Down the Rabbit Hole: An Ethnodrama to Explore a Fantastical First Year of Teaching

Abstract

Down the Rabbit Hole is an ethnodrama based on interviews with novice teachers teaching in historically underperforming and underresourced school districts. Each of the teachers interviewed completed a specialized program in urban teacher preparation. The main character in the play represents all of the teachers in the study and her dialogue is taken from the body of interview data. The dialogue from the other characters is also taken from the interviews and adapted to show the interactions described by the teachers. The script highlights the challenges of navigating the myriad of realities facing new teachers in high-needs contexts. This work begins with the full script and then includes a discussion of what the author learned and how this knowledge is being used to reshape her practice.