A raison d'être for making a reggae opera as a pedagogical tool for psychic emancipation in (post)colonial Jamaica

Article


Bell, D. 2015. A raison d'être for making a reggae opera as a pedagogical tool for psychic emancipation in (post)colonial Jamaica. International Journal of Inclusive Education. 20 (6), pp. 278-291. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2015.1047657
AuthorsBell, D.
Abstract

Critical participatory action research is a form of community engagement and knowledge generation which, when represented semiotically, may promote social transformation. In this paper, I describe a critical participatory action research project I undertook as a liberation psychologist and researcher in (post)colonial Jamaica. I summarise a narrative psychological portrait of downpressing produced by analysing participant's relationship to state violence using a voice-centred method of analysis. Denied racism and classism are found to dominate the way in which downpressors relate to others they inferiorise. I discuss the raison d'être for animating the psychology of the downpressor in a performance piece, a reggae opera. Such a piece of community art could be a pedagogical tool for psychic emancipation. Finally, I describe challenges and potentials encountered in an effort to forge an aesthetic synthesis among multiple pieces of conscious art.

Keywordscritical participatory action research; social transformation; downpressing; reggae opera; community art
JournalInternational Journal of Inclusive Education
Journal citation20 (6), pp. 278-291
ISSN1360-3116
1464-5173
Year2015
PublisherTaylor & Francis (Routledge)
Accepted author manuscript
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2015.1047657
Publication dates
Print02 Jun 2015
Publication process dates
Deposited24 Feb 2017
Accepted08 Apr 2015
Copyright informationThis is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in International Journal of Inclusive Education on 02/06/2015, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13603116.2015.1047657
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