Zen Art: Animating Workshops Zen

Author(s):

Eva Corrêa(presenting / submitting)Cátia Isabela Cabrito(presenting)Delgado Mª João Paula Farinho

Conference:

ECER 2014

Network:

04. Inclusive Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

04 SES 03 B, Creative Arts and Inclusive Education

Paper Session

Time:

2014-09-02

17:15-18:45

Room:

B014 Anfiteatro

Chair:

Julie Allan

Contribution

Education of young people with mental and physical disabilities should not be seen only as a formal education and inserted at school, but should be an ongoing, evolutionary process with experiences and opportunities.

Inclusive education should be responsible for the structuring and development towards the needs and characteristics of children and youth. Alongside this, the education of young people with disabilities in Portugal, has been taking other proportions, evolving in different perspectives and interventional methodologies.

According to the Decree-Law n º3/2008 which shows the environment for educational responses and its development with young people who have limitations in terms of activity, participation, difficulties in learning, mobility, autonomy and balance, "special education aims to educational and social inclusion, access and educational success, autonomy, emotional stability, and the promotion of equal opportunities" (Lopes & Peres, 2010).

Education and Sociocultural Animation go «hand in hand», connected not only by their significant aspect, but also its practical and active characteristic. Both value the intervention process, socialization, freedom of expression, sharing knowledge and learning (Ander-Egg, 2006).

The sociocultural animator in special education can and should address the inclusion, adapting activities and games to that group, interacting according to the needs of each (Lopes 2010). This interaction, as well as social inclusion, is an added value for young people with special educational needs improving feelings of mutual aid, cooperation and respect for difference. These young people must be respected and treated with dignity and equality. The sociocultural animator must find ways and solutions to address the limitations and difficulties of these young people and to adjust the methods and strategies according to their needs.

Music is one of the expressive arts used in Zen Art project with interventional activities aimed to this target group. When we are young or adults with special needs, music is used as a expressive therapy "may involve the overall personality or specific fields: sensory-perceptual, psychomotor, or cognitive-emotional affection" (Lopes 2010, p.120).

Music should be interrelated with other expressive arts, such as dance therapy, drama therapy, laugh therapy, and art expression. Complementary therapies such as, Reiki and Mind & Body were other issues of the various modalities addressed and developed in Zen Art project, being promoter of mental and physical balance of individuals with special needs.

Emotions are seen as sentimental phenomena, expressive activators and motivators that help young people with special educational needs to adapt to the challenges and difficulties that life brings. It is important to work this issue of emotions with this target group, in order to know using them to "act and face life as an additional tool that allows us to face the world" (Lopes 2010, p. 144).

Zen Art project was implemented in the Residential Care Centre (RCC), at Póvoa de Santa Iria, municipality of Vila Franca, district of Lisbon. The main objective was to promote the inclusion and suit the needs of individuals suffering from physical and mental disabilities through activities that encourage mental and physical balance.

The RCC is one of the five facilities of CerciPóvoa providing support to twenty four young and adult people with mental and physical disabilities from the residential home. Is a heterogeneous group of both genders with ages higher than 16 years. The youngest member is 17 and the oldest 59 years old. CerciPóvoa is a cooperative of social solidarity that provides services in the areas of disability and leisure of hundreds of children, youth and adults, distributed by the five facilities.

Therefore, attempting to answer the problem emerges with a research question: How to manage expressive therapies that provide mental and physical balance among users in the RCC?

Method

This study followed a qualitative approach through an action-research methodology. A initial set of procedures or methods were used to conduct the research: • Initial interview with the group; • Participant observation in which the collection of information is realized through natural behavior of users in the RCC as talk, observe, and follow, among others. • State of the art based on Bibliographical research, were used studies about the theme, despite the documentation on the issue be a little sparse, given the practice of animation does not being validated in the disability field. "As regards the investigation (...) matter, above all, that the researcher is able to design and implement a device for the elucidation of the real, that is, in its widest sense, a working method. This never present as a simple amount of techniques that it would apply just as it is present, but as a global journey of spirit that demands to be reinvented for each job" (Quivy and Campenhoudt, 2003). Therefore, the question of research and objectives, emerges on the maturation and development process during the professional activity. In that process, music and expressive therapies emerge as a theme in a strategic way over the defined problem. In this type of research, the sociocultural animator is privileged by the naturalist way of obtaining the required data and information. Inherent in any action research project, the first approach for the eventual realization of Zen Art project, was performed through an informal conversation in order to verify the relevance of the project. It was important to use a spontaneously conversation, and an interview survey, in order to plan fundamental strategies to develop Zen Art project. The survey was a method used in this project, in order to obtain answers from the technicians of the RCC to relate and compare the reviews about the work developed throughout the process. This procedure, used to evaluate the project, was presented by graphics for a better understanding. The Sociocultural Animation is meant by calculating and methodological practices, that, according to Lopes (2010) increase the initiative, organization, critical thinking, participation and independent action of socio-cultural and political groups, whether or not integrated communities, independently of their social contexts and ages.

Expected Outcomes

This study was design to improve the practice, having as main objective two perspectives: getting the best results in relation to the work that is performed, and provide an improvement of individuals and groups with which it works. In the care of people with mental and physical disabilities, the theoretical and practical process was performed in accordance with the intervention of Sociocultural Animation, consolidating that this field can, and should be, practiced in any structured institution with other forms of knowledge. Zen Art project aimed to promote social inclusion and it was with this purpose that was built, implemented and streamlined. It is imperative that these activities be continued, and that capacities continue to be stimulated and developed, so that the Zen Art project continues to make sense in the life of these people. The layout project was intentionally produced to reflect on special education and sociocultural practices, All education should be special because it is through the educational method that are formed social actors, whether they are disabled or not. With this project, and with the help of a bibliographic research, was possible to understand that music therapy, dance therapy, drama therapy, visual arts, laugh therapy, Tai Chi and Reiki, were able to promote physical and mental balance of individuals of CerciPóvoa, providing a direct contact with the potential of music and expressions that go, hand in hand, as an aid for individuals with disorders, enhancing the development of skills of self-esteem and concentration. With regard to the care of people with physical and mental disabilities, the theoretical and practical process was conducted according with the intervention of Sociocultural Animation. Therefore we conclude that the Sociocultural Animation can and should be practiced with an interdisciplinary approach in any educational institution.

References

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Author Information

Eva Corrêa (presenting / submitting)

Instituto Superior de Ciências Educativas - ISCE

Centro de Investigação CI-ISCE

Odivelas

Cátia Isabela Cabrito (presenting)

Instituto Superior de Ciências Educativas - CI-ISCE, Portugal

Delgado Mª João

Instituto Superior de Ciências Educativas - CI-ISCE, Portugal

Paula Farinho

ISCE

DEpartamento de Educação