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A hole in my stocking: Disrupting power through play in the Kickstarter Creative Arts project


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Authors

Green, Alison 

Abstract

This article focuses on the importance of play as a necessary and developmental tool for creating democratic spaces in rural South African Primary schools through examples in the Kickstarter Creative Arts pilot project case study (The KS project). The KS project is an Educational teacher empowerment and artist in residency programme, designed as a case study to assess the impact of the Creative Arts at the Intermediate level (Grade 4, 5 and 6). The project illustrates how play, as supported by Winnicott and Vygotsky, is developmental and can be a mechanism for greater humanization in the classroom. The metaphor of a stocking is employed to advocate for experience, as per the work of John Dewey. As the methodology of the Kickstarter project is experiential, it encourages personal artistic growth for teachers, allowing play and creating shifts in the power dynamics and relationship between teachers and pupils within the classroom. As teachers engage with a democratic approach, they find learners more willing, more empathetic and more engaged. It is proposed that the KS project become aligned with the Basic Department of Education and rolled out nationwide in South Africa for the “Arts as method” approach to all subjects.

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Keywords

Play, Power, South Africa, Rural Primary Schools, Kickstarter Creative Arts Project

Journal Title

Cambridge Open-Review Educational Research e-Journal (CORERJ)

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

2056-7804

Volume Title

6

Publisher

Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge

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