Merna Meyer

9.1 Art Education as an Inclusive territory: enabling equity, accessibility, collaboration and community in Art Education (Panel)

Chair:

Christiana Deliewen Afrikaner – AfrAA Namibia, Namibia

Panellists: 

Merna Meyer – North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa

Sahar Khalil – Helwan University, Egypt

Welcome Moloi – North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa – virtual

Abstract:

Influenced by continental policies, African arts education is evolving as a tool for inclusivity, cultural preservation, and socioeconomic progress. Spearheaded by the African Union (AU) through initiatives such as Agenda 2063, arts education policies are positioned as integral to achieving a “cultural renaissance” that unifies African identities and promotes regional pride. Agenda 2063 highlights the need for a thriving creative economy, urging member states to support the growth of creative industries, which drives job creation and entrepreneurship. Through collaboration with UNESCO’s “Strengthening the Creative Economy” program, the AU aims to strengthen arts education frameworks and facilitate resource-sharing among African countries, enhancing accessibility to quality arts education across the continent. 

Panellists will unpack different territories the continent is facing including inclusivity, educational programs such as museology that reflect African diversity and shifting curriculum designs that accommodates informal life-long learning. Inclusivity remains central to these policies. Gender-sensitive approaches seek to increase girls’ participation in creative fields like digital arts and animation, breaking down stereotypes and expanding career options. Additionally, policies increasingly advocate for art education access for students with disabilities, ensuring an inclusive environment that enables all students to engage in artistic learning. Moreover, regional and international exchange programs foster cultural exchange, exposing students to diverse artistic traditions and broadening educational perspectives. 

Challenges to policy implementation persist, particularly in resource allocation and infrastructure. Many African countries struggle with limited budgets and lack the infrastructure to support robust arts education, highlighting the importance of national-level commitment to these continental frameworks. The AU’s emphasis on cooperation among member states underscores the need for shared resources and expertise to bridge disparities in African arts education quality. Continental policies thus lay a foundation for art education to act as a transformative force for social inclusion, cultural heritage preservation, and economic empowerment. However, success hinges on collaborative, consistent efforts at both continental and international level.

9.11 Shifting Grounds: Imagining Global Possibilities for Community Arts Education (Panel)

Chair:

Anita Sinner – The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

Panellists: 

Merna Meyer – North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa

Sophia Chaita – University of the Aegean, Greece  – virtual

Sue Girak – City Beach Primary School, WA, Australia  – virtual

Kazuyo Nakamura – Hiroshima University, Japan

Patricia Osler – The Convergence Initiative | Concordia University, Montreal, Canada

Abstract:

In this multi-paper session, we envision community arts education (CAE) as shifting ground, where discursive changes at the local level informs pedagogy and practice at the intersection of complex and ever-changing global dynamics. We reimagine the role of the arts in community inquiry – a role that is responsive to relations among individuals, communities and the arts – to cultivate more sophisticated understandings of future pathways for community arts education, deliberating on the concept of transversality to signify both an overarching theoretical framework and the methodological structure for reimagining the complexity of community. To move this collective scholarship forward, we make a distinction in philosophy and practice when defining the term community arts education. We purposely favour the term community arts education over community-based arts education. Community arts education implies the necessary equality of education (e.g. pedagogical implementations) and a variety of practices (e.g. programming) for advancing and solidifying relationships between education and community through access to the artistic fields. In this way, we engage with community as not just a place to enact curriculum; it is the curriculum – a practice in which community life, learning and learning activities, and educational aims intersect. We present case studies from Japan, Australia, Canada and Greece that outline challenges ahead and address how thinking transversally is changing our engagement as artists, researchers and teachers. We facilitate greater resilience through multimodal, multifaceted research architectures, produced across three dimensions: horizontal (first person, creative expression); vertical (analytic, sequential problem-solving); and diagonal (traversing digital matrices) to ensure rigour and accountability. In this way, the cartographic potential of community arts education through diverse and socially engaged art, public pedagogy, community engagement, artistic research, and hybridized practices, reflects the growing impact of critical post-humanism, new materialism and worldly education – approaches that reconceptualize community spaces and international educative borders.

11.16 Exploring Intermedial Territories: Fostering Futures for the Youth in South Africa through Playful Project-based Learning. (Poster)

Merna Meyer – North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa

Welcome Moloi – North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa

Abstract:

Fostering Futures emphasises the challenges faced by senior-phase learners in South African high schools in making career decisions and navigating societal pressures through innovative approaches. As a Creative Arts teacher at a North-West Province High School, Welcome Moloi find himself on various territories as he navigates his professional development within Art Education. Recognising the school learners’ need for guidance towards future employment opportunities that contribute to self-efficacy and community well-being, he helps learners to see themselves as contributors to societal and civic growth. Working in interdisciplinary ways, arts education is linked with career guidance, highlighting the interconnectedness of art with identity, social well-being, and potential economic opportunities. In the Creative Arts class, playful, project-based learning (PPrBL) is applied whereby various media and creative practices are blended. This approach encourages learners to explore their vocational potential through diverse forms of artistic expression, such as body mapping and collages, preparing learners to think introspectively and innovatively. These PPrBL activities help them develop critical skills, self-awareness, recognition of their unique capabilities, and a future-oriented mindset, bridging gaps in various life territories – education, personal development, and the workplace. The study proposes arts-based strategies to transform career education into a holistic, asset-based framework that equips learners with the set of skills necessary to face complex societal challenges while envisioning dignified futures.

Merna Meyer – Exploring Intermedial Territories: Fostering Futures for the Youth in South Africa through Playful Project-based Learning. (Poster)