Beyond the Cognitive: Using Arts-Based Pedagogy in Multicultural Education to Evoke Empathy

• In Event: 31.043 - Benefits of Arts-Based Pedagogy in Teacher Education

Abstract

This qualitative research study examined an undergraduate arts-based Intergroup Dialogue program in relation to traditional multicultural education utilized in preservice teaching programs. The study analyzed the role of pedagogical approaches in multicultural teacher education and posited a place for process drama to complement existing pedagogy.

The purpose of this study was to examine the experience of undergraduate students who participated in an Intergroup Dialogue that explored ideas of race and privilege in education by utilizing process drama pedagogy. The term “process drama” refers to a dramatic structure that is not intended for performance, but rather to explore larger ideas through the experience of the drama itself (O’Neill, 1995). It frequently takes the form of the creation of an alternate dramatic universe in which participants and the instructor take on roles (Bowell and Heap, 2001; Heathcote and Bolton, 1995; O’Neill, 1995).

The study examined the following questions:

To what extent, if any, does participation in process drama affect undergraduate students’ attitudes and understandings about race and privilege?

The study also examined the following sub-questions:
• What are the mechanisms in process drama that aid or impede a shift in attitudes and understandings about race and privilege?
• What new understandings are revealed through drama?
• What is the nature of participants’ experience with process drama?
• What is the experience of students of color? What is the experience of white students? Do they differ, and if so, in what ways?

This study utilized critical theory and theoretical frameworks of multicultural education, specifically the models put forward by Sleeter and Grant (1994) and Banks (1994), which examine different approaches to multicultural education. The data for this qualitative case study was taken from a nine-week Intergroup Dialogue (IGD) workshop held in the fall of 2012 at a university in a large northeastern city. Data sources included videotapes of weekly sessions, post-program interviews with participants, participant application materials and post-course evaluations, and student reflection cards completed at the end of each session.

The study found that the use of process drama was effective to create empathy, to enable reflection on lived experiences, to lead to examination of stereotypes, privilege, and internalized racism, and to create awareness about gaps in participants’ education. Mechanisms of process drama such as taking on roles of power, simulating the experience of oppression, and using abstract physicalizations to embody emotion all aided a shift in attitudes and understandings about race and privilege.

Significantly, this study found process drama to be highly compatible with the needs and goals of multicultural education for preservice and in-service teachers, and the findings from this study strongly supported the use of this method as a way to engage adult learners both cognitively and affectively with material regarding race, privilege, and systems of oppression.

Author

• Sara M Simons, New York University