Docutubes: creative learning about religious toleration and peace

Docutubes are a creative, dynamic approach to helping young people think with history about religious diversity, past and present.

Here you can see examples of these short Docutube films, made by young people during RETOPEA workshops.

The participants, predominantly aged between 13 and 18 and working in groups of three or four, have made short films to express their own ideas about religious diversity and tolerance, drawing on the RETOPEA clippings collection for ideas and inspiration.

Docutubes have three main aims:

- To enable young people to think ‘like historians’ by engaging them with accessible primary and secondary sources, selected by experts, about religious diversity, past and present.

- To give young people a learning opportunity which is active, creative and allows them to express their voice, through making short films.

- To help young people make connections between religious diversity in history, the present and in their own experience.

If you are a teacher or educator, we can help you make Docutubes in your own setting. A concise overview of the methodology can be found here. A free online Badged Open Course, ‘ Young people and religion: creative learning with history’ , has been developed by RETOPEA project members in the UK (see the presentation video to the right). You can also contact that team directly if you have specific questions about Docutubes retopea@open.ac.uk .

The whole process of making docutubes ¬– the exploratory phase, the planning phase, the creation phase and the reflection phase ¬– takes about 15-18 hours, which can be concentrated in a 2-3 day workshop or spread over several weeks.

The Retopea Docutubes have been developed in 8 partner countries by young people in RETOPEA workshops: Brussels and Leuven (Belgium), Granada (Spain), London (England), Mainz (Germany), Skopje (North Macedonia), Tampere (Finland), Tartu (Estonia) and Warsaw (Poland).