Radical Practice for Radical Change

What radical practices have helped educators respond to changing times? 

After 6 weeks of lockdown, schools in New Zealand reopened with the arts and wellbeing at the centre of their approach to the return.  Principals, teachers and academics from the University of Auckland partnered to create a website with arts lesson plans to guide teachers to use the arts to address the collective trauma experienced from the COVID-19 pandemic.  This unique resource, Te Rito Toi (www.teritotoi.org) had nearly 200,000 page views in less than three weeks.  The work was funded in part by UNESCO NZ.

The children of Makoko, a floating slum in Lagos, Nigeria are faced with daunting challenges that is well beyond the capacity of children of their age in other climes. They are stressed with the imminence of forced eviction, and the prevalence of abuse due to their deplorable living condition.  With music, slum children can once again have their hopes of a better life rekindled and their minds enriched and fortified for greatness. This study examined in detail the many angles that musical performance can be explored in a bid to help the slum children become better versions of themselves.