RESILIENCE IN AN EMBODIED PERSPECTIVE: THE IMPACT OF INTEGRATED ARTS EDUCATION ON EXPERIENCES OF SOUTH AFRICAN PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN POST COVID-19 LOCKDOWN
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55877/cc.vol20.2Keywords:
integrated arts education, resilience, primary school, South Africa, COVID-19 lockdownAbstract
This article seeks to deepen knowledge about how education that integrates dance and visual arts has had an impact on supporting resilience among children in a primary school in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa. The authors have for four years run a project in which the value of integrating dance and visual arts in different ways has been explored. The last workshop week took place in 2020 once schools had reopened after a long period of lockdown. The week included a focus on illuminating the children’s experiences of schooling during and after the lockdown. Through a hermeneutic phenomenological analysis of data collected using methods involving multi modal means of expression, it comes forth that the impact that this work has had, is that the children have learned to not just accept what is, but to question and be critical based on what they feel. They learned techniques to assist them to let go of tension and to feel and be aware of embodied sensations. They also had experiences of relating to their peers in new ways and used their imagination to create and express ideas. Based on this study it is concluded that when an embodied perspective is included in a theoretical understanding of the notion of resilience, and this perspective is implemented to guide educational practice, schools may be able to better promote environments that support resilience.
Downloads
References
Altrichter, H., Feldman, A., Posch, P., Somekh, B. (2008). Teachers Investigate Their Work: An Introduction to Action Research Across the Professions. New York: Routledge.
Anttila, E., Svendler Nielsen, C. (2019). Dance and the Quality of Life at Schools: A Nordic Affiliation. In: K. Bond (ed.). Dance and the Quality of Life. Dordrecht: Springer, pp. 327–345.
Barone, T., & Eisner, E. (2006). Arts-based Educational Research. In: J. L. Green, G. Camilli, & P. B. Elmore (eds.). Handbook of Complementary Methods in Education Research. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers, pp. 95–109.
Bhabha, H. K. (2004). The Location of Culture. New York: Routledge.
Blanes, R., Flynn, A., Maskens, M., & Tinius, J. (2016). Micro-Utopias: Anthropological Perspectives on Art, Relationality, and Creativity. Cadernos de Arte e Antropologia, No. 5(1), pp. 5–20.
Bourriaud, N. (2002). Relational Aesthetics. Trans. Simon Pleasance and Fronza Woods. Dijon: Les Presses du Réel.
Carretero Gomez, S., Napierala, J., Bessios, A., Mägi, E., Pugacewicz, A., Ranieri, M., Triquet, K., Lombaerts, K., Robledo Bottcher, N., Montanari, M., & Gonzalez Vazquez, I. (2021). What Did We Learn From Schooling Practices During the COVID-19 Lockdown? Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.
Danesi, M. (2007). The Quest for Meaning: A Guide to Semiotic Theory and Practice. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Degerbol, S., Svendler Nielsen, C. (2014). Researching Embodied Learning by Using Videographic Participation for Data Collection and Audiovisual Narratives for Dissemination – Illustrated by the Encounter Between Two Acrobats. Ethnography and Education, No. 10 (1), pp. 60–75.
Erasmus, Z. (2001). Coloured by History, Shaped by Place: New Perspectives on Coloured Identities in Cape Town. Cape Town: Kwela Books.
Erasmus, Z. (2018). Race Otherwise: Forging a New Humanism for South Africa. Johannesburg: Wits University Press.
LeGrange, L. (2018). What is (Post)Qualitative Research? South African Journal of Higher Education, No. (32)5, pp. 1–14.
Merleau-Ponty, M. (1962/2002). Phenomenology of Perception. London: Routledge.
O’Connor, P. (2020). Replanting Creativity During Post-Normal Times. The Centre for Arts and Social Transformation, The University of Auckland. Available: https://www.teritotoi.org/replanting-creativity-during-post-normal-times/ (viewed 20.01.2021).
Pruitt, L., Jeffrey, E. R. (2020). Dancing through Dissonance. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Rutter, M. (2006). Implications of Resilience Concepts for Scientific Understanding. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, No. 1094, pp. 1–12.Save the Children, INEE, UNICEF (2020). Learning Must Go On: Recommendations for Keeping Children Safe and Learning, During and After the COVID-19 Crisis. Available: https://resourcecentre.savethechildren.net/library/learning-must-gorecommendations-keeping-children-safe-and-learning-during-and-after-covid (viewed 07.03.2021).
Sheets-Johnstone, M. (1999). The Primacy of Movement. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Svendler Nielsen, C., Samuel, G. M., Wilson, L., Vedel, K. A. (2020). ‘Seeing’ and ‘Being Seen’: An Embodied and Culturally Sensitive Arts-Integrated Pedagogy Creating Enriched Conditions for Learning in Multi-Cultural Schools. International Journal of Education and the Arts, No. 21 (2), pp. 1–23.
Theron, L. C., Theron, A. M. C. (2010). A Critical Review of Studies of South African Youth Resilience, 1990–2008. South African Journal of Science, No. (106)7/8, art. # 252, pp. 1–8.
Theron, L. C. (2012). Resilience Research with South African Youth: Caveats and Ethical Complexities. South African Journal of Psychology, No. 42(3), pp. 333–345.
Theron, L. C., Levine, D., Ungar, M. (2020). African Emerging Adult Resilience: Insights from a Sample of Township Youth. Emerging Adulthood, pp. 1–12.
Ungar, M. (2012). Social Ecologies and their Contribution to Resilience. In: M. Ungar (ed.). The Social Ecology of Resilience: A Handbook of Theory and Practice. New York: Springer, pp. 13–31.
Van Breda, A. D. (2019). Resilience and Culture in South Africa: The Case of ‘Acceptance’. In: U. Straub, G. Rott, & R. Lutz (eds.). Knowledge and Social Work: Volume VIII: Social Work of the South. Paulo Freire Verlag, pp. 327–344.
Van Manen, M. (1990). Researching Lived Experience: Human Science for an Action Sensitive Pedagogy. New York: State University of New York Press.
Wilson, L., Vedel, K. A., Samuel, G. M., Svendler Nielsen, C. (2021). Getting to the Core of Red Apples – Green Apples: A Dance and Visual Arts Learning Project between South Africa and Denmark. Intercultural Education, No. 32 (6), pp. 1–15.
Wright, S. (2010). Understanding Creativity in Early Childhood. London: Sage Publications Ltd.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Culture Crossroads
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
