An áit ina bhfuil t-anam is ann a thógas do chosa tú (your feet will always take you to the place of your soul): A study of transformation through indigenous ways of knowing in a County Kerry Community

People have known from earliest times that the arts have the potential to heal and transform whatever needs attention in inner life. This study illustrates how a group of County Kerry adult learners with visual impairment communicated an understanding of their lives to their communities through various arts media. Exploring their worlds creatively through six stage performances and preparatory workshops, over a seven year period, brought them into deeper relationship with the self, other, community, the earth, their ancestors – their customs, traditions and their ways of being and knowing. Finding voice to tell the stories of the challenge between their internal and external worlds, the surface and the deep, was a transformative experience for them, changing their approach to learning and living. As they transformed their experiences of life on the theatre stage, life was transformed also for their everyday communities and those journeying with them as they co-constructed knowledge with the audiences who viewed their performances. This study uses an arts-based, heuristic methodology to illuminate their process of transformation. These illuminations in image, dvd and cd formats, are further amplified through the inclusion of the learners’ thoughts and reflections throughout the process. Transformation continued beyond the life of their stage illuminations and images of the visual art work capturing this process are also included, as are those of the researcher. This study shows how learning through the lens of imagination, as opposed to a more technical and rational one only, allows for experiences of soul. This, in turn, facilitates an experience of learning as living, which challenges modernist approaches to teaching and learning. An indigenous postmodern worldview and experience emerge from this work and make a contribution to pedagogical theory and models of education. The study also offers implications of an indigenous postmodern perspective for educational policies and approaches.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

phd

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

National University of Ireland Maynooth

Year dc:date.issued

2013

Author dc:creator

• Kennelly, Anne

• Education

Language dc:language

en