Into the Hoods: Critical Performance Pedagogy

• In Event: 45.077 - Ethnic Studies as Freirian Pedagogy: Praxes Filipina/o/x American Studies

Abstract

Objectives
This paper focuses on Pin@y Educational Partnerships (PEP), an Ethnic Studies educational pipeline. PEP is in direct opposition to neoliberalism by providing an educational experience for youth to positively transform themselves and their communities. As part of PEP’s transformative curriculum, we employ Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) and critical performance pedagogy. In contrast to high-stakes testing, traditional texts, and rote activities, the practice of YPAR has become popular among social justice teachers.

Theory
Critical Pedagogy + Performance Pedagogy = Critical Performance Pedagogy
Critical performance pedagogy (CPP) uses performance as a means to describe Paulo Freire’s (1970) notion of“reading the world to transform the world.” CPP also de-centers power by emphasizing collaborative, dialogic, and creative learning between teachers and students. CPP stems from Freire’s concept of critical pedagogy which aims to facilitate humanization and eventual liberation from oppression through the development of critical consciousness. Students begin to read and name their world based on their own cultures, contexts, and experiences. In addition, it is also rooted in Boal’s use of theater and performance as a way to spark critical dialogue about ways to change oppressive systems that have otherwise gone unquestioned. Drawing from critical pedagogy and performance pedagogy, critical performance pedagogy (CPP) uses performance as a means to engage students in dialogue, problem-solving, and action. In PEP, critical performance pedagogy uses performance in the classroom and on the stage as a means to read one’s “hood” and to find ways to transform their hood.

Methods/Data Sources
The overall goal of the study was to examine how PEP’s usage of critical performance pedagogy disrupts neoliberal attempts to dehumanize students and reproduce inequity. To examine our research topic, we combined a case study approach with grounded theory to understand and make meaning of the experiences of PEP students and teachers as they learned, interrogated, and critically examined how critical performance pedagogy can bring life to issues they face on a day to day basis in their community, with family, and in the classroom. Doing a case study on Pin@y Educational Partnerships (PEP) explores the details and meanings of experience and investigates a contemporary phenomenon within a real life context. (Merriam, 1988,Yin, 1994) The PEP curriculum caters to kindergarten through college and we emphasize the usage of critical pedagogy to teach Ethnic Studies and Filipino American Studies at all levels of education. We believe studying PEP as a phenomenon can bring out a holistic description and analysis of the experiences of the participants in the program. Because of our participation in the program, it allowed us to get a close to each subject and conduct direct observation in our natural setting. (Bromley, 1986)

Results and Significance
The key components to a community responsive Ethnic Studies pedagogy are developing and growing students’ critical consciousness, agency, and their identity as transformative leaders. This paper looks deeply at how these components are developed in PEP while also highlighting the building of a community that is ‘bonded through collective action.’

Authors

• Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales, San Francisco State University

• Arlene Sudaria Daus-Magbual, San Francisco State University

• Maharaj Desai, University of Hawaii - Manoa

• Aldrich Sabac, University of California - Los Angeles

• Von Torres, Fresno City College