Exploring responses to xenophobia: Using workshopping as critical pedagogy

Abstract

Our article arises out of our involvement in an undergraduate module (Drama Education 310) at UKZN Faculty of Education, where we used workshop theatre to explore how students construct knowledge and develop socio-cultural understandings of critical events in society such as Xenophobia. The project reflects how young black students constitute foreignness and xenophobia against the context of a still emerging South African identity. We had two aims, first for students to engage with the processes of workshop theatre and through experience understand its strengths and challenges, and second, to explore how the tensions around xenophobia impact on themselves. The article will describe the data gathering process, the challenges faced by students, and finally show how they constructed two short plays that raised possibilities for cultural negotiation and identity forming. Finally we explore the implications of this approach for drama teachers and teacher educators in terms of drama as critical pedagogy.