Abstract
This paper discusses participatory filmmaking with cellphones as an arts-based pedagogy. This novel educational practice is to cultivate young people’s critical and creative thinking skills and raise their awareness of diversity through art-making. Many people participated in the Black Lives Matter movement not only in the United States but in other countries including France, Japan, and the United Kingdom recently. Incorporating diversity in education is very much needed at this critical moment. This study makes practical and theoretical contributions to education as well as arts. Practically, this research illustrates how to practice collaborative cellphilming online as an arts-based approach, which can inform similar praxis implementation in various school settings. Theoretically, this study furthers our understanding of the “social space” captured by cellphone cameras and the “geometrical space” emerging from screening a cellphilm. A group of twelve university students in Kumamoto, Japan and the researcher started collaborating online for cellphilming in June 2021, and a film was completed in January 2022. Pierre Bourdieu’s “social space” and “geometrical space” were applied and a combination of open-ended surveys and interviews was conducted to evaluate the impact of making and showing a cellphilm on the student filmmakers and the audience. It has become clear that collaborative cellphilming encourages the students to become critical and creative knowledge producers, and the created film invites the viewers to examine what is taken for granted from a different perspective. Hence, this new arts-based educational approach is effective for tackling social justice issues and promoting diversity.
Presenters
Hiroko HaraAssociate Professor, Centre for General Education, Prefectural University of Kumamoto, Kumamoto, Japan
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Past and Present in the Humanistic Education
KEYWORDS
Arts-based Pedagogy, Higher Education, Online Classroom, Participatory Filmmaking
