Learning to Communicate and Collaborate through Bodily Expression and Art

In this project artists and pedagogues from France, Hungary, and Sweden engage in developing an innovative methodology that will empower young people who may be facing fewer opportunities and social exclusion, particularly those with minority or migrant background.

Nowadays in European societies, social cohesion is threatened by two pervasive and interconnected socio-economic phenomena: 1) the inequalities and insecurities in the work world generated by the globalized economic competition and 2) the growing of nationalism linked to massive migration movements of all kinds. Deviant behavior, growing of extremist parties, social anxieties emerge in this context. Promoting tolerance, equality and cooperation appears then as a crucial stake, specially for young people who will build tomorrow’s society. In this project, scholars, artists, and pedagogues from France, Hungary, and Sweden engage in developing an innovative methodology that will empower young people who may be facing fewer opportunities and social exclusion, particularly those with minority or migrant background.

Project collaboratores

To this project, Professor Asta Cekaite brings her experience within both the field of migration and integration research, such as on schooling conditions in Swedish-as-second-language classes for child migrants, as well as her expertise in embodied interaction, learning, and peer culture studies. Other project collaborators are: Dr. Julia Nyikos and Dr. Augustine Lefebvre (De l'Art et D'autre, Paris, France); Kristina Medey and Edina Deme (Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, Hungary).

Foster communicative competencies and transversal skills

The project aims at creating a threefold curriculum to foster communicative competencies and transversal skills in relation to the European Cultural Heritage, with the pedagogical materials that will include:

A theoretical and methodological rationale for addressing communication, cooperation, and conflict management skills (available for download below)
A compendium of activities to develop these skills in museums at the cognitive (verbal, visual); manual; and bodily levels (available for download below)
A set of methodological video tutorials for facilitators and art mediators (see the tutorials linked below)
A portfolio of cultural, artistic, and bodily activities to be used at multilateral meeting with youths and stakeholders
A video-based qualitative assessment tool for monitoring the efficacy and efficiency of the developed program

This transnational project has the proposed duration of 25 months.

Publications

Cover of publication 'Communication, collaboration and conflict management in social interaction: how to foster youngsters’ soft skills in art and bodily workshops?'

Asta Čekaitė, Augustin Lefebvre, Julia Nyikos, Edina Deme, Domeij Karin, Krisztina Macsay (2020)

Communication, collaboration and conflict management in social interaction: how to foster youngsters' soft skills in art and bodily workshops?

Asta Čekaitė, Edina Deme, Karin Domeij, Vera Kovacs, Augustin Lefebvre, Krisztina Macsay, Julia Nyikos, Szilvia Zaray (2021)

Developing communication skills through art: facilitators' resource book

Video tutorials

Aktivitet 6: Spela och fuska

Aktivitet 8: Bröllop

Aktivitet 24: En av tre

Project members

Researchers

Asta Cekaite

Deputy Dean, Professor

Olga Anatoli Smith

PhD student

Organisation

Silhouettes of several children in the sunset

Child Studies (TEMAB)

Education and research at Child Studies is about childhood and family with a focus on interaction and language, children's culture and consumption, and childhood over time and space, all to better see the perspectives of children and young people.

Drone image of the Tema building at Campus Valla

Department of Thematic Studies (TEMA)

In an increasingly complicated world, there is a need for researchers that can handle both breadth and depth, and can collaborate across disciplinary borders. Major societal questions are studied from an interdisciplinary perspective at TEMA.

Studenthuset on Campus Valla in Linköping

About LiU

Linköping University, LiU, offers innovative education and boundary-crossing research. The students are among the most desirable in the labour market and international rankings consistently place LiU as a leading global university.