Inside. Outside. And beyond.

An arts-based research project on refugee's experiences of 2020 lock down in Dublin, Ireland.

Inside. Outside. And beyond. aims to examine whether, and how, the lock down restrictions have re-written the boundaries of inclusion and exclusion, and perceived sense of belonging, in young refugees and migrants recently arrived in Dublin. The participants are 10 young students, aged 16 to 18, from Syria, Congo, China, Albania, Somalia, Afghanistan and Guinea, enrolled in the Access Programme run by Youth and Education Services (YES) for Refugees and Migrants.

The research team employed a range of arts-based research methods to give voice to minority ethnic groups about their experiences of COVID-19 lock down 2020 in Ireland. The project involved two weeks storytelling workshops, followed by one-on-one interviews conducted through drawing games, mime, singing, photography and dance, to elicit stories and memories from lock down.

The Research Question underpinning the study is:

How did the current 2020 lock down in Ireland affect refugee students’ sense of belonging and motivation to speak English?

This project is part of SORGENTE, an IRC New Foundations research focused on motivation to belong, language learning and performative language pedagogy, with young students from refugee backgrounds and their teachers in Dublin, Ireland.

RESEARCH TEAM

Erika Piazzoli (Assistant Professor, Arts Education, Trinity College Dublin)
Elif KIR Cullen (Teacher Trainer, Assistant Professor in Linguistics, Medeniyet University, Istanbul)
Fiona Dalziel (Professor, Department of Linguistics and Literary Studies, University of Padova)
Luca Marrucci (Visiting Fellow, School of Education, Trinity College Dublin)
Garret Scally (Researcher, Practitioner, Lecturer, The University of Kiel)
Kathleen Warner Yeates (Writer, Actor, Director, Flying Turtle Productions)
Miriam Stewart (Trinity College Dublin graduate; teacher, Flying Turtle Productions, CELTA instructor)
Rachel Jacobs (Senior Lecturer in Creative Arts, Western Sydney University)
Anna Ciobanica (Trinity College Dublin graduate, ESL teacher, actor)
Aisling Mc Nally (Institute of Art, Design and Technology graduate; Visual Arts Superintendent)