| Summary: | This research utilised the theoretical frame of Paulo Freire's (1970, 1974) Critical Pedagogy (FCP) together with a visual Arts-based Educational Research (ABER) approach incorporating the methodological frame of Donna Mertens' (1999,2007, 2009,2010) ‘Transformative Paradigm.' This combination created the methodological process, ‘Project e-ma' which effectively allowed the exploration of Freire's theory as a methodological tool, and became a vehicle through which the key tenets of FCP dialogue, praxis, transformation, problem-posing disruption and conscientizagao, undergirded by democratic values and social justice, could attempt to be explored This thesis sets out to present Project e-ma, a doctoral research project carried out within the School of Education at The Queen's University of Belfast from 2013 to 2016 Project e-ma explores the potentiality of the Japanese cultural artefact e-ma as a means to engage with the theme of hope in a specific deprived working-class community of South Belfast; the Donegall Pass. E-ma are wooden votive tablets from the areligious shin-tou tradition, roughly postcard-size and shaped like a gable wall. They are traditionally used in Japan to record the hopes and wishes of devotees who attend shrines, and in purpose they are similar to the Western culture of creating New Year's resolutions Although traditionally it was customary to write one’s hope on e-ma, this has, however, changed in recent years, and it has now become common to see illustrated e-ma hanging at shrines alongside traditional written ones. It is this second incarnation which the research seeks to explore, with an emphasis not on art per se, rather, on mark-making — mark-making as a means to explore hope. This mark-making occurred at intimate workshops conducted across the community at which various groups and community members coalesced to engage with hope. Through the act of collective mark-making, through the discourse which arose both with self and with others both during the workshop and afterwards when e-ma were displayed in public, it is posited that engagement with hope started to begin. As a conduit for the representation of individual/community hopes, e-ma were effective vehicles and the process of engaging in workshops not only produced two distinct types of data (visual and oral), but also resulted in the identification of a range of hopes which participants expressed included: safety, community, friendship, and identity amongst others The research developed a collaborative participatory process in the community that culminated in an arts-based installation the ‘Wall of Hope' - the e-ma from which were then ntually purified (burned). Although this doctoral research project, which has resulted in great personal and professional learning, has, after two years, come to a natural conclusion, it now has the possibility of being transposed to further international contexts and communities for further exploration of ABER. Keywords Paulo Freire, Critical Pedagogy, hope Arts-based Educational Research (ABER), e-ma,
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