“The way it works” doesn’t - Theatre of the Oppressed as Critical Pedagogy and Counternarrative

Oct 15, 2026

This paper presents study data on using Theatre of the Oppressed as a critical pedagogy and research method to explore identity, belonging, and culture with francophone secondary students. It documents how Black African–Canadian students with refugee backgrounds identified program, language, citizenship status, and race as constraints on their imagined social futures. Findings show that students used identity, symbolism, and ambiguity to challenge authorized discourses and illustrate intersections of identities within educational experiences.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages22

Reading Time55 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Creating spaces in schools

Theatre of the Oppressed workshop and findings

Theoretical Frames

Freirean critical pedagogy and conscientization

Dialogic education and social transformation

“The way it works” doesn’t: Theatre of the Oppressed as Critical Pedagogy and Counternarrative Sara Schroeter University of British Columbia Abstract This paper presents data from a study examining the use of Theatre of the Oppressed asa critical pedagogy and research method for exploring notions of identity, belonging, and culture with francophone secondary students (Schroeter, 2009) . It describes the process whereby Black African–Canadian students with refugee backgrounds identified their program, as well as their language, citizenship status, and race as factors limiting their imagined social futures (New London Group, 2000). The paper finds that students used their identities, symbolism, and ambiguity to challenge authorized discourses and show how their identities intersected in their educational experiences. Keywords: critical pedagogy, Theatre of the Oppressed, refugee youth, identity. Précis Cet article présente les résultats d’une étude portant sur l’usage du Théâtre de l’opprimé (Boal, 1985) comme pédagogie critique et méthode de recherche pour explorer les notions d’identités, d’appartenance, et de culture avec des étudiants francophones au CANADIAN JOURNAL OF EDUCATION 36:4 (2013)©2013 Canadian Society for the Study of Education/ Société canadienne pour l’étude de l’éducation [http://www.cje-rce.ca](http://www.cje-rce.ca) secondaire (Schroeter, 2009) . Il décrit le processus par lequel des étudiants noirs, d’origine Africaine, et ayant vécu des expériences de réfugiés ont identifié leur programme, ainsi que leur langue, citoyenneté et race comme des facteurs limitant leurs futures sociaux (New London Group, 2000) . L’analyse révèle que les éléves avaient recours à leurs identités, au symbolisme, et à l’ambigüité pour confronter les discours dominants qui circulaient dans leur école. Mots clés : pédagogie critique, Théâtre de l’opprimé, réfugié, identité . Creating spaces in schools for students to tell us (their teachers, administrators, and educational researchers) about the problems they face in school entails taking the risk that we may be told things we do not want to hear. After all, who wants to learn that their efforts to meet students’needs have accentuated feelings of marginalization? However, creating such spaces is important if we take seriously Freire’s (1997) idea that in order for education to become liberating, students must be involved in examining oppressive social realities. While providing a venue for students to name the problems they face in school may not be liberating for all students (Luke, 2011), doing so can enable educators to learn about the ways students interpret their experiences. Engaging students in these conversations in a meaningful manner is not a straightforward process; innovative pedagogies are needed to garner student interest, as are research methodologies that can capture complex, fluid, and dynamic school contexts and identities. This paper presents data from a study (Schroeter, 2009) in which I facilitateda Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) (Boal, 1985) workshop with a class in Western Canada, primarily composed of Black African–Canadian 1 youth with refugee backgrounds. Framed by Freirean critical pedagogy (1997), TO was used to engage students in discussions about problems they faced in their school and community. These discussions then formed the basis of dramatic explorations of notions of identity, belonging, and culture. Elsewhere (Schroeter & James, 2014), critical race theory (CRT) (Crenshaw, Gotanda, Peller, & Thomas, 1995) is used to analyze how students’talk in interviews and class discussions provided counternarratives (Delgado, 1995) to the authorized discourse of multiculturalism and colour blindness circulating in the school. This paper expands on these findings by describing the process of the TO workshop, and by explaining how drama enabled students to use “productive ambiguity”(Eisner, 1997, p. 8) to construct a complex counternarr

FAQs

What is the study examining about Theatre of the Oppressed?

The study examines how Theatre of the Oppressed is used as critical pedagogy and a research method to explore identity, belonging, and culture with francophone secondary students.

Which factors do students identify as limiting their social futures?

Students identify their program, language, citizenship status, and race as factors limiting their imagined social futures.

How do students use Theatre of the Oppressed to respond to authorized discourses?

Students use their identities, symbolism, and ambiguity to challenge authorized discourses, and drama supports constructing counternarratives about how citizenship status, language, and race intersect in educational experiences.

Oct 15, 2026

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