Roots of the Future

Author: Van Anh Tranová

In a highly globalized world and in the context of protracted crises, conflicts, and forced migration, there is a need to adopt new educational approaches for improving one’s cultural sensitivity.^[1] To address the conflicts in society and bring social cohesion, it’s necessary to revise current pedagogic approaches. International communities possess valuable resources that can be “mobilized in, and, for, localized communities.”^[2] In this essay I will be exploring how cultural heritage education can improve learning processes and offer flexible and interdisciplinary paths to broaden competencies, spread awareness to build a participatory and informed mindset as well how to contribute to the well-being of young people.

I would like to examine how an approach of “Theatre of Oppressed” provides practices to build inclusive communities, which has become a central notion in the field of heritage, serving as a principle for practices closely linked to strategies of empowerment, resilience, and collaboration^[3]

Contexts of crises give rise to an imbalance in linguistic and cultural capital, especially among those who have established themselves as cultural and economic colonizers and those who have recently arrived. ^[4]  These circumstances lead to a question of how to give voice and power to young people, who have been marginalized and excluded from the education system, to own and co-construct intercultural knowledge in the formal education system.

According to recent researchers, social actors from various domains play a key role in the level of well-being. Well-being at schools has been given substantial attention in the literature, especially subjective well-being because young people spend a considerable amount of their time in school. ^[5] The possible impact of “cultural and environmental factors on well-being is complex and a key factor may be people’s perception of their circumstances relative to their peers.”^[6] The literature around student voice indicates children’s general dissatisfaction with the opportunities available to them. ^[7]

“According to the framework for the fulfillment of participation rights developed by Lundy (2007), the right to participation is only realised when the right to information, the right to non-discrimination, the right to have decisions made in the child’s best interests and the right to guidance from adults are also fulfilled.“^[8] Similarly, Lee and Yoo (2017) found out from their analysis of 12-year-olds from 14 countries participating in the 2013–2016 international Children’s Worlds survey that the most important factors related to global life satisfaction is freedom to choose a sense of self.^[9]

The definition of cultural heritage is ambiguous, especially in the contemporary world of migration and mobility. There has been made a shift in understanding heritage from inanimate objects to “heritage that is embodied in people”^[10]. 
The problem with the concept of heritage, as developed by academics within the Western European tradition, is that it marginalized the role of local communities and minority populations in recognition. ^[11]. Cultural heritage is recognized, both tangible and intangible, as a “widespread and constantly evolving resource, but its value depends on the level of participation and decision-making it generates”^[12]

The meaning of cultural heritage in current crises can illustrate the potential of creative arts to challenge the systems of powers and privilege and “shake up and disturb the hegemonic re/production, ownership and representation of knowledge.”^[13] And how it can promote intercultural communication, dialogue, participation, and responsibility. “Through shared learning, young people can enter into dialogue, and develop an understanding of one another’s realities and (re-)engage in their (un-)shared communities” ^[14] The process of inclusion, starting from school, must be implemented through a synergic and common educational action, starting with enabling enhancing individual and group resources to guarantee the personal development of every student especially those with special needs.^[15]

Theatre of Oppressed is an example of a creative art approach that encourages participants to develop an attitude of awareness of their oppression and take action to overcome it. It develops a participatory attitude to engage and enter into dialogues, when mutual trust, mutual care, faith, and hope can emerge from communication with others. It’s not an attempt to eliminate oppression, however it “do offer a form of ‘peace’ education by exposing young people to structural violence to which they can respond“ ^[16] The process require reflection and action upon the world to transform it, it offers a space to intervening

in the realities of young people whose lives have been transformed by forces of migration, conflict and violence, economic marginalisation. ^[17]

Classrooms that are open to students to the forms of representation and permitted to make their meanings is a critical component in „constructing classrooms as hybrid, democratic spaces which value diversity and difference.“ ^[18] In creative art processes young people become the drivers of knowledge creation in their local context, through their creativity, activism, „they come to experience intercultural communication as a participatory process from which they can generate intercultural understanding and learning.“ ^[19] Cultural heritage education is a great training ground for creating situations where students can practice with different education and learning approaches, employing both traditional methods, for example oral narration, writing and drawing; and new technologies such as multimedia products and digital storytelling)^[20]

Reducing inequality and bringing about emancipation and empowerment that lead to social change requires reflection, awareness, and critical appraisal of the meanings […]^[21] It’s needed to review pedagogic resources can promote inclusivity and foster participation. Cultural heritage should be recognised and preserved in people’s own right.

Out of the present crisis, perhaps an appreciation of the position that communities and authorities can and should combine global and local resources to influence policies and practices to solve issues in our contemporary world and the near future. “^[22]

Young students contribute the knowledge and understanding of cultural heritage to the education, promoting conscious relationship with their region and its cultural resources.^[23]

Conclusion

Educational systems can offer a great training ground for future generations to become changemakers and to tackle the challenges in our contemporary world, however many young people who were forced to migrate due to conflicts, crises and economic reasons have been excluded from attending schools and universities, hence they were denied from fulfilling their potential. In order to create more cohesive society, young people should develop participatory attitude and cultural sensitivity. In the essay I am examining how cultural heritage education can foster intercultural competencies and empower young people to get involved in shared learning through mutual understanding and communication, when everyone can own and construct their learning through exchanging the local realities with newcomer’s realities. Cultural heritage education based on creative art can contribute to well-being of young people, because it encourages young people to express themselves in other ways than traditional ways of communication, moreover it gives one an ownership of one’s learning.

Educational institutions should equip young people with skills and knowledge that will help them to be face crises in the globalised world. 

Resources:

Holmes, P., & Corbett, J. (Eds.). (2022). Critical intercultural pedagogy for difficult times : Conflict, crisis, and creativity. Taylor & Francis Group.https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/cuni/detail.action?docID=6987662.

Higgins, V., & Douglas, D. (Eds.). (2020). Communities and cultural heritage : Global issues, local values. Taylor & Francis Group.https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/cuni/detail.action?docID=6378495

Achille, Cristiana & Fiorillo, Fausta. (2022). Teaching and Learning of Cultural Heritage: Engaging Education, Professional Training, and Experimental Activities. Heritage. 5. 2565-2593. 10.3390/heritage5030134. https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage5030134

Prue Holmes & Beatriz Peña Dix (2022) A research trajectory for difficult times:

decentring language and intercultural communication, Language and Intercultural Communication, 22:3, 337-353, DOI: 10.1080/14708477.2022.2068563 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/14708477.2022.2068563 (p.8)

Rhian Mari Barrance, Jennifer May Hampton, The relationship between subjective well-being in school and children’s participation rights: International evidence from the Children’s Worlds survey,Children and Youth Services Review, Volume 151, 2023, 107038,ISSN 0190-7409, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2023.107038

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^[1] Holmes, P., & Corbett, J. (Eds.). (2022). Critical intercultural pedagogy for difficult times : Conflict, crisis, and creativity. Taylor & Francis Group.

^[2] Higgins, V., & Douglas, D. (Eds.). (2020). Communities and cultural heritage : Global issues, local values. Taylor & Francis Group.

^[3] Ibid.

^[4] Holmes, P., & Corbett, J. (Eds.). (2022). Critical intercultural pedagogy for difficult times : Conflict, crisis, and creativity. Taylor & Francis Group.

^[5] Rhian Mari Barrance, Jennifer May Hampton, The relationship between subjective well-being in school and children’s participation rights: International evidence from the Children’s Worlds survey,Children and Youth Services Review, Volume 151, 2023, 107038,ISSN 0190-7409, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2023.107038

^[6] Ibid

^[7] Ibid.

^[8] Ibid.

^[9] Rhian Mari Barrance, Jennifer May Hampton, The relationship between subjective well-being in school and children’s participation rights: International evidence from the Children’s Worlds survey,Children and Youth Services Review

^[10] Higgins, V., & Douglas, D. (Eds.). (2020). Communities and cultural heritage : Global issues, local values. Taylor & Francis Group.

^[11] Ibid.

^[12]Achille, Cristiana & Fiorillo, Fausta. (2022). Teaching and Learning of Cultural Heritage: Engaging Education, Professional Training, and Experimental Activities.

^[13] Holmes, P., & Corbett, J. (Eds.). (2022). Critical intercultural pedagogy for difficult times : Conflict, crisis, and creativity. Taylor & Francis Group

^[14] Ibid.

^[15] Higgins, V., & Douglas, D. (Eds.). (2020). Communities and cultural heritage : Global issues, local values. Taylor & Francis Group.

^[16] Ibid.

^[17] Ibid.

^[18] Holmes, P., & Corbett, J. (Eds.). (2022). Critical intercultural pedagogy for difficult times : Conflict, crisis, and creativity. Taylor & Francis Group

^[19] Ibid.

^[20] Achille, Cristiana & Fiorillo, Fausta. (2022). Teaching and Learning of Cultural Heritage: Engaging Education, Professional Training, and Experimental Activities. Heritage. 5. 2565-2593. 10.3390/heritage5030134. https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage5030134.

^[21] Holmes, P., & Corbett, J. (Eds.). (2022). Critical intercultural pedagogy for difficult times : Conflict, crisis, and creativity. Taylor & Francis Group

^[22] Ibid

^[23] Achille, Cristiana & Fiorillo, Fausta. (2022). Teaching and Learning of Cultural Heritage: Engaging Education, Professional Training, and Experimental Activities. Heritage. 5. 2565-2593. 10.3390/heritage5030134.