Critical pedagogies of performance

general courses

The aim of our course is to show that thinking about teachers and teaching only in an institutional context is not adequate in a world of “liquid modernity”. We put forward the thesis that live forms of education nowadays operate mostly outside of schools in the traditional sense. A good example of this are the (critical) pedagogies of performance,inspired by the idea of cultural resistance and political theatre.

The aim of our course is to show that thinking about teachers and teaching only in aninstitutional context is not adequate in a world of “liquid modernity”. We put forward the thesis that live forms of education nowadays operate mostly outside of schools in the traditional sense. A good example of this are the (critical) pedagogies of performance,

inspired by the idea of cultural resistance and political theatre. According to Norman K.Denzin, these are practices which aspire to critical citizenship and cultural democracy, and honoring the subjugated and the suppressed. These practice act as a vehicle transferring the artists and public into new critical spaces of education. (Critical) pedagogies of performance may shape the cultural politics of change and have an impact on creating a more democratic reality. The acts of civil disobedience such as the “march of the black umbrellas”,manifesting women’s rights to safe abortions or performative eating of bananas #bananagate(as a reference to Natalia LL’s Consumer Art) outside the National Museum in Warsaw as a

protest gesture against censoring artists – are just some examples of critical pedagogies ofperformance which we will analyze during our course. Following Jerzy Grotowski, theteacher-figure as a performer, is a man of action. Modern teachers, as critical performers arenot actors who embody another, but doers, influencing the world around them. Therefore, tracing the roots of critical pedagogies of performance is not discovering something new, but rather remembering something forgotten.

Biesta, G. (2011). The Ignorant Citizen: Mouffe, Rancière, and the Subject of Democratic Education. Studies in Philosophy and Education, (30), 141–153.

McLaren, P. (2015). Pedagogy of insurrection: From resurrection to revolution. New York: Peter Lang.

Sandlin, J. A., Schultz, B. D., & Burdick, J. (Eds.). (2010). Handbook of public pedagogy: Education and learning beyond schooling. New York: Routledge.

Learning outcomes