Art As Language, Pedagogy, And Method: Promoting Learning Engagement For Young African Refugee Migrant Students In Urban Australia

This chapter gives an account of an arts ” intervention ” undertaken as part of a larger research project that investigated the learning needs of recently arrived so-called ” suitcase refugee ” children from Horn of Africa countries. These young learners were enrolled in the middle years of schooling in a special government reception school in Australia that prepares immigrant and refugee children for transition into mainstream schooling. The successes of this arts intervention serve as testament to the value of the arts and technology in the curriculum and also as a methodology for research. The chapter presents a cogent argument for arts as language, pedagogy, and methodology, as well as the affordances of contemporary technologies for enhancing learning engagement of marginalized student groups in terms of developing multiliteracies, equity, agency, and social and cultural capital.