Johnny Saldaña, Professor of Theatre
Herberger Institute for Design and Arts’ School
of Theatre and Film, Arizona State University (ASU)
Johnny Saldaña is a Professor of Theatre in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts' School of Theatre and Film at Arizona State University (ASU) where he has taught since 1981. He has been involved in the field of theatre education as a teacher educator, drama specialist, director, and researcher.
Mr. Saldaña is the author of Drama of Color: Improvisation with Multiethnic Folklore (Heinemann, 1995), a teacher's resource text and recipient of the 1996 Distinguished Book Award from the American Alliance for Theatre & Education (AATE); Longitudinal Qualitative Research: Analyzing Change Through Time (AltaMira Press, 2003), a research methods book and recipient of the 2004 Outstanding Book Award from the National Communication Association's Ethnography Division; Ethnodrama: An Anthology of Reality Theatre (AltaMira Press, 2005), an edited collection of ethnographic-based plays; The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers (Sage Publications, 2009), a handbook on qualitative data analysis and a finalist for the American Educational Research Association's Qualitative Research Special Interest Group's 2010 Outstanding Book Award; Fundamentals of Qualitative Research (Oxford University Press, 2011), an introductory textbook; and Ethnotheatre: Research from Page to Stage (Left Coast Press, 2011), a playwriting primer for performance ethnography. He is currently preparing the second edition of The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers for publication by Sage in winter 2012.
Saldaña has published articles in such journals as Youth Theatre Journal, Stage of the Art, Teaching Theatre, Research in Drama Education, Research Studies in Music Education, Multicultural Perspectives, Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy, and Qualitative Inquiry. He has also published chapters on research methods for such titles as Arts-Based Research in Education, Handbook of the Arts in Qualitative Research, Handbook of Longitudinal Research, New Approaches to Qualitative Research, Creative Arts in Interdisciplinary Practice, and entries for The Sage Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods.
Saldaña's research methods in longitudinal qualitative inquiry, ethnodrama, and qualitative coding and data analysis have been applied and cited by researchers internationally to explore such diverse topics as:
Grades K-12 Education: mathematics education in elementary and middle school, sexuality
education, religious education, higher-order thinking in science and social studies classrooms,
English language learning (by Mexican immigrants and Korean youth), Chicago public school
teachers, high school teachers’ perceptions of occupational professionalism, school accountability results reporting, vocational education in Australia, school reform in Sweden, language policy for deaf students in Spanish-speaking homes, hegemonic masculinity in Portuguese physical education classes, urban after-school program evaluation, emotional and behavioral disability student mainstreaming in Hong Kong, children’s perceptions of climate change, disciplinary philosophies of secondary school administrators, critical praxis research and methodology, German middle school students’ perceptions of global warming, video club
teacher learning communities, Latino male perspectives on school disconnection, principal
succession planning and management, intergroup dialogue for bullying prevention in high
schools, narrative teacher evaluations of students’ moral development in Chinese schools
Higher Education: international university students, adult education in graduate school, graduate
teaching assistantship preparation, academic careers of scientists, university faculty professional
development assessment, student geologists’ visual penetrative ability skills, higher education
program branding, women faculty in Australian academia, undergraduate online education in
Australia, leadership competencies of college leaders, Latina college student perceptions of
learning communities, Black female and Latina careers in higher education, graduate student
teaching assistants’ encounters with student aggression, pre-service teacher professional
development in South Africa, university women’s dissertation advising, technical college
Hispanic student adjustments and challenges, Chinese language and theories in western research,
internal quality assurance systems in higher education, student perceptions of sexual violence
resources on campus, Generation Y occupational therapy students in Australia, educational
researcher development in Scotland, community college president termination dilemmas, the hero motif in community college leadership discourse, internationalism in Chinese higher education
institutions
Fine Arts: media education, theatre student retention and success in Canadian high schools,
elementary arts education in Canada, music education (US, Canada, and New Zealand),
community theatre in New Zealand, documentary filmmaking in Singapore, ethnodramatic theory
and ethnotheatrical practice (US and Australia), designers and engineers' thinking and decision-
making processes, research-based dance development, child audience reception to theatre, BBC
New Media public participation, music therapy in African prisons, adult lifelong impacts of high
school speech and theatre programming, art education for people with autism, informal music
learning through online communities, sustainable practices at music festivals in New Zealand,
management factors influencing location selection decisions for independent filmmakers, a
content analysis of music lyrics in Mexican narcocorridos,
Human Development: child empathy, gay youth and identity, transgender identity, female African American adolescents, African American biography, teenage and young mothers in the U.K.,child and family development in the U.K., adolescent masculinity in Australia, retirement dilemmas of people with intellectual disabilities in Australia, interpersonal dating and intimacy relationships among the elderly, older people’s resilience in New Zealand, preschool children’s play environments at home
Social Sciences: wives of professional athletes, abused women, domestic violence, military
reserve families during wartime, date rape prevention, civic engagement in adolescents and
young adults, stress and leisure time activities, contemporary oral communication trends, race
relations in Detroit, incarcerated youth in Canada, juvenile correctional officers as advocates,
immigrant adolescents and language brokering, Latino youth perspectives on immigration,
adolescent leisure in Australian parks, religious affiliation in Canada, qualitative research in
career development literature, environmental psychologies, introversion in sociological field
research, sociopolitical analysis of being “at risk,” African American Hurricane Katrina survivors
and disaster resilience, former intercollegiate athletes’ sport identities, Finnish migration politics,
donor relationships with faith-based organizations in New Zealand, the role of the Virgin of
Guadalupe among the Mexican community of the San Joaquin Valley, occupational stress and
alcoholism in bar workers, adolescent preferences for reality TV programming
Business: human resource development, innovation project termination, service encounter
interaction strategies, corporate social responsibility policies, multicultural group work in
management, organizational values-based change methods, souvenir shopping in Switzerland,
Canadian businesswomen, product innovation teams in the Netherlands, English language
proficiency among professionals in Indonesia and Malaysia, financial crisis analysis,
human resource practices for knowledge asset management, trial-and-error learning in
organizations in Denmark, social entrepreneurship and institutional-organizational logics in
Europe, nonprofit organization involvement with urban community forestry, organizational
change management and relocation in the UK, employment experiences of people with bipolar
disorder, young people’s perceptions and aspirations of future employment in Ghana, perceptions
of integrated testing strategies for hazard and risk assessment, participatory visual methods for
exploring organizational space, acculturation forecast models for apprentices and experts
Technology: the ethnography of technology, male resistance to women in technology, open
source software adoption, consumption values of technology, European retail barcode systems,
global organization use of social networking sites, digital document design, technical integration
scenarios in global supply chains, E2.0 (Enterprise 2.0) social software platform technology in
Australian business, effects of inducement prizes on technological innovation competitions,
electronic health record chart biopsies, virtual microscopy in human anatomy courses, technology
innovation in North American libraries, text mining methods for the analysis of large-scale
consultations submitted via the Internet in the UK, thematic synthesis in software engineering,
online dating and the use of technology for surveillance and risk management, interoperable
identity management for Kenyan government technology systems, end-user preferences for 3-D
mobile interactive navigation design
Government and Social Services: rural displaced worker assistance, heritage conservation of
England's National Trust, county administration in Sweden, the Great Lakes Water Quality
Agreement between Canada and the US, NASA telescope history, national forest policy in
Finland, Yukon intergovernmental communication, sanitation technology in third world
countries, US Air Force humanitarian assistance and disaster response, the health uninsured in
California, Australian public health policy makers, the US Violence Against Women Act,
sustainable plant protection in urban West Africa, public water sector management in Indonesia,
online family dispute resolution in Australia,
Health Care: women with HIV, Alzheimer's disease, families and dementia, spinal cord
compression recovery, stroke recovery and rehabilitation, patients living with inoperable cancer,
traumatic brain injury survivors and care providers, nursing and resiliency, interprofessional
collaborative practice among nurses and stakeholders, health profession volunteer perceptions of
the disabled, self-concept and social functioning of women with breast cancer, children’s
perceptions of parental depression, rural southern African Americans with HIV, nursing home
care in Canada, renal failure patient support in the Netherlands, risk behaviors of Slovene
injection drug users, substance use treatment in Canada, professional development of general
practitioner trainers and appraisers in the U.K., adult sexual assault survivor examination, alcohol
and drug intervention in rural Australia, community-based collaborative action research in
nursing, group psychotherapy in rural Uganda, physical distress and cancer care experiences
among Chinese-American and non-Hispanic white breast cancer survivors, learning
collaboratives in public health, surrogate decision making for patients with severe traumatic brain injury, residential alternatives for in-patient psychiatric services in England, enablers and barriers
for alcohol and drug program implementation in Australia, self-management of dementia,
internet-based self-management of diabetes with primary caregivers, emergency medical services
partnership, professional dignity in nursing
[all topics generated from personal correspondence, Google Scholar citations, and Google
searches]
Mr. Saldaña's workshops and keynote addresses reflect a broad range of interests including drama in the classroom, drama with multicultural materials, ethnotheatre, theatre for social change, and qualitative research methods. Saldaña has presented for such organizations as: the Arizona Artist/Teacher Institute, the New Orleans Public Schools, the Louisiana Institute for Education in the Arts, the Southeast Institute for Education in Theatre, the Tennessee Arts Academy, Northwestern University, Western Michigan University, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, New York University, City College of New York, the University of Hartford, the University of Amsterdam, the University of Alberta, the University of Victoria, the University of Leeds; and at national conferences of: AATE, the Educational Theatre Association, Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed, the International Drama in Education Research Institute, the American Educational Research Association, the National Association for Multicultural Education, Narrative Inquiry in Music Education, the National Council of Teachers of English Assembly of Research, the International Institute for Qualitative Methodology, the European Qualitative Research Conference in Health and Social Care, and the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry.
Saldaña is an eight-time recipient of the President's Citation of Merit from AATE, the 1989 Creative Drama Award, the 1996, 2001, and 2011 Research Awards from AATE, the Burlington Resources Foundation Faculty Achievement Award in 1991, the ASU College of the Arts Distinguished Teacher of the Year Award in 1995 and 2008, and the ASU College of the Arts Research Award in 2005. In 2000, 2008, and 2009 he was recognized by the ASU Parents Association as a finalist for Professor of the Year.
Mr. Saldaña received his BFA in Drama and English Education in 1976, and MFA in Drama in 1979 from the University of Texas at Austin. Saldaña has taught at UT-Austin and Washington State University in Pullman. He was born in Austin, Texas, and currently resides in Phoenix. Professional memberships include: the International Association of Qualitative Inquiry, the International Institute for Qualitative Methodology (Member Scholar), the American Alliance for Theatre & Education, and the American Educational Research Association.
