Performance Pedagogies in Literacy Methods: Emergence, Embodiment, and Critical Practices

• In Event: 14.041 - Toward Justice in Literacy Teacher Education: Critical Literacies in Elementary and Secondary Methods Courses

Abstract

In this presentation we share a view of literacy methods centered in critical performance pedagogies to provide a re-envisioning of teacher preparation in the overlapping areas of literature, multiple literacies and drama methods. In opposition to deficit discourses, Freire (1970) proposed a “transformative approach” which grounds our ideas around critical performative pedagogies (Pineau, 2002; Alexander, Anderson and Gallegos, 2005; authors). We define critical performance pedagogy as an approach to education that looks at the way people create meaning within any learning moment in relation to their bodies and experiences. We use the idea of performance to bring attention to our belief that knowledge is created within the moment predicated upon an interpretation of current educational needs juxtaposed to past lived experiences and an awareness, either conscious or unconscious, of an inherent political dynamic within both. Important in our work is the work of Pineau (2002), Alexander, Anderson and Gallegos (2006), and our own studies in critical literacy and embodied practices (authors) which include a strong emphasis in literacy methods courses in teacher education (authors). The use of a critical pedagogical perspective in performance pedagogies foregrounds the constructed and creative nature of any pedagogical practice, moving away from the search for truths or products and towards the remaking and emergence of multiple points of views, relations, experiences, and emotions (Pineau, 2002; Leander & Boldt, 2013). After introducing the literatures that ground our approach, we discuss how we have framed the course objectives, readings, activities, and assignments with the goal of facilitating work around the basic tenets of a critical performative pedagogy—embodiment, emergence/improvisation, and engagement in critical practices. We then offer concrete examples of critical performative pedagogies from our methods courses, including performance autobiography, quick writes, theatre of the oppressed, image theatre, and process drama. Finally, we will conclude our presentation with a brief discussion of the successes, limits, and tensions we have experienced in foregrounding critical performance pedagogies in literacy education.

Authors

• Carmen L. Medina, Indiana University - Bloomington

• Linda Coggin, Indiana University

• Gustave John Weltsek-Medina, Indiana University