Educating through intercultural exchanges: South African and Greek students interconnect through art

Abstract

This article explores the role of art education by engaging university students from different continents and worldviews to express their national or provincial consciousness within a universal, humanist framework. Educationally, it challenges two fundamentally opposed pedagogical approaches to developing collective historical memory– namely, the Greek national consciousness shaped by 19th century European nation-state ideologies and the contemporary South African context, rooted in post-apartheid multiculturalism since 1994. The research focuses on two historically different viewpoints, interwoven under one unifying concept: ‘Humanity through Art’. In light of the challenges and restrictions posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, this study examines strategies for sustaining educational continuity during crises, whether healthrelated, environmental, or geopolitical (e.g., Ukraine/Russia, Israel/Palestine). The pandemic is presented as a paradigm of human endurance and creativity in response to existential threats, highlighting local and global educational strategies. A qualitative, interpretive approach underpins this study, drawing on students’ visual creations and reflections as sources of insight into their socio-political consciousness. Focusing on two case studies, Banners for liberty and Horrors of war, hopes for peace, the article analyses how students created banners and artworks as symbols of collective protest and unity, moving beyond a single socio-national identity and resisting foreign dominance. In Banners for liberty, students reflected on historical struggles for freedom and justice, reinterpreting them through a humanist perspective relevant to contemporary issues. Although initially prepared for  in-person collaboration, students from both continents adapted to online learning, shifting their creative processes into virtual spaces. The second case study, Horrors of war, hopes for peace (inspired by Picasso’s Guernica and ongoing global conflicts), centres on trauma, war, and the universal longing for peace. Educationally, it highlights the power of intercultural dialogue to rise above linguistic, geographic, and socio-cultural barriers. The shared outcomes of these international projects, such as equitable access to education, curricular adaptation, emotional resilience, and continuity, are especially relevant in supporting learning during war and displacement.