Mousumi De

2.10 Navigating the Territories of Conflict and Peace through Art: Exploring Children’s and Adolescents’ Perceptions from Diverse Cultural and National Contexts (Paper) – virtual

Mousumi De – University of Redlands, USA – virtual

Abstract:

Scholars such as Dewey, Montessori, Read, and Ziegfeld have long advocated for promoting global understanding and peace through art education. Building on this foundation, this paper examines an international art education initiative, ‘The International Interdependent Hexagon Project’, involving children and adolescents from diverse cultural and national contexts. Designed to extend previous efforts in promoting peace education through art, the initiative engaged participants in exploring conflicts and social challenges, fostering critical thinking, and encouraging problem-solving. The initiative, implemented in collaboration with teachers, administrators and art educators from national and international settings, participants were invited to conceptualize and visually represent their visions of peace in response to personal, cultural, sociocultural, environmental, and violent conflicts. 

The study analysed participants’ artworks and reflections to understand how they navigate diverse territories of conflicts and interpret peace in response to those conflicts, the visual metaphors they use, and the broader impact on fostering prosocial and cooperative narratives. Findings reveal beliefs about prosocial actions at individual, interpersonal, sociocultural, political, and environmental levels, alongside the influence of cultural and school contexts on artistic practices. The artworks from diverse backgrounds reveal varying levels of detail and expression, shaped by cultural and educational priorities. Participants’ perceptions ranged from abstract concepts of peace to actionable strategies for conflict resolution and transformation. Art provided a platform to express sensitive and complex issues often difficult to address in traditional classroom settings. 

The outcomes highlight art’s transformative potential in fostering critical thinking, dialogue, empathy, creative problem-solving, and conflict transformation. This initiative demonstrates how art education can inspire young learners to address conflict and peace issues, promoting cultural sensitivity, cooperative thinking, and social responsibility. Ultimately, it underscores the power of art to help children and adolescents navigate complex social challenges and contribute to a culture of peace within and beyond educational contexts.

6.8 Exploring the Territories of Peace and Peacebuilding within Art Education through an Interdisciplinary Lens: Theoretical Perspectives and Actionable Teaching Strategies (Paper) – virtual

Mousumi De – University of Redlands, USA – virtual

Abstract:

This paper explores the territories of peace and peacebuilding within art education through an interdisciplinary lens, emphasizing art’s transformative potential in fostering peace at personal, cultural, and global levels. First, it presents multicultural notions of peace, alongside theoretical perspectives that range from defining peace as the absence of conflict to positive concepts, such as the active presence of justice, harmony, and reconciliation, as well as action-oriented approaches like non-violent conflict transformation. Second, it examines art’s role in educating about peace through anti-war imagery and representing positive peace and facilitating reconciliation. Third, it outlines teaching strategies for integrating peace and peacebuilding issues into art education, such as scaffolding complex peace concepts, addressing culturally diverse perspectives, and avoiding cultural appropriation in artistic practices. It underscores the distinction between “art about peace” and “art for peace”, wherein the former involves conceptual understanding, and the latter utilizes art as a tool for transformational processes like emotional healing, conflict transformation, and reconciliation. 

Next, the paper provides practical classroom activities to guide students in conceptualizing and visualizing peace across personal, cultural, global, and ecological dimensions. These activities include creating art that visually represents peace, designing works symbolizing reconciliation between conflicting groups, and engaging with real-world peacebuilding interventions that demonstrate art’s ability to foster trust and shared understanding in post-conflict scenarios. 

By integrating theoretical perspectives with actionable teaching strategies, the paper offers important insights for educators to inspire students in meaningful explorations of peace, fostering artistic expression alongside critical thinking, cultural sensitivity, and social responsibility. Finally, it underscores the essential role of teachers in facilitating dialogue, empathy, and creative problem-solving while cultivating environments where learners critically engage with peace and peacebuilding issues. Moreover, it emphasizes the transformative power of art as a medium for promoting a culture of peace among learners, both within and beyond classroom settings.

9.15 Chrysalis: Teaching with Love (Panel) – virtual

Chair:

Steve Willis – Missouri State University, Springfield, USA – virtual

Panellists:

Mousumi De – University of Redlands, USA – virtual

Allan Richards – University of Kentucky, USA – virtual

Teresa Torres de Eça – InSEA, Portugal – virtual

Abstract:

This presentation uses the publication Chrysalis: Teaching with Love (Willis, 2023) as the topic of this panel presentation. We will present our narratives about teaching with love and compassion by discussing how we teach with compassion and love, ultimately leading to more meaningful educational outcomes for students and teachers alike. We realized that instead of externalizing our faults we needed introspective awarenesses and responsibilities by first being compassionate and loving to ourselves. We want our hearts and heads to be balanced to lead the way in our compassionate and loving, teaching and learning environments. In this presentation, we will share suggestions about how we were able to change from a mind-centred habit to a heart-centred lifestyle understanding the significance of active support and care in creating deeper connections and more impactful learning experiences. Through this, we became positive, compassionate, and loving and this balanced our teaching and artmaking as heart-centred educators and artists. We advocate for a conceptual shift to teach with compassion and love. We hope to engage the audience conversationally to reflect on teaching practices by sharing practical examples to demonstrate how this can transform everyday teaching practices to foster a more supportive and inclusive learning environment. Through practical examples, we will illustrate how adopting a compassionate and loving approach will increase empathy, sympathy, harmony, unity, kindness, and love. We are hopeful that this presentation will act as a catalyst for introspection and realization. These loving, kind, and compassionate habits are the ones we want to reinforce so we can continually develop ourselves as heart-centred people, artists, and educators.

Willis, S. (2023). Chrysalis: Teaching with love. KDP Publishing. ISBN-13: 979-8397999243