Narrative Imagination and Social Change: Instructors in Agricultural Colleges in Ethiopia Address Sexual and Gender-Based Violence

Abstract

Ethiopia has one of the highest rates of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in the world, making female students particularly vulnerable in its post-secondary institutions. Although there is extensive literature that describes the problem, mainly from the students' perspectives, what remains understudied is the role of instructors, their perception of the current issues, and what they imagine they can do to address campus-based SGBV, particularly in rural settings. In this study, we used the concept of narrative imagination to work with instructors in four Ethiopian agricultural colleges to explore how they understand the SGBV issues at their colleges and what they imagine their own role could include in efforts to combat these problems. Using qualitative narrative-based methods such as interviews and an interactive storyline development workshop, as well as cellphilming (cellphone + film) as a participatory visual method, the data were collected across several fieldwork phases. We consider how we might broaden this framework of narrative imagination to include the notion of art for social change.

Serious Game Design as Research-Creation to Address Sexual and Gender-Based Violence

“…The stories displayed how college instructors can create a safe space and support students (especially young women) to not be victims of SGBV on campus. As we mapped out in greater detail elsewhere (Sadati & Mitchell, in press; Sadati & Mitchell, under review), the data from interviews, and the stories created by instructors in the first two phases formed a database that helped the researchers in creating the game’s learning objectives. In the third phase, all stories were refined according to the pedagogical purposes, and a prototype version of Mela was developed.…”

“…The game design team was inspired by instructors’ cellphilms while developing the game characters. For example, Zeritu’s character, a pregnant female student that deals with pregnancy issues, was adapted from the cellphilm The Effect of Early Marriage on Female Students in Agriculture College (see Sadati & Mitchell, in press).

Figure 3.Student characters in Mela game.

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“…The first phase included individual interviews and cellphilm (cellphone+film) production with instructors in each college. In this phase, data were generated in the forms of interview transcripts and video narratives about SGBV incidents in agriculture colleges (see Sadati & Mitchell, in press). Also, as part of cellphilm production, participants in each college became involved in group discussions regarding instructors’ potential roles in addressing the SGBV issues.…”

“…In another pre- Mela study, the students at the four colleges created cellphilms on how they observed gender equity issues and SGBV concerns (Sadati, 2018; Sadati et al, 2020). The data collection stage started with conducting semi-structured interviews (Sadati & Mitchell, in press), carrying out participatory visual technique of cellphilming (cellphone + video) and participatory game universe design workshops (Sadati & Mitchell, under review). During these phases, the initial ideas improved, main concepts were developed, and learning objectives were created to be used later in the “elemental pentad” of the Mela game.…”

“…3.Including the current article, Sadati and Mitchell (in press) and Sadati and Mitchell (under review).…”