THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT: MIGRATION STUDY AND ARTFUL THINKING TO FOSTER CRITICAL GLOBAL AND INTERCULTURAL GROWTH IN A MIDDLE SCHOOL SPANISH CLASSROOM

Abstract

In this practitioner inquiry study, the researcher, a middle school teacher at a K-12 American international school in the United Kingdom, designed an arts-based unit on migration for a Grade 6 beginner Spanish class. The study aimed to investigate how students’ lived experiences influence their engagement with, creations around, and understanding of migration throughout the unit. To achieve this, the practitioner employed the Artful Thinking approach from Harvard University’s Project Zero which uses visual arts and music to enhance thinking. This pedagogical choice facilitated aesthetic engagements that the practitioner used as data for her study. In order to analyze the data, the practitioner combined approaches including Braun and Clarke’s framework with Artful Thinking practices and arts-based methods to produce themes in the dataset. Her analysis resulted in a series of creative vignettes and visual compositions around the themes of nostalgia, volver (returning), and esperanza (hope). These findings suggest that aesthetic experiences in the teaching of complex global issues contribute to the development of critical global and intercultural growth. As such, she presents her work here as an invitation for productive discussions and exploration of arts-based methods and aesthetic education to enact critical pedagogies and deepen connections with students