Browsing by Author "Hulmi, Pirjo"

Objectives. According to previous research people construct life stories to achieve an identity. We tell stories about ourselves and those stories become part of me. Narrative understanding evolves and the perception of one's life story and past also changes when one grows older. Identity achievement refers to a sense of continuity and of sameness and of direction in one's life and of feeling of being at home in one's body. We can observe identity development in life choices and commitments. Individuals also come to terms with their culture and vice versa through life narrative. The research questions were: how did different art education books that were related to youth arts projects deal with identity and how did they aim to support identity development through artistic work. My goal is to construct an overall picture of this theme because in my opinion it is possible to support identity formation and well-being at school with the aid of visual art education. Methods. This thesis is a systematic and discretionary review. I selected suitable youth arts projects and literature related to them that were published during last thirteen years. The book material was analysed by content analysis. I also considered how the results of the content analysis could be applied pedagogically. Results and conclusions. The literature that was selected to this literature review emphasized different parts of identity. The formation of identity was supported with the aid of art education, artistic work and self-narration. The objective of art education was to support identity formation, narrative understanding, self-narration and dealing with issues related to identity, self-knowledge, knowing one's cultural background, the experience of belonging, inclusion and recognition, the reflection of shared experiences and the meaning of one's experiences and the reflection of one's choices. On the basis of the results I came to the conclusion that self-narration, self-expression and artistic work support the formation of identity and help a young person to define who one is, where one is going and where does one belong.