One African Child Uses IICBA’s Transformative Pedagogy Approach to Teach Art for Peace and Environment

UNESCO-IICBA’s Transformative Pedagogy for Peace-building: A guide for teachers (2017) has been applied by One African Child (OAC) Benin, in partnership with Peace First, in a training on the theme “Using Art to Raise Awareness for Peace and Environment.” The training, part of OAC Benin’s “Art for Peace and Environment” project, took place on 13 November 2018 at the art school ESMA (Ecole Secondaire des Métiers d'Arts), which is part of SOS Village d'Enfants, a center that shelters orphans and disabled children in Abomey-Calavi, Benin.


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     Using the participative process of transformative pedagogy, promoted and explained by IICBA in the Guide, Constant Odounfa, the OAC Volunteer and Trainer, discussed with children during the training about the following:

       - Causes and consequences of environmental pollution
       - The necessity to act against this phenomenon
       - How children can take action through awareness
       - Some awareness messages to promote better behaviors in the population, formulated by participants
       - How participants can use art to effectively communicate about those messages


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By the end of the training, children understood that in order to use art to raise awareness about a subject, they first need to identify the message they want to send. Then, they should think about the best way to express it, whether as a painting, drawing, poem, music or another form of artwork. OAC Benin also announced details about an art contest they’re organizing to produce artwork that raises awareness on a subject relating to peace or environment that the students are invited to take part in. Great enthusiasm was shown towards the contest.


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This is but one example of how IICBA’s approach to transformative pedagogy can be applied to teach students; In this case to teach art for peace and environmental awareness. We would love to hear from you if you’ve been using transformative pedagogy in your classroom or training. Please write to us at info.iicba@unesco.org and let us know about your experience!