Reparative Pedagogy: Empathic Aesthetic Learning

• In Event: Researching Aesthetics, Empathy, and Education

Abstract

Objectives
Reparative Pedagogy, an empathic, aesthetic pedagogical perspective guided by balance and offering, conceptually frames support for the construction of learning within communities. Reparative pedagogy inherently integrates community involvement and possibilities for service learning and civic engagement in educational contexts. We explicate this pedagogy through a craft DIY (Do it yourself) activist project, investigating relationality development and value creation through reparative lenses.

Perspectives
Reparative thinkings are framed through aesthetic learning experiences grounded in empathy. Numerous authors in recently edited books have written about the role of empathy in education (see Weems, 2013; Chambers, Hasebe-Ludt, Leggo, & Sinner, 2012; White & Costantino, 2013). All stress the important role empathy plays in learning to live well in the world and how empathy is a critical pathway to deeper, more compassionate understanding. Dewey (1934) considers deep sensory experiences the enablers for the development of empathy and mindfulness. Just as empathy-deepening occurs through historical contextualization and positionality (VanSledright, 2001), we support that reparative pedagogies engage empathy and the imagination-intellect (Weems, 2013) by way of personal embodied contexualization: Empathic development is brought about through the intentional immersion of the learner in real-world contexts, the development of an awareness of local community, creation for the other, and the potential for contribution to that community.

Methods
We utilize arts research methods (Barone & Eisner, 2012; Leavy, 2013) incorporating photos, narrative, and video to demonstrate the conceptual framework potential of reparative pedagogy. Through the sharing of the beauty of process, from the shearing of a sheep to a finished felt project, we reiterate the importance of including “whole-making” in educational contexts.

Data sources
Key sources of information include the photos, narrative reflections, and video which are used as a guiding project example of the possibilities for reparative pedagogy.

Results
This work presents an instructional perspective illustrating an empathic, aesthetic means to approach issues such as consumerism, knowledge of place, community involvement and relationships to environment.

Significance
This study is significant because it draws attention to the empathic, aesthetic experiences of learning in community and the possibilities for integrating community-based reparative pedagogies in our education systems.

References
Barone, T. E., & Eisner, E. W. (2012). Arts based research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Chambers, C. M., Hasebe-Ludt, E., Leggo, C., & Sinner, A. (2012). A heart of wisdom: Life writing and empathetic inquiry. New York, NY: Peter Lang.
Dewey, J. (1934). Art as experience. New York: NY: Penguin Group.
Leavy, P. (2009). Method meets art: Art-based research practice. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
VanSledright, B. A. (2001). From empathic regard to self-understanding; Im/positionality, empathy, and historical contextualization. In O. L. Davis, Jr., E. A. Yeager, & S. J. Foster (Eds.), Historical Empathy and Perspective Taking in the Social Studies (pp. 51-68). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Weems, M. E. (2013). Writings of healing and resistance: Empathy and the imagination-intellect. New York, NY: Peter Lang.
White, B., & Costantino, T. (2013). Aesthetics, empathy and education. New York, NY: Peter Lang.

Authors

• Pauline Sameshima, Lakehead University

• Dayna Slingerland, Lakehead University