Theatre and play for refugee children: stimulation of resilience through the creative projects of Changing Stories Foundation
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2025-06-25
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en
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This thesis presents a qualitative study addressing how the creative, play-based interventions of Changing Stories Foundation (CSF) may contribute to the resilience of refugee children. The study focuses on four key principles CSF maintains in their approach: play, imagination, agency and belonging. These principles were conceptualized and operationalized through a review of the literature on positive psychology and on theatre- and play-based interventions. The data for this study was gathered from documents concerning CSF’s methods, interviews and evaluations with CSF team members and partner organizations, and observations during team activities and project sessions with children. The analysis examined how CSF’s methods aligned with the relevant aspects of the key concepts selected through the theoretical frameworks. The results of this analysis were confronted with children's observed responses during projects, to review their practical implications. Findings suggest that CSF’s short-term creative projects effectively stimulate the targeted principles in various ways. Through playful activities that were offered expressions of imagination, agency and belonging emerged in children’s individual and group play. These results highlight the potential of these projects to make a meaningful contribution to resilience-building in refugee children, especially in contexts where access to long-term support is limited.
Keywords: resilience, play, imagination, agency, belonging, refugee children, positive psychology
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen