Building Coalitional Spaces in Lois Weaver's Performance Pedagogy

Abstract

In Betty Sasaki’s 2002 article, “Toward a Pedagogy of Coalition,” she explicitly decries discourses of consensus, particularly those constructed by family metaphors that portray multiculturalism on the liberal arts university campus. For example, Sasaki cites materials distributed by her university that present its multicultural “differences” as all part of its “happy family.” Discourses that create seamless narrative subsume difference and assume stable identities, excluding contradictory identities like Sasaki’s biracial one. More importantly, such institutional narratives inhibit classroom interactions; students self-censor to avoid conflict and erase differences within the group. Sasaki calls instead for a “pedagogy of coalition” that builds alliances while encouraging students to recognize the multiple contradictions that exist within their own subjectivity, as well as the contradictory positions among class members that are not easily reconciled.