nursing pedagogy.