The main goal of education in the Slovak Republic is an inclusive system that provides support to all pupils and students with respect for their individual characteristics and diverse educational needs and enables them to fulfil their potential to the highest possible extent. At the same time, the inclusive approach aims at the support and development of every person participating in the development of a pupil or student. The long-term intention is to create an environment that will motivate schools to become inclusive and at the same time motivate parents to perceive schools on the path to inclusive education. A key moment in the development of inclusive education was the adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (2006), which establishes the right of people with disabilities to study in the inclusive education system, obliges states to transform education, and promotes the support of inclusive education. In this document, the contracting parties recognize the right of persons with disabilities to education. To enforce this right without discrimination and based on equal opportunities, the contracting parties shall ensure an inclusive system of education at all levels. In our country, inclusion in education is officially regulated by several legal regulations, specifically in the Constitution of the Slovak Republic (Articles 38, 42), and in the Act of the Slovak Republic No. 245/2008 Coll. on Education and Training (School Act). From 2020, the inclusive approach in Slovakia is supported by the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic. For the first time in history, in that year, a separate Department of Inclusive Education was established at the ministry. The department states that the state educational program must be pro-inclusive, built in such a way that it accepts the educational requirements of all children, pupils, and students without exception, that is, pupils and students with diverse needs, with a health disadvantage, from socially disadvantaged environments, foreigners, pupils and students of different nationalities, migrants, or pupils and students with talent. Given that the provision of inclusive education is highly regionally specific, it requires the cooperation of all stakeholders at different levels. The current 2023 amendment to the Education Act entitles all pupils and students to receive support in education and training. The system of support measures is a means of implementing inclusive education. The aim of the amendment is to expand the concept of special educational needs to include other groups of difficulties and specific needs, for example in language and cognitive abilities, motivation and emotionality, or skills. The new system strives to take account of other problems of pupils while better responding to the needs of talented pupils in developing their personal potential through specially developing their creativity and other skills. Support measures are designed based on different types of diagnostics. In the set model, the provision of support measures is directly linked to the five levels of support of the counselling and prevention system. The amendment to the Education Act is followed by a catalogue of support measures. Accompanying material and methodological instructions were created for each measure, describing who, for whom, when, and under what conditions provide the said support measures.
Artephyletics as a support tool in education
Artephyletics as a concept was developed from the late 1880s to the early 1920s in the Czech Republic. It is an educational method originally based on art education. A reflective, creative, and experiential aspect is important in artephyletics. It is based on cultural manifestations, namely visual, dramatic, musical, or dance expressions. It consists of two basic parts. The first part originates from the Latin word ars, artis—art, giving rise to art therapy. The second part, "phyletic," is an approach to education in which a person's social and emotional feelings are developed. Artephyletics offers personal development, a source of self-knowledge, and the development of creative thinking through personal experience. Creative activities provide opportunities to express experiences and knowledge, feelings, and wishes (Sender, 2022a). Methodologically, artephyletics is based on two interrelated principles—expression and reflection (Slavík, 2001). Artephyletics was created to bring education through personal experience closer to the individual's own experience. This experience is intended to deepen cultural sensitivity, cultural knowledge, and self-knowledge. It draws from modern visual arts, especially action creation (Slavík, 2001). Within artephyletics, art is understood broadly, especially as all ordinary creative activities and everyday phenomena. Slavík (2004) used Broudy's (1976, in Slavík, 2004) topic for a phyletic understanding of education (phyletic approach) to create an arte-phyletic structure of a specific form of encounter (encountering), in which art and dialogue are connected. Závora (2009) describes artephyletics as a salutogenetically oriented approach, which focuses on the knowledge of risk factors and the support of protective factors and individual potential. Action creation is closely related to creativity education and communication skills training. In action creation, the border between art disciplines is deliberately crossed, and various expressive tools are also used. It is a creation in which the intention is not to produce, but to create. The intention is the process itself, not the artistic artifact. So, the goal is not painting a picture or modelling a sculpture, but creativity during the process itself. A video recording or a photograph can serve as a reminder of an artephyletic meeting (Zhoř, 1991). Artephyletics is based on two sources—art therapy and the modern concept of art education. However, it is important not to confuse artephyletics with art therapy. Although artephyletics uses similar methods as art therapy, it does not have the primary goal of treating psychological problems. It is used in the field of education or as prevention of socially pathological phenomena (Potměšilová & Sobková, 2012). These two disciplines have much in common, apart from the already mentioned art techniques and subsequent reflection, especially in their goals. In artephyletics, it is self-knowledge and the development of the social side through artistic methods. In both cases, the activities can be carried out in smaller groups in a circle (Géringová, 2011). However, both disciplines can also share goals such as resocialization, re-education, integration, or inclusion. An effective approach in education and in a therapeutic environment is the transfer of experience, not knowledge in the form of memorization. Artistic activities are also effective in education. In both cases the same goal is a positive impact on pupils and students with special educational needs (SEN) within the framework of inclusion (Sender, 2021a). Through properly targeted methods, a healthy person can be brought closer to an individual with special educational needs. The common features of both approaches can also be seen in the emphasis on respect for individuality, uniqueness, identity, and otherness (Šicková, 2016).
Artephyletics in inclusive education
The use of artephyletics in teaching is extremely important when working in an inclusive classroom. Pupils and students at risk or with SEN tend to be demotivated, tired, and have low self-esteem at school. These students need to be shown that although they have difficulties in some areas, there are also areas in which they can excel. This increases their self-awareness, self-acceptance, and, in the long term, their self-confidence. It is therefore necessary to include emotions in learning and teach students to receive and create feedback. Thus, the role of teachers is gradually changing from simply conveying information and knowledge to accompanying students in learning about the world and developing their abilities and positive qualities. The artephyletic approach respects the individual pace of students, increases imagination, creative thinking, and critical thinking. It supports student creativity through activities and home projects and at the same time introduces new opportunities for learning in a safe and supportive environment (Sender, 2021b). Education is aimed at all-round development, and therefore it is desirable to include activities and games in teaching, with the help of which it is possible to fulfil intellectual, physical, and emotional elements. Encouraging positive emotions makes it easier for students to master even more demanding tasks that require overcoming obstacles. The use of artephyletics in teaching helps students not to succumb to stress and resist even adverse circumstances. These are factors that help them overcome difficult life situations. If the individual copes with his or her problems, artephyletic activities can offer guidance on how to respond next time he or she encounters difficulties. The school should strengthen competences that are the inherent basis for coping with life (Líšková, 2014). For all pupils and students, creative activity is a suitable means of training will, patience, and concentration, and it also supports imagination and creativity. A significant advantage is also the fact that students are led to deeper interest and become less compelled by destructive tendencies, learning to value their own work as well as the work of others. At the same time, in a natural and non-violent way, they contribute to increasing creativity and imagination. Creativity is one of the most important factors contributing to feelings of happiness, fulfilment, and self-realization (self-worth), but despite this, it is not sufficiently supported in today's schools. Creativity is involved in school success, healthy psychological functioning, and maintaining healthy peer relationships (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). Artephyletic activity offers great potential for relaxation and strengthening self-evaluation and inner experience. For this reason, we believe these procedures can be used by all educators when working with children and adolescents. The pedagogical process implemented in our schools has two basic components: education and training. It is a process in which personality is formed. Thus, the field of education and phyletic overlap in many areas. A competent educator can use various phyletic elements during the pedagogical process and thereby contribute to improved school and classroom climate, classroom relationships, learning results and student performance, joy in creating, and therefore also increased creativity and creative thinking (Sender, 2022b). Ford and Harris (1992) propose understanding creativity as a modifiable thinking process, whose result is the creation of a unique and useful product. Creativity is subject to environmental influences, especially purposeful educational influences; it can be trained and developed. When developing students' creativity in teaching, it is necessary to respect the fact that the development of their psychological processes and traits, intellectual and creative abilities does not occur in the same way or at the same pace. Therefore, each student needs specific stimuli for creative performance, which can mobilize creative activity and abilities (Lokšová, 2002). Unfortunately, for many teachers, developing students' creativity in school represents extra work (Beghetto & Plucker, 2006) and an extracurricular activity. In some cases, teachers evaluate student creativity and original ideas as disruptive (Beghetto, 2007) and assume that supporting it will lead to indiscipline and disruption in classes. At the same time, creativity is associated with economic and financial prosperity (Florida, 2002), physical health, social harmony, and mental well-being.
Artephyletic techniques and materials
The method of free associations is most often used in practice, and it consists of students producing associations to some object or to a set of elements that appear in art artifacts. These are especially expressive elements that attract attention with their proportions, colours, bizarreness, and so forth. Lhotová and Perout (2018) claim that these free associations can stimulate the "aha-effect" and address students in relation to their problems, thereby contributing to the creation of insight. Schools are an important place for cultivating and developing creativity. It is appropriate to use various non-traditional methods and approaches in education and to give students tasks in which they can use their creativity and originality. As already mentioned, increasing creativity has many benefits for students. School classes represent opportunities, especially for pupils with SEN, to appreciate human creativity and develop their own gifts and talents. Various methods are applied in the exploration of creation and in the assessment of processes in artephyletics regarding their usefulness within individual conditions and a specific focus. It is a set of procedures or steps that lead to a given goal through artistic creation. It is important to be aware of the methods within the temporal succession of two stages, i.e., the phase leading from the focused introduction of art themes, through monitoring the creative processes, and the phase of subsequent work with art artifacts in individual and group form after completion. The specific level includes techniques, that is, specific procedures chosen with the intention of using a certain method effectively. Sometimes the terms method and technique are confused. The artephyletic techniques used in various art forms represent specific means of expressing a relationship and enable students to create surface and spatial forms. These techniques are directly related to artistic and aesthetic means of expression, from which artistic form is created. A means of expression can be, for example, a line applied in flat or three-dimensional drawing (Sender, 2023). Through the material (e.g., paints, clay, pencils), the techniques provide the conditions for the creation of a perceptible form and its content. Artephyletic techniques are also divided according to various criteria. Traditionally, this division was based on artistic disciplines. Accordingly, the techniques were divided into drawing, painting, graphic, and modelling techniques. However, current practice has expanded this to include newer so-called non-traditional techniques. We offer a breakdown of the most common artephyletic techniques in an overview table (table 1).
Table.1: Overview of Artephyletic Techniques
Metaphors, symbols, and the expressive use of artistic materials combine to create a rich language for self-expression and the possibilities of transforming strong emotions into a visual form that can be visceral in intensity. Differences in scale or perspective, tone, and colour, together with the use of metaphors, allow for potentially sophisticated articulation of students' thoughts and feelings. Symbolism is multifaceted and can contain multiple and conflicting meanings. The use of symbols makes it possible to express moods and intangible thoughts or qualities that would otherwise be difficult to articulate. Silent embodied feelings can be sensed and explored through manipulation and different types of materials. The process of creating artwork is potentially revelatory and can trigger strong feelings and reveal previously unexpressed issues. The materials used in artephyletics, by their very nature, can be suggestive. It is a sensory process in which the movements of the body and the tactile perception of materials are interconnected.
Conclusion
The effort of inclusive education is to create possibilities for supporting individuals with SEN (but not only them) with the aim of the best possible social adaptation. During their professional training, teachers acquire knowledge and competences to intervene in various ways. These intervention methods include diagnosing problem areas, leading and facilitating the educational process, implementing re-education, and compensating for deficiencies, among others. However, Müller (2014) declares that this list is far from exhaustive. In inclusive pedagogy, there is a blurring of boundaries and therefore an expansion of the potential competences of all actors. These competences relate mainly to the possibility of using specific approaches with a phyletic focus and therefore enrich the spectrum of methods, techniques, and modes of support. However, this spread does not take place one-sidedly; as a result, gradual changes are visible in both theory and practice. Thus, there is a noticeable trend in the use of educational approaches with phyletic potential. Pedagogical and professional staff can use artephyletics individually or in groups. The individual form is chosen when it is necessary to focus on one student and when a student's problems are more internal in nature. It is also advisable to choose this at the beginning of cooperation, where inclusion in the group could have a negative effect (Šicková, 2008). It is a form that creates a more personal relationship between teacher and student. Therefore, it is necessary to observe the exact conditions that will be upheld within this relationship. This is mainly about respecting the student in his or her choice of depth of engagement with the given assignments and topics (Müller, 2014). Group artephyletics can be used if the individual form is too intense for the individual. Working with a group brings many advantages. Group members mutually provide feedback within which the desired role can be consolidated and strengthened (Liebmann, 2006). Most experts agree that artephyletics helps students deal with their emotional and behavioural problems by allowing them to express anger and frustration through art (Gliga, 2011). With artephyletics, there is a certain level of comfort and a sense of security that one does not find to the same degree in common forms of intervention or re-education. Pupils' feelings and experiences are transformed into concrete and tangible images, making it possible to gain a new perspective on problems and conflicts. With increasing pressure to complete re-education in the shortest possible time and with a limited number of sessions, school support team members are discovering the potential of artistic expression to help students communicate relevant issues quickly. For this reason alone, experts in the helping professions are increasingly using drawings and other expressive art tasks during intervention.
Author: PhDr. Andrea Franta Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Faculty of Education, Department of Pedagogy Project: KEGA 011UKF-4/2023 - Artefiletic Support Program For High School Students With Learning Disabilities
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Constitution Of The Slovak Republic (Articles 38, 42)
Act Of The National Council Of The Slovak Republic No. 245/2008 Coll. On Upbringing And Education (School Act)