Fun-ing: Applying a Playful and Embodied Pedagogical Approach to an Online Poetry Workshop in the Mobile Arts for Peace Project
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https://doi.org/10.52380/ijcer.2024.11.4.725Keywords:
Fun, Arts-based education, Poetry, Online embodiment, Qualities of learning, Mediating artefactsAbstract
This paper presents how a playful and embodied pedagogical approach (fun-ing) (Huxley, 2023) was applied to an international online poetry workshop for young people, and in doing so, foregrounds qualities of learning experiences, rather than neo-liberal skills-based outcomes alone. The methodology of fun-ing is grounded in a reflexive and emplaced ethnographic approach (Pink, 2011), in which the performing body-mind is perceived as encountering its surroundings and the material elements (living/non-living). By applying the Six Guiding principles of fun-ing (Huxley, 2023), to the design and analysis of an online poetry workshop, organised as part of the Mobile Arts for Peace (MAP) AHRC-funded project, the paper shows that the principles, originally derived from a doctoral study, can be used in other non-formal learning contexts. A retrospective analysis of the workshop recording (Mosley Wetzel, 2017), via researcher-facilitator critical incidents (Tripp, 1993), shows that the principles support creative educationalists in shaping joyful and novel learning experiences. Ultimately, enabling learners to extend their understanding and felt learning capabilities of what they can do/achieve through the art form of poetry. The paper calls for further contextually specific adaptations of the fun-ing principles by educationalists, artists, and researchers alike.
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