Social Justice

-
As a future art educator, social justice is an essential piece to teach students and incorporate into the curriculum. Teaching social justice issues allow students to think more critically about their own daily lives and experiences they face and how it compares to others. They then can take action in the world using their artwork. It's so important to include social justice in your curriculum because we need to teach our students to stand up for what they believe in. We can also support our students by letting them take charge in their projects and encouraging them to share their voice. The process allows for connecting, questioning, and translating. It's not limited to specific topics and can expand to many different topics. This can be done through collaborative work, student-driven projects, reflection, public audience, critical questioning, and much more. It's important to not be afraid of teaching social justice art because our students deserve a fair and full education. It can spark an idea and teach them how to speak their voice and fight for what's right.

As students are figuring out their own identities they can sometimes feel lost or unsure of themselves. By encouraging them to be who they want to be and accepting all, they will feel more comfortable to share their thoughts with you and others. Some students might feel like they need to stand up for something because it personally affects them. Other students might need reminded to explore opportunities (or lack of) and experiences of others and examine how privilege and inequality is split in today's society. Understanding social justice issues can help students grow students' outlook on life and the world. It can also help students figure out what is important or meaningful to them. What makes them want to stand up and fight?

I especially connected to the chapter reading in Stand(ing) Up for a Change: Voice of Arts Educators  when the author discussed how most preservice teachers in her classroom lacked the competence to teach social justice or were scared to go into more controversial issues. As a white, middle-class female I don't have a lot of experience personally with social justice issues/art and am very privileged in that regard. However, I understand the importance of teaching it and know that my students deserve that. Not everyone in my classroom will be just like me and these issues might affect some of my students on a much deeper and more personal level. I need to be there to support their ideas and their voices. 

Check it out! Here's a link to a PBS page that has social justice resources, artists, and ideas for educators: 
https://iptv.pbslearningmedia.org/collection/art_socialjustice/ 

Comments

  1. Wendy MillerJanuary 21, 2019 at 7:24 PM

    Good point Adam! I often try to connect to students through stories- the visual, oral or written story often helps students develop empathy and then once the connection is made they begin to care and it helps students to open up to these ideas. It is not always easy but it is worth it when you succeed.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wendy MillerJanuary 21, 2019 at 7:29 PM

    Abby, it is important to recognize our privileges and also to seek ways to connect our curriculum to social justice. You made a good point when you said this will increase critical thinking and help students voice their ideas. I enjoyed the link you shared because it demonstrates some excellent ways to actually accomplish this. Choosing artists who are making art today about important issues and artists that students can see and make connections to, identifying to them through physical traits or related cultural connections, students need to see that artists use their skills to share ideas about equity, justice, love, and acceptance. They use art to fight for a cause or to build a bridge.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AbbyJanuary 22, 2019 at 9:53 AM

    hey

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Social Imagination

-
Image
1. I think collaborating with your collegues and other teachers in your school with art-infused curriculum is really important. I hope to collaborate with my future teachers by connecting big ideas with curriculum units in their classes to allow students to make personal connections with the material being taught. As the reading said, "it brings inquiry and choices for learning". I also enjoyed this quote, "The arts nature wonder and imagination." We can show others how much students can benefit from working in the arts. 2. By encouraging student voice, it teachings them how to stand up for what they believe in and not to be afraid of sharing their opinion. If you create a "safe space"for students to express themselves, then they will be more open to speaking their voice. Students become comfortable and start to understand and gain respect for each other. In the reading when Samir was able to share his perspective and culture with his classmates, he was ...
Read more

Culture Jamming

-
Image
Culture jamming is a new term I learned after reading and discussing the article. Using stickers to create graffiti art is a relatively new project that is happening in mostly urban areas, but spreading throughout the world more every day. The article quoted stickering as "a genuine communal and collective artistic collage process". This wording really stuck with me and made me realize stickering isn't just a fun hobby, but really a part of the design and art world. Over time artists anonymously work together to create a collage in a public space. It's important to teach this art technique to our future students because in today's society everything is about visual images. Advertisements, social media sites, television, the internet, etc. The article made a good point in saying: "Many contemporary cultures communicate through and understand each other primarily through images." Culture jamming and stickering makes people re-evaluate what they consider ar...
Read more