Masks of Melancholy- Playfully UnMasked and Surprised by ?
Lead Author: Shirley Jenner
Additional authors:
Timetable: Thursday Session 5: 11:15-12:00, Terrace Room
Description:
This session offers participants the opportunity to engage with a playful yet safe approach to helping
international students to explore issues related to their mental health and well-being. This is
relevant to the conference theme because many students disguise their loneliness as they are
surprised by the power of culture shock (Tran, 2011).
This session offers participants a taster of the “empathy journey experience” approach to helping
students discuss feelings of homesickness or culture shock associated with moving away from home
to study in an unfamiliar place (Altman, et al, 2018). This is an important field of concern as the well-
being of students can be affected by difficulties settling in to a new environment, language and
unfamiliar methods of teaching and learning or even making friends (Strubler et al, 2011). The
method has wider application to many other student or client journeys (Roberts et al,2016; Gurjar
and Elwood, 2024) . The approach uses a well-established loss and adjustment curve model and
through group-activities converts this into a board game which 4-6 players can create and design
themselves (Göncü and Perone, 2005)
The session will offer participants an opportunity to review key elements of a typical session plan for
use in Higher Education settings. This will include an overview of the concepts of culture shock and
cultural adjustment followed by a taster of the role-play elements. Conference participants can
pretend/imagine themselves as a homesick student, asked to put themselves in the shoes of a peer
experiencing social and or study adjustment difficulties (Berry, 1994) . This is the mask of
melancholy (signified by wearing a badge where they can give themselves a made up name).
The playfulness element includes explaining how people at each stage might think, feel and behave
in the imagined landscape (Farné,2005; Nørgård et al, 2017). They do this by answering questions
for each step of the empathy journey from arrival and the onset of homesickness to better
adjustment levels (Mezirow, 2009; Turner, 2014).
In real-play the full activity can be arranged in different ways – run across two shorter- sessions, or one longer (c 2 hrs group-work session). The game ends with stories of how people have managed this challenging process drawing on their agency and resourcefulness
Conference delegates will be provided with information about the underlying research and illustrative session materials, so they can adapt and create the game/activities to their own contexts.
A proto type game board is currently in development and can be shared with interested parties after the conference.
References, web links and other resources:
References
Altman, M., T. T. K. Huang, and J. Y. Breland. (2018) “Design Thinking in Health Care.” Preventing Chronic Disease 15: E117
Berry, J.W. (1994) Acculturation and psychological adaptation. In Journeys into cross-cultural psychology, ed. A.-M. Bouvy, F.J.R. van de Vijver, P. Boski, and P. Schmitz, 129–41. Lisse: Swets and Zeitlinger.
Engeström, Y. (1999) Activity theory and individual and social transformation. In: Engestrom, Y., Miettinen, R. and Punamäki, R-L. (eds.). Perspectives on activity theory. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.
Farné, R. (2005) Pedagogy of Play, Topoi. Vol. 24: 169-181
Göncü,A. and Perone, A.(2005) Pretend Play as a Life Span Activity, Topoi. Vol. 24: 137-147
Gurjar,N. and Elwood,S. (2024) Equity-Based Empathy Mapping in Learning Experience Design in Schmidt,M. Earnshaw,Y. Exter,M. Tawfik,A. Hokanson,B. (Eds)( 2024) Transdisciplinary Learning Experience Design; Futures, Synergies, and Innovation. The Association for Educational Communications and Technology. Springer Nature Switzerland. AG.
Mezirow, J. (2009). Transformative learning theory. In J. Mezirow & E. W. Taylor (Eds.), Transformative learning in practice: Insights from community, workplace, and higher education (pp. 18–32). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Nørgård, R. T., Toft-Nielsen, C., & Whitton, N. (2017). Playful learning in higher education: developing a signature pedagogy. International Journal of Play, 6(3), 272–282
Roberts, J. P., T. R. Fisher, M. J. Trowbridge, and C. Bent. (2016). “A Design Thinking Framework for Healthcare Management and Innovation.” Healthcare 4 (1): 11–14
Strubler,D. Park,S. and Agarwal, A. (2011) Revisiting Black, Mendehall and Oddou’s (1991) Framework for International Adjustment Model: A Prescriptive Approach. Journal of International Business Research, Vol. 10. No. 2.
Tran, L.T. (2011) Committed, face-value, hybrid or mutual adaptation? The experiences of international students in Australian higher education. Educational Review. 63(1): 79–94.
Turner, N.K. (2014) Development of self-belief for employability in higher education: ability, efficacy and control in context. Teaching in Higher Education, 19 (6) 592–602.
Masks of Melancholy- Playfully UnMasked and Surprised by ?
Lead Author: Shirley Jenner
Additional authors:
Timetable: Thursday Session 5: 11:15-12:00, Terrace Room
Description:
This session offers participants the opportunity to engage with a playful yet safe approach to helping
international students to explore issues related to their mental health and well-being. This is
relevant to the conference theme because many students disguise their loneliness as they are
surprised by the power of culture shock (Tran, 2011).
This session offers participants a taster of the “empathy journey experience” approach to helping
students discuss feelings of homesickness or culture shock associated with moving away from home
to study in an unfamiliar place (Altman, et al, 2018). This is an important field of concern as the well-
being of students can be affected by difficulties settling in to a new environment, language and
unfamiliar methods of teaching and learning or even making friends (Strubler et al, 2011). The
method has wider application to many other student or client journeys (Roberts et al,2016; Gurjar
and Elwood, 2024) . The approach uses a well-established loss and adjustment curve model and
through group-activities converts this into a board game which 4-6 players can create and design
themselves (Göncü and Perone, 2005)
The session will offer participants an opportunity to review key elements of a typical session plan for
use in Higher Education settings. This will include an overview of the concepts of culture shock and
cultural adjustment followed by a taster of the role-play elements. Conference participants can
pretend/imagine themselves as a homesick student, asked to put themselves in the shoes of a peer
experiencing social and or study adjustment difficulties (Berry, 1994) . This is the mask of
melancholy (signified by wearing a badge where they can give themselves a made up name).
The playfulness element includes explaining how people at each stage might think, feel and behave
in the imagined landscape (Farné,2005; Nørgård et al, 2017). They do this by answering questions
for each step of the empathy journey from arrival and the onset of homesickness to better
adjustment levels (Mezirow, 2009; Turner, 2014).
In real-play the full activity can be arranged in different ways – run across two shorter- sessions, or one longer (c 2 hrs group-work session). The game ends with stories of how people have managed this challenging process drawing on their agency and resourcefulness
Conference delegates will be provided with information about the underlying research and illustrative session materials, so they can adapt and create the game/activities to their own contexts.
A proto type game board is currently in development and can be shared with interested parties after the conference.
References, web links and other resources:
References
Altman, M., T. T. K. Huang, and J. Y. Breland. (2018) “Design Thinking in Health Care.” Preventing Chronic Disease 15: E117
Berry, J.W. (1994) Acculturation and psychological adaptation. In Journeys into cross-cultural psychology, ed. A.-M. Bouvy, F.J.R. van de Vijver, P. Boski, and P. Schmitz, 129–41. Lisse: Swets and Zeitlinger.
Engeström, Y. (1999) Activity theory and individual and social transformation. In: Engestrom, Y., Miettinen, R. and Punamäki, R-L. (eds.). Perspectives on activity theory. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.
Farné, R. (2005) Pedagogy of Play, Topoi. Vol. 24: 169-181
Göncü,A. and Perone, A.(2005) Pretend Play as a Life Span Activity, Topoi. Vol. 24: 137-147
Gurjar,N. and Elwood,S. (2024) Equity-Based Empathy Mapping in Learning Experience Design in Schmidt,M. Earnshaw,Y. Exter,M. Tawfik,A. Hokanson,B. (Eds)( 2024) Transdisciplinary Learning Experience Design; Futures, Synergies, and Innovation. The Association for Educational Communications and Technology. Springer Nature Switzerland. AG.
Mezirow, J. (2009). Transformative learning theory. In J. Mezirow & E. W. Taylor (Eds.), Transformative learning in practice: Insights from community, workplace, and higher education (pp. 18–32). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Nørgård, R. T., Toft-Nielsen, C., & Whitton, N. (2017). Playful learning in higher education: developing a signature pedagogy. International Journal of Play, 6(3), 272–282
Roberts, J. P., T. R. Fisher, M. J. Trowbridge, and C. Bent. (2016). “A Design Thinking Framework for Healthcare Management and Innovation.” Healthcare 4 (1): 11–14
Strubler,D. Park,S. and Agarwal, A. (2011) Revisiting Black, Mendehall and Oddou’s (1991) Framework for International Adjustment Model: A Prescriptive Approach. Journal of International Business Research, Vol. 10. No. 2.
Tran, L.T. (2011) Committed, face-value, hybrid or mutual adaptation? The experiences of international students in Australian higher education. Educational Review. 63(1): 79–94.
Turner, N.K. (2014) Development of self-belief for employability in higher education: ability, efficacy and control in context. Teaching in Higher Education, 19 (6) 592–602.