Collaborative art-making for inclusion and intercultural education Christina Hadjisoteriou & Panayiotis Angelides University of Nicosia Cyprus WERA, November 2014, Edinburgh, Scotland

Conceptualization Previous research Project description Methodology Outcomes SummarySummary

Collaborative Art-Making for Inclusion Children who collaborate within their art-group: have a common goal to achieve; learn to share thoughts (i.e. on stereotypes, diversity and democracy); learn to share emotions, and use critical thought to go into the others’ emotions; develop friendships and build trust with their group. Children who face learning or language difficulties are able to participate, as the art approach is different from the oral approaches.

Previous research has shown that collaborative art-making: helps teachers to effectively transfer to students intercultural values like respect to the ‘other’ and acceptance of difference (Angelides & Michaelidou, 2009). helps students see things differently, and thus certain power relations (economic, gendered, ethnic) can be altered (Cooper & Sjostrom, 2006). helps students to come closer to each other, understand each other’s emotions, see their peers from a human perspective, and think harder about their classmates regardless of race, ethnicity or social class (Rubin, 1997) Previous Research on Collaborative Art-Making

CAREM focuses on the use of collaborative art-making to address the challenge of marginalisation, xenophobia, racism and interculturalism. Adaptation, development, testing, implementation and dissemination of new teaching methodologies and pedagogical strategies for use in the classroom and the development of materials for use by students. Production of a collection of educational activities of collaborative art-making and a guide for teachers. Project description

Two year Comenius project Funded by EACEA Partners: University of Nicosia, Cyprus Universal Learning Systems, Ireland ESTA Bildungswerk, Germany Centro Per Lo Sviluppo Creativo Danilo Dolci, Italy Platon Schools, Greece Background information

What kind of teaching methodologies and educational activities of collaborative art-making allow students to: (i) engage in art-making activities regarding diversity, marginalisation and a democratic European citizenship; (ii) discuss the ‘stories’ of their creations in relation to their depiction of diversity and encounters with ‘others’; (iii) enhance their positive stances towards ‘difference’ and ‘diversity’; (iv) enhance their in-between interaction promoting the increased participation of marginalised students. Research Questions

1 st phase: Mapping the current state of affairs across the five countries. 2 nd phase:  Interviewing art-teachers, and local and migrant students across the five countries.  Thematic analysis: (a) Needs; (b) Practices, and (c) Further suggestions. 3 rd phase  Development of collaborative art-making activities according to our data analysis.  The activities were translated and localised in the languages of the consortium. Methodology 1

Three pools of activities: Encounters with difference Marginalization reduction Democratic European Citizenship Methodology 2

4 th phase: Organisation of training sessions in each country for the participant art-teachers. 5 th phase: Piloting, revision and implementation of the activities and materials of collaborative art- making in the classrooms of the participants.  Post-implementation interviews about the contribution of the activities were conducted and analysed. Methodology 3

Example of an activityactivityExamplesExamples

Pictures from implementation

There was great excitement among the groups. The groups were full of activity and the children shared thoughts and emotions. Even the most bashful children had something to say or something to show from their drawings to the team. Results of the collaboration

The implementation of the developed activities: allowed students to analyse and discuss ways to improve their stances towards "difference“; promoted students’ awareness of the importance of cultural and linguistic diversity within Europe; enabled teachers to pay particular attention to students who faced learning and language difficulties; allowed student’s ‘hidden’ voices to be heard reinforced all students’ participation in the classroom activities. OutcomesOutcomes

Thank you!