March 23, 2015

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To create a more fluid space in the classroom, where learning is not hierarchical, lessons on sexual and reproductive health and rights and gender (SRHRG) and psychosocial counselling are designed to be more art and activity-centric at SSCOPE schools. These schools are designed by the Institute of Educational Development of BRAC University to address the high level of dropout at secondary schools.

 

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Photo copywright: Tousif Farhad

 

To create a more fluid space in the classroom, where learning is not hierarchical, lessons on sexual and reproductive health and rights and gender (SRHRG) and psychosocial counselling are designed to be more art and activity-centric at SSCOPE schools. These schools are designed by the Institute of Educational Development of BRAC University to address the high level of dropout at secondary schools.

The Creative Arts Programme (CAP) was first piloted at two SSCOPE schools for six months in 2014. It was designed as an additional session taught by the shomaj shongis (female frontline counsellors) along with pre-existing SRHRG and psychosocial wellbeing sessions to transform the classroom into a relaxed, creative and non-hierarchical space through which students could explore different modes of art and experience increased wellbeing and agency. Currently, CAP, SRHRG and psychosocial lessons take place in an integrated manner in all the 33 branches of SSCOPE schools.

Unlike the traditional arts class, there is a greater focus on the creative process of art making and less focus on gaining art techniques or the final art product. As such, CAP is inspired by the one major branch of art therapy termed as ‘art as therapy’. Another motivation for CAP was to observe if the arts has an effect in boosting retention of students at the SSCOPE schools. This was influenced by research coming from the National Endowment for the Arts in the US, which found a correlation of the arts exposure to positive social and academic outcomes of American youth especially from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Research findings from CAP indicate a great appreciation and enjoyment of the arts by the SSCOPE students. Many of the CAP sessions allowed students to express their individual opinions and thoughts and acted as a healthy outlet for their feelings and emotions.

CAP uses the arts as a therapeutic tool to explore notions of self-identity and provide a healthy space to express different emotions, which aligns with a lot of the concepts covered in SRHRG and psychosocial counselling. As a result, the three programmes were integrated, using the previous themes of SRHRG and psychosocial counselling and re-envisioning them within the framework of creative arts, to create an interactive and non-hierarchical learning platform.

Topics such as safe space, self-expression and identity, healthy relationships, emotions, stress, gender performance, power dynamics inside classrooms, bullying, nutrition, corporal punishment, animal abuse, body and desire, examphobia, etc are addressed by designing curriculum that will enable students to talk about sensitive topics in a healthy and positive way using the arts as a medium of expression. By allowing a space where students can feel good and confident about their narratives and bodies, CAP aims to make the learning process for an adolescent more holistic.

 

Saad Adnan Khan and Alia Kamal are education researchers at arts development unit, Institute of Educational Development, BRAC University.

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