Title
Decolonising our Teaching Through Drama and Theatre-in-Education as Pedagogy
Abstract
Traditional approaches to teaching in university classroom spaces tend to stifle students’ creativity and critical thinking skills, as they are akin to banking education, which is not required for the era in which we are living. In order to subvert traditional approaches to teaching and learning it is imperative that lecturers start to interrogate their own praxis, so that they can be motivated to explore alternative pedagogies that will lead to meaningful teaching and learning within university classroom spaces. It is with this in mind that this paper examines how our teaching could be re-imagined by using drama and theatre-in-education to contribute to decolonised ways of knowing and learning. Through an examination of the seminal work of Augusto Boal, Ngugi wa Thiongo and my own personal insights and experiences in the application of drama and theatre-in-education in my university classes, I provide a critical overview of what it entails, how it informed my own teaching practice and the lessons learnt. The overview of the strategies associated with drama pedagogy will include an examination of the use of tableau and tableau vivant, the processes involved in the creation of the piece of theatre for interrogation and reflection, and the application of thought tracking and the role of the joker in theatre of the oppressed. Furthermore, these strategies will be interrogated within the context of my own praxis for enhanced understanding of its application within university classroom spaces. In reflecting on my experiences, I discovered that drama and theatre-in-education have the potential to develop and enhance students’ critical, creative, and reflective skills. Furthermore, they enable students to examine critical issues, affecting education and society, from multiple perspectives of reality and from various vantage points and include the funds of knowledge and talents of marginalised students who may be invisible in the university classroom space.
Key words
Decolonisation, drama-in-education, pedagogy, theatre-in-education, creativity, critical thinking.