This a pilot project in Kyangwali Refugee Settlement started in 2023 aimed at creating culturally relevant and sustainable arts education curricular materials, engage teachers in arts-based professional development, and pilot test curricular materials and training models for usability, acceptability, and feasibility in meaningfully supporting students and teachers in their schools and communities..
Expanding pedagogy through the arts: “We always welcome each pupil to come and participate [...] it became
like now a nature in every lesson, I just welcome five to six or ten pupils to come and participate and also
tell what they are doing and reflect what we have been learning. So that's why I think these children, they
[are] more comfortable once they are doing something [...] Because once they are doing their paper, their
exams, they do not only just get what they learned, they also remember what they did in the class.”
[Teacher Interview: February 2024]
Improved teacher-pupil relationship: “The changes that I perceived, one was the children started loving,
[...] It improved the teacher-pupil relationship. So, when it improved the teacher-pupil relationship, the
children now were [keen] to engage with teachers, especially where they feel there is maybe has not understood
or something like that.” [Teacher Interview: November 2023]
Sparking creative thinking: “We…see people who are putting on Kitenges. We know that maybe they are from
industries…[but] we are unable to make them. But you find even us, even a child in P5, P6 is able to make
Kitenge. So new ideas were developed [among] pupils. They [realized] they can also get more ideas from
themselves and make those things” (Teacher interview: November 2023).
Higher attendance rates and active participation: There was also active participation…everyone was eager
[to] participate. And then another change. Children would come to school daily. Even those who were absent
who do not come to school every day. Since we brought about that [curriculum], children were no longer absent.”
[Teacher Interview: December 2023]