An Arts-Based CYC Practice Self-Portrait Learning Assessment: A Visual Journey of Self-Investigation, Self-Projection and Identification

Following a brief examination on how the concept of personhood (the self) is understood between Western and non-Western cultures and how these contrasting version of the self has historically governed how educators teach and students learn, this article reports on an arts-based child and youth care (CYC) practice self-portrait assignment used to assess student learning for a third-year undergraduate advance practice course that has as its focus the integration of theory, self, and ethical practice. The arts-based CYC practice self-portrait assessment was established as a way to provide a creative context for students to critically self-reflect on and to visually illustrate their journey of becoming a relational-centered CYC practitioner. It allows students to create narratives to share with others that are at once unique, multifaceted, provocative, and illuminating, revealing their emotions, personality, and ethics within wider cultural aspects of their being. The assignment empowers students to own their own ideas, develop their own voices and to listen to the ideas of others and gives students an opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate each other’s diversity and uniqueness