Power Streams on Video: Creative Solutions for Wellbeing at Comprehensive School

Fanny Niemi-Junkola
School of Art, Music and Media
TAMK – Tampere University of Applied Sciences
Tampere, Finland
fanny.niemi-junkola@tamk.fi

Abstract: School bullying is still a problem in Finland. There is evidence of effectiveness of anti-bullying programs. Still positive interaction in schools could be more supported. Power Streams on Video is a living lab multidisciplinary project which aims to support well-being and safety in comprehensive school. The project is based on workshops consisting of fine art, cinematic production and video technology. In this paper we describe two pilot studies. The final aim of the project is to construct an operational model to help intervene in situations where students are at risk of becoming bullied and marginalized. The model defines a framework for developing social interactive skills thus preventing school bullying and drop out. In the two pilots atmosphere of the class was measured by interviews and sociogram. According to results the workshops had positive effect on the class. In future the workshops could be realized using animation techniques, tablet computing or other mobile devices.

Introduction

	Bullying is common in schools. Even 5-15 % of students of comprehensive school are being bullied…research shows that in every 1.-6. grade there is one systematically bullied person per class. Most likely there is no school where bullying does not happen. (Salmivalli 2003, 14.). Though antibullying projects show evidence of effectiveness, the problems with student´s school wellbeing, bullying and sense of safety have not been resolved.
	Power Streams on Video was initiated as a living lab research project of TAMK- Tampere University of Applied Sciences. The project started with two pilots. The starting point for these pilots was practical hands-on approach focusing on activating comprehensive school students and teachers through fine art and film production practices. The results and observations of the two pilots provided information for a larger project. The aim of the final project is to create an operational model seeking answers to school wellbeing, positive social interaction, preventing bullying thus social exclusion and drop out. In this paper I will first introduce the two pilots and finally present the findings and conclusion of the work done.
	The two pilots consisted of workshops and took place in the region of West-Tampere in Finland in 2013. The first pilot was implemented in Kaarila School for one 6th grade class and the second pilot in International School of Tampere - FISTA for two 7th grade classes. The pilots were based on multidisciplinary skills and vocational sectors aspects from TAMK- Tampere University of Applied Sciences. The sectors were fine art, media, film and television, health and wellbeing. 
	In the workshops students produced video works of everyday life at school. The students were divided into groups and had their own teacher to help them. The artistic part of the work was led by fine art and media students from TAMK. All groups worked effectively and altogether fourteen videos were completed. These videos are published in the internet (Voima Virtaa Videolla, 2013).
	In these pilots the knowledge and skills of two educational levels combined: a comprehensive school and higher level education of  University of Applied Sciences. The co-operation was needed in order to keep the workshops going fluently.
	Multidisciplinary skills were applied in the two pilots as we needed a valuation of class atmosphere before and after workshops. The measurements were made by health care sector students of TAMK by interviews and sociograms. Several students with their key teachers worked in both pilots. Students produced reports and a summary of sociograms.
	The target group for the two pilots were 6th and 7th grade-students who shift from elementary school to upper secondary school. That is a phase when mostly 11 to 14 year old students experience many changes in school routines. They shift to upper 7th class where they get new school mates, they have longer school days, more demanding studies and new subject teachers.

Previous work

	In Finland there are projects like Verso and KiVa School which aim to reduce school bullying. Verso-project uses school mediation as a conflict management tool and it is especially suited for solving conflicts amongst pupils. Its two methods are: peer mediation, where pupil mediators help the parties of the conflict to find a solution to their conflict by themselves and thus change their behaviour, and adult-led mediation, where trained mediation supportive adults guide the parties to find a common agreement to the conflict. The project was initially started in 2000 and has since its pilot phase been funded by The Finnish Ministry of Education (during 2006 and 2007) and from 2008- by RAY (Verso vertaissovittelu, 2013)).	
	KiVa is an international research-based antibullying program that has been developed in the University of Turku, Finland, with funding from the Ministry of Education and Culture. The effectiveness of KiVa has been shown in a large randomized controlled trial (KiVa School, 2013). "We believe that influencing the bystanders is a key to successful prevention of bullying" says Professor Christina Salmivalli who is one the key developers of KiVa School.
	The positive effects of art and culture has been recognized in proposal for an Action programme of Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture 2010-2014. “The equal promotion of health and well-being is an important objective and value choice of the Finnish welfare society. Education and culture also occupy a central position in building society” (Liikanen, 2010, 8). 
	Miina Savolainen has created the concept of empowering photography. The therapeutically aligned pedagogic method that Savolainen has developed personally, is based on concept of empowerment. With the help of the method, photography can be used as the creator of an empowering process for an individual and for different groups, as families and work communities. In Savolainen´s method the empowerment does not require verbal elements. In empowering photography the process functions through images and social interaction rather than discussion (Voimauttava valokuva, 2013). 
	The Most Beautiful Girl in the World is a communal photographic project that Savolainen has produced since 1998 with young women from Hyvönen children´s home in Finland. In Savolainen´s method young women can examine their self image and identity from a new and positive perspective. 
	Art has connected professional artists and young people in Heimo-project, a communal art project realised in various towns of south and north of Finland.  The aim was to “transform and and develop the places we live through collaboration between contemporary artists and young people” explains Veera Jalava in her e-mail to me in December, 2013. The project was initiated in 2013 by two contemporary artists of School of Activism and producer Veera Jalava from Kiasma- Contemporary Art Museum of Finland. The Heimo-project aims to activate youth and young adults to have an impact for their own living environment in positive ways(Heimo, 2013).

The project study

	In Power Streams on Video the processes of contemporary fine art support social interaction and wellbeing in school. Fine art is successfully used to activate young people. Miina Savolainen´s method Empowering Photography has been applied with young people in The Most Beautiful girl in the World-project since 1998. The method is used in pedagogic and therapeutic context and to enhance team spirit of work communities (Voimauttava valokuva, 2013).
	Heimo is a new communal project connecting art and youth. In the context of developing Power Streams on Video-pilots, Heimo is an interesting opening for activating the youth to take part in developing their own environment.
	In Power Streams on Video the workshop groups also benefit from processes of film industry. When working as part of a film crew, each member undertakes certain task. Every member of the group has an important and responsible role in finalizing the piece. 
All roles and tasks in a film crew are equally needed but they are not the same. For example a director is the leader of the film crew. In school class the “quiet” one can take a more powerful, forefront role in the project like acting as a director. In our pilots it was crucial that the class´s teacher, based on her knowledge, selected students into film crew roles.
	The communal video of the class mirrors its social roles. The video and its working processes function as a self-portrait. The aim is to challenge the power relations that has been formed within a class. Through creatively functioning together habits and fixed social positions can hopefully be re-arranged thus have an affect on situations where one is being left out or bullied. Including school teachers in the process enhances their awareness of borderline situations and gives tools for noticing and preventing possible bullying. The project also aims to give voice for school students and help deal with situations that can be challenging to verbalize, like feeling of loneliness, tiredness, lack of power and being bullied.

First Pilot

	The first pilot of Power Streams on Video was realized in Spring 2013 in Kaarila School of Tampere on one 6th grade class. The pilot was included in curriculum as part of Finnish lessons so the class teacher participated in the pilot workshop as well. The workshop was held twice a week for two hours for one month. It consisted on introducing of the project, planning, scripting, video filming, sound recording, editing, final screening, feedback discussions and interviews. 
	25 students were divided into six groups. Each group produced a video. The class teacher gave each member of group a role in the film crew like director, sound recordist, cinematographer, assistant director-editor. The fellow group acted as actors for the video and they were able to wish which role of the script they wanted to act. In addition to the class teacher each group had their own assistant. Four students of TAMK, Degree programme of fine art and two students of programme of film and television were working as teacher´s assistants. They helped with all video workshop processes described above and gave artistic and technical help. 
	The assignment for the video was “any situation or event of your everyday life at your own school class”. All six groups picked school bullying as their subject. The finished videos were shown and discussed in the class. Finally all student groups were interviewed for by health sector students of TAMK led by their key teacher. The interview was based on questions 1.What kind of team spirit you have amongst your class? 2.  What was positive/negative in the workshop? 3. What do you think was the aim of the workshop? 4. Could everybody join, would have liked to join more? 5. What was you role, What did you do well, what you change? 6. How would your develop workshop, reflection day? 7. How would you create good team spirit for upper class (7.grade)? The aim was to figure out if the workshop had any effect on social situation and atmosphere on the students. In both pilots the project leader collected feedback from class teacher by face to face discussion after the workshop.

Second pilot

	The execution of second pilot was similar to the first pilot, but it was done for two 7th grade classes and we added a sociogram to our interviews. A sociogram was made before and after the video workshop and it included questions 1. You are going to the amusement park and you have two wristbands. To whom will you give another? 2. The class is going to the camp school. They are there overnight and also cooking. Who is your choice of your class to represent plans for camp school for teacher? 3. The class makes a group work. You have to choose one active group. Who is in this group (3-5)? 4. Who is often left alone in recess? 
	The second pilot took place in Finnish International School of Tampere, FISTA. The workshop was part of 7th grade´s Art and English classes. In Finnish International School of Tampere the teaching language is English so the workshop was held mainly in English as well. 
	The assignment for the video was the same as in the first pilot. Students produced eight videos and their subjects were bullying between students, teacher bullying student, tiredness, school food, skipping school, gender issues, being gay, teachers´ use of power.

Findings

	Applying the second pilot workshop for 7th grade proved to be more complicated than to the 6th grade. There were more arrangements in terms of curriculum because on 7th grade there are several subject teachers. Also two classes of 7th graders participated whereas in Kaarila School there was only one 6th grade class taking part in the pilot. 
	According to TAMK students´ report the intention of the project- despite of introduction- was fairly unclear. To enhance wellbeing and team spirit and prevent bullying at school were the key objectives of the workshop. Some of the students disregarded this information or felt that it had not been made clear enough to them in the beginning. 
	The 6th grade group interviews showed no evidence of whether the video workshop clearly had a positive effect to social relations or team spirit in the class. However all students from both schools found the workshop refreshing and fun and wished they could have more action like that. So as a whole the workshop was useful for building better atmosphere in a class.
	A sociogram was made for the 7th grades. It included a drawing of social map of the class based on four questions described above. According to the sociogram before the video workshop one girl was left out of all functions (questions), there were no “arrows” pointing to her. After the workshop she clearly was included according to the sociogram drawing. 
	In the interview the students pointed out that they were quite well spirited class anyway, nobody was seriously left out and they knew each other well. That was because they were students from the one international school of Tampere and therefore formed a tight community since elementary school.
In the feedback discussion the 7th grade students pointed out that it could be beneficial if the workshop was not scattered twice a week into their curriculum. They wished to work in more consistent way and suggested an intensive week for the workshop. The students pointed out that they had problems to concentrate and go deep into the given tasks. That was because during workshop days they were responsible for other school subjects too, tests and so on. 
	In final discussion teachers from both 6th and 7th grades hoped to have perhaps more time for planning and filming, but were happy of the intervention in normal school routine. They had also thought that an intensive week might function better for this kind of workshop. Despite of feeling of haste all groups of 6th and 7th grades produced videos in given time. According to the TAMK´s assisting students active involvement of classes´ own teachers varied.  

Conclusions

	Within Power Streams on Video-pilots unfolded many questions regarding sense of hurry, power relations and social interaction in comprehensive school. The freely chosen video themes/subjects suggest issues like bullying, tiredness, sense of unfairness, use of power and lack of communication between students but also between students and teachers. There seems to be a need for more open and positive atmosphere. 		Although there is successful evidence of antibullying programs like KiVa School both in Finland and internationally, the pilots suggest that also other kind of approaches could be applied to enhance school wellbeing. The findings of the two pilots prove that a combination of visual art and social wellbeing empowers students and teachers. The processes of fine art can be powerful and improve interaction, such as dreaming and visioning, learning by allowing mistakes, resolving problems, communicating without words, understanding meanings of images, finalizing a piece of art work and reflecting. Combination of fine art, cinematic processes, technology and knowledge of the health sector could create an effective intervention. Multidisciplinary approach can open up new ways to enhance wellbeing and safety in school. The final project Power Streams on Video could challenge teachers to notice awkward situations in time to prevent bigger problems. 
	The students from higher educational level can benefit too as the project enables them to work in new learning environments within living lab concept. 
	In future Power Streams on Video-project could be realized using for example animation techniques. The project could have an implementation of game design and its characters and would benefit of new technology and mobile devices in educational pedagogigs. 

Acknowledgements

I appreciate the help of Mari Salmi from TAMK, D.P. in social services, who helped with her students in both pilots by interviewing and giving advice. I also appreciate the help of Tapio Salomäki, Senior lecturer of TAMK, D.P. in social services who made with his students the sociograms for the second pilot. 
I acknowledge the support of TAMK- Tampere University of Applied Sciences and Finnish Art Council, Region of Pirkanmaa.

References

Salmivalli, C. 2003. Koulukiusaamiseen puuttuminen. Kohti tehokkaita toimintamalleja. Jyväskylä: PS-kustannus

Voima virtaa videolla/ Power Streams on Video, 11.12.2013, www.voimavirtaavideolla.net

KiVa School, 8.12.2013, http://www.kivakoulu.fi/there-is-no-bullying-in-kiva-school 

Liikanen H-L, Art and Culture for Well-being-proposal for an action programme 2010-2014, Art and Culture for Well-being, Publications of the Ministry of Education and Culture, Finland 2010:9

Verso- Mediation in Schools, 5.12.2013,
http://www.sovittelu.com/vertaissovittelu/index.php?id=98

Heimo, Kiasma, School of Activism, 5.12. 2013, www.heimo.fi

Savolainen, M., Empowering Photography, 8.12.2013, http://www.voimauttavavalokuva.net