40 research outputs found
Theatre and drama education and populism : the ensemble âfamilyâ as a space for dialogic empathy and civic care
This article, understanding populism as an essentially undemocratic ideology, argues that the proâsocial theatre education approach of ensemble pedagogy can offer a model of educational practice which counters these antiâdemocratic rhetorics by creating a shared space for the enactment of empathetic discourse. Via an ethnography of the UK Shakespeare Schools Foundation festival project, the notion of the theatre education ensemble âfamilyâ as a model of civic caring is offered as an alternative, feminist âcare perspectiveâ on civic and political rhetorics, in contrast to the patriarchal âjustice perspectivesâ which facilitate the reductive antiâdemocratic rhetorics of populism. Thus, this article concludes that ensemble approaches to theatre education, viewed through this feminist pedagogy lens, hold rich potential for developing learnersâ capacity to resist populism and act in socially hopeful ways