Invitations to Play: Disrupting Dissonance and Creating Community

• In Event: Teaching and Learning Symposium Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 2: Creative Teaching Practices

Abstract

Underwritten by queer, feminist, and critical pedagogies, this presentation shares a communication based game that can be used at any level to inspire engagement and authentic connections to sociological concepts and theories. Play in the classroom disrupts typical power dynamics and knowledge flows, while simultaneously encouraging students to engage with sociological ideas and perspectives in inviting ways. The presenter will demonstrate a 10 minute game that can be played in groups of up to six, or as small as two, to introduce symbolic interactionism, dramaturgy, and social interaction theories. This specific game has been played in classrooms of up to fifty students, at small and medium sized private colleges, as well as for students in Early College Initiative programs. By interrupting typical expectations of classroom roles and dynamics, this game invites students to play not only with the content of the lesson, but also how they apply and and understand these ideas once they’ve left the room. The game encourages students to take a deeper look at their wealth of knowledge, and understand the importance of what they bring to the table, while simultaneously allowing them to grapple with how their understandings can grow and change with time and experience. The game is easy to replicate at home as well, and the presenter will make downloadable PDF files available for use in classroom settings. Audience members will get the opportunity to play the game and see how it works in real time, both as it connects to negotiated meanings, presentation of self, and language, as well as how games including this one allow students to embrace discomfort and unfamiliarity in the classroom and break away from traditional expectations and structure, ultimately using play as a means to disrupt dissonance, and create community and authentic engagement in the classroom.

Author

• Sarah Slater Bowker, Kingsborough Community College