Amelia M. Kraehe

Sounds of Silence: Race and Emergent Counter-Narratives of Art Teacher Identity.

This article presents case studies of two Black preservice art teachers and their racialized experiences in art teacher education. Drawing from a critical race theory perspective, their stories are conceptualized as emergent counternarratives of becoming an art teacher. The case studies are based on interviews from an ethnographic investigation of teacher identity at a predominantly White university’s art education program. The counter-narratives that emerged chronicle racial microaggressions that participants negotiated as each fashioned an art teacher identity. At a systemic level, the testimonies shed light on the invidious effects of race avoidance in art teacher preparation and art teacher research. The conclusion discusses future directions and implications for making art teacher education programs more inclusive and safe for students of color, while also supporting greater race consciousness among all teachers.

Theoretical Considerations for Art Education Research with and about “Underserved Populations”

Though it is widely used, the concept of “underserved” is sorely undertheorized in art education. Before the field of art education can effectively address the persistent educational disparities across different sociocultural and economic groups, we need deeper understandings of entangled sociocultural and political processes that create and conceal underservedness. The term “underservedness” moves us away from conceiving of populations, and instead draws attention to cultural articulations and material conditions that prevent certain groups from fully accessing and benefiting from the resources and opportunities for effective education, including high-quality art experiences. In this article, the authors discuss four theoretical perspectives—critical race theory, intersectionality, critical multiculturalism, and social justice education—that can foster nuanced analyses and cogent explanations of art education in the context of underservedness. The discussion focuses on key tenets of these theoretical perspectives, important points of tension and synergy, and their relevance for art education research.

Conversations Extended: Art Education in Context

n Joni Primarily, embedded in this question is the task of actually identifying that there are indeed evolving traditions, cultural intersections, and entrenched inequalities that exist within the varying contexts of art education. Without this critical identification there is no awareness to respond to it. Therefore, before we can ask how art education can apprehend and respond to these things, we must ask if art educators truly know and believe that these issues are real and fixed deeply within their classrooms. Furthermore, are art educators able to identify what entrenched equalities look like in art education? This will define the ways they are addressed—either superficially or critically. Critical (racial, cultural, sociopolitical) consciousness (Freire, 1970; Gay & Kirkland, 2003) is a developed skill. Identifying and critiquing systems of oppression (specifically education) is a developed skill. Both require implicating oneself in the maintenance of said systems. This must happen before one can adequately and effectively respond with intentional action—a key component of critical consciousness, alongside reflection. n Kevin: Knowing cultural traditions change over time suggests that identities are fluid. Yet, static historical understandings have been reified and normalized by museum collections, early anthropologists, and the media. For example, many institutions across the country house American Indian peoples’ remains and material culture despite the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.1 This has continued since colonization to maintain authorship of power/knowledge discourses and inequity. Yet, static framings are refuted as traditional practices are adapted to address contemporary demands. This isn’t to say that historical knowledge of one’s cultural identity isn’t practiced in contemporary spaces, or overwritten; rather they are amalgam processes that generate ongoing presences in daily lives as a repetition of difference. So in art education, context is inherently interdisciplinary.

Arts Equity: A Praxis-Oriented Tale

This article advances a multidimensional arts equity theory. It goes beyond simple equity narratives to address material, symbolic, and experiential dimensions of art education as social justice. In her expanded conceptualization of arts equity, the author identifies six guiding principles: distribution, access, participation, effects, recognition, and transformation. Inspired by critical race methodology, the theoretical discussion centers on a familiar teaching tale. This reflexive experiment with form aims to humanize arts equity theory while bringing meaning to the everyday ethical quandaries and sociopolitical ambiguities that all art educators face.

Introduction: Flashpoints—The Breakthrough of Sociocultural Difference

In the introduction to this volume, Kraehe and Lewis provide a phenomenological framework for understanding the embodied experience of flashpoints. They describe flashpoints as moments of radical disruption wherein the implicit sociocultural dimensions of the body flare up and become conscious and unavoidable facets of experience. Such flashpoints are breakdowns of the suturing of self and world but also powerful breakthroughs that can teach lessons concerning how difference is experienced. Drawing from a host of phenomenologists and critical theorists, including Merleau-Ponty, Hortense Spillers, Antonia Darder, and Alexander Weheliye, Kraehe and Lewis articulate a pedagogy of and through flashpoints. They also make a powerful case for the centrality of phenomenological methods for capturing the ambiguous affective lessons of flashpoints.

Creating the city: An interview with Antonia Darder and Pepón Osorio

Today there is a lot of discussion about creative economies and how cities are the engines driving growth in a variety of industries. But cities are not merely rows of buildings, or sets of laws, such as zoning ordinances or parking regulations. A city is, rather, a set of dynamic experiences that we all participate in as co(labor)ators. As a way to explore issues of urban spaces and art, the authors organized a public dialogue on issues pertaining to arts, community, identity, education, and policy with two leading artists/educators/activists: Pepón Osorio and Antonia Darder. The interview is wide ranging and brings into focus voices and perspectives often left out of policy debates concerning the politics of art, art education, and activism in urban environments. The authors of this article then propose four core principles drawn from the dialogue that can guide policy reforms for the arts in urban schools. Such principles argue that policy must be made from within the creative commonwealth of cities rather than above or outside it.