The Myth of the American Dream

Abstract

This article presents the script of “The Myth of the American Dream,” a readers theater researched, written, and presented by students in a women's and gender studies class called “Women, Social Class, and Social Policy.” The script illustrates six diverse respondents’ perspectives on how family backgrounds, intersectional identities, and high school experiences influenced college access and experiences, student debt, and current circumstances. The script poses the question: Does higher education, especially for students raised in low incomes, help achieve the American Dream? The article concludes with a reflection on this readers theater and why Bloom includes readers theater projects in her undergraduate classes.

Our Actions, Our Stories: A Readers Theater

“…In the first published readers theater, Identify This...A Readers Theater of Women’s Voices (Bloom, Reynolds et al, 2009), my postscript discussion focused on performance ethnography as a radical pedagogical strategy for addressing social issues (Denzin, 2003) and how I implemented into the course the three essential elements (Denzin, 1997) that are critical to the process of teaching students how to research, write, create, and perform a readers theater. For the second published readers theater, The Myth of the American Dream: A Readers Theater (Bloom et al, 2018), in my postscript discussion I reflected on my teaching experiences and why I am committed to including readers theater projects in my WGS classes.…”

“…I also presented options to them for producing less labor-intensive and less collaborative final projects that would still give them experiential and research experiences related to activism. Before we met for the second week of class, when we would discuss their decision, I had them read examples of readers theater scripts (Bloom et al, 2018; Bloom, Reynolds et al, 2009).…”