Using arts-based auto ethnography to compare safeguarding policies and practices for the well-being of children and young people in two educational settings: One in London, England and one in Harare, Zimbabwe

Abstract

Using art-based auto ethnography to compare safeguarding policies and practices for young people in two educational settings: One in London, England and one in Harare, Zimbabwe. The following study used an auto-ethnographic arts-based approach of A/r/tographic to compare and contrast safeguarding policies in two uniquely different countries with a shared history the United Kingdom and Zimbabwe. A/r/tography is described as a form of arts based research that acknowledges the A (artist), r (researcher) and t (teacher) within a study. Artographers as this researcher will refer to these artists and themselves, use their chosen medium of art to explore areas of interest within education, not in isolation to their audience but in conjunction with them as co-interpreters and co-inventors. In the African and UK context, EFL (English as a foreign language) or medium of instruction school based research, utilising this form of auto-ethnographic enquiry is slowly emerging. However, employingartography to develop an understanding of indigenous safeguarding systems in education has yet to be examined and was done so in this study. Artographical tools and a mixed method approach were utilised to investigate contentions in safeguarding between the two countries. Furthermore, to gain a clearer viewpoint on those entities involved in safeguarding, an ecological systems theory perspective was adopted. In order to sculpt a story of these organisations the voices of managers in both settings were included. Findings reveal that safeguarding is a complex system with interconnected and dependent parts in both contexts. Furthermore, within these parts contention arises which impacts on effective actioning within the system.