Multimodal artistic recreations of the ecological university in the Global South

MELINA PORTO

Pedagogy, Culture and Society

Routledge

Año: 2023

This article describes how a group of language undergraduates ina local university in the periphery in the Global South conceptualisedand enacted the notion of the ‘ecological university’. Theoreticallygrounded in critical and post-humanist perspectives on education,and language education in particular, and notions of the ecologicaland the measured university, this qualitative study was conducted in2018–19. Students created artistic multimodal works to portray theirvisions of the ecological university prompted by a language coursesyllabus and an arts-based methodology. They complemented theircreations with concrete activism in their social milieu to contribute tomaking their university ecological. Combining discourse, content andpost-qualitative analyses, findings show that the students envisionedthree essential elements to enact the transformative role of theiruniversity: a) love for and commitment to others; b) a human rightseducation foundation; and c) a basis in local activism. Implications forpedagogy are considered, centred on the significance of arts-basedpedagogies and methodologies to challenge predominant characterisationsof the accountable university in the setting and fosterstudent activism.