ERIC Number: EJ969345
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2012
Pages: 9
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1052-2891
EISSN: N/A
Embodied Knowledge and Decolonization: Walking with Theater's Powerful and Risky Pedagogy
Butterwick, Shauna; Selman, Jan
New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, n134 p61-69 Sum 2012
Theater processes can powerfully connect mind, body, and emotions, providing opportunities and spaces for transformation. Based in stories from the authors' disparate but complementary practices, they focus here on facilitators' ethical responsibilities when bringing theater activities to processes of critical deconstruction of oppressive relations. While encouraging the use of theater and embodied pedagogy, pointing to its transformational power, the authors emphasize that taking on these issues involves a set of decisions and responsibilities. Their reflections are informed by somatic theories of theater critics and practitioners, feminist discussions of the importance of reclamation of individual and communal body, memory and story, and critical pedagogy, including decolonizing and transformative pedagogies. They aim to discuss not merely how theater and embodied activities contribute to a remembering and naming of oppression but also how these processes may be facilitated in such a way as to generate new knowledge that leads to enfranchisement and action. This article explores how somatic theater processes tap into embodied knowing, which enables and animates participants to see themselves as creators of their own stories, knowledge, and actions for justice.
Descriptors: Critical Theory, Theater Arts, Teaching Methods, Risk, Ethics, Power Structure, Reflection, Feminism, Transformative Learning, Justice, Adult Education
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Adult Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A