The REAP Project
In what ways can digitally recording and communicating Northern students’ experiences during times of crisis, in diverse pasts, presents and futures, and cultural contexts, support the resilience, recovery and renewal of Northern (rural and urban) education systems?
Our research project, focused on the enhancement of the psychosocial well-being of children and youth, will develop a COVID-19 recovery curriculum that centres student’s voices and agency through digital storytelling (DST) with virtual and augmented teaching pedagogies. The purpose of this project is to amplify diverse and marginalized students’ storytelling voices and promote social cohesion through re-envisioning education in the context of Northern classrooms and communities, while promoting individual and institutional resilience, renewal, and recovery. Each of our three case study research sites, Canada, the UK, and Finland, approaches these objectives with a unique focus.
What do we do?
Meet our three teams
The Canadian Team
The Canadian case study will take place in both rural and urban areas with youth ages 12-18. In rural Labrador, Inuit youth-created films will document the post-COVID-19 recovery through cultural DST. The urban case study will take place at two schools with diverse, minority and immigrant populations. Both youth and children in collaboration will create films for the Newfoundland and Labrador Youth Film Festival, thus elevating the understanding of children and youth communities in both Labrador and urban Newfoundland areas during the pandemic and post-pandemic period. This team will partner with the Newfoundland and Labrador English School District, Cultural Connections NL, the Nunatsiavut government, and local communities.
The UK Team
The UK case study is a co-participatory research project working with students ages 5-16 in three diverse communities across the United Kingdom, who are attending Carr Manor Community School, Mayfield Primary School or Stornoway Primary School. The UK team aims to surface young people’s and their community’s experiences of the pandemic, recognizing the diversity and resilience of their communities through both film and immersive reality. Students will show their films and reflect on their findings at local events with community partners and at their local schools.
The Finnish Team
The Finnish team will collaborate with the Sámi Languages Online School students and teachers. The Online School is a project hosted by the Municipality of Utsjoki and the Municipality of Enontekiö, funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture and coordinated by the Finnish Sámi Parliament. Online classes cover the three Sámi languages spoken in Finland, all endangered according to the UNESCO criteria. Classes are provided as extra-curricular activities by the Online School to Sámi young people ages 5-19 living outside of the Sámi Homeland Area, which is located in northern Finland. The Finnish case study’s goal is to engage with and revitalise the Sámi languages through immersive films that centre Sámi culture and young Sámi speakers’ COVID-19 experiences.
Thank-you to our partners and funding organizations
The REAP project is supported in part by funding from the Government of Canada’s New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF).
REAP est financé en partie par le fonds Nouvelles frontières en recherche du gouvernement du Canada.
