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Theater of the Oppressed for Social Justice Teacher Education

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2nd International Handbook of Self-Study of Teaching and Teacher Education

Part of the book series: Springer International Handbooks of Education ((SIHE))

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Abstract

Teacher education programs frequently have explicit courses and structures designed to prepare teachers for increasingly diverse social contexts. This chapter explores the value and inherent challenges experienced in employing pedagogies based on Boal’s (Theater of the oppressed. (trans: McBride, C., & McBride, M.). New York: Urizen, 1979, Games for actors and non-actors. New York: Routledge, 2003) Theater of the Oppressed (TO) with pre-service teachers. It begins with a review of social justice teacher education within the self-study literature as well as the unique value of arts-based approaches within self-study teacher education practices to promote social justice. We then offer examples of how we, as teacher educators, engaged in self-studies in the context of an arts-based student teacher seminar employing TO practices and how TO contributed to both the authors’ and students’ insights related to diversity, power dynamics, and cultural frames of reference. The challenges faced in using TO in teacher education are then examined for the lessons they offer teacher educators.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education, Arcadia University, Glenside, PA, USA

    Foram Bhukhanwala & Kimberly Dean

Authors
  1. Foram Bhukhanwala
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  2. Kimberly Dean
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Correspondence to Foram Bhukhanwala .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Education, Brock University Faculty of Education, St. Catharines, ON, Canada

    Julian Kitchen

  2. School of Education, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology School of Education, Bundoora, VIC, Australia

    Amanda Berry

  3. School of Education, University of Iceland School of Education, Reykjavik, Iceland

    Hafdís Guðjónsdóttir

  4. Faculty of Education, Simon Fraser University Faculty of Education, Burnaby, BC, Canada

    Shawn Michel Bullock

  5. Dept. of Secondary and Special Education, Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ, USA

    Monica Taylor

  6. College of Education, Kent State University College of Education, Kent, OH, USA

    Alicia R. Crowe

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Secondary and Special Education, Montclair State University, Montclair, New Jersey, USA

    Monica Taylor

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Bhukhanwala, F., Dean, K. (2019). Theater of the Oppressed for Social Justice Teacher Education. In: Kitchen, J., Berry, A., Guðjónsdóttir, H., Bullock, S., Taylor, M., Crowe, A. (eds) 2nd International Handbook of Self-Study of Teaching and Teacher Education. Springer International Handbooks of Education. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1710-1_24-1

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