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Vygotsky, disability and the visual arts: social and semiotic perspectives for arts-informed research
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Type
Thesis
Author
Joosa, Esther Cornelia nee Kok
Supervisor
Wales, Prudence Ellen
Towndrow, Phillip A. (Phillip Alexander)
Abstract
This research presents an ethnographic case study that involved six young adult members of a Down syndrome organisation in Singapore who participated in an arts community program. The research draws on Vygotsky’s theoretical concept of perezhivanie and social semiotic approaches to data analyses to bring attention to engagement in the arts as a way to enhance learning and representation for the participating young adults, and the situated nature of their meaning making. The study articulates how the group context facilitated communication and motivation to learn, and how the participants’ artistic engagement provided opportunities to create a learning context for building their individual competence. The research has implications for policy and practice to provide socially just education and to develop arts-informed research programs.
Personal beliefs guided the methodological choice of cultural-historical theory and perezhivanie. The research focused on perezhivanie (the lived experience) of the individuals and the group as the units of analyses. It drew on the participants’ perezhivanie to explore the social and semiotic features of their artistic engagement and understand their motivation to make art. The analysis involved three iterative stages: The first focused on the features of the semiotic resources embedded in the artworks; the second on the participants’ artistic engagement over time; and the third investigated the participants’ motivation to engage in visual art making in a group context.
Cultural-historical theory elucidated the concept of perezhivanie and the role of the sign for understanding the individuals’ lived experiences with the group. The artworks together with narrative details about the participants’ art making processes revealed the multi-modal ways in which these artists’ lived experiences and group relationships could be understood. The findings illustrate the dynamic nature of a social and semiotic investigation. They identify the participants’ desires to communicate with others about their sense of self; and demonstrate the participants’ abilities to use the arts as means of signifying their practices and personal perceptions of the world. The research identified the value of perezhivanie in contributing to positive learning conditions for students with cognitive disabilities. It considers how perezhivanie can help scaffold a socially just and creative education, and be used as a form of assessment to support students’ individual learning and communication.
While the research has limitations in terms of the size of the case study, it does point towards possible future research projects that employ perezhivanie to explore participants’ social and emotional engagement in creative programs that are designed to motivate and build individuals’ confidence and sense of self. Ultimately, this small-scale qualitative research study challenges many of the hegemonic perceptions about learning for individuals with cognitive disabilities. It demonstrates that the participating adults with cognitive disabilities in this study want to communicate their thoughts, feelings and beliefs with others and that they have the ability to do this through the creation of signs and images. Moreover, the signs and images they create in their art works afford a ‘real-world’ parallel.
Personal beliefs guided the methodological choice of cultural-historical theory and perezhivanie. The research focused on perezhivanie (the lived experience) of the individuals and the group as the units of analyses. It drew on the participants’ perezhivanie to explore the social and semiotic features of their artistic engagement and understand their motivation to make art. The analysis involved three iterative stages: The first focused on the features of the semiotic resources embedded in the artworks; the second on the participants’ artistic engagement over time; and the third investigated the participants’ motivation to engage in visual art making in a group context.
Cultural-historical theory elucidated the concept of perezhivanie and the role of the sign for understanding the individuals’ lived experiences with the group. The artworks together with narrative details about the participants’ art making processes revealed the multi-modal ways in which these artists’ lived experiences and group relationships could be understood. The findings illustrate the dynamic nature of a social and semiotic investigation. They identify the participants’ desires to communicate with others about their sense of self; and demonstrate the participants’ abilities to use the arts as means of signifying their practices and personal perceptions of the world. The research identified the value of perezhivanie in contributing to positive learning conditions for students with cognitive disabilities. It considers how perezhivanie can help scaffold a socially just and creative education, and be used as a form of assessment to support students’ individual learning and communication.
While the research has limitations in terms of the size of the case study, it does point towards possible future research projects that employ perezhivanie to explore participants’ social and emotional engagement in creative programs that are designed to motivate and build individuals’ confidence and sense of self. Ultimately, this small-scale qualitative research study challenges many of the hegemonic perceptions about learning for individuals with cognitive disabilities. It demonstrates that the participating adults with cognitive disabilities in this study want to communicate their thoughts, feelings and beliefs with others and that they have the ability to do this through the creation of signs and images. Moreover, the signs and images they create in their art works afford a ‘real-world’ parallel.
Date Issued
2015
Call Number
N71 Joo
Date Submitted
2015