Abstract
This chapter explores the use of narrative and poststructuralist theory to re-think the effectiveness of role-play within health education programs for young people. It draws on examples from the author’s practice in sexuality and gender rights education to demonstrate how theory can be drawn upon to drive pedagogical innovation. The discussion illustrates the potential for “trojan stories” to re-inscribe negative social norms and subvert the objectives of the health education program. Applied examples highlight the way in which genre shifts within role-play exercises can help to dislodge a dominant story and provide a more elastic space within which to assemble new possibilities for “playing the self”. This approach can assist young people to deconstruct entrenched health-related beliefs, creating a pedagogy of possibilities within which counter-stories can be created and new options imagined and played out, which in turn holds the possibility of enhancing their wellbeing.
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Cahill, H. (2015). Rethinking Role-Play for Health and Wellbeing: Creating a Pedagogy of Possibility. In: Wright, K., McLeod, J. (eds) Rethinking Youth Wellbeing. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-188-6_8
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