The Role of Art Education in Supporting Mental Health and Enhancing Students' Resilience in the Light of Forced Displacement: An Analytical Theoretical Study in Palestinian Society (2025)

Abstract

The study deals with the analytical role of art education as a psycho-cultural support mechanism in enhancing the psychological resilience of Palestinian students who were subjected to forced displacement during 2025, with a focus on the Tulkarem, Nour Shams and Jenin camps, the study starts from the problem of the severe deterioration in the psychological safety of students in light of the continuous trauma resulting from the loss of housing and educational stability, and the decline in the effectiveness of traditional psychological counseling tools within displacement environments, and the study aims to analyze how expressive arts (such as painting, Coloring, murals, drama, and creative writing) play a supportive role in emotional release, rebuilding a sense of security, and restoring spatial and social identity, without claiming to achieve clinical healing or quantifying psychological impact.

     The results of the analysis indicate that art education provides safe symbolic spaces that allow students to re-enact visually traumatic experiences, which contributes to organizing the psychological experience rather than canceling it, and promotes forms of symbolic and collective psychological resilience, and the study indicates that there is a differentiation in the Students' styles of artistic expression according to gender, a distinction that is explained within the context of the cultural context and socialization patterns prevailing in the Palestinian camps, and is not seen as innate or biological differences. The study also concludes that it is important to institutionalize art education within the strategies of psychological support in emergencies, as an educational-cultural practice that contributes to supporting mental health and enhancing psychological resilience in light of the reality of ongoing forced displacement.