STLHE 2016 SAPES

In colleges and universities across Canada, the availability of gender studies courses is increasingly scarce and the recent closures of women’s studies departments only decreases the options for students wishing to explore gender and sexuality issues in nuanced ways as part of their post-secondary education. How do we address, in the first instance, the increasingly significant gap between theories of sex and gender in the academy and the practice of sex and gender education for young people both in high schools (where gender studies curricula exist, but are infrequently offered) and at college/university? In the second instance, how do we encourage the exploration of sex and gender issues in classrooms beyond those dedicated to gender studies?

This session introduces participants to Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed (1979), a collection of public, performance-based-pedagogy models (PBP), and explores the pedagogical capacity of Theatre of the Oppressed to enact a gender studies curriculum. This session will allow participants to explore their creative side while providing space for critical reflection, self-interrogation and reflexivity. The performative nature of this session will confront the privileged, disembodied ways of learning and knowing that remain entrenched in many K-12 and undergraduate learning environments. This session seeks to demonstrate the power of alternative practices to shape different critical conversations and offer tools for those leading teacher-training sessions on gender studies and related anti-oppression curriculum material.