Critical Pedagogy And Active Approaches To Teaching Shakespeare

Active approaches to teaching Shakespeare are growing in popularity, seen not only as enjoyable and accessible, but as an egalitarian and progressive teaching practice. A growing body of resources supports this work in classrooms. Yet critiques of these approaches argue they are not rigorous and do little to challenge the conservative status quo around Shakespeare. Meanwhile, Shakespeare scholarship more broadly is increasingly recognising the role of critical pedagogy, particularly feminist and decolonising approaches, and asks how best to teach Shakespeare within twenty-first century understandings of cultural value and social justice. Via vignettes of schools' participation in Coram Shakespeare School Foundation's festival, this Element draws on critical theories of education, play and identity to argue active Shakespeare teaching is a playful co-construction with learners and holds rich potential towards furthering social justice-oriented approaches to teaching the plays.

This book provides diverse perspectives on Shakespeare and early modern literature that engage innovation, collaboration, and forward-looking practices.

The continued place of Shakespeare in the classroom and how various critical theories inform current pedagogy are at the core of this conversation among an international group of educators. Its scope ranges from the theoretical background on the subject to new research and practical tips for the teaching of Shakespeare. Digital Shakespeare, Shakespeare through performance, protecting Shakespeare, and Shakespeare for the new millennium are a sampling of the topics covered. Contributing to the discussion are representatives from Northwestern University, Colgate University, Western University, and Black Hills State.

The pedagogy of acting out Shakespeare has been extensive. Less work has been done on how students learn through spectatorship. This element will consider all within the current context of Shakespeare teaching in schools. Using grounded research, it will include work undertaken on a schools National Theatre production of Macbeth, as well as classroom-based, action research, using a variety of digital performances of Shakespeare plays. Both find means of extending student knowledge in unexpected ways through encountering interpretations of Shakespeare that the students had not considered. In reflecting on the practice of watching Shakespeare in an educational context- both at the theatre and in the classroom- this Element hopes to offer suggestions for how teachers might re-think the ways in which they present Shakespeare performed to their students particularly as a powerful way of building personal and critical responses to the plays.

Based on real experiences of teaching Shakespeare in diverse classrooms and outreach programmes, this Element questions the role of authority in Shakespeare teaching. It connects an understanding of how Shakespearean texts function with critical thinking about teaching, especially derived from the work of Jaques Rancière. Certain elements of the Shakespearean text - notably how it was intended to teach its first readers, the actors, and its uses of dramatic irony - are revealed as already containing possibilities for more decentred forms of knowledge production.

This companion interrogates the relationship between theatre and youth from a global perspective, taking in performances and theatre made by, for, and about young people. These different but interrelated forms of theatre are addressed through four critical themes that underpin the ways in which analysis of contemporary theatre in relation to young people can be framed: political utterances – exploring the varied ways theatre becomes a platform for political utterance as a process of dialogic thinking and critical imagining; critical positioning – examining youth theatre work that navigates the sensitive, dynamic, and complex terrains in which young people live and perform; pedagogic frames – outlining a range of contexts and programmes in which young people learn to make and understand theatre that reflects their artistic capacities and aesthetic strategies; applying performance – discussing a range of projects and companies whose work has been influential in the development of youth theatre within specific contexts. Providing critical, research-informed, and research-based discussions on the intersection between young people, their representation, and their participation in theatre, this is a landmark text for students, scholars, and practitioners whose work and thinking involves theatre and young people.

Shakespeare's history plays make up nearly a third of his corpus and feature iconic characters like Falstaff, the young Prince Hal, and Richard III--as well as unforgettable scenes like the storming of Harfleur. But these plays also present challenges for teachers, who need to help students understand shifting dynastic feuds, manifold concepts of political power, and early modern ideas of the body politic, kingship, and nationhood. Part 1 of this volume, "Materials," introduces instructors to the many editions of the plays, the wealth of contextual and critical writings available, and other resources. Part 2, "Approaches," contains essays on topics as various as masculinity and gender, using the plays in the composition classroom, and teaching the plays through Shakespeare's own sources, film, television, and the Web. The essays help instructors teach works that are poetically and emotionally rich as well as fascinating in how they depict Shakespeare's vision of his nation's past and present.