Kaleidoscopic pedagogy of compassion: decolonising a theatre arts curriculum through collecting, reflecting on and patterning the ordinary

A kaleidoscope is a cylindrical instrument with two reflecting surfaces placed at opposing angles on each end. It is filled with colourful everyday materials like beads and trinkets, which, when viewed through the inclined mirrors, polarises light, creating mesmerising symmetrical patterns. As an object, the kaleidoscope is a product of both physics and visual art, combining science and aesthetics to transform the ordinary into the spectacular and to make sense of chaos. In an unpublished conversation on the process of making theatre, South African director Barney Simon remarked that this is ‘how we must work: use the simple everyday things and rearrange them so that they create patterns – patterns that can transform ways of seeing the commonplace. The way of [making and teaching] art lies in selecting and arranging these things with care.’ (Simon Citation1989). As theatre-makers and lecturers in the Theatre and Performance department at the Wits School of Arts in Johannesburg, we propose that the collective practice of assembling and co-teaching our Theatre Arts 3B course is like making a kaleidoscope: we construct the curriculum by collating multiple materials – knowledges, analytical tools and academic conventions (formal and informal, hidden and overt) – which we combine with our students’ everyday encounters and experiences. We then collect these seemingly unconnected pieces, position ourselves, and reflect upon them through multiple lenses that reflect to us. It is then, through continuous debate and critique, that we can identify and (de)construct patterns that transform students’ (and our own) ways of seeing, knowing, practising and writing about Theatre and Performance. In this paper, we will disassemble and make visible the mechanics of our kaleidoscopic student-centred pedagogy, positioning ourselves as people, artists and teachers to create new, anti-hierarchical patterns that build more reflective, inclusive and decolonial teaching practices rooted in our everyday knowledge.