1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«This article reports on a community activist arts-based media production research project. Project TEEN Mirrors Of Motherhood (M.O.M.), was designed by the authors, who are art educators and arts-based researchers, in collaboration with Elizabeth House, a Montreal community
organization dedicated to meeting the needs of pregnant teenagers and young mothers. The purpose of the research was to examine how media production, offered in the context of a community organization, can empower teenage girls in difficult circumstances to share their views, to participate in community or policy discussions that affect them, and to define and solve some of the many challenges they face.» (p. 292)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
L’échantillon de cette étude comprend «eight young women (ages 14 to 23) [from Montreal, Canada] who volunteered to participate in Project TEEN M.O.M.. When the project began, five of the participants had a child between the ages of 9 and 23 months, one participant had three children under the age of 3, and the other two participants were expecting and delivered in early summer.» (p. 295) «Participants committed to a series of thirteen 2-hours workshops, one or two videotaped private interviews (approximately one hour each), and one-on-one tutorial or production meetings as needed. Presentation of their work to each other and, later, through an art exhibit to a broader audience was a crucial part of the project.» (p. 296)

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse de contenu

3. Résumé

Devant la marginalisation sociale des adolescentes enceintes, les auteures sont unanimes quant à l’utilité d’un projet où les jeunes-femmes peuvent utiliser l’art comme moyen d’expression de leur situation. C’est ainsi qu’elles concluent que «[p]rojects such as Project TEEN M.O.M. provide fruitful and meaningful ways of combining research, critical pedagogy, media and art education, and community activism. This project provided space for a multiplicity of voices, generations, and perspectives, bringing attention to the needs and viewpoints of community organizations and of girls and young women who are too often marginalized or silenced. […] The transformative and emancipatory practice of producing meaningful media with the intent to examine and articulate one’s situation inspires self-knowledge. Self-knowledge is power; sharing self-knowledge is empowering. When self-study reveals the connections between personal experience and social action and encourages others to look critically, it becomes a form of critical pedagogy and activism.» (p. 307)