Do our methods enable positions of 'plenty' or 'deficit' for young people with refugee background?

A discussion around the role of creative arts pedagogies in teaching and research

Languages, Refugees and Migration: Research Roundtable EventMonday, 7 December 2015 Wolfson Medical Building

University of Glasgow

Case Study 1 Team

• Katja Frimberger, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Glasgow

• Lyn Ma, Senior Lecturer, ESOL, Glasgow Clyde College• Gameli Tordzro, Pan-African Arts Scotland -

http://www.panafricanartsscotland.org.uk• Tawona Sithole, Poet in Residence, GRAMnet• Ross White, Senior Lecturer, University of Glasgow

Emotional Distress Across Borders

Key Questions:

• What happens when emotional distress crosses borders of geography, language, beliefs and practices?

• How do these various borders impact on the relevance and validity of psychosocial interventions aimed at reducing distress?

Case Study 1 Research Sites

Glasgow

Students enrolled on the ESOL 16+ programme at Anniesland campus of Glasgow Clyde College

Uganda

Lango-speaking people living in the Lira region of Northern Uganda

Case Study 1 Research Sites

• Across the sites that we are involved with (Glasgow Clyde College, Lira in Northern Uganda) there is a shared sense of people 'not being in a place of their choosing'; geographically, emotionally, and/or socially. The concept of 'moments of precarity' is important here (see: Judith Butler).

• There is a potential benefit of facilitating opportunities of people to think about 'having things of their choosing and their being' and how this might help people to find meaning.

• 'This is who I am, this is what I brought with me, this is what I would

choose to take with me’.

• Exploring, honouring, and dignifying.

Positions of Deficit

• Research with refugee children and adolescents (particularly those from places where there is political oppression or conflict), parallels that of other childhood trauma research with an emphasis on identifying psychopathology (Kinzie and Sack 2002) e.g. Post-traumatic Stress Disorder.

• There is little published research on how young people from war-torn countries adjust positively to their new homelands (Barwick et al. 2002).

Positions of Hope

• There are some encouraging preliminary findings that have not sought to pathologize the reaction of the children and young people (Yohani, 2008; 2010; Yohani & Larsen, 2012).

• Children’s ability to hope contributes strongly to their ability to cope with serious life challenges (Baumann; Hinds, 1988).

The Fragility of Evidence

• Reducing narratives into numbers• Issues of translation and the power politics of

language• Validity of using standardized measures in

multilingual contexts.• Being ‘involved in research’ vs. ‘being

researched’.• A lack of emphasis on process compared to

product

Working with Young Asylum Seekers and refugees

Where do they come from?

• This is a constantly changing picture – 5 years ago it was Afghanistan and Somalia and mostly young men

• Currently – high numbers of young Vietnamese , Chinese, Albanian & West African young men and women who have been trafficked for domestic servitude, forced labour & sexual exploitation

Who Are They?

• Young – typically 14 – 20 year old• Without family – although some may be

“reunited” with family• Living alone• Have been trafficked and or victims of war or

civil unrest • Claiming asylum in the UK

Challenges of Working With This Group

• Disrupted or no formal education • Living in a different culture with no informal or formal

support systems • Age disputed • Multiple levels of trauma & Grief & Loss• Uncertainty about their future • Uncertainty about those they have left behind

Our Approach

• Multi-agency working when possible – Glasgow Social Work, British Red Cross, Scottish Guardianship, Freedom from Torture & accommodation providers

• Young people are in classes with their peer-group• Flexible & tailor-made curriculum and approaches to

learning – including arts & outdoor activities and a residential experience

• Extensive guidance• Expertise – of staff and students (the concept of

‘plenty’)• Creating an environment of stability & security

Arts methods

• What role do (or should) creative arts methods play in multilingual, intercultural (and psychologically and politically complex) educational environments like our ESOL classroom?

‘Deficit positions’ of students in educational set-ups Vs.

How do we enable (teaching/research) environments where students’ can ‘flourish’?

Identity Boxes

• One example of creative arts methods (in teaching & research)

• Four weeks of crafting during class time• Exhibited ‘publicly’ (boxes and video)• Aim: ‘What I want you to know about me’• Boxes do not present students’ lives

‘authentically’ (invite fiction, projection of hope, researcher positioning)

Themes

• Personal (and sometimes fictionalised) stories and scenarios/ multiple identity positionings

• ‘Real’ references to life experiences and past memories

• Fictional representations and projections of futures and hope

• Example: Depiction of home place/’normality’ & link to conflict transformation literature (Lederach & Lederach 2012)

A Challenge For Us

Students' acts of self-representation

challenge us educators and researchers

How do we position our pedagogical and methodological orientations towards students' complex narratives of hope, trauma, resilience and longing for 'normality‘?

Slippery Data

• Our ethnographic data as ‘slippery data’ (Law 2004)

• We were no neutral observers• Evokes meta-reflections:

power-dynamics/ethical questions underlying student-researcher relationship

• ‘Data poems’ give a sense of complex interplay of reflexive dimensions

Aesthetic Translation Practices in Research

• Students’ self-representation defies easy consumption and analysis

• Research can instead act as aesthetic translation practices

• Mode of production over mode of collection• Invites meta-reflection on the power-

dynamics of the teaching and research process

Thank You