Navigating Futures: arts education as a route to youth empowerment and pedagogical innovation

该项目旨在加强与全球挑战研究基金资助的先前项目（题为“从流离失所到发展：艺术教育作为建设文化复原力和马歇尔群岛社区主导的艺术制作的手段”）的研究和资源的接触，并加强这些研究和资源的影响。它对马歇尔群岛共和国在青年人的教育、自我表达和福祉方面的特殊发展挑战作出了回应。马绍尔群岛拥有太平洋地区第二年轻的人口，40%的人口在16岁以下，尽管马绍尔群岛是该地区人均教育支出最高的国家之一，但辍学率、青年失业率和自杀率都很高。我们的项目响应当前政府的政策，通过开发更多的文化相关的教学资源，提高英语和马绍尔语的识字率，并更好地利用信息技术进行创新教学（PSS年度报告2016-17），提高学生的参与度和教育成就。它还响应了国家和区域太平洋青年政策，力求让边缘化青年，特别是城市环境中的边缘化青年参与并增强其权能（《太平洋共同体秘书处太平洋青年发展框架》，2014-23年;《马绍尔群岛国家战略计划》，2015-17年）。此外，它还涉及联合国围绕教育、平等和促进发展伙伴关系的几个可持续发展目标。该项目将涉及：（1）2019年4月/5月期间，与马绍尔群岛四所小学、初中和高中的教师举办一系列研讨会，并于2019年6月/7月举办另外四个研讨会。这将涉及提高教师在创新教学方法方面的技能，以提高儿童的识字率和艺术表达和诠释技能，使用一套与文化相关的创造性作品，以及从项目小组以前的全球儿童基金会项目中制作的配套教学资源包。项目团队将使用参与教师的反馈，以及我们的项目合作伙伴太平洋教育和学习资源（PREL）和马绍尔群岛教育部课程司的建议，使教学资源包与马绍尔群岛国家课程更紧密地保持一致（在2019年10月完成修订，并从2019年11月开始进一步试验-2020年1月）。(2)一系列研讨会（也在2019年4月/5月期间进行）的重点是制作动画，电影制作和实施传统的航海知识，由年轻的马歇尔岛民参加，包括那些已经退出正规教育系统和/或失业的人。这些讲习班是应项目合作伙伴Jambo Arts的要求举办的。（一个青年非政府组织）和马绍尔群岛其他利益攸关方，并将制作Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner的诗歌“历史项目”的动画和青年参与者的各种短片和反思作品，这些作品将上传到非政府组织网站（到2019年10月），参加比赛（如RMI电影比赛和AHRC电影研究奖），并通过我们的网站（map.llc.ed.ac.uk，将于8月推出）由项目团队进一步推广2018年）和社交媒体，在项目的最后阶段这些活动带来的潜在利益不仅与马绍尔群岛的青年政策产生共鸣，而且与马绍尔群岛国家战略计划（2017年）中概述的更广泛的国家可持续发展目标产生共鸣，重点围绕（a）通过改善教育机会和机会创造创新人口，（B）调动地方和传统知识，以应对人民、社区和政府面临的新挑战。我们的项目将使教师和年轻人能够利用艺术教育，不仅发展识字和技术技能，而且利用传统文化知识来应对当前的发展挑战。

This project seeks to enhance engagement with, and impacts from, research and resources produced from a previous project funded under the Global Challenges Research Fund (entitled 'From displacement to development: arts education as a means to build cultural resilience and community-led arts production in the Marshall Islands). It responds to particular development challenges in the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) concerning the education, self-expression and wellbeing of young people. The RMI has the second youngest population in the Pacific, with 40% of the population under 16 years of age, but in spite of having one of the highest levels of per capita spending on education in the region, school dropout rates, and youth unemployment and suicide rates, are high. Our project responds to current government policy on improving student participation and attainment in education through developing more culturally relevant teaching resources, improving literacy in both English and Marshallese, and making better use of Information Technology for innovative teaching (PSS annual report 2016-17). It also responds to national and regional Pacific policies on young people, by seeking to engage and empower marginalised young people, particularly those in urban settings (SPC Pacific Youth Development Framework 2014-23; RMI National Strategic Plan, 2015-17). Further, it addresses several of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals focused around education, equality, and fostering partnerships for development. The project will involve:(1) A series of workshops with schoolteachers in four RMI elementary, middle and high schools during April/May 2019, with a further four workshops undertaken in June/July 2019. These will involve upskilling teachers in innovative pedagogical approaches to improving children's literacy and skills in artistic expression and interpretation, using a set of culturally relevant creative works, and accompanying teaching resource packs, produced from the project team's previous GCRF project. The project team will use feedback from participating teachers, and advice from our project partner Pacific Resources for Education and Learning (PREL) and the Curriculum Division of the RMI Ministry of Education, to align the teaching resource packs more closely with the RMI National Curriculum (completing revisions by October 2019, and undertaking further trials from November 2019-January 2020).(2) A series of workshops (also undertaken during April/May 2019) focused around creating animations, film-making, and implementing traditional navigational knowledge, to be attended by young Marshall Islanders, including those who have dropped out of the formal education system and/or are unemployed. These workshops have been requested by project partner Jambo Arts (a youth NGO) and various other RMI stakeholders, and will result in an animation of Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner's poem 'History Project' and various short films and reflective pieces by youth participants that will be uploaded to NGO websites (by October 2019), entered for competitions (such as the RMI film competition and AHRC Research in Film Awards) and further promoted by the project team via our website (map.llc.ed.ac.uk, to be launched August 2018) and social media, during the final stages of the project (and post-award).These activities bring potential benefits that resonate not just with RMI youth policy, but also with wider national sustainable development goals, outlined in the RMI National Strategic Plan (2017), focused around (a) creating an innovative population by improving education access and opportunities, and (b) mobilising local and traditional knowledge to address emerging challenges facing people communities and governments. Our project will empower teachers and young people to use arts education not only to develop literacy and technical skills, but also to enlist traditional cultural knowledge to address current development challenges.