School Wellness Action Research: from an Arts-Based Transformative Activist Stance [article]

Karena Munroe, University Of Calgary, D. Michelle Jacobsen, Sharon Friesen, Miwa A. Takeuchi
2021
This study explored educational change that privileges teachers to be co-authors and drivers of school wellness action activated through an arts-based focus on hopeful futures. The SARS-CoV-2 global pandemic added school lockdowns to the context resulting in modifications to the study, primarily the exclusion of student voice and face-to-face participation. Eight participants engaged in discussion and field-testing of virtual arts-lab activities aimed at enhancing school wellness rooted in
more » ... realities as educators. Two phases of an arts-based participatory approach to action research generated creative data. Data collection included educator and researcher reflections, arts-lab observations, and my descriptions of participant-created artwork. The results provided the basis for an arts-lab toolkit for educators and an animated video story for the broader community. This participatory arts-based approach to action research was grounded in an arts-lab created from a transformative activist stance (Stetsenko, 2017). It offered opportunities for participants to affirm their control and participation in action critical for change. Second, the arts-lab tool offers participants a means to actively engage in characterizing and exploring their personal values as opportunities for school wellness improvement. Educators endorsed a four-part arts-lab where art-pieces created at every session portray ideas and provide a centrepiece for deepened conversation. Third, arts processes provide opportunities to enable agentive creativity for artists while offering contributions to the school community-in-the-making that encourage connections between the art, the artists, and the audience. The collective development of an arts-lab encourages participants to contribute artifacts to the broader community's conversation as artists and activists.
doi:10.11575/prism/38574 fatcat:vizeteoktrbd7iginht4mflfva