Teachers Act Up!

by Cahnmann-Taylor, Melisa

• ISBN13: 9780807750735
• ISBN10: 0807750735
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-05-01
• Publisher: Teachers College Pr

Summary

If teachers want to create positive change in the lives of their students, then they must first be able to create positive change in their own lives. This book describes a powerful professional development approach that merges the scholarship of critical pedagogy with the Theatre of the Oppressed. Participants act up” in order to explore real-life scenarios and rehearse difficult conversations they are likely to have with colleagues, students, administrators, and parents. The authors have practiced the theatrical strategies presented here with pre- and in-service teachers in numerous contexts, including college courses, professional development seminars, and PreK-12 classrooms. They include step-by-step instructions and vivid photographs to help readers use these revolutionary theatre strategies in their own contexts for a truly unique learning experience.

Author Biography

Melisa Cahnmann-Taylor is an associate professor of language and literacy education at the University of Georgia. Mariana Souto-Manning is an associate professor of early childhood education at Teachers College, Columbia University.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. xiii
Acknowledgments	p. xv
Introduction: Learning from Conflict, Performing Change	p. 1
Acting Up	p. 3
Breaking the Fourth Wall-From Spectator to Spect-actor	p. 5
Reading this Book Together	p. 7
Theatre of the Oppressed as a Critical Performative Approach to Creating Multicultural Learning Communities: An Overview	p. 9
Pushing the Chairs Aside: How and Why We Got Started	p. 11
Stresses and Tensions of Teaching in Multicultural Schools Within Monocultural Norms	p. 13
The Personal and Interactional Nature of Teaching in a Diverse World	p. 14
Focusing on Culturally Responsive Practices	p. 18
Why Theatre? Exploring Possibilities in Multicultural Teacher Education	p. 21
The Oppressed or the Oppressor? How much Power Does the Teacher have?	p. 24
From Pedagogy to Theatre of the Oppressed: The Influence of Paulo Freire on the Work of Augusto Boal	p. 27
The Revolutionary Nature of Boalian Theatre	p. 31
Theatre of the Oppressed in Europe, Canada, and the United States	p. 33
Teachers Act Up! Practicing Transformative Theatre	p. 37
Liberating the Body: More Than Fun in Games	p. 39
Establishing Ground Rules	p. 41
The Games: What's in a Name; How Many A's in an A; Stopping Around; House, Inhabitant, Tempest; Power Shuffle; Carnival	p. 44
Learning Case	p. 58
Games as Rehearsals for Change	p. 61
Seeing Is Believing: Image Theatre Is Worth a Thousand Words	p. 62
Releasing the Imagination	p. 63
The Image Exercises: Complete the Image; Come, My Friends ...; Columbian Hypnosis; The Machine: Building Interrelations; Image Techniques: The Model; Real/Ideal	p. 65
Imaging the World, Imagining the Possibilities	p. 87
Forum Theatre: Telling Stories of Teacher Conflict and Rehearsing Change	p. 89
Forum Theatre: Foundations for Creating Change	p. 90
How Forum Theatre Works: Generating Shared Doubts and Concerns	p. 92
Performing Strategies for Action	p. 96
Changing Scripts in Real Lives	p. 103
Facilitating the Process: Forum Theatre as Foundational for Professional Development	p. 104
Art Takes Time, but Time Is Short	p. 107
Troubling Oppressions, Seeking Change: Rainbow of Desire, Invisible, and Legislative Theatre	p. 110
Somewhere Over the Rainbow: The Many Shades of Teaching and Rainbow of Desire Techniques	p. 111
How Rainbow of Desire Takes Place	p. 113
Invisible Theatre: Making the Invisible Visible	p. 120
Legislative Theatre: Theatre as Politics and Democracy as Theatre	p. 122
Conclusion: Implications Across Contexts	p. 124
Calls to Authority and Documentation	p. 125
Networks of Support to Endure Struggle	p. 126
(In)Subordination Through Parody and Humor	p. 127
Evaluating Teachers Act Up!	p. 130
Possibilities and Challenges: Theatre of the Oppressed in Teacher Education	p. 137
Teatro as a Collective Problem-Solving Activity for Social Action: An Afterword	p. 141
Appendix: Reflecting on Embodied Teacher Education: A Teacher's Testimony	p. 145
References	p. 151
Index	p. 159
About the Authors	p. 169
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