Theater of the Oppressed or how to get ready for the Fall 2020 semester

Safa Danesh, Tara Nguyen, Nicolas Simon, and Maya Vanderberg

Introduction:

The current political context has radicalized every American and increased the gap between antagonistic groups: the one fighting to conserve a traditional society and the one promoting social justice for all. It is in this political context and in the COVID-19 health situation that institutions of higher education reopened in person or online during the Fall 2020 semester. Regardless of our individual political views, tensions in our courses and clashes between students have occurred.

As educators, we were faced with a decision regarding how to approach our classes with respect to the current political climate. On one extreme, some of us decided to only lecture, focusing on neutral material, and avoiding any kind of politically charged exchanges between students. As sociologists, it may be challenging when we are covering inequalities and stratifications. On another extreme, some of us may have let students fully express their opinion, embracing the freedom of speech supported by the first amendment. To avoid any concerns, most of us probably requested that every opinion was supported by scholarly peer reviewed materials and strong evidence.

Using the Theater of the Oppressed to prepare for the Fall 2020 semester:

To prepare ourselves, our teaching assistants, and some students leaders active on campus for the Fall 2020, we, a small group composed of three students and a faculty member, decided during the 2020 summer to use the technique developed by Augusto Boal in the Theater of the Oppressed (1979). Influenced by Paulo Freire and his famous work, the Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Boal created a dynamic theatrical in which the audience is invited to join a political performance to resolve a social problem. Boal’s technique focuses on democratic participation in which an audience discusses a social problem by “playing it.” This interactionist process helps participants to feel the situation on another level, and to play different “solutions” to discover what will work best for them individually and collectively.

Playing the scene provides an opportunity for each participant to recognize the emotions which appear when confronted with sexism, racism, classism, antisemitism, ageism, and so on. This emotionally charged conversation can only take place in a supporting, caring, and loving environment. For sociologists, it is an excellent opportunity to discuss the connection between the structure of inequalities which affect all of us and the emotions that we experience individually and collectively.

As one of us expressed, it is extremely important to be ready to not be submerged by our emotions. Reacting with anger will only make the oppressor think that he or she is right. It will only legitimize his or her own beliefs. As faculty, we may be critiqued by students who believe in oppressing ideas, claiming that we refuse to support everyone’s values and perspectives. We may be accused of failing in our mission of inclusion by excluding conservative points of view. The point of view of these students can frustrate and exhaust us. However, we may not always be able to end the conversation and we need to find some solutions.

One solution is to have a wide array of statistical information to deconstruct the argument of the person being racist, sexist, or classist or to use the class as a research methods class in which students have to find information to statistically illustrate their claims.

Another solution is to use the sociological imagination (Mills 1959) by asking students to explain how their biography causes them to arrive at this conclusion. It is an opportunity to explain, discuss, and illustrate the social location of knowledge, and perhaps having our students recognize that our worldviews are a product of our biography and history.

Concluding words

This is how we prepared ourselves for this Fall 2020 semester. As a professor teaching online, I can say that the interactions with and between students were minimal and that I experienced no concerns. However, the three students, who are also student leaders and Resident Assistants, mentioned that this summer training helped to manage and deescalate many microaggressions that they experienced in their different roles. We can only encourage every educator, sociology student, and student leader to use the Theater of the Oppressed to be ready for the challenges that we face on and outside campus.

References

Boal, Augusto. 1979. Theater of the Oppressed. London: Pluto Press

Mills, Charles. 1959. The Sociological Imagination. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press

Freire, Paulo. 1970. and his famous work, the Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum.

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