“Snakes and Ladders: A Performed Ethnography” by Tara Goldstein takes real, empirical data about
anti-homophobia education in Canadian high schools and presents it in such a way that the students who perform the play, are able to have a better understanding of the struggles that some students face just because they are gay. It also gives the students performing the play the opportunity to see the challenges that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered or questioning (or queer) (LGBTQ) youth face when there is little or no support from the staff and peers at their school through taking on a role that they cannot relate to. This forces them to adapt to a new persona and to feel and experience things they aren’t normally used to, which could ultimately broaden their horizons and change their opinions of people. I see Goldstein’s “performed ethnography” as an example of critical pedagogy at work, but also as an example of creative pedagogy.
Although critical pedagogy is
aimed at disrupting the power imbalances, usually between race and class (Love, 2009) , I think the
“performed ethnography” tries to disrupt a different type of power imbalance;
between one school authority (the principle) and all of the pupils because the
principle did not agree to having a Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) at school. The “performed
ethnography” engages critical thought and reflection on the part of the
students to see what opinions, if any, they hold about LGBTQ youth and why they
have these opinions. Finding out the opinions of students on certain, perhaps ‘scandalous’, topics such as
homosexuality or racism is important in order to break down any prejudices
those students have so that all students feel safe at school.
An excerpt from 21stCentury Schools by Peter McLaren discusses critical pedagogy and says that ‘it
provides historical, cultural, political, and ethical direction for those in
education who still dare to hope (21st Century Schools, 2010) .’ The “performed
ethnography” provided cultural direction because the people in the play were of
many different cultures and races including white, black, Latino, Pakistani and
Chinese, which allowed for discussion of an underlying issue of race alongside
the main issue of homophobia. Applying a “performed ethnography” to topics in
schools allows for the students to take on completely opposite character and
have to view the world through those eyes. In class, we performed the play and I
was cast as a lesbian teacher. I am not gay so I could not relate to the
teacher in that sense, but I felt angry when reading the play and homophobic
comments were made or the principle showed hesitancy with promoting the GSA.
Because this was something I was not used to, I was able to put myself in
another’s shoes and imagine how things would be for them, which is so important
for students to do in high school because of the bullying and harassment that
occurs. There was ethical direction in the play because almost all of the
students and staff knew that it was ethical to promote and support both the GSA
and the pride week celebrations despite the personal beliefs of a few people.
Another passage from 21st Century Schools says that ‘critical pedagogy is an approach by progressive teachers attempting to eliminate inequalities on the basis of social class, and that it has also sparked a wide array of anti-sexist, anti-racist, and anti-homophobic classroom-based curricula and policy initiatives (21st Century Schools, 2010) .’ This is exactly
what the “performed ethnography” is trying to do; to eliminate the inequalities
that are experienced by gay youth. Although I do foresee issues that could
arise (refusal to participate, not taking it seriously, giving up on the play)
by using a “performed ethnography” in the classroom as a way to engage students
in critical thought and reflection, I do think it is respectable to attempt
something so new and groundbreaking.
As previously mentioned, I think that the performed ethnography is also an example of creative pedagogy. When researching critical pedagogy, I came across another branch of pedagogy called creative pedagogy. The appendix ‘TRIZ and Pedagogy’ by Boris Zlotin and Alla Zusman(Zlotin & Zusman, 2005) , touched on the
ideas we previously discussed in lecture about, how before the evolution of
school, children worked alongside their parents or other adult figures and
learned everything they needed to know to get by in life without any special
training. Since the evolution of schools, a certain level of education is
expected of young people and schools need to adapt their ways of educating so
that every students uses their maximum potential to reap the most benefits,
both the gaining of knowledge and the acquiring of skills. Zlotin and Zusman
say that the basic tenet of creative pedagogy is the ‘learning should be fun’ (Zlotin & Zusman, 2005) and that the joy of
problem solving can give the student pleasure. The performed ethnography makes
it so that learning can be fun, I
mean, what you rather do: sit in class all day and be told that hating people
for their sexual orientation is wrong, or actually get a chance to move around,
interact with students and learn about other students and yourself? I choose the latter. Creative pedagogy is all about
making learning a usual topic more interesting so that the student has the
opportunity to allow their creative skills to flourish. Meshing this with a
topic in school will allow the student to fully benefit from the designated
lesson and hopefully get them to better understand what is expected of them.
In conclusion, I believe that the performed ethnography was a combination of both critical and creative pedagogy. Allowing students to get up out of their desks (the way we did), interact with each other and to learn about one another allows them to let their creative juices flow and hopefully gets them to respect their peers more. It also gives them the opportunity to examine why they hold their opinions and how they can shake free the grasp of the authority that perhaps gave them that opinion so that they can think and learn for themselves.
Another passage from 21st Century Schools says that ‘critical pedagogy is an approach by progressive teachers attempting to eliminate inequalities on the basis of social class, and that it has also sparked a wide array of anti-sexist, anti-racist, and anti-homophobic classroom-based curricula and policy initiatives
As previously mentioned, I think that the performed ethnography is also an example of creative pedagogy. When researching critical pedagogy, I came across another branch of pedagogy called creative pedagogy. The appendix ‘TRIZ and Pedagogy’ by Boris Zlotin and Alla Zusman
In conclusion, I believe that the performed ethnography was a combination of both critical and creative pedagogy. Allowing students to get up out of their desks (the way we did), interact with each other and to learn about one another allows them to let their creative juices flow and hopefully gets them to respect their peers more. It also gives them the opportunity to examine why they hold their opinions and how they can shake free the grasp of the authority that perhaps gave them that opinion so that they can think and learn for themselves.
References
21st Century Schools. (2010). What is critical
pedagogy? Retrieved from 21st Century Schools: http://www.21stcenturyschools.com/What_is_Critical_Pedagogy.htm
Love, K. (2009, June 29). Critical Pedagogy. Retrieved
from Slide Share:
http://www.slideshare.net/drloveccsu/critical-pedagogy-1659560
Zlotin, B., & Zusman, A. (2005). TRIZ and Pedagogy.
Retrieved from IdeationTRIZ:
http://www.ideationtriz.com/new/materials/creativepedagogye.pdf
Image obtained from:Snakes and Ladders
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