Wipro-SEF Montclair

This morning the MSU Wipro team and the two assisting doctoral students presented at the American Educational Research Association's annual meeting. This year's theme is "Dismantling Racial Injustice and Constructing Educational Possibilities: A Call to Action."

The title of the presentation is "Social Network Maps: Supporting STEM Leaders and Characterizing the Phenomenon of Teacher Leadership"

Swipe for more info about the presentation!!!⬅️

One of our colleagues from the University of Missouri Wipro site shared this fantastic photograph of the eclipse during totality!

The picture was take from Lake Wappapella State Park in SE Missouri.

For those camera fanatics out there, this picture was taken with a Nikon 7500, ISO 200, 1/60 sec, 300 mm focal length, f/8

Thank you so much for sharing!

Were you in the path of totality today? Here in New Jersey we were about 90% of the eclipse which was really cool! Unfortunately it's partially cloudy today so I didn't get any clear pictures of the eclipse but I think the pictures came out really cool looking with the reflection on the clouds!!! 🌞🌕🌍

As I was taking pictures, the elementary school kids got home and this little kid runs by me and he's like "what are you doing sitting here all alone" and I was like "I was taking pictures of the Sun" and he looked at my glasses and he was like "oh I have those glasses too" and then he ran away.

Kids are so awesome!!!!

Anyone have any ideas about how I could be in multiple places at once? How am I supposed to choose!

Any ideas how to be in multiple places at once???

Officially checked in and ready to go for 4 days of awesome!!! Now...what should I do for dinner???

Part 4: Present Day Organizations

There are a number of theatre troupes and organizations active today that use Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed. Here is a spotlight on several of these organizations.

Theatre of the Oppressed New York City was founded in 2011, and forms theatre groups by partnering with local organizations and social justice groups. They both train communities to perform Theatre of the Oppressed independently in addition to producing about 60 productions a year.

Kuringa Space for Theatre of the Oppressed is located in Berlin, Germany. The theatre was founded in 2011. In addition to serving the local community, the theatre is also a part of international networks along with European network TOgether, the global feminist Ma(g)dalena International Network and the Latin American network ReLATO.

Pedagogy & Theatre of the Oppressed, Inc. (PTO) supports people whose work challenges oppressive systems by promoting critical thinking and social justice through liberatory theatre and popular education. Their approaches stem from the theories and practices of Paulo Freire and Augusto Boal. They foster collaborative connections to share, develop, promote, and document liberatory theatre, popular education, and other revolutionary actions. PTO serves as a resource for oppressed peoples and their allies in diverse communities, contexts, and traditions around the world. Their website is: https://ptoweb.org/aboutpto/

Part 3: Audience members as Spect-actors

In Theatre of the Oppressed, the audience does not sit passively and watch a play or proceeding. Instead, they are active participants, or spect-actors. Additionally, there is a facilitator, or joker, who is a neutral party to ensure a fair proceeding, but does not comment or make judgments on any of the actions taking place.

There are a variety of ways that this type of theatre can be practiced, and is much too long to go into here (unfortunately). So I will list them and encourage you to check them out yourself:

Image Theatre
Forum Theatre
Invisible Theatre
Invisible Theatre
Newspaper Theatre
Rainbow of Desire
Legislative Theatre

Part 2: Augusto Boal

Theatre of the Oppressed was founded by Augusto Boal who was born in Brazil in 1931. He graduated from Columbia University and returned to Brazil to work at the Arena Theatre of Sao Paulo. His work at the Arena Theatre led to his experimentation with new forms of theatre that would have an extraordinary impact on traditional practice.

His most significant contribution was the innovative ways that he changed the theater experience. Prior to his work, audiences were invited to discuss a play at the end of the performance. In so doing, according to Boal, they remained viewers and “reactors” to the action before them. In the 1960s Boal developed a process whereby audience members could stop a performance and suggest different actions for the character experiencing oppression, and the actor playing that character would then carry out the audience suggestions. But at one performance, a woman in the audience was so outraged the actor could not understand her suggestion that she came onto the stage and showed what she meant.

For Boal this was the birth of the spect-actor (not spectator) and his theatre was transformed. He began inviting audience members with suggestions for change onto the stage to demonstrate their ideas. In so doing, he discovered that through this participation the audience members became empowered not only to imagine change but to actually practice that change, reflect, and become empowered to generate social action. Theatre became a practical vehicle for grass-roots activism.

In 1964, a military regime took over Brazil. He was exiled for 14 years for his "controversial" teaching. During his exile, he wrote books and travelled, working mostly with people in small, poor communities.

This biography does not begin to touch upon the work that Augusto Boal produced or the lives whom he touched. I strongly encourage you to read more about this fantastic innovative activist.

Biography information from Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed https://ptoweb.org/

Part 1: Pedagogy of the Oppressed

We started our retreat with a series of “Theatre of the Oppressed” exercises. This was entirely new to me (and it seemed to most of our participants) so here's a little background!

Theatre of the Oppressed is based on the work of the Brazilian theatre practitioner Augusto Boal which he began in the 1960s. His work was inspired by Paulo Freire and in particular his book titled Pedagogy of the Oppressed. If you have ever heard about the critique of education as a banking model, this idea came from Paulo Freire. Basically, the banking model of education treats students as empty vessels into which teachers make deposits of knowledge. Instead, Freire proposed a problem-posing model, which encourages discussion between the teacher and student, so everyone learns from the experience.

On January 26th, we had a half day retreat. Unfortunately, this was our snow day, so not everyone who was originally going to attend was able to make the snow date, but we still had a great showing!

Here's some of the takeaways from our participants:

✅Collaboration with a team is very important. Talking out problems and designing solutions helps us to create better outcomes.

✅Look at the world in different ways.

✅No one should have to feel like they are working alone.

✅ Investing in learners and leaders can promote systemic change.

Here's an update from our SOA (STEMM Opportunity Alliance) partner, Mount Sinai Icahn School of Medicine. Come see what great work they're doing!

Check out the Partner Focus highlights for a link to the post!