Boal and Gadamer : A complementary relationship toward critical performance pedagogy in social work education

With the ever-increasing influence of neoliberal approaches to social work education, it is now, more than ever, necessary to develop critical and creative pedagogies as counter hegemonic alternatives. In a somewhat unconventional pairing, this chapter will explicate the value of Augusto Boal’s and Hans-Georg Gadamer’s philosophical interpretations in the use of critical performance pedagogy, as a creative approach to critical social work education. Augusto Boal was a visionary theatre practitioner, activist and educator from Brazil, whose philosophical aesthetics and Theatre of the Oppressed work have been identified as useful to social work education, suggesting ways educators might support students to ‘act’ to challenge the oppressive conditions of an unjust society. Hans-Georg Gadamer, a German philosopher in the field of hermeneutics, whose ideas of tradition and play likewise support the arts as means for transformative learning conducive to social work education. The chapter will explore how critical performance pedagogy, underpinned by Boal’s and Gadamer’s philosophical teachings might provide a critical and creative strategy supporting students to develop critical understanding which includes the capacity to critically analyse unjust social conditions, make relevant links between theory and practice and motivate action for social justice and emancipatory change.