Performance Art as Critical Pedagogy
Open Access
- Author:
- Kredell, Renee
- Graduate Program:
- Art Education
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- May 08, 2009
- Committee Members:
- Yvonne Madelaine Gaudelius, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Yvonne Madelaine Gaudelius, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Vincent M Colapietro, Committee Member
Charles Richard Garoian, Committee Member
Christine Marme Thompson, Committee Member - Keywords:
- performance art
radical pedagogy
performance-based pedagogy
public scholarship - Abstract:
- ABSTRACT This is an ethnographic study investigating how performance art, used as a pedagogical methodology, can create an educational space that is transformative (causing reflection, both personal, and institutional. The dissertation aligns performance-art pedagogy with critical pedagogy investigating how it creates transformation and reflection for involved participants. It defines the parameters of an educational performance within a performance-art pedagogical space, clarifying the terms: unsettled space, unsettled content, liminal and performantivity, as they relate to the functioning model of performance-art pedagogy. The researcher used an Arts-based inquiry methodology entering the site as an artist/teacher/research. The philosophical frame aligns itself with radical pedagogical theory that believes education is not a place for the reinscription of knowledge but a place for individual engagement where personal narratives are in concert with ideas (past, present, future) in relation to current culture. The overall purpose of the work is to assist teachers in comprehending the foundational theory and supporting pillars of a performance art pedagogical space to assist educators in implementing similar strategies within their own classrooms. Research Introduction The researcher was invited to a central Pennsylvania high school to introduce performance-art to a group of 24 advanced studio art students for 1 hour a day for 15-days. The in-service consisted of 4 introductory workshops on movement/pathways, sound, tableaux and Happenings followed by additional studio days, culminating in three performance art pieces that were performed for the school. Post in-service the researcher interviewed 6 participants: 1 non-participating student, 2 participating students, 2 teachers and 2 administrators who were asked the following questions: • What are the benefits of performance work in the classroom, what are the difficulties? • How do you feel the performances, enriched you, the students attending, the teachers the school administrators and the institution? For example, increasing the discussion between students about topics not normally discussed. • What were your "ah ha" moments, whether pro or con, during your involvement in this project? Please consider these three areas of reflection: personal, curricular (what was being taught) and pedagogical (how it was being taught). The interviewees' responses were then analyzed by using the following questions as filters: • What elements are present in a performance-based pedagogy that distinguish it as a form of critical pedagogy? • What aspects of a performed pedagogy open up dialogical arenas both personal and institutional? • What constitutes an educational performance? • What assists in the promotion of reflexivity? Research Outcome Through the analysis of the data a visual model emerged that highlights how the pedagogy forms a variety of non-static relationships that promote performative engagements toward transformation both personal and institutional. The secondary finding is the transparent nature of performance-art pedagogy both in use of media and method, which lays a foundation for the possibility of reflexivity by participants and audience members. The co-opting of the a/r/tography methodology is also applied to the student within this work showing how an additional layer of reflexivity can occur due to the student's engagement as an artist, teacher and researcher within the pedagogy.