Laufey Björnsdóttir graduates with a master's degree and teaching license from the art education department in autumn 2024.
„Somehow all kinds of art can be created, no one is poking around with it“.“
What opportunities do creative work have to discuss and understand emotions?
This essay deals with a study conducted on students' creative work in relation to the feeling of shame. The aim of the study was to see what opportunities lie in creative work when it comes to teaching or deepening young people's understanding of emotions such as shame.
The trigger for the research was my desire to see more emphasis placed on teaching emotional literacy and other skills that contribute to greater self-knowledge and a stronger student identity The research consequently addresses creativity as a tool to increase understanding and express emotions The participants of this research were students in elementary schools in the capital area, specifically in eighth and ninth grades as well as their art teachers.
The research consisted of a project that the students worked on and conversations about the work as well as the outcome In the project, they were supposed to create the feeling of shame Also, certain data was obtained through an interview conducted with the group's teachers Unfortunately, it seems that today's youth have a hard time in certain areas Research shows both an increase in anxiety and depression among teenagers as well as a lack of ability to apply creative thinking It is important to use the school system to work on this problem Despite this, school priorities seem to be placed on exams and grades rather than students' development and well-being due to pressure for students to achieve certain results.
Education for success, human-cost education and education in emotional literacy are all phenomena where emphasis is placed on student development and good self-knowledge instead of good grades in exams Students need to be given the freedom to use their minds in a creative, critical and independent way instead of being fed by information to pass exams.
This study showed that the students who participated in it are not used to using creative thinking in projects and that they find it challenging They did, however, seem to make a lot of money from the project as their answers in dialogue indicated a new and deeper understanding of the feeling of shame. Thus, it can be said that the result of the study gives a certain indication that creative projects are a good platform for teaching emotional literacy that can be used more in the learning of children and teenagers.
Supervisor: Ingimar Ólafsson Waage
20 M.Art.Ed. Art Pedagogy
2024
The work in pictures.
