Seventeenth International Conference on the Arts in Society

Abstract

Digital storytelling (DST) is an arts-based instructional and learning tool offers a type of pedagogy that “can foster self-awareness, cultural awareness, community partnership, social integration, observational skills and whole person development” (Moreau et al., 2018, p. 8). As an educational mechanism, DST is also increasingly relevant for engaging students, teachers and other knowledge producers and consumers in our digitized online world. In this presentation we share how DST can be used in social work education to fosters anti-oppressive, transformational learning which relies on core social work competencies, such as self-reflection and critical thinking. The personal yet universal nature of the content and presentation of DST offers a ubiquitous, anti-oppressive tool that facilitates students deep engagement in subject, presentation, and re-presentation with clients. It encourages social work students to process their clinical practice creating shared histories with clients embedded in systemic context.