Smallest Circles First: Exploring Teacher Reconciliatory Praxis and Agency Through Drama and Theater Education in Canada

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 8
  In Roundtable Session: Artistic Inquiry for Reconciliation and Transformation

Abstract

This research focuses on the experiences of elementary and post-secondary pre- and in-service teacher’s agency. It looks at how this agency engages with the educational calls to action from Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission using drama education and theatre. It is about a quest that is hard to imagine given Canada’s ongoing and historical colonial legacy. This research does not aim to answer questions such as what is reconciliation or how can we “do” reconciliation? Rather, it presents arts-based educational research examples that illustrate how the arts provide a space for K-University students, teachers, and communities to explore and learn about reconciliation praxis and responsibilities by centering collaboration through autophenomenological methods.

Authors

• Mindy Roberta Carter, McGill University

• Jennifer Hayden, Lester B. Pearson School Board