Non-violent communication and theatre of the oppressed: A case study with Syrian refugee women from the Kareemat Centre in Turkey.
Intervention Journal of Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Conflict Affected Areas, 16(2), 170-174, 2018
Alshughry, U.
DOI : 10.4103/INTV.INTV_45_18
Full article: link
Abstract: This field report describes a case study on the applicability of non-violent communication (NVC) in the context of Syrian refugees and the usefulness of Theatre of the Oppressed techniques in NVC practice. The intervention was applied to refugee women working or participating in activities in a livelihood centre in Turkey. Throughout the work, NVC was explained and discussed with the participants, who brought in real-life themes to put into practice the skills they had acquired using the techniques of Theatre of the Oppressed.
Three questionnaires were used to collect qualitative and quantitative data from participants before and after the intervention, measuring their understanding and application of the NVC process, their willingness to continue learning and teaching NVC to others, and their assessment of their own compassion with themselves and others, their collaboration and commitment.
Comment: There is no control group in this study, which would not have undergone NVC training, for example, so it is not possible to determine what is responsible for the changes in test scores before and after the intervention. As the authors point out, the group studied is too small to be able to generalise the results, and without a control group there is no real point in using statistics to assess whether the trend towards improvement in the questionnaires is significant.
What’s more, the questionnaires are self-explanatory and may therefore be subject to a bias of complacency, whether conscious or not.
Perspective: It would be relevant to evaluate the effects of this training at 6 months, for example, to measure the impact in the longer term, with a control group following another training course. And to use implicit tests to avoid complacency bias.