Projeto Aurora: a implementação de oficinas artísticas junto de crianças e jovens em risco

Abstract

Recognizing the unique role that art educators can fulfil in helping promote socioal and emotional learning by at-risk children and youths, this study reports on an investigation-action that seeks to validate the practices developed during the Projeto Aurora artistic workshops. This study had the participation of 47 at-risk children and youths in residential care, aged 10 to 18, educated between year 4 and 10, as well as the coordinator of Projeto Aurora, the 5 workshop teachers, the social education intern, 6 monitoring assistants, and 4 institutional directors. Firstly, a social and emotional nuclear objective was defined (responsible decision-making) for the 5 artistic workshops, as well as a common framework for all the workshops and a protocol for monitoring how they unfold. In a second phase, the workshops themselves happened, according to the previously established structure and following the monitoring protocol. Alongside this protocol, other data collection instruments were deployed. During the workshop, log books were kept and, in the end, video footage of the general evaluation of the workshops. Participants and teachers were asked to complete questionnaires both at the beginning and the end of each workshop, in order to evaluate knowledge of the workshop contents, level of motivation, and level of operationalization of the steps for responsible decision-making. Quantitative results indicate that both participants and educators alike recognize a significant increase both in terms of acquired knowledge, and in the level of motivation during all the workshops implemented in the first phase. In the second phase of the implementation, the evaluation regarding the operationalization of the 5 steps for responsible decision-making during the Photography workshop shows that participants struggled during the last three steps - formulating hypotheses, comparing solutions and evaluating results. Qualitative results validate the elements that promote social and emotional learning, namely the structure of the sessions, positive communication stance, establishing of meaningful relationships and active involvement of participants in the learning process. The results that were obtained reinforce the potential of arts-integration reported in literature and will play a positive role in future workshops by Projeto Aurora.