Document Type
Article
Abstract
This critical ethnographic project draws upon literature on imagination, critical literacy, and theatre to explore a sixth-grade class’s participation in a critical literacy and creative drama program. Through examples from the storytelling practices of the Neighborhood Bridges program, I outline how students and teachers (including a teaching artist) imagined, co-created, and revised storylines in their classroom; this collaboration provides an alternative to the common narrative of the constrained urban public school classroom. The resulting imaginative acts of resistance: 1) encourage and empower urban elementary students to enact relevant, collaborative community in their classrooms; 2) engage meaningful—not just functional—literacies; 3) ask students to question and to push boundaries while acknowledging inherent tensions and contradictions in this process; and 4) build community collaborations.
Creative Commons License
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Recommended Citation
McManimon, Shannon K.
(2016)
"Imaginative Acts of Resistance: Dramatic Storytelling in an Elementary School Classroom,"
Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Journal: Vol. 1, Article 5.
Available at:
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/ptoj/vol1/iss1/5
Included in
Critical and Cultural Studies Commons, Education Commons, Theatre and Performance Studies Commons
