Step inside the picture

Objectives

The participants learn how frames of reference work and how they affect and influence our perspective making/taking.They learn to take perspective and inquire about different frames of reference.

Material

Empathy map (see template attached)

Instructions

Step Inside is a method to take perspective by looking through the eyes of someone else.

Let’s travel around the world and meet people on the street. The streets are a meeting place of people, where friendships are born, and where life is discussed.

Show a picture with different people from www.streetsoftheworld.com and then ask the participants to take the perspective of a person.

Ask the following questions:

• What does this person see?
• How does this person feel?
• What does this person think?
• What is important for this person?

Use an empathy map to take short notes. Make an empathy map with the whole group as an introduction. Then work in pairs or small groups. After they have done this, ask the groups to share their empathy map with each other and discuss the similarities and differences between the groups or pairs. Reflect on the discoveries and different frames of reference. Discuss how our perspective making/taking is affected and/or influenced.

Variant

1. You or the group select one picture. You ask the learners to relate to one of the people in that picture and then each has to answer the questions as mentioned in the description above.
2. If you decide to use one picture for the whole group and do the activity with the whole group you could, instead of using the empathy map, draw 4 blocks on a big piece of paper, each referring to one of the 4 questions. You do this for all people in the picture. This allows you to fill in the blocks according to the information the learners provide.
3. Variations can be made in the complexity of people and situations.
4. The activity can be combined with a citizenship theme (e.g. global differences, loneliness, poverty, …)

Links

https://www.streetsoftheworld.com/