Inclusive Creative Art-Based Projects for Intercultural Education 

 

Clara Favella

 

 

During recent years, many scholars have argued about the relevance of the creative art-based projects (CABP) as a mean of fostering intercultural sensitivity in education. Accordingly, CABP including music, drama and other art forms have been widely promoted both in and out schools. Nevertheless, even though CABP are now popular as educational practices, we still lack a systematic analysis of the quality and the outcomes they achieve.

The research aims to contribute filling this gap, focusing on CABP addressed to the children aged from 10 to 14. Research shows that this age range plays a crucial role in developing a personal orientation and sensitivity towards cultural differences.The research aimed to create two complementary tools, addressed to promote the quality and to assess the efficacy of CABP. We carried out two integrated lines of research aiming: to build a list of quality indicators concerning CABP in intercultural education; to develop the Children Intercultural Sensitivity Inventory (CISI) to assess the efficacy of intercultural CABP. To this end, we use both qualitative and quantitative strategies.

The first research line produced a list of six educational dimensions (shared management, space management, active involvement, participation degree, time management, monitoring and evaluation) and six artistic dimensions (multiplying, handling, unbinding, visualizing, transforming, merging). Each dimension contains between four and six indicators, which provide reference points to set priorities for developing and assessing the quality of intercultural CABP. Indicators offer a flexible framework, and we expect that their implementation into new European CABP will offer valuable suggestion for further improvements.

The second research line shows that the children attitudes to the cultural differences are not the same before and after the CABP experience, highlighting an increasing level of intercultural sensitivity, especially with regard to younger children. Consequently, we plan to repeat the assessment in conjunction with new intercultural CABP developed in other European countries, as a mean to validate the instrument.