Five doctoral students, Juliet Bushi, Romina Bedogni Drago, Heather Fox Griffith, Pam Klein, and Titilayo Olayele in the Faculty of Education’s Adult Education Program chose to explore the topic of learning pathways to higher education for their group project in their fall 2015 EAHR 931 course with Dr. Cindy Hanson. They entitled their arts-based, participatory performance, “Mapping Adult Education in Saskatchewan: The Stories.”
Their task was to map sites of Adult Education in Saskatchewan, but after developing a comprehensive database and exploring how they might interpret the data, they realized that an important piece of the puzzle was missing: the non-formal learning pathways. To address this lack, they conducted case studies on the individual learning journeys that brought each presenter to the University of Regina, which they shared as part of their arts-based performance, extending their inquiry to include the stories of the students who were invited to attend, and thus, participate in the performance.
The diversity within the group of presenters and participants enriched the performance with a broad collection of cultural and international learning experiences: For example, one participant was born in Sudan, had spent time in England, Switzerland, and the United Arab Emirates before finally coming to Canada, to the University of Regina (U of R). Another followed in the footsteps of his son, who had come to the U of R from China, and whose experience at the University so piqued his interest, he decided to become a student here as well. Another had gathered the threads of her learning-pathway story as she travelled from Nigeria to Vancouver, BC, to Grande Prairie, AB, and finally to Regina, SK, to study at the U of R. Others who originated from Canada spoke of their international travels as significant informal learning, such as one student whose travel in the Czech Republic had transformed her thinking about her own abilities.
As the presenters shared their learning-pathway stories through poetry and narrative, each presented a hand-made, woven hoop, and explained why they had chosen the colours and design, and then added their smaller hoops to the larger hoop, which represented the circular nature of their shared journeys and their own unique learning pathways. They organized the classroom into a sharing circle to represent the weaving together of the stories of both the performers and participants into the hoop. The final product with the pieces added by presenters was woven into an installation artwork.
The materials for the artwork are 100% natural, with cashmere merino blend wool used for weaving, and sage green burlap for the province-shaped centre. This work of art will be placed in the Faculty of Education for viewing.
To view the project and read the poetry and narratives of the group, visit www.mappingadulted.ca
The web site also details their research process and methodology and offers a database of adult education opportunities in Saskatchewan.
The Adult Education program, University of Regina has a Facebook public group page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/adulteduregina/