Engaging Communities Through Creative-Based Practices: Case Studies from Formal and Non-Formal Education

This article presents two exploratory qualitative case studies conducted in distinct educational contexts. The first, based at the University of Victoria (Canada), involved two art-based workshops with undergraduate and master’s students, and one session with doctoral students, to explore relational care practices within university settings. The second centred on several sessions of podcasting workshops developed in a social cooperative in Naples (Italy) as part of Italian as a second language (L2) course with Unaccompanied Foreign Minors and refugees. Drawing on participatory action research and autoethnography, both case studies share a commitment to researching with and for communities and employ creative practices as pedagogical tools for generating non-judgmental relational spaces in which unspoken dimensions may emerge. Taken together, these experiences highlight the potential of creative and care-based approaches to welcome vulnerability in both formal and non-formal settings, reconfiguring them as spaces oriented towards collective wellbeing.