Abstract
The aim of this article is to systematise some of the findings that have emerged in the context of an international research cooperation between the Wits Centre for Diversity Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, and the School of Education at the FHNW University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland. The objective of this collaboration is to generate research-based formats of continuing education concerning Critical Diversity Literacy activated by art. In this article, Critical Diversity Literacy is considered as a founding principle for a process towards an understanding of oneself and of the world, within the framework of global tensions and conflict situations. Adult and continuing education can successfully assist with framing the content and designing the concepts for such developmental spaces. Art and theatre education are understood as a catalysing force to open up new social imaginations. By interweaving these three disciplines, the intention is to create a body of theory and informed practice, the core components of which will be illustrated in this article. We begin by outlining the concept of Critical Diversity Literacy established by Melissa Steyn. We shall then go on to demonstrate how this concept is enriched by educational theory. As the third step—informed by artistic theory and practice—the fundamentals and tools (“Toolbox”) for continuing education arrangements will be presented, together with an exposition of the status of knowledge to date: the key challenge is the configuration of “aesthetic spaces” that can lead to “social imaginations,” to be designed in the form of “contact zones.”
Highlights
The aim of this article is to collate and systematise some of the findings that have emerged in the context of two interlinked research and development projects
The criticisms that are often levelled at unproblematic access to intercultural dialogue evoke speculation of a different kind about the possibilities—or impossibilities—of such a transcultural encounter
The fundamental notion of the “contact zone” is defined as the point of reference for the continuing education arrangements and as the guiding principle for the joint research and development work. This should include the ongoing development of work on a critical, diversity-oriented concept of education that aims to transcend boundaries and open up new horizons and thinking spaces
Summary
The aim of this article is to collate and systematise some of the findings that have emerged in the context of two interlinked research and development projects. Reality itself becomes increasingly visible as a consensus that has developed over history and as a contingent understanding of oneself, so that societal reality becomes identifiable as a possible developmental task Against this background, the potential of artistic processes for the conception of continuing education arrangements is seen to lie, in particular, in the fact that—through their contingency and changeability—they allow exploration of the included and the excluded, and they enable mirror images of the “own” and the “other” to be read as a contingent interaction that is in progress. Arrangements that have been tested out in the past provide the foundations for further educative attempts to examine issues related to Critical Diversity Literacy with the use of theatrical methods These pilot experiments, which have been and will be carried out by the two teams in South Africa and Switzerland in accordance with Boal’s work, should result in the conception and implementation of future joint formats for continuing education on the basis of a research exchange
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