Abstract
This chapter discusses the use of poststructural theory as a way to inform identity work within a youth-led HIV prevention program in Asia, entitled NewGen. Many HIV prevention programs which serve those “at risk” focus on changing the behaviors that are deemed to put the individual at risk; however, this places a disproportionate focus on individual rather than sociocultural explanations and can inadvertently lead to stigmatization and exclusion. Using a logic of change informed by a poststructuralist understanding of identity opens the space to create a different kind of program, one in which the emphasis is on a repositioning from victim to leader. A poststructural focus on positioning and subjectivity emphasizes the socially constructed nature of identity and highlights the importance of social factors, rather than individual behavior, in the ways identities are formed and lived. The pedagogies used within the program are designed to facilitate a (re)positioning, (re)imagining, and (re)enactment of the self. The course positions participants as leaders and advocates rather than simply as members of key populations identified to be at higher risk of HIV exposure. In this chapter the ways poststructural theory informs the design of the NewGen course are discussed. Data collected about participants’ experiences of the NewGen course illustrates their response to the methodology as a form of identity work.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Butler, J. (1999). Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity (1999 ed.). New York: Routledge.
Butler, J. (2004). Undoing gender. New York: Routledge.
Butler, J. (2007). An account of oneself. In B. Davies (Ed.), Judith butler in conversation: Analyzing the texts and talk of everyday life. New York: Routledge.
Cahill, H. (2010a). Drama for Intergenerational Dialogue: Researching Youth Views about the Future. NJ (Drama Australia Journal). 33(2), 7–20.
Cahill, H. (2010b). Re-thinking the fiction/reality boundary: investigating the use of drama in HIV prevention projects in Vietnam. RIDE. 15(2), 152–172.
Cahill, H. (2012). Form and governance: considering the drama as a ‘technology of the self’ RiDE: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, 1–20.
Cahill, H. (2014a). Re-thinking role-play for health and wellbeing: Creating a pedagogy of possibility. In J. McLeod & K. Wright (Eds.), Rethinking youth wellbeing: Critical Perspectives Singapore: Springer.
Cahill, H. (2014b). Withholding the personal story: Using theory to orient practice in applied theatre about HIV and human rights. Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, 19(1), 23–38.
Cahill, H., Beadle, S., & Coffey, J. (2013). NewGen Asia: Building capacity in emerging young leaders in the HIV response. Research Report 41. Melbourne: University of Melbourne.
Davies, B. (1989). The discursive production of the male/female dualism in school settings. Oxford Review of Education, 15(3), 229–241.
Davies, B. (1993). Shards of Glass: Children reading and writing beyond gendered identities. Sydney: Allen and Unwin.
Davies, B. (1994). Post-structuralist theory and classroom practice. Geelong: Deakin University Press.
Davies, B. (2006). Subjectification: The relevance of Butler’s analysis for education. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 27(4), 425–438.
Davies, B., Dormer, S., Gannon, S., Laws, C., Rocco, S., Taguchi, H., & Helen, M. C. (2001). Becoming schoolgirls: The ambivalent project of subjectification. Gender and Education, 13(2), 167–182.
Foucault, M. (1980). Power/knowledge selected interviews and other writings 1972–1977. Brighton, Sussex: The Harvester Press.
France, A. (2000). Towards a sociological understanding of youth and their risk-taking. Journal of Youth Studies, 3(3), 317–331.
Kesby, M. (2005). Retheorizing empowerment-through-participation as a performance in space: Beyond tyranny to transformation. Signs, 30(4), 2037–2065.
UNAIDS. (2011a). HIV in Asia and the pacific: Getting to zero. Bangkok: Joint United Nations Programme on HIV & AIDS.
UNAIDS. (2011b). UNAIDS terminology guidelines. Geneva: Joint United Nations Programme on HIV & AIDS.
Acknowledgments
Julia Coffey would like to acknowledge that the work was done while she was employed as a Research Fellow at the Youth Research Centre, University of Melbourne.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer Science+Business Media Singapore
About this entry
Cite this entry
Cahill, H., Coffey, J., Beadle, S. (2015). Performative Pedagogy: Poststructural Theory as a Tool to Engage in Identity Work Within a Youth-Led HIV Prevention Program. In: Wyn, J., Cahill, H. (eds) Handbook of Children and Youth Studies. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-4451-15-4_68
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-4451-15-4_68
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-4451-14-7
Online ISBN: 978-981-4451-15-4
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law