Stagecrafting Change: Socio-Politically Conscious Professional Development for Science Educators

• In Event: (Re)searching to (re)imagine: Futuring through critical arts based methods

Abstract

Objectives/Purpose
Merging critical arts-based methods like Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) in science teachers’ professional development (PD) changes how teachers engage, connect mind and body, focus content, and integrate social issues with science. PD can strengthen teachers’ capacity to promote equity (Jones & Donaldson, 2022; Tolbert & Bazzul, 2017), but critical frameworks are often avoided due to limited knowledge, neutrality concerns, or lack of support. Yet, these frameworks help interrogate assumptions, address power, and advance social justice.

This presentation shows how TO techniques were used in culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) PD to foster sociopolitical consciousness (SPC) among nine secondary science teachers. SPC, a key part of CRP, empowers students to critically examine and act on social and political issues (Ladson-Billings, 1995; Jones & Donaldson, 2022). I explored how TO strategies helped teachers recognize and address forms of oppression affecting their classrooms.


Theoretical Framework: Sociopolitical Consciousness
Freire (1970) describes “conscientization calls” as an awakening to systemic oppression, like racism and ableism, which sparks the development of SPC. Education increasingly focuses on building SPC to combat inequities, with CRP making it central. Ladson-Billings (1995) found that effective teachers of African American students emphasize critical analysis of societal structures. Madkins and de Royston (2019) studied how CRP’s SPC component addresses racial and class barriers in science teaching, noting that a teacher’s political clarity influences their use of SPC in practice.

Methodology
The hybrid CRP PD used TO techniques as primers, reflexivity prompts, community builders, inquiry, and experiential exercises to address systems of oppression (Boal, 1985; Boal & McBride, 2014). It consisted of five two-hour Zoom sessions on Saturdays, each led by the principal investigator with a focused topic (e.g., what is CRP?), including mini lessons, reflection prompts, and adapted online TO games and image theatre activities.
This interactive session will briefly introduce the PD’s goal to promote SPC with K-12 science teachers via TO techniques. A mini lecture will showcase PowerPoint examples from gaming exercises, image theatre, and forum theatre (as staged readings). Small group discussions will follow, ending with a full group sharing and Q&A.

Data Sources
The data collection used three methods: online surveys, digital pictures taken during the in-person PD, and semi-structured interviews.

Findings
● The Theatre of the Oppressed prompted participants to recognize shortcomings within the science education system.
● Participating in Theatre of the Oppressed activities caused science teachers to re-imagine and transform their approaches to teaching science.

Significance
PD for science educators often lacks emphasis on SPC, leading to insufficient awareness of persistent inequities in science education (Bancroft & Nyirenda, 2020; Preminger et al., 2024; Visintainer, 2020; Zhang et al., 2015). This study offers experiential PD approaches to critique social, cultural, political, and economic inequities.

Authors

• Tara M. Nkrumah, Arizona State University

• Elaine Arrieta Bohn, Arizona State University