Metaphor, Emotion, and Ethics: Arts-Based and Queer Pedagogy as Transformative Reflection

Abstract

This study explores how arts-based and queer pedagogical frameworks can foster transformative learning in higher education through reflective writing. Situated within a required undergraduate course on cultural safety and structural competency, the research analyzed twelve students’ structured reflections following engagement with queer-themed comics. Using arts-informed thematic analysis, the study examined how emotion, metaphor, and ethical awareness emerged in students’ writing as indicators of transformative learning. Findings revealed four interrelated themes: affective and transformative awareness, unlearning and identity repositioning, care and professional ethics, and structural awareness and responsibility. Students used figurative language, such as metaphors of growth, constraint, and journey, to articulate emotional and ethical transformation, demonstrating that written reflection can function as an aesthetic and embodied mode of inquiry. Integrating arts-based and queer pedagogical principles enabled learners to translate discomfort into ethical insight and reimagine professional care as a practice grounded in empathy, relationality, and justice. Rather than treating reflection as a neutral record of learning, this study argues that writing itself became part of the learning event: a medium through which students named dissonance, worked through discomfort, and imagined more ethical forms of professional practice. The study concludes that language itself can serve as a transformative medium, enacting the affective, critical, and creative dimensions of arts-based and queer pedagogy.

Keywords: queer pedagogy, arts-based pedagogy, transformative reflection