Session Information
07 SES 04 B, Social Justice and Refugees
Paper Session
Contribution
Research among active women around dissident movement on social justice and meaning of life showed a strong link between these two issues (Moree, 2016). This linked paid for religious people (Moree, 2016; Stavrova et al, 2013) but interesting finding was that it pays also for non-religious respondents. Self-concept clarity (Blazek & Best, 2013 : 948) can partially explain these findings but there are many aspects, which are still unclear.
Refugees crisis of last months bring students of the Czech universities to the situation of perceived injust as they explain it. There are several groups of students in the moment. Those, who are supported to travel to Balkan and help refugees (some universities even pay their travel costs), those, who try to help refugees in the Czech Republic and others, who are not active. All of these groups describe however desperate feelings when they have to face their Czech parents, family members, public debates etc., where people like students are described as enemies of Czech nation because they try to help refugees. This feeling of injust bring them to be more active but at the same time they describe their looking for what is meaningful in life.
We know that education can be perceived from several perspectives. Working on self-experience is one of possibilities (Dewey, 1916; Dewey, 1938; Freiere, 1974). Such a situation seems to have great educational potential.
Based on these practical experiences and theories on theatre of the oppressed (Boal, 1979; Boal, 1992) and meaning of life (Frankl, 1982; Frankl & Lapide, 2005) we made a decision to conduct following research. Students together with refugees will work by theatre of the oppressed method and will present theatre play in theaters in Prague. The whole process would be monitored on several levels: working with group of students, working with audience during the performances. Based on this following research questions would be answered:
- Which topics linked to concept of justice and meaning of life are opened by students during the work?
- Which of these topics will resonate by the audience and have then educational potential?
- How is the concept of social justice (and experience on un-justice) linked to students perception of meaningfulness?
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Blazek, M. & Besta T. (2012). Self-Concept clarity and Religious Orientations: Prediction of Purpose in Life and Self-esteem. J Relig Health, 51, 947 - 960. Boal, Augusto. The Theatre of the Oppressed. New York: Urizen Books, 1979. Republished by Routledge Press in New York/London in 1982. Boal, Augusto. Games for Actors and Non-Actors. New York: Routledge Press, 1992. Dewey, J. 1916). Democracy and Education. USA: The Barners & Noble Library of Essential Reading. Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and Education. USA: KappaDelta PI Frankl, V. E. (1982). Der Wille Zum Sinn. Frankl, V. E. & Lapide P. (2005). Gottsuche und Sinnfrage. Gutersloher Verlaghaus. Freire, P. (1974). Education: The Practice of Freedom. Santiago (Chile). Institute for Agricultural Reform. Moree, D. (2016). Leaving a Mark – meaningful lives and women´s activism. Communio Viatorum. Accepted for publication. Stavrova, O., Fetchenhauer, D. & Schlosser, T. (2013). Why are Religious People Happy? The Effect oft he Social Norm on religiosity across countries. Social Science research, 42, 90 – 105.
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