Teaching and Assessing Social Justice Art Education: Power, Politics, and Possibilities 2022004888, 9781032025209, 9781032025186, 9781003183716

Table of contents :
Cover
Half Title
Title
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
List of Figures
About the Authors
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1 Assess Social Justice Art Education
Chapter 2 Investigate Systemic Oppression
Chapter 3 Inspire Decolonial Actions
Chapter 4 Decenter White Patriarchal Norms
Chapter 5 Dismantle Power Differentials
Chapter 6 Include Difference
Chapter 7 Become Upstanders to Injustice
Chapter 8 Integrate Social Justice Art Education Principles
Index

Citation preview

Teaching and Assessing Social Justice Art Education This incisive and wholly practical book offers a hands-on guide to developing and assessing social justice art education for K-12 art educators by providing theoretically grounded social justice art education assessment strategies. Recognizing the increased need to base the K-12 curriculum in social justice education, the authors ground the book in six social justice principles—conceptualized through art education—to help teachers assess and develop curriculum, design pedagogy, and foster social justice learning environments. From encouraging teachers to be upstanders to injustice to engaging in decolonial action, this book provides a thorough guide to facilitating and critiquing social justice art education and engaging in reflexive praxis as educators. Rich in examples and practical application, this book provides a clear pathway for art educators to connect social justice art education with real-life educational assessment expectations: 21st-century learning, literacy, social skills, teacher performance-based assessment, and National Core Art Standards, making this text an invaluable companion to art educators and facilitators alike. Karen Keifer-Boyd is Professor of Art Education and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at The Pennsylvania State University, USA. Wanda B. Knight is Assistant Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Professor of Art Education, African American Studies, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Penn State University (Harrisburg), USA, and is President-elect of the National Art Education Association. Adetty Pérez de Miles is Associate Professor of Art Theory and Practice and Art Education Program Coordinator at Texas State University, USA. Cheri E. Ehrlich is Assistant Professor in Art Education at Alfred University in Alfred, New York, USA. Yen-Ju Lin is an art educator and instructional technologist. She holds a Ph.D. in Art Education from The Pennsylvania State University, USA. Ann Holt is currently teaching graduate and undergraduate courses in art and design education as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Pratt Institute and an Adjunct Professor at Adelphi University, USA.

Teaching and Assessing Social Justice Art Education Power, Politics, and Possibilities Karen Keifer-Boyd, Wanda B. Knight, Adetty Pérez de Miles, Cheri E. Ehrlich, Yen-Ju Lin, and Ann Holt

Cover image: Karen Keifer-Boyd, 2021 and Scott Longerbeam, Unsplash, 2019 First published 2023 by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 and by Routledge 4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2023 Karen Keifer-Boyd, Wanda B. Knight, Adetty Pérez de Miles, Cheri E. Ehrlich, Yen-Ju Lin, and Ann Holt The right of Karen Keifer-Boyd, Wanda B. Knight, Adetty Pérez de Miles, Cheri E. Ehrlich, Yen-Ju Lin, and Ann Holt to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Keifer-Boyd, Karen T., 1955- author. Title: Teaching and assessing social justice art education : power, politics, and possibilities / Karen Keifer-Boyd, Wanda B. Knight, Adetty Pérez de Miles, Cheri Ehrlich, Yen-Ju Lin, and Ann Holt. Description: New York, NY : Routledge, 2022. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2022004888 Subjects: LCSH: Social justice and education—United States. | Art in education— Social aspects—United States. | Art—Study and teaching (Elementary)—United States | Art—Study and teaching (Secondary)—United States. Classification: LCC LC191.4 .K45 2022 | DDC 370.11/5—dc23/eng/20220524 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022004888 ISBN: 978-1-032-02520-9 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-032-02518-6 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-003-18371-6 (ebk) DOI: 10.4324/9781003183716 Typeset in Univers by Apex CoVantage, LLC

Two authors gave birth while working on this book, and another author welcomed her fourth grandchild. The authors dedicate this text to future generations who hopefully will experience a life of social justice built on the work of teachers, artists, students, and administrators, who recognize the value, need, and impact of social justice art education on eradicating systems of oppression.

Contents List of Figuresix About the Authorsxi Acknowledgmentsxv

CHAPTER 1 ASSESS SOCIAL JUSTICE ART EDUCATION

1

CHAPTER 2 INVESTIGATE SYSTEMIC OPPRESSION

15

CHAPTER 3 INSPIRE DECOLONIAL ACTIONS

37

CHAPTER 4 DECENTER WHITE PATRIARCHAL NORMS

61

CHAPTER 5 DISMANTLE POWER DIFFERENTIALS

79

CHAPTER 6 INCLUDE DIFFERENCE

95

CHAPTER 7 BECOME UPSTANDERS TO INJUSTICE

125

CHAPTER 8 INTEGRATE SOCIAL JUSTICE ART EDUCATION PRINCIPLES

143

Index165

Figures 6.1 Presentation slide shown to prepare preservice art educators to teach upstanders for justice comic making 6.2 Rubrics created by preservice art teachers to assess the students’ comics 6.3 Karen Keifer-Boyd’s comic panels shaped like lungs 6.4 Presentation slide introducing the use of thought and speech bubbles to convey meaning 6.5 Claire Boty’s Upstanders for justice comic project rubric created with and for sixth graders 7.1 Curricular framework demonstrating the power of art as a social justice creative practice 7.2 Us too, 2019, yarn on plastic mesh. Student artwork drawing on data from the yearly average number of reports of sexual assault in the United States

99 103 107 109 113 128

136

About the Authors Karen Keifer-Boyd, Ph.D., Professor of Art Education and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Penn State University, has co-authored several books: Lobby Activism: Feminism(s)+Art Education (NAEA, 2021); Including Difference (NAEA, 2013); InCITE, InSIGHT, InSITE (NAEA, 2008); Engaging Visual Culture (Davis, 2007); co-edited Real-World Readings in Art Education: Things Your Professors Never Told You (Falmer, 2000); and has numerous journal publications. Her research on transdisciplinary creativity, inclusion, feminist art pedagogy, visual culture, cyberart activism, transcultural dialogue, action research, and eco-social justice art education has been translated and published in Austria, Brazil, China, Columbia, Finland, Oman, and S. Korea. Co-founder and editor of Visual Culture & Gender, she has received Fulbright Awards (2012 Distinguished Chair in Gender Studies at Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt, Austria; and Finland, 2006) and residencies (Austria, 2009; Uganda, 2010); and several National Art Education Association (NAEA) awards, including the Eisner Lifetime Achievement Award and the NAEA Distinguished Fellow Class of 2013. Wanda B. Knight, Ph.D., Assistant Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Professor of Art Education, African American Studies, and Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies at Penn State University, is President-elect of the National Art Education Association. Besides university-level teaching and administration, she served as a Pre-K-12 art teacher, an art museum educator, and elementary and secondary schools principal. Her leadership concerning social justice, antiracism and racial justice, teacher education, teacher cultural competence, and other areas has garnered international, national, state, and university recognition. Selected awards include the 2021–2022 John A. and Betty J. Michaels Distinguished Lecturer in Art Education Award, the  NAEA Distinguished Fellows Award (2020), the Pennsylvania Art Education Association Outstanding Higher Education Art Educator Award (2014), the National Art Education Association J. Eugene Grigsby Jr. Award (1994), and the Kenneth Marantz Distinguished Alumni Award (2010) from Ohio State University, where she earned her Ph.D. Adetty Pérez de Miles, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Art Theory and Practice and Art Education Program Coordinator at Texas State University. She earned a dualtitle Ph.D. degree in art education and women’s studies at Penn State University.

xii  About the Authors

Her research specializations include contemporary art, art as social practice, Latin American art, teacher education, decolonial and feminist theory. She is the author of numerous publications, including NAEA Women’s Caucus: Lobby Activism, Feminism(s) + Art Education (2021); Unbound Philosophies & Histories: Epistemic Disobedience in Contemporary Latin American Art (2019); The Social Expulsion of the Migrant: Aesthetic and Tactical Interventions (2018), and Journey Notes of Panamerica: The Social Practices of Art—A Conversation Between Pablo Helguera and Adetty Pérez de Miles (2018). Pérez de Miles is Co-President of the National Art Education Association Women’s Caucus (2020–2022), and elected member of The Council for Policy Studies in Art Education. Cheri Eileen Ehrlich, Ed.D., is an Assistant Professor in Art Education at Alfred University in Alfred, New York. She is an educator and scholar in art and museum education with 20 years of combined experience teaching in higher education, museums, community centers, and K-12 schools. Throughout her career, Ehrlich has worked with learners of all abilities and ages, including learners from diverse ethnic, racial, and socio-economic backgrounds. Ehrlich’s research on feminist art and adolescent engagement in art museums is published in the peer-reviewed art education journal Visual Art Research. Her chapters appear in the books Multiculturalism in Art Museums Today; Feminism and Museums: Intervention, Disruption and Change, and NAEA Women’s Caucus Lobby Activism: Feminism(s) + Art Education. Ehrlich has presented at national conferences, including the National Art Education Association (NAEA) and American Alliance of Museums (AAM). Ehrlich completed her doctoral work in Art & Art Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, where she also received her Ed.M. Ehrlich holds a B.F.A. in Painting and a B.A. in Women’s Studies from UMass Amherst and a MAT in Art Education from Tufts School of the Museum of Fine Arts. Yen-Ju Lin, Ph.D., is an art educator and an instructional technologist. Her research focuses on instructional design and digital technology in art education and explores creative ways of visualizing dynamic research data using computing software, drawing, collage, and graphic novel. Her dissertation, Designing with Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) for Event Potentials in an Art Museum Context, used Nvivo, a qualitative data analysis software, and a series of drawings to visualize how critical dialogue was engaged through the integration of ICTs in the educational activities within a museum gallery. Lin holds a B.F.A. in Art Education and Studio Art from National Taiwan Normal University, a Master of Arts Management from Carnegie Mellon University, and her Ph.D. in Art Education from Penn State University. Lin

About the Authors  xiii

currently serves as the Managing Editor of the International Journal of Education & the Arts and the Associate Editor of Visual Culture & Gender. Ann Holt, Ph.D., is currently teaching graduate and undergraduate courses in art and design education as Visiting Assistant Professor at Pratt Institute and as Adjunct Professor at Adelphi University. She serves as an advisor to Arts Action Group, an international community-based collective committed to facilitating arts initiatives with children and youth in conflict-affected environments. Her research, teaching, and writing encompasses social justice issues involving arts and human development and research on and with archives to broaden understanding about engaging art education archival records. Her art encompasses mixed media materials responding to her life experience, research, and teaching. Holt holds a B.F.A. in painting from the San Francisco Art Institute and an M.A. in art education from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. She completed her doctoral work in art education with a minor in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Penn State University. Her dissertation research explored a feminist transdisciplinary orientation to the Judy Chicago Art Education Collection and broadens understanding about engaging and encountering art education archival records.

Acknowledgments The authors express their appreciation to the National Art Education Foundation for providing a significant grant to engage with art educators, administrators, artists, and students to integrate social justice education throughout the schools’ curriculum. The authors researched and studied the usefulness of curricula intended to teach social justice through art. Their overarching purpose, supported by a social justice art education (SJAE) curricular encounters website that the authors initiated in 2015 while working with social justice activist artist Linda Stein, promotes the critical consciousness necessary to challenge injustice. Linda Stein has generously supported the authors’ work as a social justice curriculum team, using her Tribeca art studio and gallery in New York to meet with art educators for workshops, planning, and funding through her non-profit, Have Art Will Travel! Moreover, Stein’s non-profit has established two monetary awards. Social justice activists worldwide whose artistic or scholarly work promotes upstander activities are encouraged to apply for these awards to support and publicize their work. Information is available at http://h2f2en counters.cyberhouse.emitto.net/awards/.

Chapter One Assess Social Justice Art Education Connecting Six Principles of Social Justice Art Education to 21st Century Skills, edTPA Performance-based Assessment, and the National Core Art Standards Dismantle Power Differentials Guiding Principles to Develop and Assess Social Justice Art Education References

What is social justice education, and why is social justice necessary to a democracy? How and why does art play a significant role in social justice work? How might we assess social justice curriculum and pedagogy for its educational impact? These questions drive this book because school districts, K-12 art educators, and higher education programs that prepare students to become art teachers seek to incorporate social justice art education curriculum in K-12 schools. With the increasing interest, and in some cases mandates, to base the K-12 curriculum in social justice education, there is a need to examine philosophical and conceptual assumptions of curricula and pedagogies of social justice in the field of art education. Social justice is an umbrella term for many practices within different paradigms and philosophical and political traditions. While social justice art education is not a singular model with definitive vocabularies and specific content, this book introduces art teachers to principles of social justice they can use to assess their curriculum and pedagogy. From an extensive study of social justice work, both theoretical underpinnings and impactful practice, the authors developed a set of six principles which mutually inform each other and are cyclical. For example, empowering difference can lead to dismantling power differentials, and intensifying conviction toward social justice. Or the curriculum might begin with investigating systemic oppression that leads to inclusion of difference or to any of the other principles of social justice work. Teaching toward social justice invites multiple perspectives, entails dialogic strategies, shows respect for difference, and considers complex understandings surrounding personal, cultural, and community experience. DOI: 10.4324/9781003183716-1

2  Teaching and Assessing Social Justice Art Education

While assessment with social justice principles could be applied to all disciplines, this book focuses on art education in relation to 21st century skills, teacher performance assessment (e.g., edTPA), and National Core Art Standards to advance social justice. Assessment typically refers to how we measure and appraise anticipated and unanticipated student performances, learning outcomes, dispositions, and teaching and program effectiveness. Authentic and formative assessment involves methods or processes to gather information to understand the impact or worth of any aspect of the learning and teaching enterprise. Differentiated strategies respond to individual student needs and strengths to maximize student learning and success. Dynamic assessment is action research in which teachers identify obstacles that hinder learning, make changes in teaching, and reassess learning. This book provides principles, practices, narratives, and examples of social justice art education that investigates systems of oppression, supports decolonial action, decenters White patriarchal norms, dismantles power differentials, and includes difference toward becoming upstanders to injustice. Chapter 1 introduces theoretically grounded social justice art education assessment strategies and offers practical ways to develop and assess social justice art education through narratives from the authors’ personal experiences. These narratives provide examples of principles of social justice art education, which the authors magnify in Chapters 2 through 7. The concluding Chapter 8, Integrate Social Justice Art Education Principles, merges social justice principles through narrations of the authors’ praxes.

Connecting Six Principles of Social Justice Art Education to 21st Century Skills, edTPA Performance-based Assessment, and the National Core Art Standards Teacher professional development has in the past two decades promoted what is referred to as the four Cs of 21st century learning skills: Critical Thinking, Creativity, Collaboration, and Communication. Subsumed under the four Cs is attention to information, media, and technology literacy skills, and life skills of flexibility, leadership, initiative, productivity, and social skills (Applied Educational Systems, 2020). Moreover, teachers in many states must align their teaching with the edTPA performance-based and subject-specific assessments that begin with connecting assessment to planning and instruction (Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, & Equity, 2020).

Chapter One | Assess Social Justice Art Education  3

With the publication in October 2014 of a new set of national core standards in the visual arts and Model Cornerstones (MCAs) for grades two, five, and eight, assessment of social justice art education curriculum must also attend to school, district, and state standards, which align with the national core arts standards (NCAS). The Model Cornerstones align with the 21st century skills and are designed to be flexible and adaptable to changing times and different communities and educational sites. What follows are examples of creating social justice education learning environments that show social justice principles in practice.

Investigate Systemic Oppression Wanda B. Knight, a former elementary and secondary school principal, highlights two school experiences in which she investigates and confronts systemic oppression to disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline. A school district in which I served as an elementary school principal adopted a Zero Tolerance discipline policy. This policy concerned the possession or use of cell phones, illicit drugs, and weapons, among other behaviors. The school district touted that its Zero Tolerance discipline policy would “keep kids safe” by preventing drug abuse, drug trafficking, and gun violence in schools. I vividly recall two situations in which teachers brought young African American males to my office, demanding they be expelled from school because they had violated the district’s discipline policy. One student, a kindergartener, brought a cell phone to class, and the other student, a first-grader, brought a gun to class, a red, plastic water pistol. Despite each sobbing student’s explanation and pleadings with their teachers, “please don’t take me to the office,” their teachers dragged them to the office anyway. According to the policy, in agreement with these teachers, a broken rule mandated predetermined, harsh punishment despite the context or extenuating circumstances. Upon my investigation, I learned that the kindergartener’s mother was scheduled for major surgery that day. The 5-year-old was afraid his mother would die during surgery, and he would be left alone. Because the mother wanted her young son to relax and focus while in school, done in ignorance

4  Teaching and Assessing Social Justice Art Education

of the district’s Zero Tolerance policy, she gave her son her cell phone to hold so he could see visually the time she would be out of major surgery that day, at 1:00 p.m. Concerning the gun incident, I discovered that the first-grader had inadvertently left his water pistol in his backpack following a play visit to his cousin’s house the day before. Another first grader saw the water pistol in his classmate’s backpack during recess and reported the incident to their teacher, who subsequently reported the Zero Tolerance policy violation to me. In both examples, Zero Tolerance made zero sense. The so-called “keep kids safe” rhetoric failed to acknowledge that students barred from school encounter risks in the streets or at home without supervision. I did not expel these youth, given the circumstances. Moreover, I stood up to the school district’s culture of unjust punishment and criminalization of Blacks and youth of color. Teachers need to understand systemic oppression to make education more equitable for all, particularly historically marginalized youth. How can teachers stand up and move beyond the maintenance of the status quo and examine disparities in education? How might investigating historical antecedents and systemic oppression help art teachers recognize how they are complicit in creating, maintaining, and perpetuating systems of oppression? What knowledge, skills, and judgments are needed to assess systemic oppression? Chapter 2, Investigate Systemic Oppression, offers assessment criteria for art educators to examine status quo systems of oppression and how they perpetuate opportunity gaps for disadvantaged groups.

Inspire Decolonial Actions The following playscript, by Adetty Pérez de Miles, is based on her experiences as an art teacher decolonizing the art curriculum, making room for plural voices and histories, enacting social justice, and promoting critical thinking. Unsettling the Settler Reading List Scene 1:

The bell rang loudly; suddenly students rushed through the hallways, chattering, hurrying to meet up with friends to go to lunch.

Chapter One | Assess Social Justice Art Education  5

Miriam walked into the art classroom, slammed two books on the desk, walked to the back of the room, proceeded to get a lump of clay from the bin, threw it down on the table with great force. repeatedly folding and pushing the clay with the heels of her hands. Are you having a rough day, Miriam? Art Teacher: Miriam: Hi. Sorry, I did not see you. Yes, not feeling great. I have been assigned to read The Scarlet Letter or Death of a Salesman, and they both suck. I remember reading those books in college. It took me a little while Art Teacher: to get into them, but I ended up enjoying them. What kinds of books or authors do you like? Miss . . . the thing is . . . I have to select one of these books for my Miriam: senior term paper. I spent days reading Death of a Salesman and later switched to The Scarlet Letter, and they are old and boring. I wanted to use a different book, but my English teacher keeps telling me that it is not on her approved list of books for the senior term paper. What is the title of the book you want to use for your term paper? Art Teacher: Miriam: Bless Me, Ultima. Rudolfo Anaya would be a great author to include in the list. What Art Teacher: was your favorite part of the story or favorite character in the book? Miriam: The curandera. She reminds me of my gramma. I also liked all the unexplained things that happened in the story. I wish I had Ultima’s knowledge of medicinal herbs. The 7-year-old Art Teacher: protagonist is my favorite. The section where he pretends to be a priest and “absolves” his friends from all “sins,” it’s fabulous. There is actually an entire genre in literary and visual art called “Magical Realism” that uses magical/unexplained kinds of happenings to tell a story. I really liked that part as well. Miriam: Art Teacher: Is your dad picking you up after school today? He was looking for you on Friday. He usually finds you in the art room, but you were not here. Yeah, he forgot I was supposed to spend the weekend with my mom. Miriam: Art Teacher: Have you talked to your dad about what is going on with your term paper?

6  Teaching and Assessing Social Justice Art Education

Miriam: No. Art Teacher: I recall speaking to your English teacher, Mrs. Smith, and she was very happy that your dad volunteered to run the cash register during the book fair last year. She really likes my dad. Miriam: Scene II: The following Friday. Miriam’s Dad: I wanted to stop by and thank you for suggesting that I reach out to Mrs. Smith. I suggested that Miriam let you know what was going on with her Art Teacher: term paper. I am glad that it worked out. Miriam’s Dad: She was happy to talk to you about her favorite book and that you liked it as much as she did. I was just telling the principal that Miriam is now very excited about her term paper. In fact, she is interviewing her grandmother for the final project. How did the principal get involved? (I thought to myself and started Art Teacher: to worry.) I am glad that Mrs. Smith reconsidered and added Bless Me, Ultima Miriam’s Dad: to her book list. Me too. I look forward to talking to Miriam about her term paper Art Teacher: and especially her interview. The art teacher facilitated an action to decolonialize the curriculum, which is the focus of Chapter 3, Engage Decolonial Actions. Chapter 3 guides art educators to be selfreflexive concerning issues raised by the following questions: • What hierarchies and interests do I serve via the content of my courses and teaching? • Whom do my curriculum practices and pedagogy benefit and whom do they disadvantage? • Who are the most cited, used, circulated authors/artists in my curriculum and classes? • How do I disrupt or reify Eurocentrism and White privilege? The questions, among others, are intended to unmask colonial power and show the co-constitution of White privilege and marginalized social identities and knowledge(s).

Chapter One | Assess Social Justice Art Education  7

Decenter White Patriarchal Norms Cheri E. Ehrlich’s background in education includes working with a broad range of students from all socio-economic, racial, and ethnic backgrounds within suburban and urban K-12 schools and museum settings. Many of the ideas addressed in Chapter 4, Decenter White Patriarchal Norms, stem from her work coordinating and facilitating out-of-school programs at the Brooklyn Museum in Brooklyn, New York, where she worked as a Senior Museum Educator and Teens Program Coordinator. During her time at the Museum, she conducted research working with adolescents in the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art (EASCFA), the first center of its kind to be situated in a museum. Opened in 2007, the launch of the EASCFA brought with it new possibilities for the display and exhibition of feminist art in the context of contemporary feminism and feminist art. Given the location of the EASCFA within a museum setting, new avenues are now available in the field of museum education to assess audience engagement. The mission of the EASCFA, from the beginning, has been to “raise awareness of feminism’s cultural contributions; to educate new generations about the meaning of feminist art; to maintain a dynamic and welcoming learning facility; and to present feminism in an approachable and relevant way” (Brooklyn Museum (n.d.). EASCFA continues to provide teens and other audiences opportunities to learn about artworks by women as well as artworks that gave rise to social, cultural, and political content. Her experiences there were enriching to her personal growth as an educator and helped her to understand the diverse lives and viewpoints of students with whom she worked. What follows is a story by Cheri E. Ehrlich, based on her experiences as a museum educator decentering White privilege through museum activities. When the EASCFA opened in 2007, I planned a class for teens to learn about feminist art through dance. I decided to focus on movement as a response to the artworks because many feminist artists incorporate their bodies in performance, photography, and other artistic and creative practices. I co-taught the class with Ms. Vee, a dancer and choreographer. The course announcement invited all teens in the New York City area to sign up for the free class. However, only girls enrolled in the class. Initially, I assumed the girls signed up for the program because they knew about feminism and thought the program would be an empowering experience. However, at the beginning of the program, I discovered that participants confused feminism with femininity. Also, participants did not always recognize gender stereotypes or inequalities.

8  Teaching and Assessing Social Justice Art Education

Further, at the end of this program, participants confused feminism with sexism. From our observations, participants were still unable to articulate the relevance of feminism in their lives and within the larger culture. Afterward, reflecting on the program and our teaching process, I decided I would create and teach a second program with a new group of girls. Therefore, I did a pre-assessment to find out these girls’ interests concerning feminist art and their perceptions of women’s inequality. I designed and offered a series of programs during the next few years to understand teens’ perceptions of gender inequalities and aspects of feminist artworks. I designed these programs to cultivate a supportive learning environment that would meet teens’ developmental, emotional, and social needs. I invited the girls to select feminist artworks. Discussing feminist art sparked teens’ interests in women’s history, interpersonal relationships, and social critique. Chapter 4, Decenter White Patriarchal Norms, raises questions about artists included or excluded from art education curriculum and encourages teachers to assess their curriculum to provide a broader, more global perspective than older, outdated art education curricula have dictated. Chapter 4 also includes a historical summary of the ways women artists have challenged their own exclusion and (re)inserted and (re)asserted their place in the art world. Finally, Chapter 4 provides examples of teaching strategies to help guide inquiry-based instruction that support students’ agency in using artists and artworks to learn about and consider their own lives through art.

Dismantle Power Differentials In what follows, art educator Yen-Ju Lin’s narrative of her experiences as a student teacher provides an example of assessing unjust pedagogy and the need to design curricula to dismantle power differentials. Many years ago, when I was a young and inexperienced student teacher in an eighth-grade art classroom, I was given the task of facilitating a mask-painting project. In the third class of the mask-painting activity, students had their paper mask designed and drawn from the previous class. After we had a discussion about ways to apply color, students worked on

Chapter One | Assess Social Justice Art Education  9

their masks. I walked around the classroom to make sure everyone had started coloring their masks. I noticed a boy was sitting alone who appeared nervous and disturbed. He did not have his mask with him. From previous classes, I observed the same male student exhibited introverted behaviors and stammered when he spoke. I intervened and stopped other youth from making fun of him in the previous two classes. I asked him what happened. He looked frightened and at first did not utter a word. I assured him that I was only here to help him. Eventually, he told me that his mask was gone, but he did not elaborate further. I was certain that I distributed all their working masks at the beginning of the class. How could any of them be missing? I looked everywhere in the classroom and finally noticed that a group of boys sitting in the front of the classroom were snickering. I discovered the boys were hiding a mask that did not belong to any of them. I insisted that they return the mask to its owner and apologize. They eventually returned the mask, but it was damaged and appeared to be punched in the face. I was furious and took the issue to my supervisor, their art teacher, and got an unbelievable order to avoid making a big deal out of the situation. The art teacher had no intention of reprimanding the students who bullied the boy and smashed the mask, nor was he willing to give the boy an opportunity to make a new mask. While I was extremely upset and did not know how I should react to this nonsense, the bullied student came to me and told me that he “fixed” his mask. He had reshaped and repaired the mask, except for the crack next to the right eye and the hole on the nose. He drew dotted red lines along the crack, put a patch on top of the hole, and told me, “I was going to put a pencil in the broken nose to show that my mask was injured. But I changed my mind. I wanted to help heal the wound.” At first, I could not utter a word. I felt disappointed that the teacher tolerated bully behaviors. I was warmed by his reaction but heartbroken that the teacher had ignored this brilliant student for so long and would most likely continue to neglect him. I felt sorry that I could not do more to help him, to protect him from being hurt again. I wonder what I could have done to challenge this power differential and make things right. How might I have helped this group of students learn how to be upstanders concerning this situation?

10  Teaching and Assessing Social Justice Art Education

Chapter 5, Dismantle Power Differentials, takes a proactive approach to prevent hostile learning environments, such as in Yen-Ju Lin’s narrative. However, in Chapter 5 and throughout the book, we include strategies that empower teachers to be agents of change that would be helpful for those teaching in environments that are not supportive of social justice or well-versed in such concepts, as was the case in Yen-Ju Lin’s student teaching experience.

Include Difference Karen Keifer-Boyd shares an experience in preparing university students to become K-12 art teachers. Difference, in this case, was living with emotional turmoil from trauma. The situation required de-escalating and empowering strategies. Preservice art teachers came to me as the supervisor of a university practicum course distressed as one of the young boys in the Saturday Art Program had kicked and spit on a preservice teacher. The preservice teachers reported he was out of control. I went to the classroom quickly and from the hall saw a 10-year-old White boy looking distraught as he ran out of the classroom and down the stairs. I called his name in a calm voice and sat on the top of the steps. I did not chase him or reprimand him, but instead asked what he wanted. He ran up and down the steps a few times and then sat on the steps with me. He told me he wanted his mom. I had some paper and drawing materials in my bag, pulled them out, and asked if he wanted to draw what he would like to show her. He was silent as he sat on the steps next to me and began to draw. Finally, he became calm, and I asked if he wanted to join the other children and do the art project in the class. He wiped his tears and said yes. We walked together into the class, and he got involved in the art project. Later, I learned from his father that it was the first anniversary of his mother’s death, and there was an argument with his stepmom that morning. How can teachers assess what appeared to be a bully situation and de-escalate the situation? How can art and assessment become integral to trauma-informed pedagogy? The following chapters weave assessment into curriculum and pedagogy as strategies to acknowledge and address the childhood traumas that often result in acting out and/or withdrawal from engagement in learning. Chapter 6, Include Difference, offers an example of an art curriculum taught in a sixth-grade art class by preservice

Chapter One | Assess Social Justice Art Education  11

art teachers using comics as an art form and medium. From a critical disability studies perspective concerning inclusion, Chapter 6 links three artworks, dating from 1965 to 2020, to call attention to intersections of ableist and racist bullying in schools.

Become Upstanders to Injustice Ann Holt shares her journey of becoming an upstander to injustice in learning to be an art educator in a community arts program, where there are many variables at play at any given time. These include daily and lived experiences of students, age range and number of students in the classroom, student needs, inconsistencies in attendance, staffing, fluctuations in funding, personnel management issues, and the list goes on. My first teaching experience, I became the art director at an urban community center. In that community setting, students came because they chose to be there, and stayed because they valued the opportunity to create art. I based my primary assessment criteria on attendance and student engagement in the program. Secondly, assessment dealt with the depth and quality of the works students created. As an art educator, becoming an upstander to injustice is through resistance to a system of control, such as how some teachers use grades to punish or motivate student learning. Instead, I encouraged student-driven explorations through meaningful, student-centered, curricular design. In this way, assessment of student engagement in an art program is a form of upstanding against injustice. Engaging curriculum replaces classroom control through grades and heightens the possibility that students want to be in the classroom. The social justice art education principles that form this book’s chapters, inform pedagogy, curriculum, and assessment. Chapter 7, Become Upstanders to Injustice, offers strategies to develop a student-centered, engaging, open-ended art curriculum that considers students’ lives and perspectives on social justice to become upstanders against injustices. Chapter 7 includes an example curriculum, Visualizing Data Through Art, which involves students accessing information and data about a topic of interest and then translating data through creative visual modes that foster upstander behaviors against injustice.

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Guiding Principles to Develop and Assess Social Justice Art Education As conveyed in stories from the authors’ experiences in this introductory chapter to the book, in some cases policies in place such as Zero Tolerance need to be challenged to consider the contextual situation. In other cases, policies regarding equity, diversity, and inclusion need to be sewn into the fabric of schools. There is support for social justice work from the National Art Education Association (NAEA), which has developed equity, diversity, and inclusion (ED&I) policies, position statements, and initiatives based on the recommendations of a Taskforce and continued work by the inaugural NAEA ED&I Commission.1 Yen-Ju Lin’s story points to the need to place student teachers in schools with teachers who support social justice art education and socially just learning environments. When strategic student teaching placements are not possible, the supervising university art educator and student peers can provide a supportive community to learn from unjust practices and develop strategies to become agents of change for social justice. Most K-12 art teachers develop their own curriculum, which provides a powerful platform to transform teaching and learning environments. Throughout the book are examples of art and artists whose work engages with one or more of the principles of social justice presented in this book. Their work inspired our teaching, and in this book, we provide ways to integrate such art into K-12 curricula. Many of the artists we discuss in this book have developed series about current injustices. For example, Kate Kretz’s series on bullying culture, which she began in 2011, continues as she addresses current injustices. She writes: The research for this monumental series began in 2011, the actual work began in 2014, and it is ongoing, with no end in sight. The impetus for this work was a search for the common denominator of all the injustices that keep me awake at night. For years now, ubiquitous news of war, extinction of species, gun violence, climate change, the growing imbalance of wealth and power, violence against women, and abuse of law enforcement power over people of color seems to be permeating and overwhelming the consciousness of everyone I know. I felt certain that there was a common denominator to all of these crimes: against children, women, minorities, the poor, animals, and the earth (Kretz, 2020, para. 1).

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Typically, Kretz’s art involves embroidery and sewing. She creates intimate sculptures such as pillowcases and powerful large-scale mixed media installations, as well as oil paintings that are explorations of social justice topics such as identity, fears, and possibilities. Assessment of the learning environment and curriculum toward social justice art education goals requires knowledge of what assessment is, how assessment differs from evaluation, and becoming familiar with a range of approaches to assessment. Evaluation refers to judgments of value concerning the worth of any aspect of the learning enterprise, including student learning and teacher or program effectiveness. Assessment is the method or process to gather information for the purpose of evaluation. Before implementing a social justice art education curriculum, pre-assessment strategies such as those described in Chapters 4 and 6, help teachers know their students through fun activities that stimulate curiosity and interest in the larger project. Pre-assessment also helps teachers discern what students already know and informs them about students’ experiences. These understandings could enrich and reveal challenges that teachers can address through pedagogical and curricular strategies. The following are a range of assessment approaches that teachers can use at various stages of social justice art education:2 • Alternative assessment deviates from standard-based tests for students and teachers to explore student learning. Chapter 3 offers examples of alternative assessments of the curriculum and student learning by inspiring decolonial actions. • Authentic assessment uses realistic, meaningful, open-ended problems, responded to through meaningful and purposeful art. Chapter 5 is an example of authentic assessment with Find Card activities with artworks by three Asian American artists: Flo Oy Wong, Yuriko Yamaguchi, and Yu-Wen Wu. • Didactic assessment informs or teaches during the assessment. Chapter 5 encourages students to connect art to current issues while revealing existing power differentials. • Dynamic assessment intimately links testing to teaching in a teach-testreteach format. Teachers look for obstacles that hinder learning, make changes in teaching, and reassess. Chapter 2 guides readers to investigate systemic oppression, recognize barriers to learning, and by doing so can join forces with others to make changes so that learning environments are equitable.

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• Formative assessment critiques a project in process such as is demonstrated in Chapter 7. Formative assessments discussed in Chapter 7 involved inquiry concerning student needs to empower them to garner information, seek multiple perspectives, articulate their ideas, and identify artists who are confronting similar social justice issues. • Summative assessment evaluates final work. Chapter 6 weaves pre-assessment and formative assessment with summative assessment into the learning process, which links assessment to the learning objectives. We conclude Chapter 1 with an invitation to readers to assess their learning environment, curriculum, and pedagogy toward social justice art education.

Notes 1 The NAEA ED&I Taskforce history and recommendations can be found at https://www.art educators.org/equity-diversity-inclusion/articles/608-national-task-force-on-equity-diversi ty-inclusion. The initiatives of the NAEA ED&I Commission are described at https://www. arteducators.org/equity-diversity-inclusion/equity-diversity-inclusion-commission 2 The National Art Education Association (2018–2021) offers a series on assessment strategies at https://www.arteducators.org/learn-tools/assessment-white-papers-for-art-education

References Applied Educational Systems. (2020). What art 21st century learning skills? https://www.aese ducation.com/career-readiness/what-are-21st-century-skills Brooklyn Museum. (n.d.). Brooklyn museum: Elizabeth a. Sackler Center of Feminist Art: About the center. https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/about Kretz, K. (2020). Works by series. Kate Kretz. http://www.katekretz.com/work-by-series/#/ in-progress-series/ National Art Education Association. (2018–2021). Assessment white papers for art education. https://www.arteducators.org/learn-tools/assessment-white-papers-for-art-education Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, & Equity. (2020). edTPA. https://www.edtpa.com/

Chapter Two Investigate Systemic Oppression Recognizing Inequity and Injustice: Examining Systems that Create Opportunity Gaps through Privileging and Disadvantaging Systemic Oppression and Historical Antecedents Structural and Systemic Oppression Institutional Structures that Oppress Entanglements References

Recognizing Inequity and Injustice: Examining Systems that Create Opportunity Gaps through Privileging and Disadvantaging Structural, institutional, and systemic oppression, broadly defined, refer to structures that have policies, practices, and procedures that disadvantage some while privileging others. These systems once deep-rooted in law have enduring effects that reverberate throughout contemporary societies. 1. Consider how privileging and disadvantaging happens to be unjust when it is undeserved or unearned. 2. Investigate histories of oppression and connect contexts to current issues relevant to minoritized and disenfranchised groups. 3. Examine how status quo systems of oppression perpetuate opportunity gaps for disadvantaged groups. 4. Recognize inequitable patterns and intentional actions that disrupt social injustice and create democratic processes. Social justice education forces art educators, among others, to look critically at systemic oppression and why and how schools and other educational contexts are unjust for some learners. Assessing school policies and practices, the curriculum, and instructional materials, ensures an equitable education for every learner.

DOI: 10.4324/9781003183716-2

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Systemic Oppression and Historical Antecedents The United States has a history of racism and colonialism.1 European settlers established the first thriving British colony in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. These early colonials hailed from various social, cultural, economic, political, and religious groups, consisting of indentured servants, tradespersons, and farmers from England, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Scotland, and other areas. When European nations colonized the United States, they established the rules and regulations that govern(ed) the Nation. Colonizers kidnapped and brought the first Africans to Jamestown in 1619. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, foreigners snatched Africans from their homelands, forced them into slavery in U.S. colonies, and exploited them through coerced unpaid labor to produce wealth for the enslavers and colonizers. By the time the United States’ “Founding Father(s)” wrote the Constitution in 1787, the U.S. had practiced chattel enslavement2 for nearly one hundred and seventy years. A point worth noting beyond African Americans, no other group in the United States traces its roots to the “institution of slavery,” where White enslavers bought and sold them as their property. Various contemporary African American artists use different media and forms of expression (e.g., painting, sculpture, photography, collage, and installation) to revisit historical trauma through an examination of slavery. Works by Kerry James Marshall, Kara Walker, and Michael Ray Charles, among others, capture the tensions that exist between past atrocities and present emotions and could generate discussion concerning systemic oppression and U.S. historical antecedents. For instance, Kerry James Marshall’s 1994 painting titled “Great America” concerns the transatlantic slave trade and what it means for contemporary “Black Americans.” The canvas’s 8.5-by-9.5-foot piece made of acrylic and collage media depicts a small boat crammed with jet-black passengers sailing over deep-blue turbulent waters. As the seeming amusement-park ride nears its destination, white ghost-like figures meet the passengers at the entrance of a dark tunnel, suggesting the doom, gloom, and death in store for the boat’s passengers when they reach the endpoint of their journey. The title “Great America” is prominent on a banner in the lower right side of the work, with written exclamations of “Wow” and “Fun,” words one might expect to hear at an

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amusement site. These terms signify a joyous time and a great life in “America,” land of the free. However, Marshall’s depiction of the figures and the terms undermines their meaning related to living the “American Dream,” as “Fun” is barely visible, and “Wow” is written on a bright-red background that is dripping, similar to blood. Moreover, upon closer inspection, the figures are not smiling. They do not appear to be having the least amount of fun. A faint transparent, cascading fishnet covers the red cross symbol in the upper left and nearly half of the left-side of the painting. Marshall’s work represents the Middle Passage, the forced voyage of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the “New World.” The painting portrays different aspects of the enslaved humans’ journey to the Americas. The swirls in the blue water represent the Atlantic Ocean’s turbulence and depth, and the distant mountains suggest the long voyage that has carried the figures to faraway lands. The small, cramped boat symbolizes the massive, overloaded slave ships that carried human cargo. Finally, the dark tunnel represents the Americas’ destination, where White people would force the enslaved to live as their property. From the colonial period to the Civil War in 1861, the United States institution of slavery was central to its economy and politics. “Slavery” often entailed backbreaking work, sustained through threats, force, humiliation, and separation from family and community. Typically, the work on a plantation was regimented, routine, and repetitive, changing only by the time of day or season of the year. Moreover, “slave labor” varied by period and location. For example, work on cotton plantations in Georgia differed from work on tobacco farms in North Carolina, which was dissimilar to the work enslaved peoples performed on rice plantations in South Carolina and other colonial settlements (Littlefield, 2002). While many people might associate the institution of slavery with Southern states, slavery has a more extended and varied history than the traditional cotton-picking South. Equally significant is the fact that slavery extended to the Middle Colonies and New England states in early periods. In these locations, enslaved peoples worked on dairy farms and wheat farms, aboard ships on the docks, and in homes and gardens, among other areas. In a few urban locations, enslaved individuals worked in factories and worked as porters and teamsters, to name a few (Littlefield, 2002). While “slaves” might perform all these tasks in the South, plantation slavery was a Southern institution, and “slave labor” became more meaningful and lasting in the South than in the North.

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People and politicians representing the Northern and Southern states conflicted with each other for almost a century. The conflict and controversy centered around people of African descent who were brought by settlers to the U.S. as “slave labor.” Artist Kara Walker’s provocative, controversial body of artwork links past and present entangled Black and White histories through her explorations of racial inequality in the United States of America. Her range of approaches to exploring the legacy of slavery for contemporary “American” identity (e.g., drawing, painting, writing, shadow puppetry, silhouettes, prints, watercolor, and projected installation) exposes the exploitation, humiliation, and horrors that were life for plantation enslaved people. The horrific violence Whites inflicted on Blacks before and after the American Civil War and the abolition of slavery still shape the U.S. political agenda and the legacy of racism. Well-known for the black silhouettes she has uniquely developed, Walker depicts disturbing scenarios that transgress the boundaries of the conservative 18th- and early-19th-century genteel Victorian silhouettes regarding romance and family. Her contrasting black-and-white silhouettes have an air of Victorian modesty. However, she intentionally undermines their propriety through stereotypical representations of historical and imaginary people engrossed in circumstances that reflect a range of gender-, race-, and class-based, sexually explicit, calamitous, entangled relationships between so-called “masters” and “slaves” in the U.S. antebellum south, including miscegenation, sexual abuse and rape of Black women, lynchings, and other power relationships and their brutality. Walker’s silhouettes allow her to exhibit more violent truths because silhouettes do not show facial expressions. The silhouettes provide a means to avoid the disquieting and frequently difficult-to-view grotesqueness of her black-on-white narratives. It forces the viewer to rely on visual cues drawn from uniformly black and featureless profiles to discern differences among the races and fully understand her subject matter’s scope. For example, Walker uses phenotypical stereotypes—engorged lips, flatter shapes, longer hair, and sharper noses—to help the viewer instantly distinguish the Whites from the Blacks, clearly depicting a racial and gender hierarchy with White males on the top and Black women on the bottom. In 2014, Walker gained further recognition by unveiling a public artwork, A Subtlety, or the Marvelous Sugar Baby, at Brooklyn’s Domino Sugar Factory. However, the work was anything but subtle. The colossal 35-by-75-foot sculpture constructed of sugar

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blocks resembled a curvaceous Black “mammy” figure posed as a sphinx and covered in white sugar. The history of sugar in the United States and refining it relied on “slave labor” for centuries. But even though “slaves” picked the sugar cane, which created subtleties or sugar sculptures, the White aristocracy did not provide them rights, and only allowed upper-class Whites to eat these subtleties. The American Civil War divided the United States along the lines of race, questioning who is entitled to full rights and privileges under the Constitution. Although those in favor of ending the practice of human enslavement prevailed, ending the Civil War in 1865, the U.S. Constitution did not award full citizenship to African Americans immediately; instead, the U.S. legally and culturally imposed racial subordination throughout the nation for another century. Following the emancipation of those enslaved, the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments3 did little to ensure equitable treatment of Blacks in the United States. Additionally, in the 1890s, some communities created systems and means of providing the unequal treatment of Blacks and Whites. Local and state laws (particularly in Southern and bordering states) denied Blacks the very rights the newly enacted amendments were supposed to guarantee (Foley, 2004). Thus, for another one hundred years (from 1865–1965) following the emancipation of enslaved humans, the United States continued to exact legal, cultural, and racial subservience in virtually all areas of life. For example, White people did not allow Black people to share the same space in restaurants with them or even enter the same doors in those restaurants. Moreover, White people consigned Blacks to segregated parks, theatres, libraries, hospitals, and schools. Whites forced Blacks to sit in the back of buses in undesirable seats or on trains and streetcars in separate compartments, though they were charged the full price for tickets. As physical separation was not White Supremacy’s primary goal, “segregation insured racial hierarchy and a cheap, undereducated, politically demobilized, and racially divided labor supply” (Hall, 2004, para. 45). Along those same lines, professor emeritus of political sciences, Adolph Reed (2004), supports the notion that the segregationist regime embodied much more than the “separate but equal” doctrine that Brown struck down in public education and far more than the “petty apartheid” manifested in “WHITES ONLY” and “COLORED ONLY” signs. Instead, he argues that segregation was a codified social order, state-sponsored and state-enforced racial

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domination system. Moreover, noted scholar, psychologist, and historian Asa Hilliard III contends that segregation was more than “the coerced separation of the races in schools” (Hillard, 2004, para. 30). Instead, Hilliard views segregation as a whole structure of domination, which included all major societal institutions—mass media, law, religion, science, music, art, criminal justice, academic, and curriculum, among other things. These agencies, he espouses, supplied the propaganda and legitimacy that resulted not only in coerced physical segregation but in a false school curriculum; the control over African schooling by segregationist; the defamation of African culture; the disruption of African institutions of family, ethnic group identity and solidarity; prevention of wealth accumulation; blocked access to communication; the teaching of White supremacy and African inferiority; and more (Hillard, 2004, para. 31). In Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas (1954), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, overturning Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), which had legalized segregation in schools and other public spaces as long as they provided “separate but equal” facilities.4 The Brown decision sparked historic legislation, which should have resulted in equal resources, equal opportunities, and racial justice. Before Brown, separate schools for Blacks and Whites in southern states were the norm. Though the central issue of Brown  was education, arising from the continued subjugation of African Americans (Wu, 2004), the court neglected to address the school problem in total, which rests within the overall domination structure. Since Brown, de jure segregation has been non-existent. However, in the words of Hillard (2004), “integrating schools did not eliminate the ideology of white supremacy” from which segregation sprung. Absent a proper understanding of the domination paradigm, segregation has returned. Stratified along the lines of power and wealth, vast social, economic, and educational inequalities continue to plague United States societies. Because race has been the most divisive issue in the United States since its formation, to reflect upon social justice and where the United States stands concerning educational equity is to reflect upon the complex social history of race relations in the United States. This statement assumes discussing social justice and current educational trends is hardly possible without contextualizing them against the backdrop of

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colonialism and historically specific social, economic, and political processes related to race. Moreover, the four hundred years of racial strife in the U.S.—noting negative attitudes towards Blacks, stemming from White supremacy—indicates “race is pandemic in the history, structure, institutions, assumptions, values, policies, language, and thinking of the United States” (Harris, 2003, p. 1). These (pre) existing conditions, among others beyond the scope of this chapter, caused or contributed to contemporary structural and systemic forms of oppression. Internationally acclaimed United States contemporary artist Michael Ray Charles uses highly stylized paintings of mammies, Sambos, and pickaninnies to examine historicized, demeaning, and hostile images of Black people. He takes these historical, stereotypical Black characters and reinterprets them within contemporary contexts to show connections between the past and the present. For example, Charles often critiques the “Sambo” image in his paintings. The United States slaveholders in the South characterized Sambo as the typical watermelon-eating plantation enslaved person (Harris, 2003). In addition, enslavers considered Sambo lazy, passive, and irresponsible. And though they believed him to be loyal and humble, they felt he was childish and prone to stealing and lying. Visual portrayals of Black men as the Sambo became classic in U.S. culture. John Lewis Krimmel’s 1813 painting, Quilting Frolics, may be one of the earliest works of art to use physiognomic distortions to depict Black men as Sambo visually. In this piece, a jet-black, oversized red-lipped, shabbily dressed fiddler (with what appears to be a bottle of liquor protruding from his coat pocket) happily entertains a group of White spectators in a Pennsylvania German house with a bystander Black girl servant. This work “marked the beginning of the near-constant association of Blacks with music and music-making in the fine arts” (Knight, 2019; McElroy, 1990, p. 14). Prevalent images and stereotypes of the comical dancing and singing Sambo character from the antebellum South influenced the politics of slavery immensely. White people inundated with pictures of happy enslaved people had the sense that the Plantation was an ideal home for human captives, who were content and willing to serve. For many United States residents, both in the North and South, the Sambo myth ended the political and moral conflict concerning institutionalized human enslavement in a free society based on democratic ideals.

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Having been a basketball player in college, Michael Ray Charles is swift to criticize African Americans for adopting stereotypes in the sports world, which he perceives to be another minstrel show where Black people play and White people watch. For example, consider the “Sambo” caricature represented in Michael Ray Charles’s (1995) work  Lifesaball.  In this mockery of National Basketball Association (NBA) players, Charles associates Blacks with Sambos, condemning them for buying into stereotypes and performing accordingly. In his reinterpreted stereotype, basketball replaces the watermelon, reinforcing stereotypical notions held by numerous people in the United States who link Blackness to sports and entertainment, not intellectualism. As an African American artist, Charles’s uncompromising use of traditional stereotypes of African Americans keeps him at the heart of controversy, mainly since Whites are the primary purchasers of artworks that reflect the United States history of White dominance, considering Black peoples’ ongoing struggle for equity and social justice. Conceivably, there is as much debate regarding stereotypes when people of the same racial group re/produce them as when people of a different racial group re/produce them. Still, Charles’s multi-layered and politically charged paintings beseech contemplation and reflection. Does Charles’s work reinforce racial stereotypes, or does it call them into question? Charles might agree that there is a fine line between examination and perpetuation. If artists depict groups of which they are not members, what qualifies these artists to tackle racial stereotypes? Does restoring negative stereotypes reinscribe their possible harmful effects, or do these stereotypes cause harm anew? Michael Ray Charles’s artwork provokes and provides pedagogical opportunities for critical reflection and discussion. A brief analysis of the implications for using Charles’s work within art classrooms would suggest that school-age youth and others might benefit from conversations that confront issues regarding the human condition that contemporary art and artists might illuminate (Knight, 2006). Moreover, like other artwork, Charles’s artwork can help deconstruct the long-held master narrative of Black racial inferiority and create conditions for new knowledge that recognize the human potential, possibility, and humanity of Black peoples. Rather than shunning perceived complex topics that some Contemporary artwork might evoke, educators of all kinds might become more politically astute by using such images to examine historical antecedents and negative stereotypes used throughout U.S. history. They can:

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1. Look at the color choices, symbolism, language, and design elements. 2. Think critically about the imagery and narratives. 3. Analyze why the images and texts are so powerful or valuable in evoking feelings of fear, anger, and loathing. 4. Discuss human enslavement, the complicated history of racism in the United States, and how it has led to the inequalities that continue to pervade United States societies (Knight, 2019). The question, then, is whether to use or reject contemporary art that brings to one’s attention uncomfortable and even taboo issues concerning systemic oppression, such as the previous and in what follows.

Structural and Systemic Oppression Why are many communities racially segregated in the United States? What is the legacy of institutionalized racism and segregation within the U.S. housing industry? How does segregation of neighborhoods affect employment, education, policing, health care, and other aspects of life? Such questions warrant an investigation of structural and systemic oppression. “Structural” and “systemic” oppression are terms that are often used interchangeably. Drawing upon race, an example of systemic oppression or racism is the unjust policy of “redlining”5 that a United States Federal agency, Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLOC), Federal Housing Administration (FHA), created in 1934 and used for more than thirty years to differentiate White neighborhoods from Black neighborhoods, literally outlining (in red ink) vicinities where Black people and other people of color lived (Rothstein, 2017). The banking and real estate industries used these color-coded maps to exercise power and control in decision-making concerning loans. If one resided within the red lines, bankers considered loans riskier and would not approve mortgages and investments in or near African American communities, making homeownership impossible for many Blacks and other people of color. Meanwhile, the FHA was funding builders who were manufacturing complete subdivisions for Whites only. Though the U.S. banned redlining in 1968 when the United States passed the Fair Housing Act, these neighborhood ranking policies and practices have impacted and prevented Black and Brown communities from accruing wealth at a similar rate as their White

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neighbors on opposing sides of the red line. Further, homes in Black and Brown neighborhoods are appraised as lower in value than homes in White localities. A lower home value means that the tax-base is lower, which mean there are fewer dollars available to schools for a quality education (i.e., adequate classrooms, materials, and facilities), fewer dollars for academic and enrichment programs (i.e., advanced placement (AP) classes and visual arts, design and media arts courses) and counseling services, and insufficient dollars to attract the most qualified teachers who are socially just, culturally competent, and responsive to the needs of diverse student and communities they represent. Multi-media artist Olivia Robinson’s work helps art educators understand race and systemic oppression in the United States. Moreover, Robinson’s artwork helps examine the historical antecedents of racial segregation and how U.S. policies and practices demarcate Black and Brown communities as locations for real estate divestment (redlining) and White communities as areas for investment (greenlining) are forms of institutional racism. Further, art educators need to understand how visual culture is complicit in normalizing socially unjust, race-based inequities that segregate communities by race. Television, newspapers, magazines, and other forms of material culture tend to represent White confines as tranquil and secure, while representing Black and Brown communities as chaotic and dangerous. Using quilting as a teaching tool, Robinson examines the tangled roots of federal policies concerning redlining in Baltimore, Maryland, and how these government-supported racist housing practices continue to impact contemporary neighborhoods, schools, and communities. Near and Far Enemies: Shade (2015), the first in Robinson’s series of quilts, maps Baltimore’s current-day tree canopy to antecedents of Baltimore’s racist 1930s housing policies. Activist scholar Fullilove’s (2005) observation that more giant trees that offer shade grow in White neighborhoods that received government-sponsored increased funding over 80 years ago, while smaller trees grow in Black and Brown communities. To show connections to Baltimore neighborhoods, Robinson and software designer and installation artist, Jesse Stiles, created a computer program to randomly select 150 places within the zones of a 1937 “residential security map” in Baltimore. For years, Robinson made detailed drawings of trees she found in the location. She digitized seventy-five of her drawings and transferred these in rows to the top and bottom portions of the quilt. Tiny colored “light-emitting diode (LED) lights” in the quilt’s center pinpointed tree locations on the map (Kuthy, p. 53). Subsequently, Robinson

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annotated, enlarged, and reproduced the map’s legend in fabric and exhibited the legend next to the quilt to help viewers understand the history of redlining in conjunction with her investigation (Kuthy, 2017). Likewise, renowned San Francisco Bay Area artist Mildred Howard examines community histories, like redlining and gentrification (Howard, 2017; SFMOMA, 2015; UC Berkeley, 2019). Using assemblage, sculptures, and installations, Howard’s work, like Robinson’s work, can ignite discussion about race, power, privilege, politics, wealth, opportunity, and possibilities of transforming the future. Redlining and other forms of State-sanctioned segregation continue to disproportionately impact Black and Brown neighborhoods and communities in other ways, such as over-policing due to presumptions that these areas are more dangerous than White environments. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) reported that Black and Latinx peoples combined represent 32% of the United States population, yet they include more than one-half (56%) of the incarcerated population in the United States (NAACP, 2022). Having a criminal record adversely impacts every aspect of Black and Brown peoples’ lives, including housing and job opportunities. The next section focuses on institutional oppression specifically related to schools and classrooms.

Institutional Structures that Oppress Arguably, no institution has a more significant impact on the members of its society than the education system. Even so, education is the basis for inequality as biases are inherent in the social structure of educational institutions. The inbuilt bias provides advantages to some groups while disadvantaging other groups. Even when per-pupil spending in urban schools approaches that of suburban schools, other forms of entrenched inequity prevail. For example, suburban schools have the latest computers and technology. In contrast, many urban schools’ reality is stateof-the-art metal detectors that students walk through on their way to dilapidated, ill-equipped classrooms with inadequate supplies and resources, to be taught by underprepared and un-credentialed teachers (Chomsky & Kozol, 2021). Further, in the United States, a significant part of Black student schooling experiences is associated with White female teachers. White teachers, among others, routinely

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reinforce social structures and injustice through either curricular content and materials, classroom management and discipline measures, or in casual conversations and interactions with their students. For instance, teachers’ interactions with historically minoritized, underserved student populations (Black students, economically disadvantaged students, and female students) differ from their interactions with traditionally advantaged student populations (White students, male students, and students from more affluent backgrounds). Students of color, especially those who are stricken by poverty and live in urban areas, get less total instructional attention; are called on less frequently; are encouraged to develop intellectual thinking less often; are criticized more and praised less; receive fewer direct responses to their questions and comments; and are reprimanded more often and disciplined more severely. Frequently, the praise given is terse, ritualistic, procedural, and social rather than elaborate, substantive, and academic. General praise of personal attributes is less effective than that which is related to task-specific performance in improving the learning efforts and outcomes of students (Gay, 2000, p. 63). Studies concerning girls’ and young women’s education also indicate that teachers interact differently with male and female learners. To no one’s surprise, teachers treat men and boys preferentially. Male learners have more interactions with teachers, and they often dominate the classroom. One educational researcher notes: European American males also . . . receive more encouragement, feedback, and praise, are cued, prompted, and probed more; are rewarded more for major accomplishments; are asked more complex, abstract, and open-ended questions; and are taught how to become independent thinkers and problem solvers. By comparison, females . . . receive less academic encouragement, praise, prompts, rewards, and expectations for success; have less total interactional time with teachers; are asked more simple questions that require descriptive and concrete answers; are disciplined less frequently and less severely; and are rewarded more for social than for academic accomplishments. (AAUW, 1995; Good & Brophy, 1994; Grossman & Grossman, 1994; Sadker & Sadker, 1982; Scott & McCollum, 1993, cited in Gay, 2000, pp. 65–66).

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Teacher interactions with Black female students paralleled their interactions with Black male students, but were more negative in comparison to those with White males and White females. Even when Black females’ performance is equivalent to or greater than that of Black males, they still get “less and lower-quality opportunities to engage in instructional interactions” Damico & Scott, 1988, cited in Gay, 2000, p. 66). Black peoples, like others, should have equal access to the benefits, services, and opportunities that society offers. Even so, many schools and learning environments are not able to or not willing to accommodate their diverse student needs. For example, many Black youth might benefit from additional educational and counseling services; however, rather than getting the assistance they need, schools punish, isolate, and support incarceration of these youth. The disciplinary policies and practices that support and promote police presence in schools and school arrests, harsh punishment, including physical restraint tactics, “Zero Tolerance”6 policies and other automatic school suspensions and expulsions disproportionally push historically minoritized youth and students with disabilities out of schools and classrooms into the juvenile and criminal justice system. Institutions and authority figures who criminalize youth based on unjust disciplinary policies and practices are big contributors to fueling the school-to-prison pipeline.7 Institutional racism concerns more than disparate systems of imprisonment. Unnecessary school policies concerning hair, for example, can be oppressive and discriminatory. Rules that deny students the ability to wear their naturally textured hair in braids, cornrows, afros, and dreadlocks unjustly target Black students and other students of color based on their racial and ethnic physical traits. Hair is deeply politicized. Moreover, hair has served as a significant marker of racial identification, an essential signifier of beauty, and an influential visual cue for bias (Arogundade, 2000; Webb, 2020). Moreover, U.S. society has wielded hair as a tool of oppression, and society’s perceptions of Black hair still influence standards of beauty and how Black people are treated today.

Black Hair Hair played an essential role in the culture of ancient African civilizations. Authors Ayana Byrd and Lori L. Tharps (2014), in their book Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America, note that ancient African societies wore braids and other

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intricate hairstyles to signify age, social status, spirituality, marital status, and family background. From kings’ lavish beaded braids to exclusive headdresses that new mothers wore, these styles have deep cultural and historical roots. Moreover, hairstylists often took hours or days to create artistic styles as hairstyling was also an important social ritual, a time to connect with friends and family. Ancient Africans also believed that hair was a source of personal and spiritual power. Finally, as the most uplifted part of the anatomy, various communities felt hair connected them with the divine. For instance, the Yoruba people used hair braiding to send messages to the gods. During the transatlantic slave trade, the first things the slave traders did to the Africans they stole from their homelands was to remove the hair from their heads. Considering the powerful spiritual and cultural importance of hair in Africa, shaving the heads of all Africans was a dehumanizing act. Hair removal was the first step in systemic culture and identity erasure. Thus, Eurocentric beauty standards have prevailed within the United States and worldwide. Beliefs that certain hair textures are better and more attractive than others became prevalent during the slave era. The hair texture of an enslaved person could determine their value and working conditions. While the “Good Hair” standard has historical antecedents that date back to the antebellum period in the United States, this norm has perpetuated pervasive cultural messages that idealize this Eurocentric image of hair and offer treatments or products to achieve it. Because hair is a highly malleable ethnic trait, the enslaved used homemade hair straightening methods and sometimes dangerous concoctions to make their hair more like their White enslavers, smooth and straight. In return, they hoped their enslavers would choose them for coveted house jobs instead of outside field positions. So, if one’s hair was long and straight versus wooly and coily, Africans considered this sort of hair to be “good hair,” meaning it was good enough to get preferential treatment by their White enslavers (e.g., access to finer living situations, better food, and an otherwise prohibited education). Not that in-house servitude was splendid; however, working in the house frequently led to a closer relationship with the enslaver, which might result in freedom upon his death. Following emancipation, Black women in the South started wearing their hair in beautiful, elaborate styles that attracted much attention, threatening the status quo.

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Therefore, in 1786 Louisiana passed the Tignon Law, which required Black women to wear a tignon8 over their hair to mark them as former members of the “slave class,” even though they were “free.” Black women obeyed the law; however, they resisted systemic oppression by wearing colorful, beautifully adorned head wraps, which they turned into empowering fashion statements. Though the United States no longer enforces the Tignon Law, these laws set a precedent for policing Black hair in the United States. Even so, many Black women continue to wear their head wraps in contemporary U.S. societies to symbolize opposition to White colonialism and systemic oppression. Moreover, in 1960 the afro became a signifier of self-empowerment, pride, and resistance. Some Black people perceived hair straightening reflected a history of forced assimilation; thus, embracing their natural hair texture was a way to reclaim their roots. Contemporary African American artist Lorna Simpson examines the history of African American hairstyles and beauty standards. Simpson (2010) uses video, photography, and collage to explore identity, which makes people who they are. Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1960, Simpson’s experiences as a Black woman inform and inspire her artwork, which often portrays Black women with text to highlight contemporary society’s relationship with race, ethnicity, and gender. In 1994, Simpson turned her attention to hair with her Wigs (Portfolio). The 21 lithographs on text panels printed on felt, mounted in juxtaposition on the wall, depicted various fake hairpieces, including afros, braided hair, and blonde locks made of human, yak, and synthetic hair. However, Simpson’s Wigs exhibition does not include any figures as in her previous collages. Instead, through images and texts, Simpson leaves the viewer to question standards of beauty surrounding which hair is good and which hair is bad and to create narratives concerning who might wear which wigs. Simpson’s wig exploration involves the complex relationship African American women experience with their natural hair. Damaging perceptions of “good hair” and “bad hair,” passed down for generations, influence people’s perception of natural Black hair in contemporary societies. From the perceptions of professionalism and competence in the workplace, everyday incidents of penalizing students for “inappropriate” hairstyles, or the notions of beauty in every societal sector, attitudes toward Black hair can and do shape opportunities in these contexts and innumerable others. Therefore, art educators need to understand how “hair bias” operates and develop solutions to disrupt and mitigate its effects.

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Entanglements Racist, classist, and sexist systems of oppression and inequality negatively shape school experiences and outcomes for historically underserved and minoritized communities. In the United States, “schooling is representative and simultaneously constitutive of the race, class, and gender disparities illustrative of the larger [U.S.] society” (Kanpol, 1997, p. IX). Systems that subordinate others can be overt or covert, deliberate or unintentional. Whichever they are, the harmful outcomes are the same. One oppression (e.g., race) can intersect and entangle with other oppressions (e.g., gender, social class, and dis/ability), which leads to a complex, compounded convergence of oppressions. The entanglement of systems of oppression is not an assembly of severed or separated systems that merely come together. Instead, this synthesis adds a third element, greater than the sum of its severed parts. Despite scarce research on the combined effects of oppressive systems, investigations (although limited) demonstrate the negative impact of institutionalized racism, sexism, and classism as separate systems, offering one the opportunity to speculate regarding the adverse effects of multiple entangled systems on the lives of those societies judge as having the wrong race, social class, and gender (Rothenberg & Accomando, 2020). Entanglement revisions, builds upon, and incorporates the notion of intersectionality. “Intersectionality” is a term African American legal scholar and activist Kimberlé Crenshaw coined in 1989 to facilitate understandings (within legal and academic fields) concerning the impact of colliding forms of oppression (e.g., gender and race) (Crenshaw, 1994). Crenshaw also wanted to explain injustice and violence against Black women (Emba, 2015) and to show how racism, classism, sexism, and other systems of inequality create enduring inequitable structures (e.g., Anthias & Yuval-Davis, 1993; Eberhardt & Fiske, 1998; Knight, 2007; Moghaddam, 1998; Sharp et al. 2007; Shih & Sanchez, 2009; Squires, 2008). Like intersectionality, entanglement is not a straightforward concept as numerous injustices affect individuals and groups with marginalized social identities daily, countless with implications for generations to come. However, entanglement problematizes and makes visible how social identities, power structures, and power relations are enmeshed, preserving social, political, and economic inequalities. Because there is much injustice, people may feel disempowered to act against unfairness and inequality. While most, if not all, injustices are entangled and entwined with social

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identities and social structures, making them seem impenetrable, snipping one thread can begin to unravel the seemingly growing fabric of injustices. Thus, individuals must be upstanders for social justice in times of crisis and violation of human rights. Whether change can happen should not determine whether one should try to effect change. In 2018, Knight and Keifer-Boyd facilitated a dialogical visual mapping process focused on entanglements of social identities during a Seneca Falls Dialogues workshop in Seneca Falls, New York. The workshop sought to “re/capture and re/focus attention on complexly interwoven, twisted, and tangled parts of social identities and identity hierarchies, and how the interactions of each hierarchy influence the dynamic of another” (Stovall, 2005, p. 207). The process of mapping entanglements can reveal the complexity, magnitude, and nuances of injustices, such as those highlighted in the upcoming portion of this chapter.

Mapping Entanglements Mapping entanglements is a process of creating a graphical representation or picture that illustrates multiple and simultaneous strands of inequality, discrimination, injustice, and oppression. For example, mapping injustice can reveal entangled social identities and histories of oppression that societies have normalized over time (Knight & Keifer-Boyd, 2019). Given the U.S. climate concerning normalizing violence, misogyny, White supremacy, racism, classism, and ableism, to name a few encompassing injustices, art/educators can focus on issues that deeply matter to them. For example, people target Black lives both systematically and intentionally. Suppose individuals consider that one million Black people are locked in cages called “jails” in the United States. In that case, data related to mass incarceration might suggest that such confinement is an act of state violence. A 2021 report by the Sentencing Project conveys that state prisons incarcerate Black people at nearly five times the rate of Whites (The Sentencing Project, 2021). Moreover, police murder unarmed Black people disproportionately, and harassment from surveillance and racial profiling occur daily (ACLU, 2019). Furthermore, Black women and Black “queer” and trans folks continue to bear the burden of relentless assaults while societies deny their human rights. Because injustices are prevalent, Knight and Keifer-Boyd had Seneca Falls Dialogue participants focus on an authentic experience or witnessing a specific injustice

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occurrence. Each map conveyed an entanglement through graphic depiction in which participants identified race, gender, economics, and other constructed hierarchies as forces of injustice. Moreover, participants considered details (who, what, how, why) concerning the injustice they chose to investigate. For instance, participants thought about who is involved, in what ways, and how societies and institutions have normalized the inequity. Further, participants identified focal points, overlaps, or strong linkages to the past and discussed when/what/where the flashpoints are that have contributed to contemporary injustices. Finally, as workshop participants mapped injustice in relationship to entangled social identities, they searched for areas to remap toward justice. Through dialogue, remapping, and revising the inequity, the Seneca Falls Dialogue workshop participants identified groups and coalitions working toward justice concerning specific injustices and entanglement(s). Intersectionality has served as a critical theoretical lens in feminist and genderrelated studies to analyze injustice and the oppression of minoritized groups. Recognizing that multiple and intersecting identities inform the social realities and lived experiences of individuals and groups, entanglement considers how various power structures such as race, ethnicity, social class, gender, ability status, sexuality, and other markers of difference intersect, entwine, and interact simultaneously in the lives of those perceived as being different from the majority (e.g., Black women). Mapping entanglements of complexly interwoven, twisted, and tangled parts of minoritized identities and intersecting inequalities can help teachers begin to untangle the threads of systemic oppression to consider actions that might develop social justice activism collectively. In sum, art educators need to have the knowledge, judgment, and skills to assess systemic oppression and understand institutions and societies as part of the systemic fabric of injustice. Moreover, art educators must acknowledge how they are complicit— wittingly or unwittingly—in maintaining and perpetuating systemic oppression through their teaching practice—which includes perspectives, choice of methodology and interpretation, choice of curricular materials, and student expectations (McIntyre, 1997; Vavrus, 2003). Additionally, art educators must “examine, expand, and alter long-standing (and often implicit) assumptions, attitudes, beliefs, and practices about schools, teaching, and communities” (Cochran-Smith, 2004, p. 83). This chapter has offered strategies to assess the root causes of systemic oppression through art education curriculum to combat oppressive dynamics that lead to social injustice in art education.

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Notes 1 Colonialism is “domination of a people or area by a foreign state or nation” often through forming colonies (Merriam-Webster Dictionary, n.d.). These foreigners seek to benefit from the colonized territory’s resources and peoples while imposing rules that support their interests, including religious, economic, linguistic, and cultural practices. 2 Chattel enslavement is a form of servitude in which individuals (primarily people of European descent) buy and sell human beings (mainly Black) as if they were pieces of property. 3 The Thirteenth Amendment (ratified in 1865) abolished slavery, while the Fourteenth Amendment (ratified in 1868) bestowed citizenship on the formerly enslaved peoples of African descent. In addition, the Fourteenth Amendment granted equal protection under the law to African Americans. At the same time, the Fifteenth Amendment (ratified in 1870) affirmed the rights of U.S. citizens to vote regardless of their race. 4 U.S. Supreme Court (1954). Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483; U.S. Supreme Court (1896). Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537. 5 The term “redlining” stems from the New Deal era. The federal government created maps of every metropolitan area in the United States, resulting in a state-sponsored segregation system (Rothstein, 2017). 6 Zero-tolerance policies disproportionally look at discipline, requiring harsh punishments, suspensions, and expulsions for both major and minor infractions. 7 The “school-to-prison pipeline” refers to a national trend in which school policies and practices are directly and indirectly pushing students out of school and on a pathway to prison. 8 A tignon is a handkerchief used particularly in Louisiana as a headdress.

References AAUW. (1995). AAUW report: How schools shortchange girls. The AAUW [American Association of University Women] Educational Foundation, Wellesley College Center for Research on Women. ACLU. (2019). Racial profiling. https://www.aclu.org/issues/racial-justice/race-and-crimi nal-justice/racial-profiling Anthias, F., & Yuval-Davis, N. (1993). Racialized boundaries: Race, nation, gender, colour and class and the anti-racist struggle. Routledge. Arogundade, B. (2000). Black beauty: A history and celebration. Avalon Publishing. Byrd, A., & Tharps, L. L. (2014). Hair story: Untangling the roots of Black hair in America. St. Martin’s Press. Charles, M. R. (1995). Lifesaball. http://www.artnet.com/artists/michael-ray-charles/lifesa ball-forever-free-LbNBrIH2egv6K57iRao1cA2

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Chomsky, N., & Kozol, J. (2021). Noah Chomsky and Jonathan Kozol in conversation: Education, inequality, and the decline of the “public good”. [Video]. https://www.jonathankozol.com/ media Cochran-Smith, M. (2004). Walking the road: Race, diversity, and social justice in teacher education. Teachers College Press. Crenshaw, K. (1994). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. In M. Albertson Fineman & R. Mykitiuk (Eds.), The public nature of private violence (pp. 93–118). Routledge. Damico, S. B., & Scott, E. (1988). Behavior differences between Black and White females in desegregated schools. Equity and Excellence, 23(4), 63–66. Eberhardt, J. L., & Fiske, S. T. (Eds.). (1998). Confronting racism: The problem and the response. Sage Publications. Emba, C. (2015). Intersectionality. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-theory/wp/2015/ 09/21/intersectionality-a-primer/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.c14d5816423c Foley, N. (2004). Black, White, and Brown. The Journal of Southern History, 70(2), 343–350. Fullilove, M. (2005). Root shock: How tearing up city neighborhoods hurts American cities and what we can do about it. One World/Ballantine, Random House. Gay, G. (2000). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research, & practice. Teachers College Press. Good, T. L., & Brophy, J. E. (1994). Looking in classrooms (6th ed.). Harper Collins. Grossman, H., & Grossman, S. H. (1994). Gender issues in education. Allyn & Bacon. Hall, J. (2004). Beyond black, white and brown. https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/ beyond-black-white-and-brown/ Harris, M. (2003). Colored pictures: Race and visual representation. The University of North Carolina Press. Hillard, A. (2004). Beyond black, white and brown. https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/ beyond-black-white-and-brown/ Howard, M. (2017). Mildred Howard talks about her experience with gentrification in Berkeley. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p7IeANsCSs Kanpol, B. (1997). Issues and trends in critical pedagogy. Hampton Press. Knight, W. B. (2006). Using contemporary art to challenge cultural values, beliefs and assumptions. Journal of Art Education, 59(4), 39–45. Knight, W. B. (2007). Entangled social realities: Race, class and gender a triple threat to the academic achievement of Black females. Visual Culture & Gender, 2, 9–25. Knight, W. B., & Keifer-Boyd, K. T. (2019). Mapping injustice towards feminist activism. The Seneca Falls Dialogues Journal, 3(1), 1–10. Kuthy, D. (2017). Redlining and greenlining: Olivia Robinson investigates root causes of racial inequity. Art Education, 70(1), 50–57.

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Littlefield, D. (2002). The varieties of slave labor. Freedom’s Story, TeacherServ©. National Humanities Center. http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/freedom/1609-1865/essays/ slavelabor.htm Marshall, K. J. (1994). Great America. https://sites.duke.edu/blackatlantic/sample-page/depic tions-of-the-middle-passage-and-the-slave-trade-in-visual-art/absolut-power-afro-americanexpress-middle-passages-5-middle-passage-middle-passages-ii-curatorial-statement/ great-america/ McElroy, G. (1990). Facing history: The Black image in American art, 1710–1940. Bedford Arts. McIntyre, A. (1997). Making meaning of Whiteness: Exploring racial identity with White teachers. State University of New York. Merriam-Webster Dictionary (n.d.). Colonialism. https://www.merriam-webster.com/diction ary/colonialism#:~:text=Definition%20of%20colonialism&text=Note%3A%20Colonial ism%20in%20this%20use,colony%20from%20the%20colonizing%20power Moghaddam, F. M. (1998). Social psychology: Exploring universals in social behavior. Freeman. NAACP. (2022). Criminal justice fact sheet. https://naacp.org/resources/criminal-justice-fact-sheet Reed, A. (2004). Beyond black, white and brown. https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/ beyond-black-white-and-brown/ Robinson, O. (2015). Near and far enemies: Shade. http://oliviarobinson.com/shade Rothenberg, P. S., & Accomando, C. H. (Eds.). (2020). Race, class, and gender in the United States: An integrated study (11th ed.). Worth Publishers. Rothstein, R. (2017). The color of law: A history of how our government segregated America. Liveright. Sadker, M., & Sadker, D. (1982). Sex equity handbook for schools. Longman. Scott, E., & McCollum, H. (1993). Making it happen: Gender equitable classrooms. In S. K. Biklen & D. Pollard (Eds.), Gender and education. Part 1 (92nd Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education) (pp. 174–190). University of Chicago Press. SFMOMA. (2015). Mildred Howard’s houses hold memories. https://www.sfmoma.org/watch/ mildred-howards-houses-hold-memories/ Sharp, E. A., Bermudez, J. M., Watson, W., & Fitzpatrick, J. (2007). Reflections from the trenches. Journal of Family Issues, 28(4), 529–548. Shih, M., & Sanchez, D. T. (2009). When race becomes even more complex: Toward understanding the landscape of multiracial identity and experiences. Journal of Social Issues, 65(1), 1–11. Simpson, L. (2010). Artist talk: Lorna Simpson. Walker Art Center. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=cmvEAUfZXHs Squires, J. (2008). Intersecting inequalities: Reflecting on the subjects and objects of equality. The Political Quarterly, 79(1), 53–61. Stovall, D. (2005). A challenge to traditional theory: Critical race theory, African-American community organizers, and education. Discourse Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 26(1), 95–108.

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The Sentencing Project. (2021). The color of justice: Racial and ethnic disparity in state prisons. http://cdn.cnn.com/cnn/2021/images/10/13/the-color-of-justice-racial-and-ethnic-disparityin-state-prisons.pdf UC Berkeley. (2019). Berkeley talks: Berkeley artist Mildred Howard on the impact of gentrification in the Bay Area. Berkeley News. https://news.berkeley.edu/2019/06/24/berke ley-talks-mildred-howard/ U.S. Supreme Court. (1896). Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537. U.S. Supreme Court. (1954). Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483. Vavrus, M. (2003). Transforming the multicultural education of teachers. Teachers College Press. Walker, K. (2014). A subtlety, or the marvelous sugar baby. https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=sRkP5rcXtys Webb, S. (2020). Hairism, texturism, and other hair politics. https://colorismhealing.com/hair ism-texturism-and-other-hair-politics/ Wu, F. H. (2004). Beyond black, white and brown. https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/ beyond-black-white-and-brown/

Chapter Three Inspire Decolonial Actions Participating in the Pluriverse: Curriculum and Assessment Decolonial Action: Engaging with the Pluriverse Decolonial Action: Epistemic Disobedience Decolonial Actions: Assessing Curriculum and Pedagogy Decolonial Interventions: Art as Social Practice References

Decolonial theories are concerned with confronting, unraveling, and rejecting the force of Western-centric discourses, epistemologies, and actions that justify superiority and oppression. Learning about colonialized histories and social identities can reveal structural inequalities and lead to decolonial social justice activism. The following questions are points of departure and areas of exploration in this chapter: 1. What are the colonizing conditions facing art educators? • How do Eurocentrism, Western-centric1 ideas, and Whiteness2 function in museums, higher education, public schools, classrooms, and other educational contexts? 2. How might art educators decolonize their curriculum? • Whose histories do syllabi and lessons convey? • Who are the most referenced artists? • How does art curriculum reify Eurocentrism and White privilege? 3. Who benefits from a social justice decolonized art curriculum? The privileging of Eurocentric systems of knowledge is non-geographical. For example, according to Ramón Grosfóguel (2015), students in colonialized nations such as the United States, India, Brazil, and Uganda typically study philosophers from five European countries: Germany, France, United Kingdom, Italy, and Spain. Similarly, in the context of art, aesthetics, and criticism, a handful of Eurocentric philosophers and scholars (e.g., Plato, Immanuel Kant, Clive Bell, Edward Bullough, George Dickie, Clement Greenberg, Arthur Danto), exclusively male, continue to dominate how art is DOI: 10.4324/9781003183716-3

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interpreted, appreciated, and understood in university programs and artworld markets. Decolonial perspectives of the world are not essentialist or anti-European; rather they are critical of Eurocentric, fundamentalists, colonialists, and nationalists’ perspectives (Grosfóguel, 2011). Decolonial theories do not call for the dismissal of Westerncentric knowledge; however, the theories challenge structures of domination. This chapter guides educators on how to apply decolonial theories in purposeful and assertive ways toward socially just teaching. Decentering education based in Western-centric cultural perspectives, working from decolonial frameworks, and through socially engaged art are three significant approaches, as discussed in the following example, which can be used to create socially just curricula.

Participating in the Pluriverse: Curriculum and Assessment In Participating in the Pluriverse curriculum, undergraduate and graduate students in Adetty Pérez de Miles’s art education courses explored how immigration issues and concerns influenced decolonial actions in the works of socially engaged collectives and artists, such as #NoMoreKidsInCages (2019) and Hostile Terrain 94 (2019), as well as Metabolizing the Border (2020) and Border Quipu/Quipu Fronterizo (2016–2018) by Tanya Aguiñiga. Students examined issues related to family separation and violence against migrants reflected in these artworks and discussed how discrimination, xenophobia, and anti-immigrant policies and laws impact migrants’ human rights. The students analyzed the concept of the pluriverse and epistemic disobedience through a series of objectives and guiding questions, and for the final activity selected a decolonial action from a list of possible actions. The goal of this unit of study was for students to interrogate the legacies of colonialism and to develop decolonizing approaches to teaching and learning through art and art education.

Learning Goals • Consider the connections between the legacies of colonialism and the human consequences of these practices through art, specifically #NoMoreKidsInCages, Hostile Terrain 94, Metabolizing the Border, and Border Quipu/ Quipu Fronterizo (e.g., cf. with Understanding, Level 2, Bloom’s Taxonomy). This learning goal aims to build empathy with the students. Empathy can be understood as a conceptual approach, method, or subjective experience for students

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•

•

•

•

to recognize themselves in the context of larger communities and to connect the role of U.S. laws, policies, and practices within the broader discussions of immigration to gain a better understanding of the situations, structural systems, and experiences that force some people to migrate to the U.S. Places of empathy have the potential to become places of solidarity. Recognize, recall, and interrogate how Western-centric education shapes their own educational experiences, perspectives, learning, and teaching (e.g., cf. with Remembering: Level 1, Bloom’s Taxonomy). Tewa scholar and educator Gregory Cajete proposes that remembering one’s past, present, and future is significant to decolonial and Indigenous views of learning and epistemology. For example, when an elder encourages a person to “Look to the Mountain” (Pin Peyé Obe), they are saying that one should look at a situation from the perspective of the mountain. The mountain is a metaphor for a journey to a place that allows one to see from multiple perspectives and “from where one has been, is, and may wish to go” (Cajete, 1994, p. 91). The journey to the mountain top is a process an embodied experience in which “one can begin to envision a sense of relationship, not only to one’s self and one’s community, but also to the natural world” (p. 91).3 These experiences are ultimately the way in which people come to know themselves. In this context, the aforementioned learning goal promotes students’ self-reflection of their own learning, i.e., the journey to locate their own center of self-knowledge from decolonial perspectives that are interdependent with others (Cajete, 1994). Thinking relationally is an opportunity to learn from one another. Critique and make judgments of the existing educational system (e.g., cf. with Evaluating: Level 5. Bloom’s Taxonomy). The rationale for this learning goal is for students to link the critique of the educational system (e.g., decisions made by School Boards and educational legislature) with a wider perspective on relations of domination. In the long run, the aim is for students to recognize and reject reproducing dominant structures in art and education (discussed in detail in the “Decolonial Action: Epistemic Disobedience” section of this chapter) Examine how decolonizing approaches to art education (e.g., the pluriverse and epistemic disobedience) can be used to overcome Eurocentric shortcomings and flaws (e.g., cf. with Analyzing: Level 4, Bloom’s Taxonomy) by fostering epistemological diversity. Create opportunities for different models of learning and assessment through epistemic disobedience, for example through written reflections, group work,

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poetry, and art interventions (e.g., cf. with Creating: Level 6, Bloom’s Taxonomy). According to Indigenous knowledges, people learn about and come to know the visual arts through oral traditions such as songs, storytelling, ceremony, and poetry. • Listen and learn from communities affected by colonialism to build capacity for empathy and relationality, i.e., mutual growth and understanding and love (Indigenous pluriversality). In what follows, the pluriverse and epistemic disobedience provide frameworks for decolonial actions to analyze #NoKidsinCages, Hostile Terrain 94, Metabolizing the Border, and Border Quipu/Quipu Fronterizo. The pluriverse refers to Indigenous ways of creating knowledge and experiences that are interdependent. This is a particularly useful concept for understanding the underlying socio-economic and political conditions that shape borders realities4 from decolonial and relational perspectives. Epistemic disobedience is a theory and practice that calls into question the dominance of a Western-centric system of knowledge reliant on perspectives that privilege dominant culture, and in doing so, exclude implicitly and explicitly diverse knowers and systems of knowledge necessary for teacher education and for art education students to develop critical social justice perspectives (Pérez de Miles, 2019). The curricular example, Participating in the Pluriverse, introduces key concepts, readings, and arguments set forth throughout the chapter to provide analysis of the continuing impact of Western-centric and colonial educational practices. We argue for the need for broader and more relational conceptions of art education and decolonial actions by exploring the following guiding questions: What are the colonizing conditions facing educators? How might art educators decolonize the curriculum?

Decolonial Action: Engaging with the Pluriverse Epistemologies of the South have something important in common. Their counterknowledge arises in the struggles against capitalism, colonialism, and patriarchy (de Sousa Santos, 2016) and are unbound by geo-political location (Pérez de Miles, 2019). Decolonial concepts grounded in non-Western perspectives (e.g., the pluriverse) emphasize relationship building and communal approaches to the way people think and live. Art educators benefit from using the pluriverse as a concept to unpack and decenter how Eurocentrism underpins education. The pluriverse refers to Mexico’s Indigenous Zapatista dictum of a “vision of a world in which many

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worlds co-exist” (Mignolo, 2018, p. ix). Indigenous communities of southern Mexico in the Zapatista movement use the notion of the pluriverse to tell their stories to show that there is more than one truth to expose human rights violations to demand land reform, redistribution, access to health and education, and to fight for Indigenous Rights (Escobar, 2018; EZLN, 1996). The pluriverse is premised on the notion of relational epistemology. The idea that all knowledge is context specific, limited, and partial (Reiter, 2019). This implies that pluriversality stresses multiple truths, histories, and dialogues. This view of the world provides the motivations for collective actions such as those undertaken by artist and activist, for example, in partnership with the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES).5

#NoKidsInCages In 2019, artists and activists created (out of newspaper and tape) sculptural forms that resembled children’s bodies. They installed life-size cages with models of children sleeping inside the cages and placed them in boroughs throughout New York City, in front of buildings, mass media corporations (i.e., NY Times, Fox News), landmarks, and other highly visible locations. On public display were replicas of children’s small bodies covered by a single mylar blanket as they slept on the bare floor inside the chain-link cages. The installations were multi-sensory, including real audio of conversations and sounds recorded at immigration detention centers (RAICES, 2019, para. 1). Overwhelmed by emotion, a little boy cries out “Papá, Papaaá!” and a sixyear-old girl pleads, “At least can I go with my au nt? I want her to come” (RAICES, 2019, 1:05 & 1:28) as she recites her aunt’s long-distance phone number over and over again (Kelly, 2018; Thompson, 2018) (also see video uploaded by DeBono, 2021). The disempowerment of the children’s suffering is palpable and the physical and psychological damage immeasurable and unknowable. Migrant children use the word perreras (dog pounds) and hieleras (ice boxes) to describe the confinement and abusive conditions they endure in immigration holding cells (cages) (The Communication Network, 2020, n. p.). One of the premises of studies in emotional psychology is that people take action based on their emotions. Indeed, art impacts our interconnected emotions-cognition, and moves us beyond statistics and data into making decisions and taking action (Immordino-Yang & Demasio, 2007; Immordino-Yang, 2011). The New York Police

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Department (NYPD) received hundreds of calls from concerned citizens. The NYPD took down the #NoKidsInCages installations almost as quickly as they went up. However, the takedown was not before the public art installation and campaign #DontLookAway/#NoKidsInCages had gone viral, reaching millions of people, some of whom mobilized activist actions. Socially engaged publics duplicated the art project in different cities across the U.S. in 2020. They used “How to Build a Protest,” a social media do-it-yourself kit that included installation instructions, materials list, and downloadable sound files (RAICES, 2019, para. 2) to take their protests to the streets and social media. #NoKidsInCages guerilla art activism attracted new donors (individuals, foundations, and corporations) that helped raise $8.9 million (#NoKidsInCages, 2021, para. 11), funds used to provide free and low-cost social and legal services for immigrants and refugees (RAICES, 2019). Maya communities form the highlands of Chiapas, who are part of the Zapatista movement, host art events such as CompArte. The name derives from the Spanish words to share (compartir) and art (arte) to highlight that in the “most difficult moments,” art widely conceived—songs, dances, theatre, poetry, paintings, crafts, myths, stories, and ceremonies—“are the only thing capable of celebrating humanity” (Subcomandante Insurgente Moises and Subcomandante Insurgente Galeano as cited in Mallett-Outtrim, 2016, para 5). According to philosopher Boaventura de Sousa Santos, artists are “the rebels of our time” because “they maximize at the same time fear and hope (Prospections for AEKP, 2019, n. p.)” and this has the potential to fuel civic engagement. The main force behind #NoKidsInCages was to call attention to family separation and to take social action. Art educators can use the installation and digital/social campaign to spark conversations of migration from a decolonial perspectives from a vision of the world where multiple histories and realities coexist. This art intervention can also be used as a conduit to explore how students understand and feel about the separation of families. Asking students to assess and put into practice questions such as: What can I do? How can I get involved? are decolonial approaches to art and art education that equip students for a life that is plural, multivocal, and interconnected with others, akin to Indigenous concepts of the pluriverse. The critique of coloniality, White power, and privilege are important, but it is not enough. Artists and educators must move beyond critique into action and praxis. Doing so is significant to address the questions with which we began this chapter: Whom do our curriculum practices and pedagogy benefit and whom do they disadvantage? Is art education White? These questions, among others, are intended to

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reveal the layers of colonial power, Eurocentrism, and White privilege, and to produce decolonial challenges to systems of oppression in order to enact social justice. Decolonial artistic perspectives, interventions, and collaborations, e.g., #NoKidsInCages and similar social practice art interventions,6 sustain practices in art education that are pedagogically relational and which promote social responsibilities toward others. For example, students can participate through art creation in activist actions and influence the making of socially just policy.

Decolonial Action: Epistemic Disobedience The significance of demythologizing and decentering Eurocentrism is of foremost importance when it comes to decolonial action. Why is demythologizing the Eurocentric point of origin significant for art and education? The perspective and origin of a cultural narrative (e.g., the Alamo, discussed next) has implications for how people situate their subjectivities and responsibilities toward others and seek solutions to social problems and injustices. Creating knowledge from different horizons is key to epistemic disobedience (Mignolo, 2009). The Battle of the Alamo (1836), a watershed moment in the history of Texas (also discussed in Chapter 8 of this book), requires contesting, retelling, and revisioning the story (i.e., epistemic disobedience). For instance, “Remember the Alamo” is a phrase that has come to stand for Texans’ battle cry for ‘independence’ from Mexico. However, this story is disingenuous because it fails to show that Anglo immigrants, who were given permission and extensive land grants to settle in Mexican Texas, violated their contract with the Mexican government. Anglo immigrants did not revolt because they were the defenders of democracy and were fighting for ‘freedom’ in the common sense of the word, but because they wanted to take full control of the land and resources that belonged to another country, Mexico. They also wanted to keep the slave-based economy they developed in Texas, which was against the abolitionist principles of the Mexican Constitution; hence, the new settlers used violence and force to separate from Mexico (Burrough et al., 2021). To imagine a profoundly different past and future of race and bi-national relations among neighbors, instead of “Remembering the Alamo,” Burrough et al. (2021) propose we “Forget the Alamo.” This is a call to unlearn and decenter Euro-/U.S.-centric narratives that mythologize the “Heroic Anglo Narrative” (p. 240). Doing so is significant because Eurocentric knowledge systems create structural inequalities that

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have been used for nearly 200 years to erase, hide, and lie about the contributions of diverse peoples and their histories (Acuña, 2019; Burrough et al., 2021). These erasures continue to be used to demonize and scapegoat Mexican migrants, as well as exclude, ignore, devalue, and stunt the pedagogical potential of Mexican American students (Acuña, 2019). The fight to sanction one-sided and fake histories continues and the battleground is the Texas State Board of Education and Texas Legislature. For decades, people have been contesting, revising, and setting in motion plans and actions to dismantle structural inequalities in education, and students have been at the forefront of these initiatives. The Chicano student walkouts in 1968 and recent efforts such as “Rhodes Must Fall” in the United Kingdom are two examples of how marginalized students all over the world protest the hubris of Eurocentrism and resulting structural inequality in education (e.g., inferior education, discrimination, tracking select marginalized group of students into special education and vocational programs, lack of bi/multi-lingual education, lack of minoritized faculty representation, punishment and/or shaming for speaking a language other than English, and the erasure or devaluating of contributions by diverse people, to name a few) often sanctioned in books and curriculum by State Board of Education groups. In 2019, the Texas Board of Education debated whether to make teaching William B. Travis’s letters mandatory for all seventh graders. They argued about whose histories would be included in the Battle of the Alamo and whether Mexican Tejanos would be represented in this history. They discussed the mandate to use the term “heroic” in the curriculum and books in relation to Travis, Bowie, and Crockett, even though some of these men were slave traders (Burrough et al., 2021). Recent civil unrest surrounding racism, police brutality, the Covid-19 pandemic, along with students’ contestations about Eurocentric systems of knowledge, have resulted in attacks against all decolonial efforts that challenge ideas that have been restricted or never addressed in official school curriculum. The backlash led by White supremacist is at an all-time high. Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed House Bill 2497 into law in September 2021(Texas Legislature Online). The Bill marks the establishment and duties of the “Texas 1836 Project.” In a video on Twitter, Abbott states the following: “To keep Texas the best state in the United States of America, we must never forget why Texas became so exceptional in the first place.” Linda Tuhiwai Smith et al. (2018) posits the commemoration of the Battle of the Alamo is not only a “a symbol for Anglo

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settler revenge against the Mexican army,” but also a narrative that supports “the grand narrative of Texan Exceptionalism” (p. 2). The new law (“Texas 1836 Project”), Abbott goes on to say in the video, is centered on education and educational materials that “create patriotic education about Texas and ensure that the generations to come understand Texas values.” These would be values that led to the Texas revolt and paved the way for the secession of Texas from Mexico, which resulted in new forms of dispossession and inequity. How might art educators and their students benefit from interrogating Texas laws? Abbott recently signed House Bill 3979. This bill comes on the heels of similar legislature proposals in at least a dozen states (Schwartz, 2022). These bills exemplify the recent pushback against Critical Race Theory (CRT), although CRT is not always identified as such. To be clear, however, lawmakers’ versions of Critical Race Theory (claims that CRT sows division and is used to indoctrinate students) is far removed from the tenets of this scholarly lens. Bill 3979 restricts teaching perspectives associated with Critical Race Theory in relation to past and current events in K-12 public schools (McGee, 2021; Pérez-Moreno, 2021). Critical Race Theory is the analysis of how issues of race and racism create multi-tiered systems of oppression in the U.S. This begs the question: ‘Where was the Fourth Amendment to protect Breonna Taylor?’ a student asked her [teacher, Jocelyn Foshay], referring to a Black woman who was shot and killed in her apartment by Louisville police officers during a botched raid in 2020 (McGee, 2021, para. 3). Texas educators are “concerned they won’t be able to have these types of open, far-reaching conversations” about the impact of racism “often prompted by inquisitive students” (McGee, 2021, para. 6). Similarly, where are the outrage and critical conversation in classrooms about immigration, family separation, and children being put in cages? Hostile Terrain 94 (HT94), a 2019 project (Undocumented Migration Project, n.d.-a), discussed next, is an art and research collaboration project informed by the human impact of immigration laws and policies in the U.S.

Hostile Terrain 94 Changes in immigration law and “zero-tolerance” immigration enforcement policies have made it more difficult and dangerous than ever to migrate, forcing immigrants

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to remote and perilous regions of the U.S.-Mexico border. As a result, hundreds of migrants die every year. Unidentified human remains dot the deserts and mountains that separate Mexico and the U.S. (Pérez de Miles, 2018). Families looking for missing migrants are desperate to know the whereabouts/fate of their loved ones. Jason De León conveys the urgency of this social violence and injustice against immigrants in Hostile Terrain 94 (HT94). HT94 is a participatory art project and exhibition that has been installed at universities, galleries, and community centers. Participants receive a list of undocumented migrants’ names, their age, and cause of death, if known, as well as the county and state where their remains were found. With this information, participants fill out color-coded toe-tags. The manila-colored tags represent the migrants who were identified, and the orange tags represent the ones who remain unidentified. The 3200 toe-tags filled out by participants are pinned to the wall and form the basis of a wall map that shows the exact location where each migrant’s body was found (Undocumented Migration Project, n.d.-a). In 2020, Pérez de Miles participated in the HT94 project and series of programs developed at Texas State University Galleries, organized and curated by Gallery Director Margo Handwerker. Pérez de Miles recollects: With a few exceptions, most of the tags I filled out were of unidentified migrants. As I wrote the geolocated Latitude 32.8088 and Longitude –112.45935 coordinates (See Human Borders, n.d.) on the manila toe-tag card, I noticed that José Blanco Gevarra’s remains were found in 2013. I tried to think about his life and what he enjoyed doing most when he was alive to push away thoughts of his final hours in Maricopa County in Arizona. My thoughts kept returning to his family and how time must have slowed down for them and the terror and anxiety of not knowing the whereabouts of their loved one. I thought about the fact that art educators play a significant role in creating opportunities to disseminate public discourse about complex issues such as migration and immigration. Revisioning migration stories through artistic perspectives and storytelling is central to decolonial art education design. Communicating difficult issues to the general public, such as the dehumanizing treatment of migrants motivated by racism and xenophobia, can be challenging. However, using art as pedagogical strategies to retell the life stories from the experiences of people who face precarious circumstances is key, not only to critique abuse of

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power, but also to make decisions and take decolonial action toward reassessment of xenophobic ideologies. To this end, Hostile Terrain 94 (HT94) was organized by the Undocumented Migration Project (UMP), a non-profit research art-education-media collective created and directed by De Léon. The goal of UMP is to increase awareness worldwide about the migrant humanitarian crisis in the U.S. and “inspire positive social change and immigration reform” (Undocumented Migration Project, n.d.-b, para. 2). UMP joined forces with Colibrí Center for Human Rights. Colibrí’s work is focused on identifying migrants’ remains. Their objective is to “provide families with answers and closure” and through community outreach “demand justice” and that migrants’ “lives not be forgotten” (Undocumented Migration Project, n.d.-b, para. 6). Art educators play a vital role in creating opportunities to disseminate public discourse about complex issues such as immigration. In review, it has been argued that the central challenge before art educators is to seize, reassess, and revision the stories and myths created unilaterally by those in power to justify institutional erasures and marginalization of people’s histories (The Battle of the Alamo), to create laws that restrict teaching perspectives (e.g., legal challenges to Critical Race Theory), that threaten one-sided stories in K-12 public education (House Bill 3979), and to codify laws that sanction abuse and violence (‘zero-tolerance’ immigration enforcement policies) against vulnerable populations. Social justice educational strategies provide important contexts for the reassessment of ideas, values, and beliefs ensconced in curricula to work toward dialogic curriculum assessment and exchange in art education. Public art interventions such as #NoKidsInCages and Hostile Terrain 94 (HT94), for example, as well as Metabolizing the Border (2020) and Border Quipui (2016–2018), discussed next, provide aesthetic and holistic approaches for civic engagement.

Metabolizing the Border and Border Quipu/Quipu Fronterizo Metabolizing the Border (2020) as highlighted in the following description is a durational performance by Tanya Aguiñiga—a designer, fiber artist, and the founder and director of AMBOS (Made Between Opposite Sides), a team comprised of artists, designers, writers, journalists, educators, and activists. The performance followed a multi-year project that culminated at the onset of the United States family

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separation policy under the Trump administration and the formation and management of tent city encampments for migrant children separated from their families and unaccompanied minors in 2018 (Aguiñiga, n.d.; Teplitzky, 2018), also the subject of #NoMoreKidsInCages. The tall, vertical, metal fence that runs as a barrier along segments of the U.S.-Mexico Border is in the background. At a distance beyond the fence, palm trees are visible and the sounds of cars whizzing past are audible. On the U.S. side of the border a woman wearing a skin-colored neoprene suit, reminiscent of a wetsuit, walks back and forth along a section of the border wall for close to two hours. The suit is made of multiple and complex parts. The headpiece is a hybrid between a Meso American shamanic headdress and a virtual reality headset, earmuff-type globes hug either side of the woman’s ears, the mouth piece has connecting tubes that go into the nostrils. In the front of the suit there is a chest plate and in the back a water holding backpack device. All the parts attached to the suit are made of hot sculpted glass. The woman walks carefully to maintain her balance and drags her feet to keep her shoes from slipping. As she walks, the castglass huaraches (slip-on-sandals) scrape the surface of the rough concrete/ gravel road. The weight of the body and the suit create stress fractures that eventually cause the glass shoes to break. The suits’ glass appendages just like the border apparatuses (as seen in #NoMoreKidsInCages and Hostile Terrain) are made to break to fail people (Aguiñiga, 2021). Aguiñiga’s Metabolizing the Border places emphasis on the border as a site of personal and collective trauma. However, for Aguiñiga, borders are not only places that divide and separate people from each other; they are also sites for healing, for creating human connections to build empathy, and for exploring how borders themselves can be productive sites of movement and exchange. In Border Quipu/Quipu Fronterizo (2016–2018), Aguiñiga and the AMBOS team created a series of art engagements with commuters who cross the U.S.-Mexico border on a regular basis on both sides of the San Ysidro/Tijuana border. This is one of the busiest ports of entry, and it is not unusual to wait up to three hours to go through customs and immigration. Aguiñiga and AMBOS invited pedestrians and commuters crossing the border to fill out a postcard and tie a quipu (khipu) knot using two strings. According to Aguiñiga, one side of the postcard stated:

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‘These two strings represent the relationship between the US and Mexico, our two selves on either side of the border, and/or our emotional state while crossing.’ Participants where then asked to make a knot, a symbolic gesture of the bi-national entanglement. The opposite side of the postcard asked the following question: ‘What are your thoughts when you cross this border?’ (Aguiñiga as cited in Teplitzky, 2018, para. 9) Andean cultures used the quipu, an ancient device consisting of knots of different types and variously colored threads, to keep records of dates, inventories, land measurements, statistics, narratives, and poetry (World History Dictionary, n.d.). Aguiñiga uses the quipu as an important framework to create dialogue, foster collaboration, and celebrate interconnectedness with people crossing the border. In conversation with Aguiñiga and OTROS team members as well as through their written postcard reflections, participants articulated how the stress endured though repeated distrust, interrogation, antagonism, and fear have real and tangible physical, psychological, social, and emotional effects on the people who cross the border daily. Reflecting on the question posed by Aguiñiga: “What are your thoughts when you cross this border?” this is what border commuters had to say: Pienso que vamos a donde ay mucha discriminación, pero témenos necesidad de ir a diario | ¡Constante vigilancia! | When I was small, it was an exciting adventure. As I grew older, I became aware of the reality of what people face. | Pienso en las personas que arriesgan su vida con cruzar la frontera ilegalmente, y en todo lo que darían con tener la facilidad que témenos al cursar y aun así nos quejamos del tiempo de espera. | To know that I leave loved ones behind not knowing if I will see them again. | Que tiempo atrás cruzabas con la fe y la esperanza de progresar, hoy con incertidumbre por tener en E.U. [U.S.] un presidente fascista y lo peor, loco. | Estar inhalando por tantas horas los gases de los vehículos, situación que perjudica la salud. | Now, I have fear or uneasiness knowing that anything can happen. | Yo cruzo con pasaporte y me siento el hombre más feliz del mundo | Queremos respeto (somos humanos igual que ellos). (Aguiñiga, n.d.) (See “Postcards from Commuters” photos and text on the artists’ website) As a result of the collaborative process brought by bi-national encounters at the border, participants embarked on a journey of critical reflection and socio-political

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dialogue about xenophobic discrimination and violence and the management and control of the border apparatus. The art interaction created safe and open spaces for participants to share their emotional state while crossing the border, and as shown in the postcards, these sentiments were often focused on promoting social understanding and empathy. The pluriverse and epistemic disobedience requires that we understand the world through social action, through the reassessment of Western-centric knowledge, and the re-envisioning of stories that shape human potential. Metabolizing the Border (2020) and Border Quipui (2016–2018) use the pluriverse and epistemic disobedience precisely in these ways in order to foster decolonial actions. For example, similar to Indigenous peoples, Aguiñiga uses the quipu as a writing system and as a method of communication and keeping records. Following the initial iteration (2016) of Border Quipui, from 2017–2018, Aguiñiga and the AMBOS team visited every border crossing from Arizona to Texas to California. This work represents “the first exhaustive survey of collective emotion along the U.S./Mexico border” (Aguiñiga, n.d. para. 5) and record of everyday histories of border crossings and entanglement in decolonial struggles. Yet, people that live and traverse the borderlands have agency. In Border Quipui, participants shared self-reflective thoughts and demonstrated compassion and empathy for others and for themselves. In this context, decolonial and participatory dialogues and actions pave the way for understanding life’s challenges, building resilience, coping with shared traumas, and revisioning the histories and stories of border communities as forms of decolonial praxes. Aguiñiga uses art as pedagogical strategies to retell the life stories from the experiences of border crossers. These are the kind of histories that are missing from school curricula and State Board of Education-adopted textbooks. Decolonial artistic perspectives, interventions, and collaborations sustain practices in art education that are pedagogically relational, i.e., promote social responsibilities toward others.

Decolonial Actions: Assessing Curriculum and Pedagogy Art educators are well poised to promote social responsibilities toward others by producing decolonial challenges to systems of oppression through curriculum and pedagogy. By teaching about socially engaged art such as Border Quipui, #NoKidsInCages,

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and Hostile Terrain 94 (HT94), art educators decenter Euro-/U.S.-centric narratives that diminish and erase the histories and contributions of diverse people. Doing so is also a decolonial challenge to laws that restrict and reduce teaching to a singular story, history, or perspective meant to privilege dominant culture (e.g., House Bill 3979 challenges to Critical Race Theory). Art educators can begin to assess their curriculum and pedagogy by investigating the role of schools and education in reproducing and reinforcing colonial frameworks and practices. In Participating in the Pluriverse, students explored two guiding questions: What are the colonizing conditions facing educators? How might art educators decolonize the curriculum? To address these complex questions, the instructor led the students through a series of sub-questions as a pre-assessment strategy for students to reflect on and unpack the two guiding questions. Who are the most referenced artists? Art education students recalled previously learned information by listing the top ten artists who were the most referenced artists in their art education, art history, and studio courses (see Chapter 4 for an elaboration of this activity). The goal of this objective was for students to begin to recognize how Westerncentric perspectives shape their own learning. Following the class discussion of the analysis of the top ten artists referenced in their education, students came together in groups of four to summarize their findings and build a “theory” centered on why they thought educators focused on particular artists by naming two possible reasons for this phenomenon. They shared this information with the class to further consider what is included and excluded in the curriculum and to ask the following question. Whose histories do syllabi and lessons convey? After reading excerpts from Forget the Alamo (Burrough et al., 2021) and listening to an instructor-led presentation on the importance of unlearning one-sided educational perspectives of history, students created concept maps that outlined the decolonial curricular choices they would make in the same circumstances—for example, if they were teaching and selecting content for an art education or studio course. They discussed whether patterns and biases surfaced in the choices they made—for example, was the art mostly created by men, based on Western European and U.S. culture, Modernist, and focused on traditional art media? This learning goal promoted students’ self-reflection of their own learning in the context of colonial and decolonial histories. How does art curriculum reify Eurocentrism and White privilege? Students evaluated what might happen if educators scaffolded non-Western ideas, texts, and artists

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throughout their curriculum. The goal for this objective was for students to think about and discuss the opportunities and challenges they will face as educators. Seeking multiple and more truthful perspectives about disputed historical legacies of subordination are ways to foster epistemological diversity in education, which in turn has the potential to set in motion the complex commitments and self-determination needed to prevail over these legacies. Another goal of this objective was to prepare students to envision curricula that is connected to critical thinking and interconnectivity by using decolonial strategies such as epistemic disobedience and the notion of the pluriverse.

Guiding Questions and Learning Goals To address: What are the colonizing conditions facing educators? students considered the following sub-question: How does Eurocentrism, Western-centric, and Whiteness function in museums, higher education, public schools, classrooms, and other educational contexts? Through a series of readings, lectures, presentations, class discussion, independent and group research, as well as reflections and artmaking, the students focused on two decolonial strategies, the pluriverse and epistemic disobedience.

The Pluriverse Students read excerpts on the pluriverse (Escobar, 2018; EZLN, 1996; Kothari et al., 2019; Reiter, 2019) and viewed a stop-motion animation of the history of the Zapatistas (Whackala Films, 2017). Inspired by the concept of the pluriverse written by the Indigenous people of southern Mexico in the Fourth Declaration of the Lacandón Jungle, students created blackout poetry to reflect on the relational and interdependent nature of artmaking. Many words are walked in the world. Many worlds are made. Many worlds make us. There are words and worlds that are lies and injustices. There are words and worlds that are truthful and true. In the world of the powerful there is room only for the big and their helpers. In the world we want, everybody fits. The world we want is a world in which many worlds fit. . . . Our words, our song and our cry is so that the dead will no longer die. We fight so that they may live. We sing so that they may love (EZLN, 1996, n. p.) (English translation in Kothari et al., 2019)

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One of the most significant aspects of the pluriverse is that the concept brings decolonial and Indigenous knowledges to bear on conventional art and art education discourses. Bringing focus to ideas such as the pluriverse onto non-Western-centric ways of constructing knowledge allows for broad theorization and understanding of education as a practice that is relational. Decolonial art education rejects world-makings that are based on one world, one truth, one history, and “the world of the powerful” (EZLN, 1996, n. p.). The relational nature of knowledge and ontology through a decolonial and Indigenous lens not only exposes abuse of power (injustices), but also the agency and resiliency of people. In the words of the Zapatistas, in a world in which everybody fits and in which many worlds co-exist, living and loving are interdependent. Teaching to love is a decolonial strategy and affront to Western-centric epistemology and assessment. There is a fundamental tension between performance-based assessment designed to correspond to instructional objectives that are observable, measurable, and quantifiable, and teaching to love, a concept Western-centric educational assessment strategies would be hard pressed to evaluate on a rating scale. The focus of this chapter is how to assess curriculum and pedagogy to inspire decolonial actions.

Epistemic Disobedience Students learned about epistemic disobedience as an assessment strategy for decolonizing the curriculum. To this end, they read excerpts on creating knowledge from divergent and relational versus singular and self-centered perspectives (Grosfóguel, 2015; Mignolo, 2009), participated in class discussion following instructor-led presentations on revisionist histories pertinent to the Battle of the Alamo (Burrough et al., 2021), watched a video (Abbott, 2021) and read online articles about legislature that restricts what current events and American history can be taught and how this content can be taught and discussed in the classroom (e.g., House Bill 3979). Students discussed the repercussions of White privilege from the perspective of educators (Schwartz, 2022; McGee, 2021; Pérez-Moreno, 2021) and the strategies educators use to circumvent unilateral production of knowledge. Participating in the Pluriverse included a series of written critical reflections, concept maps, poetry, individual and group work. For the final activity, students participated in decolonial actions from a list of possible “Create, Reflect, and Act” activities. The objective of this pedagogical opportunity was to develop decolonizing approaches to teaching and learning in and through art education and art as social practice.

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Create, Reflect, and Act • Use Aguiñiga’s Border Quipu/Quipu Fronterizo or other socially engaged art as inspiration, create an art action in the school or in the community that gives some level of interaction, measure of control, or opportunity for exchange to the participants and document this action—for example, using photography, video, journaling, or storytelling. • Create a public art installation to call attention to issues of social justice and make a do-it-yourself kit to share and promote your public art ideas. • Collaborate with a local artist collective (similar to Border Arts Corridor) to create art that brings joy and inspires you and others to forge bi-cultural/national relations among neighbors or like-minded people. • Attend online events sponsored by RAICES or similar organizations. The RAICES events include seminars, lectures, workshops, and book readings in areas such as advocacy, fundraising, and legal information. • Create a podcast to reflect on how Euro-/U.S.-centric and/or decolonial and Indigenous ideas influence how you learn, teach, and create art. • Get involved with a social media campaign that interests you. • Create your own social media campaign about an issue or concern that you care deeply about. • Become a volunteer. Complete the RAICES online volunteer application. There are many different types of opportunities to get involved; see the Volunteer Activity page. • Donate or raise funds to help support legal costs to free immigrant families. For example, contact RAICES, Undocumented Migration Project (UMP), Colibrí Center for Human Rights, or similar organizations. • Join one of RAICES’ Family Separation Phone Bank events (such as #FreeThemAll, #SafeAndTogether) to protest the continued separation of families under the Joe Biden administration. • Contact state representatives to stand in solidarity with asylum-seeking immigrants and families that have been separated. In Participating in the Pluriverse, the students used the course content and ideas to contest the hubris of Eurocentric knowledge. For example, in their written reflections they sought to create knowledge from divergent epistemic practices to move beyond the dominant frameworks of Western-centric epistemology. Inspired by the Zapatista histories and poetry, as well as Tuhiwai Smith et al. (2018), students discussed:

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“What would it mean to move from learning about Indigenous peoples to learning from Indigenous peoples?” (p. 20). As a formative assessment, the students took responsibility for unlearning systems of White privilege by interrogating how implicit and explicit bias (discrimination, racism, lack of opportunities) are operationalized in education—for example, through the absences and invalidation of diverse histories and knowledge. They questioned the persistence of stories and myths used by powerful stakeholders to buttress decisions that privilege dominant groups (e.g., through district and national education curricula and state-adopted books, and U.S. laws that disempower marginalized communities).

Decolonial Interventions: Art as Social Practice Epistemic disobedience is a theoretically informed strategy to improve students’ educational opportunities to critically interrogate dominant discourses and systemic inequities wrought by the legacies of colonialism. Epistemic disobedience and the pluriverse are conduits to decolonize the curriculum and implement social justice art education by participating in decolonial actions. Learning about public art interventions such as NoMoreKidsInCages (2019), Hostile Terrain 94 (2019), Metabolizing the Border (2020), and Border Quipu/Quipu Fronterizo (2016–2018) facilitates decolonial approaches for the reassessment and re-storying of Western-centric art and education through social action. Creating multiple entry points and different levels of engagement encourage students to get involved—for example, participate in activist actions, social media campaigns, donate and raise funds, contact government representatives, and actively lobby to influence socially just policy (e.g., Keep Families Together Act, H.R. 541), as well as create their own stories and artwork. Art, storytelling, myths, and ceremonies, as well as “learning the art of relationship in a particular environment, facilitates the health and wholeness of the individual, family, and community” (Cajete, 1994, p. 207). Ultimately, people define themselves through the stories they tell, the people they honor, and the enemies they choose (Burrough et al., 2021). As people age, learn, and live, we change the stories to reflect our evolving understanding of the world and what it means to us. The development of student identities as professionals and caring citizens of the world requires foremost that educators decolonize—that is, they change and revise

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insular and one-sided stories; in this case, mediated through art and social justice art education. The work that is ahead involves decolonizing ourselves, the curriculum, and institutional power that supports structural inequalities and inequities. Only then will students be able to cultivate honesty, integrity, and ethical behavior as well as embrace the pluriverse, a diversity of people and ideas in a spirit of inclusiveness and compassion. The immense potential of art is a conduit to foster a democratic sense of community and global perspectives in ways that shift the terms of the conversation to decolonial art education and actions. This chapter explored a vision of a world in which many worlds co-exist through examples of real-world radical/activist practices in art as practical applications to ignite new social ways of engagement through epistemic diversity and activism.

Notes 1 The conquest of the Americas in the 15th century set the stage to legitimize universalized systems of knowledge, ideology, and identity, which necessitated the concealment and eradication of knowledge and worldview(s) of non-European people (Pérez de Miles, 2019; de Sousa Santos, 2016). Expanding on this point, Bernd Reiter (2019) posits that “stressing the communal, dialogical, and praxis-dimension of knowledge production reveals the arrogance of all those who claim that the knowledge they produced is theirs alone and can be attributed only to themselves” (p. 4). 2 International Studies scholar Meera Sabartnam states: Whiteness does not reside in authors’ skin colour, conscious intentions or places of origin but rather the ways in which a set of epistemological tropes, locations, assumptions, and commitments naturalise racialised accounts of world politics— that is, ones based on hierarchies of the human . . . Whiteness is not an ‘identity’ so much as a ‘stand-point’ rooted in structural power (2020, p. 5). 3 Following Cajete’s views on the interrelation between human and more-than-human entities, it is worth noting, as Eve Tuck (2018) reminds us, that the “turns’ to the material, spatial, and posthuman world, are actually turns to ‘where Indigenous people have always been’ ” (p. 15). 4 In this context, border realities refer to the challenges that people who live in the U.S.-Mexico border regions face, often on a daily basis, such as surveillance, interrogation, and racism. From a systemic perspective, border realities also refer to the management and control of

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the border and people who cross the border through legal processes, physical violence, and the incarceration and the criminalization of migrants. 5 “RAICES, the nonprofit organization at the frontlines of fighting for separated families at the border, with advertising agency Badger & Winters (of #WomenNotObjects) and Fenton Communications launched a guerilla activism project across New York City to call attention to the treatment of children at our border, and to urge people to pressure their representatives to pass the Keep Families Together Act (H.R. 541). The objective of #NoKidsInCages was to stop people from becoming inured to the horror and inhumanity of the border crisis, and rouse them to take action” (#NoKidsInCages, 2021, para. 1). 6 See Ricardo Dominguez’s Transborder Immigrant Tool (2009–2012), Guilllermo Galindo’s and Richard Misrach’s Border Cantos (2015), and Postcommodity’s Repellent Fence (2015) (Pérez de Miles, 2018).

References Abbott, G. [@GregAbbott_TX]. (2021, June 7). To keep Texas the best state in the nation, we can never forget WHY our state is so exceptional. I [Video attached] [Tweet]. Twitter. https:// twitter.com/GregAbbott_TX/status/1401978575054684175 Acuña, R. F. (2019). Occupied America: A history of Chicanos (9th ed.). Pearson. Aguiñiga, T. (n.d.). Border Quipu/Quipu Fronterizo. AMBOS [website]. http://www.ambospro ject.com/quipu Aguiñiga, T. (2021, April 8). Episode 8: Tanya Aguiñiga: Making ‘metabolizing the border’. The fields of the future [Podcast]. Bard Graduate Research Forum. https://www.bgc.bard.edu/ research-forum/articles/602/episode-8-tanya-aguiniga-making Burrough, B., Tomlinson, C., & Stanford, J. (2021). Forget the Alamo: The rise and fall of an American myth. Penguin Press. Cajete, G. (1994). Look to the mountain: An ecology of Indigenous Education. Kivak Press. DeBono, N. (2021, July 8). #NoKidsInCagesINFO [Video file]. Vimeo. https://vimeo.com/572717760 De Sousa Santos, B. (2016). Epistemologies of the South: Justice against epistemicide. Routledge. Escobar, A. (2018). Transition discourses and the politics of relationality: Toward designs for the pluriverse. In B. Reiter (Ed.), Constructing the pluriverse: The geopolitics of knowledge (pp. 64–89). Duke University Press. EZLN. (1996). Fourth declaration of the Lacandona Jungle. Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional/Zapatista Army of National Liberation. http://enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx/1996/ 01/01/cuarta-declaracion-de-la-selva-lacandona/

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Grosfóguel, R. (2011). Decolonizing post-colonial studies and paradigms of political economy: Transmodernity, decolonial thinking, and global coloniality. Transmodernity: Journal of Peripheral Cultural Production of the Luso-Hispanic World, 1(1). http://dx.doi.org/10.5070/ T411000004 Grosfóguel, R. (2015). Epistemic racism/sexism, Westernized universities and the four genocides/epistemic ides of the long sixteen century. In M. Araújo & S. R. Maeso (Eds.), Eurocentrism, racism and knowledge (pp. 23–46). Palgrave Macmillan. Humane Borders. (n.d.). Migrant death mapping. https//humaneborders.org/migrant-deathmapping/ Immordino-Yang, M. H. (2011). Implications of affective and social neuroscience for educational theory. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 43(1), 98–103. Immordino-Yang, M. H., & Demasio, A. (2007). We feel, therefore we learn: The relevance of affective and social neuroscience to education. Mind, Brain and Education, 1(1), 3–10. Kelly, M. L. (2018, June 19). Migrant children heard crying on tape are the voices ‘left out’ of conversation. National Public Radio. https://www.npr.org/2018/06/19/621579091/migrantchildren-heard-crying-on-tape-are-the-voices-left-out-conversation Kothari, A., Salleh, A., Escobar, F. D., & Acosta, A. (Eds.). (2019). Pluriverse: A post-development dictionary. Tulika Books. Mallett-Outtrim, R. (2016, August 4). Art for revolution’s sake: Voices from the EZLN’s ComoArte festival in Chiapas. Upside Down World. https://upsidedownworld.org/archives/mexico/artfor-revolutions-sake-voices-from-the-ezlns-comparte-festival-in-chiapas/ McGee, K. (2021, May 26). Texas educators worry bill limiting the teaching of current events and historic racism would “whitewash history”. Texas Tribune. https://www.texastribune. org/2021/05/26/texas-teachers-critical-race-theory-legislature/ Mignolo, W. D. (2009). Epistemic disobedience, independent thought and de-colonial Freedom. Theory, Culture & Society, 26, 1–23. Mignolo, W. D. (2018). Foreword. On pluriversality and multipolarity. In B. Reiter (Ed.), Constructing the pluriverse: The geopolitics of knowledge (pp. ix–xv). Duke University Press. #NoKidsInCages: Finalist in immigration & refugees. (2021). The shorty awards 2021. https:// shortyawards.com/4th-socialgood/nokidsincages Pérez Miles, A. (2018). Social expulsion of migrant: Aesthetic and tactical interventions. The Journal of Social Theory in Art Education, 38, 5–15. Pérez Miles, A. (2019). Unbound philosophies & histories: Epistemic disobedience in contemporary Latin American art. In J. Baldacchino (Ed.), The international encyclopedia of art and design education, volume 1. Histories and philosophies of art & design education (pp. 1–20). Wiley-Blackwell and The National Society of Art and Design Education (NSEAD). Pérez-Moreno, H. (2021, June 9). Texas’ 1836 Project aims to promote ‘patriotic education’ but critics worry it will gloss over state’s history of racism. Texas Tribune. https://www.texastrib une.org/2021/06/09/texas-1836-project/

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Prospections for AEKP. (2019, April 15). Boaventura de Sousa Santos [Video]. YouTube. https:// youtu.be/edb5hwod2oU RAICES. (2019). #DontLookAway/#NoKidsInCages. https://www.raicestexas.org/arts-and-cul ture/dontlookaway-nokidsincages/ Reiter, B. (2019). Constructing the pluriverse: Lessons learned thus far. The University of South Florida Scholar Commons, 1–7. Sabaratnam, M. (2020). Is IR theory White? Racialised subject-positioning in three canonical texts. Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 49(1), 3–31. Schwartz, S. (2022, April 28). Map: Where critical race theory is under attack. Education Week. https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/map-where-critical-race-theory-is-under-attack/ 2021/06 Smith, L. T., Tuck, E., & Yang, K. W. (Eds.). (2018). Indigenous and decolonizing studies in education: Mapping the long view. Taylor & Francis Group. Teplitzky, A. (2018, October 31). Tanya Aguiñiga’s art tells the story of communities along the US/Mexican border. Creative Capital. https://creative-capital.org/2018/10/31/tanya-aguini gas-art-tells-the-story-of-communities-along-the-us-mexican-border/ Texas Legislature Online. (2021). History: Bill HB 2497, legislative session 87(R). https://capitol. texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=87R&Bill=HB2497 The Communication Network. (2020, September 25). #NoKidsInCages: Building a movement out of moment | RAICES Texas, Fenton Communications [Video]. YouTube. https://www.you tube.com/watch?v=iX0hl0uEKDI Thompson, G. (2018, June 18). Zero tolerance: Listen to children who’ve just been separated from their parents at the border. ProPublica. https://www.propublica.org/article/childrenseparated-from-parents-border-patrol-cbp-trump-immigration-policy Tuck, E. (2018). Introduction. In L. T. Smith, E. Tuck, & K. W. Yang (Eds.), Indigenous and decolonizing studies in education: Mapping the long view (pp. 1–23). Taylor & Francis Group. Undocumented Migration Project. (n.d.-a). Hostile terrain 94. https://www.undocumentedmi grationproject.org/hostileterrain94 Undocumented Migration Project. (n.d.-b). UMP + Colibrí: Building hope together. https://www. undocumentedmigrationproject.org/umpcolibri Whackala Films. (2017, August 25). The history of Zapatismo in stop motion Animation. Excerpt from Whackala’s “After the Revolution” [Video file]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=elxjxYU36i4 World History Dictionary (n.d). Quipu. https://www.worldhistory.org/Quipu/

Chapter Four Decenter White Patriarchal Norms1 Feminist Art Helping Students to Become Agents in Their Learning Curriculum Design and Assessment Concluding Comments on Decentering White Patriarchal Norms in Art Education References

Consider the gender and race of artists included in required college art history courses and artworks privileged in elementary, secondary, and higher education. While many art history textbooks include artwork from around the world, most of the content highlights artists from what art history texts refer to as the Western canon (Frank & Preble, 2014; Janson & Janson, 2001; Kleiner, 2021; Sayre, 2016; Stokstad & Cothren, 2018). Feminist critiques of art history textbooks reveal women artists are disproportionally underrepresented (Clark et al., 2005; Gustlin, 2016). The Western canon consists of predominantly White male artists. One way to decenter White patriarchal norms is to begin with the following pre-assessment strategy. On a sheet of paper, list 10 artists who immediately come to mind. Next, analyze the list for how many are male and how many are White. Chances are artists listed are predominantly male, White, and from Europe or the United States. This pre-assessment activity reveals which artists are most familiar to students and most privileged in art education curriculum. This chapter supports inclusion of women, artists of color, and artistic traditions from outside the European and U.S. canon as part of the art education curricula. Another pre-assessment activity to decenter patriarchal norms might include recording responses to the following questions and discussing the responses among groups of students. • • • •

What adjectives might describe artworks made by women? What might artworks by women look like? What images come to mind? What kinds of materials do women artists use? What themes do women explore in their artwork? DOI: 10.4324/9781003183716-4

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In small groups, students discuss and identify agreed upon statements in their shared responses before reviewing and discussing responses with the large group. What is emphasized as characteristic of art by women? Are there stereotypical assumptions, and, if so, what are those assumptions? If not, what perceptions of art by women challenge stereotypical assumptions about gender? For a post-assessment, revisit and compare initial responses to new revelations following learning more about women artists and their artworks, which can lead to self-awareness for both students and teachers. The pre- and post-assessment strategies expand one’s worldviews through art and enlarges students’ understanding of why art is important, why artists create, and the roles art plays.

Feminist Art The Feminist Art Movement of the 1960s and 1970s in the United States and Britain influenced what art historians refer to as postmodern art. During the Feminist Art Movement, along with asking how women’s lives are structured by gender, class, and race, women in the arts raised questions about exhibition and workspaces, as well as political, theoretical, and aesthetic issues in art. Art historians Norma Broude and Mary D. Garrard (1994) explained the feminist art movement “open[ed] for consideration what had previously been hidden or ignored,” enabling women artists to consciously connect “the agenda of social politics and art” and “assert a new position for ‘woman’ in art, as subject rather than object, active speaker and not passive theme” (p. 21). Many women artists create artwork relevant to their perspectives, politics, and lived experiences. Art education curricula and learning environments are exclusionary when patriarchal perspectives of hierarchy and domination hold men as superior, along with privileging standards of Whiteness as a racial construct. However, paradigm shifts have taken place to empower art educators to envision a more inclusive curriculum. As art historian Griselda Pollock (1988) described, feminist art practices disrupted the modernist art paradigm, creating a paradigm shift. A paradigm shift occurs within a discipline “when the dominant mode of investigation and explanation is found to be unable, satisfactorily, to explain the phenomenon which is that science’s or discipline’s job to analyze” (Pollock, 1988, p. 2). Modernism in art had been the primary ideological gauge for defining artistic production in European culture from the late 19th century until the 1970s (Collins, n.d.). Pollock defined a paradigm as what “defines the objectives shared within a scientific community, what it aims to research and explain, its procedures and boundaries” (p. 2). Pollock explained that while modernism was not

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defective, modernism “work[ed] ideologically to constrain what can and cannot be discussed in relation to the creation and reception of art” (p. 3). The work by feminist artists challenged the constraints of modernism to forge new pathways for making and viewing art and for thinking about artistic production (Parker & Pollock, 1981). Pollock (1988) cited art historian Linda Nochlin (1977) as a voice in the field who called for a paradigm shift in art. Nochlin (1977) illuminated patriarchal systemic constructs that undermine women’s recognition and limited their artistic expression, such as mythologies about the “great artist.” Nochlin (1977) theorized that socially constructed gender hierarchies resulted in greater acknowledgements and priorities given to male artists, and that biology is less a predictor of “greatness” in art than social status. Critic and artist Harmony Hammond (1977) argued for expanding the language of modernism. Hammond stated, “I want to reclaim abstract art for women and transform it on our own terms” (p. 66). Hammond noted that modernist art critics perpetuated the myth of the artist as an isolated male genius by describing abstract work as apolitical and objective. Hammond believed the “content of one’s work cannot be separated from one’s political beliefs” (p. 66). Hammond’s act of reclamation connected abstraction in women’s art to quilts, weavings, ceramics, and other craft traditions. Hammond (1977) posited: As we examine some contemporary abstract art by women, it is important to develop a sense of identity and connection with our own past creativity rather than that of the oppressor who has claimed ‘fine art’ and ‘abstract art’ for himself. In fact, the patriarchal putdown of ‘decorative’ traditional art and ‘craft’ has outright racist, classist, and sexist overtones (p. 67). While rejecting hierarchical and patriarchal notions of art critique, Hammond offers an expanded discourse to interpret visual qualities in women’s art.

Reclaiming Medium and Form Hammond linked traditional craft processes, such as weaving and needlework, to modernist notions of how paint is applied and manipulated in abstract painting to further underscore the subjectivity of the artist. Hammond (1977) described: Just as the weaver continues from day to day, from one physical and psychic location to another, materials and dyes changing slightly, irregularities and

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tension showing, the painted marks also reveal daily emotional changes and tensions. They are a record of present feeling, a ritual giving in to the repetitive gesture, a language to reveal self—a women’s mantra (p. 68). Hammond’s emphasis on the political nature of abstraction connected women artists to their process of enmeshing studio practice, artistic expression, personal experience, and tradition. Feminist artists that employed a “personal as political” approach paved the way for challenges to patriarchal notions that prized certain materials and processes over others (Chadwick, 2012). Women artists created new iconographies. For example, West Coast artist Judy Chicago, who had been working in minimal abstraction, began to incorporate the use of “core” or vaginal imagery in her art. Core imagery included central and open forms and shapes that celebrated female knowledge and experience and explored women’s subjectivity.2 “Women, once restricted from viewing but not from posing nude,” reclaimed female bodies, “challenging both the denigration and idealization of the female body for commercial and aesthetic purposes” and “project[ing] women’s sexuality as an active rather than passive one” (Collins & Sandell, 1984, p. 31). Women artists also began working collaboratively and collectively to produce and display their art as well as co-authoring and exhibiting artworks both as performance and permanent works. Collaborative artworks and public performances attempted to contradict masculine myths of production and bring art to the social realm through collective organization and public exposure (Broude & Garrard, 1994). Performance artists Adrian Piper, Hannah Wilke, and Carolee Schneemann used their bodies as a medium to present women’s perspectives of the female body. The incorporation and recognition of “craft” or “low art” materials, such as fabrics, threads, and ceramic by feminist artists challenged cultural constructs devaluing and controlling women’s expression (Broude & Garrad, 1994; Chadwick, 2012; Collins & Sandell, 1984; Gouma-Peterson & Matthews, 1987; Hammond, 1977; Parker & Pollock, 1981). By comparison, materials considered masculine, “fine art” or “high art” materials included paint, metal, and stone. Hammond, along with other artists began incorporating fabrics and other “low art” materials in their works. The method for including fabrics and other “low art” materials continues in contemporary times. Early feminist and contemporary artists who include fabrics and other “low art” materials in

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their work include Magdalena Abakanowicz, Anni Albers, Xenobia Bailey, Bisa Butler, Judy Chicago, Lucia Cuba, Shelia Hicks, Kimsooja, Joyce Kozloff, Kate Kretz, Faith Ringgold, Joyce J. Scott, Miriam Shapiro, Linda Stein, Leonore Tawney, Michalene Thomas, and Flo Oy Wong. When assessing curriculum, consider incorporating fabric, textiles, weaving, and sewing into the curriculum. In her teaching, Cheri E. Ehrlich witnessed all genders interested in learning techniques such as weaving, embroidery, crochet, and beading. This led Ehrlich to create lessons and activities about contemporary artists, fashion designers, and jewelers, and to prompt students to connect to family or community members who have practice in or knowledge of fiber techniques. Ehrlich, whose great-grandmother owned and operated Lafay Designs, an embroidery factory in the early 20th century in New York City, has students interview makers in their families or communities to learn about cultural art traditions. Learning from family and community members provides students a chance to investigate and record their histories and to place themselves within the curricula (Acuff et al., 2012). Another activity Ehrlich assigns includes students examining heirlooms or objects around the house and sharing stories about pictures of these objects with their peers.

Subverting the Male Gaze and Illuminating Power Dynamics and Inequalities Into the 1980s and 1990s, feminist artists explored and critiqued gendered social expectations (Chadwick, 2012). For example, feminist artists examined social constructions of gender, ways femininity and female sexuality formed through depictions reproduced in mass media and popular culture (Keifer-Boyd, 2010). Feminist artists began to deconstruct the “male gaze,” an analysis of the power dynamics of looking. From psychoanalytical and feminist standpoints, film theorist Laura Mulvey (1975, 1999) argued that women on film are captured through a heterosexual male lens. As a result, viewers experience a constructed and narrow vision of women’s sexuality.3 The deconstruction of media and culture, dominated by the “male gaze,” paved new avenues of inquiry and exposé in which feminist artists used parody, irony, humor, psychoanalysis, storytelling, narrative, biography, and autobiography to examine the historical and cultural constructs of gender (Chadwick, 2012; Reilly, 2007).

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The Guerilla Girls highlighted gender inequalities in public art performances and displays as Cindy Sherman constructed female personas that questioned the social construction of gender. Jenny Holzer and Barbara Kruger presented concepts of gender, power, and authority using text or text and imagery in uncommon and public spaces, such as park benches, marquees in New York City, and billboards. In addition to gender construction, feminist artists began to explore cultural, philosophical, psychological, and linguistic investigations of gender representation more deeply through the lens of race, ethnicity, class, and sexuality. Lorna Simpson’s mixed media challenged the objectification of African American women and explored African American women’s identities and experiences. Jaune Quick-To-See Smith’s paintings exposed the commodification and objectification of Indigenous populations. Catherine Opie explored fixed and fluid representations of lesbian identity through photography. According to art historian Maura Reilly (2007): [A] conceptual and theoretical shift in the late 1980s within feminism toward plurality, precipitated by the confluence of feminist, anti-racist, and postcolonial theory . . . [brought about] a more inclusive, broader examination of feminism within and between cultures, and beyond the border of EuroAmerica, addressing the discrimination, oppression, and violence experienced by all women, everywhere (p. 17). Thus, feminist art persisted, and its goals shifted to consideration of gender in relation to race, ethnicity, social class, sexual identities, and disability, among other positionalities. Into the 1990s, feminist art theory and practice, continued to be shaped by cultural, philosophical, psychological, and linguistic investigations of gender representation examined through the lenses of race, ethnicity, class, and sexuality (Chadwick, 2012; Reilly, 2007). Kiki Smith evoked truths about the body’s impermanence, creating figurative sculptures and installations that referenced internal organs and bodily functions. Photographs by Opie challenged the viewer’s conceptions of gender and traditional familial relationships. Kara Walker’s graphic silhouettes contended with the violence of slavery, visually depicting the history of racial stereotyping in the United States, and addressed the stigmas associated with overly sexualized bodies. Transnational artist Shirin Neshat used film and photography to call attention to women’s political power in Iran by exploring the interplay of gender roles, religion, and national identity.

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Exploring Global Perspectives Contemporary feminist art continues to explore the “personal as political” from diverse geopolitical landscapes (Chadwick, 2012). Feminist artists outside the United States address gender, sexuality, patriarchy, or feminine mythologies from their cultural and unique perspectives. Women artists across the globe tackle a variety of topics including colonialism, displacement, nomadism, migration, diaspora identities, hybridity, religion, environmental and ecological concerns, political violence, and international and civil war (Chadwick, 2012). Nalini Malani, an artist from Bombay, India, draws upon her experiences as a refugee of the Partition of India (today Karachi, Pakistan). Working in painting, installation, performance, and new media, Malani explores nationalism in post-colonial India by juxtaposing cultural icons and stereotypes. Indonesian artist Arahmaiani creates paintings, sculptures, installations, and performances. By juxtaposing images of women, religion, and consumer culture, her work addresses oppression, repression, and monolithic views of Islam. Peruvian artist Lucia Cuba combined her backgrounds in psychology, education, public health, and fashion to explore the body, gender, and bio-politics. While Cuba’s work predominantly featured fashion design to explore critical action, her work expanded beyond fashion to incorporate photography, video, interactive elements, and performance. Important to note is that women artists working outside the United States, while incorporating some of the visual language of U.S. feminist art, do not necessarily create within the contexts of women’s movements in North America. Korean artist Kimsooja,4 who uses myriad media including installation and performance, created sculptural works that include textiles and sewing, some based on Korean tradition. The artist’s culture plays an important role in the artwork’s meaning, redefined within Korean feminist contexts. Reilly (2007) explained in co-curating the Global Feminisms exhibition that she and Nochlin took an inclusive curatorial approach, “integrating into [their] curatorial strategy recent developments in feminist practice and theory . . . moving contemporary art toward a new internationalism” (p. 15). Nochlin described exhibiting artworks by feminist artists from around the world expanded the field in the “interest of justice” and artworks reflected “new formal languages that . . . incorporate[d] national and ethnic traditions in surprising or non-traditional ways” (Nochlin & Reilly, 2007, p. 47). As feminist art is situated in cultural and geographical diversity, Reilly (2007) explained “ambiguity, androgyny, and self-consciousness, both formal and psychic” replace

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earlier binary relationships of “oppressor/victim, good woman/bad man, pure/impure, beauty/ugly, [and] active/passive” (p. 11). Considering feminism more globally is a reminder that feminism is neither a unitary perspective nor a fixed perspective, which is why Nochlin and Reilly pluralize feminisms in the exhibition title. Women artists across the world, even those who do not necessary identify as feminists, present myriad cultural and social practices, customs, and traditions, as well as envisage new possibilities for their futures. Themes, media, strategies, practices, and principles of feminist art continue to influence contemporary art. Yet women artists still face challenges in exhibition and representation (Reilly, 2007, 2017). Sexist and racist practices continue in major awards, sales, shows, and art historical texts (Reilly, 2007). In recent years, several major art museums in the United States, including Brooklyn Museum, Baltimore Museum of Art, Dia Beacon, Museum of Modern Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, have made concerted efforts to acquire and showcase women artists from diverse backgrounds. Art educators should strive to learn about and incorporate women artists in their art education curricula.

Helping Students to Become Agents in Their Learning Understanding art history better equips teachers to help students connect to artists within feminist and postmodern art contexts. This book challenges art educators to put their awareness of feminist art history into action for the benefit of students and society at large. As art educator Renee Sandell (1991) stated, “[I]t remains in the domain of art educators to redress gender imbalances within art as a subject and with regard to its status in society” (p. 179). Applying the concepts and knowledge gained from this book can empower both teachers and students. Contemporary museum education practices strive to engage students through inquirybased and (inter)active participation teaching methods. The promise of contemporary museum education practices helps learners to connect with artworks in meaningful ways (Barrett, 2004; Burnham, 1994; Burnham & Kai-Kee, 2005; Burton, 2011; Hubard, 2016). The practice of including students and helping them to make sense of artworks is similar to the type of approaches advocated for by critical pedagogists Paulo Freire (1970) and bell hooks (1994) as well as feminist art pedagogies (Chicago, 2014; Motter

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et al., 2020). Museum education methods can be adapted to pre-K-12 classrooms. Teachers can bring objects or artworks into the classroom setting, images can be viewed on an electronic smartboard, or students can work in small groups to look closely at printed reproductions or on a tablet. One of the most popular museum education approaches involves educators facilitating extended discussions around a single or a series of artworks. Over the course of 15–20 minutes or longer, students look closely and respond through dialogues or other embodied activities (Hubard, 2016). Art educator Judith Burton (2000) described the benefits of dialogues in education: Dialogues have come to mean an open-ended communication, investigation or inquiry between teachers and learners, and among learners. Instead of conveying knowledge as the sole possession of the teacher, to be acquired by the learner, teaching through dialogue presupposes a free and continuous interchange of ideas directed toward reflection, discovery, and new understanding (p. 343). Burton encourages dialog that accepts adolescents as thinkers who find new ways of thinking through communication that empowers understanding and provides agency. Agency is the freedom of action or will, which is a form of resistance. Art museum educator Cheri E. Ehrlich (2011) found that discussing feminist art can spark adolescent girls’ curiosity about women’s history and to question the ways in which women are included, excluded, and represented in artworks, throughout history, and in contemporary society. Feminist activist and philosopher Maria Lugones (2010) advocated that coalitions of people who are outside the colonized, hegemonic normalizations “need to dwell in their histories of resistance, [while] learning about each other” (p. 753). These histories of resistance are personal stories of empowerment. Teachers can encourage students to draw from their histories and experiences as content for their art by introducing women artists, along with women’s biographies and feminist art histories, and how art is produced within a social, cultural, political, and geographical context. Inquiry-based teaching strategies, discussed in what follows, are also methods for collecting formative assessment and offers students multiple entry points to learn about each other and about artists and artworks. Described next is a series of activities Ehrlich designed and incorporated into programs centered around feminist artworks that

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she taught at the Brooklyn Museum in the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art (EASCFA). Listening to and observing students participating in the activities discussed next can provide educators with insights about students’ perceptions, as well as guide educators to develop follow-up activities that decenter White patriarchal norms.

Observation, Analysis, and Interpretation Have students look closely at an artwork. Then ask them, What do you see? What do you notice? Student observations can be as simple as stating the colors, textures, forms, patterns, and images noticed. Asking students why they noticed specific attributes of the art deepens the discussion to become aware of how tacit knowledge impacts perceptions of the art. Once students discover or point out observations, have them begin to make associations with the imagery. Such analysis guides students to interpret potential meanings of the art. For example, if students point out the color red is used as a pattern, the teacher might ask, What might the red symbolize? As students begin to identify and make meaning from the visual aspects of the art, the teacher can expand students’ ideas by providing contextual information about the artist and art. The teacher’s role could be to synthesize or connect students’ ideas while prompting students to build on their ideas or go further to explain their thinking. The interpretive process can and should be speculative. To get a broad range of responses, ask, What else might the red symbolize? Ask for multiple interpretations. If the information is available, the teacher can offer the artists’ intent or how others, such as art historians or art critics, might also read the work once students have generated their initial ideas. However, professional interpretations should be offered to add to the discussion, not to correct the student responses. A follow-up question can ask students to consider a quotation from the artist, historian, or critic, asking if the students agree, disagree, or have new ideas in light of the quotation.

Reflection Have students reflect on the process of looking at and discussing the work. Students can reflect through writing or on an application like Flipgrid, through a pair-share, in a small group discussion where students record their responses, or on applications such

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as Jamboard, Lino, or Padlet. Decide if reflection responses should be public for the class or group, private for only the teacher, or even collected anonymously. Reflection questions could include the following: • What evoked curiosity, and why? • • • •

What was surprising? Why? What are points of agreement or disagreement, and why? What was comfortable or uncomfortable, and why? What was confusing? Explain.

In reading or listening to the responses to these questions, use the responses to design the next lesson or sequence of lessons. If students are confused about something, or seem to be drawn to a particular idea, or need clarification about a topic, address what is relevant to students’ experiences in the subsequent lesson(s) or unit.

Follow-up Questions Ask students to ask questions of each other. Ask: What questions arise for you after the discussion? If you could ask a classmate a question based on the discussion, what would you ask? Then, use these questions to generate more dialogue. Have students ask each other these questions. As part of this activity in the EASCFA, Ehrlich asked participants to think of a question for their peers. Participants recorded the question using a handheld video device. She listened to the video recordings and transcribed the questions on index cards. When the group met again, Ehrlich read the questions aloud anonymously. Participants took turns answering one question at a time. As the facilitator of the discussion, Ehrlich listened, summarized what students were sharing, posed ideas related to the topic, and returned to information about the artist and the art.

Creative Response After students have had an opportunity to learn from a work of art or a series of artworks, have the students design a creative project in response to the art. In conceptualizing a project, students might research a particular topic to inform their art. Or students might synthesize and respond to salient ideas from the discussion with

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their peers. Creative projects can be open-ended but will need to attend to available resources, time constraints, and setting. Some suggestions for responses include creating an artwork or installation, recording and editing a video, writing a blog, vlog, or online resource for peers, designing an activist poster or zine, choreographing a dance, or presenting a performance. Consider displaying or showcasing the students’ creative responses to share with the school or local community. Not unlike discussions described by contemporary museum educators (Barrett, 2004; Burnham & Kai-Kee, 2005; Hubard, 2016), discussions can start with the art, deviate to topics that students are curious about or that relate to their own lives, and return to themes in the art when developing a creative response. Art museum educator Terry Barrett (2002) posited that sharing and listening to responses to artworks aloud in a group enables everyone to learn from each other, build community, and develop mutual respect. Furthermore, he also explained writing or voicing ideas about what is seen and experienced in front of artworks, builds rather than reports meaning.

Curriculum Design and Assessment Through the discussion of art with others, students learn that there is more than one way to interpret the meaning of the art. Interpretations are not solely gleaned by reading an artist statement or listening to an art historian, curator, or art critic speak about an artist or artwork. Rather, individuals and communities of learners can also bring their own interpretations to works of art (Barrett, 2002). Based on Ehrlich’s work in the EASCFA, when designing curriculum and planning assessment toward decentering White patriarchal norms, Ehrlich offers the following suggestions with regards to choosing artworks, teacher preparation, and planning for discussion. The suggestions can also be ways to assess one’s curriculum and pedagogy.

Choosing Artworks When designing curricula, choose a range of artworks from different artists and time periods across history. Showcase a variety of narratives about women’s lives and feminist issues. Select art by women artists from a range of racial, ethnic, cultural, religious, and socio-economic backgrounds and from different generations. Consider the diversity of art and artists in textbooks adopted for lesson planning or for students

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to read. Also, consider the art posters displayed in the classroom. When planning and assessing a curriculum, consider if artists from similar social identities suggest shared or diverse lived experiences. Remember, a single artwork from an artist in a particular social group does not speak for or represent everyone in that group. Therefore, a range of artists and artworks offers nuanced narratives. Including a range of artists from diverse backgrounds and cultures also dispels myths about artistic talent (Sandell, 1991), as well as mainstream notions of aesthetics and taste. Artworks might also contain themes about love, relationship, beauty, adversity, and desire in addition to artworks relating to power and oppression related to gender, sexuality, race/ethnicity, culture, and class. Burton (2011) identifies artworks with themes related to the human condition as “great art,” rather than defining great art by the maker’s social identity. Art with recognizable imagery that conveys themes related to students’ lives may be more engaging and accessible to interpret and serve as an entry into more complex or complicated discussions. While all art is political because art conveys beliefs and values, art that raises issues controversial to the community of students should be introduced in a way that encourages listening to and respecting different responses to the art. Another approach is to have students research art by feminist artists and select works that interest them.

Educator Preparation Feminist artworks give rise to topics of power and (in)equality based on gender, sexuality, race, socio-economic class, and other subjectivities. Youth have views on these topics and teachers can provide activities for students to consider these topics in pronounced and profound ways. Given feminist art can act as catalysts for dialogues about issues of equality and social justice (Nordlund et al., 2011), teachers need to prepare for a myriad of perspectives about these topics, including but not limited to adolescents’ perspectives about gender, race, class, culture, and sexuality. Be prepared for students’ perspectives to vary and make space for students to disagree, debate, or develop ideas. Keep in mind that ground rules will need to be set ahead of discussions so students have the tools to build on each other’s responses in a respectful and productive manner (Ehrlich, 2014). Burton (2011) argued teachers must be informed with their own repertoires of knowledge and support students by listening and responding to their questions. In similar ways that one might research an artist or artwork by visiting a museum, reading art

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historical texts, art magazines, or blogs, teachers can research topics that feminist artists and artworks raise. Other chapters in this book provide helpful resources.5

Planning for Discussion Integrated with Assessment Make sure to design opportunities for peer interaction, whether it be through extended looking, pair-share, small group activities, or collaboration. When working toward decentering White patriarchal norms, consider how to use materials, information, and resources about artists and art to support students’ understanding rather than having students memorize or recite a collection of facts at the endpoint of a lesson or unit. In other words, what students gain from experiences and in dialogue with others should be part of the lesson or unit outcomes when planning both formative and summative assessments. For example, when Ehrlich worked with teens in the EASCFA, repeatedly, program participants stated hearing perspectives from the group had been beneficial. In one program, girls and boys were in separate groups before coming together for discussion. Participants wrote about this experience. One female participant, Lisa, wrote in her end-of-program reflection: We got into more than one opinion about every situation. You look at things a different way when you are at a standpoint or point-of-view of everyone on their inferences and/or opinions. Then sometimes you might even change your perspective about something when you hear what other people have to say. Another male participant, Jason, wrote: The conversation elevated to so much more. It was very interesting because both groups were able to hear opposing statements from a different gender and it’s good to see different views. It’s also good, because we could give each other reasons of why we agree and disagree with the different point of views. A female participant, Pamela, wrote: [The merged group] leads us to explore new ideas and new opinions that are different from what we normally know and hear.

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While these are just three examples, participants expressed that hearing viewpoints from others enabled them to gain multiple perspectives on topics generated by art.

Concluding Comments on Decentering White Patriarchal Norms in Art Education Educators can explore ideas with students and develop assessments of learning with student input. Prepare to deviate from a rigid lesson plan. As students become comfortable with posing questions to the group or to each other and with designing their own responses to art that engages them, this opens new curiosities and learning paths. In facilitating discussion with youth generated by feminist art, Ehrlich learned the adolescents were cognizant of the issues raised by the art and that their perspectives varied. Adolescents are not monolithic (Burton, 2011; Gay, 2000; Lesko, 2001), but rather bring a diversity of viewpoints to the dialogue, as well as interests and experiences. As educators, it is important to remember, acknowledge, and recognize differences in students, at all ages and levels, particularly when it comes to assessment. One of the ways to do this is to take an approach to teaching that encourages the co-construction of knowledge and reciprocal learning between students and teachers. This approach is equivocally advocated for by both museum educators and critical art educators (Nordlund et al., 2010; Motter et al., 2020). In Chapter 8, Ehrlich shares the benefits of reciprocal learning in a personal narrative detailing her intergenerational familial relationships.

Notes 1 Cheri E. Ehrlich (2015) developed Chapter 4 in part from her unpublished dissertation study entitled, Learning Together: Exploring the Educational Potential of A Co-Educational Program On Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum. 2 To learn more about teaching students about Chicago’s work visit https://judychicago.arted. psu.edu. 3 According to Mulvey (1975, 1999), male viewers identify with the male protagonist, a character that exemplifies power, particularly in relationship to the power he holds over women. Mulvey posited female viewers imagine themselves as women in the film, who are objects of male desire controlled by men.

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4 Kimsooja is formerly known as Kim Soo-ja. According to her website, a one-word name refuses gender identity, marital status, socio-political or cultural and geographical identity by not separating the family name and the first name. 5 When working with adolescents, the book Our Bodies, Ourselves (https://www.ourbod iesourselves.org) is also a good source to find out more about issues pertaining to gender and sexuality as well as women’s bodies and women’s health.

References Acuff, J. B., Hirak, B., & Nangah, M. (2012). Dismantling a master narrative: Using culturally responsive pedagogy to teach the history of art education. Art Education, 65(5), 6–10. https://doi.org/10.1080/00043125.2012.11519186 Barrett, T. (2002). Interpreting art: Building communal and individual understandings. In Y. Gaudelius & P. Speirs (Eds.), Contemporary issues in art education (pp. 291–300). Prentice Hall. Barrett, T. (2004). Improving student dialogue about art. Teaching Artist Journal, 2(2), 87–94. Broude, N., & Garrard, M. D. (1994). The power of feminist art. Harry N. Abrams. Burnham, R. (1994). If you don’t stop, you don’t see anything. Teachers College Record, 95(4), 520–525. Burnham, R., & Kai-Kee, E. (2005). The art of teaching in the museum. Journal of Aesthetic Education, 39(1), 65–76. Burton, J. (2000). Configuration of meaning: Learner centered art education. Studies in Art Education, 41(4), 330–345. Burton, J. (2011). Creative and mental growth revisited: Parts 3 & 4 [Unpublished Manuscript]. Department of Art and Art Education, Teachers College Columbia University. Chadwick, W. (2012). Women, art, and society. Thames and Hudson. Chicago, J. (2014). Institutional time: A critique of studio art education. Monacelli Press. Clark, R., Folgo, A. R., & Pichette, J. (2005). Have there now been any great women artists? An investigation of the visibility of women artists in recent art history textbooks. Art Education, 58(3), 6–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/00043125.2005.11651537 Collins, G., & Sandell, R. (1984). Women, art, and education. National Art Education Association. Collins, T. (n.d.). Modernism. http://www.askart.com/askart/interest/Modernism_1.aspx?id=22 Ehrlich, C. E. (2014). Feminist art and adolescents in museums: A closer look. In J. Boyd Acuff & L. Evans (Eds.), Multiculturalism in art museums today (pp. 163–180). Rowan & Littlefield. Ehrlich, C. E. (2015). Learning together: Exploring the educational potential of a co-educational program on feminist art at the Brooklyn Museum [Doctoral dissertation]. Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses. 3732564. Frank, P., & Preble, D. (2014). Prebles’ artforms: An introduction to the visual arts. Pearson. Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. Continuum. Gay, G. (2000). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, practice, & research. Teachers College Press.

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Gouma-Peterson, T., & Matthews, P. (1987). The feminist critique of art history. The Art Bulletin, 69(3), 326–357. Gustlin, D. Z. (2016). The “f” word: A content analysis of “female” artists in art history textbooks (Order No. 10149428). Retrieved from ProQuest Central. (1815535674). Hammond, H. (1977). Feminist abstract art—A political viewpoint. Heresies, 1(1), 66–70. hooks, b. (1994). Teaching to transgress: Education as a practice for freedom. Routledge. Hubard, O. (2016). Art museum education: Facilitating gallery experiences. Palgrave Macmillan. Janson, A. F., & Janson, H. W. (2001). History of art: Vol. 2. Prentice-Hall. Keifer-Boyd, K. (2010). Visual culture and gender constructions. The International Journal of Arts Education, 8(1), 1–44. [In English 1–24, in Chinese 25–44] Kleiner, F. S. (2021). Gardner’s art through the ages: The Western perspective. Wadsworth. Lesko, N. (2001). Act your age! A cultural construction of adolescence. RoutledgeFalmer. Lugones, M. (2010). Toward a decolonial feminism. Hypatia, 25(4), 742–759. Motter, J., Lin, Y.-J., & Keifer-Boyd, K. (2020). WTF? Feminist pedagogy and 3D printing in a preservice virtual field experience. Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy. https://doi.org/10. 1080/15505170.2020.1835756 Mulvey, L. (1975). Visual pleasure and the narrative cinema. Screen, 16(3), 6–18. Mulvey, L. (1999). Visual pleasure and narrative cinema. In L. Leo Braudy & M. Cohen (Eds.), Film theory and criticism: Introductory readings (pp. 833–844). Oxford University Press. Nochlin. L. (1977). Why have there been no great women artists? http://deyoung.famsf.org/ files/whynogreatwomenartists_4.pdf Nochlin, L., & Reilly, M. (2007). Global feminisms: New directions in contemporary art. Merrell. Nordlund, C., Speirs, P., & Stewart, M. (2010). An invitation to social change: Fifteen principles of teaching art. Art Education, 63(5), 36–43. Nordlund, C., Speirs, P., Stewart, M., & Chicago, J. (2011). Activist art and pedagogy, The Dinner Party curriculum project In B. Beyerbac & R. D. Davis (Eds.), Activist art in social justice pedagogy (pp. 135–153). Peter Lang Publishing. Parker, R., & Pollock, G. (1981). Old mistresses: Women, art and ideology. Pantheon Books. Pollock, G. (1988). Vision & difference: Femininity, feminism, and the histories of art. Routledge. Reilly, M. (2007). Introduction: Toward transnational feminisms. In L. Nochlin & M. Reilly (Eds.), Global feminisms: New directions in contemporary art (pp. 15–45). Merrell. Reilly, M. (2017). Foreword. In J. C. Ashton (Ed.), Feminisms and museums: Invention, disruption, and change (Vol. 2). MuseumsEtc Sandell, R. (1991). The liberating relevance of feminist pedagogy. Studies in Art Education, 32(3), 178–187. https://doi.org/10.2307/1320688 Sayre, H. M. (2016). A world of art. Pearson. Stokstad, M., & Cothren, M. W. (2018). Art history: Volume 2. Pearson.

Chapter Five Dismantle Power Differentials Why Dismantle Power Differentials? Assessment Criteria and Strategies for Dismantling Power Differentials Assessment with the “Find Cards” Activity Guiding Questions for Dismantling Power Differentials References

Many of our social interactions involve power dynamics. Social identities (race, class, age, gender, sexual orientation, among others) can influence where social power lies. When people have power, they feel as though they can control their situation and circumstances, particularly during times of uncertainty and chaos in their world. An imbalance of power dynamics in a relationship can lead to injustice. Dismantling power differentials is a strategy toward social justice, which is the focus of this chapter. The chapter includes a curricular encounter that investigates works by Asian American women artists, who explore their evolving cultural and social identities through their art. These works engage critical dialogues concerning ethnicity, race, gender, and otherness. The “Find Card” curricular example supports art teaching strategies toward dismantling power differentials within learning environments and through curriculum assessment. The example demonstrates how encounters with artistic personal narratives about immigration and displacement can cultivate empathy and promote social inclusion. Moreover, the example offers strategies to generate conversations about power differentials through art. Further, assessment criteria for students’ reflections on their work, introduced in this chapter, model processes of critical reading across hierarchical structures within the worlds of art.

Why Dismantle Power Differentials? Power differentials are inherent in everyday encounters. For example, medical doctors have gained knowledge, skills, and experience to inform healthcare. Teachers, based on years of education in specific disciplines and honed teaching skills, have the power DOI: 10.4324/9781003183716-5

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to influence what and how students learn. Power differentials may be beneficial in some situations, such as a surgeon requesting a person with a tumor to follow specific instructions before surgery. However, when power is unearned privilege, or reasons for directives and decisions are not developed with those who are impacted by the informal and formal practices and policies, then power differentials may lead to injustice. Social justice art education advocates the critical nature of dismantling unearned privilege and engaging in equitable power distribution and reciprocity in actions and understandings. Dismantling power differentials is a key principle of socially just education curricula (Dewhurst, 2011; Oakes et al., 2018). To dismantle power differentials is to decenter hegemonic norms, to disrupt the imbalanced power dynamics, and to cultivate critical empathy (Bryson & Bennet-Anyikwa, 2003; Fruchtman, 2015; Murib & Taylor, 2018). Through actively seeking and valuing different ways of knowing and being in the world, learners can cultivate critical empathy that is built on an increased awareness of their positionality in relation to privilege and power. Making explicit the impact of positionality on power dynamics reveals assumptions of what is dominant or subordinate, centered or marginalized in curricular content selection, how teachers perceive learning goals and learners’ capacities, and how student work is evaluated. Critical reflection on positionality is a way to assess assumptions of universal truths and the sources that shape the boundaries of perspectives. Power affords the opportunity to have agency and influence. Race, gender, social class, ableness, and other constructed social power markers, have historically enabled some groups to dominate, control, abuse, and harm those outside the privileged markers of White, male, affluent, and able-bodied. While power differentials in social relationships may be earned through education and life experiences, unhealthy power differentials result from bias and prejudice and may lead to emotional or physical abuse and control. What follows are assessment criteria and teaching strategies to engage in critical dialogue about artworks by three Asian American women artists that dismantle power differentials.

Assessment Criteria and Strategies for Dismantling Power Differentials In assessing the effectiveness of selected course content to dismantle power differentials, consider how art could serve as a catalyst to investigate power, privilege,

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positionality, and upstander actions. Art educators can cultivate critical consciousness regarding positionality and its impact on unearned privilege. Moreover, art offers opportunities to investigate historical events that connect to contemporary struggles (Fruchtman, 2015; Murib & Taylor, 2018). Art educators can design a socially just art curriculum to cultivate critical empathy, decenter hegemonic norms, and center marginalized social groups in curricular content through careful selections of artworks. What follows are examples of Asian American women artists who cultivate critical reflection regarding positionality, privilege, and power. “Asian Americans” refers to a vastly diverse group of people with various ethnic origins, cultural, historical, and religious backgrounds in the United States, who can trace their ancestry to one or more Asian countries, including countries in East Asia and Southeast Asia. These diverse groups do not share the same cultures, languages, values, or traditions. However, as a minoritized group in the U.S., Asian Americans comprise less than 7% of the total population (U.S. Census Bureau, 2019), the variations and differences are often dismissed for convenience or because of ignorance. Studies have found that Asian Americans are often excluded in discussions of racial bias despite facing increasing bias and discriminatory violence (Abrams, 2019; Đoàn et al., 2019; Gee & Peck, 2017; Tang, 2021). Due to a history of multi-layered political and socio-economic discriminations since the 19th century, the images of Asian Americans, unfortunately, are predominantly unfavorable or misleading (Gee & Peck, 2017; M. H. Jo & Mast, 1993; Zheng, 2021). On the other hand, there is the model minority myth, a stereotypical misconception suggesting that Asian Americans, as a well-educated and affluent group, do not share the same racial challenges as other minoritized communities. The misconception has fueled tensions and conflict between Asian Americans and other minoritized groups (Iftikar & Museus, 2018; Suzuki, 2002). Furthermore, the unprecedented global pandemic aggravated the anti-Asian undercurrent and provoked anti-Asian assaults, harassment, and even deadly shootings (Do, 2021; Lang, 2021). The historical events and media images have painted lingering stereotypes that undervalue Asian American women (Lang & Cachero, 2021; Woan, 2008). The ethnic diversity among Asian American women hinders this group of women from forming a collective identity and voice that advocates for fair judgment of character. Moreover, among the notable museum collections, representation of Asian American women artists is scant. Museums mostly show male artists’ portrayals of Asian American women.1

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Adapted from Critical Race Theory (CRT) scholarship, Asian Critical (AsianCrit) Theory has been developed by scholars to center issues and aspects necessary in understanding how White supremacy and racism shape the lives and experiences of Asian American communities (Iftikar & Museus, 2018; Liu, 2009; Museus, 2014). AsianCrit Theory includes seven interrelated tenets. First, recognize the process of Asianization that characterizes Asian Americans with biased racial stereotypes. Second, emphasize the transnational context in understanding how racial prejudice and antagonism in a global context affect Asian Americans’ lives and experiences. Third, propose (re) constructive history to restore and to honor the muted Asian American struggles and collective memories in history. Fourth, advocate for strategic (anti)essentialism to challenge the ways that Asian Americans have been historically and continue to be racialized by White supremacy. Fifth, focus on intersectionality, as in how different mechanisms of subjugation such as sexism, ableism, and colonialism jointly shape the racial and social identities of Asian Americans. Sixth, value the storytelling of Asian Americans’ lived experiences and connect with theory and practices in order to counter the prevailing White, Eurocentric perspectives. Finally, center commitment to abolish all systems of unjust treatments and abuses. To inquire about gender stereotypes and how they are entangled with race, socioeconomic class, and other inscriptions that have led to devaluing or even violent acts towards those outside privileged norms, the following curricular encounter examines works of Asian America women artists, who explore their evolving cultural and social identities. These Asian women artists use both artistic mediums and daily artifacts to make visible the relationships between power and resistance. AsianCrit theory, as a conceptual lens, seeks to center Asian American women’s experiential knowledge and how their individual stories can assist in challenging the dominant White, Eurocentric narrative.

Flo Oy Wong A second-generation Chinese American artist, Flo Oy Wong uses everyday materials such as rice sacks, suitcases, envelopes, flags, and newspaper clippings to tell historically muted narratives that give viewers different perspectives regarding the meaning of identity, self, and otherness (Carpenter, 2002; Herzog, 2007). In particular, Wong uses rice sacks as a medium to tell the identity secrets she witnessed growing up as a second-generation Chinese American. Wong’s Rice Sack Installations

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juxtapose the loss of social power and the strength of cultural identity. For example, Wong (2010) discusses how a series of her works titled Made in USA: Angel Island Shhh concerns the artist’s mother and mother-in-law, who lived with altered identities for their new life in the United States. The Chinese Exclusion Law, the first law in the U.S. that banned immigration of a targeted ethnic group, prohibited Chinese laborers from settling down or reuniting with their families (Bodenner, 2013; Tian, 2010). Recognizing power differentials and unfair treatment of Chinese immigrants, Wong’s mother entered the U.S. from China as her husband’s sister on legal documents, not his wife, while Wong’s mother-in-law came as the mother to her own brother to keep the family together. Fear, bias, and bigotry led to the establishment of this discriminatory immigration law that affected many Chinese immigrant families. How does one share family history and a life story that was deeply troubled by such immigration law established by dominant society? Wong chose to share the marginalized stories from the perspective of her immigrant family. Wong juxtaposes household items such as rice sacks with legal documents and regulatory texts that reveal impositions of political and social forces. Rice sacks are often associated with Asian American images. Overlaid on top of a U.S. flag, the rice sacks in Made in USA: Angel Island Shhh became the artistic vehicle that both conceals and reveals power differentials, the fear of deportation, and the painful interrogation that the immigrants endured to protect their families. In an interview with Angelika Piwowarczyk, Wong speaks about how she has always felt marginalized as a person of Chinese descent reared in the United States: While I would identify myself as an American, when people look at me, partly to the color of my skin, partly due to the fact that I can speak Chinese, you know, I don’t look entirely American to them although I am 70 years old and I was born in this country. And if I go to China, and I’ve been to China several times, I’m not Chinese enough at all, I’m very Western. I don’t walk the way people in China walk, I’m very verbal and articulate and expressive and loquacious and that’s not how modern Chinese women are, maybe the younger generation, but certainly not the people in my age category and above. So, I’m neither, I’m not complete in any place. And so that has affected my art making because I feel as though I’ve always been marginal in so many ways (Piwowarczyk, 2009, p. 4).

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Many immigrants share Wong’s reflection of being marginalized in the United States. Wong’s works are artistic representations of the racial reality of many Asian Americans. The rice sacks not only embrace the iconographic significance of Wong’s family heritage, but also capsulate the racial stereotypes of Asian Americans. In another of Wong’s works titled Dinner Table II (2005), a two feet by nine feet table setting installation inspired by feminist artist Judy Chicago’s Dinner Party,2 is a rectangular table set for Wong’s late parents and their seven children (Wong, 2005). Nine rice bowls are set on top of the tablecloth that is made of five cloth rice sacks with print that reads, “U.S. No.1 EXTRA FANCY TEXAS LONG GRAIN Enriched RICE,” and presents blatant contrast to the embroidery of text that narrates Wong’s family memories. A tribute to Wong’s family story that also echoes many Chinese families’ dinner settings, the rice sacks signify this Chinese family’s economic reliance on the restaurant business and their connection with the land on which they fought so hard to thrive.

Yuriko Yamaguchi Dominant groups discriminate based on assumptions they hold about Asian Americans’ appearance or accent. Language serves as an important instrument in immigrants’ negotiation of ethnic identity and cultural adaptation (Choi, 2015; Kang, 2013; Shankar et al., 2011). While fluency in English, the privileged language in the U.S., appears to be one of the means to successfully blend in, speaking English does not guarantee fair treatment and equal opportunity. Studies have found that language-based prejudice and accent discrimination continue to be prevalent in public schools and social contexts that privilege the mainstream language over ethnic languages (H.-Y. Jo, 2001; Lindemann, 2003; Shankar et al., 2011). Likewise, losing touch with heritage and language may diminish the power to be an ethnic and cultural advocate for self and one’s cultural group. The struggle between maintaining one’s language and keeping proficiency in the mainstream language in order to assimilate is a constant dilemma among immigrants and their U.S.-born children (Choi, 2015; Zhang & Slaughter-Defoe, 2009). Does proficiency in mainstream language offer power to immigrants to gain equal access to societal benefits? Or does the overpowering mainstream language diminish immigrants’ opportunity to have their voice? Instead of viewing the pursuit of heritage and language as a sociopolitical constraint, how might minoritized ethnic groups consider their language as a tool to negotiate the power differential they encounter in life?

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Displacement, adaptation, and assimilation are the intertwined themes of immigrants’ lives. It is especially challenging being an immigrant in adulthood when your cultural values, beliefs, assumptions, and attitudes are set in your mother’s culture. A Japanese descendent who moved to the U.S. as a young woman with limited knowledge of English, Asian American artist Yuriko Yamaguchi experiments on both natural and artificial materials to express her experiences in the world and her ways of seeing. Being thousands of miles away from the familiar community and facing differences daily, language inefficiency is only the tip of the iceberg among the many social and cultural barriers. Many of Yamaguchi’s installations incorporate translucent, organic-shaped, fluid materials that appear to be connecting, moving, growing, and reaching. In an interview Yamaguchi talks about how “Connections [are] the essence of [her] work” (Smithsonian American Art Museum, n.d.). For example, Yamaguchi’s work titled Reach Out #3 3 is composed of two abstract figures bonded by a wooden twig. The abstract figures on both sides represent two people conversing or interacting with each other. The twig in between serves as a bridge that connects the two individuals. While seemingly unifying the set, the fragile quality of the twig also gestures to the fleeting nature of the connection that nevertheless can be disrupted in an instant. In addition to the eagerness to connect, fragility, distance, and awkward tension among relationships are covert themes in Yamaguchi’s works. The need to be heard and understood are especially challenging to fulfill as an immigrant who cherishes cultural heritage while desperately wanting to be part of the new community.

Yu-Wen Wu Another Asian American artist who was born in Taiwan and moved to the U.S. at an early age, Yu-Wen Wu’s interdisciplinary works explores issues of migration and displacement among new immigrants to the United States. Wu examines how the process of becoming American affects immigrants’ ways of perceiving who they are and who they are becoming (Lindner, 2020; Reynolds, 2019). In Wu’s exhibition titled Internal Navigation,4 the now Boston-based artist uses symbolic cultural items and images such as moon blocks (or jiaobei, a divination tool comprised of a pair of moon-shaped blocks used to seek guidance in Taoist ceremony). Other items include a Buddhist mala bead, handscroll, and tea leaves, which reflect her homeland in Taiwan. These items and images signify the foundation of the artist’s cultural identity and the process of

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immigrating from one continent to another that has had a lasting effect on the artist’s search of belongingness. Voluntary migration or forced displacement both bring forth precariousness to the future. Being within a new social environment surrounded with foreign cultures, denied of social power either explicitly or inexplicitly, immigrants or refugees face financial insecurity, social exclusion, and even violence daily. In her collaborative project with conceptual artist Harriet Bart titled Leavings/Belongings,5 a durational project that emphasizes the voice of the refugees and immigrants, invited immigrant women, most with Asian ethnicity, to participate in the bundle-making activity. Participants worked through colorful, dynamic, sophisticated fabrics on the table and selected ones that best represent their stories to make cloth-wrapped bundles attached to pieces of personal stories or reflections. These individually made bundles of personal narratives were then displayed in different forms—some were aligned in a linear fashion, others were piled up at the corner of the gallery, representing individual narratives that are part of different series of life stories. In Wu’s exhibition at SITE Santa Fe,6 one of Wu’s installations titled Suspended displayed a huge pile of bundles approximately 14 feet by 12 feet by 12 feet hung from the ceiling in a net. The bundles signified the tension and anxieties associated with strenuous migration. Are the stories rescued and preserved in the bundles hung from the net? Or are the bundled stories captured and hidden? In an interview with Pamela Reynolds, Wu speaks about how these bundles of different fabrics and cultural materials are “embodiments of narratives of crossing borders, of surviving terror and violence and the loss of family and home” that give individual voice to immigrants or refugees who enter the U.S. (Reynolds, 2019, para. 3). Belongings, baggage, and things that are being wrapped or squeezed together—they are either things being carried forward or things that have been left behind. Whereas some signify attachment of identities, others manifest differences and power differentials. Each bundle represents a participant’s individual voice and story, the way they want to be seen and understood. A simple matter of making choices—to keep or to leave behind—speaks to greater consideration of sacrifice and survival. Navigating between the quest for spiritual guidance, the anxiety of fitting in a new land, and the struggles of being the silenced group in history, Wu’s works of showing both personal journey and the collective memory of immigrants of color seek to bring critical consciousness and racial justice to the center.

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Assessment with the “Find Cards” Activity Building upon AsianCrit theory’s argument that centering the voices of Asian Americans can provide empowering epistemological perspective for positive impacts, the women artists discussed previously are examples of artistic storytelling that are grounded in the realities of Asian American women’s lives. These seldom-heard stories, presented through careful curation of the artists, offer alternative experiential views for participants to consider oppression and exploitation due to power differentials. Where does an immigrant belong? Does assimilation help immigrants form their new selves that fuse their familiar identity with the new culture, or does assimilation take away identity, language, and belongings? While displacement takes away social and cultural privileges, neither adaptation nor assimilation guarantees regaining control or freedom of choice. How do these Asian American women artists illustrate their perspectives as ethnic minoritized people in the U.S. and their experiences of power differentials through their artistic expressions? How might art educators present these works of infrequently heard stories to cultivate critical empathy in the classroom? The Find Cards activity is a strategy that invites participants to ask critical questions about the ideas of power differentials among these Asian American women artists’ works. “Find Cards” is a differentiated learning and assessment strategy developed by Keifer-Boyd to cultivate critical consciousness and valuing of diverse perspectives (Keifer-Boyd & Kraft, 2014). In a Find Cards activity, participants develop their own path of inquiry based on their systems of knowledge and lived experiences. Participants then share their understanding of the artworks by responding to questions composed by their peers. The process of developing questions and contemplating questions raised by peers offers opportunities for reflexivity and understanding different perspectives. Find Cards can also serve as an assessment strategy. In composing a question, reflection on what is learned integrates assessment with learning. When participants create Find Cards, facilitators discern what learners find important by examining the questions learners raise in response to their artistic encounters with the artworks. The following curricular example shows how encounters with works of Asian American women artists, who explore their evolving cultural and social identity through the arts, can engage critical dialogues on ethnicity, race, gender, and otherness.

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Identity and Power In Identity and Power, participants explore how positionality influences power dynamics in works of Asian American women artists such as Flo Oy Wong, Yuriko Yamaguchi, and Yu-Wen Wu. Participants investigate themes of displacement, adaptation, and assimilation in Asian American women artists’ works and discuss how race, gender, and ethnicity affect identities, power, and access in society. The facilitator begins by showing works of Asian American women artists and engages participants in the Find Cards activity to cultivate critical reflection on positionality in relation to privilege and power. Goals and Objectives • Explore how identity and power differentials are illustrated through artistic expressions. • Investigate how personal experience shapes individual perspectives differently. • Envision the empowered self as an upstander on an everyday basis. • Explore ideas of power, disempowerment, and empowerment. • Reflect on and make explicit the positionality of bullies, those who are bullied, and upstanders within the contexts that shape their positionality. • Develop empathy for people whose experiences differ from your own. • Recognize how social and cultural norms, as well as life experiences, shape perspectives. Guiding Questions • How does positionality influence power dynamics? • How might art advocate for diversity, difference, and inclusivity? • What is my positionality in relation to power and privilege within specific contexts? • How have I been complicit in perpetuating racism, sexism, and stereotypes or creating a climate of animosity, xenophobia, or homophobia (i.e., through jokes, comments, casual remarks, etc.)?

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Activities 1. Find Card Activity: Partner with another (someone you don’t know in the group). Spend 10-15 minutes together looking at the exhibition and writing a “Find Card.” When finished, place your card with the other cards. Select another card together and find a work to which the card prompt directs your attention. With your partner, discuss the question posed on the Find Card and other interpretations or knowledge you have about the work. A Find Card begins with a directive or clue of something to find in an exhibition and includes a question. For example: • Find an artwork about power and vulnerability. How does the work convey these ideas and with what impact? • Find a situation of diversity, difference, exclusion, or inclusivity in one of the artworks. Can you relate to the situation? Have you ever felt pressure to exclude someone? What happened? • Find an artwork that makes you feel angry. Why do you think it made you feel this way? • Find an artwork that makes you feel empowered. Why does it make you feel this way? Do you think others would feel empowered by this too? 2. Objects of identity and family memories • Reflecting on how personal experience shapes individual perspectives differently, invite students to share objects or texts that embody meanings of their family memories. • Contemplate how cultural items represent power, disempowerment, and empowerment, and select items and images to create a family portrait or an event of personal significance.

In assessing artworks and art projects, consider how the art exploration generated dialogue inclusive of multiple and divergent viewpoints. Has facilitation of the dialogue exposed power, privilege, and positionality in which participants in the art activity recognize and challenge social standards that position White, affluent, abled-bodied,

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heterosexual males as authority, and narrow views of history as singular truth? In assessing student artworks, encourage students to avoid representing, replicating, or depicting other cultures; instead, discuss or observe how their art inspires upstander behavior in current times.

Guiding Questions for Dismantling Power Differentials Criteria for students’ reflections on their work, discussed in this chapter, models processes of critical reading across differences to locate possible commonalities that encourage mutual empathetic understandings of different, even conflicting, perspectives. Facilitators can guide learners to reflect upon the following questions. • Power: Who has the power? Can someone take away another person’s power? • Disempowerment: What makes a person feel powerless? • Empowerment: Who has the capacity to give another person power? What makes a person feel powerful? In the “Find Card” activity with artworks discussed in this chapter, it is crucial for the facilitator to observe closely the questions raised by participants as well as their concerns. For instance, what did the participants observe from the artworks that makes Asian American immigrants feel powerless? What are challenges faced by Asian American immigrants regarding assimilation or adaption to U.S. contexts that devalue their heritage, culture, and language? What actions or inactions make participants feel powerful, powerless, or vulnerable? Facilitators of the Find Card activity should make sure all have an equal opportunity to contribute to the discussion. With a focus on power differentials, the Find Cards also serves as an assessment strategy for facilitators to observe issues the participants find relevant. Further, what are the important topics that were missed in the discussions and need to be revisited? This chapter has introduced AsianCrit Theory to art educators as a relevant conceptual lens to analyze how Asian American women artists engage conversations about Asian Americans’ historical struggles as well as their lived experiences. The three artists presented in this chapter, hopefully, will inspire educators to facilitate critical dialogue on how race, gender, and other socio-economic factors intersect to influence minoritized groups’ life and experiences. Furthermore, understandings of alternative values and experiences help center marginalized voices and promote social inclusion.

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Notes 1 For example, the webpage where the Smithsonian Institution highlights Asian American artists and selected works (https://www.si.edu/spotlight/asian-american-arts-artists) features about 136 works by or about Asian American artists, only 23 of which are works by Asian American women artists. 2 Feminist artist Judy Chicago developed The Dinner Party in the 1970s, a collaborative installation consists of 39 ceremonial banquet place settings where each celebrates selected women who have contributed significantly to society. Recognizing the family meal tradition and the voices around the table, The Dinner Party is an iconic art piece that intends to engage conversation about and remembrance of women’s achievement in the past and present. 3 Yuriko Yamaguchi’s Reach Out #3 is part of the collections of Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Anthony T. Podesta. Record ID: saam_1998.152A-C. More information about this artwork can be accessed at https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/reach-out-3-36903 4 Internal Navigation is Wu’s solo exhibition at Praise Shadows Gallery in 2021. More information about Internal Navigation can be found at https://praiseshadows.com/exhibitions/ internal-navigation/ and https://www.yuwenwu.com/new-page-4 5 Leavings/Belongings is a comprehensive project that aims to involve the community voices. The project consists of sculptural collaborative installations, performance, text, photography, and video that document the collaborative process with the participants. More information of this series of art project is available at https://www.yuwenwu.com/ leavingsbelongings-project 6 Yu-Wen Wu was one of the twelve artists in the exhibition titled “Displaced: Contemporary Artists Confront the Global Refugee Crisis,” which focused on the global crisis of human migrations and displacements at SITE Santa Fe in 2020. Full list of artists who participated in Displaced is available at https://sitesantafe.org/exhibition/displaced/

References Abrams, Z. (2019, December 1). Countering stereotypes about Asian Americans. https://www. apa.org/monitor/2019/12/countering-stereotypes Bodenner, C. (2013). Chinese exclusion act. In Issues & controversies in American history. Infobase Publishing. Bryson, B., & Bennet-Anyikwa, V. A. (2003). The teaching and learning experience: Deconstructing and creating space using a feminist pedagogy. Race, Gender & Class, 10(2), 131–146. Carpenter, B. S. (2002). The stories of Flo Oy Wong: A look at a visiting artist workshop. Art Education, 55(1), 17–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/00043125.2002.11651473

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Choi, J. K. (2015). Identity and language: Korean speaking Korean, Korean-American speaking Korean and English? Language and Intercultural Communication, 15(2), 240–266. https://doi. org/10.1080/14708477.2014.993648 Dewhurst, M. (2011). Where is the action? Three lenses to analyze social justice art education. Equity & Excellence in Education, 44(3), 364–378. Do, A. (2021, March 16). Asian Americans have been verbally and physically attacked, shunned during pandemic, study shows. Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/california/ story/2021-03-16/anti-asian-hate-pandemic Đoàn, L. N., Takata, Y., Sakuma, K.-L. K., & Irvin, V. L. (2019). Trends in clinical research including Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander participants funded by the US National Institutes of Health, 1992 to 2018. JAMA Network Open, 2(7). https://doi. org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.7432 Fruchtman, D. (2015). Sympathy for the devil: Cultivating empathy through Heterod. The Once and Future Classrooms, XII(1), 1–10. Gee, B., & Peck, D. (2017). The Illusion of Asian Success: Scant progress for minorities in cracking the glass ceiling from 2007–2015. Ascend. https://www.ascendleadershipfoundation. org/research/the-illusion-of-asian-success Herzog, M. (2007). On voice and memory: Flo Oy Wong. Persimmon Tree, 3. https://persimmon tree.org/fall-2007/on-voice-and-memory-flo-oy-wong/ Iftikar, J. S., & Museus, S. D. (2018). On the utility of Asian critical (AsianCrit) theory in the field of education. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 31(10), 935–949. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2018.1522008 Jo, H.-Y. (2001). “Heritage” language learning and ethnic identity: Korean Americans’ struggle with language authorities. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 14(1), 26–41. https://doi. org/10.1080/07908310108666610 Jo, M. H., & Mast, D. D. (1993). Changing Images of Asian Americans. International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society, 6(3), 417–441. Kang, H.-S. (2013). Korean American college students’ language practices and identity positioning: “Not Korean, but not American”. Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 12(4), 248–261. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348458.2013.818473 Keifer-Boyd, K., & Kraft, L. M. (2014). IDEAEmpowerment through difference Find card strategies. In S. Malley (Ed.), 2013 VSA intersections: Arts and special education exemplary programs and approaches (pp. 147–158). The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Lang, C. (2021, March 18). The Atlanta shootings fit into a long legacy of anti-Asian violence in America. Time. https://time.com/5947723/atlanta-shootings-anti-asian-violence-america/ Lang, C., & Cachero, P. (2021, April 7). How a long history of intertwined racism and misogyny leaves Asian women in America vulnerable to violence. Time. https://time.com/5952819/ history-anti-asian-racism-misogyny/

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Lindemann, S. (2003). Koreans, Chinese or Indians? Attitudes and ideologies about non-native English speakers in the United States. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 7(3), 348–364. Lindner, G. (2020, July 21). The communal intimacy of public art: In conversation with Yu-Wen Wu. Boston Art Review, 5. https://bostonartreview.com/reviews/issue-05-interview-yuwen-wu/ Liu, A. (2009). Critical race theory, Asian Americans, and higher education: A review of research. InterActions: UCLA Journal of Education and Information Studies, 5(2). https://doi. org/10.5070/D452000655 Murib, Z., & Taylor, L. (2018). Feminism in coalition: Rethinking strategies for progressive politics across difference. New Political Science, 40(1), 113–118. Museus, S. D. (2014). Asian American students in higher education. Routledge. https://doi. org/10.4324/9780203753002 Oakes, J., Lipton, M., Anderson, L., & Stillman, J. (2018). Teaching to change the world (5th ed.). Routledge. Piwowarczyk, A. (2009). Flo Oy Wong interview. DePaul University. https://via.library.depaul. edu/oral_his_series/ Reynolds, P. (2019, June 5). In “Leavings/Belongings,” artist Yu-Wen Wu explores women’s stories of displacement. https://www.wbur.org/artery/2019/06/05/leavings-belongings-yuwen-wu-explores-womens-displacement Shankar, S., Lee, S., & Reyes, A. (2011). Asian American youth language use: Perspectives across schools and communities. Review of Research in Education, 35, 1–28. Smithsonian American Art Museum. (n.d.). Meet Yuriko Yamaguchi. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved July 27, 2021, from https://www.si.edu/object/meet-yuriko-yamaguchi:yt_FcV_ Osha5gU Suzuki, B. (2002). Revisiting the model minority stereotype: Implications for student affairs practice and higher education. New Directions for Student Services, 2002, 21–32. https:// doi.org/10.1002/ss.36 Tang, C. S. (2021, May 6). Op-Ed: Why successful Asian Americans are penalized at the workplace. Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-05-06/asian-biasdiscrimination-corporate-culture-glass-ceiling Tian, K. (2010). The Chinese exclusion act of 1882 and its impact on North American society. Undergraduate Research Journal for the Human Sciences, 9(1). https://www.kon.org/urc/ v9/tian.html U.S. Census Bureau. (2019). Annual estimates of the resident population by sex, race, and Hispanic origin for the United States: April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2019. https://www2.census.gov/ programs-surveys/popest/tables/2010-2019/national/asrh/nc-est2019-sr11h.xlsx Woan, S. (2008). White sexual imperialism: A theory of Asian feminist jurisprudence. Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice, 14(2), 275–301.

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Wong, F. O. (2005). Dinner table II. Asian American Art Oral History Project Gallery. https://via. library.depaul.edu/oral_his_gallery/36 Wong, F. O. (2010). A rice sacks secrets: Once hidden from ourselves and others. Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings. Zhang, D., & Slaughter-Defoe, D. T. (2009). Language attitudes and heritage language maintenance among Chinese immigrant families in the USA. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 22(2), 77–93. https://doi.org/10.1080/07908310902935940 Zheng, L. (2021, May 27). To dismantle anti-Asian racism, we must understand its roots. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2021/05/to-dismantle-anti-asian-racism-we-must-under stand-its-roots

Chapter Six Include Difference Brave Upstanders for Justice: Comic Possibility-Making Middle School Art Class Upstanders for Justice Comics SJAE Principle: Include Difference References

Curriculum often excludes the richness of diversity that reflects society and most classrooms. Inclusion of difference draws attention to the value of difference, while “indifference is insidious” through continuous everyday underhanded and often indirect micro-aggression (Lugones, 2007, p. 188). This chapter offers an example of an art curriculum using comics as an art form and medium for comic-making possibilities that brings attention to including difference and challenging indifference. Curricula and pedagogy that value difference invite a dynamic exchange among a broad spectrum of learners, and are designed to counteract marginalization, exclusion, and circumscribed opportunities (Hviid & Märtsin, 2019; Keifer-Boyd & Knochel, 2019; Keifer-Boyd et al., 2018; Kraft & Keifer-Boyd, 2013; Penketh, 2017). The inclusion of difference in curricular assessment strategies investigates the socio-political context of learning, asking who decides what content is valuable for study, from whose perspective, and how the content is organized. From such an assessment, values of social justice become evident and can be critiqued regarding the underlying beliefs about the nature of being human and the nature of knowledge that are embedded in the curriculum. Guiding questions and an example application of a social justice principle of inclusion of difference call attention to who and what is absent, omitted, or included only tangentially. Assessment of curriculum and pedagogy needs to consider the environments of all learners, including those who live with home and food insecurities (Kozol, 2012; Vavrus, 2015; Karpur et al., 2021; Raskind, 2020). Further, strategies offered in the chapter guide the examination of pedagogical and institutional structures in ways that do not erase the productive tension through difference but rather reconfigure students’ understandings of difference to change the way difference (e.g., abilities, race, gender, social class) matters to the students and contributes to a just society. DOI: 10.4324/9781003183716-6

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Rather than best practices—which calls into question “best for whom?” —consider inclusive practices as the goal for assessing pedagogy and curriculum. Inclusive practices require differentiated curriculum, pre-assessment, and formative assessment. A differentiated curriculum gives all students opportunities to learn by teaching in ways to meet learners’ different needs and skills, and with flexibility to tap into learners’ strengths to motivate and engage life experiences and interests as knowledge (Attwood & Gerber, 2020; Fountain, 2014; Kraft & Keifer-Boyd, 2013). What follows is an example of differentiated curriculum with attention to the role of assessment in designing and implementing differentiated curriculum for inclusive art teaching and learning.

Brave Upstanders for Justice: Comic Possibility-Making Bullying is on the rise (Patchin, 2019). Early intervention is needed (e.g., see stopbullying.gov). Artist Linda Stein’s (2015) 4Bs: Bully, Bullied, Bystander, and Brave Upstander, as critical content sourced in her sculptures, tapestries, prints, and mixed media art inspired a sixth-grade unit of study on upstander comics for justice taught in Spring 2021. Comics are an accessible format for powerful stories conveyed through dialogue and visual contextual cues. Comic possibility-making can use humor and metaphor to explore difference, identity, experience, and capacities. The use of dialogue and thought bubbles and visual cues in comics communicates perspective, thoughts and feelings of characters, and the layout suggests a sequence of events. The comic possibilitymaking curriculum is an example highlighted in this chapter to offer strategies and resources on facilitating inclusion of difference. Prior to guiding preservice teachers to co-develop and teach an upstander comic curriculum in a sixth-grade art class, Keifer-Boyd incorporated an Upstander Comic/ Graphic Narrative project into her university course with the same group of preservice teachers. The comic-making process provided opportunities for deep discussion when sharing their ideas, storyboards, and comics with regards to how to address bullying. The art education students were motivated to conduct research, which included speaking with and not for those bullied as depicted in their graphic narratives. In many of their narratives, the art teacher is the upstander by choosing impactful artworks to introduce to the students.

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Preparation for Teaching Upstanders for Justice Comic-Making From a critical education perspective, upstanders for justice must “efficaciously address injustice . . . as action to address chronic social victimization via systems of oppression” (Farley et al., 2020, p. 258). To do so, education on histories of injustice is necessary. Inclusion of difference is to include first-person narratives of lived experiences contextualized within governing policies, institutional practices, and societal beliefs of the time and place. Keifer-Boyd showed several videos in class, either selecting short ones or excerpts, typically less than 10 minutes, to allow time for discussion.1 Hyperlinks on the course calendar in the platform Canvas enable students to easily find the video to view in full outside of class. To introduce what Linda Stein coined as the 4Bs, which refers to Bully, Bullied, Bystander, Brave Upstander, Keifer-Boyd showed the seven-minute video “Holocaust Heroes: Fierce Females” (Henderson, 2015). During the discussion following the video, students expressed appreciation regarding Linda Stein’s work, such as with the comment: I like how she is not just an artist but like a full-blown activist. She is the founder of this gender justice group. It is awesome how her art and her activism go hand-in-hand. The amount of work she does to help others have a voice is amazing. Gloria Steinem speaks about being an upstander in Stein’s video, and to Keifer-Boyd’s surprise the third-year university art education students did not know about the feminist activist icons Gloria Steinem and Florynce “Flo” Kennedy, which suggested to Keifer-Boyd they did not know histories of injustices experienced by most women who in 2021 are in their 60s or older. Therefore, Keifer-Boyd showed an excerpt of a televised play, Gloria: A Life (Mann et al., 2020), which generated a lively discussion. For example, one student responded: I thought that there were a lot of things they mentioned in the play about how women were treated that were mind-blowing and I agree with Jess; I think it’s awful how this was just accepted to be in ads and on tv. It is great to see that women are standing up against this and I know that things still happen like this, but being able to stand up against it is a very powerful thing.

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Actor Christine Lahti, who performs Gloria, describes: This play also teaches us how many extraordinary black women [e.g., Flo Kennedy, Dorothy Pitman Hughes, Pauli Murray, Aileen Hernandez, Fanny Lou Hamer, Shirley Chisholm, Audre Lorde, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Margaret Sloan, Barbara Smith, Alice Walker]2 were responsible in teaching Gloria about feminism; and that second wave feminism was NOT primarily founded by white women. In addition, it explores how much feminism can help men free themselves from the straitjacket of patriarchal masculinity. Her story is inspiring, complex and completely relatable. And as Gloria stated early on in the development of this play, if the first act is going to be about her, then the second act has to be about the audience. The talking circle that is the second act of Gloria: A Life is equally as moving as people tell their own stories. As Gloria always says, there is healing in the telling (Great Performances, 2021, para. 3). Viewing a few selections from the second act of audience members’ sharing their own stories was an ideal segue for Keifer-Boyd to ask if the preservice art teachers had experienced or witnessed injustice. Each had an opportunity to share a story. For example, one student recalled: “There was someone in my art class who wanted to go by ‘them’ or ‘they,’ and they wanted it changed in the yearbook and their name to be changed to Griffen, but the school wouldn’t let them.” Each student’s story guided research to learn histories of injustices and strategies for becoming an upstander. Transgender and non-binary gender issues raised by students directed attention and class discussion to Kris Grey’s (2019) performance art Labeled, based on trans bodies in medical and police archival images, the Lesbian Herstory Archive (n.d.), Kevin Jenkins’s and Adetty Pérez de Miles’s (2016) interactive story, Introducing Zoe, using the application Twine, and Jenkins’ (2016–2018) Trans*form Education website; as well as Linda Stein’s (2009–2010) Fluidity of Gender print and sculpture series and Sky Cubacub’s (2015) Radical Visibility: A Queercrip Manifesto. Exploring and discussing such art and resources brought new insights and ideas for their upstander for justice comics. To break away from clichéd storylines (see Figure 6.1), Keifer-Boyd asked students to document for a week whatever they viewed on their devices to see how gender, race, and disabilities are represented. Keifer-Boyd also introduced students to feminist comic artist Alison Bechdel’s Bechdel Test,3 to see if the limited roles

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Figure 6.1 The presentation slide shown to prepare preservice art educators to teach upstanders for justice comic making includes a contorted seated human figure with brown skin, light lime-green hair, and various shades of green clothes (i.e., a long-sleeved shirt, pants, and boots) pushing—with one leg above the head, the other leg bent tight to the body, and arms stretched as far as possible in the cramped space—against a double-walled rectangular frame.4 The frame has shattered glass and a few of the red balls that encircle the lower half of the figure appear to have bounced out of confinement. Two text thought bubbles from the figure state: “Stereotypes confine” and “There have to be other storylines.” To the right of the image is a list of stereotypes common in films depicting people with disabilities5 (see Kraft & Keifer-Boyd, 2013). Source: Karen Keifer-Boyd

for women in films still held true. Students reported that unless they sought independent films or channels designated for Black or Latinx audiences, heterosexual relations, absence of people with disabilities, and White people dominated entertainment media. The exercise reveals the pervasive visual culture narratives and can be adapted to K-12 grades to develop critical awareness of stereotypes taught through popular media. After tapping into students’ viewing culture and introduction to the role of media in perpetuating stereotypes, Keifer-Boyd asked the following critical reflection questions, which move the discussion from informal learning through entertainment media to teaching to include difference through the arts and critical disability studies.

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1. What does inclusion of difference mean to you? Consider what inclusion means to you, and in your teaching practice. What does difference mean to you and in your practice? 2. Who is marked as different and in what context? 3. How is exclusion and inclusion sustained or disrupted in art curricula? 4. Who has power and privilege to be unmarked (that is race, class, gender, sexuality, and ability are not an issue)—and in what context? 5. How is disability marked or signified? 6. Whose theories, ideas, beliefs, art, histories, and lives are integral to what and how and who you teach through the arts? Disability “intersects with identity, ideology, language, politics, social oppression, and the body” (Ware, 2018, p. 195). Identity intersects with the themes of embodiment and agency to construct the foundation of disability studies (Mitchell, 2018; Naraian & Schlessinger, 2018; Shildrick, 2012; Tyler, 2019). Rosemarie Garland-Thomson (2017) studies how discourses of disability alter the way that one constructs their identity, and how disability identity becomes politicized based on a cultural norm. Through her writing, she aims to “alter the terms and expand our understanding of the cultural construction of bodies and identity by reframing ‘disability’ as another culture-bound, physically justified difference to consider along with race, gender, class, ethnicity, and sexuality” (p. 5). Furthermore, she examines issues of representation to “unravel the complexities of identity production within social narratives of bodily differences” (p. 5). What does embodiment have to do with engaging students with disabilities through the arts? Disability studies scholar Tobin Siebers (2019) posits: “Disability creates theories of embodiment more complex than the ideology of ability allows, and these many embodiments are each crucial to the understanding of humanity and its variations whether physical, mental, social, or historical” (p. 279). Bodies are physical, but it’s a physicality that was and is always mediated and remediated by language, ideologies, histories, technologies, affect, contexts, and other relationships, intensities, and interactions. Critical disability scholar Susan Flynn (2020) proposes that “the productive capacity of disability is immense, toward disrupting and re-configuring ableist understandings of the body in the material world” (p. 1). Students with disabilities may experience belittlement and feel ashamed (Jóhannsdóttir et al., 2020). It may be challenging to connect positive identity with disability, but it is necessary to develop curricula that includes

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dif­ference. Critical strategies involve carefully chosen art and introduction to artist role models, and care to use empowering rather than ableist language. Disability justice scholar Nirmala Erevelles (2012) explained “crippin’ care” as an “authentic caring praxis [that] necessitates confront[ing] the limits of one’s ignorance and ventur[ing] into spaces where diverse bodies are enabled to forge relations that are disruptive of the norm” (p. 44). Crip theory is critical disability consciousness (Keifer-Boyd, 2018). Disability studies in art education (DSAE) brings critical attention to decentering ableism in school culture through disrupting normal/abnormal binary concepts and facilitating inquiry into difference and respectful communication with people whose realities of embodied difference is a part of living with disabilities (Keifer-Boyd & Knochel, 2019; Loutzenheiser & Erevelles, 2019). Notions of difference encompass rather than replace notions of equality. DSAE engages in the socio-materiality of the built environment and discursive contexts in ways that do not limit, but rather expand human capacity for developing ethical actions, contextualizing knowledge, and negotiating differences in being. Critical disability studies methodology can inform art teaching methodology (Eisenhauer Richardson & Keifer-Boyd, 2020; Wexler, 2016; Wexler & Derby, 2020), which according to feminist disability scholar Julie Avril Minich (2016) “involves scrutinizing not bodily or mental impairments but the social norms that define particular attributes as impairments, as well as the social conditions that concentrate stigmatized attributes in particular populations” (para. 6). Minich (2016) posits that disability studies are not a distinct subject of study but rather a mode of analysis “with the goal of producing knowledge in support of justice for people with stigmatized bodies and minds . . . that are devalued or pathologized but who do not consistently identify (or are not consistently identified) as disabled” (italics in original, para. 6). Sins Invalid, an organization founded in 2006 based in San Francisco, defines disability as people “whose bodies do not conform” to cultural “notions of ‘normal’ or ‘functional’ ” (Sins Invalid, 2016, para. 2). Infusing one’s teaching with discussions of art that challenges and reclaims what disability means helps to change perceptions of disability as abnormal. The Disability Visibility Project (DVP), started in 2014 by disability activist Alice Wong, is a website collection in which people with disabilities record their own histories with StoryCorps (Wong, 2014). Listening to or reading their stories broadens knowledge about how the arts can include difference. For example, Antoine Hunter (DVP, 2017) describes how dance is a way to communicate in many languages and

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connect with people. Nadia Shammas (DVP, 2018) discusses her inspiration and process of creating CORPUS: A Comic Anthology of Bodily Ailments, which includes 60 contributors whose experiences of illness and healthcare are shared as comics. To introduce comic-making from a disability studies perspective, Keifer-Boyd adapted a four-panel story activity asking students to think about a time when they were impaired, stigmatized, bullied, or marginalized. Keifer-Boyd asked them to convey the event in the first panel, and in the second panel revisit the event in a way that decenters expectations of normal. For example, a bird, fish, or animal character symbolic of a human could enter an environment where the character thrives. In the third panel, show a close-up of an unexpected occurrence through humor, parody, or metaphor, revealing strengths and capacities of what first seemed impossible given the social conditions. In the fourth panel, zoom out to a changed social environment that fosters diversity awareness and inclusion and challenges ableism, which is privileging abled-bodied people over people whose bodies are differently abled. Students then critique their own and peers’ four-panel comic, asking: “How does the work address ableism, racism, sexism, or other discriminatory practices?” Further critique of comics, as assessment, can be facilitated by asking: 1. How is difference marked, defined, represented, and/or signified? 2. What or who is excluded or marginalized in the comic? 3. What is conveyed as normal and abnormal in the comic? 4. How are stereotypes perpetuated or challenged in the comic narrative? Additional prompts as strategies to create comics using criteria from a disability studies perspective include: 1. Create a comic from listening to a life story and include yourself in the story. 2. Locate a memory of feeling valued, unique, and being a contributing member. 3. Create a comic on how not to be complacent in perpetuating ableism, racism, sexism, or other discriminatory behaviors and systems. To stop bullying, behavior investigation is needed into the environment that fueled the behavior, which may be school and community discrimination,6 homelife abuse, media portrayals, and high-profile influential leaders’ rhetoric. However, teacher and student education is also necessary to learn what an individual can do in particular situations to stop bullying. Thus, the creation of situational narratives in the form of storyboards,

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comics, or graphic narratives provides opportunities to envision and discuss what types of actions can serve as a toolbox for upstander behavior. Preservice teachers in Keifer-Boyd’s course developed the rubrics (see Figure 6.2) in a collaborative process Keifer-Boyd facilitated to assess their learning and the comics they produced. In peer critiques, one student commended another: “The 4Bs are clearly shown throughout the comic, showing a thorough understanding of the project’s intentions.” Moreover, the formative assessment of peer’s comics by peers and Keifer-Boyd as the teacher helped students question overly simplifying upstander actions and solutions to bullying scenarios. From the study, resources, discussions, and developing their own upstander comics, the preservice art educators were now prepared to collaborate with Keifer-Boyd in developing and teaching a unit of study on upstanders for justice comics in a middle school. criteria

13–15 (A)

11–13 (B)

9–11 (C)

9–0 (D-F)

Included 4Bs & the

The 4Bs are

4Bs included but

Intended

No comic/

intended meaning

clearly shown

not integrated

meaning is

graphic

is communicated

throughout the

in the narrative.

unclear.

narrative.

visually and in

comic, showing

graphic narrative

a thorough

form. (7 pts)

understanding of the project’s intentions.

Reflection on the

Depth of

Reflection

Minimal

meaning of

reflections on

provides basic

reflections on

the project in

the relationship

definitions of

the project

relationship to

between the

the 4Bs without

incorporating

the 4Bs and

project and

clarifying the

the 4Bs and

Stein’s art (blog

Stein’s 4Bs in

relationship to

Stein’s art.

post). (4 pts)

her art.

the project.

Reflect on the

Depth of reflections Reflection

Minimal

learning process

on exploration

provides basic

reflections on

(blog post).

into new

steps on how to

learning.

(4 pts)

learning.

create a comic.

No reflection.

No reflection.

Figure 6.2 Rubrics created by preservice art teachers to assess the students’ comics Source: Karen Keifer-Boyd

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Middle School Art Class Upstanders for Justice Comics In the sixth-grade class of 25 students, the preservice teachers and Keifer-Boyd led an activity of identifying the 4Bs in three artworks. The first work shown was Vincent De Costa Smith’s “First Day of School” (1965), a lithograph of a scene of the first day a Black girl enters a segregated White school. Also projected on the large wall-size screen in the classroom (and for those on Zoom on their computer screens) was the 1964 painting, “The Problem We All Live With (Ruby Bridges)” by Norman Rockwell, which is of an African American girl, 6-year-old Ruby Bridges, wearing a white dress as she’s escorted by four federal marshals to her first day of class at an all-White school in 1960; racial slurs and tomato remnants line the wall behind her. The group also viewed a 2020 remix: Ruby Bridges (1954–) from Rockwell remixed with a photo of Kamala Harris (1964–). The following questions generated an animated discussion among the sixth graders: How is the little girl going to school a first? How do you think she felt? Have you ever had to be brave to break through social barriers that made you feel like you were not wanted? How is Kamala Harris being the first? How is she breaking through social barriers? Have you ever noticed someone who might be feeling they don’t belong? From the curriculum’s intro to the conclusion, the focus was on students developing an upstander narrative using comic techniques such as character development, shaped panels, and intentional possibility-making with the gutters (i.e., spaces) between panels (Greer, 2020). Comics by G. H. Greer and Jason Reynold, among others, provided examples to support differentiated curriculum. What follows are strategies and resources for middle school art educators to teach Upstanders for Justice comic-­ making.

Upstanders for Justice Character Development: Pre-Assessment Strategies To begin a unit of study, inclusion practices seek to understand what students know and to tap into their lived experiences in relation to the curricular goals. The preservice art educators and Keifer-Boyd designed the first 45-minute class meeting with the sixth graders to do so with carefully designed pre-assessment strategies.7 The goal for the first lesson was to introduce the 4Bs by having students identify

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a bully, bullied, bystander, and brave upstander in art about events. Vincent De Costa Smith’s “First Day of School” (1965) was chosen for several reasons, summarized next as assessment criteria for selecting art as a catalyst for pre-assessment activities. • Select a work that visually includes all or most of the 4Bs. • Select art in which elements are relevant to the goals of the project. • Select art from a nearby museum, if possible, and also from elsewhere. • Select art about past events that relate to the current times and lives of the students. • Select an event where several artists have created art about the event, and bring all the works into the unit of study. The pre-assessment process began by asking sixth graders to write three words to describe upstander actions or characteristics. One of the preservice art educators guided by stating: “Think about someone you know or have heard about who is an upstander, or perhaps think of yourself as an upstander. What acts or actions might a person do that you would consider upstander actions? What does it mean to be an upstander?” Students’ responses included “to stand up for someone,” “help a friend at school,” “help someone with something,” “to talk or act as an independent person,” and “characteristics could be brave, kind, understanding.” Most gave short responses, but two elaborated on the 4Bs. A female sixth grader described “a brave upstander means that you’re standing up for the person who was being bullied. Bully means that you’re being really rude to somebody, and a bystander means you’re not doing anything about it and just watching.” A male sixth grader responded: “an upstander is someone who stands up and takes action to bullying, and a bystander is someone who doesn’t do anything to help bullying, and cyberbullying is bullying someone with the use of technology.” After students shared their descriptors of an upstander, the preservice teachers showed two other artworks and then asked the sixth graders to discuss Da Costa Smith’s lithograph with regards to the 4Bs. The sixth graders appeared engaged as they responded to the questions: How is the little girl going to school a first? How do you think she felt? Have you ever had to be brave to break through social barriers that

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made you feel like you were not wanted? How is Kamala Harris being the first? How is she breaking through social barriers? Have you ever noticed someone who might be feeling they don’t belong? About 15 minutes into the 45-minute class session, the sixth graders drew a character doing an upstander action. Drawing prompts included the following questions and guidance: What would this upstander be doing? What is it about this character that makes them an upstander? For the next 15 minutes, explore drawing the character in different styles, doing different actions, within different scenarios in which your upstander character is involved. Sketch your character using any colors and style, trying different possibilities to inspire your upstander for justice comics. In the final 10 minutes of the class session, students shared their drawings and discussed upstander actions and characteristics. One girl showed her character and described how upstander actions can be in everyday events, such as how humans care for each other and our environment. The final five minutes of the class session concluded with encouraging students to think about what story they wanted to tell involving an upstander action. One sixth-grade student was literally jumping up and down with excitement at the end of the class session when she heard the class was going to create storyboards the next day.

Storyboard (Lesson 2) The next class session with the sixth graders focused on storyboards with a “bellringer” question,8 “What is a storyboard?” for students to respond on Padlet.9 Most defined a storyboard as a story told with a series of pictures and no words, and several emphasized storyboards could be any length. A few students provided more elaborated responses, perhaps from searching the term on the Internet. For example, a male sixth grader noted: “A storyboard is a blueprint type sketch for a comic, book, story, movie, etc. Storyboards are very useful to make before your real, full draft.” From their responses, the preservice teachers and Keifer-Boyd could elaborate, correct misunderstandings, and acknowledge and compliment students with regards to their responses. It is important to conduct formative assessment throughout the comic-making activity. Therefore, a common technique of comic artists to create storyboards in which they sketch their ideas seemed a good way to discuss ideas and to develop further prior to

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a final rendering of the comic. Imagining and drawing upstander characters in different situations helped generate ideas and to conceptualize an upstander character’s life. The sixth-grade class meets daily for 45 minutes. Each comic strategy introduced in the subsequent days impacted how students told their upstander narrative as a comic. At the end of each class meeting, in the final 10 to 15 minutes, students showed their storyboards and identified who is the brave upstander, bully, bullied, and bystander in their own and each other’s comics. As they did so, the team of preservice teachers and Keifer-Boyd reinforced and extended notions of upstander behavior the sixth graders introduced in their drawings.

Shapes of Panels Convey Meaning (Lesson 3) Lesson 3 focused on how meaning can be conveyed with different shapes of panels to tell the story. A panel can be squares, rectangular, circles, irregular shapes, and even layered on each other. For example, having experienced Covid, Keifer-Boyd used lungs as her panel shapes (see Figure 6.3).

Figure 6.3 Karen Keifer-Boyd’s comic panels shaped like lungs. Comic panels can even be a shape, like two parts of lungs with a story of Covid inside the shapes, or a heart with a story of love inside. Source: Karen Keifer-Boyd

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Since the sixth graders had recently explored watercolors, Keifer-Boyd looked for a comic that used a wide range of watercolor techniques, was related to issues of injustice, and included upstanders for justice. Award-winning author Jason Reynolds’s Long Way Down, illustrated by Danica Novgorodoff with emotionally impactful watercolor paintings that blend and bleed into each other, was an ideal choice given rave reviews by middle school teachers who had included Reynolds’s graphic novel in their teaching. Moreover, issues of injustice and complexity of being an upstander are the focus of the graphic novel. Reynolds’s story is about a 15-year-old youth who holds an internal dialogue as he travels down an elevator; on each floor, a deceased character enters and adds a new perspective as the youth contemplates whether to kill to avenge the death of his brother or take an alternative action to end the cycle of violence to brothers. To encourage students to look closely at Jason Reynolds’s comic, the classroom art teacher who had taught watercolor techniques asked the sixth graders to identify the different processes they tried (especially gradation) in Reynolds’s comic. Watercolor experiments can be cut and assembled as a character, element, or scene and collaged into the comic panels. With showing examples (see Appendix A) and suggesting that a character extend beyond the boundaries of a panel, panels can be irregular shapes and overlap, and giving the prompt: “If a panel was a shape of birds, or dinosaurs, or another shape, what stories could be told?” students imagined and shared ideas of stories in particular shapes of panels. Each example shown was through discussion by posing questions. For example, in showing how panels can “bleed” into each other, a comic term for merging or overlapping, students also viewed Linda Stein’s (2020) tapestry, I Sell the Shadow to Support the Substance 1042 [Kamala Harris], on their computers and the large screen in the art room to find Ruby Bridges and Kamala Harris depicted in Linda Stein’s tapestry. Students constructed possibility-making stories expressed by the overlapping collaged panels that bleed into each other combined with images of upstanders for justice: Shirley Chisholm, Flo Kennedy, and Anita Hill.

Shapes of Speech and Thought Bubbles Convey Meaning (Lesson 4) The fourth lesson focused on thought and speech bubbles in how they too could be shaped to convey meaning, and direct to who’s speaking or thinking (see Figure 6.4).

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Figure 6.4 The presentation slide introduced the use of thought and speech bubbles, and narrative blocks, as well as shape, size, and font design variations to convey meaning. Source: Karen Keifer-Boyd

Students viewed comics with different types of speech bubbles and then drew their own with words inside and said aloud what it would sound like (e.g., “brave” in thought bubbles compared to “brave” in a sharp-edged bold speech bubble). Students also sketched onomatopoeias, which are sound effect words such as “moo,” “crash”—words that depict noises or sounds. They also drew symbols that showed what the character is feeling or thinking. A common example in a comic is when a character has an idea, suddenly a light bulb appears.

Gutter: Where Imagination Connects Juxtaposed Images (Lesson 5) Unique and critical to comic-making are the spaces between the images in comics, called “gutters.” Comic artist Scott McCloud emphasizes how gutters are spaces that foster imagination as the viewer forms meaning from the different images on each side of the gutter.10 An activity to teach the power of gutters in comics is to have students draw two panels and then place next to each other in juxtaposition and discuss the gutter—what is imagined from connecting the two images as narrative. Alternatively, students could draw one panel and partner with another and put their panels together with a space between and imagine what happened in the space between the two panels to connect the panels as a narrative. Keifer-Boyd also introduced how to show context with long shots of an entire scene in one comic panel and particulars

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(close-ups). An online flashcard-type game11 provides students with immediate feedback in learning terms for comic-making processes introduced in the first five lessons in the unit of study. The game-like quiz is a type of assessment that teaches as well as assesses learning. Students can then be encouraged to use all the elements: shaped panels, different types of speech bubbles, gutters, different approaches, and ideation variations for upstanders for justice and then present their sketches, experiments, and storyboards to the class for feedback and suggestions as formative assessment to develop their comic.

From Storyboard to Comic to Summative Assessment about the Lesson, Pedagogy, and Student Learning (Lesson 6) In Lesson 6, which included daily studio time for a week, the preservice art teachers and Keifer-Boyd introduced the sixth graders to comic-making applications with a hyperlinked list so that they could try the apps and decide which worked best for them.12 The teachers also encouraged use of any style and medium, with reference to drawing, watercolor, collage, texture rubbings, and other artmaking processes the sixth graders had learned in previous units of study. One preservice teacher was interested in applying what she had learned the prior semester by having the sixth graders collaboratively create the rubrics to assess their learning and comics. Another preservice teacher was interested in developing an assessment of the comic unit of study and pedagogy. She asked students to give feedback on what they struggled with or loved the most about creating their storyboards. Specifically, she asked: “Did it help you sort out your story/character?” Responses included several who did not enjoy having “to draw some of the stuff every time.” Some noted what they planned to redo to improve the look and organization of the story. Students valued the project because as one sixth grader stated: “I got to try something about my everyday life and express myself.” Similarly, another stated: “I enjoyed how I could draw my own stuff not in one shape the whole time.” Another described: “I like how the storyboard went because it helped me learn how bullying went and how to safely stop it.” The preservice teachers showed their storyboard sketches and the finished comics they created the semester prior and gave advice from what they learned in doing so.

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They described their process and encouraged the sixth graders to explore different materials and digital applications and then decide on the materials/programs they want to use to create their comic.

Dialogue in the Comic: Peer Assessment About Their Comics (Lesson 7) The 45-minute class session began by having sixth graders joining with one or more to discuss their stories with each other. The preservice art teachers asked that each in the group read theirs aloud or ask another to read theirs so that all were read within the small group. The comic artists described the message they intended, and the group discussed ways to convey the message through the visual and dialogic narrative of the comic. Then each group shared with the whole class about their small group discussion and showed their comics. The sixth graders had several studio class sessions to create and complete their comic.

Comic Critique: Peer, Self, and Group Assessment (Lesson 8) The instructions were: Submit your picture of the whole comic to Padlet. Describe the Upstander in your comic! What are they doing that makes them an Upstander? Identify the Upstander activity in three student comics projected. Select one of your peers’ comics on Padlet and make a note below it responding to the following questions: • What if the bully didn’t listen to the upstander? • What if the upstander did something different? • What if there was more than one upstander? Next, look closely at the panels and consider if you changed the panel shapes, added or deleted thought and speech bubbles, changed the background or characters, or the organization of the panels—how would such changes alter the narrative? Draw one panel that will replace another in the comic that will support or challenge the upstander using one of the 4Bs.

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Post your comic on Padlet with the name of the artist who created the comic that you altered! Write a comment as response to the altered version of your comic. While students were posting their comics, the teachers asked the following discussion questions for dialogic and conversational response with encouragement to post in the chat or call out responses rather than raising a hand: • • • • •

What do you like about this comic? Who is the upstander? How do you know this character is the upstander? What is the upstander doing? What is the resolution to this comic?

Students wrote reflective statements about their comic, a self-reflective assessment, in the final 10 minutes of the 45-minute session with regards to the following prompts. • Do you need more time to complete your comic and what would you do or change? Add color? Trace pencil with markers? Glue cut paper or fabric from magazines or junk mail for texture? Other ideas? • Who was your upstander? • What was it like to make a comic strip? • What can you do to be an upstander in your life?

Student-Centered Rubric: Summative Assessment of Student Learning and Their Comics To develop criteria for rubrics to assess student learning, a preservice educator in Keifer-Boyd’s Curriculum, Pedagogy, and Assessment senior-level university course who had appreciated the student-created rubrics the preservice art teachers did for the comic project in the prior semester, facilitated sixth graders to develop a rubric. To do so, the preservice teacher developed two open-ended questions and a Google poll for response to learn from the sixth graders. She asked: What parts of this project do you value the most? What do you want to be graded on? From their responses, she organized four criteria for an assessment rubric: (a) storyline and dialogue, (b) creative exploration, (c) effort taken, and (d) organization (see Figure 6.5).

Satisfactory (17–0)

The student creates a comic with The student creates a comic The student has little to no relevant dialogue between that has dialogue between dialogue, their storyline is characters to communicate the characters, and a unfinished, and the 4Bs are the storyline, and creates an storyline that includes not included in the comic. engaging storyline that includes the 4Bs. The student demonstrates the 4Bs as the main focus of that they do not have a clear the comic. The student shows understanding of the prompt. a clear understanding of the project prompt of a brave upstander.

Proficient (21–18)

Figure 6.5  Claire Boty’s Upstanders for justice comic project rubric created with and for sixth graders Source: Claire Boty

Creative The student demonstrates the The student created a comic The student did not create an Exploration (25) creation of an original project, based more on clichés original project, and/or did not exploration of materials, and an instead of a creative explore materials and medium imaginative comic. approach and did some options. exploration of material options.

Storyline and Dialogue [includes 4Bs] (25)

Criteria (points) Excellent (25–22)

Student’s Grade Teacher’s Grade

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Proficient (21–18)

Satisfactory (17–0)

Figure 6.5 (Continued)

TOTAL

The student’s comic story can The student’s panels do not be followed and shows communicate the story and do some demonstration of not indicate planning for the planning taking place final comic. throughout the project.

The student’s comic reflects The student’s comic shows The student’s artwork immense time taken to create effort to create the comic, demonstrates minimal effort, it, incorporation of a distinct has a consistent style, no consistent or distinctive artistic style, and refinement as and a final product was artistic style, and the project a finished comic. completed. was not completed or is partially complete.

Organization (25) The student’s comic panels are designed and arranged to clearly communicate the story and demonstrate planning throughout the storyboard process for the final comic.

Effort Taken (25)

Criteria (points) Excellent (25–22)

Student’s Grade Teacher’s Grade

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Preservice educator Claire Boty conceptualized, developed the assessment tools, implemented, analyzed the responses from the sixth graders, as well as decided and entered the teacher grade based on students’ self-assessment and their storyboards and comics. Most of the sixth graders turned their storyboard into their final comic. In Keifer-Boyd’s university course discussion, the preservice art teachers discussed reasons why most kept to their storyboard as their final comic and possible ways to encourage starting anew for the comic. Nevertheless, at the end of each class, students held their work to the camera on their Chromebook and Keifer-Boyd (with student and teacher permission) took screenshots. Keifer-Boyd took many screenshot photos throughout each class. The art teacher took photos with her phone camera as she walked around, providing another perspective. Each university class after teaching sixth graders via Zoom, the preservice teachers began by looking at and discussing the photos of students creating and their art. Preservice art teacher Claire Boty also presented her process, the student work, and evaluations at each stage, during which her peers in the university course and Professor Keifer-Boyd provided feedback and gave suggestions.

SJAE Principle: Include Difference The university students, who were in Keifer-Boyd’s Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 undergraduate art education courses, discussed whether the comics created by the sixth graders felt authentic to them, provocative to others, and injustices were encountered by brave upstanders. Anne Ishii, Executive Director of Asian Arts Initiative, echoes a similar sentiment: If you’re a brave artist of color, you’re working on your craft and centering your practice, but the rubric is not the standard “is this good?” but rather, does this art feel authentic? Is it provocative? Does it invite an overlooked perspective? (Ishii, 2021) For a full year, one of the most challenging years in most people’s lives due to the pandemic, Keifer-Boyd met twice a week for two hours each time with preservice art teachers. The group of four students were also in other classes together and were very supportive of each other during difficult times with deaths of loved ones and great uncertainty. The last class meeting was filled with tenderness to each other and a sense of the power of art education to teach social justice.

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Notes 1 Littleglobe Disability Justice Collective, founded in 2013 and based in New Mexico, has a website that presents current and archived arts-based projects and bios of artists, as well as links to affiliate collectives (see www.littleglobe.org/portfolio/disability-justice-collective). The D.O.P.E. Collective, founded in 2015 and based in Buffalo, New York, presents inclusion principles with graphics and offers free and accessible art workshops with booking information at their website (see www.dopewny.org). Jonathan Novick’s (2014) film Don’t Look Down on Me concludes with Novick stating: “Next time you see someone who is different than you, think about what their day may be like, think about all the events of their lives leading up to that point, then think about their day, and then think about what part of their day do you want to be.” Showing the short film, available online, is an excellent catalyst to learn from first-person experience and question notions of normative ways of being. For more on an activity with Novick’s film as a catalyst, see Keifer-Boyd (2018). 2 A synopsis of the contributions, along with a video excerpt and notable quote, of each of the 11 influential Black feminist activists who are included in the play yet seldom included in U.S. history education, is at https://www.broadwaybox.com/daily-scoop/11-black-wom en-influenced-shape-gloria-steinem/ (Broadway Box Staff, 2019). 3 Alison Bechdel’s 1985 comic strip “The Rule,” in the series Dykes to Watch Out For, popularized a test that she and Liz Wallace created as a way to assess whether a film meets three basic requirements in which women characters in a story have agency. See Bechdel (2001–2021). The criteria are: (1) It has to have a least two [named] women in it, (2) who talk to each other, (3) about something besides a man. The comic is linked at https:// dykestowatchoutfor.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/The-Rule-cleaned-up.jpg A list of movies, with an interactive component to add more, are assessed according to passing or not the Bechdel Test at https://bechdeltest.com/ 4 Keifer-Boyd created the image as an avatar in Second Life, which is a virtual reality program. She performed with her avatar and captured a still from her performance. Keifer-Boyd’s avatar has green hair because she had a doll with green hair that her great-aunt gave to her as a little girl. Her great-aunt Emma was diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic. Emma went to the police for protection, and they placed her for eight years (1924–32) in a Cleveland, Ohio, asylum where she received electric shock treatments. When released, Emma returned to designing, creating patterns, and sewing beautiful original clothes as her profession. However, she used a treadle mill sewing machine and would not touch anything electric for the rest of her life. She lived for more than 80 years into the 1970s. In the 1960s, Aunt Emma cared for Keifer-Boyd and her brother, as their mother had three jobs and their father worked long hours away from home. Keifer-Boyd treasures those first 13 years of her life with Aunt Emma as her creative guide as she observed her create three-dimensional forms from fabric.

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5 See Chapter 2 in Kraft and Keifer-Boyd’s (2013) book, Including Difference, regarding art education inquiry into stereotypes of disabled people in films. 6 “Discrimination is an act of differential treatment toward a group or an individual as a member of a group that usually creates a disadvantage for that individual or group. Whether rooted in racial, gender, sexual, religious, or class differences, or other forms of exclusion, discrimination functions to disempower those who do not fit into what mainstream or dominant culture maintains as the ‘norm.’ . . . . . . Instead of treatment based on individual merit or specific circumstances, prejudice and bias may act as barriers to their full inclusion and integration in society” (Montreal City Mission, 2014, para. 7). 7 Pre-assessment strategies, as discussed in Chapter 1, are intended for teachers to learn what students know in relation to the content to be taught. Also, the strategies should be designed to introduce the topic of study and to motivate learning (Gusky & McTighe, 2016). Therefore, pre-assessment strategies need to engage and stimulate curiosity and excitement about learning more. 8 Bellringer questions are short activities or assignments that are typically in the form of questions or prompts and displayed for students to see and do as they enter the classroom. The comic lesson included bellringers as a pre-assessment strategy and to introduce the focus for the class period; and because the art teacher used the term (and needed the time for individual conversations with those exiting and entering the room, and for transitioning from the lesson for the prior class to the lesson for the entering class), and the students knew what a bellringer meant and what to do. 9 Padlet is a digital cloud-based bulletin board allowing real-time posts of images and text. 10 See Scott McCloud’s (1994) Understanding Comics panel transition suggestions told through comic panels and visual examples of the following:

1. moment to moment 2. action to action 3. subject to subject 4. scene to scene 5. aspect to aspect 6. non-sequitur 11 The game-like quiz is at https://quizlet.com/192672892/flashcards 12 Each student had a Chromebook provided by the school. The school’s technology specialist guided how programs could be downloaded on student Chromebooks. The list of potential apps for comic-making the sixth graders used was from https://www.educatorstechnology. com/2016/02/6-powerful-chromebook-apps-for-creating.html and https://www.drawing tabletworld.com/free-animation-apps-for-chromebook/ (Educational Technology and Mobile Learning, 2021).

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References Attwood, A. I., & Gerber, J. L. (2020). Comic books and graphic novels for the differentiated humanities classroom, Kappa Delta Pi Record, 56(4), 176–182. https://doi.org/10.1080/002 28958.2020.1813520 Bechdel, A. (1985). The rule [comic strip]. https://dykestowatchoutfor.com/wp-content/ uploads/2014/05/The-Rule-cleaned-up.jpg Bechdel, A. (2001–2021a). Dykes to watch out for [comic series]. https://dykestowatchoutfor. com/strip-archive-by-number/ Bechdel, A. (2001–2021b). Bechdel test movie list. https://bechdeltest.com/ Broadway Box Staff. (2019, February 28). 11 Black women who helped shape Gloria Steinem & the second wave feminist movement. The Daily Scoop. https://www.broadwaybox.com/dai ly-scoop/11-black-women-influenced-shape-gloria-steinem/ Cubacub, S. (2015). Radical visibility: A queercrip manifesto [video]. Rebirth garments radical visibility zine: A magazine and resource celebrating Disabled Queer Joy! http://rebirthgar ments.com/radical-visibility-zine D.O.P.E. Collective. www.dopewny.org DVP. (2017, January 17). DVP interview: Antoine Hunter and Alice Wong. https://disabilityvisi bilityproject.com/2018/12/04/dvp-interview-antoine-hunter-and-alice-wong/ DVP. (2018, February 21). CORPUS comics anthology: Interview with Nadia Shammas. https:// disabilityvisibilityproject.com/2018/02/21/corpus-comics-anthology-interview-with-na dia-shammas/ Educational Technology and Mobile Learning. (2021). 6 Powerful Chromebook apps for creating educational animation and annotated video. https://www.educatorstechnology. com/2016/02/6-powerful-chromebook-apps-for-creating.html (Eisenhauer) Richardson, J., & Keifer-Boyd, K. (2020). A poetic of crip time and pandemic time: Arts education and disability justice. Research in Arts Education, 4, 1–5. https://researtsedu. com/2020-december Erevelles, N. (2012). “What . . . [thought] cannot bear to know”: Crippin’ the limits of “Thinkability”. Review of Disability Studies: An International Journal, 8(3), 35–44. Farley, J., Gallagher, J., & Bruna, K. R. (2020). Disrupting narrow conceptions of justice: Exploring and expanding ‘bullying’ and ‘upstanding’ in a university honors course. Education, Citizenship and Social Justice, 15(3), 258–273. https://doi.org/10.1177/1746197919853808 Flynn, S. (2020). Corporeality and critical disability studies: Toward an informed epistemology of embodiment, Disability & Society. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2020.1755237 Fountain, H. R. L. (2014). Art education in practice: Differentiated instruction in art. Davis. Garland-Thomson, R. (2017). Extraordinary bodies: Figuring physical disability in American culture and literature (20th Anniversary Ed., with a new foreword by the author). Columbia University Press.

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Great Performances. (2021). Gloria: A life (S47, Ep25, televised play premiered 6/26/2020). https://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/gloria-a-life-about-the-film/10415/ Greer, G. H. (2020). Comics-making as possibility-making: Resisting the inequitable distribution of imagined futures. Visual Culture & Gender, 15, 29–43. Grey, K. (2019). Labeled [performance art]. https://kristingrey.com/home.html Gusky, T. R., & McTighe, J. (2016). Pre-assessment: Promises and cautions. Educational Leadership, 73(7), 38–43. Henderson, L. (Dir.). (2015). Holocaust heroes: Fierce females [film]. Have Art: Will Travel, Inc. https://www.lindastein.com/series-h2f2-holocaust-heroes-fierce-females-film Hviid, P., & Märtsin, M. (Eds.). (2019). Culture in education and education in culture: Tensioned dialogues and creative constructions. Springer. Ishii, A. (2021, May 28). A brave space for brave art. https://mellon.org/shared-experiencesblog/brave-space-brave-art/ Jenkins, K. (2016–2018). Trans*form education. http://trans-form-education.weebly.com/edu cation.html Jenkins, K., & Pérez de Miles, A. (2016). Introducing Zoe [Interactive story]. https://philome.la/ kcjenkins9/introducing-zoe/play/index.html Jóhannsdóttir, Á., Egilson, S. T., & Gibson, B. E. (2020). What’s shame got to do with it? The importance of affect in critical disability studies, Disability & Society, 1–16. https://doi.org/ 10.1080/09687599.2020.1751076 Karpur, A., Vasudevan, V., Lello, A., Frazier, T. W., & Shih, A. (2021). Food insecurity in the households of children with autism spectrum disorders and intellectual disabilities in the United States: Analysis of the National Survey of Children’s Health Data 2016–2018. Autism, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1177/13623613211019159 Keifer-Boyd, K. (2018). Creativity, disability, diversity, and inclusion. In J. B. Crockett & S. M. Malley (Eds.), Handbook of arts education and special education: Policy, research, and practices (pp. 54–65). Routledge. Keifer-Boyd, K., Bastos, F., Richardson, S., & Wexler, A. (2018). Disability justice: Rethinking “inclusion” in arts education research. Studies in Art Education, 59(3), 267–271. Keifer-Boyd, K., & Knochel, A. D. (2019). Decentering normal. In R. L. Garner (Ed.), Exploring digital technologies for art-based special education: Models and methods for inclusive K-12 classrooms (pp. 5–15). Routledge. Kozol, J. (2012). Fire in the ashes: Twenty-five years among the poorest children in America. Crown. Kraft, M., & Keifer-Boyd, K. (2013). Including difference: A communitarian approach to art education in the least restrictive environment. National Art Education Association. Lesbian Herstory Archives. (n.d.). Digital culture of metropolitan New York. http://dcmny.org/ islandora/search/?type=edismax&cp=lesbianherstory%3Acollection Littleglobe Disability Justice Collective. www.littleglobe.org/portfolio/disability-justice-­ collective.

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Loutzenheiser, L. W., & Erevelles, N. (2019). [Special issue] ‘What’s disability got to do with it?’: Crippin’ educational studies at the intersections. Educational Studies, 54(3), 1–12. https:// doi.org/10.1080/00131946.2018.1463768 Lugones, M. (2007). Heterosexualism and the colonial/modern gender system. Hypatia, 22(1), 186–209. Mann, E. (writer), Paulus, D. (director), Roth, D. (producer), & Horn, D. (director) (2020). Gloria: A life [televised play]. Great Performances, S47, Ep25. https://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/ gloria-a-life-about-the-film/10415/ McCloud, S. (1994). Understanding comics: The invisible art. HarperCollins Publisher. Minich, J. A. (2016). Enabling whom? Critical disability studies now. Lateral, 5(1). http://csalat eral.org/wp/issue/5-1/forum-alt-humanities-critical-disability-studies-now-minich/ Mitchell, D. T. (2018). The biopolitics of disability: Neoliberalism, ablenationalism, and peripheral embodiment. University of Michigan Press. Montreal City Mission. (2014). Our mission. https://www.montrealcitymission.org/mission Naraian, S., & Schlessinger, S. (2018). Becoming an inclusive educator: Agentive maneuverings in collaboratively taught classrooms. Teaching and Teacher Education, 71, 179–189. Novick, J. (2014). Don’t look down on me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mD_PWU6K514 Patchin, J. W. (2019). School bullying rates increased by 35% from 2016 to 2019. Cyberbullying Research Center. https://cyberbullying.org/school-bullying-rates-increase-by-35-from2016-to-2019 Penketh, C. (2017). Inclusion and art education: ‘Welcome to the big room, everything’s alright’. The International Journal of Art & Design, 36(2), 153–163. https://doi.org/10.1111/ jade.12084 Raskind, I. G. (2020). Hunger does discriminate: Addressing structural racism and economic inequality in food insecurity research. American Journal of Public Health, 110(9), 1264–1265. http://dx.doi.org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/10.2105/AJPH.2020.305841 Reynolds, J. (2017). Long way down: The graphic novel (D. Novgorodoff, illustrator). Simon & Schuster. Shildrick, M. (2012). Critical disability studies: Rethinking the conventions for the age of postmodernity. In N. Watson, A. Roulstone, & C. Thomas (Eds.), Routledge handbook of disability studies (pp. 30–41). Routledge. Siebers, T. (2019). Returning the social to the social model. In D. T. Mitchell, S. Antebi, & S. L. Snyder (Eds.), The matter of disability: Materiality, biopolitics, crip affect (pp. 39–47). University of Michigan Press. https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.9365129 Sins Invalid. (2016). An unshamed claim to beauty in the face of invisibility: Our mission. http:// sinsinvalid.org/mission.html Stein, L. (2009–2016). Fluidity of gender: Sculpture by Linda Stein series [art]. https://www. lindastein.com/series/fog

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Stein, L. (2015). Holocaust heroes: Fierce females [film]. https://www.lindastein.com/seriesh2f2-holocaust-heroes-fierce-females-film Stein, L. (2020). I sell the shadow to support the substance 1042 [Kamala Harris]. https://www. lindastein.com/series-sexism-harris Thompson, M. H. (2011). Linda Stein’s “fluidity of gender” (2009–2010). Sex Roles, 65(7–8), 647–650. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-011-9973-9 Tyler, M. (2019). Reassembling difference? Rethinking inclusion through/as embodied ethics. Human Relations, 72(1), 48–68. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726718764264 Vavrus, M. J. (2015). Diversity and education: A critical multicultural approach. Teachers College Press. Ware, L. (2018). Disability studies in K-12 education. In L. Davis (Ed.), Beginning with disability: A primer (pp. 259–268). Routledge. Wexler, A. (2016). Re-imagining inclusion/exclusion: Unpacking assumption and contradictions in arts and special education from a critical disability studies perspective. The Journal of Social Theory in Art Education, 36, 32–42. Wexler, A., & Derby, J. (Eds.). (2020). Contemporary art and disability studies. Routledge. Wong, A. (2014). Disability visibility project: Recording disability history, one story at a time. https://disabilityvisibilityproject.com/

Appendix A

Comic Making Apps, Books, & Resources: • Canva,  Pixton,  Storyboard That,  Make Beliefs Comix,  Procreate, and Painterly; among others listed at https://www.commonsense.org/education/toppicks/classroom-friendly-websites-and-apps-for-making-comics • Berry, L. (2019). Making Comics. Drawn and Quarterly. • Pak, G., & Van Lente, F. (2014). Make Comics Like the Pros: The Inside Scoop on How to Write, Draw, and Sell Your Comic Books and Graphic Novels. WatsonGuptill. • Gaiman, N. “Step-by-Step Guide for Making Comics”, Masterclass.com: https:// www.masterclass.com/classes/neil-gaiman-teaches-the-art-of-storytelling • Boyd, N. (2021). “Defining the Bystander Effect: Kitty Genovese Murder & Research by Latane and Darley”, Study.com: https://study.com/academy/les son/defining-the-bystander-effect-kitty-genovese-murder-research-by-lataneand-darley.html • List of Children’s Picture Books: Stories About Activism: https://diversebook finder.org/content/activism/ • McDavis-Conway, S., & Hopkins, R. (2019). “Storytelling, Imagination and Activism” Resilience.org. https://www.resilience.org/stories/2019-02-21/story telling-imagination-and-activism/ • Quiz: https://quizlet.com/192672892/flashcards • Zavarise, G. (2019). “A Panel Shaped Screen: screen shaped panels and games that play like comics”, Rockpapershotgun.com: https://www.rockpapershot gun.com/a-panel-shaped-screen-screen-shaped-panels-and-games-that-playlike-comics

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Examples: • Greer, G. H. (n.d.). Comics. https://gh-greer.com/#/nest/ • Lu, A. (2018). The Beat: The news blog of comics culture. https://www.comics beat.com/this-kickstarter-comics-anthology-is-for-all-of-us-whove-felt-alonein-our-sicknesses/?sf84555555 = 1 • Shammas, N. (2019). Corpus: A comic anthology about bodily ailments. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1596187007/corpus-a-comic-antho logy-of-bodily-ailments • McGing, M., & Walker, E. (2019). Bee the Upstander. L. Stein (Ed.), A Have Art Will Travel! Production. http://h2f2encounters.cyberhouse.emitto.net/wp-con tent/uploads/2021/03/Comic-Issue-1.pdf • Stein, L., Ames, S., D’Amico, I., & Joyce, A. (2020). Bee the Upstander. Passage Magazine. A Have Art Will Travel! Production, 2. http://www.passagevision. com/stein2.html

Chapter Seven Become Upstanders to Injustice Designing Curricula Towards Becoming Upstanders to Injustice Visualizing Data through Art: An Example of a Student-led Curriculum Conclusion: Youth and Social Transformation References

During the summer of 2020, many people engaged in global protests against racial injustices. However, given the Covid-19 pandemic, some found alternatives to gathering in public protests and turned to creative actions to become upstanders against injustice. Artistic expressions honored, memorialized, and educated about Black lives that were lost to police aggression and violence. For example, 11-year-old Elizabeth (Elsa) made an artwork which shows a brown, tear-filled eye looking back at the viewer. She stated: I put ‘My Life Matters’ around [the image] since, as a Black person, my life matters. And Black lives matter as a whole community. In the back, are the names of some of the people who have experienced this, and I put some of the recent names. I tried to dig deeper to find the names of those who didn’t make the breaking news. I didn’t want their lives to be swept under the rug (Chicago Tribune, June 18, 2020). Elsa Furr stood up to injustice by educating herself and viewers of her data visualization artwork concerning the injustices to Black people killed by police in the United States. How can art education support students to become upstanders against injustice? Art educator Alina Campana (2011) states that being an upstander is not simply “synonymous with advocate. Nor is it limited to individuals protesting in the streets. Rather, it encompasses a variety of work toward social and political consciousness, empowerment, and change” (p. 281). Students can learn to use creative agency and rhetoric (visual, auditory, performative) as upstander actions of expression, as strategies of persuasion to convince, transform, construct knowledge, influence, and shape thinking (Dewhurst, 2011). The art can be loud and public, subtle, or even anonymous. DOI: 10.4324/9781003183716-7

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Chapter 7 offers a non-prescriptive curriculum design framework, highlighted with an example curriculum, Visualizing Data through Art. The chapter shares ideas for developing curriculum with assessment activities that promote meaningful understandings and develop critical awareness to catalyze students from apathy and hopelessness toward a willful intention and motivation to learn more. The framework guides teachers on how to work with students to co-create learning opportunities that foster critical awareness, and develop students’ capacity and motivation to research and present research through artistic processes. The pedagogical strategies emphasize sharing and critiquing student artwork, student-centered inquiry, research, dialogue, and writing activities.

Designing Curricula Towards Becoming Upstanders to Injustice Curriculum is framed by an overarching theme or concept, referred to by many art educators as enduring ideas or big ideas (e.g., Stewart & Walker, 2005). For U.S. art teachers in states that have adopted edTPA, which stands for Educative Teacher Performance Assessment, a central focus informs and integrates curriculum planning, facilitation of student-driven inquiry, and assessment (Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning & Equity, 2015). For example, in edTPA, preservice teachers must be explicit about designing curriculum that includes students’ prior academic learning, and “personal, cultural, and community assets related to the central focus” (2015, p. 11). Examples of upstanders to injustice curriculum include many of Olivia Gude’s Spiral Workshops,1 and The Dinner Party Curriculum Project (Nordlund et al., 2010), as well as other curricular frameworks offered by the Judy Chicago Art Education Collection housed at Penn State University and online with its Participatory Art Pedagogy2 informed by feminist principles (Keifer-Boyd, 2011). What follows is a curricular framework that supports students in developing a social justice focus and social-emotional learning objectives, which build from lived experiences. Student-centered approaches can catalyze critical inquiry of social justice issues by valuing the current events of students’ lives. The curricular framework invites students to critically examine the world in which they live through their own sensibilities and concerns by asking: What makes me happy? Would what makes me happy make others happy? What communities do I feel I belong in and where am I excluded? What

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are my challenges? What makes me anxious? Most importantly, questions are layered to move beyond the self towards considerations of collective needs, desires, and fears. Making time to respond to such questions through introspection and research is crucial to students feeling valued and part of something greater than themselves, as well as providing the central focus for their artistic data visualization. Art educators John Ploof and Lisa Hochtritt (2018) explain that art teachers must ask: How is the project grounded in the lived experience of participants? How has the power of political, socio-economic, and cultural influences shaped the situation and why? And what creative opportunities for resistance are possible that could result in both personal and social change? (p. 39) Formative assessments throughout the student-led curriculum involve teachers facilitating how to find information and artists whose work explores injustice, to seek out multiple perspectives, and to articulate ideas in visual form. Encouraging material experimentation can motivate learning and develop technical skills in service of conveying ideas about social justice. Through reflective written essays or recorded verbal responses with free digital applications, such as Flipgrid or VoiceThread, students can self-assess whether their inquiry and art has evoked in them a critical awareness and contributed to personal transformation toward becoming an upstander for equity and inclusion. Guiding questions for teachers to assess whether the student-led curriculum aligns with social justice actions include: Does the content informing the idea explicitly draw from a diversity of resources and perspectives? Does the teacher’s facilitation help students in their independent research to inform their social justice focus and in becoming upstanders against injustice? Do the content, processes, and culminating work have the potential to raise critical awareness and inspire upstander actions against injustice? The three main components of the curriculum framework for becoming an upstander to injustice (see Figure 7.1) are overlapping and interdependent. The engaging sensoryrich, experiential processes integrate assessment activities that open multiple inroads with creative inquiry into social justice issues. Assessment connects the components through a variety of sensory individual and collective activities, which may be playful and dialogic to prompt and elicit exploration through encountering, analyzing, and interpreting art. For example, students can listen to artists discuss their work from

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Figure 7.1 Curricular framework demonstrating the power of art as a social justice creative practice Source: Ann Holt

online resources, research and read about art, write reflective essays, engage in dialogue, work individually and collectively to solve artistic problems, and discover new insights through role-play, performance, and mapping. The three areas of the curriculum framework include: • Research on social justice-oriented contemporary artists addressing injustice and art historical references exemplifying the central focus of inquiry. • Questions and ideas focused on social justice informed by students’ introspection of lived experience as well as investigation of current events. • Student engagement in artmaking processes, including media and materials exploration, to express and translate a social justice idea into artistic data visualization. The goal of the student-led curriculum is not only to create a well-crafted work of art, but to catalyze the power of art as a social justice creative practice. The framework recognizes teaching as open-ended, dynamic, and responsive to the students’ concerns of the present and future. The interlocking circular framework can be modified for different grade levels, abilities, interests, and social justice foci.

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The processes and activities connecting the three components of the curricular framework serve to assess teaching and learning. With the overarching goal of becoming upstanders to injustice, teachers should develop learning activities and experiences to support inquiry into the social justice issues in ways that engage students with learning about artists who model upstander actions through their art.

Visualizing Data through Art: An Example of a Student-led Curriculum An example of a student-led curriculum is Visualizing Data through Art, which enters the framework through contemporary, interdisciplinary artists who use and translate data about the planet, society, and self. Developing curriculum centered on students’ interests and concerns involves ongoing research to gather relevant resources rich enough to catalyze the learning process. The curriculum is emergent and unfolds based on students’ inquiry. Students explore social justice issues through inquiry about artists and by engaging with multisensory resources, reference materials, activities, and artmaking. Visualizing Data through Art involved multiple social justice concerns that comprised three areas of focus: issues that impact the world (e.g., climate, land, water, stellar), issues that impact societies (e.g., migration, poverty, economics, education) and issues that impact self (e.g., well-being, personal tracking data, behaviors). The curriculum emphasized arts-based research with a variety of ways to present data through art. Students encountered social justice issues through artists and artworks. They explored datasets, data visualizations created by artists and other scholars. For the artmaking process, students chose their own area of focus to research through content searches to build understanding and data. They then worked toward translating their ideas and the related data through artmaking. Students chose low-tech or high-tech media and materials depending on the topic, skills, and their interests. The following unpacks each of the components of the becoming upstanders to injustice student-led Visualizing Data through Art curriculum.

Social Justice-Oriented Contemporary Data Visualization Artists The Visualizing Data through Art curriculum, facilitated by Ann Holt working with 17to 18-year-old undergraduate students in a freshman year seminar, began with an introduction to artists who use data related to social justice issues. One example of an

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artist researching data that impacts the world is Boston-based conceptual artist Nathalie Miebach, who translates weather data into musical scores to evoke the human experience of extreme weather.3 Miebach seeks to reveal the human/climate relationship, particularly in how weather is uncontrollable. She translates weather data and the musical notations into sculptures, weaving colorful, complex objects using rope, wood, paper, and fibers. Her collaborative project The Weather Score Project is a collaboration with musicians and composers. My collaborations with composers and musicians are two-fold: to convey a nuance or level of emotionality surrounding my research that is harder for me to reach through my sculptures, and to reveal patterns or stories in the data musicians might identify which I have failed to see (Miebach, 2009, para. 4). Miebach sees extreme weather as having two narratives; one is the scientific narrative of the weather itself such as its patterns, temperature, and wind speeds. She describes the second narrative as follows: [It is] made up [of] human experiences, both during and long after the storms have left. This provides the important and nuanced emotional perspectives through which we interpret the storms and try to draw lessons from them. Such lessons can sometimes be over-simplistic. Often, they reveal less about the actual events and more about our human attempts to adjust to a volatile environment. I believe we need both types of narratives if we are to come to terms with climate change and its effect on weather systems (Miebach, 2009, para. 4). An artist who focuses on data about society is Paul Rucker, whose Proliferation (2009) is an animated map set to his original music.4 The music score is 11 minutes long. Viewers begin with a black screen and as the music sets in, points of light start to fill the void. Flashes of color represent time (i.e., green for 1778–1900, yellow for 1901– 1940, orange for 1941–1980, and red for 1981–2005). What unfolds in flashes of light is a map of the United States showing the establishment of U.S. incarceration centers from 1778 to 2005. The music pounds to keep up with the burgeoning of construction that occurred during the most recent historical time frame. For years I would talk about injustice by reciting numbers and statistics. When you say, ‘We have over 2.3 million people in prison,’ it’s a large

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number to comprehend. Doing research at a prison issues-themed residency at the Blue Mountain Center in New York, I found some maps that I felt could help tell the story (Rucker, 2021, para. 1). For data about self, an example is the work of artist Laurie Frick.5 With her background as an engineer, Frick uses data captured about human behavior (often using herself as a focus) to build handmade data visualizations in the form of large wall installations. Pushing back on the pervasiveness of individual tracking, she believes that humans are more able to understand their bodies and behaviors through patterns than numbers. Data is like plastic, incredibly useful and horrible at the same time. In the past decade we’ve gone from being mostly anonymous to almost constantly tracked. Data surrounds us and follows us around. I use rigorous methods to capture, analyze and tell a story with data (Frick, 2020, para. 1). Using art to explore context and real-world issues, which also impact students and their communities, raises the value of what artists (and art education) can contribute to society. The significance of learning about arts practices of contemporary artists and designers, community organizers, cultural workers, activists, and community educators cannot be overstated as “artists can serve as creative role models who identify themselves not just as makers but as learners, thinkers, engaged citizens, and the ‘critical eye’ of society” (Hamlin & Fusaro, 2018, p. 8). Questions posed to students in Holt’s course as pre- and post-assessment were: Why do/did artists create? How/ why do/did certain creative movements emerge? Changes in perceptions from participation in the Visualizing Data through Art curriculum provided an evaluation of the broadened views with regards to artists as upstanders to injustice. The study of artists who address issues impacting the planet, society, and self, informs students about artists who do more than make pretty things. Artists have been working with social justice issues since the beginnings of civilization (Gablik, 1984). Study of contemporary artists can empower and inspire social justice work. Moreover, when students encounter an artist with mutual concerns, or with similar lived experiences, it can inspire them and help them find solidarity in their social justice ideas and expressions. Also, through the study of artists’ practices, students may find inspiration to work with media and materials in new ways, as well as work collaboratively with or learn from scientists, among other professions, as they experiment in creative inquiry processes.

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Student-centered Social Justice Concepts The Visualizing Data through Art curricular resources included datasets, guided visualizations, and multi-sensory texts to enhance understanding. Holt presented such content with engaging, interactive exercises and arts-based creative strategies to prompt critical reflection, discussion, and different ways of perceiving and thinking about information. What is Missing, an interactive data visualization created by artist Maya Lin (2009) as an online tribute, used artworks and crowdsourced memories to address the loss of living organisms on the planet due to human behavior.6 Another data visualization example is Native Land Digital (2021), an interactive map that raises awareness about the history of colonization and stealing of Native lands.7 An example for data about self is the Pew Global Attitudes and Trends Question Database, which shares data on individual opinions on a variety of topics.8 As teaching is learning, conducting research to inform understanding is part of the curriculum design process. For example, teachers can initiate the collecting of resources or create a curriculum map with mini-lessons and links to content to build understanding and guide how to research and further develop student art projects. As data visualization is a dynamic field, teachers can search and add resources periodically to discover new content. Foundational resources on data visualization are also compelling and provide context to its methodology. For example, the Visualization Universe, a collaboration between Google News Lab and Adioma, offers an interactive way to explore the realm of data visualizations, tools, and resources.9 The infographic of the history of data visualization (Andrews, 2017) shows that data visualization is not a new method for presenting information.10 Milestones in the history of thematic cartography, statistical graphics and data visualization (Friendly & Denis, 2001) is another interactive example to see how data visualization has unfolded over time.11 Heer’s lecture recorded in 2009 on the history of data visualization and made available by Stanford on YouTube in 2017 can be a useful teacher resource.12 The National Art Education Association has a Data Visualization Working Group, which continues to add resources about artists and K-12 teachers incorporating data visualization projects in their classes.13 The school librarian might also give more insight into available databases for independent inquiry, as well as reinforce the teaching of research skills. Interactive data visualization maps are burgeoning and present information in ways that allow for independent discovery to inform understanding. Audio/visual sources such as interviews, documentaries, archives, and other resources engage students in

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multisensory ways, which helps motivate inquiry. Digging into well designed, interactive data sites with visualizations can be compelling for students to experience, whether individually or in groups. When working with interactive data sites, however, students need open-ended time (individual and collaborative) for playing with the sites to discover how to navigate them before they can consider the content. Therefore, designating time that models science lab approaches allows for independent study and discovery as students search for information that corresponds to their own interests. Moreover, class time for sharing and discussing discoveries facilitates peer learning opportunities. In the example of Visualizing Data through Art, discussion activities included critical questions about data visualizations such as: Where did this data come from? How was it collected? What variables/categories are included in this data? What/Whom does it omit? What is the time-period of the data collected? What does the visualization suggest about the data? What are the main trends it shows? How does the data visualization explain or not explain data trends? How might the data visualization be applicable to students’ lives? What are other ways the data might be represented?

Data Visualization Artmaking Processes The third component of the curricular framework includes planning the media/materials and artistic processes, which provide students with opportunities to create, experiment, and build artistic skills. The artistic processes, combined with sharing the artwork with others, can be a form of upstander action against injustice. Art can motivate behavior, which can help transform individual/societal attitudes and assumptions. As discussed in prior chapters of this book, socially engaged art as a mode of upstander behavior involves learning techniques of visual persuasion to amplify a specific message that inspires viewers towards action. Students need to develop capacities in creative modes of persuasion through art and artmaking, much like they learn writing techniques of persuasion in their English classes or learn arguing techniques in debate clubs. The artistic/research processes in which students engaged and the goals they set for themselves were upstander actions against injustice. Students reflected on their social justice goals, as well as the extent to which they self-invested in deepening their own understanding of an issue and formed a content-based expression of a social justice issue. Also, students reflected on how effective their artwork is in communicating or

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imparting upstander action in those who experience the artwork. Time for discussion and critique involved mutually reflected upon guiding questions for the work such as: Are the goals of the artwork in informing understanding and awareness about an issue effectively related? Is a social justice outcome potentially shared by both the artist(s) and the one experiencing the work? In Visualizing Data through Art, students selected a topic of inquiry and created their own data artwork as a culminating project. They began researching their topic using guiding prompts: What do you care deeply about? What do you want to learn more about? For high school and/or college students, they might choose to explore issues within a specific major, or select an issue that might give them more insight about their personal goals. Mapping topics of interest and looking at what stands out, examining connections or themes between points opens possibilities to explore ideas previously unknown. For example, a student may be interested in fashion and environmental issues but not yet be aware of the impact the fashion industry has on the environment or the topic of sustainable and ethical fashion until they start building understanding of their topic through research. Awareness can motivate wanting to learn more and take action towards change. Learning research skills in how to conduct online content searches for related texts (e.g., readings, audio visual resources, data visualizations, and data sets) is a key aspect of a student-led curriculum and extends beyond the classroom. Depending on the focus, students might, in parallel to researching a topic, collect their own data related to their topic by conducting interviews, photographing a site, or collecting artifacts. For example, a student interested in the impact of Covid-19 on their peers’ well-being might survey their own peer networks. During the artmaking/inquiry process, students research and review what they have collected to choose a data point to develop through their artwork. Assessment at this point can be through informal discussions of ideas concerning what do I/we want to accomplish? What is the intended goal for the work? Once students determine their upstander goal, in groups, they can help each other by discussing/brainstorming creative ways to achieve their goals, considering how the viewer might understand it, a format for the work that is doable, and a media choice that exemplifies the meaning of the issue. For example, if a student is interested in some aspect of sustainability, depending on the idea, perhaps making an artwork using an environmentally unsustainable material such as plastic might signify an unintended meaning as opposed to using natural, found materials.

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Bringing creative ideas to fruition involves the transformation of personal experience and research of the content into a tangible visible form.14 Processes that can enhance the work include students brainstorming possibilities of media and materials, developing sketches, models, or prototypes. These activities help develop ideas and build capacities and skills including how to engage in productive dialogue with peers about ideas, balance support and guidance, and be open and flexible to feedback. Decisions about possibilities for collaborative projects can also develop between students with similar ideas and goals to combine a social justice focus and build experience in collaborative art practice. Learning supports tied to learning objectives and the central social justice focus provide teachers opportunities for reflecting on student work. Are student voices emphasized to the extent that their artwork and process reflects their own personal interests and convictions? Do the processes build understanding and have adequate learning support for students to be independent in their work? Do the lessons build on each other to support students in fulfilling their learning objectives and the central focus? Assessment can also be a shared exercise as it gives students a chance to address their own needs and ensure that the goals are connected to the outcomes they intend. For example, Chapter 6 of this book illustrates how students developed a rubric with the teacher to guide their process and efforts. In the example Visualizing Data through Art, artist statements serve as a form of assessment and include three short paragraphs of two to three sentences to 1. Explain the upstander motivations behind the work. 2. Describe what the artwork represents, explaining the issue or the problem. 3. Provide instructions on interacting with the artwork. Assessment includes how effective and clear the artwork is in conveying information about injustice. As the artwork functions to translate data, there may be a need for a legend to decipher codes to understand it, presenting and referencing data sources, including variables and any other relevant information for viewer understanding. Visualizing Data through Art emphasizes building capacities in research, discovery, and experimentation and includes multi-sensory content and activities to engage inquiry, contemporary artists, and ideas, as well as content-based artistic expressions. Combined, these creative processes in building awareness and shared expressions are behaviors part of becoming upstanders against injustice. The results and approaches

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Figure 7.2  Us too, 2019, yarn on plastic mesh. Student artwork drawing on data from the yearly average number of reports of sexual assault in the United States Source: Isabella Weiner

to data can vary, but each project tells a data story. Students can create interactive art for capturing data from viewers, interactive art for performing data,15 arts-based research using existing datasets, and arts-based research using data both collected and analyzed by the artist. For example, Figure 7.2 is an image of an artwork created by a student in Holt’s course majoring in criminal justice and draws from an already existing 2019 U.S. Department of Justice data set on the yearly average number of reports of sexual assault in the United States.

Conclusion: Youth and Social Transformation Underpinning the student-led curriculum framework are processes of artmaking, which can be a force for personal and social change. Personally meaningful and

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culturally relevant connections to art and artmaking, through social justice artists and art education, can open new perspectives that catalyze convictions towards upstander behaviors against injustice (Hammond, 2015). Teaching toward fostering upstander behaviors to help erode systemic injustices and create a more kind, just, and compassionate world is challenging, especially in the increasingly politically polarizing environment of contemporary times. Youth are forming their convictions within a world of conflicting belief systems and identities, learning values and rules at the same time they are encountering hypocrisy and contradictions to established law and order. They are witnessing authority figures in their own communities, and other self-serving leaders and powerful elites, consistently bending the rules at the expense of others. In and out of the classroom, they witness and experience everyday forms of microaggressions (Bickley-Green, 2007; Catterall, 2009). Given these dynamics at play all over the world, fostering social justice convictions is not just a matter of learning new facts about societal and cultural norms, or about exposure to, or interactions with, people who are different from them. It involves seeking and evaluating information for accuracy. Based on past and recent history, behaviors and actions rooted in deep-set convictions can result both positively and negatively, manifesting from passive/aggressive behaviors to rhetorical actions to physical actions. At its worst, convictions can be weaponized to justify hurting or oppressing others, fighting in war, or even joining in committing atrocities such as torture, murder, genocide, ethnic cleansing, and rape. False convictions about the lifesaving Covid-19 vaccinations have caused unnecessary death. Convictions about the 2020 US presidential election caused an insurrection. Some convictions are so strong that they, at best, can mobilize people to create art, write, speak out, protest, or intervene. For example, 17-year-old Lexi Graff, an upstander to injustice, created a portrait of George Floyd. Subtly visible on Floyd’s lips are the words, “I can’t breathe.” A raised fist is reflected in Floyd’s eyes, which symbolizes solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. In the background, police, in full military gear, with shields and masks on, stand menacingly in front of peaceful protesters. Zip ties hang from their belts ready to be used as a weapon (Senzmici, 2020). One protestor is depicted with a raised camera as if to say, “the world is watching.” Wanting to create artwork with real-world import, Graff has not seen any reason for seeking art instruction, assuming teachers would not appreciate her technique. “I’ve never actually taken an art class. I’ve never thought teachers would like how I do it” (Graff as cited in Chicago Tribune, June 18, 2020). This chapter and book provide

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strategies for art teachers to develop and facilitate curriculum so that youth such as Lexi Graff can create meaningful work toward becoming an upstander against injustice. The strategies may entail difficult personal transformation in the unlearning of hegemonic cultural narratives, as discussed in Chapter 3. Teaching, no matter what age group or philosophical underpinning, is never a neutral exercise (Bolin, 1999: Freire, 1972; Giroux, 1997; hooks, 1994; Haywood-Rolling, 2020; Kraehe & Acuff, 2021; Ulbricht, 2003). It is always political. However, teachers might see that integrating the principle of becoming upstanders to injustice reinforces what youth are already doing. Youth are experiencing the climate crises, economic disparity, and other global and local events in dire need of attention, and they are aware of injustices (McNulty, 2019). Educator Henry Giroux argues: Young people have a lot of power. They can shut societies down. They can block streets, they can engage in direct action, they can educate their parents. . . . They are a potent political force and I think what they need to do is to recognise themselves as a potent political force and they need to act (Giroux, 2019, 9:20). Youth are, and have long been, driving social transformation and revolution (Blakemore, 2018; Fletcher & Vavrus, 2006; Taft, 2011; Library of Congress, n.d.), and creative tools of resistance (Boyd & Mitchell, 2016) continue to be an integral part of their protest (NYAM, 2020). Today, youth help drive environmental causes, gun control, and police reform (NYAM, 2020). School and community-based educator and Executive Director of CommonAction Adam Fletcher (Fletcher & Vavrus, 2006) states: Youth-led social change is not new; the tools and strategies being developed stand on the shoulders of giants from more than a century ago. However, the increasing sophistication and intentionality have heightened the effectiveness of youths’ approaches and deepened the impacts they are having throughout communities (p. 3). Increasingly, the world is looking to youth leadership as seen in TIME magazine’s Davos 2020 coverage produced with the World Economic Forum.16 In the same spirit, the student-led curriculum framework shared in this chapter recognizes the value of student voice and agency in forging a social justice world. Art teachers can facilitate emergent, unfolding learning and engagement with social justice issues through the power of encountering works of contemporary art (Maguire &

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Lenihan, 2010; Marshall et al., 2021) and making art that catalyzes a willful intention to assume the responsibilities and consequences of becoming an upstander to injustice.

Notes 1 See: https://naea.digication.com/omg/OMG_s_Art_Education_Mission 2 See: https://judychicago.arted.psu.edu/participatory-art-pedagogy/ 3 See: http://nathaliemiebach.com/index.html 4 See: https://paulrucker.com/portfolio/proliferation/ 5 See: https://www.lauriefrick.com/ 6 See: https://www.whatismissing.org/ 7 See: https://native-land.ca/ 8 See: https://www.pewresearch.org/global/question-search/ 9 See: http://visualizationuniverse.com/ 10 See: https://history.infowetrust.com/ 11 See: https://www.datavis.ca/milestones/index.php?page=home 12 From the Stanford Center for Professional Development, Jeffrey Heer’s lecture https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=N00g9Q9stBo 13 See the National Art Education Association Data Visualization Working Group website and its links at https://www.arteducators.org/research/articles/240-naea-research-com mission-data-visualization-working-group 14 As an example, see https://judychicago.arted.psu.edu/participatory-art-pedagogy/idealto-real/ (Keifer-Boyd, 2011). 15 One example in Visualizing Data Through Art: a student created a script based off of censored plays—meant to be read aloud and/or performed. 16 See: https://time.com/collection/davos-2020/5764625/global-youth-movement/

References Andrews, R. J. (2017). Map of firsts: An interactive timeline of the most iconic infographics. history.infowetrust.com Bickley-Green, C. (2007). Visual arts education: Teaching a peaceful response to bullying. Art Education, 60(2), 6–12. Blakemore, E. (2018, March 23). Youth in revolt: Five powerful movements fueled by young activists. National Geographic News. www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2018/03/youthactivism-young-protesters-historic-movements/

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Bolin, P. (1999). Teaching art as if the world mattered. Art Education, 52(4), 4–5. https://doi.org/ 10.1080/00043125.1999.11650862 Boyd, A., & Mitchell, D. O. (2016). Beautiful trouble: A toolbox for revolution. OR Books. Campana, A. (2011). Agents of possibility: Examining the intersections of art, education, and activism in communities. Studies in Art Education, 52(4), 278–291. https://doi.org/10.1080/ 00393541.2011.11518841 Catterall, J. S. (2009). Doing well and doing good by doing art. Imagination Group/I-Group Books. Dewhurst, M. (2011). Where is the action?: Three lenses to analyze social justice art education. Equity & Excellence in Education, 44(3), 364–378. Fletcher, A., & Vavrus, J. (2006). The guide to social change led by and with young people. CommonAction. Freire, P. (1972). Pedagogy of the oppressed. Herder and Herder. Frick, L. (2020). Laurie Frick. https://www.lauriefrick.com/ Friendly, M., & Denis, D. J. (2001). Milestones in the history of thematic cartography, statistical graphics, and data visualization. http://www.datavis.ca/milestones/ Gablik, S. (1984). Has modernism failed? Thames and Hudson. Giroux, H. A. (1997). Pedagogy and the politics of hope: Theory, culture, and schooling; A critical reader. Westview Press. Giroux, H. A. [CCCB]. (2019, July 2). All education is a struggle over what kind of future you want for young people [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCMXKt5v RQk&t=181s Hamlin, J., & Fusaro, J. (2018). Contemporary strategies for creative and critical teaching in the 21st century, Art Education, 71(2), 8–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/00043125.2018.1414529 Hammond, Z. (2015). Culturally responsive teaching and the brain: Promoting authentic engagement and rigor among culturally and linguistically diverse students. Corwin. Haywood-Rolling, J. (2020, June 10). Black lives matter: An open letter to art educators on constructing an anti-racist agenda. NAEA. https://www.arteducators.org/advocacy-policy/ articles/692-black-lives-matter Heer, J. [Stanford]. (2017, March 22). A brief history of data visualization [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N00g9Q9stBo hooks, b. (1994). Teaching to transgress: Education as the practice of freedom. Routledge. Keifer-Boyd, K. (2011). Judy Chicago art education collection. https://judychicago.arted.psu.edu/ Kraehe, A., & Acuff, J. (2021). Race and art education. Davis. Library of Congress. (n.d.). Youth in the civil rights movement. https://www.loc.gov/collections/ civil-rights-history-project/articles-and-essays/youth-in-the-civil-rights-movement/ Lin, M. (2009). What is missing? https://www.olana.org/exhibitions/what-is-missing/ Maguire, C., & Lenihan, T. (2010). Fostering capabilities toward social justice in art education. Journal of Cultural Research in Art Education, 28, 39–53.

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Marshall, J., Stewart, C., & Thulson, A. (2021). Teaching with contemporary art with young people: Themes in k-12 classrooms. Teachers College Press. McNulty, J. (2019, September 17). Youth activism is on the rise around the globe, and adults should pay attention, says author. https://news.ucsc.edu/2019/09/taft-youth.html Miebach, N. (2009). Nathalie Miebach. http://nathaliemiebach.com Native Land Digital. (2021). Native land. https://native-land.ca/ Nordlund, C., Speirs, P., & Stewart, M. (2010). An invitation to social change: Fifteen principles for teaching art. Art Education, 63(5), 36–43. https://doi.org/10.1080/00043125.2010.1151 9086 NYAM. (2020). National youth art movement. https://www.nationalyouthartmovement.org/ Ploof, J., & Hochtritt, L. (2018). Practicing social justice art education: Reclaiming our agency through collective curriculum, Art Education, 71(1), 38–44. https://doi.org/10.1080/000431 25.2018.1389592 Rucker, P. (2021). Paul Rucker. https://paulrucker.com/portfolio/proliferation/ Senzmici, P. (2020, July 22). Plastic handcuff use by NYPD during anti-brutality protests strike a nerve. The City. https://www.thecity.nyc/2020/7/22/21335083/plastic-handcuff-use-bynypd-during-anti-brutality-protests-strikes-a-nerve Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning & Equity. (2015). edTPA handbook. Stewart, M., & Walker, S. (2005). Rethinking curriculum in art. Davis Publications. Taft, J. (2011). Rebel girls: Youth activism and social change across the Americas. New York University Press. Ulbricht, J. (2003). Learning about political art in the classroom and community. Art Education, 56(3), 6–12.

Chapter Eight Integrate Social Justice Art Education Principles Investigate Systemic Oppression Inspire Decolonial Actions Decenter White Patriarchal Norms Dismantle Power Differentials Include Difference Become Upstanders to Injustice Power, Politics, and Possibilities References

Investigate Systemic Oppression Wanda B. Knight discloses her journey and motivation for becoming a social justice activist focused on preparing not just art teachers but preparing JUST art teachers to be upstanders to injustice. My journey towards social justice activism began early. I grew up in a rural, racially segregated Southern community in North Carolina. When the Courts compelled schools to desegregate (Brown vs. the Board of Education), my newly desegregated elementary school forced me to cope with overt and subtle racism as did my predominantly White high school up until graduation. I inherited three significant entangled social realities that are assessed negatively by the larger society—being Black, being a woman, and being from a lower social class. I am a first-generation college student who grew up in the rural South during racially segregated times. My functionally illiterate father only achieved a grade school education, and my mother was a high school dropout. My schooling exposed me to White patriarchal norms and mainstream institutionalized knowledge that depicted Black people as intellectually inferior to Whites. Further, I attended racially segregated and inferior schools that used a curriculum that reinforced negative images of DOI: 10.4324/9781003183716-8

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Blacks that mainstream scholars and textbook authors constructed. These experiences, situations, and circumstances, among others, led me to teacher education and served as a catalyst for me to effect change within an educational system designed for wealthy, White, English-speaking males. As I saw more of the world through family and military travels with my spouse, my level of awareness of and appreciation for noticeable differences significantly increased. However, it was not until I taught in two specific settings that I fully understood the reality of systemic oppression. I spent a year in Japan working with students, parents, teachers, and community members. Subsequently, I took a job in an all-White school district in Michigan, teaching art. My experiences in these geographically diverse settings were some of the most significant of my life. I was the “other,” and there was no opportunity to see myself reflected in those around me. Moreover, my experience as a parent, public school art teacher, public school administrator, and university supervisor of preservice visual arts specialists supports my position that the United States educational system, in general, is insensitive to students’ cultural backgrounds and continues to underserve non-dominant ethnic, racial, and linguistic populations. As a result, teachers in various educational settings cannot effectively teach all children in ways that afford them a genuine opportunity to learn and achieve academic success. Further, my experience has been that teacher education does not adequately prepare art teachers to teach the diverse learners that typically comprise their classrooms. Art teachers are not sufficiently prepared to teach students who represent various colors, languages, backgrounds, and learning styles. For example, they have little knowledge of how systemic oppression affects student learning in the educational environment. Further, art teachers lack the cultural competence to provide balanced art education to diverse student populations while recognizing individual and cultural differences reflected in learning, human relations, motivational incentives, and communication skills. My social justice activism stems from my desire to dismantle barriers that restrict life choices, civil rights, and social mobility. For these reasons and

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others, my teaching has focused on preparing not just art teachers but preparing JUST art teachers to be upstanders to injustice. Such teachers would have the capabilities of investigating systemic oppression, designing curricula to dismantle power differentials and empower difference, and engaging in other decolonial actions. Art teacher education programs need to prepare JUST art teachers because technical and traditional preparation have created, maintained, and perpetuated social inequities. However, suppose teacher educators move beyond preparing just art teachers to prepare art teachers who are JUST. In that case, such preparation will provide an excellent opportunity to energize young future leaders who, as agents of change, might redefine and revitalize art education according to existing needs and challenges. This preparation could also be an opportunity to transform a generation of teachers that only know a rigidly structured Euro-centric curriculum, high-stakes testing, strict standards, English-only learning, and a highly controlled and punitive education system.

Inspire Decolonial Actions Adetty Pérez de Miles shares her story of second-language acquisition and uses this experience as a springboard to analyze structural inequities that occasion linguisticbased discrimination as well as give rise to deficits in acquiring second language education and competencies. My story of migration did not involve physically crossing the border through hostile terrain but nonetheless, it has been a journey steeped in the dangers of crossing national, social, cultural, and economic boundaries. As I began to share my migration story, I thought about an article I wrote several years ago, “ ‘Silencing’ the Powerful and ‘Giving’ Voice to the ‘Disempowered’ ” (Pérez de Miles, 2012). In this work, I analyzed the high emotional content and exhaustion that marginalized people feel when asked implicitly or explicitly to disclose personal information. On the one hand, personal stories serve the edification of interested others. On the other hand, sharing stories about personal knowledge and lived experiences often function to satisfy the passing curiosity of individuals who are not truly committed to learning about the other person or unlearning the existing state-of-affairs.

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Structural inequalities were all around me. I migrated to the U.S. at the cusp of my childhood/teen years. My ideas about the world (i.e., my world), language, cultural capital, and citizen status were well established. I entered a fully immersive English as a Second Language (ESL) program. By the end of the school year, I had acquired a well-rounded vocabulary and proficiently communicated with my teachers and conducted all of my school work in English. Similar to many second language English learners, my first-language accent both competes and coexists with my second-language acquisition. Accents, that is, modes of pronunciation are valued and judged differently. People make assumptions about accents, such as a person’s economic status, level of education, and cultural sophistication. People with foreign accents often encounter social and linguistic-based discrimination in education, employment, and healthcare. In elementary and secondary education, English Language Learners (ELL) are regularly placed into special education programs, often without diagnostics to support such decisions or data that confirms students need for these services (Gambino et al., 2014; Guberson, 2009; Flaherty, 2016). Stigmatization and the wrong level of learning expectations do not help students succeed. The over-identification, under-identification, and misidentification of ELL Latino students into special education is rampant and problematic. “Interventions that are specifically geared to help processing, linguistic, or cognitive disabilities often do not help children acquire second language proficiency. In fact, special education services can limit the kind of learning that ELLs need” (Flaherty, 2016, para. 24). Related to language acquisition, one must also consider that migrant families often work long hours and hardly have the time or economic means to enroll in formal English language-based lessons. This reality is at the heart of structural inequalities, meaning access or lack thereof to education. Why don’t they learn English? This is the question and rhetoric often used against immigrants, when in fact most learn to speak the language of their host country.

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My mother was widowed at a young age. After we immigrated to the United States, she enrolled in night classes to learn to speak English. However, she worked long hours to support three daughters, and as a result, she dropped out of her language classes multiple times. After many years and attempts to learn the language, I eventually helped my mother study for her citizenship test, which she passed. I also volunteered at a Catholic church to help newcomers study and prepare for their citizenship test. This was one of the best teaching experiences of my life. My adult students were witty, appreciative, and excited to learn and to pass their citizenship exam, which we often celebrated with a group meal. Although immigrants face many obstacles, as noted earlier, most immigrants learn to speak the language of their host country. In contrast, in an increasingly globalized world, it is estimated that in the U.S., Americans have significant foreign language deficits. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the majority of Americans are monolingual. “Only 20.7 percent of the total population, and only a fraction of this cohort speaks, reads, and comprehends a second language well enough to use it in their everyday lives” (American Academy of Arts & Science, 2017, p. viii). There are structural reasons for this second language education gap. Early exposure to language education is key to foreign language acquisition. Yet in the U.S. very few elementary schools offer such opportunities. There is a well-documented shortage of teachers specializing in world languages at the public high school level. Further, in tertiary education, language departments continue to shrink in size, and percentage wise, students at the university level are studying fewer world languages (Flaherty, 2016; Gambino et al., 2014). Linguistic racism occurs implicitly and explicitly when acts of racism are perpetuated against individuals on the basis of their language (De Costa, 2020). Linguist racism also “refers to the ideologies and practices that are utilized to conform, normalize and reformulate an unequal and uneven linguistic power between language users” (p. 834). Linguistically diverse people are deeply familiar with the microaggressions related to linguistic-racism that De Costa identified (De Costa, 2020).

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A few examples follow: • Referring to Black, Latinx, or Asian peoples as articulate • Interrupting a conversation to correct the grammar or vocabulary of minoritized speakers • Shaming instead of valuing multilingual speakers • Eradicating home languages through social, cultural, and legal efforts • Favoring White, affluent mainstream speakers’ race-biased monolingual standards and ideology I recently moved to an area in central Texas where there is plenty of linguistic diversity. Nonetheless, some White colleagues constantly question my choice of words. Majority population faculty I supervise have causally corrected my pronunciation and instructed me on how to accurately Anglicize my pronunciation of Spanish words. I have colleagues that misspell, mispronounce, and change my name. They find it difficult to address me by using my full last name, which consists of three names, opting instead to address me by one last name, a naming structure that is more consistent with Anglo-American last names. The production and consumption of monolingual language inserts itself strongly in some of my experiences with colleagues, who albeit inadvertently are unaware of their linguistic privilege and linguistic microaggressions and/or racism. The erasure and devaluing of non-dominant world languages in the U.S., whether due to linguistic racism, lack of world language resources, and economic means to access education, are part of the legacy of Eurocentrism, and so is the omission, deprivileging, and silencing of diverse histories. For example, I did not learn about Mexican-American history until I was pursuing a Master’s degree and Ethnic Studies minor. It became evident that what I learned in public school, for instance, about the Battle of The Alamo (1836), as told in the history books and curriculum approved by the Texas State Board of Education, was fake news, meaning fake histories, now told for nearly 200 years (as discussed in Chapter 3). Following Mexico’s independence from Spain (1821), the newly formed Mexican government under the Imperial Colonization Law (ICL) (1823) granted Anglo immigrants extensive land grants to settle in Mexican territory that

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(today would be Texas, California, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Colorado). In addition, settlers did not pay taxes for the first six years (Article 24), and after establishing three years of residence they automatically became naturalized Mexican citizens (Article 27). “In [Mexican] Texas, an American colonist could receive land enough for all his children and their children. Mexican law made princes of many who might have been paupers in the United States” (Brands, 2019, para. 6). This is a far cry from today’s harsh/violent treatment and criminalization and mass incarceration of migrants in the U.S. (Pérez de Miles, 2018, 2019). In exchange for extensive land grants and legal rights, Anglo-American immigrants pledged to be good Mexicans, meaning following the laws of the land/nation articulated in the ICL articles. They agreed to learn the language of their host country and conduct all legal matters in Spanish (Article 26). The new settlers did not make good on their contract. Unlike today’s immigrant populations in the U.S., Anglo-American immigrants did not learn to read, write, or speak Spanish. By the time the Mexican government sent delegates to investigate the new territories, all schools, business, and matters pertaining to the law were conducted in English. Decolonial actions invite educators to examine how language and structural inequalities, for example, linguistic discrimination, lack of access to second-language education, and the erasure of diverse histories intersect and are connected to one another. The production and consumption of monolingual language influence educational practices and attitudes as they relate to English learners (e.g., misidentification of ELL students into special education). For teachers to be prepared to support multilingual learners, they must commit to and embrace linguistic and historical heterogeneity.

Decenter White Patriarchal Norms In her personal narrative, Cheri E. Ehrlich reflects on the qualities and characteristics in her own educational experiences that were influential to her as she designed spaces that decenter White patriarchal norms. As an art educator, more specifically in the Brooklyn Museum, as she describes in Chapters 1 and 4, a theme that arises from this narrative is the encouragement of reciprocal learning from intergenerational familial relationships. As her family encouraged reciprocity and an exchange of ideas,

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this became a model for Ehrlich’s teaching of adolescents in educational settings around artworks. As an adolescent, signing up for college courses and eventually majoring in Women’s Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I completed my undergraduate work in the late 1990s, helped me synthesize and articulate observations I had been making about the world. The theory I learned provided me insights into my hunches, that the pressures and messages I observed and heard while growing up and from mainstream culture were not absolute truths. Or, as in some cases, were constructed systems that maintained themselves through specific actions and behaviors. For example, in reading Teaching to Transgress, a quotation from bell hooks’ book resonated with me: I came to theory because I was hurting—the pain within me was so intense that I could not go on living. I came to theory desperate, wanting to comprehend— to grasp what was happening within and around me. Most importantly, I wanted to make the hurt go away. I saw in theory a location for healing (hooks, 1994, p. 59). As an artist, I find a similar healing through my engagement with feminist artworks that help me to explain and examine the world. As I entered the teaching profession, I discovered the potential that artworks had for exposing students to ideas that they can both grasp onto and grapple with as they gain critical awareness. Students’ engagements with artworks help them too to make sense of their own lives (Barrett, 2002; Burnham, 1994; Ehrlich, 2011; Hubard, 2015). While these experiences are ones that describe my education in formalized academic settings, the roots of my education started much earlier at the kitchen table with family members. My grandfather and great-uncle are two key players who helped to shape my worldview. Throughout their lives, both my grandfather and great-uncle experienced discrimination based on their ethnic and cultural heritage as Sicilian Americans. They shared these stories with me and while getting to know them, I learned the ways they helped to make progress in the world through their character, intellectual pursuits, professions, and love of politics, history, and culture.

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The youngest of four brothers, born and raised in New York City by his mother, a Sicilian immigrant who owned her own textiles company in the Garment District, my grandfather always encouraged me to stand up for myself. He challenged the status quo and instilled this in me. My grandfather fought in WWII, serving from 1940–42, first as a private and later a major in the Army. He graduated law school in 1960, when he was 41, and held the position of Senior Criminal Prosecutor for the city of Yonkers, New York, from 1963–1968, until he went into private practice. Later, Governor Nelson Rockefeller appointed him to the bench as a New York State Workers Compensation Judge in 1970. In the 1990s, as a novelty item for his desk, my grandfather purchased custom pens inscribed with the words, “Charles A. Calafiura, Honest Man, (Endangered Species).” These pens were his way of stating that he spoke the truth and there are few people who do so. During my adolescence, my grandfather and I spent hours debating topics and talking about politics. I liked to see if I could poke holes in my grandfather’s arguments. In college, when I came back home with new knowledge, the conversations became more intense. We would debate back and forth a few rounds and then he would pause. Reflecting back, perhaps that was as far as he wanted to take the debate. Or maybe he was thinking. My grandfather never forced me to take his point of view but never hesitated to offer a counter-argument. He would tell me a little bit of history, give me an example, or listen to my point of view with respect to his. My grandfather’s brother, my great-uncle Leon, the oldest of the four boys, also served in WWII overseas in the army as an interpreter and Morse code specialist. While he also trained as a lawyer and worked for the Small Business Administration for over 35 years, since his undergraduate degrees were in French and Italian (his first language), he preferred to teach college language courses and served as the President of the Italian Teachers Association. Leon shared with me readings he enjoyed, silly jokes, how to read Morse code, and the lyrics of old songs he loved to sing, while I talked to him about my interpersonal relationships and showed him things that I enjoyed. After my grandfather and great-uncle passed away, I carried my love for informal debate and curious conversation into my teaching. While my own self-interest and passion are the ideas contained within feminist art, I do not

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teach about feminist topics with the agenda of enforcing my own beliefs. I am less concerned with what students must learn and more interested in exposing them to ideas that arise from artworks and having them generate their own opinions about it. I view the artworks as springboards for critical inquiry and discussion. Yet, at the same time, I would argue that feminist artworks, since they have a particular agenda, enable educators to return to the artist’s critical agenda and then approach the subject matter from this stance. Therefore, different approaches can be taken. As discussed in Chapters 1 and 4, I had the chance to teach using these strategies in the EASCFA at the Brooklyn Museum. Decentering White patriarchal norms is not only about gender per se, but a particular inclusive mindset. Given their generation or their gender, Ehrlich’s family members could have decided to exclude her from certain conversations or insisted she listen to a particular perspective. Rather, by including her and allowing her to share her ideas too, they helped her to articulate her beliefs and set her up for success. Similarly, when students are exposed to a variety of ideas posed by feminist art and allowed to share and hear others’ perspectives without having to adopt a particular perspective, they draw conclusions and make connections that are meaningful to them.

Dismantle Power Differentials Yen-Ju Lin reflected further on her teaching experience narrated in Chapter 1, the broken mask incident where a student was bullied in an art class and left Lin in a powerless situation as a student teacher unable to address the bully. Lin discussed how an art educator might speak up for students and themselves by recognizing and further dismantling the power differentials that are prevalent in many teaching environments. I still feel hurt and even ashamed to talk about the broken mask event, because it was a story about me not being able to stand up for what was right and just in a teachable moment. As a novice student teacher, I felt powerless when my superior chose to ignore and instructed me to do the same when a student was bullied. This event had a significant impact on my career choice in my early 20s. Coupled with other things that I encountered in the field, I decided that teaching art in the school system was not for me. I was disappointed by

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the educational system that I saw as a novice student teacher. Growing up admiring all the art educators who taught me the love for the arts and the passion for teaching, the striking disparity I experienced in the field made me feel hopeless for the teaching career ahead. I saw it as a failure of art education that I had no power to mend. I still had the passion to devote myself to the world of arts and share the joy of artmaking. However, “just not through the formal educational system,” I remember thinking to myself. I went on to explore different pathways through informal learning environments. I worked at renowned art museums and volunteered at local art centers to see how art education can be more impactful and beneficial in people’s lives. I later departed from my home country to learn different perspectives that are shaping contemporary art education. Being a foreigner in the U.S., I feel inferior both as an individual and as an art educator. Language, culture, social value, to even just the color of my skin, the way I dress—I am different. During this process, I learned that art is never unbiased, but subjective and very personal. I learned that we all embrace different worldviews through our life experiences that may not meet each other’s expectations. I learned how differences can make people nervous, confused, and irrational. One thing that may be more universal than the passion for the arts and fairness is the self-protective rationale that places more value on those who share equal value with you than those who think differently. I learned that it wasn’t the flawed formal educational system that disappointed me. I was expecting more from individual art educators to share not only a passion toward the arts, but also the conviction toward inclusion and compassion through the arts. In retrospect, I realized that there may have been limited options for me to eradicate this series of bullying in a classroom where I was only a guest teacher for a limited time. I had limited knowledge of the student dynamics; I didn’t have first-hand understanding in terms of how to help a student that may have special needs, among other things. However, this did not mean I should ignore the bullying that I witnessed. One thing that a student teacher in my position may have done would be an attempt to reconfigure the group of students’ understanding of difference— how the differences of their individual abilities, gender, race, or social class

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should be seen as an asset of their learning journey. The broken mask that was healed by their fellow learner was the best example. To acknowledge that and maybe even encourage him in sharing his thought process would help other pupils realize the value their fellow learners were able to bring to the class, and, therefore, offer agency to marginalized individuals in class. To further facilitate an educational experience that empowers individual participants to see a broader perspective through their artmaking processes, a facilitator can ask students to partner up and to exchange their artmaking journey. Finally, after the bullying situation has been stopped and corrected, a more urgent question is how it can be prevented in the future. How might a facilitator turn this situation into an opportunity to empower the students’ upstander behaviors and foster the kinds of convictions that can lead to breaking down systemic injustices that create a more compassionate world? As a facilitator of the class, I can cultivate critical awareness about the kind, just, and compassionate behaviors that students should show to their peers by facilitating student-centered questions regarding their artistic creation in relation to their daily life experiences. In this suburban junior high school where an art teacher (my supervising teacher at the time) considered his teaching goal was for students to “get through the hour,” there were many factors that may have contributed to the passive attitude this male teacher had. For example, he taught in a junior high school in an underprivileged neighborhood that had not recovered from a prior economic downturn; where getting students to come to school on time was a challenging task; where many students came from grandparent-raised families that also suffered from financial difficulties; where the mission of art education in enriching students’ lives seemed far-reaching. A fundamental value should be demonstrated—that I as the facilitator respect and value their individual work; that each of them can create artworks that make a difference; that the voices of each of the students are equally valuable. What makes us as human beings powerful is never the ability to do harm, but the strength and will to heal. Power differentials are prevalent in all walks of life. Art curricula have the power to dismantle power differentials by cultivating awareness of how different positionalities

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and social identities make some feel entitled with the power to influence, as opposed to feeling powerless with no agency to have one’s own voice; by enhancing the ethics behind power and influence and facilitate critical conversations about equitable power distribution in actions and understandings.

Include Difference Karen Keifer-Boyd self-reflexively examines the impact of the environment she was reared in, the people in her life who fostered an awareness of the intersections of racism, sexism, classism, and ableism that have excluded people, and her journey to become an educator that seeks to include difference. I grew up in the U.S. with Lake Erie in my backyard. I looked out at the vastness knowing that another country, Canada, was on the opposite shore. I watched the ships that traveled the Great Lakes (from Superior, Huron, Erie, Ontario, St. Lawrence Seaway, out to the Atlantic Ocean), and felt at home when I heard the waves and walked the beach. My childhood environment influenced me greatly, as the social, political, familial, and geographical environment of our youth has for each person. Individually we are each unique yet greatly influenced by the environment, a view that drives my work in developing transcultural dialogues through collaborative artmaking (KeiferBoyd, 2018). The process exposes systemic and environmental injustices; and approaches creativity as a social process. Growing up with a large body of water in my backyard made me contemplate faraway places that I wanted to learn about through travel. I have been fortunate to travel throughout my life and meet many people, spending extended time in new environments. In visiting a friend’s family in southern Uganda, I was clearly marked as White foreigner (muzungu), but my gender was outside Ugandan gender role social expectations. In southern Uganda, as a foreigner and professor, I was invited to sit with the men on a porch, under trees, in car travel, and at a round dinner table. The women peered at me, and children got as close as they could and still were out of the men’s space. At Makerere University, in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, I had long and sustained dialogue with women students, professors, artists, deans, and housekeepers. Since I was not situated within the gender roles in Uganda’s

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cultural context, I felt somewhat free of gender constraints. I was a novelty and people were curious. Placing myself in an unfamiliar cultural context challenged my familiar self-knowing. However, many of the students with whom I have taught in grades k-12 or those preparing to be k-12 art teachers have not traveled too far from their home and have had a relatively small circle of people in which they have deep and sustained dialogue. The Transcultural Dialogues project is about learning to be attentive to the places we inhabit and to recognize familiar cultural practices. Art pedagogy that makes this possible begins with dialogue between groups of people from different environments and cultures and uses the dialogue as content for art making. The goal of Transcultural Dialogues is to erode assumptions, ignorance, and misunderstandings about people and places different from one’s own familiar world (Kabiito et al., 2014; Paatela-Nieminen & Keifer-Boyd, 2015). My mother described herself as mixed race: Native American, Pacific Islander, Dutch, and British. She was proud when she learned from her sister, who was mapping a family tree, that her ancestor, Robert Treat Paine, had signed the U.S. Declaration of Independence. Her mother died of breast cancer when my mother was 17. Her father struggled to find work as the family of four children moved several times a year in rural northeastern Ohio. My father’s parents were German immigrants at opposite ends of economic class, which is how (besides sexism firmly entrenched in the U.S. legal system) my grandmother could sue her “mother-in-law for alienation of husband’s affection,” which was the 1921 front-page headline in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, a newspaper that began in 1885 and continues today. When I was 13 years old, my grandmother described to me that when she found out from her doctor about the disease she carried, she felt as if streamers shot out from her as she walked across Cleveland Square to a lawyer’s office seeking a divorce. The Square was a bustling site, as Cleveland was the fifth-largest city in the United States in 1910; however, today it is only the 45th-largest city in the U.S. It was also primarily White with less than 8% of the population Black in the 1930s, in large part due to redlining racial segregation as discussed in Chapter 2’s focus on the social justice principle to investigate historical antecedents that produce systemic

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injustice. The streamers, my grandmother vividly imagined, announced she was a disgraced, terrible, fallen woman. She could not sue her husband for the violence to her body, which resulted in high fevers, blood transfusions, near death as a young woman, and blindness at age 70 from a sexually transmitted disease that he got treatment for, yet did not communicate with her so she could also get timely treatment. The lawyer won my grandmother’s case, framed against her mother-in-law, which provided funds to buy a home in East Cleveland, Ohio. Her home became a place for those who were homeless during the 1930s Great Depression. A friend’s relative, Art, moved in and lived until old age in my grandmother’s house. Her older sister, my great-aunt Emma, also, lived with her. As described in Chapter 6 on the principle of inclusion of difference, my great-aunt Emma was diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic, yet was a fashion designer creating exquisite dresses for wealthy women in Cleveland. She used the dining room table to cut the fabric and would sew upstairs. The stairs were long and narrow, and her sewing machine was in front of a small window at the foot of the attic stairs with its steps and closed door. My dad had created a swing with his rocker in the attic and played in the attic as a child, a place that frightened me in part because my brother locked me in the attic when I was young, and no one could hear me knock or cry out. I was born in Cleveland and lived in the suburbs on the east side of Cleveland until I was 18 years old, until 1974. My life in Cleveland was during what the news referred to as a time of “riots” between Blacks and Whites from 1960 to 1980. The so-called riots were civil rights struggles of Black people who were discriminated against in housing, education, and in public services and social spaces. During the 1960s in East Cleveland, at my grandmother’s house, I sat in a large rocker by a window that looked to the small backyard, Art’s pigeon coop, a garage, and backs of houses, as I watched various events. On one occasion, record albums flew out of a backyard window, followed by the record player, along with loud angry voices. The side window and porch looked to the neighbor’s drive often filled with different cars. My grandmother said her neighbor’s son stole cars and his mom did not know what to do about the situation. Eventually, my grandmother outlived everyone who lived in her home and lived alone up to the early 1990s in her home.

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Both my parents worked; my mother worked three jobs, so my maternal grandmother or her sister, my great-aunt Emma, often cared for my brother and me. My parents visited my grandmother and dropped my brother and me off to spend the weekend. By the mid-1960s, we were the only White family on the street. The white flight pattern1 begun in 1940 was heightened during the 1960s and continued into the 1980s, in which civil rights protests sought equal rights for Blacks, among other minoritized groups (Moore, 2002). My grandmother liked her neighbors, and they liked her. I played jump rope and other street games with the girls on the street. My personal story is my effort to explore the following questions concerning empowering difference: 1. Who and what is (has been) privileged2 in place(s) you enact curriculum and pedagogy? 2. What social identities are the targets of oppression by unearned privileges granted others in place(s) you enact curriculum and pedagogy? 3. What are forms of oppression experienced by the targets of oppression in place(s) you enact curriculum and pedagogy? 4. What is your history/positionality/knowledge in relation to the place(s) you enact curriculum and pedagogy through the lenses of various theories of race (i.e., religious, scientific, ethnicity, class, and nation-based), gender (i.e., biological, identified), and other lenses?

Become Upstanders to Injustice Ann Holt tells the story of her experience living in her predominantly White neighborhood during the time of the tense summer of 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, when her house was racially targeted because of her bi-racial family’s decision to post a sign in solidarity for the movement. As then-editor of the historic town magazine, she chose, as a form of upstanding against injustices, to write about the racist vandalism as well as include other neighbors’ expressions about White privilege. She describes a letter to the editor she received a few months prior to the racist insurrection on the United States Capitol and her response. During the summer of 2020, with the pandemic raging, many were risking their lives in public protests against police violence, insisting that Black lives

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matter. My bi-racial family and I did not take to the streets. Our then-14-yrold daughter wanted to protest, as she had quickly become politicized when it became clear that justice was not being served to the multiple killers in uniform on the loose who had slain multiple Black lives. Fearing the Coronavirus pandemic, which was wreaking havoc in our New York communities, we instead bought Black Lives Matter (BLM) signs, as well as made signs for our neighbors who wanted them. I was active in our very small, very White community, volunteering in the historical society and as a member of the civic association. I was volunteer editor of the local magazine for seven years—a quarterly magazine that had been in print since 1948. We were renters. Purchasing property in this area is unattainable for most. The community knew us and where we lived, even if they didn’t really know us intimately. Within a couple months of having our BLM sign up in the front of the house, we were targeted. On a late Friday morning while we were all home and occupied with our new Covid routines, my husband heard someone yell out a disparaging comment about BLM and caught a glimpse of a small white SUV driven by a White male appearing to be in his 30s or early 40s. We opened the front door to find that he had thrown white paint onto our driveway and car—his choice of weapon as a symbol of racism. Within minutes, word went out around town and people came to us upset, shocked, and angry that this had happened. Another neighbor (a White family who also posted a BLM sign in their yard) said that they had found nails on their driveway. It became clear that racism was expressing itself publicly in our community by targeting individuals who were in solidarity with Black Lives. Police, however, said that what happened at my house wasn’t a hate crime because the assailant only threw the paint; they hadn’t written something racist. During the hours it took to clean away the hate and process what had happened, and questioning whether it will happen again in another, more dangerous way, some came and helped. Thereafter, much-needed conversations started, unleashing, for some, their awareness of pervasive racism and White privilege. At the same time other conversations started, spreading ignorance, racist sentiments, and a sense of entitlement. Some were angry at me, as editor of the town magazine, for writing about it and publishing another community member’s statement about the aggression. I also created a symbol insert of love for neighbors to

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put in their window to show they were against racism. I later received an anonymous letter to the editor expressing their support for the police, and their anger that I was using the magazine “to advance the politically divisive Black Lives Matter agenda.” They said that if Black people think they are aggrieved in some way by a police officer, they should simply just “take [their] badge number and name and file a complaint.” They added: “The U.S. is not a systemically racist society.” In the next issue, I responded, thanking Anonymous for their voice because it opens up a much-needed dialogue. By then the insurrection, with White Nationalists and racists storming the Capitol building had occurred, and so I admitted that I had the benefit of hindsight to work with in my response. I explained to Anonymous that everything is political, but only some have the privilege to avoid the messiness of politics. I explained that I wasn’t sure what part of my writing was advancing BLM. One article, which I co-wrote (the author feared retaliation and wanted support) was about one’s journey of awareness about race in the U.S. and her feelings about the issues of inequality plaguing communities everywhere. Perhaps it was that article. Perhaps it was the insert with the symbol for love. Or perhaps Anonymous was referring to my reporting the vandalism that was carried out at my home in broad daylight. They said in their letter that they could not sign their name because of distrust and fear of BLM supporters, to which I affirmed their fear. I feared being public about my views about the incident at my home. I said that I also fear angry White mobs. I explained that I had actually hesitated for a moment when I called the printer to pause the printing of the magazine, because I had one more thing to add. I understood that whoever did this to my family knew exactly our racial makeup. I too am afraid of one angry person, let alone a mob of angry people. I explained to Anonymous that nobody was targeting them and that I didn’t have that option when someone decided to shout something scathing about BLM and throw white paint all over my driveway. I explained that I was afraid to let my cat out after that; I was afraid to leave my teenage daughter home alone even in broad daylight after that. I explained that these racist tactics are documented in the texts of the United States’ history and play out continuously. Then I explained my imagining as I read that letter—I imagined George Floyd saying to his killer, “Excuse me, officer. I’d like your badge number, please.” Or if the sleeping Breonna Taylor woke up and said, “Excuse me,

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officers storming into my house without a warrant, I would like your badge numbers, please.” I admitted that I was coming off as snarky and I stopped there, because frankly I had had too many of these conversations, including with those I care about and love—and it was getting exhausting. I explained how I was again fearful on January 6th when I saw on TV White privilege presenting itself in a most frightening way—at the door of democracy. An emboldened, armed, angry White mob carrying symbols of White supremacy and anti-Semitism protested in front of the Capitol and then broke in with intentions to hang the U.S. Vice President and attack members of Congress, some of whom were sympathizers. How entitled they felt and still do is something I fear, knowing without a doubt that if they’d been Black and Brown folk (even one armed person of color protesting on the Capitol steps), it would have been a blood bath. I hoped that Anonymous’s perspective about race in the U.S. shifted just a little bit when they saw how clearly White lives mattered that day—so much so that they got to walk away from the scene of the crime before they were handled later by the justice system. Again, history is repeating itself. I finished by urging Anonymous to recognize that not everyone has the privilege to move freely in the world, no matter what good intentions are inside their heart. Not everyone has the privilege to ask an officer for their badge number when they feel that they are being wrongly treated. I wrote that letter as outgoing editor, having decided as a family that we no longer wanted to confront these deep-seated sentiments on a daily basis, nor felt rooted enough to this place we’d called home for a decade. We decided to leave this community. Some expressed to us that leaving meant that we were letting racism win. We kindly disagreed, because we know that this is a playbook that goes way back in U.S. history. Grateful that we were not without options or means to remove ourselves from the fear of being targeted again or from the exhausting daily experience of engaging in conversations (sometimes aggressive) about race and White privilege, we seized the opportunity, knowing we can be upstanders elsewhere and in different ways—myself, for instance, through my teaching, research, and writing. Writing about this incident is one way, but it is still anxiety-producing; it opens up a vulnerability that is sometimes easier to tamper down. However, I know that silencing my story also gives the bully more power.

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Sometimes silence seems less risky. What constitutes becoming an upstander against injustice is deeply personal, as it can entail life-changing consequences. Therefore, the kinds of convictions that catalyze one towards upstander behavior must be sourced from within rather than be dictated by the desires of someone else. What if youth were encouraged in their own social justice convictions and creative expression to become upstanders to injustice? What if students were embraced and encouraged to design their vision of what an anti-racist world might look like?

Power, Politics, and Possibilities Teaching and assessing social justice art education necessarily attends to systems of power and how to reshape toward equity. Curricula and pedagogy are political in that choices are made with regards to what is taught and how to foster learning. The book offers possibilities for social justice art education through the unpacking and integration of principles of social justice to investigate systemic oppression, inspire decolonial actions, decenter White patriarchal norms, dismantle power differentials, include difference, and become upstanders to injustice. Each chapter offers possibilities toward social justice awareness through encounters with art that elucidate the social justice principles that inform the art. Moreover, the personal narratives, as art educators shared throughout the book, situate experiences in the political situation of schools, institutions, and dominant power structures throughout the United States from New York to Texas to California. Possibilities for reassessing curriculum and pedagogy addressed throughout the book may lead to a hopeful, loving, and peaceful future. It is possible to challenge injustice through art and art education. It is possible to strive for equity and inclusive learning environments. It is possible to stimulate sensory experiences through art to chisel away dominance that oppresses and sculpt supportive and loving learning environments. The book is a call to art educators to collectively create a socially just world.

Notes 1 White flight is the migration of a white population out of an area due to increasing proximity to another race. In Cleveland’s case, people—who had been captured, stolen from their homes in Africa and enslaved in the U.S.’s southern states to labor in the fields and

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enrich the plantation owners—migrated into northern cities, such as Cleveland and Chicago, where they hoped for equality but found racism that infused legal systems, education, housing, and other areas. 2 Privilege is a special advantage or benefit not enjoyed by all, typically due to identity with those who hold hegemonic power.

References American Academy of Arts & Science. (2017). America’s languages: Investing in language education for the 21st century [Report]. https://www.amacad.org/sites/default/files/publica tion/downloads/Commission-on-Language-Learning_Americas-Languages.pdf Barrett, T. (2002). Interpreting art: Building communal and individual understandings. In Y. Gaudelius & P. Speirs (Eds.), Contemporary issues in art education (pp. 291–300). Prentice Hall Brands, H. W. (2019, October 22). When Mexico’s immigration troubles came from Americans crossing the border. Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/ americans-illegally-immigrated-mexico-180973306/) Burnham, R. (1994). If you don’t stop, you don’t see anything. Teachers College Record, 95(4), 520–525. De Costa, P. I. (2020). Linguistic racism: Its negative effects and why we need to contest it, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 23(7), 833–837. Ehrlich, C. E. (2011). Adolescent girls’ responses to feminist artworks in the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum. Visual Arts Research, 37(2), 55–69. Flaherty, C. (2016, December 15). Language by the shrinking numbers. Higher Education. Gambino, C. P., Acosta, Y. E., & Grieco, E. M. (2014, June 10). English-speaking ability of the foreign-born population in the United States: 2012. United State Census Bureau. https:// www2.census.gov/library/publications/2014/acs/acs-26.pdf Guberson, M. M. (2009, April). Hispanic representation in special education: Patterns and implications. Preventing School Failure, 53(3), 167–176. hooks, b. (1994). Teaching to transgress: Education as a practice for freedom. Routledge. Hubard, O. (2015). Art museum education: Facilitating gallery experiences. Palgrave Macmillan. Kabiito, R., Liao, C., Motter, J., & Keifer-Boyd, K. (2014). Transcultural dialogue mashup. The Journal of Interactive Technology and Pedagogy, 6. http://jitp.commons.gc.cuny.edu/trans cultural-dialogue-mashup/ Keifer-Boyd, K. (2018, December). Transcultural dialogues. Revista GEARTE, 5(3), 439–448. https://seer.ufrgs.br/gearte/article/view/89347/51627 Moore, L. N. (2002). The school desegregation crisis of Cleveland, Ohio, 1963–1964: The catalyst for Black political power in a northern city. Journal of Urban History, 135–157. http:// academic.csuohio.edu/tebeaum/courses/euclid/Moore_schooldesegregation.pdf

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Paatela-Nieminen, M., & Keifer-Boyd, K. (2015). Transcultural intra-action. In M. Kallio-Tavin & J. Pullinen (Eds.), Conversations on Finnish art education (pp. 304–317). Aalto ARTS books. Pérez Miles, A. (2012). “Silencing” the powerful and “giving” voice to the “disempowered:” Ethical considerations of a dialogic pedagogy. Journal of Social Theory in Art Education, 32, 112–127. Pérez Miles, A. (2018). The social expulsion of the migrant: Aesthetic and tactical interventions. Journal of Social Theory in Art Education (JSTAE), 38, 5–15. Pérez Miles, A. (2019). Unbound philosophies & histories: Epistemic disobedience in contemporary Latin American art. In J. Baldacchino (Ed.), The international encyclopedia of art and design education, volume 1. Histories and philosophies of art & design education (pp. 1–20). Wiley-Blackwell; The National Society for Education in Art and Design (NSEAD).

Index Abakanowicz, Magdalena 65 ableism 31, 82, 101 – 102, 155 activism xi, xii, 32, 35, 37, 42, 43, 56, 57n5, 123, 131, 141, 144 activist 24, 41, 47, 77, 97, 101, 116n2, 131, 139, 143 Acuña, Rodolfo F. 44, 57 Africans 16, 18, 20, 27, 28, 33n3; African American(s) 3, 19, 22 – 23, 29 – 30, 33n3, 66; African American artist(s) 16, 22, 29; see also colonialism; identity groups agency 8, 50, 53, 69, 80, 85, 100, 116n3, 125, 138, 141, 154 Aguiñiga, Tanya: Border Quipu/Quipu Fronterizo 38, 40, 48, 54, 55; Metabolizing the Border 38, 40, 47 – 50, 55, 57 Albers, Anni 65 American Dream 17 antiracism xi; against racism 160; racial justice 86; see also Asian Critical Theory; Critical Race Theory; teaching strategies Arahmaiani 67 art curriculum see curriculum arts-based creative strategies 132; projects 116n1; research 129, 136 art teachers see teacher(s) Asian American 81 – 83, 85, 87 – 88, 90; women 81; women artists 13, 79, 91n1; see also Chinese Exclusion Act; immigrant; Ishii, Anne; Kimsooja; Language; Lin, Maya; Lin, Yen-Ju; linguistics; stereotypes-Asian American; Wong, Alice; Wong, Flo Oy; Wu, Yu-Wen; Yamaguchi, Yuriko

Asian Critical (AsianCrit) Theory 82, 87, 90, 92; Asianization 82; (re)constructive history 82; strategic (anti)essentialism 82; transnational context 82 assessment 2 – 4, 11, 13, 14n2, 75, 79, 102, 127, 134, 135; alternative 13; authentic 13; connected to planning, objectives, and instruction 72, 110, 126, 127; decolonial 51; dialogic 47, 74, 134; didactic 13; dynamic 13, 95; Educative Teacher Performance Assessment (edTPA) 2, 126; evaluate 14, 51, 53, 80; formative 14, 55, 69, 96, 103, 106 – 107, 110; peer assessment 111, 135; post-assessment 62, 131; pre-assessment 8, 61, 96, 104 – 105, 115nn7–8; rubric 112 – 113, 135; self-reflective 112, 115; summative 14, 110 – 111; through artist statement 72, 135; through epistemic disobedience 40, 53; see also Find Card activity assimilation 85, 87 – 90, 119, 122 – 123, 125; forced 29 authority figures who criminalize 27, 137 Avril Minich, Julie 101 awareness 7, 48, 132, 134, 144, 154, 159, 160, 162; critical 99, 126 – 127, 150; diversity 155; self 62, 80 Bailey, Xenobia 65 Battle of the Alamo 43, 44, 47, 51, 53, 57, 148 Bechdel Test 98, 116n3; Bechdel, A. 118 Black(s) 4, 18, 20 – 28, 31, 33, 99, 125, 143 – 144, 148, 156 – 161; Americans 16;

166

Index

Blackness 22; feminist 116n2; girl 104; music-making 21; women 18, 29 – 30, 32, 46, 98; see also Africans; black hair; Bailey, Xenobia; Black Lives Matter Movement; Bridges, Ruby; Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas (1954); Butler, Bisa; Charles, Michael Ray; Chisholm, Shirley; Crenshaw, Kimberlé; Critical Race Theory; culture-African; Floyd, George; historical antecedents; Howard, Mildred; identity groups; intersectionality; Knight, Wanda B.; Kennedy, Florynce; Marshall, Kerry James; Plessy v. Ferguson; Reynolds, Jason; Ringgold, Faith; Scott, Joyce; Separate But Equal; Simpson, Lorna; Thomas, Mickalene; Tignon Law; Walker, Kara black hair 27 – 29; afro 27, 29; bias 27, 29; braids 27 – 28; good hair 28 – 29; Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America 27; social ritual 28; see also wigs Black Lives Matter Movement 31, 125, 137 – 138, 140, 158 – 160 Bloom’s Taxonomy 38 – 40 border 38, 40, 46 – 50, 54 – 55, 57n4, 59, 145, 163; apparatus 48, 50; crossings 49, 50; sites of collective trauma and agency 48; U.S.-Mexico 46, 48, 50 Bridges, Ruby 104, 108 Brooklyn Museum 7, 14, 68, 70, 75n1, 76, 149, 152, 163 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas (1954) 20 bully 9, 10, 88, 102, 152, 16; bullying 11, 12, 96, 102 – 105, 110, 153 – 154; see also comic making; Kretz, Kate; Rockwell, Norman; Smith, Kiki; Stein, Linda, 4Bs

Burrough, Bryan et. al 43, 44, 51, 55, 57 Butler, Bisa 65 Cajete, Gregory 39, 55, 56n3, 57 Campana, Alina 125 Charles, Michael Ray 16, 21 – 22 Chicago, Judy xiii, 64, 65, 139n2; The Dinner Party 84, 91n2, 126; Judy Chicago Art Education Collection xiii, 126 Chinese Exclusion Act 83, 91; Chinese immigrant families in the U.S. 83, 94 Chisholm, Shirley 98, 108 climate change 12, 130, 138 collaboration 132; 21st century skills 2; art 43, 45, 49 – 50, 130; collaborative 49, 84, 91n2, 103, 130, 135, 155; collaboratively 64, 110, 131, 133; student learning 74, 132 colonial 6, 42 – 44, 52; critique 42; educational practices 41, 51; period 17; post-colonial theory 58, 66, 67 colonialism 16, 21, 29, 33n1, 38, 40, 55, 67, 82; British 16, 156; coloniality 42, 57; colonization 132, 148; colonialized histories 37; colonizing conditions facing educators 37, 40, 51 comic making: gutters 104, 109 – 110; panels 102, 104, 107 – 108, 114, 117n9; shapes of speech 108 – 109; storyboards 96, 103, 106, 110 communicate 96, 102, 103, 113 – 114, 146, 157; communication 2, 20, 50, 69, 101, 145 consciousness: social and political 125; see also awareness; political content-based expression 133, 135 convictions 135, 137, 154, 162

Index 167

CORPUS: A Comic Anthology of Bodily Ailments 102; Shammas, Nadia 102, 118, 124 creativity xi, 2, 63, 155 Crenshaw, Kimberlé 34 crip theory 101 Critical Race Theory (CRT) 45, 47, 51, 82 critical thinking 2, 4, 52 Cuba, Lucia 67 Cubacub, Sky 98; Radical Visibility: A Queercrip Manifesto 98 culture 8, 73, 81, 87, 90, 100, 150, 153, 156; African 20, 27; Andean 21; consumer 67; culturally competent 24; dominant 41, 65, 117n5; European 62; foreign 86; Korean 67; mainstream 150; material 21; mother’s 85; popular 65; school 4, 101; systemic 28; visual xi, 24, 99; U.S. 21, 52; see also roots curriculum 4, 10, 11, 37, 51, 61, 62, 65, 72, 73, 81, 95; art history 61; designing 72, 96, 125 – 129, 145; differentiated 2, 87, 96, 104, 118, 119; experiential processes 127; emergent 129; inclusive 62, 96; philosophical and conceptual assumption 1; possibilities 13, 25, 95, 106, 134 – 135, 162; responsive 24, 128; sensory-rich 127; social justice 3, 13, 37, 47, 126 – 129, 133, 135, 162; see also dialogic; decolonizing approaches to, the curriculum; inclusive practices; student-centered data 31, 41, 129 – 136; data visualization 127 – 134; data visualization artwork 125, 134; Visualizing Data through Art 126, 129, 131 – 135; see also Miebach, Nathalie decentering 7, 38, 43, 61, 72, 74 – 75, 101, 152

decolonial: actions/interventions i, 2, 6, 37, 38 – 40, 43, 47, 50, 53, 55, 145, 149, 162; art 42; concepts 40; perspectives 40; theories 37, 38 decolonizing approaches to: art education 39, 53; the curriculum 4, 6, 53, 56, 145; ourselves 56, 57, 59; teaching 38, 53 democracy 1, 43, 161; democratic processes 15; ideals 21; sense 57 dialogic 111 – 112; critical 80; curriculum & assessment 47, 69, 73; strategies 17, 127 De Costa, Peter I. 47, 163 De León, Jason 46, 47 De Sousa Santos, Boaventura 40, 42, 56n1, 57, 58, 59 dehumanizing 28, 46 difference: discern 18, 75, 96, 86, 95, 100, 153; empower 1, 2, 101, 145, 158, 154; erased 89, 95, 100, 101; include 10, 11, 88, 89, 95 – 97, 115, 143, 155 – 157, 162; markers 32; marked 102; references 34, 77, 92, 93, 119, 121; respect/value 1, 95, 101 digital applications 127; Flipgrid 127; Padlet 106, 111 – 112, 117n8; Twine 98; VoiceThread 127; see also Second Life Dinner Party Curriculum Project, The 77, 84, 91n2, 126, 127; see also Chicago, Judy disability studies and art education 101 – 102; critical disability studies 100 – 101; see also ableism; comic making; Disability Visibility Project; discrimination; Erevelles, Nirmala; Garland–Thomson, Rosemarie; identity; inclusion practices; Sins Invalid Disability Visibility Project 101, 121 discrimination 66; ableist-based 102; acts 102, 117n5; in education 44, 45; gender-based 66; language-based 84,

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Index

145, 146, 149; portrayals 102; race/ ethnicity-based 150 disparities in education 4; economic disparity 138 displacement 67, 79, 85 – 86, 88, 93, 113, 119 – 123 diversity and inclusion 12, 14, 120; of resources and perspectives 127 domination 20, 33, 39, 40, 62; see also epistemic racism; hierarchies; oppression; patriarchy; White drug abuse 3; drug trafficking 3 Ehrlich, Cheri xii, 7, 65, 69, 71 – 72, 74 – 75, 149 Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art (EASCFA) 7, 70 emancipation 19, 28 embodiment 100; embodied activities 69; embodied difference 101 enduring/big ideas 126 enslavers 16, 21, 28; see also slavery entanglements 30 – 32 epistemic disobedience xii, 38 – 40, 43, 50, 52 – 53, 55, 164 epistemic racism 58; see also racism epistemological diversity 39, 52 epistemology 39, 41, 119; relational 41; of the South 40; Western-centric 53 – 54 equity i, xi, 2, 12, 14, 20, 22, 126 – 127, 162; education 15, 20; equitable 4, 13; power distribution 80, 151; treatment 19; see also Asian Critical Theory; Critical Race Theory; inequities; gender; feminism Erevelles, Nirmala 101 Escobar, Arturo 41, 52, 54 Eurocentric 28, 43; beauty standards 28; hubris 44, 54; knowledge systems 37,

43 – 44, 54; narrative 82; perspectives 38, 82; philosophers 37; shortcomings 39 Eurocentrism 6, 37, 40, 43, 44, 51, 52, 58, 148 exploitation 18, 87 Fair Housing Act 23 fake histories/news 44, 148 Federal Housing Administration (FHA) 23; see also housing feminism: in art 64 – 67, 73; art history 61 – 63, 66 – 67; in art museum context 7 – 8, 67 – 68, 69 – 70; Korean feminist context 67; movement 62; pedagogy xi, 7 – 8, 68; principles 126; see also Chicago, Judy; Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art; Guerilla Girls; Lesbian Herstory Archive; Nochlin, Linda; Stein, Linda; Steinem, Gloria feminist principles: illuminating power dynamics 65; exploring global perspectives 67; reclaiming medium and form 63; see also male gaze Find Card activity 13, 79, 87 – 89, 90, 92; see also teaching strategies Floyd, George 137, 160 foreigners 16, 33n1; see also colonialism; settler Frick, Laurie 131 Furr, Elizabeth (Elsa) 125 Garland–Thomson, Rosemarie 100, 119 gender 65 – 68, 74, 79 – 80, 87, 90, 95; fluidity 97 – 98; hierarchy 18, 63; inequalities 7, 8, 30, 32, 65 – 66; justice 97; non–binary 98; roles 66; stereotypes 7, 62, 80; see also equality; feminism; Grey, Kris; hierarchies; intersectionality; oppression; patriarchy, Stein, Linda; stereotypes–gender; trans

Index 169

Giroux, Henry 138 graphic novel 108, 118, 121, 123; narratives 96, 103; see also comic making Grosfóguel, Ramón 37, 38, 53, 57, 58 Graff, Lexi 137 – 138 Greer, G. H. 104 Grey, Kris 98; Labeled 98 Guerilla Girls 66 Gude, Olivia 126 gun violence 3, 12 Hammond, Harmony 63 – 64 Hicks, Shelia 65 hierarchies 6, 32, 63; see also identity-hierarchies Hill, Anita 108 historical antecedents 4, 15 – 16, 22, 156; United States 24, 28 Hochtritt, Lisa 127 Holt, Ann xiii, 129, 131, 132, 136, 158 Holzer, Jenny 66 Hostile Terrain 94 (HT94) 38, 40, 45 – 48, 51, 55, 145 housing: United States Federal Agency, Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLOC) 23; U.S. 157, 163; U.S. housing industry 23; see also Federal Housing Administration Howard, Mildred 25 identity 56n2, 63, 88 – 89, 137, 163n2; collective 81; cultural 82 – 83, 85; development of 55; diaspora 67; disability 100 – 101; erasure 28, 45, 48, 56n1, 148, 149; ethnic 20, 84; gender 76n4; geographical 76n4; hierarchies 31; immigrant 87; lesbian 66; marginalized 4, 6, 30, 45, 56, 80 – 81, 83 – 84, 90, 102, 145, 154; national 66; racial 82; sexual 66; social 30 – 32, 37, 73, 79, 82, 87, 155,

158; as a topic in art 13, 18, 29, 63, 66, 82 – 83, 86; see also black hair; comic making; identity groups; intersectionality; Marshall, Kerry James; minoritized; Ray Charles, Michael; Sherman, Cindy; Simpson, Lorna; teaching strategies; Wu, Yu-Wen; Wong, Flo Oy; Wu, Yu-Wen; Yamaguchi, Yuriko identity groups: African American, Black, Brown 3, 16, 18 – 19, 21 – 22, 23 – 27, 29, 30 – 32, 45, 66, 98 – 99, 104, 125, 143, 148, 156 – 157, 159, 160 – 161; Chinese 82 – 84; Japanese 85; Korean 67; Latinx 25, 99, 146, 148; Mexican-American 44, 148 – 149; White 10, 16 – 19, 21 – 28, 61, 80, 89, 98 – 99, 148, 155 – 156, 158 – 161, 162n1; see also Asian American; Black; Indigenous; White incarceration 27, 31, 57n4, 130, 149; see also mass incarceration; prison; school–to– prison pipeline inclusive practices 96; see also teaching strategies Indigenous 39, 53, 54; communities 40, 41, 52, 55, 66; epistemology 39; film 52; Fourth Declaration of the Lacandón Jungle 52; knowledges 40, 50, 53, 54, 56; people 50, 52, 55, 56n3, 66; pluriverse 40, 42; rights 41; see also Zapatistas inequities 24 – 25, 32, 45, 55 – 56, 145; see also oppression injustice 12, 15, 26, 30 – 32, 43, 46, 52 – 53, 79 – 80, 97 – 98, 108, 115, 125, 127 – 128, 130, 135, 137 – 138; environmental 155; histories of 97 – 98; systems of 137, 154 – 157, 162; see also upstanders immigrant 83, 85; Anglo-Saxon/American 140, 148; anti-immigrant: assimilation 84, 87, 90; attitudes 46; belonging 87;

170

Index

businesses 84, 149, 151; business owners 151; Chinese 83; detention centers 42; discrimination 83, 84; displacement 79, 83, 85; families 55, 83, 85, 94; German 156; laws 39; Mexican 46, 48, 49, 50, 57; resources 43, 45 – 47, 55, 58n6; revisioning anti-immigrant stories 44, 45, 47, 48, 52, 54, 58, 148; Sicilian 151; violence, exclusion, and murder; 46, 47, 84, 86, 147; women 86 immigration 49, 59, 163; laws, policies, and enforcement 39, 42, 46, 49, 60, 79, 83; public discourses 48; reform 42 inquiry: creative 127, 129, 131, 133; critical 126, 152, 68 – 69, 128 – 129, 133 – 135; student 126, 129; see also teaching strategies-inquiry based institutions 25, 95; see also oppression; racism; structures interactive 132; art 67, 136; story 114; see also data; Native Land Digital interdisciplinary art/artists 85, 129; see also Frick, Laurie; Lin, Maya; Miebach, Nathalie; Rucker, Paul intersectionality 30, 32, 82, 100; see also disability studies and art education; feminism; gender; oppression Ishii, Anne: Executive Director of Asian Arts Initiative 115 Jenkins, Kevin 98, 119 juvenile and criminal justice system 27; see also incarceration; mass incarceration; prison; school–to–prison pipeline; Zero Tolerance Keifer-Boyd, Karen xi, 10, 31 – 32, 87, 96 – 99, 102 – 110, 112, 115, 116n1, 4, 5, 139n14, 155

Kennedy, Florynce 97 Kimsooja 67 Knight, Wanda B. xi, 3, 31 – 32, 143 Kozloff, Joyce 65 Kretz, Kate 12, 65 Krimmel, John Lewis 21; Quilting Frolics 21 Kruger, Barbara 66 language: accent(s) 146; of assimilation 84; competencies 85, 145; cultural capital 63, 90, 146; deficits 147, 148; of disability 100 – 101; education 23, 145 – 149, 151; English Language Learners (ELL) 44, 146, 149; inequalities 84, 148 – 149; language-based prejudice 21, 84; and migrants/immigrants 85, 87, 147; misidentification 44, 146, 149, 153, 163; of second-language acquisition 145 – 147; stigmatization 146; visual 64, 67; see also identity-ethnic; linguistic Latina/o/x art/artists 116n1, 122 – 123; see also Aguiñiga, Tanya; Hostile Terrain 94; #NoKidsInCages leadership 2, 138 learning: objectives 14, 53, 88, 126, 135; obstacles 2, 13, 147; outcomes 2, 26, 74; reciprocal 75, 149; social-emotional 8, 126; supports 135; unfolding 138; unlearning 51, 55, 138, 145; see also assessment; teaching strategies Lesbian Herstory Archive 98 Lin, Maya What is Missing? 132 Lin, Yen-Ju i, xii, 8 – 9, 152 linguistic: diversity 148; heterogeneity 149; microaggressions 147 – 148; privilege 148; racism and prejudice 84, 146 – 149, 151, 163; see also language lived experiences: artists 62, 73, 90, 131; narratives and stories 65, 82, 97, 145;

Index 171

social and personal experiences 32; students 11, 87, 104, 126; see also narrative Malani, Nalini 67 male gaze 65; see also feminism; Mulvey, Laura map: animated/interactive 130, 132; color coded 23; concept 51; of Critical Race Theory states under attack 59; curriculum 132, 134; of data visualization 132; of decolonial curricula 51; depictions 32; locations 24; map/mapping references 34, 58, 59, 139; Redlining 33n5; security map 24; see also Lin, Maya-What is Missing?; Native Land Digital; Robinson, OliviaNear and Far Enemies: Shade; Rucker, Paul- Proliferation mapping: dialogic visual mapping 31; entanglements 30, 32, 50, 51; injustice 31, 32; migrant deaths 46, 58; to exercise power and control 24 Marshall, Kerry James 16–17; Great America 16 mass incarceration 31, 149; Sentencing Project 31; see also incarceration; prison; school-to-prison pipeline mass media 20, 41, 65 Mexican: army 45; constitution 43; Imperial Colonization Laws 148; Mexican-American history 148; migrants 44; Tejanos 44; territory 149; see also identity groups; Texas microaggression(s) 147 – 148 Miebach, Nathalie 130, 141 Mignolo, Walter 41, 43, 53, 58; see also pluriverse migrant: children 41, 48, 58; deaths 46, 47; death mapping 58; family separation 17, 38, 42, 45, 48, 54; undocumented 46

Migration Project 45, 46, 47, 54, 59 minoritized 15, 148; communities 30, 81; faculty 45; historically 26 – 27; identities 32, 84, 90; perspectives 87 minstrel show 22 modernism 62 – 63, 76, 140 Mulvey, Laura 65, 75n3, 77 museum education 7, 68, 69, 77, 163; educators 7, 72, 69, 72, 75 music 20 – 21, 130 narrative 65, 72, 73, 75; authors 4 – 8, 10, 12, 75, 145, 149, 152, 158; hegemonic cultural 22, 43, 45, 82; see also lived experience National Art Education Association (NAEA) 12, 132; Data Visualization Working Group 132 National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) 25 National Core Art Standards 2 – 3; Model Cornerstones 3 Native Land Digital 132 New World 17 Neshat, Shirin 66 Nochlin, Linda 63, 67 #NoKidsInCages 40 – 43, 47, 50, 57n5 Novgorodoff, Danica 108 Opie, Catherine 66 oppression 30 – 32, 37, 66 – 67, 73, 87, 97, 158; classism 19, 29 – 32, 63, 80, 82, 117n5, 155; histories of 31; institutional 25; systemic 13, 15 – 16, 21, 23 – 24, 29 – 30, 32, 43, 45, 50, 143 – 145, 162; sexism 30, 82, 88, 102, 155, 156; tool of 27; see also ableism; racism paradigm 62; art 62; domination 20; shift 1, 62, 63

172

Index

patriarchy 40, 67; White patriarchal norms 2, 61, 70, 72, 74 pedagogy 42, 50 – 51, 53, 72, 95 – 96, 110, 158, 162; art 156; critical pedagogue 68; participatory art pedagogy 126; trauma-informed 10; unjust 8 Pérez de Miles, Adetty xi–xii, 4, 38 – 59, 98, 119, 145 – 164 persuasion 125, 133 Pew Global Attitudes and Trends Question Database 132 plantation 17 – 18, 21; see also colonizer Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) 20, 33n4 Ploof, John 127 pluriverse 40 – 43; in curriculum design and assessment 55, 56; participating in 38 – 42, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56; references 57, 58, 59; see also Zapatistas police 98, 117n4, 159 – 160; brutality, violence, and murder 31, 44, 125, 137, 158; law enforcement 12; New York Police Department 42; policing 23, 25, 29; presence 27, 137; reform 138 policy 44, 56; see also rules; Zero Tolerance political 1, 7, 16, 18 – 19, 21, 83, 127, 138, 160, 162; art 62 – 64, 66, 73; conditions 41, 137; consciousness 95, 125, 127, 138, 141; geo-political location 40, 67, 69, 155; inequalities 30, 81; moral conflict 21; personal as political 67; politically charged paintings 22; socio-political 49, 76, 95, 125; violence 67; see also dialogic popular: culture 65; media 99 positionality 80 – 81, 88 – 89, 158 power 12, 20, 23, 25, 47, 66, 73, 75n3, 79 – 82, 84, 88 – 90, 100, 109, 112 – 115, 115, 117 – 118, 121 – 125, 138, 153, 155, 161, 163n2; of art 128; abuse of 53; differentials 1 – 2, 8, 9, 13, 79 – 80, 83,

86 – 87, 90, 145, 152, 154, 162; dynamics 65, 79 – 80, 88; linguistic 147; markers 80; political 66, 127; social 86; spiritual 28; relationships 18, 30; White 42; see also colonialism; structures prison 130 – 131; see also incarceration; mass incarceration; school-to-prison pipeline privilege 25, 40, 51, 55, 80, 84, 88 – 89, 100, 160 – 161, 163n2; privileging 15, 37, 62, 102; unearned 80 – 81; see also White-privilege punishment 3 – 4, 27, 44; students barred from school 4; see also Zero Tolerance Quick-To-See Smith, Jaune 66 race 19 – 21, 24 – 25, 29 – 30, 32, 33n3, 43, 45, 61 – 62, 66, 73, 79 – 80, 82, 87, 90, 95, 98, 100, 153, 158, 160 – 161, 161n1; biased 148; mixed 156; race-based 24; racial identity (see identity-racial); racial profiling 31; relations 20; surveillance 31 racism 18, 30 – 31, 44 – 46, 55, 56n4, 82, 88, 102, 143, 147, 155, 159 – 161; history of 16, 23; institutional 23, 24, 27, 30; linguistic 147 – 148; schooling experiences 25 – 26; see also housing; minstrel show; oppression; Redlining; slavery RAICES 41, 54, 57n5 redlining 23 – 25, 33n5, 156; see also Greenlining 24 Reiter, Bernd 56n1; see also pluriverse research 30, 45, 47, 52, 61 – 62, 126, 128 – 129, 131 – 132, 135; action-research 2; arts-based 129, 136; independent 127; skills 132, 134; students researching 71, 73, 96, 98, 126 – 129, 132, 134 – 135; teachers researching 73 – 74, 129, 132

Index 173

resistance 11, 29, 69, 82, 127, 138 Reynolds, Jason 104; Long Way Down 108 rhetoric 4, 102, 125, 146 rights 19; civil 144, 157 – 158; equal 158; human 31, 38, 41, 47, 54; indigenous 41; legal 149 Ringgold, Faith 65 Robinson, Olivia 24 – 25; Near and Far Enemies: Shade 24 Rockwell, Norman: The Problem We All Live With (Ruby Bridges) 104 root: causes 32; cultural and historical 16, 28; education 150; reclaim roots 29; tangled roots 24 Rucker, Paul: Proliferation (2009) 130 rules 16, 33n1, 73, 137; discipline measures 26; laws that challenge Critical Race Theory 48; school policies 3, 27; see also oppression; Zero Tolerance schools 1, 3, 7, 11 – 12, 15, 19 – 20, 24, 25, 27, 32, 37, 45, 51 – 52, 84, 143, 147, 149, 162; segregated 20, 143; suburban 7, 25, 154; urban 7, 25 school-to-prison pipeline 3, 33n7; fueling 27; see also incarceration; mass incarceration; prison Scott, Joyce 65 Second Life 116n4 segregation 19 – 20, 23 – 25, 33n5, 156; apartheid 19; de jure 20; state-sanctioned 25; segregationist 19 – 20; see also Brown v. Board of Education; Plessy v. Ferguson Seneca Falls Dialogues 31 – 32 Separate But Equal 19 – 20 settler 4, 16, 18, 43, 45, 149; settlements 17 Shapiro, Miriam 65 Sherman, Cindy 66 Simpson, Lorna 29, 66; Wigs (Portfolio) 29

Sins Invalid 101; see also disability studies and art education slavery: abolition of 18, 33n3,; American Civil War 18 – 19; Antebellum South 18, 21, 28; atrocities 16; chattel enslavement 16, 33; human cargo 17; human enslavement 19, 21, 23; labor 16 – 19, 162n1; legacy of 18; masters 18; Middle Passage 17; politics of 17, 21; property 16, 17, 33n2; slaveholders 21; Southern institution 17; subservience 19; Transatlantic Slave Trade 16, 28; see also Walker, Kara Smith, Kiki 66 Smith, Vincent De Costa 104, 105; First Day of School 104, 105 social justice: art education i, iii, v, viii, xv, 1, 2, 3, 11, 12, 14, 80, 131, 143, 162; curriculum 1, 13, 32, 38, 80; education i, xv, 1, 3, 15, 32; learning environments 12; oriented contemporary artists 128, 129, 136; pedagogy 77 social justice art education principles: become upstanders to injustice 125; decenter White patriarchal norms 61; dismantle power differentials 79; inspire decolonial actions 37; include difference 95, 115; investigate systemic oppression 15 socially engaged: art 42, 50, 54, 81, 133; artistic perspectives 44; status quo 4, 15, 28, 151 socially just: culturally responsive 24; curricula 80, 81; learning environments 12; policy 44, 56; teachers/teaching 24, 38, 80, 81; world 162 Stein, Linda xv, 65, 96, 97, 98, 103, 108; 4Bs (Bully, Bullied, Bystander, Brave Upstander) 96, 97, 103, 105, 107, 111; Fluidity of Gender 98; I Sell the Shadow

174

Index

to Support the Substance 1042 [Kamala Harris] 108 Steinem, Gloria 97; Gloria: A Life 97, 98 stereotypes 7, 18, 81 – 82, 88, 99, 101, 102, 117n4; Asian American 81 – 82, 84; gender 7, 66, 68; graphic depiction/narratives 32, 66, 96, 103; discrimination 27, 81, 83, 102; of Hispanic English Learner students 146; mammies 21; pickaninnies 21 – 22; phenotypical 18; representations 31, 34, 44; Sambos 21 – 22 StoryCorps 101 structures 30, 32, 56n2, 162; domination 15, 25, 26, 30, 31, 38, 39, 40, 79, 162; economic 58; immigration 40; legal 19, 30, 42, 54, 55, 58, 83, 148, 149, 156, 163; political 7, 19, 21, 30, 35, 40, 63, 64, 66, 67, 73, 81, 83, 93, 138, 160, 162; social 31, 32; see also Critical Race Theory; institutions; political; rules student-centered 11, 112, 126, 132, 154; see also curriculum students: disadvantaged 26; disenfranchised / marginalized 4, 15, 44, 56, 80, 102, 154; k-12 7, 10, 68, 99, 156; middle school 104; over and -mis-identified as disabled 101, 146; preservice ix, 10, 77, 96, 98 – 99, 104 – 107, 106, 110 – 112, 115, 144; sixth grade ix, 10, 96, 104 – 108, 110 – 117; undergraduates 38, 129; underserved 26; youth xiii, 4, 9, 22, 27, 73, 75, 93, 108, 125, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 155, 162; see also youth sugar 18 – 19 Tawney, Leonore 65 teacher(s) i, v, 2 – 4, 8, 10 – 13, 24 – 26, 32, 62, 68 – 69, 73 – 75, 79, 80, 108, 112, 117n7,

126, 129, 132, 135, 137 – 138; art teachers 1, 127, 143 – 147, 149, 156; association 151; interviews 132, 134; professional development 2 teaching resources 127 – 129, 132; audio/ visual including archives, documentaries; instructional/curricular 132; lesson plans 71 – 72, 74 – 75, 105 – 111, 117n7; media and materials 128, 129, 135 teaching strategies 138; activist poster or zine 72; adaptation 119, 122 – 123; antiracism 15, 87 – 90, 98, 102, 106, 147 – 148; bellringers 106, 117n7; creative 132; critical action 67; critical content 96; critical conversation 46, 155; critical empathy 80 – 81, 87; critical reading 90; critical inquiry 126, 152; critically interrogate 55; critical questions 133; critical reflection 15, 22, 23, 48, 50, 53, 81, 88, 99 – 100, 132; debate 73, 133; empowering 10; Identity and Power 88; inquiry-based 8; pedagogical 126; of persuasion 125; see also arts-based creative strategies; Asian Critical Theory; Critical Race Theory; critical thinking; dialogic; Find Card activity; inclusive practices Texas: Abbott, Greg governor 44, 45, 53, 57; Board of Education 44, 50, 148; educators 45; history 43; House Bill 2497 44; House Bill 3979 45; law & legislature 44, 45; revolt 45; values 45; Texas 1836 Project 45; Texas State University Galleries 46 Thomas, Mickalene 65 Thompson, Ginger 59 Tignon Law 29 trans 31; Trans*form Education 98; see also Jenkins, Kevin

Index 175

transformation 127, 136 – 139; personal 127, 135, 138; social 136, 138 twenty-first (21st) century learning skills i, 2 – 3; see also collaboration; communicate, communication; creativity; critical thinking upstanders: against injustice 11, 125 – 127, 129, 135; artists as upstanders to injustice 131; narrative 104, 107; students as upstanders to injustice 136 – 138; see also comic making U.S.: Constitution 16, 19; political agenda 18 – 19, 21; Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments 19

7, 37, 43, 51, 53, 59, 71, 159, 158, 161; schools/school districts 144; segregated schools 104; supremacy 44, 82, 161; whiteness 37, 56n2, 62; women 98; see also oppression; privilege wigs 29 Wong, Alice 101, 118 Wong, Flo Oy 13, 65, 82, 88; Angel Island 83; Dinner Table II 84; Made in USA 83; rice sack 82 – 84; Shhh 83 World Economic Forum 138 Wu, Yu-Wen 13, 85, 88; Internal Navigation 85; Leavings/Belongings 86; Suspended 86

Victorian 18 Visualization Universe 132 violence 31, 43, 108; Asian Americans 81; against migrants/immigrants 38, 46, 50, 86; against women 12, 66, 157; gun 3, 12; state-sanctioned 31, 47, 57n4, 125, 158; subject in art 18, 38, 46, 50, 67, 86, 125

xenophobia 38, 46, 88; see also immigrant; privilege

Walker, Kara 16, 18, 66; A Subtlety, or the Marvelous Sugar Baby 18 western-centric epistemology 39, 53 – 54 White: aristocracy 19; colonialism 29; colleagues 148; enslavers 16; flight 158, 162; nationalists 180; neighbors 158; patriarchal norms 8, 61, 70, 72 – 74, 149, 162; pedagogy 42; power 42; privilege 6,

Zapatistas 40 – 42, 52, 54; dictum 41; Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional/ Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) 41, 52, 53, 57; Fourth Declaration of the Lacandón Jungle 52; see also pluriverse zero tolerance: discipline policy 3 – 4, 12, 27, 33n6; immigration enforcement 45, 47

Yamaguchi, Yuriko 13, 83, 85, 88, 91n3; Reach Out #3 85, 91n3 youth xiii, 4, 9, 22, 27, 73, 75, 93, 108, 125, 136 – 141, 155, 162