Children's Literature in Critical Contexts of Displacement: Exploring how story and arts-based practices create 'safe spaces' for displaced children

The proposed network draws together academic partners from different disciplines (arts, humanities and education) along with non-academic partners, to examine and promote the contribution made by children's literature in creating 'safe spaces' for displaced children and their families and for developing relationships between migrants and local communities through arts-based practices. Children's literature (eg traditional tales, picturebooks and poetry) deals with topics such as identity, conflict, resilience and tolerance; in multi-ethnic contexts with fluctuating patterns of migration, these stories and books can become key tools in providing spaces for distraction from anxieties and supporting literacies required by needs and living conditions. In both Egypt and Mexico, the situation regarding displaced children has recently reached critical proportions and spaces for sharing books and learning with displaced children, through children's literature, story- and arts-based activities, have developed in urban and rural areas via government, NGO or volunteer initiatives. Spaces often include different cultures and languages and involve health workers and teachers but also artists, storytellers and musicians. By understanding how these spaces are operating, we can learn about participatory arts-based practices that improve the identification of needs and the implementation of literacies that allow children to participate more fully in more cohesive communities. The proposal was developed through the collaborative partnership between Egypt, Mexico and the UK in order to meet the needs as perceived by the organizations working on the ground, such as the regional sections of IBBY (International Board on Books for Children and Young People), the UNHCR in Cairo and the Mexican Ministry of Culture (Reading promotion programme). It is based on previous national and international research in the UK that approached the needs of migrant children through literacy education, children's literature and integration. CLCCD will also allow participants to identify key areas for future collaboration, research and research training that will address the emotional welfare of the children and inter-community relations, thus aligning with the Middle East and South American regional goals of the UNHCR (2016-2017). The three overlapping phases of activity during the 18 month time-frame focus on relationship-building (through links among academic and non-academic partners); capacity-strengthening (through the development and sharing of best practices and location-specific activities), and international development and outreach (through the production of multimedia resources and KE links with potential partners in other ODA countries). One of the main outcomes will be an overview of current practices and successful strategies involving children's literature along with story and arts-based practices that allows for a comparative perspective. Another outcome will be the creation of strong research links that will form the basis for future exchange and collaboration and which can be expanded, in the first instance, to neighbouring countries (Kenya, Sudan, Yemen, Lebanon, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador). This will include a grounded, ethical and sustainable plan to develop the research capacity of academic staff and students to use arts-based research methods (with children's literature as a base) in ways that are flexible for both researchers and practitioners working in contexts of flux and displacement. By emphasizing a positive and 'hopeful' view of the interplay between literature, art and education, the network seeks to counter negative discourses of migrants that involve stereotypes, racism and educational deficit. The CLCCD network will lay the groundwork for research which is genuinely inter-disciplinary and intercultural and supports and develops the creation of 'safe spaces' for displaced children within more cohesive communities.

This interdisciplinary network of academics (arts, humanities and education) and children's literature specialists will explore the contribution made by literature and arts-based practices in creating 'safe spaces' for displaced children and their families, beginning with Egypt and Mexico. Beyond the benefits that the network will have for participants from these two countries, the network activities will benefit displaced children and their families as well as local communities by helping to develop relationships through these arts-based practices. Responsibilities for impact will be shared among the PI and Co-Is in UK, Mexico and Egypt, as well as other network partners. Partners will have the opportunity to develop long-term relationships through the network-related activities. Relationship-building, will be carried out through scoping the wider field and specific localities (Cairo and Monterrey), connecting with groups such as school coordinators and community workers. The connections between academic and non-academic partners will be strengthened over the course of the following 2 days in each location during a series of workshops where participants will share best practices, theories, and methodologies. Links will be sustained through wide-access social media (dedicated fb page/Twitter and IBBY International, IBBY-Mexico and EBBY fb pages, twitter and websites as well as the pages for Salas de Lectura (4,000 groups across the country) and the Mexican Ministry Culture blog. The PI and Co-Is will regularly invite our non-academic partners to use these platforms as a way to share their ideas, challenges and experiences in their own sites. We will post on fb and/or twitter at least once a week. Capacity-strengthening is the focus of activities carried out through workshops that will include structured support through presentations of previous projects using story and arts-based activities. They draw on the expertise developed in UK through projects such as Visual Journeys (Literacy Research Association Award 2015) and Journeys from Images to Words (BERA/Routledge Award 2013) with migrant children; through a result of the KE activities in Cairo initiated through the ESRC IAA project; and through the development of a programme for reading groups with migrant and displaced children around the country the Mexican Ministry of Culture currently being rolled out through a team of Ministry of Culture mediators trained by PI Arizpe. Other KE activities will be developed with and for members of the network to identify and address gaps in their educational provision for displaced children. Best practices and arts-based initiatives will be recorded and shared with policy makers in the form of policy briefs. The network activities that focus on expanding international outreach involve sharing a suite of multimedia resources developed throughout the project. These resources will include presentations, discussion and practices recorded during the 4 days of workshops in Mexico and Egypt along with lists of recommended books suitable for displaced children. These resources will be shared with potential partners in other ODA countries especially neighbouring countries (e.g. Kenya, Sudan, Yemen, Lebanon, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador). To address the issue of access to resources, the materials will be available in a number of formats: video recordings (four 20 minute videos with subtitles in two languages, either English and Spanish or English and Arabic), news items or blog posts and once every six months (3 news items/blogs in total plus one AHRC blog) on the webpages mentioned which have high traffic and visibility. The network will broadcast some of the KE activities developed during the network events and will also develop short toolkits (such as "How to" mini-tutorials, "Top 5 Strategies", "An Arts-based Idea") for high circulation and visibility across the social media sites mentioned above.