Abstract

This research presents key findings from a Concordia University (Montreal, Quebec) arts-based action research study, that used Theatre of the Oppressed techniques to support educators in addressing racial and ethnic microaggressions (or racialized microaggressions) in higher education classrooms. Theatre of the Oppressed’s inherent capacity to attune to the body, the relational and the affective influenced the creation of a racial and ethnic microaggression strategy roadmap called the Pause-Reflect-Respond model that encourages students and educators to work through and learn from the emotional and psychophysiological activation caused by racialized microaggressions. The Pause-Reflect-Respond model employs a harm reduction approach that aims to address racialized microaggressions and return the classroom to a space for optimal learning. The model seeks to protect the targets of racialized microaggressions from further harm, educate microaggression enactors and to foster collective responsibility for racial and ethnic microaggression by contextualizing their systemic nature. Pause-Reflect-Respond’s capacity to serve students and educators from diverse social locations will be critiqued and recommendations to increase the model’s applicability, relevance, and inclusiveness across racial and ethnic microaggression contexts will be shared.