Arugula, pine nuts, and hegemony: seven women’s choreopoetic reflection on the absence of cultural relevance in educational discourse

Abstract

Choreopoetic narrative storytelling is presented here, where discourse centered on the intersections of race, class, identity, and critical consciousness is performed in a multi-perspectival interpretation of the hegemonic discourses dominating the educational domain as a result of No Child Left Behind. This interpretative and reflective piece focuses on classism, pedagogy, and policy, and highlights reactions from the authors’ experiences when they attended an academic conference focused on “instructional innovation.” Absent from the conference was a critical examination of the testing and accountability regime that dictates pedagogy and educational policy, particularly as it relates to the dispossessed – the poor and cultural, linguistic, and ethnic minorities in K-16 schools. This piece illustrates the power of choreopoetic storytelling as both an artistic and political esthetic for shaping critical consciousness in educational discourse.

Keywords:

• choreopoetic
• hegemony
• cultural relevance

Notes

1. Term coined by playwright Ntozake Shange to describe a staging blending music, dance, and poetry. Used specifically by Shange (1975) to refer to For Colored Girls who have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf. Appropriated here to exemplify the multiperspectoral, dramaturgical storytelling styles utilized by the seven culturally and lingustically diverse women.

2. California Department of Education.

3. Marcia (2006).