Performing data: using ethnodrama as a methodological lens to research intimate small island contexts

Purpose This article explores ethnodrama as a methodological lens to understand teacher agency in Mauritius, a Small Island Developing State (SIDS), by examining how it helps researchers navigate the ethical, relational and representational challenges of conducting research in culturally intimate contexts characterised by managed intimacy. Design/methodology/approach The study draws on a qualitative inquiry into teacher agency during curriculum reform, combining interviews, observations and artefact elicitation activities within a narrative inquiry framework informed by interpretivist and posthumanist orientations. Within this framework, ethnodrama informed both the analysis and representation of participants' experiences through the construction of composite characters, while preserving relational complexity and reducing participant recognisability within a professionally interconnected context. Findings The study shows that conventional qualitative methods risk flattening complex, sensitive experiences in relationally dense contexts where professional proximity shapes what can be voiced. Ethnodrama functioned as an arts-based representational form and a methodological lens that illuminated contradictions, silences, ambivalence and negotiated agency by preserving the relational, affective and performative dimensions of participants' experiences. It also foregrounded the ethical tensions surrounding researcher positionality, participant recognisability and the co-construction of knowledge. Originality/value This article contributes to qualitative methodology by reconceptualising ethnodrama as more than a creative means of representing qualitative findings. It demonstrates how ethnodrama can function as a methodological lens that supports the ethical analysis and representation of complex qualitative data in relationally dense research contexts. By situating this discussion within a SIDS context, the paper offers methodological insights for researchers working in professionally interconnected settings where participant recognisability presents ongoing ethical challenges.