17. Using Arts-Based Activities to Foster Transformative Learning During a Teaching Practicum in Kenya

Abstract

This essay explores and presents strategies we, as Canadian faculty facilitators of a teaching practicum in Kenya, used to foster the pre-service teachers’ knowledge and understanding of critical reflection and transformative learning processes by using arts-based activities. Participation in the arts-based activities while in Kenya encouraged the pre-service teachers to reflect upon and make sense of their cultural, social, and pedagogical experiences, and provided opportunities for them to gain insights that perhaps would not have been revealed using more traditional reflection formats. The transformational learning experienced by the pre-service teachers as they were immersed in arts-based pedagogical activities was evident on a personal and professional level.