29. Research on Arts Education
Paper
Culturally Responsive and Care-Based Methods Incorporating 21st Century Digital Tools in the Theoretical Teaching of Dance University Students
Agota Tongori
Hungarian Dance University, Hungary
Presenting Author: Tongori, Agota
The earlier low level of scholarly attention on care in higher education (Walker & Gleaves, 2016) has seen a recent rise in the era of uncertainty due to wars, environmental threats and pandemics, as we are re-formulating the concept of knowing and living in the „Anthropocene” (Malone & Young, 2023). In light of the growing diversity among university students in terms of culture, social background, and language, there is a demand for transformative pedagogies (Lopez & Olan, 2018). These pedagogies require educators who establish compassionate relationships, fostering learner well-being. In this respect, we are viewing compassion in a positive light, as it has always been seen by non-Western cultures (White, 2017). This approach aligns with the novel methods in intercultural education (Kawalilak & Lock, 2018; Tongori, 2023) as well as the pedagogy of care. Both emphasize mutual respect and fostering genuine dialogue (Barek, 2023) along with „making kin”, which translates as experimenting within a shared student-teacher environment with a more “symbiotic” relationship (Duraiappah, 2018, p. 1; Malone & Young, 2023). Caring, and being culturally responsive [as well as interculturally competent] as an educator could also be regarded as identical approaches in that teaching builds on ethnically diverse students’ own cultural experiences to avoid inflicting on them a cultural dominance with unfavourable or even debilitating effects (Gay, 2018).
Incorporating the principles of culturally responsive pedagogy and the pedagogy of care, the objective of the activities to be introduced was to create educational spaces where learners feel seen as individuals and cared for, fostering reciprocal care for others. The integration of indispensable 21st-century digital and AI-powered tools provided avenues for creativity and developing critical thinking. The aim of the presentation is to reflect on the care-based practices proposed.
In addressing the need for transformative pedagogies, the research questions formulated are as follows: Is it possible to achieve the development of student engagement, collaboration, research skills, critical thinking, and creativity through cultural information exchange in a caring environment? Additionally, do care-based, culturally responsive methods contribute to the well-being of the dance university students involved? These questions aim to explore the effectiveness of the implemented pedagogical approaches.
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedCare could take various forms, from course design to ways of offering help during the teaching-learning process, to the manner of interacting with students, to what extent and how regularly interest in their well-being is expressed (Bali, 2020).
The presentation explores activities conducted with a diverse multinational group of students attending the practical courses for training 'ballet artist' and 'dancer and coach' students, however, also taking theoretical courses relating to host country culture and the dance culture of students’ country of origin as well as English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classes. The students were encouraged to make their own choices in their research, enjoying the benefits of a supportive environment, including the teacher and the student body. Cultural immersion in the classes did not only serve to acquaint them with the host country's culture but also fostered a shared environment, promoting equality, homeliness, and a sense of belonging. This shared foundation also facilitated the exchange of their respective cultural heritages through digital products, characterized by mutual interest, appreciation, and respect. In EFL classes, eliciting the subtopics from students to match their cultural interests and providing culturally appropriate materials to make students feel comfortable and base their own learning experiences on were the key elements of culturally responsive pedagogy.
The project methodology comprised several steps within the 90-minute time frame. The structure of a class was dependent on the nature of the course (culture- or language-related). However, project-like activities had the following steps: (1) initial instruction and demonstration of basic knowledge and skills by the teacher; (2) independent research by students using their digital devices; (3) creation of a product using various digital tools; (4) presentation and communication of the product; and (5) assessment of products by peers and the teacher. The pre-teaching step involved introducing the new topic, demonstrating the use of suggested digital platforms or tools, and presenting a sample product. During subsequent sessions, students showcased their products, ranging from storyboards to slide-show-supported presentations, from virtual museums to posters and videos to peers and the teacher. Evaluation followed a pre-agreed criterion-referenced assessment rubric (also fostering student well-being), rating categories such as content accuracy, content depth, organization, and style on a 1-5 point scale. Learner feedback was also invited in the form of digital sticky notes to allow the students to reflect on the processes and what they took away with them.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsLooking back at our research questions, taking into account the teaching-learning processes studied based on the literature discussed as well as student feedback, we can make the following observations: The outcomes observed from the flexible exchange of conventional teacher-student roles to collegial and interdependent ones resulted in heightened student engagement and the fostering of collaboration. By incorporating digital and/or Ai-powered tools, enhancement of research skills, stimulation of critical thinking and creativity also took place, together with the practical application of skills through the exchange of cultural information. Based on student feedback and teacher observation, the classes made the participants feel engaged, relaxed and cared for.
ReferencesAnderson, V., Rabello, R. C. C., Wass, R., Golding, C., Rangi, A., Eteuati, E., Bristowe, Z., & Waller, A. (2019). Good teaching as care in higher education. Higher Education, 79(1), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-019-00392-6
Bali, M. (2020, May 29). Pedagogy of Care: COVID-19 Edition. Reflecting Allowed. https://blog.mahabali.me/educational-technology-2/pedagogy-of-care-covid-19-edition/
Barek, H. (2023, August). Pedagogies of Care in Precarity — SAGE Research Methods Community. Sage Research Methods Community. https://researchmethodscommunity.sagepub.com/blog/pedagogies-of-care-in-precarity
Duraiappah, A. K. (2018). Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Education. The Blue Dot, 9(18), 1. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000366389.locale=en
Gay, G. (2018). Culturally Responsive Teaching: Theory, Research, and Practice (3rd ed.). Teachers College Press.
Tongori, A. (2023). Ki a mester és ki a tanítvány? / Who is the Master and Who is the Student?: Interkulturális szerepcsere a nemzetközi táncos hallgatók “elméleti” képzésében / International Role Reversal in the “Theoretical” Training of International Dance Students. In D. E. Szente (Ed.), IX. Nemzetközi Tánctudományi Konferencia - Műfajok, módszerek, mesterek a táncművészetben - Programok és Absztraktok / 9th International Conference on Dance Science - Genres, Methods, Masters in Dance - Programme and Abstracts. Magyar Táncművészeti Egyetem. https://mte.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Absztraktkotet.pdf
White, R. (2017). Compassion in Philosophy and Education. In P. Gibbs (Ed.), The Pedagogy of Compassion at the Heart of Higher Education (Vol. 1, pp. 19–31). Springer.
29. Research on Arts Education
Paper
Compassionate Inquiry: Digital Storytelling and the Ethics of Care in Higher Education
Sophie Ward, Teti Dragas, Laura Mazzoli Smith, Kirsty Ross, Zhijing Mao
Durham University
Presenting Author: Ward, Sophie
This paper reports on the use of Digital Storytelling (DS) as a mode of pedagogy in a year one Education Studies undergraduate module. Building on Bozalek et al’s (2016) research into how an ethics of care may be used to analyse the dialogic aspects of feedback, we consider how DS, as summative assessment, may foreground care ethics such as ‘attentiveness, responsibility, competence, responsiveness and trust’ (826). Our interest in this topic stems from concerns shared by the authors over the impact on staff and students of the massification of higher education, defined as the rapid increase in student enrolment from the end of the twentieth century onwards (Hornsby & Osman, 2014). Although the expansion of higher education (HE) has been broadly welcomed, international research on the massification of HE has noted numerous concerns including changes to the content and delivery of courses that negatively affect course outcomes (Monks & Schmidt, 2011); the diminishment of interaction between staff and students (Wang & Calvano, 2022); a reduction in the variety of teaching and assessment methods (Msiza, Ndhlovu & Raseroka, 2020), and an increase in ‘work-related stress, burnout, and mental health difficulties’ amongst staff (Brewster et al, 2022, 549). Research indicates that overworked staff often provide generic and superficial feedback to students who are ‘fixated on grades’ (Jones et al, 2021, 446) and who sometimes resort to plagiarism ‘to find the shortest and least stressful way to complete their coursework or program requirements’ (Fatima et al, 2020, 35).
Massification presents several challenges to the ethics of care. First, exponents of the ethics of care reject the utilitarian tendency to think of the ‘moral good in terms of acts that produce the greatest good for the greatest number’ (Noddings, 2013, 154). Second, exponents of the ethics of care reject traditional theories about ethics that place justice as the foundation of morality (Gilligan, 1982), arguing instead that care should be the foundation of ethics, with justice as the superstructure (Noddings, 2013). This approach requires us to establish a ‘sensible, receptive, and responsive’ relationship with individuals (Noddings, 2013, 42) rather than ‘abstract away from the concrete situation those elements that allow a formulation of deductive argument’ (42) about the optimal way to interact with them. Under massification, ‘engrossment, or “feeling with”’ (Diller, 2018, 327) students is often difficult for staff, as it is seemingly impossible for a large cohort of students to fill our ‘field of attention’ (327) in the same way that a smaller group might. Arguably, the widespread use of student satisfaction surveys exemplifies the shift towards the formulation of deductive arguments about the optimalisation of staff-student interactions under massification (see for example Winstone et al, 2022). Third, if diligent teaching staff attempt to implement an ethics of care on massified programmes they may compound their ‘work-related stress, burnout, and mental health difficulties’ (Brewster et al, 2022, 549) by going “above and beyond” already unrealistic performance expectations.
Mindful of these concerns, this study asks if DS has the potential to facilitate compassionate enquiry grounded in the ethics of care in the context of a large, international cohort of first year undergraduate students.
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedDigital Storytelling (DS) is an educational practice informed by the belief that ‘narrative is one of the fundamental sense-making operations of the mind’ (Lodge, 1990, 4). For DS, this sense-making has two salient dimensions: (i) by telling stories about our lives, we become aware of the dynamic forces that shape our values, behaviours, and motivations (Ward, Mazzoli Smith & Dragas, 2023); (ii) by combining these stories with digital media such as images, audio, and video, we create multimodal vignettes that help other people “walk in our shoes”.
At the end of the Education Studies module, students attended three lectures on the purpose and method of DS and two seminars in which they (i) viewed and discussed examples of DS; (ii) shared their stories about a learning experience that was of value to them. As part of their summative assessment, the students were asked to (i) combine their personal narrative with voice recording, text, and music to create a DS that could be uploaded to the online assessment portal; (ii) write a 500–1000-word Reflection on their DS, exploring connections between their personal experience and theories/theorists encountered on the module.
Our analysis of the students’ work was informed by Noddings’ (2013, 186) rejection of the deification of abstract goals such as ‘“critical thinking, “and “critical reading,” and “critical reasoning”’, which often feature as intended learning outcomes on undergraduate modules. In asking students to create a DS and reflect on it, our aim was to help them think deeply about educational theory, and to care about it, through dialogue that enabled them to ‘come into contact with ideas and to understand, to meet the other and to care’ (Noddings, 2013, 186). This approach required us to acknowledge that whenever we describe ourselves or our actions to others, we are creating a story about ourselves (Parry, 1997). A reflection on how we came to create a DS is, then, a story about a story, so instead of asking if the students’ Reflections were authentic accounts of their storytelling process, we assessed their ability to articulate how a real-world experience (e.g., exam anxiety) finds expression in/is explained by educational theory, and why we should care about this. To discover how the classroom helped this process, we held a teaching-team focus group to share our experiences of working with the students as they developed their personal narratives.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsThe images used in the DS ranged from bleak to humorous: some students created animations or still images to convey their emotions, and many of the students used their Reflection to articulate alignment between their DS’s audio-visual content and the module content. Many of the students’ personal narratives invoked experiences of constraint and release, and collectively the DS and Reflections tell a story of oppressive educational practices that young people are subjected to internationally. As noted by Sykes and Gachago (2018, 95), we are always ‘entangled in each other and in the world’, and the students used their storytelling to respond to this entanglement with compassion, often thanking people who had helped them at school or college and promising to help others.
We began our focus group discussion with our most pressing concern, which was the lack of continuity with seminar attendance that made it difficult for seminar leaders and students to build rapport. Although some of our students seemed unable or reluctant to engage consistently with their designated seminar group, they were willing to ‘become a witness to the other’ and to themselves (Ellis, 2017, 439) in their DS seminars. Personal storytelling seems, therefore, to help overcome some of the issues around massification identified in this paper.
Educators who care for many students risk becoming exhausted (Brewster et al, 2022), and the wellbeing of our teaching team on this module is an important consideration. However, in our focus group we agreed that the use of DS was not onerous, and that it afforded us pleasure to view and read the students’ work.
Arguably, the DS and Reflections helped our students to discover how their lived experiences fuse with educational theory and helped them to find community in the classroom.
ReferencesBozalek, V., Mitchell, V., Dison, A., & Alperstein, Mgg. (2016). A diffractive reading of dialogical feedback through the political ethics of care. Teaching in Higher Education, 21(7), 825-838.
Brewster, L., Jones, E., Priestley, M., Wilbraham, S. J., Spanner, L., & Hughes, G. (2022). ‘Look after the staff and they would look after the students’ cultures of wellbeing and mental health in the university setting. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 46(4), 548-560.
Diller, A. (2018). The ethics of care and education: A new paradigm, its critics, and its educational significance. In The gender question in education. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 89-104.
Ellis, C. (2017). Compassionate Research: Interviewing and storytelling from a relational ethics of care. In: Goodson, I. (Ed.) The Routledge International Handbook on Narrative and Life History. Abingdon: Routledge, 431-445.
Gilligan, C. (1982). In A Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development. Harvard: Harvard University Press.
Hornsby, D. J., & Osman, R. (2014). Massification in higher education: Large classes and student learning. Higher education, 67, 711-719.
Jones, E., Priestley, M., Brewster, L., Wilbraham, S. J., Hughes, G., & Spanner, L. (2021). Student wellbeing and assessment in higher education: The balancing act. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 46(3), 438-450.
Lodge, D. (1990). Narration with words. In: H. Barlow, C. Blakemore & M. Weston-Smith (Eds.) Images and Understanding. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Noddings, N. (2013). Caring: A Relational Approach to Ethics and Moral Education. Second Edition, Updated. London: University of California Press, Ltd.
Parry, A. (1997). Why We Tell Stories: The Narrative Construction of Reality, Transactional Analysis Journal, 27:2, 118-127.
Sykes, P., & Gachago, D. (2018). Creating “safe-ish” learning spaces‒Attempts to practice an ethics of care. South African Journal of Higher Education, 32(6), 83-98.
Ward, S., Mazzoli Smith, L. and Dragas, T. (2023). Discovering your philosophy of education through Digital Storytelling. In: Pulsford, M., Morris, R. & Purves, R. (eds.) Understanding Education Studies: critical issues and new directions. Abingdon: Routledge.
29. Research on Arts Education
Paper
The Art of Coexistence: Towards Pedagogies of Care and Solidarity in times of uncertainty
Daniela Lehner
Graz University, Austria
Presenting Author: Lehner, Daniela
In this contribution I try to explore pedagogies that support the creation of a collective imagination of interdependence based on care and solidarity. With the art of coexistence, I mean a collective co-creation of new narratives and values that are based on the interbeing of all life. We are always involved, embedded and in interaction and therefore we need a new understanding of being, knowing and community. These are not moral imperatives but rather a relational understanding of subjectivity that is based on the experience of belonging and being part of this world. An ethic of care starts from the understanding that all beings need care. It is the realization that all life is related and connected (Bozalek, Zembylas & Tronto, 2021; Barad, 2007; Braidotti, 2006).
How can we understand the world as relational and entangled instead of focusing on the dominant reductionism of life? I argue that we are currently experiencing a crisis that is characterized by the worldmaking practices of Western modernity that are based on exploitation and separation including modes of knowing and being that cause violence (e.g. Escobar, 2007; Quijano, 2007; Hall, 1992; Mignolo, 2011; Maldonado-Torres, 2008; Zembylas, 2017). The imperial mode of living pervades our institutions and understanding of education. These hierarchical and separating modes of being are not life-sustaining for the world and future generations (Andreotti, 2021; Akomolafe, 2017; Brand & Wissen, 2017). Given the complex social and ecological challenges as well as the uncertainties that we currently face, we need new and varied ways to engage with the world and tap into our collective creativity. Interdependence as a process of reconnecting to self, others and the world, cannot be done just sporadically or on a purely intellectual level. Rather, instead the practice and awareness of the interconnectedness of all life are part of a continuous process of remembering. Such reconnection relies on tapping into the intelligence that lies beyond our thinking minds and includes the wholeness of human experience. I argue that arts-based approaches are crucial to disrupt habitual linear and rational ways and engage with embodied and sensory experiences to open up new ways of seeing, being, doing, and knowing? (Bishop & Etmanski, 2021, p. 133; Adams & Owens, 2021).
The aim of this contribution is to recognize the transformative potential of arts-based approaches as a practice to reimagine, interrupt, insist and resist as we engage collectively to better understand societal issues (Adams & Owens, 2021). I will provide examples, photo voice and zining/collage for perspective change, care and solidarity from a higher education class I facilitated. These approaches were particularly effective at opening up new ways of being, knowing and doing as well as perspective change, realizing plural realities, and multiple systems of knowing and being. Learners move from individual to collective meaning-making and start connecting inner worlds with outer realities. The students created photos on their understanding of peace and showed them to the class, promting various perspectves from the group and afterwards the phototaker provides his/her perspective on it. We live in a century that is full of images, but we do not really see them. To create a caring coexistence, it is crucial to see things from a deeper perspective and with a deeper awareness. Another form to express oneself beyond text is zining. Historically, zines have been a form of expression for marginalized communities to share their stories and organise (French & Curd, 2022). I will give examples from zining as collage work to highlight the possibility to express political thoughts about solidarity with nature via zines.
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedIn this contribution I will firstly reflect theoretically on the onto-epistemological premises of modernity and coloniality, considering them through the lens of postcolonial and decolonial theory (e.g. Said, 1978; Quijano, 2000; Hall, 1992; Mignolo, 2011; Maldonado-Torres, 2008) as well as a feminist/posthumanist approach (e.g. Bozalek, Zembylas & Tronto, 2021; Haraway, 1988; Barad, 2007; Braidotti, 2006) to highlight relational and caring understandings of the word. Further, I will look at pedagogical approaches to reflecting on and transforming the violences of modernity (e.g. Andreotti, 2011; Zembylas, 2018; Castro Varela, 2007) and highlight especially the potential of arts-based methods towards a co-existence of solidarity and care. I introduce art-based teaching methods (Photovoice and Zining/ Collage Woork) and give examples of the students art and their experiences. Photovoice is a participatory community method to create social change. Wang and Burris (1997) describe Photovoice as a method by which people can identify, represent, and enhance their community through photography. Theoretically it draws on feminist theory (Collins, 1990) and critical pedagogy (Freire, 1990) and the call for the co-creation of knowledge and community-based social action. Members of the community create visual material on a socially relevant topic that impacts the community and policy-makers (Liebenberg, 2018). Similarly, to photo voice, zines can be used for participatory community work to create social change. I will show zines as collage work from students that show art as advocacy for solidarity and ecological awareness (French & Curd, 2022).
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsWith this contribution I tried to formulate an arts-based teaching and learning approach that enhances learners’ ability to think, feel and act interdependently, allowing for the coexistence of different worlds and realities. This means to re-envision strategies for education that encourage relational ways of knowing and being in a more-than-human world, and thus open up the collective imagination to interdependence beyond a dualistic and separatist ontology that is based on dominance and suppression. The arts-based approaches photo voice and zine/collage work were particularly effective at opening up new ways of being, knowing and doing as well as perspective change, realizing plural realities, and multiple systems of knowing and being. Students realized that universally prevalent narratives about peace and a good life for all are always imperfect, contradictory and uncertain, but we do need new narratives about care and solidarity. The students experienced collective meaning-making and the potential of imagination for a peaceful coexistence.
ReferencesAdams, J. & Owens, A. (2021). Beyond Text. Learning through Arts-Based Research. Intellect.
Andreotti, V.d. O. (2021). Hospicing Modernity: Facing Humanity's Wrongs and the Implications for Social Activism. North Atlantic Books.
Andreotti, V.d. O. (2011). Actionable Postcolonial Theory in Education. Palgrave Macmillan.
Akomolafe, B. (2017). These wilds beyond our fences. Letters to my daughter on humanity’s search for home. North Atlantic Books.
Barad, K. (2007). Meeting the universe halfway. Duke University Press.
Bishop, K. & Etmanski, C. (2021). Down the rabbit hole: Creating a transformative learning environment. Studies in the Education of Adults, 53(2), 133–145.
Bozalek, V., Zembylas, M. & Tronto, J.C. (2021). Posthuman and Political Care Ethics for Reconfiguring Higher Education Pedagogies. Routledge.
Braidotti, R. (2006). Transpositions: On nomadic ethics. Polity Press.
Brand, U. & Wissen, M. (2017). Imperiale Lebensweise. Zur Ausbeutung von Mensch und Natur im globalen Kapitalismus. Oekom.
Castro Varela, M. d. M. (2007). Verlernen und Strategie des unsichtbaren Ausbesserns. Bildung und Postkoloniale Kritik. Bildpunkt. Zeitschrift der IG Bildende Kunst, 4–12.
Collins P. H. (1990). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness and the politics of empowerment. Unwin Hyman
Escobar, A. (2007). Worlds and Knowledges Otherwise, Cultural Studies, 21(2-3), 179–210.
Freire, P. (1990). Pedagogy of the oppressed. Continuum Press.
French, J. & Curd, E. (2022). Zining as artful method: Facilitating zines as participatory action research within art museums. Action research, 20(1) 77–95
Haraway, D. (1988). Situated Knowledges. The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective, Feminist Studies 14(3), 575–599.
Hall, S. (1992). The West and the Rest. Discourse and Power. In S. Hall & B. Gieben (Eds.), Formations of Modernity (pp. 275–321). Polity Press.
Liebenberg, L. (2018). Thinking Critically About Photovoice: Achieving Empowerment and Social Change. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 17(1).
Maldonado-Torres, N. (2008). Against War. Views from the Underside of Modernity. Duke University Press.
Mignolo, W. D. (2011). The darker side of Western modernity: Global futures, decolonial options. Duke University Press.
Quijano, A. (2007). COLONIALITY AND MODERNITY/RATIONALITY, Cultural Studies, 21(2-3), 168–178.
Said, E. W. (1994). Culture and imperialism.Vintage Books.
Wang, C. & Burris, M. A. (1997). Photovoice: Concept, Methodology, and Use for Participatory Needs Assessment, Health Education & Behavior, 24(3), 369–387
Zembylas, M. (2017). The quest for cognitive justice: towards a pluriversal human rights education, Globalisation, Societies and Education, 15(4), 397–409.
Zembylas, M. (2018). Con-/divergences between postcolonial and critical peace education: towards pedagogies of decolonization in peace education, Journal of Peace Education, 15(1), 1–23.
29. Research on Arts Education
Paper
Recording what’s out there: Video Documentary as an Arts Educative Practice in Youth Work
Diederik Mark De Ceuster
University College Leuven Limb, Belgium
Presenting Author: De Ceuster, Diederik Mark
Context
Too often we think of arts education as solely a medium for self-expression. Within the current dominant field of student-centred education, with a high focus on individual learning paths, there is a risk for arts education to become self-centred and individualistic. In this "research in practice project", we have put a world-centred (rather than student-centred) view on arts education into practice by setting up ethnographic video documentary projects in several youth organisations in various European countries, including Limerick Youth Service in Ireland, Asociatia Curba de Cultură in Romania and Theaterhuis Mals Vlees in Belgium, along with the European Confederation of Youth Clubs and the UCLL, funded by the EU’s Erasmus+ programme under the name of Rural Youth Cinema. During the 2023 edition of ECER in Glasgow, we presented the preliminary results of this project. We are now reaching the end of this project and will present our final results, good practices developed along the way, and our thoughts on the pedagogical and educational consequences of our approach.
Rationale
The decision of focussing on documentary making stemmed from a combination of pedagogical and pragmatic considerations. The medium of film and videomaking is relatively new as an arts educative practice in youth work. It has only been a decade since, particularly among younger generations, the accessibility and widespread availability of video creation increased significantly. Especially in the last few years, the rising popularity of video platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok have made video content a prevalent experience for many youngsters, who now engage with it both as consumers and creators. From a pragmatic perspective, it can be effective to tap into this resource and explore this medium that virtually all youngsters already have some familiarity with. Moreover, for youth clubs it can be a low-expense medium as well, as smartphones have become ubiquitous. And yet from a pedagogical perspective, it is especially interesting as a focus on video documentary making is founded on a collaborative basis of co-creation, in which the makers (i.e. the youngsters) are compelled to adopt an outward view, into the world around them. In the act of “recording what is out there”, there is an alluring dynamic of agency between the maker and the medium, in which ephemeral elements and local ecosystems are elevated in favour of self-expression.
Goals and research questions
The goal of this Erasmus+ project, Rural Youth Cinema, is to explore audio-visual, ethnographic documentation as a tool for arts education through a hands-on, collaborative project. The results of this project are twofold: 1) there are the documentaries made in the various countries. These are testaments of the youth work and the local environments in which they were made, but also exemplify the artistic and educational potential of the practice. And 2) we have developed a qualitative methodology to guide youth workers in using ethnographic documentary making in their day-to-day activities. While existing guides focus on the technical tips to work with (smartphone) cameras, in our research we focused on the questions what does it mean to make documentaries with young, sometimes disadvantaged, people? How can documentary making promote and contribute to other arts education youth work activities? And above all, how can it thrive as an sustainable developing arts educative practice?
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedFor this project, we have chosen to adopt a flexible methodology to pragmatically accommodate the operational differences among various organizations. More importantly, we view this project as an explorative and foundational study on the significance of ethnographic documentary in youth work, where specific results and recommendations were unknown at the project's inception.
From the outset, our clear decision was to focus on ethnography as a broad direction for the documentaries. Similar to ethnographic or ethno-fictive writing, ethnographic documentary making possesses the unique ability not only to provide a voice for the author/documentary makers but also to highlight this voice (or voices) within the local environment. The makers, in this case, the youngsters, are featured on camera as they move and interact within their community. Consequently, documentary making becomes more than just a creative practice; it becomes a visual representation of the connections between the artistic medium (video documentary) and the context, environment, and day-to-day activities in which it unfolds.
In the first phase of this project, we sought to emphasise experimentation and learning through doing. Youngsters were sent outside to make short video fragments without any clear instructions on filming technique, duration, subject, etc. It all started with the question to simply record what is out there, as short, fragmented diaries. These initial experiments serve as inspiration for the production of more comprehensive documentaries in the subsequent phase. A total of six documentaries will be created and showcased in the three participating countries.
Following the presentation of these documentaries, we will develop a qualitative guide that delves into the various challenges and opportunities inherent in such a documentary project. Consequently, the activities and documentary work undertaken by the different partners serve as test case studies, mapping and analysing both the practical and artistic elements of documentary making.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsIn our presentation at ECER 2023 , which marked the halfway point of this project, we hypothesised that the medium of documentary making could act as an in-between instrument in which both forms of creativity and forms of reflection, and both forms of expression and forms of experience, could be integrated. As we are reaching the end of the project, we find that especially in the latter, in the reflective outward-looking element of documentary making, there is a great arts educative potential. It is the directness of videography, similar to photography, that affords an attitude of adaptiveness and sensitivity to the surroundings and the material that can be translated to other art forms as well. Moreover, there was great value in the collaborative aspect of making a documentary together, giving agency to the youngsters as groups with mixing roles.
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